The Church in Action

[Music] thank you so um you guys ready let's get your mics let's start walking out [Music] good morning everybody we're so glad you're here it's good to see all your smiling faces this morning please stand as we worship together [Music] [Music] when all i see is the battle you see my victory [Music] when all i see is a mountain you see a mountain moved and as i walk through the shadow your love surrounds me [Music] there's nothing to fear now foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] i'll say through the night oh god the battle belongs [Music] for to who can't be against me for jesus there's nothing impossible [Music] when all i see is [Music] [Music] through the and almighty fortress you go before us nothing can stand against the power of our god you shine in the shadows you in every battle nothing can stand against the power of our god almighty fortress you go before us nothing can stand against the power of our god [Music] nothing can stand against the power of our god and almighty fortress [Music] [Music] with my [Music] that'll [Music] belong to you [Music] amen [Music] [Music] in the presence of my enemies [Music] louder than the unbelief [Music] my weapon is a melody i raise the hallelujah [Music] heaven comes to fight for me [Music] and i'm gonna sing in the middle of the storm [Music] hope will [Music] the arise is alive [Music] with everything inside of me [Music] [Music] mystery a hallelujah [Music] [Music] will ashes death is defeated the king is alive [Music] sing a little louder sing a little louder sing a little louder sing a little louder [Music] in the presence of my enemies [Music] is [Music] [Music] louder and louder [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] is death is defeated the king is alive [Applause] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] hallelujah [Music] [Music] this morning pastor dave is going to continue our sermon series on the church and he's going to be talking about the church in action so listen to these uh words from paul to the romans it says for by the grace given me i say to every one of you do not think of yourself more highly than you are but rather think of yourself with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith god has given you just as each of us has one body with many members and these members do not all have the same function so in christ we who are many form one body and each member belongs to all the others good morning everyone we're gonna go to the lord in prayer now we are a church that really values prayer and we're a church of values praying together so if you have any burdens if you have any needs if you're feeling a heavy heart right now or you have someone in your life that needs prayer i invite you to come forward and kneel um it's just a position of surrender before god so if you want to do that come now if you want to kneel on your pews feel free if you're watching home at the live stream you guys can kneel where you're at and then together as everyone's coming forward and kneeling i ask that you together pray with me because there's so many people who have needs and burdens even people in your own life be thinking of those people and be praying for them i think prayer is the greatest thing that we can do as believers join me as i pray and be praying for for everyone kneeling here too heavenly father thank you for your presence lord sometimes we walk through dark valleys it feels like you're not with us but you are you are there every step of the way comforting us lord sometimes we forget you in the great moments of our life lord but you are there beside us rejoicing and celebrating with us lord you are there every step of the way even when we can't feel it lord even when there is darkness completely surrounding us you are there beside us comforting us and lord thank you so much that you have gone through everything that we've gone through that you are a great high priest who understands what we've gone through who understands our needs lord you are the great i am and lord there are so many needs in our church there are so many needs in the world and it is sometimes it's overwhelming but lord i pray that we would come to you with all of our burdens and all of our requests and cast all of our cares and anxieties on you because you care for us and so anybody kneeling here lord i pray that you would you would give them a measure of peace lord that they would know that you are with them at all times whatever that whatever they're dealing with lord whether it's financial issues whether it's family issues issue with their job or someone they love or whatever the issue is lord i pray that you would be with them whether it's sickness lord i pray that you would be with them in the midst of their struggles lord we live in a frustrating world where things go wrong every day and all that is pointing to one day when we will be redeemed we will no longer have to deal with any pain or any sickness or you will have redeemed the whole creation lord so we pray for the whole world right now we all are groaning waiting for redemption lord we pray for afghanistan with everything going on there lord we pray for those being persecuted and those who are in threat of their life every day lord we pray for the persecutors too we pray that you would turn their hearts to you lord nothing is too far for you to do lord and so we pray for that and we pray for everyone in this church lord we pray for people struggling we pray for just everyone to draw closer to your son jesus christ lord and i pray that as a church we can come around each other and support each other and love one another wholeheartedly and bear one another's burdens lord that's in your name i pray amen [Music] hmm [Music] there is a sound i love to hear it's the sound of the savior's robe as he walks into the room where people pray where we hear praise [Music] there is a sound of to hear it's the sound of the savior's robe as he walks into the room where people pray where we hear worship ears [Music] awaken my soul and sing sing his [Music] his praise praise [Music] there is a sound that changes things the sound of his people on their knees [Music] sing his praise the lord [Music] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] is [Music] praise [Music] [Music] well good morning everybody i'd like to officially welcome everyone here this morning uh whether you're here in person or online we're just thankful that we can come together and i have a few announcements i want to give you school starts next week so it's kind of like an official mark even though it's not officially the end of summer it's an official end of the summer really so we have a lot of things that are going to be starting up in the fall and i just want to highlight a few of those but always refer back to your to the bulletin or online we have everything there in greater detail but a couple of the things is for one today as i said earlier pastor dave is continuing our message on the church of the living god today is going to be about the church in action and then tonight at the five o'clock pastor mark will be leading our service speaking on the power of the gospel so that's tonight at five we hope you can make it back for that and then the worship community they're going to have rehearsals coming up this wednesday and if you'd like to take part in that if you'd like to rehearse for the choir you can contact james jensen you can email him his email is right on the website hawthorne bible school is getting ready to start back up that's the official day is september 20th that monday will be the first class but we'll ask you to start registering now or at least looking through and seeing what classes you'd like to take part of the starting place is also coming back great pla great time for you to come out see how you can get involved see what maybe fits uh you and that's on september 12th and 19th during this service and then if you want to become a member we have a membership that is coming up soon so if you have not become a member and you would like to again look at the bulletin or the website for more information on that for for now let's stand up and welcome one another [Music] oh [Music] [Music] all right before we continue to worship in song we're going to worship the lord now with the giving of our gifts and we we truly want to thank everybody for here and online for how you've continued to partner with us through the giving of your gifts and just keeping this ministry going strong so we do thank you for that so let's now just ask god to bless his time uh lord we we come before you lord we do thank you god how you always provide our needs lord individually and as a church lord and so god we do come before you and say thank you and god i just ask that you lead our giving lord just place on each one of our hearts what you would have us do lord and may we give with cheerful hearts lord and in obedience to you lord and we pray this in the name of jesus amen when we look out at the world near and far there's a lot of things that we can get discouraged about but we are not without hope the bible says do not be discouraged do not be afraid for i am with you and all these things they point us towards the fact that we need him desperately and the world needs him and that's what this song is about lord i need you so let's acknowledge that to him this morning and let's cry out for his help [Music] [Music] [Music] lord when the world has [Music] you stand beside me give me a song in the night and jesus i need you every moment i need [Music] your praise forever [Music] shoulder is burning [Music] [Music] you [Music] your praise forever [Music] remember love remember mercy christ before me christ behind me your loving kindness never failed me christ be for me christ behind me remember love remember mercy christ before me christ behind me your loving kindness has never failed me christ before me christ behind me remember love remember mercy christ before me [Music] me jesus [Music] forever [Music] you know [Music] remember mercy christ before me christ behind me your lovely kindness has never failed me christ before me christ behind me [Music] [Music] so [Music] good morning everyone it's good to see you this morning and as pastor tim mentioned we're finishing up our series on the church and so if you'd like to turn to ephesians chapter four we're going to be in ephesians chapter four if you'd like to turn there but today we're looking at the church in action through using our spiritual gifts i trust that this series on the church has been impactful for you our intention behind it is to demonstrate to show that you are a vital part of what makes hawthorne gospel church work and therefore you are important to us and we value your presence and with us now when it comes to spiritual gifts i'm old enough to remember how the pendulum can swing on this topic i've seen excessive focus on spiritual gifts i've also seen churches basically ignore spiritual gifts and i've seen everything in between this morning what i want to look at is that there is nothing more practical in helping us understand what a church is all about and to understand what the bible is telling us about the church then to understand how spiritual gifts work in the church and so my goal this morning is to avoid any excesses any extremes and i want to look at what a church looks like how does it function how does a healthy church work and that's what we want to do this morning so if you have ephesians chapter 4 opened i'm going to read verses 11 through 16 for you and then we will ask the lord to bless at the end of that verses 11-16 it says there so christ himself gave the apostles the prophets the evangelists the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service 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 we become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of christ then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the ways and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming instead speaking the truth and love we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is in 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 let's pray heavenly father i pray now that during our time together as we look at your word that your holy spirit will be our teacher i pray our heavenly father that your holy spirit would take the words that are spoken the words from your your your scriptures and he was the one that would apply it to our hearts and our minds make our hearts and our minds open to what you would have us receive in jesus name amen now when we begin this topic on spiritual gifts i think that a good place to start is with a definition of spiritual gifts right so let's begin what is a spiritual gift anyway so let me give you a definition spiritual gifts are differing abilities given by the holy spirit to each believer to meet needs in such a way that it creates a community of people who are growing in the into the fullness and character of jesus christ now that's that's a mouthful i recognize that but i'm taking it right from the passage that i just read to you verses 11 through 16. so let me say it again and then i want to break it down for you spiritual gifts are differing abilities given by the holy spirit to each believer to meet needs in such a way that it creates a community of people who are growing into the fullness and character of jesus christ so what can we learn from that let me give you several things that we can learn from it first of all is this we learn that spiritual gifts are ability spiritual gifts our abilities to meet needs now when you look in the new testament you can find that the spiritual gifts are listed in a number of places you can find it here in ephesians 4. they're listed in there's some that are listed in romans 12 others are listed in first corinthians 12 and also in first peter chapter four now every one of these lists in the new testament are different and so it's clear that they are not complete they're not complete lists but they all describe how the holy spirit works in the church and even if you would combine all the lists together from all these different chapters if you combine them together you would still not have a complete list of how the holy spirit can work within a church but if you look at the lists that are mentioned there you can find groupings or you can find clusters of gifts so some gifts give us the ability to communicate truth you have the gift of evangelism you have the gift of teaching other gifts are grouped together and they give us the ability to bear one another's burdens and so you have the gift of encouragement and you have the gift of mercy and the gift of giving and the gift of service and the gift of helps some gifts are given to the church to give direction to the church and so you have the gift of leadership and you have the gift of administration and also of wisdom but here's the thing here's the thing there is no human need whether it's physical spiritual emotional relational that does not have a spiritual gift that can address it spiritual gifts are given to the body of christ to address all kinds of needs that we might have and so some spiritual gifts heal us when we hurt other gifts encourage us when we're down some gifts challenge us when we are failing other gifts correct us when we go astray they love us when we feel rejected they teach us when we need to be informed there is no human need that does not have a spiritual gift that cannot address it so first of all we learn that spiritual gifts are given to us to meet needs within the body of christ here's the second thing that i want us to learn we learned that each believer has been given at least one spiritual gift if you put put your eyes up to verse 7 in chapter 4 verse 7 it says there to each one of us christ has apportioned grace or christ has given us grace or we could say christ has given us a portion of the spirit's grace in order to meet needs within the body of christ when it says there to each one of us what is the us referring to what is the uh it's referring to us as christians as believers right it's not referring to certain believers within the body of christ it's not referring to some believers within the body of christ it's not referring to even super believers within the body of christ it's not even referring to just pastors in the body of christ it's not referring to people to young people when you reach the age of 18 then you receive the gift of the holy spirit so now you can check out this does not apply to you it doesn't say that either it says to each of us has been given grace has been given a gift by the holy spirit to every person every believer in christ supernaturally gets a portion of the spirit's power jesus had all the abilities he had all the ability to communicate he had the ability to bear burdens he had the ability to give direction but each one of us gets a portion gets a portion of those abilities in order to meet needs within the body of christ so everybody gets a portion according to the holy spirit everybody gets a supernatural spiritual gift when they are born again when the holy spirit comes to indwell us i just find that as an amazing thought just an amazing thought god's supernatural power resides in me it resides in you through the gifts that he has given each of us and so this means that even though we are one body in christ it means that even though we are one church it creates great diversity amongst us because we have been each given a different gift in order to minister within the body of christ here thirdly and this is actually where i want to spend the rest of my time this morning why why why has the holy spirit why has god chosen to give us these gifts now i've already mentioned that they were given in order to meet needs but to what end to what end to what purpose were they given in order to meet needs within the body of christ why are they so important enough for a functioning healthy church anyway well in the verses that we read here one thing that's a little confusing for us is that paul's sentences are really long they're actually a lot longer in the greek and the bible translators broke up his sentences at least in some small smaller morsels so that we can at least try and grasp it but even when we read these verses sometimes it's hard for us to grasp what the end purpose what the end goal is but notice that paul begins in verse 11 by mentioning the purpose of the leadership gifts we want to begin there why did he give the leadership gifts there are he talks about pastors he talks about teachers evangelists prophets and so on why did he give these leadership gifts why did he give leaders to the church and i think this is very important for us to see and you can see you can see their role in the passage here you can see my role as a pastor what is my role in the church here at hawthorne gospel in verse 12 he tells us what it is our role as pastors as leaders is to equip you and to empower you to do works of service our role is to prepare you so that you are doing your job so you are fulfilling your role within the body of christ i think that why this is so important for us to see is that often we think that the leaders were hired to do the work of the church in a sense that's true if you want something done go see the pastor but that is not the point that paul is making here rather he is saying here as leaders our job my job the job of the pastors and the others leaders in the church is to equip you and to train you and to empower you and encourage you to do the works of service within the body of christ look at verses 11 and 12. so god so christ himself gave the apostles the prophets the evangelists and pastors and teachers why why did he give them to the church he goes on to say in order to equip his people for works of service so that the body of christ may be built up this is a huge heads up for us that are in leadership you see as leaders we're often tempted to do ministry ourselves when that's not always our role to do but our role is to prepare you to do that as leaders we can often fall into the trap if you want a job well well done do what do it yourself do it yourself that is opposite really of what paul is saying in this passage here he is saying here if you want a job done well then prepare your people well to do that job but if that's the role of leadership what is the ultimate role of all of our spiritual gifts in the body of christ what is the end goal of all of our spiritual gifts well verses 12 to 13 tells us he says there so that the body of christ may be built up until we reach unity in the faith and then the knowledge of the son of god and become mature attaining to the full whole measure of the fullness of christ now that's another mouthful there but here it is in a nutshell this is what paul is saying in a nutshell he's saying ministry in the church exercising your spiritual gifts is not just to make you happy it's not just there they're not there just to make other people happy in a general way but the end goal of all ministry the end goal of you all of us using our spiritual gifts is to build each other up in the faith and knowledge of christ so that we become more mature in christ you see the point that paul is making here is that church is not just a bunch of people who happen to come together at 10 a.m for a time to sing some songs to listen to somebody preach put some money in the box in the back and then walk out and go home when we do that we actually end up a lot like a bag of m m's you see in a bag of m ms there is nothing that connects the different m m's together i shake this bag here like this and the m ms just simply slip and slide past each other there is no relationship there is no particular pattern that they have together there is none of that in there they just happen to be all in the same bag and they shift and they move past each other as a church we are not a bag of eminem's rather we to be a healthy church we have to have a relationship with each other there is a connectedness that we share together something that a bag of eminem's does not have you are we are part of the body of christ and as a result you have a spiritual gift that others need in the body of christ the bottom line is we need you we need you verse 12 makes it very clear that your spiritual gift is really essential for the purpose of creating christ-likeness in other people that is the end goal that is the end goal this means that when we come to church we just don't encourage in general this means that we just don't serve in general this means that we just don't teach in general means that we just don't help others in general rather when you use your spiritual gift in the right way the result in the recipient of that ministry is going to be growth in christlikeness in holiness they will be built up in their faith i think as a body of christ we really have to get hold of this as a church we have to understand it we have to understand that the point of our of our spiritual gift using our spiritual gifts is not to just use it in some general way in the church here or even in an effective way in the church but the end goal of using your spiritual gift is to produce christ-likeness maturity in the life of other believers you see it's the blessing of spiritual growth that comes from using your gift not in how you use it that really makes a spiritual gift a spiritual gift this purpose this purpose differentiates then your physical talents your physical abilities from a gift that the holy spirit gives you what makes a spiritual gift a spiritual gift is whether or not god is using that to impact other people as a result of you serving are people maturing in their faith are they growing in their faith are they becoming more christ-like as a result of it that is the end goal of using our gifts in the body of christ so what are a couple of implications from this that we can learn what kind of church do the spiritual gifts create i want to give you a couple of practical implications for us the first is this the biblical teaching of spiritual gifts means that there are no passive or inactive christians in the church the teaching of spiritual gifts means that there's no passive christians in the body of christ in ephesians chapter 2 and verse 10 paul adds this he says for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus to do good works which god prepared in advance for us to do in other words paul is saying there that you have been designed by god you have been created by god and the unique abilities that he has given you means that there are certain things that only you can do and so if you take your spiritual gift that has been given to you along with the uniqueness of your personality along with the job and the experiences and the talents and the backgrounds that he's given you there are some people in this world that need to be reached and you are the best person to be able to do that there are certain deeds that have to be done in our church in our communities and in the world and because of who you are the uniqueness of who you are it means that you are the only one that can do that do those deeds you see when we understand the theology when we understand the teaching of spiritual gifts what it does it really sets out for us our unique mission in life now the problem is that very often we don't fulfill our unique roles and sometimes we do that for a number of reasons if you come from a small church for example there's always so much to do in a small church and often there's only a few people doing it and so in a small church you find that people are doing a lot of things that they're really not gifted to do and you find that other things are not done well in a small church because there's just not enough people to be able to do them that's a problem in a smaller church but i would suggest to you that those of us that are in a larger church like hawthorne gospel here we have a bigger problem here's why one commentator put it this way he said that spiritual gifts are output output using your spiritual gift is spending yourself is giving yourself is service is doing things for other people but the fact of the matter is that some of us come to a large church like hawthorne gospel because we're not going to be asked to do anything we can hide out here we come here because i can get a lot of input i can get a lot of good teaching while i'm here but nobody's going to ask me to do any output but if you come to church and your main purpose is to get input with hardly any output it means that you're not using your spiritual gift in order to see other people built up so if you're coming and getting input and you're not doing any output in other words if you're coming here and you're really not doing much more than sitting in the pew you are essentially going against the will of the holy spirit for your life why because it is the holy spirit who has given to each of us a gift for building up the rest of the body of christ there are certain things in the body of christ here that you alone can do and if you're here at hawthorne gospel as part of the will of the ho of god then the rest of the body here needs you it needs you so it's very important for us to understand this teaching of the holy about spiritual gifts there are no passive christians in the church let me give you one other implication that i want to share with you it's this real spiritual fruit has to be the end goal and spiritual gifts have to be seen as the means to attain that goal now it's very easy for us to confuse those two words spiritual fruit and spiritual gifts they are two very different things they are not the same and it's easy to mix those two statements up spiritual gifts that's what we've been talking about in the morning here spiritual gifts are the means the means of growing christ's likeness of moving us to greater christ-likeness greater maturity in the body of christ spiritual gifts are like the train they are the way to get there the destination is spiritual fruit it's christ-likeness it's holiness you see the spiritual fruit are listed in galatians chapter 5 for us spiritual fruit are character qualities paul lists them as love joy peace patience kindness goodness humility integrity self-control every christian should have all the fruit but we are told here that not every christian has all the gifts why the difference is that fruit has to do with being gifts have to do with doing fruit has to do with your character who you are gifts have to do with skills it has to do gifts have to do with what you do how you serve and for paul being a follower of jesus christ it's far far more important to be to have a concern for who we are our being rather than our doing for him character is matters character is central so don't mistake the two it's very easy for us to do that for example in north jersey here there's a huge emphasis in our culture here for getting things done on results on achievements being effective in your job or in sports or whatever it is we live in a very in a very dog-eat-dog part of the country and there's a lot of pressure on accomplishments and getting things done and this emphasis it's very easy for this emphasis to spill over then into the church and so it's very possible for you to come to church and you get busy and you start doing things for god and you start serving people you start volunteering people are being helped by what you do and people love what you're doing you're putting yourself out you're putting yourself you're using your gift you're putting yourself out for other people and there are other people that are being blessed by what you do you're serving you're serving and you're being effective for god but here's what can happen to you if you're not careful this is what can happen to you you start to think wow god is with me god is with just look at how he's using my gift look how people are being blessed by what i do look at all the lies that i'm touching look at the difference i'm making in people's lives and in the end you become more content and satisfied with what you're doing than in the spiritual fruit that is supposed to be developed in your life you see service is not a substitute for spiritual fruit this is what spiritual fruit is do you find yourself more content and joyful no matter what the circumstances are that's fruit do you find yourself more humble that's fruit do you find yourself more loving that's fruit do you find yourself more forgiving more patient with people are you less selfish that is all fruit do you have more self control over certain habits in your life are you growing in holiness do you increasingly sense god's presence in your life that is all true you see here's the thing you can be empty inside not doing well at all in your relationship with god not growing in fruit and yet you're out there serving and helping people talking to people teaching and they say oh you're helping me so much i'm so grateful for you and you feel good about yourself but in the end all you are doing is replacing your spiritual fruit with using your spiritual gift you can use your activity you can use your busyness as a way of covering up your own unhappiness as a way of covering up your sin of covering up your emptiness of covering up the lack of a decent relationship with god you can even be recognized in the church for what you do but if you're not growing in the fruit of the spirit if your character is not being changed if you're not growing in holiness that can be deadly spiritually for you do you know why as one pastor put it he said because spiritual gifts without spiritual fruit are a lot like tire a tire without air when your car is moving the tire kind of stays up a little bit but as soon as you come to a stop sign the tire goes flat you know there's a lot of people whose lives have been going down the drain spiritually and yet because they were active we never saw it we never saw there's a lot of pastors even pastors who have been on television whom we can name whose lies ended up in shambles they were doing a lot of good they're impacting a lot of lives why because their spiritual gifts were working yet inside there was all kinds of sin there was all kinds of emptiness all kinds of pride that was inside they were covering up they mistook gifts for spiritual fruit and this can just as easily happen to any of us in this room here it's so deceitful and we really have to be on our guard for that and so the end goal the end goal of using our spiritual gifts is christ-likeness in yourself and in others don't mistake gifts for fruit fruit is our ultimate destination character change holiness becoming more christ-like the gifts are simply a means to that end when we used to live in the country of tanzania and africa i would drive down this dirt road and uh passing this one catholic mission i saw a big wooden sign on the side of the road and on in big letters it was painted on the sign there vega quabega now construction was the word vega is the word for shoulder so they're essentially saying shoulder to shoulder construction and underneath it they explained that they were building a road from that catholic mission station to another catholic mission station about three miles away and the reason it was called vega kogbega construction in the swahili language is to indicate that this road was not going to be built by any type of machinery this road was going to be built by the church members coming together men women children using their hands using their hose using their shovels using whatever they had to accomplish the task and i think that very much that's a picture of what paul is getting at here of a healthy church every person is needed so that we will all grow to become in every respect the mature body of 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 vega shoulder to shoulder that's how a healthy church works and so i hope that as we learn more about spiritual gifts here that we will learn the practical value of using your spiritual gift in the church here that we will embrace this truth that the holy spirit has given to us let's pray i pray heavenly father that your holy spirit now would take these words that he would bless them that he would use them to impact each one of us in jesus name i pray amen would you please stand as we close with our benediction this morning's benediction comes from romans 12 and god's word says now lord in view of your mercy we offer our bodies as living sacrifices holy and pleasing to god this is our spiritual act of worship help us not to conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of our mind then we will be able to test and approve what your will is your god pleasing and perfect will amen amen have a great week and use your gifts to be a blessing that's you

Channel: Hawthorne Gospel Church

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Id: z-EEG73trEk

Length: 69min 20sec (4160 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 29 2021