The Riches of God's Grace Pt. 28

[Music] reality open your bibles again with me to the book of ephesians chapter number four as we continue moving in our series the riches of god's grace ephesians at chapter 4 commencing with verse number 7 through verse 16. but unto every one of us unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of christ wherefore he says when he ascended upon high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men now that he ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth he that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might feel all things and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of christ till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lay in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even christ verse 16 reads from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by their joined together and and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love thank you you may be seated the grass withers and the flower thereof faded away but the word of our god shall stand forever over the last 20 to 25 years there's been an explosion of books and seminars and conferences and workshops to determine ways to grow the church the the worship wars of the 1990s the clash between traditional and contemporary worship the argument between choirs or praise team should we have chancel music or hymns a band or pipe organ and then there was the seeker-sensitive user-friendly model where you come to church and you don't have to make any commitment you don't have to be serious about it you can come and think about it and if it's not for you then you move on user friendly like the church is some kind of cafeteria uh like you come to luby's and if you don't want liver you can have fish you know if if you don't want spaghetti you can have lasagna this smorgasbord of choices where we have come to this idea that to grow the church you got to do something culturally relevant you've got to do something worldly and wild you gotta think outside the box and do something to attract a crowd that likes bells and whistles lights and noise the only problem with what i've just mentioned is that the show got to get bigger every week [Music] because this week if you preach on a ladder week you got to preach in a casket and then if you preach in the casket next week you got to preach with no clothes on you just it gets more outlandish because the crowd is never satisfied [Music] but the lord is not looking for a crowd i wish i had one or two witnesses here because the crowd that shouts hosanna on palm sunday is the same crowd that shall crucify him on good friday the best model the greatest model for church growth is what paul writes in ephesians at chapter number four he says in verse number seven but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of christ now the word translated grace in verse number seven is not the grace to save us it does take grace for god to save us but the grace that he's talking about in verse seven is the enabling gift to do the work that god has called us to do and that work is not for just one or two of us every one of us has been given a measure of grace look at it again but unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of christ every single individual member of lilly grove has a grace gift see how quiet you got right there your gift is not to sit in church and listen to me preach your gift is to get out of here and do what you heard me preach your gift may be exercised on sunday morning you may be able to sing or you may have the gift of working with children or you may have the gift of encouragement you may be gifted to greet people or you may have the personality to do those things but every one of us has something that we ought to be doing in the kingdom of god and if you are not working in the church you are outside the will of god a man every single individual member needs to be doing something and do not let what you can't do stop you from doing what you can because the excuse you use is well you know i can't sing well you don't have to sing when i can't preach no that's my job i can't work with children you don't have to work with children there needs to be something that god has given you and you need to find out what your gift is [Music] don't don't wait till you die and stand before god with your hands empty you remember that story that jesus told about the talents one had five and another had two and another had one the ones who had five and two god gave them the same commendation well done good and faithful servant god did not judge the two talent man by the five talent man's gifts because god was not looking for you to be mean he's not looking for me to be you he's given each and every single one of us a grace gift and if you are not using your gift if you are not working in the church you are outside the will of god i sure hope that's upsetting you this morning because my intention is to spend as much time as i can getting on your nerves this morning to make you recognize that the holy spirit comes not to make you feel good but to make you do good and if you are filled with the holy spirit of promise and you are not working in the church you are outside god's will every one of us the scripture says is given grace according to the measure of the gift of christ nobody ought to be envious of anybody else's grace gift because the gifts are given by christ christ knows who can handle five gifts he knows who can handle two gifts he knows the people who won't even take care of one gift but every one of us has a grace gift and i'm not talking about grace that makes you save because once you're saved you cannot be lost i'm talking about the grace that enables you that empowers you to do what god has called you to do and if you don't know what god has called you to do this morning would be a good time to find it out unto every one of us i can't say that enough every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of christ now my brothers and sisters the root of church growth is in verses 7 through verse number 11. the root of church grows listen gifts without grace are undesirable because if you are gifted but not gracious [Music] it makes you arrogant and self-centered and we got to beg you to sing and we want you to give we got to call your name talk back to me if you can you you can't go to sunday school unless you teach in the class and if it's not your turn to teach you don't show up because you're so gifted that you don't want to listen to anybody else that makes you arrogant and self-centered that's that's gifts with no grace listen to me brothers and sisters the gifts bestowed by the lord that was given at pentecost is a fulfillment of psalm 68. jesus is quoting psalm number 68 when he says wherefore he says when he ascended up on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto all men now he that ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth he that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might feel all things listen in psalm number 68 read it when you get home israel after the exodus is at mount sinai and at mount sinai god is so strong and god proves himself so faithful and powerful that when he speaks the earth trembles armies and kings flee at the sound of his voice and while the people of god are peacefully sleeping the armies of kings and rulers are quaking because god is at work pharaoh's army is drowned in the red sea but god moves from mount sinai and he sets his sights on mount zion and while trudging up to mount zion the captives are following him in chariots and while he is on the way they are giving him gifts but paul transposes the illustration from the captives giving god gifts to god giving gifts to the captives instead of us giving god gifts in triumph because christ triumphed on the cross god is now giving gifts to the church let me see if i can make that make sense the gifts in ephesians chapter 4 are different from the gifts mentioned in first corinthians that chapter 12. because in first corinthians chapter 12 the gifts are bestowed upon the believers but in ephesians 4 gifted believers are gifts bestowed on the church you're still not getting this i i work really hard on this and you're really not getting this here are the gifts that god has given to the church and the number one reason or the number one root of church growth is gifted leadership the root of church growth is gifted leadership right the gifts are mentioned right here in verse number 11 and he gave some apostles now apostles were equipped to guide the infant church in ways that it ought to go all right all right apostles like the apostle paul the apostle peter the apostle james these apostles were given to the church to the infant church the early church so that they would know the way that they ought to go but the days of the apostle has passed we are no longer in the apostolic age there are no more apostles the last apostle was paul and paul said even at that i am an apostle born out of due season because in order to be an apostle you had to be an eyewitness to the resurrected christ and paul did not see him the same time that peter saw him i wish i had a witness here because christ has been dead some years and risen from the dead and seated at the right hand of god with power years before paul is called into apostleship because he met paul not at the sea of galilee but on the damascus road and paul said just like y'all saw him [Music] i saw him born out of due season the last apostle was paul and the apostles responsibilities were to equip the infant church in ways that it ought to go but the prophet's responsibility were to guard the church in what it ought to know the apostles were responsible for guiding in the way that they should go but the prophet's responsibility was to equip them in what they ought to know prophets like sylvanas prophets like timothy prophets like epaphroditus uh priscilla and aquila they they were teachers they were prophets they were giving they were given the word of god immediately god spoke directly to them and what god spoke to them they spoke directly to the church because they received immediate revelation because there was not a printed bible the canon of scripture had not yet been fulfilled they did not have an old and new testament canon of scripture to read from so god had to give them the word immediately but now god gives the word immediately through the bible and so we do not need a new revelation [Music] somebody ought to help me preach it stop listening to apostles so and so and profit so and so with some new revelation because if you like me you have a hard time with the old revelation i mentioned this i mentioned this tuesday night in bible study but i don't need to hear no new word and i don't want no preacher giving me no new word because if it's new it's probably not true because everything god wants us to know he's already put it in his word he has already divinely inspired the writers of scripture to put everything we need to know for faith and practice in his word i don't want old preacher giving me no new word because i'm still struggling with the ten commandments i haven't mastered those yet see how quiet y'all got right there well maybe you may maybe you're there maybe you me maybe you order that but i'm speaking for those of us here who know that we still struggling with love your enemies do good to them that hate you bless them that persecute you i wish i had one or two witnesses here some of us are still struggling with blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of god i can hardly do what the bible says let alone some extra stuff i don't need any new revelation because there is no new revelation the last word god has ever spoken is amen the last word in the revelation is the last word god has ever spoken and the next time god will speak again will be in the judgment and what you and i preach or what you and i teach is nothing new we are just enlarging on what's already been spoken so be scared of somebody who say i got some oh some new revelation for you oh thank you i just i just i just gotta rhema word no you didn't and it's not for me because the b-i-b-l-e that's the book for me he gave some apostles he gave some prophets to equip and guide to equip and guard and the days of the apostles and the prophets has passed but their work continues in evangelists [Music] and he gave some evangelists now listen evangelists uh are gifted to deal with sinners in a way that other people are not some people have the gift of evangelism that that's a gift to be able to to talk to somebody and in five or ten minutes convince them to come to christ uh listen listen every christian ought to be a soul winner every christian ought to be a soul winner but not every christian is an evangelist because everybody does not have the gift of evangelism because an evangelist serves like a an obstetrician they aid in the birthing process everybody can't do that because uh some of us have messed that up and uh we we'll start talking some jehovah's witness talk and some uh mixing that up with some muslim stuff we heard on the radio and and coming with some stuff we got from daddy grace and uh some stuff we heard from uh from uh apostle so-and-so some conference where we went at the women thou art lose conference and then we'll mix all of that up and put that in a mess and it'll be a goulash telling people that you need to be loosed then you need to come with me to the woman thou how many times you got to get loose come come to sunday school and you'll get loose every week come to bible study and you'll get loose every week come to church on sunday and get loose every week god has just gifted some people with the gift of evangelism it's just all over them every time you hear them talk all they're talking about is coming to christ how to win somebody to christ and and they know how to go on the streets and they know how to knock on doors and they are not ashamed of the gospel it is the power of god under salvation they're always praying for the lost they're always burdened for the lost they're always looking for an opportunity to talk to the lost in the line at lubiz uh in the line at the uh dmv office or everywhere they go in the supermarket at awake at a funeral they're always trying to look for an opportunity to win somebody for christ because they have the gift of evangelism they are obstetricians but pastors and teachers are pediatricians evangelists operate as obstetricians they aid in the birthing process but after the child is born somebody got to raise it somebody has to teach it somebody has to help it to grow and that responsibility is for pastors and teachers shepherd teacher that that word pastor and teacher is connected by that little conjunction and because the pastor must also be a teacher pastor and teacher because brothers and sisters listen the gifts of the apostles and the prophets uh died out with the end of the first century evangelists are still needed especially gifted by god to win souls because every believer who's a soul winner is not an evangelist but once the baby is born somebody has to teach it and all of us who have been born again you've been born by the teaching and the preaching of the word of god preaching and teaching gives strength to babies in christ you can't be all the christian god wants you to be without hearing preaching and teaching i wish i had a witness here it's not enough to come to 7 30 service you got to go to sunday school [Music] and it's not enough to go to sunday school you got to come to bible study because you can't get enough study of the word of god the root of church growth is gifted leadership gifted leadership i know what my ministry gift is i know what my grace gift is i only have one grace gift many of you all got several i just have one my gift is preaching and teaching the word of god i'm not good at organizing stuff i'm not good at executing what other people have organized because i'm i'm i'll think about that and come up with a good vision and a good plan and you'll be looking for me and i'll be playing golf or i'll be home reading a book or i'll be just out of town somewhere because i'm really good at thinking of what ought to be done but reverend washington is better at putting into action what i think ought to be done oh i'm i'm i'm i'm paul and he's silas we are we are an unbeatable team because i got all the ideas and he got all the sense my office looks like a cyclone went through there and reverend washington's office you can just call him in the middle of the night and ask him where a book is he'll tell you what shelf and what book it's next to because he's just that organized i'm i am the i am the the the overbearing kind of ogre of a person people are scared to talk to me and reverend washington is so sweet and kind and wait wait wait wait hold on i didn't mean for you to clap on that but he is just so nice and people are just easy to talk to him and people talk to me through him because we complement each other in our grace gift and after a while when you move in that area uh it it it keeps envy and jealousy away from what we're trying to do because god's spirit can't dwell in the temple that's unclean and when you know your area of giftedness when you know what it is that god has called you to do you get out of other people's way [Music] i'm trying to get through with this but get in your lane and stay in it get in your lane put some blinders on and stay in it don't don't watch what they're doing in the in the lane on the right don't watch what they're doing in the lane on the left people come to me all the time and say pastor i think we ought to do something that they're doing at this church and my suggestion is always i think you ought to go to that church because i know what my lane is i know how god wants me to grow this church because a church grows number one through gifted leadership and then the church grows in the second place in verse number 12 through godly discipleship gifted leadership and godly discipleship look at verse 12 for the perfecting of the saints comma for the work of the ministry comma for the edifying of the body of christ i want you to take a pen or if you don't have one with you when you get home think about it uh black out or erase or put some some some some white stuff on that comma after saints because the scripture ought to read for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry the comma in there that breaks it off makes it look like uh the perfecting of the saints is different from the work of the ministry but the comma does not belong after saints for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry that word perfecting in the text only occurs here in ephesians 4 and verse number 12. it carries the thought of making something fully ready of something being perfectly equipped something being fully prepared the holy spirit wants us to grow up until we display something of christ's stature and maturity if an individual believer is to mature fully he needs to be a disciple for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of christ god is not calling you to be a member at lily grove he's calling you to be a disciple of jesus christ and when you are a disciple of jesus christ you have no problem being a member of lily grove brothers and sisters membership without discipleship is like gifts without grace just like gifts without grace is undesirable grace without gifts is also undesirable because if you all love and you're all sweet and you're all nice and you're all kind but you're lazy and not doing anything not putting your hands to the plow you make the work of ministry harder on the ones of us who are giving ourselves to it god is calling you not to be a member who sits on the bench if you are just sitting on the bench every sunday morning you are out of the will of god a man god is not pleased that you come here sunday in and sunday out and never do anything for the kingdom stop talking about i've worked in the church so much that uh the lord knows now i'm old now i'm giving it to the young people no you don't rushed out in the kingdom of god you wear out in the kingdom of god be thou faithful not until death but unto death giving god your best right up to the day that you die you are not in the will of god if you are a christian at all and you're not working in the kingdom as a godly disciple for the perfecting of the saints god's god's goal through the holy spirit is to perfect us it's the it's the picture of a fisherman mending their nets after they've done a hard night of fishing the nets get torn and then the next morning they mend and fix the nets so that they can go out and get another drought of fish that's the idea here you come here on sunday morning to mend your nets so you can go out monday morning and catch some more fish and if you're not catching fish it's because there's a hole in your neck and there may be a hole in your neck because you're not perfecting it i know you wish you would have stayed home this morning listen verse 13 i want you to look at verse 13 because i want to spend a minute or two right there till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god unto a perfect man under the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ verse 14 as well that we henceforth from now on be no more children that word children translated into the text is not just a little child a toddler it means literally an infant who can't speak it means a baby who has to be cradled and held and fed and put to bed and can't move itself somebody got to move it to where it needs to go and somebody has to take care of it somebody has to nurture it but the scripture says it's time for you to stop being infants you've been in the church long enough now that nobody got to keep on spoon feeding you another thing a baby needs is a pacifier it's time for you to stop needing a pacifier everything hurts your feeling and then we got to go to your house to make sure you still at the church and and we got to we we got to put you over something to keep you see how quiet you got right there we got to put you on the program so you don't be mad we got to call your name so you can stay here that's an infant that's a whining baby you know you know what you know you know what a whining baby is always whining and always something wrong always something bothered when i was when i was a child i was like that whining and and and i told you how much my grandmother loved me and favored me over others but but i was a whining child i would whine all the time and i'd go to mama's house whining and and mama said what's what's what's the matter with mama's baby [Music] no no she said you you you're hungry i said no ma'am she said mama's baby sleeping no something hurting you my baby no no she said oh i know what you need you need a good whipping yeah she would she would she would put three letters in front of that word whipping and and maybe what's wrong with some of y'all you need a good whipping y'all know what a good whipping is that when you get through whipping them they just go to sleep they just go take a nap you tired and they tie maybe god needs to put something on you maybe god needs to send something your way that will make you stop whining because as bad as your situation is think about this it could be worse he woke you up this morning that's something to shout about you got food to eat that's something to shout about you got a job tomorrow that's something to be grateful for amen stop being a whining baby and and then he moves from the nursery out to sea he's right here in verse 14. that he henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro like waves on an ocean tossed to and fro tossed to and fro my wife has been trying to get me to go on a cruise and i said to her never and then my brothers and my sisters been trying to convince me that you you you won't even know you on the boat and i said can i drive home if i can't drive home i know i'm on a boat but you don't even feel it i said does the boat rock from time to time well then i ain't going just just try it terry just try it one time i said y'all want me to go on a boat looking like the michelin man with about 75 life jackets on i'm not going anywhere where i'm be rocking back and forth and to and fro because i want to be where i know i'm on the land now enjoy your cruise go to the bahamas go to alaska god bless you enjoy bring me something back i ain't going because just like i don't want to be tossed to and fro on a boat i don't want to be tossed to and fro in my face believe this one day and believe that the next day doing this one day and doing that the next day that's tossed to and fro stand firm blessed is the man i wish i had a bible reader who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the way of sinners not sits in the city of the scornful but his delight is in the law of the lord and in that law does he meditate day and night and he shall be like a tree here it is place it by the rivers of water that brings forth fruit in his season his leaf also shall not wither and whatever he doeth shall prosper when you when you're not wishy-washy that's the word i'm looking for hot one day and cold the next day speak one day and don't speak the next day either you bipolar or you're unsaved [Music] he moves us from the nursery from being out to sea to a hospital that you went henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine you remember that passage in scripture that man who'd been at the pool 38 years the only way he could get there somebody had to carry you've been in church too long for people to have to still carry you can you come carry me to bible study can you come care let me say carrie can you come carry me the mission can you come carry me to church sunday morning get up and carry yourself to church grow up be mature don't be carried away don't be cared away by every wind of doctrine somebody comes with some new stuff you run to that every new preacher comes to town you run into that every new singer get on the market you run into that every new idea that comes along you run into that you trying this and you trying that try christ because listen brothers and sisters when you're carried away by every wind of doctrine paul says it becomes the slight of men and cunning craftiness people will trick you and fool you and when you are uninformed you're easily influenced when you are uninformed you are easily influenced i was saying to someone yesterday they're talking about the elections now with bernie sanders and and uh president trump and the russians are are trying to influence the election if you that ignorant that you can be influenced uh by russian or by somebody who can fool you you two ignorant to vote [Music] i i think you ought to take an intelligence test if you're going to vote uh if you if anybody can come along and sway you and turn you and push you around by sleight of hand and cunning craftiness you are not intelligent enough to know for yourself what is in your best interest somebody ought to help me talk here this morning listen president trump is not interested in solving no problems he's interested in keeping us angry with one another and then these other people are talking about all this free stuff free college and free medicine and freedom who going to pay for all that i know the ones of us who go to work every day stop letting people carry you away with every wind of doctrine get strong enough in your faith that you are not fooled by the sleight of hand and cunning craftiness jim jones was able to take over 900 people with him to guyana because they were guilty of credulity credulity is believing without examination is believing because somebody told you it's going along with the crowd and 900 people over 900 people drank kool-aid because they were following the crowd don't don't be a kool-aid drinker when you hear me preach go home and open the scriptures and see if what i just got through saying is really the word of god when your sunday school teacher gets through teaching go home open the word of god and see if it's in fact the word of god and that'll make you so sharp that everybody can't preach to you you can't listen to everybody teach because you have trained your ears to hear the truth i i want to i want to get to this and i'm going i'm going to be through verse 15 but speaking the truth in love growing up into him in all things which is the head even christ from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working in the measure of every part making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love now church growth is about gifted leadership it's about godly discipleship and thirdly it is about great fellowship speaking the truth in love listen to speak the truth and not be loving is ungracious but to be loving and not speak the truth is unfaithful because my love for you makes me tell you the truth i don't love you if i don't tell you the truth and the truth that i tell should not be in an offensive manner beating you over the head with the truth and telling you what you ought to do it if you ought to do this and you ought to do that without bringing up what i used to do what i used to be paul never preached the gospel without giving his testimony paul never told him without what thus saith the lord without saying but i was on the damascus road i was on my way to persecute the church of god and god stopped me and blinded me and he said to me what will you have i said to him what will you have me to do when i recognize that it was him but he had to blind me before my eyes could be open and you've got to be able to speak the truth in love with people because speaking truth without love is ungracious and being in love without truth is unfaithful because for me to be dishonest with you is to be disrespectful towards you dishonesty is always disrespect you have to tell people the truth you have to love them enough to tell them the truth and the truth is if you don't know jesus christ you're lost and on your way to hell the truth is there's a way that seems right but the end thereof are ways of death the truth is the steps of a good man are ordered by the lord the truth is i will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on me the truth is the lord is my light and my salvation the truth is he was born in bethlehem reared in nazareth baptized in the jordan died on a cross rose from a tomb is seated on the right hand of god with power and the truth is he's coming back again brothers and sisters there's a way that seems right but the end thereof are ways of death and if you don't know the truth spoken to you in love because listen satan who is our enemy will blind us to the truth and make us think that because we are way up here we don't need all this church stuff you can go to church every once in a while you ain't got to be in treasure every sunday the lord knows your heart you've been tired you've been working all week long god understands that you got to rest yourself and uh you know all of this church stuff every sunday and you you know the bible says god helps those who help themselves all that old silly talk you know we just come up with all kind of excuses of not to do right but when you know the truth you want to be around people who share the same truth and it engenders a spirit of fellowship because how can two walk together except they be agreed and i need somebody to agree with me this morning that there's a man at the river giving sight to the blind i need somebody to agree with me this morning that he's good that his mercy is everlasting that his truth endures to all generations i need somebody to agree with me this morning that we know that all things work together for good to them that love god and to those who are the called according to his purpose i need you to agree with me that god will open doors that the devil tried to close in your face that god will make a way out of nowhere i need somebody to agree with me that when you're lonely he'll come in the room and be a mother for you he'll be a doctor for you he'll be a friend for you he'll be a waymaker he'll be a provider do you agree with me

Channel: lillygrovembc

Views: 15,549

Keywords:

Id: iDLiKGNOUEY

Length: 54min 1sec (3241 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 12 2020