Walk Together

As we gather here, as a church, I want us to ask or to think about, I want to ask you, what do you think about when you hear the word church? Now, obviously, you're already predisposed to be thinking about where we're at and what you see, but most days of the week, what would you think of when somebody asked you, what do you consider what comes to your mind when you think of a church? Well, typically, it's probably what we're doing right now. We gather. We hear the word preached, we hear the word sung, we pray the word, we practice the word, we read the word. And those things are essential for a church to be faithful and a church to grow. But I want to challenge us this morning as we think about church, and that is the main topic of what Ephesians is getting at, as you heard Cheryl read it. It's not the end all of church just to gather for an hour and a half on a particular day to practice and hear and proclaim and pray the word. It's believers coming together regularly, serving one another, loving one another, caring for one another. It's so much more than just coming to a service like this. This is one of my favorite passages in scripture. And it's primarily because I can so easily get off track with my priorities. I can so easily not understand exactly what I should be doing as a Christian or as a pastor. And this passage always brings me back to the great clarity that Christ is the head. With all authority, He's in charge and we can trust Him. And we are the members, each of us, called to come together with one another. for the work of the ministry. So the church is built up. This morning, we're gonna consider this passage. Our text is specifically seven to 16. I wanted to read it in all of its context because it's important and to remind you, last week was a shorter sermon. I reserved for the minutes last week for this week. Yeah, I see heads nodding, no one affirming, but some people laughing, so that's good. This text brings out some rich theology for us to consider as a church. Christ is our head. The one who came and died for us and rose again with all power, he's our head, he's our authority. There's many members. We're all welcomed in to participate fully, but yet uniquely in each way. for one goal, to glorify and grow in Christ. As we look at this text, I'm actually gonna draw three theological points out, three kind of practical points out, because there's a lot here that I wanna unify in a way with themes. And so the three basic truths we're gonna see are these. First, just meditating upon Christ is the head of the church. That is an objective declaration. It is a truth statement to be received and affirmed. Christ is the head of the church. And as we'll see, Christ being the head of the church, the two primary actions in our passage are giving. Christ gives the church leaders. We see that in verse 11. He gives the church gifts. So the first thing we're gonna consider is Christ is the head of the church, and then secondly, as the head of the church, he gives the church leaders. And then thirdly, Christ calls us all to grow together. Christ calls us all to grow together. Since I'm gonna do that kind of more of a thematic outline, I wanna walk through the passage as it is, just so we can follow the flow of the passage. And we've gotta go back to chapter four, verse one. But actually, let's go on back to chapter one, verse three. Chapters one through three are the doctrine. That's what God has said, that's what God has done, that's what he does for us. Those are truths that just be received. And the key verse there, verse three of chapter one. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That's what God has done. That's a new position in Christ. And now chapter four, verse one, I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of that calling, of receiving every spiritual blessing, to walk worthy of the calling to which you've been called. God has done a great work for us, and now it changes everything. We saw that that calling involves walking with all humility and all gentleness and with patience and bearing with one another, eager to maintain the unity. And then we saw that great triune declaration, four through six. That has been used in the church throughout the ages as a baptismal confession or a creed. It may actually be a baptismal confession that Paul's just alluding to that was already present in the church. There's one body that is the church and then one spirit, one Lord, one God and Father. And then notice our passage begins with but. After declaring that great unity, grace was given to each one of us. Every member of that one body is given grace, a gift. And he walks through and he declares that he ascended on high, giving gifts. Christ is ascended to the right hand of the Father, and what does that mean, verses nine to 10? He first descended, and we'll explain, hopefully, what that means. And again, verse seven, grace was given as the primary action. Then verse 11, 11 through 16 is one sentence in the original creed, in the controlling word there, and he gave. Our head is a generous giver. Christ has come to give Himself to us, that's the ascending, or the descending and the ascending, and then He gives us gifts so that we can be a body together. What we see there in this passage is key themes, key repetition. The leaders equip, the body works, the body builds up, the body grows. When each part is working properly, it builds itself up and grows up into Christ. It's a high-calling church. I want us to see kind of the weight of how this actually all builds together. Chapter two, verses one to 10 of Ephesians. Remember, we were dead in our transgressions and then that great transition, but God made us alive. You're saved by grace, not works, for by grace you've been saved through faith, not by works. But then remember how chapter two ends, verse 10, this section. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works. This is the first time Paul has actually told us what those good works are. The good work that we've been saved for is building up the body of Christ as a member doing work. So let's get into our text. Let's get into these truths that are central, I believe, for us to be a healthy church. First, and this is just a declaration from God, Christ is the head of the church. Again, this declaration that He has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Everything we have that is of any worth and any good is from Christ. Christ is the head who has all sovereignty. Look at chapter four, verse 10. At the very end, He might fill all things. We can go back to chapter 1 verse 22 and 23. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things of the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Christ is filling all. That is a declaration that his power is sufficient for everything. Now this entire practical portion of chapter 4 is pointing to Christ in his relationship with the church. If we look, Verse 15, we can see that Christ is the head of the church. Rather speaking the truth in love, we're to grow up in every way into him who is the head. That is into Christ. Or verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ, assuming they're the head, until we attain knowledge that is into his maturity, into the manhood of Christ. Let's look at the headship in a number of ways. First, as we look at headship, the role of Jesus Christ as the head of the church, we need to first consider there's a legal reality. A legal reality to Christ being the head of the church. And Romans 5 would actually be the central teaching here. Romans 5 tells us there's really only two kinds of human beings. The first is the way we're all born naturally. We're born as children of Adam. We're born under the headship, under the legal representation of Adam, and that means we're born as sinners who are going to sin, and if we stand before God in that state, under that legal representation of Adam, we're going to be judged for our sin, and we will be condemned, and there will be great punishment because we are great sinners. That's one kind of human being. The other one is what Paul talked about in Ephesians 3. Christ came to create a new man. He came to be a new head, a new legal representative, so that when we die in Christ, what happens is when we stand before God and our sin is evident and we should be judged, what happens is Christ comes in as our legal representative and says, no Father, I died. I was punished for the sin of this child. It's been paid for. His sin has been atoned for. There's been a propitiation. Your wrath against this sin has been satisfied. That's what the headship of Jesus Christ means for us as Christians. There's a legal union. That's one of the great blessings that we are no longer counted guilty. We're forgiven. If you're not a Christian this morning, that is the central truth for you. That is the most important thing you're going to hear this morning. As you're going to hear about what the church is supposed to be, yes, you're gonna say, I've never seen a church like that, and we're all striving to be that church. But what I want you to see here is that it's not about how much the church fails to be the church, it's about how Christ was successful, and the one thing he wanted to do, and that is to save sinners. He is powerful and able, but you must call on him. We want to see how broken we are and how we're completely incompetent to help and heal ourselves. He who died for our sins so we can be forgiven. He who rose again from the grave. He's able to help you. He's able to save you. You must call upon him. Headship isn't just a legal relationship. It's a real relationship. Christ as our loving Savior, He's come down to walk among us. He died in our place, He rose again, and now He is the head, which really functions like a king. He has all authority over us. He is fully God, He is fully man, and now He speaks as the king with all authority, with a real relationship to tell us what we need to hear. He saved us to change us, and one of the most important ways He changed us is by giving us His Word. We're gonna see a little later that that's referring to the Bible, and let me just make sure we understand what God says, they're not merely suggestions. They're authoritative words that we can trust. They're authoritative commands that comfort us, correct us, reprove us, teach us, correct us. They train us up. He's the head, which means he's our authority. We're being built up to grow in him. The third thing I want us to see about headship, it means we have a new measure for our lives. Look there at verse 13. Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. How do you measure if you're successful or not? How do you measure if you're living a life worthy of your breath and of what God has called you to? Our measure has to be Christ. This is the only standard for believers that what he has commanded for us all, we're measuring ourselves based upon how faithful we are. Now, let's look at verses nine to 10. That can be a little confusing. In saying he ascended, what does it mean that he also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also ascended far above the heavens that he might fill all things. The church has at times interpreted the descending as descending into the lower regions, that is to hell. I don't believe that's actually what it's referring to. I believe it's referring to what we just finished celebrating, that is the incarnation Christ himself coming down to become a man. Not just a man, but a servant. Born a lowly Nazarene. He came from nowhere. He came to be a servant. Treated like a nobody. But this is Almighty God. His descending is how far he descended. Not just become a man who would praise and serve, but he came to serve. And he served to the point of death. I believe that's why Paul is emphasizing the lower. But now he's ascended. He's ascended to the right hand of God. As we think about that legal relationship, that real relationship, that new measure, let us just contemplate here for a moment how good it is. Christ, our head, He's Almighty God. He has all authority and power. And He has chosen to erect Himself to exercise all authority and all power towards those whom He's chosen to die for and rise again and calls on children. When we're united with Him, He cares for us. It's amazing to think about this in light of how we mostly think of kings and rulers today. They're usually either too weak or too harsh. Christ is neither of those. He is perfectly mighty, and He's perfectly love. He rules over us with all authority, but yet walks alongside of us as a friend who cares for us. Our head is perfect. These two things have to be held in great unity. He rules over us, but yet He's with us. One of the applications of this headship, for us to be a body who functions together as members, we all have to recognize and commit ourselves to this one head together. The only way we can build up and grow up to Him is that we all come together to worship this one head. I also want to just make an application here. Most of what we're gonna be considering from Ephesians is about how the head functions and works towards us to build us to the body, but we prayed for four brothers and sisters with cancer Wednesday night. I look out and I see parents who are burdened for their children. I see spouses who are burdened for one another. There's real difficulty in this room right now. that this life is difficult because we are all sinners and we live in this fallen world and I want us to see that if we believed in Christ, He's our head. What we see here, He's not just risen from the grave, He's ascended on high and He stands in the right hand of the Father with all authority and their love, their care, their direction is towards us. It's towards you. The victory is won. Fight the good fight. Don't give up in the midst of difficulty. Persevere through pain. Persevere through the trial. Persevere through the lack of faith. Take the bulletin home. Help my unbelief. Understand, Christ has won. Fight the good fight. That risen Christ, that ascended Christ, he who has, who is the head of the church, we see next he gives the church leaders. Look at verse 11 specifically. We see this transition and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and the teachers. Now, these are specific gifts. These appear to be primarily gifts of leadership that Paul is emphasizing here in verse 11, but you can go to verse Corinthians 12 or Romans 12, and you can see there's a variety of gifts. Every member of the body is given a gift to be used for the well-being of the entire body and for the glory of Christ. Here, specifically, he's talking about gifts of leadership. I want us to see here, every Christian has been given the exact same grace of salvation. We all have all the same blessings in Christ in chapter one. Secondly, we've all been given the same commandments. Fair with one another in love. Eager to maintain the unity of the faith. Those are all the same commandments. But then he gives each of us uniquely a distinct gift to be used to make a complete body. So that we're not all right arms. We all have our own functions. So there's a whole body, a complete body. Now the thing about gifts, I want to just break out just a moment and lift it up from just leadership. I want you to know that if you're a believer, if you're a Christian, you have a gift from God to be used. It's stewardship. We can think about stewardship here, that if you have been saved, you have the Holy Spirit indwelling you, there is a gift that's been given to you or gifts that he's given you that are meant to be exercised and practiced and matured and grown. Be faithful. Here's a couple of warnings. Don't despise your own gift. Don't see it as a burden. Don't serve begrudgingly with that gift, but realize that by God's grace, he's given you certain talents and skills and a way to be used. Don't despise it. Rejoice. Secondly, don't despise others' gifts. One of the things that we're all very prone to is jealousy. Wanting and thinking, I really wish I had that gift. My confession, I wish I had musical gifts. God knew that I would be selfish and want to be some kind of rock star if I had them, so he kept them from me. But we always want some other kind of gift. No, what we're saying, if we think, no, it'd be better if I had that gift. Christ, I'm wiser than you. No, He's the one who gives gifts according to His wisdom and His plan. I also want us to see your ability in the world might be different than your gift in the church. As we think about the way God gifts us, I also want to challenge us. He gifts us so that we can care for, walk with, serve, work with one another. That's incredibly intimidating and scary. The work we're all called to do is people work. It's difficult. Quite frankly, it can be dangerous. We're in the work of walking with, of caring for, of comforting. And let's just be honest, we all feel very incompetent when it comes to trying to care for someone. But that's why we have the assurance. Christ is the head He gives us the grace to do the work we're called to do. It's actually wonderful whenever you go in and are feeling completely incompetent to try to care for somebody, but yet God uses you anyway. That's kinda how the gospel works. Be faithful. As we looked at this list, he gives these different leaders to the church. The first list, the list begins in verse 11 with the apostles and the prophets. I believe these two go together, but let's look at the apostles first. An apostle of Jesus Christ is someone who walked with Christ. They were part of his earthly ministry. For the three years of Christ's earthly ministry, at some point, they walked with him. They were there And they saw him when he rose from the dead. They had to watch and see with their own eyes. There were eyewitnesses of the actual resurrection. They were there when he ascended. There were clear qualifications to be an apostle. Now Paul is the exception. Paul who had a unique revelation of Jesus Christ. Paul who had a unique calling. Paul who went through unique suffering in that calling. Now, to me, it seems as if the office of apostle is closed. It doesn't continue. The apostles were those who proclaimed the authoritative words. The apostles are those who the Holy Spirit used to build the foundation for the church in its infant stage before the apostles gave us these words that will continue. Now, before we get into that much more, let's go on to the prophets. Now to speak prophetically is to simply speak the truth. To speak prophetically is to bring light to darkness, to bring clarity and confusion. To be a prophet doesn't just mean you're foretelling something's gonna happen. It's to say this is what is true. Now I want us to go back to Ephesians chapter two, verse 20. I'll begin in verse 19. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. Okay, let's go on to chapter three, verse five. I'll begin in verse four. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations, as it has now been revealed to his body, to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit." We see Paul actually connecting the Apostles and the Prophets. I believe the same thing is happening here. They're connected. They're the brothers who were given a revelation from Christ by the Holy Spirit to put, to lay the foundation for the church. To give us the truths, to hand over the faith once and for all to the saints to continue. What I'm getting at here is that God has said everything he's going to say here that's authoritative for the church in all times. We come together and we see the Apostles and the Prophets, they still benefit us even though they're dead and risen in Christ now. But they've given us the words of the New Testament. We now come and we are equipped by those Apostles and Prophets because we come to the words of God, the Word of God, Scripture, and we can trust Him. We can know Him. Babe, we look at Scripture and we know it's sufficient. It's clear. It's authoritative. It's necessary. So to look at this gift of apostles and prophets, we are still blessed by these men because they've given us Scripture to continue to trust with all the rest of the church. Now, let me give you a challenge. If you're not reading the Bible in a year, you still have time to try to do that? But if you are reading the Bible, I wanna challenge you, be careful not just to let your words go over every single word throughout the year. The goal of reading the Bible is so it can transform you. The goal of reading the Bible isn't to get a, to mark off the box, I read it today. I know that's easy to do, and I know it's tempting to kind of just go through the motions, but make sure you're letting the words wash over you and transform you. Now the other gifts, he mentions evangelists, and this one's been somewhat debated what it means. My best interpretation here is that this probably is referring to someone who is going out from the community to share the gospel. What we would call a missionary today, I believe Paul is calling an evangelist, someone who goes out to share the gospel. Next we have what's either one or two offices, most likely one. Because the definite article isn't used twice. It's the shepherds who are also teachers. Shepherds and teachers are the word we get from pastor from is shepherd. One who watches over the sheep. As we think about these two words and why Paul has put them together, they're necessarily united. To pastor means we take a certain kind of truth, God's truth, and we seek to care for and feed the sheep that is the church with that word. Paul makes it a qualification to be an elder or pastor. You have to be able to teach. So let's just make this assertion. All pastors are teachers. A pastor must be able to take the word of God and proclaim it in preaching or be able to come alongside a Bible study and make it clear and apply it, or be able to sit one-on-one and counsel you through its truths and your personal struggles. A pastor has to be able to take the Word of God and teach it. Now, let's also make this assertion, not all teachers are pastors. It is, God gives teachers that aren't always pastors. Being able to open God's Word doesn't mean you're a pastor. I think what makes a pastor unique is he has a knowledge of his flock. He knows his sheep. He watches over them carefully. He stands by them and in front of them to protect them. He leads them, he cares for them, he feeds them. There's a personal connection with a pastor that a teacher doesn't have. Now, let's look at this work of the pastor teacher and the apostle and the prophet and the evangelist. Verse 12, the first thing that they are to do, they are given to the church to equip the saints. All right, everyone raise your hand if you're a saint. All right, this work can be confusing. All right, we can oftentimes think it's for the really holy people. No. If you have been blessed in Christ in any way, you are a saint. It's appropriate for you to walk around calling each other saints. It'd be weird, but it's true. You have been set apart. You've been delivered from the domain of darkness. You've been delivered into the kingdom of the beloved Son. You are set apart from wrath and sin and set apart to the love of God and salvation. So this is involving you. You are to be equipped by the Word of God, by the teaching ministry of the pastors. You're called to be equipped. Why? Verse 12. For the work. So let's just stay focused here because that's the whole next point, but leaders equip the saints for work. We're to prepare each member to be more faithful, to be better equipped, to be more confident, to be more skilled, to be more faithful. Each member is called to the work of the ministry, and that includes the pastor. We're members of the body, just like you. But we have an additional responsibility to train, to equip, to prepare. The goal of the pastor is to make others more effective and fruitful in their ministry. One of the highest praises you can give an athlete in a game is that they make the other athletes around them better. Whenever there's a great point guard, one of the greatest things you can say about a point guard is they make the other players play better. The team leader on the floor, that's a pastor. He's like the quarterback before the snap. He tells everybody, this is exactly what you're going to do. He makes sure everyone else knows the plan, where they're supposed to be. Before the ball step, he puts them in the right place. He prepares them to have a successful play. Or if you don't like sports illustrations, which is the only thing I'm really good at, he's like a conductor of the symphony. The conductor is the one, he makes sure the right person is playing the right instrument in the right chair, they have the right music, and they know when to come in and out. He's making sure everybody else gets to play to their maximum performance so that the whole thing sounds better. That's the role of the pastor. Now notice the core of equipping here is teaching. We're supposed to be working until we grow into the knowledge of the Son of God. There's a knowledge of the Son of God that keeps us from being tossed to and fro with every doctrine. Much of what we as pastors do to equip is teach. It's central to our growth. That's why we come on Sunday mornings. And we sing God's Word. We pray God's Word. We proclaim God's Word. So we have Sunday school to kind of address and walk through specific books or specific topics. So we come on Wednesday night to pray together, to learn that difficult discipline of prayer. So we do weekly Bible studies. I want you to see the vision here is that the regular dripping IV, the regular receiving the word of God over and over again, that's what transforms. something that I've been hoping for for years, and working with the elders' wives, we hope to do, and that is in equipping women. Be on the alert here that in March, or the alert, be listening if you're a woman. What we want to do is make sure we as elders are equipping you, because there's conversations you can have that we can't with one another. So one of the things we wanna do is equip you. So be on the lookout for an announcement soon. Elders, be challenged this morning by this passage. It's really hard to prioritize the work of equipping because usually we're constantly being demanded with something immediate. We have to be disciplined. in making this our priority. We have to be disciplined through the hard work of regularly equipping because that in the long run is going to make more workers ready for the work. As we look at this, I want you to see church. You're equipped first and foremost by the prophets and the evangelists. It's the word of God. The pastors, teachers, all we do is we open up the word of God and we hope to make it clear Your confidence is in God and in His grace. Now, a particular part of the church that isn't mentioned here that I want to address, there's a certain support work that goes on in the church as well. We see here the teaching leaders, but I also want to talk about the support. We can look to Acts 6, it's kind of that support work. Those men who were set aside to serve tables. I praise God and I am thankful for the faithful support leaders of Jefferson Park. I'm talking about deacons. I'm talking about the music coordinator, the nursery coordinator, the cooks in the kitchen, those who are organizing meals. Those are important and so necessary for the work and the health of Jefferson Park. Thank you for the way you sacrifice regularly so that we can sing. so the children are cared for, so the Sunday school lessons are clear and helpful. Thank you for the way you volunteer. You free us for sweeter fellowship and more faithful worship. But I also wanna say that at church, I wanna challenge us to think about those brothers and sisters who are doing the support leadership. That's often done with a thankless job and it shouldn't be. It's a job that hears more grumbling than gratitude, and let's just be challenged today to recognize that it's a hard work that requires a lot of time and energy. Thank those folks who are serving to coordinate those different ministries that help us worship freely without having to worry about those other things. Finally, Christ calls us all to grow together. Again, if we look at the actions. Verse 12, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body, until we attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son, to not be tossed to and fro. Speaking truth and love, to grow up in every way. When each part is working properly, makes the body grow. There's a picture here that Paul presents over and over again in this very long sentence. It's as if He expects us to be growing together. It's very clear. Christ gives. That's what He does. What we do is we receive and we're faithful. It's extremely important that we recognize that this begins and ends with Christ as the head. Recognizing He has all authority. He gives and we're to grow up into Him in maturity. The goal is to always stay focused on Christ and to grow in Him. As we do this, let's look at what it means to build up, to grow, and I'm just gonna walk through a few basic observations. First, if we're going to grow together as it is declared in this passage, it is something that we cannot do without God. Grace is given so that we might grow. When we try to make things happen on our own, let me speak for myself personally. When I try to make things happen for my own, it only gets more messed up. But when we actually look and ask, God, what are you doing? What do you want to see change? What would you like to see different at your church? And we depend upon him for the grace to do it. It brings about great change. It's not as what we're expecting, but praise God, it's always fantastic. As we gather for our members meeting next week, we always read the church covenant. We try to read the church covenant as regular as possible, and there's a lot of commitments in there. We believe it's a good summary of what the church is expected to be towards one another, and I want to remind you of the most important words in that church covenant. by God's grace. There's a lot of high commands, there's a great high calling to be the church. It is only by God's grace and it is sufficient for us that we can do any of the things he's calling us to do as a work. Second, we're expected to grow up. We are not to remain children. Not the way he describes a child here as someone who is tossed to and fro. They're carried away by anything new or anything different. They're easily deceived. A child is naive. A child is not stable. A child can easily get taken off the rails with a new circumstance or a new change. No, we're called to grow up. We're called to grow up in the maturity of the man of Jesus Christ. What I believe he's getting at here is just growing up to be stable. What, in nautical terms, is ballast. See, ballast is what's below the water. It's the weight that keeps the boat from going back and forth. It's the weightiness of the boat. It brings stability. We need to grow in having a confidence and a clarity and assurance of what Christ has done for us. That keeps us from being children, going back and forth, but the key here is that we're not supposed to be going back and forth over and over again. It's okay to be young in the faith. It's not okay to stay young in the faith. Third, something that you can do without God. It's not something, it's something you're expected to do. Third, it's not something you can do, we can do by ourselves. It's not something we can do by ourselves, and that is grow. All right, so let me qualify this. I think you can grow in Christ if you decide to go live in a cave by yourself for the Bible. I think you can do it, but I think it's gonna be very stunted. One of the greatest ways we grow is through the trials of this world. One of the greatest ways we grow is by growing together. Bearing one another in all love. Maintaining the unity. It's very clear that God calls us to grow together. Each part working properly grows up and building itself up, the whole body, in love. It's also very important we just see this as an implication here. Other people need us to grow. There's a way in which we can just be consumers and we need to be mindful of that. When we think about the kinds of things we'll be involved with at church, we can too often think, well, I don't think I need that. Okay, but somebody else may need you to be there. If you only think I'm going to be involved in the things that help me, you're not thinking like a body that realizes your health is dependent upon the whole body's health. Now, are you proactively seeking to do things that are going to benefit others as much as you hope they're gonna benefit you? As I look at this passage, I wanna also just take a look at this declaration, no longer children. As I think about my children, I'm challenged regularly. I typically wanna think, all right, my children are gonna go from being dependent upon me to being independent. I don't think that's the biblical model. People grow from being dependent children to being dependable adults. The goal isn't to be independent as adult as you grow. No, the goal is to be more dependable, which means we're more faithful. Others need us to grow. Fourth, it's not something that's going to happen accidentally. Let's just be honest, it's really easy to tear down. Anything. It's really hard to build up. It's very easy to tear something apart. Demolition. Just give somebody some goggles and a sledgehammer. Demolition is easy. To build up, that takes real concentrated effort. It takes a skill. It takes intentionality. It takes a priority. challenge you this morning. Are we using our words so that the whole body is built up? Fifthly, how we grow, how we build up matters. I want us to look at this one simple phrase, verse 15, speaking the truth in Love. Verse 16, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. We can go all the way back to verse two. Bearing with one another in love. This phrase is very important. It's difficult work. But that's why it's called to be done in love. You know, you could speak the truth, with harshness. You can speak lies with a desire to comfort. You can speak your opinion with power, but here he's saying, speak truth in love. It means as we come, we realize, all right, what God has said is the best thing that's been said. It's the best thing for me to say, and I'm gonna say it with the intention that it's going to care for this brother or sister. We need to be careful of our words. James warns us. They're so powerful to affect people. Be mindful of what we're saying and how we're saying it and how it comes across. This is why I warned you about email last week. It's very important that if we're going to say anything that might be difficult to be able to see the person's facial expression and response so that we can see if what we've said is actually hurtful so that we can try to do so better in love. Speaking truth requires a true personal relationship that requires love. Our goal is to make the body stronger. Speaking the truth and love means we're disciplined with our words. Hear that challenge again from James 3. With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and curse. My brothers, These things ought not to be so. Speak the truth in love. How we care for one another, how we build one another up, how we grow together with the Word of God as a foundation, how we do it, it matters. Finally, I want us to look at verse 16. Read verse 15 for context I rather grow speaking of the truth and love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ From whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped When with when each part works properly or is working properly Makes the body grow so that builds itself up in love It's an amazing picture here Christ being the one head all of us are members that are supposed to be connected And like joints come into connection, and it kind of takes us back to that bearing with one another. We're supposed to be so close we're rubbing against one another. That's why we bear one another in love. But we're supposed to be so committed to that head, seeing him as a source of life. We're supposed to be so committed to that head being the measure of how we live. We're supposed to be committed to that head uniting us together. That we bear with one another. We seek to work together. We seek to make sure that each other are growing. Something that we rarely understand is how our actions and words are always affecting somebody else. Our words, our actions have consequences. Either we're growing in grace and helping others around us grow in grace, or we're descending and helping others descend with us. As we end, Here's some reflection questions for you to discuss around a meal today with other believers. First, what are you growing towards? What are you practicing and getting better at? Is it growing up into Christ with other Christians, or is it growing to not be a faithful Christian? Is it complaining more than showing gratitude? What are you growing towards? Is it Christ in the head or is it something else? Secondly, how are you influencing other members with your words? Thirdly, who influences you the most? Who's the person that you're constantly thinking of and how they influence you? Is it Christ? Is it other members? Is it your neighbor who you're in a competition with in the rat race of the world? Now this is a challenging passage, so I want to end with this. I'm so encouraged in how I see the members of Jefferson Park striving to be the church described here. In so many difficult situations, when I show up, there's already other members there. I praise God for how we're striving to be united and maintain that unity. I praise God for the way I see it's growing to build up. But we realize that that measure is high. It's Christ and His manhood. It's Christ and His holiness. Let us continue to fight the good fight and persevere in faith. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you for your Word, that through your apostles and your prophets, you've given us a reliable foundation. As we sung earlier, what more can be said than to us, you've already said. And your excellent Word, Lord, help us to realize how excellent your Word is to teach us, to form us, to change us, to equip us. And we thank you for those who serve in leading. Bless the teachers, bless those who are supporting the work of the church. Bless every member to know how they're gifted, to be faithful to that gifting, so that when each one of us works properly, we will be able to rejoice as we see the body growing up together. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.