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On the beach. Now today will be in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 7 through 16.

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Let's get right into it. It reads, and he has generously given each of us supernatural grace

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according to the size of the gift of Christ. So it's important to understand

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God's favor in our life, God's grace in our life, God's forgiveness in our life. He's given us great

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favor, great grace, and great forgiveness because he has something great for us to do. So God will

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always give you the peace and the encouragement that you need in your life for the assignment

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that he's given to you. Did you know we all have an assignment? Me, you, you're watching this,

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you have an assignment that God wants you to do in your life for him. And so he'll always give you

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the strength and the encouragement and the grace to accomplish your assignment. Now it's your job

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to tune out every voice that you shouldn't listen to. There are eight billion voices on earth

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according to the science that they tell us. There's about eight billion people on the planet.

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Let me ask you a question. How many of those voices are you supposed to listen to? How many

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of those voices are you supposed to learn from? The answer is a very select few group of people.

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Just because somebody's talking doesn't mean they have something to say. God will give you wisdom

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for you to distinguish between a person who is speaking and a person who's worth listening to.

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That's why we need God's wisdom in our life every day. God will help you

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distinguish the difference between those two things. He says this is why it says,

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he ascends into the heavenly heights taking his many captured ones with him and gifts were given

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to men. So God gives all of us gifts so that we can serve the body of Christ. Our gifts aren't just

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for us, they're also for others. Everything that God gives to you in your life is to benefit and

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serve other people. Now when it says that he ascended, it means that he returned to heaven

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after he had first descended from the heights of heaven even to the lower regions, namely the earth.

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The same one who descended is also the one who ascended above the heights of heaven in order to

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begin the restoration and fulfillment of all things. He has appointed some

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to the lower regions. The same one who descended is also the one who ascended above the heights of the

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heaven in order to begin the restoration of all things. Verse 11, he has appointed some with grace

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to be apostles, with some grace to be prophets, and with some grace to be evangelists, and with

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some grace to be pastors, and some with grace to be teachers. So God gives specific gifts to specific

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people, but the gift isn't for themselves, it's to encourage the body of Christ. So there's a spiritual

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principle that I believe in. It's the greater the influence that you have in your life, the more you

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need humility and responsibility. There's literally not a week that goes by now that I don't see

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someone whose influence is here and their responsibility is not there. So God gives

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responsibility and their character and their integrity is here and that gets you in trouble

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every single time. You want to pray for your responsibility and your character and your

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integrity to be here and you want to have a lower level of influence than your responsibility and

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your humility and your integrity. This is almost totally lost on people today. They want this. No,

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God says this. Your integrity, your responsibility, your character should be way more than your

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influence. That's a Christ-like perspective. So we're not to pray for influence, we're to pray for

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character, responsibility, and integrity, and then God will decide when and where you should have any.

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So he gives us apostles. Those are people who preach the gospel, plant churches, and establish

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church planting networks. That's what an apostle is. A prophet is somebody who declares the truth

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unabashedly from God to a people and to a culture, a prophet. What is an evangelist? This is someone

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who has the gift to bring people who are outside the family of God into the family of God. This is

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an interesting one because there are people that have the gift of being an evangelist, but we're

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all called to evangelism. So don't think that if someone has an extraordinary gift of being an

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evangelist that it leaves you off the hook for doing evangelism. Now we all have our different

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way that we do evangelism. I just participated in a Jesus rally on Friday night. Not really my

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gifting to go and proclaim out in the streets. However, I did proclaim the gospel that night

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in a different way that fit within my personality. It doesn't matter your personality.

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God wants to use you to bring people into the kingdom of God. You should be asking,

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hey Lord, how have you made me? What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to go out on the streets and

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preach? If you are supposed to, by all means my friend, go. We all have different ways that we

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share about what God's doing in our lives. You need to find a way that's comfortable with you

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and then run with it. But the goal and the intention is to be an example and to be a voice

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to see people come into into God's family. It says he said he gave some grace to be pastors.

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So what this means is people that have the gift of being a shepherd and caring for people

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in the body of Christ. Now if you have a pastor's heart, you'll care about people.

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And you won't care about organizations and flow charts and structures and prime time.

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You'll just care about people. A pastor's heart is for people, to shepherd people,

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to protect them from danger, to encourage them as they grow in their relationship with God.

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And then there's some to be teachers. These are people that are able to teach

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the Bible. And so God gives these gifts, but not for that specific person,

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for the building up of the entire body of Christ. So he says their calling is to nurture. See?

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Encourage, nurture, build up their calling and prepare the holy believers to do their own works

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of ministry. So the goal of these five gifts is so that people can feel like they have

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the nutrition and the encouragement and the environment to go and do ministry,

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to go and be the hands and feet of Jesus, to go out into the world and be the church,

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the called out ones, the ecclesia. We don't bring people to church. We are the church.

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So I want to parse this out here. It's impossible to bring someone to church when you're having a

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conversation with someone and you're following Jesus. If you're having a conversation with

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someone and you're following Jesus, the person you're having a conversation with,

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they're already at church because you're there. You're there. You're the church. People are the

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church. So it's impossible to get people to come to church. They're already at the church when

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they're talking to you. When you walk into the room, the church just showed up. And if you miss

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this point, you can spend the rest of your life trying to bring people to something that they're

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already at when they encounter you. That's a very beautiful thing. That's a very important

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beautiful thing. That's a very freeing thing. He says, and they do all this so that they will

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enlarge and build up the body of Christ. These grace ministries will function until we all

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attain oneness in the faith, until we experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of

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God. And finally, we become one into a perfect man with the full dimensions of spiritual maturity

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and fully developed into the abundance of Christ. So God is building us up in our faith so that we

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can be strong through the body of Christ. Now look at verse 14, and then our immaturity will end. Did

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you know we're immature? We're all immature. I'm 48. I got a lot of immaturity, a lot of immaturity,

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acknowledging it, saying, God, I don't want to be immature. I want to be mature, a mature follower

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of Jesus. And we will not be easily shaken by trouble. When you're mature, you're not shaken

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by trouble. I won't be led astray by novel teachings or false doctrines of deceivers with

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who teach clever lies. So I'll be strong. I won't be led astray. I'll be led to the word and to pray.

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How do you know if you're not being led astray? Because you're always being led to the word

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and to pray. So I want to be strong, led to the word and to pray, standing on my own two feet.

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But instead, we will remain strong, we'll be sincere in our love as we express the truth. So God

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wants us strong and sincere and mature. All our direction and ministries will flow from Christ,

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lead us deeper into Him, the anointed head of the church. For His body has been formed in His image

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and is closely joined together and constantly connected as one. And every member has been given

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divine gifts to contribute to the growth of all. So again, God gives you gifts to benefit and to

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build up other people in the family of God. And all these gifts operate effectively through the

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whole body. We are built up and made perfect in love. Isn't that a beautiful picture of what

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the called out ones who follow Christ, how we're supposed to function, very nurturing,

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very encouraging, building each other up so that we can be strong, so that we can be sincere.

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That's my hope and prayer for you today. Thanks so much for joining me. Until next time, God bless you.