Thank you, Becky, for that number. It's a great
truth that is the part of that text that when
we have been there 10 ,000 years, there will
be not any fewer days to sing God's praise than
when we first begun. That's hard to conceive,
isn't it? The immensity, I suppose the infinity
of eternity. How do you get a hold of that? What
a marvelous thing that God has saved us. We're
going to spend eternity praising and worshiping
and serving the Lord. I hope you'll be back tonight
for our communion service at 6 o 'clock. We have
to be out at 7 o 'clock because of a service
that will be in here at 7 .30 tonight in connection
with the School of Writing. So that's good news
for you. We'll not be going overtime tonight.
Some of you will rejoice in that. We have to
be out at 7. And so be sure to be here at 6 so
we can start right on time. We'll have a good
time together sharing around the elements of
the Lord's table, remembering His sacrifice for
us. Please open your Bible to Ephesians chapter
4. Our text again today and for a final time
will be verses 7 through 16 of Ephesians 4. The
theme of this text is the church, a maturing
body. But to each one of us, grace was given
according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore
it says, when he ascended on high, he led captive
a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.
Now this expression, he ascended, what does it
mean? except that he also had descended into
the lower parts of the earth. He who descended
is himself also he who ascended far above all
the heavens that he might fill all things. And
he gave some as apostles and some as prophets
and some as evangelists and some as pastor -teachers
for the equipping of the saints for the work
of service to the building up. of the body of
Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the
faith and to the knowledge of the Son of God,
to a mature man, to the measure of the stature
which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a
result, we are no longer to be children tossed
here and there by waves and carried about by
every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men.
by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking
the truth in love, we are to grow up in him,
in all aspects into him, who is the head, even
Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted
and held together by that which every joint supplies,
according to the proper working of each individual
part, causes the growth of the body for the building
up of itself in love. A healthy body grows up.
So does a healthy Christian, and so does a healthy
church. Infancy is normal, of course, but prolonged
infancy is not normal. In one of the churches
where I have served, we had a dear family whose
baby at three and a half years of age became
ill with a form of meningitis. As a result of
that disease, the little child's brain was affected
and retarded. When I met Ronnie, he was physically
34 or 5 years of age. For over 30 years, the
parents had lovingly and tenderly cared for Ronnie,
but he had never grown up. He had a prolonged
infancy, and today he is in his early 40s, mentally
still an infant. That is abnormal. Normalcy is
growing up out of infancy into maturity. And
that is what God wants of us, individually and
corporately as a church. The church in the book
of Ephesians is compared to a body. That is because
the church is the living expression of Jesus
Christ in the world. We are his hands, his feet,
his eyes, his ears. If I may say it this way,
we are his visibleness, because he is invisible
to the world, but we are what they see. We are
his body. Now to some, the church is only stained
glass and lofty architecture. To others, it is
an activist organization seeking to promote social
or political change in the world. And to still
others, the church is merely a comfortable setting
where they can socialize with peers and enjoy
themselves. But none of those things matches
what the Bible says the church is. The church
is a body. That is, it is a living organism composed
of people, people who have been redeemed by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, people who have
been called by God the Father to be a part of
the body. People who are indwelt by the Holy
Spirit of God. People who are numbered from the
day of Pentecost until that future time when
the rapture takes place. An elect group of people.
A living organism of people. The body of Jesus
Christ. The local church is an expression. of
that universal body. The local church is composed
of professing believers. Inevitably, there are
some who are not genuine believers, but we can
say that those who are in the church are intended
to be professing believers who, having been baptized
in obedience to the Lord, are meeting together
for worship, fellowship, and instruction in the
Word of God. Furthermore, they are organized
according to the biblical pattern. That's what
a local church is. We are a local church, a local
expression of the body of Jesus Christ. We are
a body ourselves. And we are in the process of
maturing, as is the universal body of Christ.
The body of Christ will not arrive at maturity
until all of us, finally come into the presence
of the Lord Jesus himself. Then we shall be complete
in him, in that consummating sense. Now we are
in the process of maturing. And yet there is
to be a relative maturity that we somewhere along
the way reach. It's not always easy to define
what spiritual maturity is, but there is such
a thing relatively in this life, not only for
us individually, but for us as a church. And
our goal is to be working toward that. Now, we
have seen in previous weeks in our text what
a mature church looks like. It's described in
verse 13 as a mature man. That word mature has
the idea of being fully developed, like a muscular
athlete, an Olympic athlete. Have you watched
the American gymnasts this week? Especially those
young men who have taken so many gold medals.
What a marvelous skill and art. They have developed
through years of hard work and practice. Have
you noticed how muscular those guys are? They're
the kind you would not want to meet on the beach
and have kick sand in your face. Now it's that
kind of a well -developed body that is in view
in verse 13. That's what the church is to be
like. Well -developed, equipped. Now what is
a mature church like? Further, well, he tells
us that it's being unified in the faith. He says,
until we all come to the unity of the faith.
And so a mature church is a unified fellowship.
There's not division in a mature church. If there
is division in a church, it's because that church
is immature or carnal, which is something the
same. He says, secondly, that a mature church
is one that comes to a full knowledge of the
Son of God. That is, it is a spiritual church.
It has a deep, intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ,
not a superficial one. And finally, he says in
verse 13, that a mature church is characterized
by the measure of the stature which belongs to
the fullness of Christ. which is a way of saying
that it's a transformed fellowship. That is,
it is like Jesus Christ. It reflects His likeness.
Walking into the fellowship of that church, you
are impressed that here are people who not only
know the Lord Jesus Christ, but they live like
Him. You sense that you're in His presence in
the church. That is a mature church. How does
the church get to that point? Well, we have learned
that the work of maturity is the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. He's the head. And
as the head, he's concerned about the maturity
of the body. We have learned that the means he
has provided is through individual spiritual
gifts in verse 7. And we'll talk more about those
the next time I'm with you. And the second means,
interworking with the first one, is individuals
who are themselves gifts. He mentions in verse
11 that he gives some as apostles and some as
prophets, and we said that those belonged in
the foundation part of the church. And some as
evangelists, that is, those who go out to areas
where the gospel has never been proclaimed, the
church has never been planted, and there they
win people to Christ and they plant local churches.
That is a biblical evangelist. The Lord gives
those people to the church. And then he gives
also pastor -teachers. those who are shepherds
who lead and feed and protect the flock of God.
And so the means by which the church is built
up is through individual spiritual gifts that
we all have, and then through individuals who
themselves are gifts, evangelists, church planters,
and pastor teachers, those who have that gift
of pastoring. And what is the work? The process
of maturity. Well, in verse 12, it's the equipping
of the saints. That's where it starts. Pastors,
those who have that gift and that calling, are
not intended by the Lord to be the hired men
of the church to do the ministry. We ought to
throw out the term, the ministry, as it applies
just to so -called full -time Christian workers,
because all of us are in the ministry. Those
who are called into the pastorate, into pastoral
-type ministry, and it's not just those in full
-time, by the way. There are lay people, elders,
pastor -teachers in our church who are called
and gifted by God to be pastor -teachers. Their
purpose is to equip or to furnish the saints.
The idea is to condition the saints, to start
them developing their muscles spiritually, to
feed them. Help them determine what their gift
is so that they can begin serving in the church,
and that's the next part of the process, equipping
the saints for the work of service. My job and
the job of others in our church who are gifted
at pastoring and feeding this flock, that job
is to dynamically condition you, to equip you
so that you can know where you fit. In the body
of Christ. So that you can know what God's ordained
function is for you. And you can begin serving
there. And since we've talked at length about
that before, let's go on to see what the final
step is. And that is that the body of Christ
might be built up. So that's how we get to be
a mature man, is through that process. Now today
we want to zero in on verses 14 through 16 and
talk about... The results of maturity. As more
and more individuals in a fellowship reach maturity,
the church matures. And as a church matures,
there are certain things that we can anticipate
finding in that church. These are the results
of a maturing church. Result number one. In verse
14, stability. A church that is immature, that's
still in its infant stage, is a church that will
lack stability. As a church matures, there will
be more and more stability built into it. Now
that stability is described in several phrases
in verse 14. He says, no longer children. That's
one way of saying it. The word children here
means that which does not talk. So it's talking
about infants, babies, little children. And in
the Apostle's thinking, it's the opposite of
what he's just said in verse 13 about the mature
man. It's the other end of the scale. It's the
infant. He says, as a result of maturing, we
are no longer babies. Those... who are immature.
What are babies like? Well, they're wonderful,
aren't they? Children are wonderful. Blessed
is the man who has a quiver full of them. My
quiver is full. And I'm blessed, and I am content.
Children have a lot to teach us. They are wonderful.
I wouldn't trade one of my children for anything,
of course. Neither would you. Children have so
many positive aspects. But there are some negatives
with children. Now, children would not recognize
that. But as you get older, you tend to recognize
some of the negative traits in children. What
are they? Well, it didn't take me long to think
of them. And I'll just list a few that come to
my mind. I won't tell you why. In the first place,
children, those who are immature, are self -centered.
Their whole life centers on themselves. And as
a result of that, they tend to be, sometimes
at least, ungrateful. At least I find with our
children, we have to teach them to say thank
you. Maybe yours are different. Your genes are
probably different, and they say that automatically,
but we have faulty genes in our home. And so
we have to teach gratitude. Why? Because children
are basically oriented around themselves. Furthermore,
children like to argue. And not usually over
nuclear war, although it seems sometimes like
that's going to happen in the home. But they
usually argue over non -essential, unimportant,
trivial things, right? He drank out of that glass.
I'm not going to drink out of it. That's really
important to a child. But actually they're non
-essentials. And why is that? Well, basically
because children have, because of their age,
the inability to discern what's important and
what's unimportant. They learn that as they grow
up. But when they're young, they argue over non
-essential things. And then children are characterized
by irresponsibility. You have to teach them responsibility.
You school teachers know that. Why is it that
you have homework? Why is it you check on homework?
Because you know that children don't naturally
like homework. Some more than others, but children
would rather play than work. If you've ever encouraged
your children to take music lessons, you know
what it's like to get children to practice their
music lessons. Children are known for irresponsibility.
If it's fun, it's great. If it's work, forget
it. And then children tend to be critical. They
tend to criticize instead of helping. They tend
to be part of the problem instead of part of
the solution. They say, why in the world are
you pointing out the negative traits of children?
Because we all know those anyway. Well, that
is true. But I want you to understand how they
apply spiritually. In a Christian that's immature
or in a church that is immature, what do you
find? A lot of self -centeredness and ungratefulness.
You find people arguing over trivial, non -essential
matters. You find irresponsibility, people who'd
rather play than work or who accept responsibility
and don't fulfill it. You find people who criticize
rather than help. Now it begins to take on a
little different form, doesn't it? I hope you
understand my point, folks, that as we grow up,
we're no longer children. And these negative
traits that belong to childhood are less and
less a part of what we're all about. That's true
individually. It's true as a church. A church
stabilizes as it matures. It's no longer like
children. It's like mature people. And then a
church that is stable is described further as
no longer tossed here and there by waves or like
waves. There's only actually one verb in the
original language here describing that whole
phrase. And the picture is of waves that are
tossed back and forth. It's a nautical term.
It means to be agitated like waves. This last
week we had the joy of going up to the North
Shore for three days. I found out there's a part
of Minnesota I'd never seen, and I like it a
lot. It's beautiful up there. We were along Lake
Superior as much as possible. A lot of fog there,
too, so we had to go inland some to see anything.
But we were there at the lake, and it was gorgeous
to watch those wake. I wanted to say lake waves,
and I finally did, come rolling up on the shore
and beating against those huge rocks and carving
out agates for people to look at. Beautiful.
We sat out there one night for about a half an
hour and just watched them come in. There was
a storm way off on the other side of the lake.
Gorgeous. Nice to look at, but you don't want
to be out there on the lake when things are bad.
I am told that Lake Superior is treacherous in
a storm, that it's like an ocean, and that almost
instantly the lake can become roaring with waves
that can engulf a ship. In fact, we saw the model
of the ship that went down, I think, in 1975,
the ore boat. I can't remember the name of it
just now. The Edmund Fitzgerald. Thank you. And
took the whole crew. And they think what happened
was that somehow the ship got turned the wrong
way and the waves lifted the front and the back
and there was nothing supporting it in the middle
and the heavy oar just caused a break in two.
And that's the way it lays on the bottom of Lake
Superior. Not much stability out there with those
kinds of waves. That's the picture he uses here
of immaturity. Do you know people like that?
Who spiritually or mentally are constantly agitated?
Who are restless and boiling and churning and
unsettled? Like waves being tossed back and forth.
There are churches like that. And he says that
when we grow up, we're stable. We're no longer...
tossed back and forth like waves. He goes on
to tie it together with the wind. He says, no
longer carried about in circles by every wind
of doctrine. Be carried around is the verb here.
It's the root of our word periphery or peripheral.
It's the idea of wind just carrying something
around and around in circles. You know Christians
like that? Busy, but not going anywhere. Just
around in circles. There are some churches doing
that. That's an indication of immaturity. The
apostle seems to have in mind, particularly here,
false teachers, philosophers, who were blowing
out their doctrines and their teachings in that
day, keeping the people of God just blowing back
and forth. And he says a mature church stabilizes.
It's able to take the wind. A number of years
ago when I was studying in Chicago, I went to
the top of the tallest building at that time,
which was the Prudential Building. There are
buildings now that outscale that one by far.
We were at the top of that building looking out
on the 54th story, as I recall, and I remember
how secure we felt and how quiet it looked outside
because that building is obviously quite sound.
And then suddenly, from up beneath, came this
newspaper page flying and turning in the wind.
And I was amazed at how the wind had carried
that little piece of newspaper all the way up
50 -some stories in the sky and how it was abusing
it. Well, that's the idea here. There are some
Christians who are just blown back and forth
by this person saying that or that teacher saying
this, and they don't know what the truth is.
What God wants us to be is like that prudential
building on the rock with the foundation down.
That's maturity. That's maturity. There are those
today who prey on immature believers, those who
are not so much interested in winning people
to Christ as they are taking those who are newly
converted into their particular kinds of teachings.
The apostle warns about people like that. He
calls them cunning deceivers. Interesting word,
the word trickery as it is in my translation,
is actually the word for dice playing. And it's
the idea of a person throwing the die and doing
it in a deceitful, tricky manner so as to cheat
another person. A very apt picture. He calls
them those who employ cleverly disguised, crafty
methods to deceive, to lead people astray from
the truth into error. That's his thought here.
Satan seeks to hinder spiritual growth in any
means that he can. And one of them is just what
we're talking about. He seeks to lead people
into error and hopefully into condemnation. There
are today, I think, some schemes that are around
that Christians have to watch out for, some winds
of teaching and doctrine that can upset and agitate
and cause people to be unstable and unsettled.
There is the idea of some that we need to adopt
the world's philosophies and standards, that
instead of confronting the world, we should accommodate
with the world and compromise with the world
system that is opposed to God. There are some
who feel very comfortable using the term Christian
humanists, a term which I would disavow. I would
not mind Christian humanitarians. That may connote
something decent. But the term of humanism or
humanist today is a term that is descriptive
of what the world system is all about, that which
is opposed to God, which seeks to secularize
everything, to remove God from society. That
ought not to describe anyone who's a Christian.
And yet there are those who try to mix Christianity
and humanism in some kind of a vague philosophy
or theology. Then there are those who pick up
another wind of doctrine that says that you can
achieve instant maturity through some deeper
or higher experience. Maybe it's getting more
of God or it's receiving something from the Holy
Spirit. But there's some way to take a quantum
leap from this level to that level just like
that. And what you need to do is have that experience
and you'll be there suddenly. That keeps people
from biblical maturity, genuine maturity. Then
there are the various cultic kinds of teachings
around. There's this warmed -over appealism,
as I call it, the power of positive thinking
that is being espoused today by some, which defines
salvation as achieving self -esteem and hell
as living and not having self -esteem. It's a
psychological kind of salvation. And so around
us today there are myriad and sundry of teachings
that are being blown across the church. By teacher
after teacher. And those who are immature are
caught up in all of that. A stable church is
a mature church. A stable Christian is a mature
Christian. Maturity makes one less susceptible
to the religious fads that come down the highway.
Maturity makes one less susceptible to be taken
in by the hucksters of various heretical or false
teachings. that are being blown about in the
church. Folks, we need to grow up. And one of
the results of that is that we will become stable.
A second result is that of honesty. Verse 15,
the first phrase especially, but speaking the
truth in love. The original language actually
says here, truthing it. The word speak is not
found in verse 15. Although it says, Speaking
the truth, or it could be translated truth speaking,
the idea is dealing truthfully. It's not just
speech, but it's being true in the widest sense.
He's talking here about a person or a church
that has integrity, that has balance, that is
healthy in character. That is a result of spiritual
maturity. And I've simply condensed it to the
word honesty. He intends for honesty to be lived
out in every part of life and for it to be lived
in the sphere of love. It has been said many
times that truth without love is brutality. Love
without truth is hypocrisy. Truth with love,
though, is integrity. And that's what he's talking
about here. Truth can be cruel. and so it must
be conditioned by love, not changed by it, not
compromised by it, but conditioned by love. Truth
needs to be positioned or stated so that it accomplishes
the glory of God. There are some who would use
truth as a whip rather than as medicine. I think
that there are some contemporary errors. in thinking
regarding honesty. There are those who say that
we ought not to confront anyone because to confront
people is unloving. But what kind of a definition
of love is that? It's certainly superficial or
immature. It's false. You see, real love is tough
love, as Dobson has pointed out in a recent book.
It is love which seeks to help and to heal. It
seeks the good of another. And so to say that
you should never tell anybody the truth if it's
going to hurt them is a lie. Sometimes people
are hurt when they hear the truth. But if we
say it in love, the truth can be a medicine,
not an infection. It's a mark of maturity to
be able to confront someone else in love. to
do it wisely. I remember reading a copy of a
letter that one Christian leader wrote to another
Christian leader about a concern the former had
in the latter's ministry. In his letter, he expressed
clearly, very clearly, his concern. The way I
close the letter, according to Proverbs 27 .6,
which says in part, faithful are the wounds of
a friend. The verse goes on to say that the kisses
of an enemy are deceitful. Thank God for those
friends who love us enough to be truthful with
us lovingly. We all need those kinds of friends,
and we need to be that kind of a friend to others.
That's truthing it, and it's a mark of maturity.
I think there's another error that we find today.
and that is that honesty demands that you let
it all hang out. You never hold anything back.
Actually, if one is going to truth it in love,
there are times when it is best to withhold the
full truth if it would damage unnecessarily another
person. Let me illustrate what I mean. For example,
in the matter of church discipline. Church discipline
has as its furthest point, its most extreme point,
the public dismissal of an individual from the
fellowship of a church. Now, it's possible at
that time to go into the whole laundry list of
problems, to air it all, let it all hang out,
be honest, and in so doing, be cruel. to the
person who's being disciplined and make it impossible
for that person to be restored, which is the
actual purpose of church discipline. And so what
do you do? You say only what is necessary to
be said at the moment of discipline. You truth
it in love. You condition the truth in love.
I think that's one of the mistakes that the church
in Oklahoma made when it disciplined the lady
a few months ago and had the lawsuit filed and
the... lady was awarded money i think the church
said more than it needed to say i think we can
illustrate this as well by a question that is
sometimes asked by a husband the question is
should i tell my wife everything that happened
before i was married after all i should be honest
shouldn't i should i tell her everything, let
it all hang out. My counsel in that situation
is no. I don't believe everything should hang
out in that case because it can only hurt. A
wise wife won't push that. A wise husband will
be cautious and tell the truth but condition
it with love and concern for his wife. There's
a time for honesty with love to expose. There's
a time for honesty with love to cover. Should
one tell a critically ill parent, for example,
that his child has just been killed in an accident,
knowing that that news may well cause the death
of the parent, because of the critical nature
of the illness? Or do you withhold that news
until some point further on? Is that dishonesty?
We would like to think that all of these were
black and white, that there were easy answers
to some of these things. There's not always an
easy answer. Honesty with love. Is withholding
the truth the same as lying? We say, of course
it is. Well, before you answer that too carefully.
What about you're going to a meeting that is
confidential and you come home and your mate
says, well, what happened? Now, if you don't
tell her everything, are you lying? Maybe there
are some things that are fine to share. I run
into this, for example, with the elders meeting.
The elders meeting is a confidential meeting.
Not that everything there is confidential, but
we just go in with that understanding. And there
are some things I can go home and share with
my wife, but I don't tell her everything that's
said there. And I don't for several reasons,
but one of them, and it's not that she's not
trustworthy, but one of the reasons that I don't
share with her is that I don't want to make her
responsible for information she doesn't have
to be responsible for. I think that's unfair
to her. So do you understand how much we need
to grapple with this idea of truthing it in love?
Now, an immature person is not able to do that.
An immature church can't handle it. But as we
grow up, one of the results is that we can begin
to understand how we truth it in love. That's
what he's talking about here. We're honest, lovingly.
A church is mature when relationships among its
members are on an honest level, and yet those
relationships are generously lubricated with
love. Warren Wiersbe stated in his book on Ephesians,
Truth unites, but lies divide. Truth needs to
be the characteristic of our fellowship, folks.
Honesty, but honesty in love. And to put the
shoe on the other foot, I started to say the
foot on the other shoe and that would be tough.
To say it a different way, maturity is also evidenced
when I don't need to know everything. When I
can be satisfied with what I know or what I am
told and I can leave it at that. When I can be
satisfied by saying it's only necessary for me
to know this much to do my job. That's fine.
We could apply this in so many ways, but we have
to go on. The results of maturity in a church,
stability and honesty with love. Now, number
three, vitality. We see this in verse, well,
the last part of verse 15 and verse 16. He says
we're to grow up in all aspects into him. who
is the head, even Christ. And so the picture
continues to be the body, the church, and the
head, Christ. He says, from whom the whole body
causes the growth of the body for the building
up of itself in love. I left out some of verse
16 for purpose, just to clarify the thought.
A mature church produces a vital atmosphere.
There is a certain dynamic that is in a mature
church. which you do not find in a carnal or
immature church. Now there are three statements
that I want to make regarding what he says in
verses 15 and 16. A vital church or body is one
which develops a conscious intimacy with Jesus
Christ as its head. He says, from whom the whole
body. The idea is that my head is Jesus Christ
and I receive from him all that I need. I am
aware of my union with Him, and I am ever following
after Him as my head. It includes the idea that
there is no area of our ministry, there is no
area of my life which is not under His control.
He is directly involved with me because He is
my Lord, my head. A mature church is a vital
church, and it's characterized by that. People
who are consciously aware of Jesus Christ in
their life. A church which is intimately aware
of Him as the source of everything. It's so easy
for us to go on doing things in our wisdom and
our strength, and what we think is right or what
we think is wrong. What we need to learn more
and more to do is to say, Lord, what do you say?
I think the most important thing we can do in
a business meeting or an elders meeting is take
the word of God there and say, now, what does
the word of God say about this? Because Jesus
Christ is our head and this, my dear friends,
is how he communicates with us through his word.
I like what Bonar wrote. So shall no part of
day or night from sacredness be free, but all
my life in every step be fellowship with thee.
The Apostle Paul said it a different way in Philippians
1 .21. He said, For to me, living is Christ.
That's what life is all about. It's not getting
this. It's not earning that much. It's not going
there. It's not doing this. It's just Jesus Christ.
And whatever he brings to me, that's fine. Whatever
he withholds from me, that's fine. A vital church,
a vital body, is one in which the individual
members each function properly. That's the second
thought. He says the whole body finds its source
in Christ, and it's fitted and held together
by that which every joint supplies, according
to the proper working of each individual part.
It is Jesus Christ who puts us into his body
just at the point he wants us to be with a function
and gifts to accomplish that function. And now
as I grow up, as I mature, I begin to function
and do my thing within the body. It is important
for every one of us to find that function. that
role that God has given us, to develop those
abilities that we have, those God -given gifts,
and employ them in the ministry as the Lord leads
us. A vital church is one which does that. It's
an evidence of maturity. When the people are
a ministering people, when they don't just come
to be preached to, but they come to share in
and to go out to serve. And a third statement
that we need to make, found here in verse 16,
is this, that a vital church or body is one that
is built up continually in love. Within the fellowship
of the church, there is an ever -increasing love
and appreciation and acceptance of other people,
even people who differ from us, people who feel...
than we do, or who look differently than we do,
or who act differently or talk differently than
we do. There is a loving acceptance that grows
with maturity. Furthermore, there's a loving
service to other people, doing what we can to
help them, even though we may receive nothing
in return. And as a church grows in love this
way and is built up continuously as it matures,
then there are people on the outside. who are
not Christians, who look in and they say, my,
what is this all about? I've never seen anything
like this. The life, the vitality in this place.
And what happens? They come out of curiosity,
perhaps, to see what's happening. They come to
understand their need of Christ because of the
life they see around them. They say, I want that.
They trust Christ. And then they're added to
the body. And they begin to grow. and to be equipped
and to serve and to be matured. And as they are
matured, then they are vital, living, a part
of the church. And folks who are still on the
outside look in and they see them. And you see
how that mushrooms, how it grows? That's God's
plan. That's what the living body is all about.
A healthy, mature church is one that is characterized
by vitality. There's life in it, and it's membership.
I wonder, as we close, as God looks at me today,
and as God looks at you as a member of the body,
maybe not this one, maybe that one back in North
Carolina where some of you are from that I met
this morning, or in Alabama, or in Michigan.
In that body where you are by God's design, how
are you plugged in? Are you doing your thing
there, that God -designed function that he's
given you? Are you using your gifts, or are you
on the edge, just kind of sitting watching what's
going on around you? Please, please know that
God's plan is for every member. to be a vital
part of the body, for the body to function in
a healthy, balanced, stable, vital way, for people
to be saved and added to the body and for it
to grow. That is biblical church growth. And
each of us has a part in it. For us to do our
thing, for us to have fruit, In accomplishing
our function in the body, God has to have his
way in our life. And I wonder as we search our
hearts today, is he really the Lord? Is he the
head? Now, he is the head positionally, but in
practice. I mean, in the decisions that you make,
in what you're going to do this week, in how
you treat people, your wife, your children, your
coworkers, is he really your head? Can people
look at you and say, now that's how Jesus would
live? Well, if he's having his way in our lives,
then the answer can be yes to some degree. Let's
pray. Lord Jesus, show us afresh that you're
all that we need. It is so easy for us to get
caught up in non -essentials. It is so simple
for us to be sidetracked into things that are
unimportant. We tend to find our joy and fulfillment
in things that are peripheral, maybe even ungodly.
Show us afresh today how much you are the source
of everything that we are. And remind us that
we're not our own, but that we're yours. And
because you are Lord, you deserve to have your
way in our lives. Have your way today. And bring
those areas of resistance and rebellion or those
areas of laziness and lack of discipline under
control, your control. In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.