Use The Gift Given to You - Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Ephesians Series)

Ephesians chapter four verse seven. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean but he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? He who descended is the one who also e ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things.

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry, for building up the body of Christ 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, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in 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 which is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Let's pray. Father, we are continuing in the book of Ephesians, and you've been guiding us so faithfully. And as we come to this text that has so much in it, we pray for a special grace.

A grace to understand, a clarity of speech, or precision and understanding. We pray for hearts to be transformed, minds to be renewed, application to be received. We pray Lord that the presence and power of the Holy Spirit would be amongst us. That though this is something where we take our time with concerning certain terminologies and definitions that need to be clarified, we pray nevertheless that your power would be here. And so we yield to you.

We submit to the authority of the word, not what we grew up with, not what we think the Bible says, but Lord, we ask for the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Jesus Christ through this text, this Sunday morning, to the glory and for the glory of his name. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Sunday after Sunday as we are continuing in this book and as we just come together under the preaching of God's word, there are sometimes where a text requires a different delivery.

And so there are sometimes where a text might be something where it is encouraged to declare or to proclaim, maybe taking one or two certain truths and to really pound those truths into our hearts so that we can leave here encouraged and exhorted towards those truths. But there are other times where there is such a dense understanding, a a content that is presented that is very thick that requires more of a teaching delivery. And that teaching delivery looks more like pausing on certain words, pausing on certain definitions so that we can explain. Because if we don't do that with a text like this, what's gonna happen is people are gonna leave here with more questions than answers. And that's not the purpose of preaching or teaching.

Preaching and teaching gives clarity, and sometimes you have to change or switch gears in order for that clarity to be presented. And that's one of those Sunday mornings where it's gonna be less preaching, more teaching, but to the benefit of all of us so that we would all leave here with clarity. Now if you've been following that with us the past few weeks, we've been exploring this book and we've come to chapter four. And we know last week there was a snowstorm, so there were quite a few people missing concerning how we started chapter four, which is a crucial turning point to the book of Ephesians. Chapter one, two, and three is emphasizing theological truths and principles concerning the doctrine of our faith and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But when we come to chapter four, Paul, the instrument of the Holy Spirit, now goes into a different direction where he takes these truths and he makes them practical into the Christian life. And he uses this wonderful word that we use all the time. It's called therefore. Verse one of Ephesians four, he says, therefore, meaning what? All the things that we've learned from one, two, and three should produce a therefore in your life.

You should come to a place in which you have to make a decision based on the gospel, based on what you've heard your whole life, based on what you've been hearing the past few weeks. And that therefore has two different directions. Either you're gonna say, therefore, I submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. I say yes to his grace and I will continue to walk with him. Or you say, therefore, I'm going to live my own life.

I'm gonna attain my own righteousness. I'm not gonna submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. I'm gonna do this my way because it's my life. There's no middle ground. And so let's just start this way.

Have you made a therefore decision based on the gospel of Jesus Christ? There's some new faces here this morning. This is important to understand right off the get go. Have you made a therefore decision in your life? It's safe to assume that many people in here grew up in the church.

And you can grow up in the church and be so deceived thinking that because you hear the truths of God because mommy and daddy are Christians that you're just gonna inherit eternal life. No. You gotta make a therefore decision. You gotta come to terms with the truths of this book, the sacred text, what you've been hearing week after week, even as a young person, and say to say to yourself, I'm going to make a choice. Here's my life.

Or I'm gonna make a choice, I reject eternal life. So what have you done? Because based on that decision, the rest of this scripture is gonna either make sense to you or it's not gonna apply at all. And if you think you're young and that you have time to make that therefore decision, you do not determine when death will swallow you up like a vacuum in a moment. I would encourage you strongly that through this teaching, if you don't know if Jesus Christ is Lord, you cry out to God and you have every right to leave this place, get on your face before God, and say, Lord, I don't wanna leave this house before I know for certain that I have eternal life and have that blessed assurance.

Because guess what? You don't know if you're gonna go to your house this morning. You don't know if you're gonna reach your front door. Oh, you think because you have your day planned out with your family that you have assurance of the next day. You don't have that.

That's not the point of this message this morning, but it's a good reminder. The Holy Spirit, from that therefore, continues to encourage us concerning the unity of the church. That there are these four ingredients that are necessary for the church to be unified. It's humility. It's gentleness.

It's patience. It's bearing with one another in love. And so we talked about that last week, but now the Lord wants to go into a different direction. He's going to transition from the necessity for unity in the church to the required activity within the church. So we talked about the necessity for unity, but now Paul, by the Holy Spirit, is gonna go into the required activity within the unified church.

And what is that activity? Well, we can sum it up in this, that the activity that the Holy Spirit wants, that God wants in his church, is that in the unified church, there would be a diverse expression of individual gifts being expressed. So within the unity of the church, there would be a diversity of specific gifts that would be experienced within the church. And And that's what he says here in verse seven. But each but grace rather was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.

What is he saying there? This is what he's saying, that each person in here, each person has been gifted by Christ. Every single believer in Jesus Christ has received a specific grace. Now when we think grace, what do we think of? Salvation.

But this is a different type of grace. This grace has not something to do with salvation, this grace has to do something with service. It's a grace that relates to you and I serving Jesus Christ in ministry. How do we know that? Well, one, the context tells us that.

But two, Paul uses this understanding of grace back in Ephesians three eight. Look in your Bibles and realize what he says in Ephesians three eight. To me, Paul says, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given. Now he's not talking about salvation. What grace was given?

To preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And so once again, this grace is something that deals with not justification found in Christ. This grace has to deal with service to the Lord Jesus Christ. So why is it termed as grace? Because none of us deserve to serve the kingdom of God.

None of us in here have anything worthy within us to serve the king of kings. We're not we're not worthy to be saved. We're wretched sinners, but he saves us. But on top of that, none of us that would be glorious on its own, would it not? We all have eternal life.

Praise be to his name. But he goes, no. I want to give you a different type of grace. I want to now recruit you in my kingdom and use you for my glory. And there's a beautiful picture of this in first Samuel 22.

David finds himself in this cave, and we talked about this cave before, how David was in this cave called Adam fleeing from King Saul. But there's this interesting insight that displays a wonderful gospel truth and it's found in first Samuel 22 verse two. Look what it says here. And everyone who was in distress, and everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was bitter in soul gathered to him. And he became commander over them, and there with him about 400 men.

So here's David isolated in a cave running from King Saul. But over time, 400 men come into the cave and they're described specifically, bitter in Saul, in debt, distressed. And what happens? David makes them and becomes commander over them. That's a picture of the gospel.

Look at the description of these men who are under the reign of Saul, the wicked king, And they've realized within themselves, I'm distressed. I'm bitter. I don't wanna live under this reign anymore. I don't wanna be a servant of Saul. Give me the son of David.

I want him to be the king of my life. I want him to rule over my days. I wanna serve his purposes and his kingdom. And so I'm gonna come in my condition, my brokenness, my bitterness, the bankruptcy of my life. And David here accepts them just as they are, just like Jesus Christ.

He takes us in in that condition. But you and I have to make a choice, and many of us in here have, where you realize in life, I'm sick of living for the devil. What fruit are you getting from the works of the flesh? Paul told the Romans in Romans six twenty one, what fruit were you getting at the time of the things of which you were now ashamed? What was he saying there?

He's saying, just think back about your life before Christ. Now think about the things that you invested in and ask yourself, what was the result of those things? What were the things that were coming out of the decisions that you were making outside of Christ when you were living for self? Did you have fun? Yeah?

What about when you laid your head on your pillow at night, when you were thinking about why you exist? Do you remember that? How are those drugs treating you? You get a little high, You get a little buzz? What about the fact that you are poisoning yourself and robbing yourself of life?

How's that party scene treating you? Fun? Good? What fruit were you getting? And these men came to that realization under the reign of Saul.

I'm tired of living this way. There's gotta be more than this. There has to be this peace. There has to be this assurance. There has to be a righteous judge who is holy.

I wanna live for that king. And so they go, and he receives them. But it doesn't end there because these 400 men that came to him in this condition did not remain in that condition. When you follow this story all the way to second Samuel, near the end of the book, it says in twenty three eight, now these are the names of the mighty men whom David had. Those men in first Samuel 22 did not stay in that condition.

They became mighty men for David. And so it is with those in Christ that we come in a certain way. But as we remain faithful to him, he is faithful to us. And he transforms you into a mighty man, a mighty woman of God. He saves us.

Yes. But you know what else he does? He puts a sword in your hand. He says, go fight the kingdom of darkness. He saves you, but he gives you an assignment.

He saves you and he says, go do great exploits for my name. How can you be bored in your faith? We're gonna get to that in a moment. He recruits them and he equips them. He gifts them and he sends them, and and Paul wants them to understand, each one of you has received a gift.

If you're a believer in Jesus Christ, a part of the gospel package is this, God has gifted you specifically. Now one may receive one gift, another may receive multiple gifts, but not one person is not gifted. A gift is more than ability. A gift is more than a talent. A gift is something that is deposited within you for the specific purpose of serving the church of Jesus Christ.

First Corinthians twelve seven says this, to each is given the manifestation of the spirit for what? For the common good. To who? To some? To those who went to Bible college?

No. To each is given the manifestation of the spirit. For what? The common good of the body. For the common good of those around you in life.

And he backs this statement up by going to the Old Testament and pulling out a prophetic text. Look at here what it says here in verse eight. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. Now he's quoting Psalm sixty eight eighteen, and he's switching it up a little bit because you'll realize that if you go to Psalm sixty eight eighteen, it's not the same. He's switching it up a little bit so he can cater to this truth.

And what this psalm is talking about in the prophetic way, it's speaking about the ascension of Jesus Christ, specifically the ascension. The resurrection was one thing, but the ascension, Jesus ascending on high, is a different thing. And this prophecy tells us what happened when Jesus ascended on high. Two things happened. Number one, he led a host of captives.

And number two, he gave gifts to men. Now this would have been very familiar to the ears of the people of this day, in Paul's day. When there was a Roman army general who conquered over an enemy, he and his army would celebrate that victory in a specific way. This Roman general would come in a chariot, followed by his soldiers, parading through the city streets as the people come and celebrate the victory. But there's one added detail.

Following the soldiers are a host of captives. Those that they went to war with and those that remained alive, they've taken. Kings and governors and all these officials and civilians would come in humiliating fashion, parading through the city. And here are all the citizens celebrating and shouting over the fact that they have the victory, that their enemy cannot harass them anymore, that the enemy cannot make them fear about their lives anymore. And this is what he's saying here about Jesus Christ.

That Jesus Christ, through the cross, though Satan and his demons thought that they had victory at his death, in fact, were vanquished by the power of his death and burial and resurrection. And what happens is when he ascended, he was that general. He is the captain of our of our salvation. And when he ascended, what did he do? He displayed to the entire universe by exposing the enemy of his defeat.

Every demon in hell, every minion of Satan was exposed and shamed through the ascension of Jesus Christ. And we as his people celebrate that truth that the enemy has been disarmed, that the enemy is no longer a threat to you and me, that he cannot rob us of our salvation. In fact, if you're in Christ, he is threatened by the authority that Christ gave you. And this is echoed in Colossians two fifteen, just in case anybody would doubt that wonderful glorious truth. He, being Jesus, disarm the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him.

He exposed them. He embarrassed them. They thought that they had wisdom. Satan thought the prince of darkness thought that he had this world in his hand. He thought that he had authority over death, and Jesus comes, yes, conquers through his death and resurrection, but in his ascension, he shows off and embarrasses our enemy.

And we receive the benefit. And we rejoice. Not just then, we continue to celebrate that fact. So he led a host of captives. Not only that, he gave gifts to men.

He gave gifts to men. The understanding is that when Jesus ascended, he promised that when I go, I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna send the Holy Spirit a comforter, one like me. And the ministry of the Holy Spirit is so vast, so glorious. And one of those things that's that the Holy Spirit gifts the church.

And so think about this. When Jesus dies and he resurrects, what does he do? He grants us the gift of salvation. He says, salvation is now yours. Salvation is now available to you.

But not only that, he has other gifts. Now he says, here are gifts for you as believers in Christ so that you would be equipped in this life to go and fight against the kingdom of darkness, to be strengthened in your walk, and to maintain and sustain the purity of the bride of Christ. And so again, we we come back to this truth of the book of Ephesians where we are overwhelmed by blessings. We are just showered upon by the grace of God. And he says, this grace is available to you.

Not just salvation, but the opportunity to serve me in a specific way. And if you are hearing this, you're probably at the edge of your seat wondering, I wanna know what my gift is. If this is a truth for me, then I wanna know beyond salvation what I've been graced with. How do I identify my gift? How do I know what my purpose is in the church?

Show me. Reveal it to me. And Paul, it seems as though it would be natural for him to do so, but he doesn't go there. The list of gifts are given in Romans twelve and first Corinthians 12, and that's for another time. But what he does do though, what he really wants to teach, what the Holy Spirit really wants to reveal to you and me, is a specific arena of gifts that have been given to the church.

And it's the gifts that surround the leadership of the church. And this is very important for us to understand because it involves how the church should operate and how the church should be active and what should be a part of the universal and local church. And so he begins to list those gifts. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers. I like the King James version where it says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some teachers and some pastors.

And so these are spiritual leadership gifts that are given to some. Meaning what? That's important because it says he gave, not people chose or people produce that gift within themselves. He gave. So when somebody gets saved, there are some where Jesus says, you're going to be a pastor.

I'm gonna deposit within you the gift, the spiritual leadership gift of evangelism. I'm gonna put it within you to be a teacher, and there are some who have a blend of those gifts. And the local church, in time, recognizes those gifts in men and lays hands on them over time when they've proven themselves in their character and different things and they are elevated to those positions. And so it's this is where we now we slow down, we put the brakes on a little bit, and we go, okay. We can we can talk about this briefly or we can dig in to find out what these things mean.

And this is where we want answers and not questions leaving this place this morning. And so here's the first question. What's an apostle? What's a prophet? What exactly is an evangelist?

What is a pastor teacher? What is their role? Well, let's talk about it. First thing on the list is apostle. And we have to understand that the word apostle could be understood in a narrow sense and in a broad sense.

And so this is worth taking notes on if you have the ability to. There is a capital a apostle and a lowercase a apostle found in the scriptures. So let's talk about the capital a apostle. This position that's been given to the church is a unique unrepeatable gift or office that cannot be seen again today. Why is that the case?

Because those apostles are regarding the 12 that Jesus chose himself. And they'd be given a level of authority that can never ever ever reappear again. And so that apostle, that understanding of apostle, there are certain qualifications that fit that position, which gives great reason why it can't be repeated today. Number one, an apostle was handpicked by Jesus Christ himself. And so Jesus Christ chose 12 apostles and they were just not they're not regular understanding of apostles lowercase.

No. No. No. These apostles were the elite apostles. In Matthew, we we see Jesus talking about how these apostles will sit on 12 thrones and judge the nations of Israel and the tribes of Israel, the end times.

We go to Revelation 21, it says that the names of these apostles will be written on the foundations of the new Jerusalem. That can't be repeated again. And so these were handpicked specific apostles that have been given an authority to write the doctrines of the church at the same level of the prophets of the Old Testament. And we see that. That's why we have this scripture.

Peter recognized that that of Paul's writings. He called it scriptures. And so they've been given that specific now not all the apostles wrote scripture, but that was a part of their assignment for some of them up for some of the apostles. Not only that, a second understanding, the qualification for this type of apostle is that they have to be eyewitnesses of the physical resurrected Jesus Christ. Do you remember when they were trying to find a replacement for Judas?

And it says there in Acts, it talks about how it had to have been somebody who was there with them the whole time and one who had seen him in his resurrected state so that they could go out as apostles, us sent out once, to say, we actually saw him. We actually saw him. Peter uses this in his argument. He says, we were there on the Holy Mount. We saw him being transfigured.

We walked with Jesus. We heard Jesus. We've seen him do miracles. We've seen him and heard him teach us after he resurrected. So if anybody in this world ever claims I am an apostle with a capital a, big question mark.

And if we're not convinced of those qualifications, this one nails the coffin. What? Ephesians three twenty. What does it say in Ephesians three twenty? Excuse me.

Two twenty. That the church is built on the foundation. The church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. So what do we understand there that, again, the church is not some random entity. No.

We have been something that's been growing out of the foundational teachings of the apostles and prophets. That foundation has already been laid. We're not working on that foundation still today. That foundation has been set and we don't build on that foundation in a sense where we change things. It's there.

The church has the scriptures. We have the full understanding of the word of God and now we just go from there. And that's been laid by the apostles and prophets. So that's we understand that. But then as you read the New Testament carefully, you might have noticed that this term apostle has been referenced to certain individuals that don't necessarily fit these qualifications.

Here's some examples in Acts fourteen fourteen. What does the Bible say? But when the apostles, plural, who? Barnabas. Barnabas and Paul heard of it.

They were they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd crying out. So Barnabas is referenced to as an apostle. Barnabas does not fit those qualifications per se. It's not just Barnabas, it's in Philippians two twenty five. I've thought it necessary to send to you a path for Phrydis, my brother, my fellow worker and fellow soldier and your messenger and minister to my need.

So this gentleman that's referenced to a couple times is known as a messenger. And we say, well, where's the word apostle? In the original language, messenger is apostle. So we have two figures here, at least two and there are others, that are given this title. And if we just look at the original word apostle, it simply means one who is sent out or one who is a messenger.

And so how do we define apostle in the lower case sense? In the in the sense in which we see it referred to here as these two individuals and others? It's not easy. It's not easy. We're not too sure how to give a concrete definition to what an apostle is.

Not the 12, but the gifting here presented. And I personally believe that, and others would agree, that an apostle could be known as and fits the characteristics of a missionary. A missionary. One who is sent out to a place where the gospel has not been preached, who builds churches and finds people to facilitate those churches. And some would argue, though they would not claim this title on themselves, to have the apostolic gifting.

Meaning, maybe there is somebody who's and you've read a story or testimony of somebody who's gone to the jungles of Africa and planted like 54 churches in two years with pastors and leaders in those places. Some would say that is the gifting of an apostle. Remember, not in the 12 sense, in this sense here. And this is important for us to understand. Because we see it in scripture, we gotta deal with it.

We have to see and say, okay, what do we do with this? What do we do with this? Now here's a strong word of caution. To avoid confusion and to avoid suspicion, it's probably not recommended that you walk around bearing the name apostle. It's probably a better idea to just serve in whatever that ministry looks like and take whatever title that is common just to avoid any question marks, just to avoid any false assumptions that perhaps this individual is trying to get up there with the 12.

Word of caution. This is not about titles. This is about you serving. This is about you doing what God called you to do. Doesn't end there though.

There's another gift and it's called the prophet. The prophet. And the prophet as well has this narrow understanding and this broad understanding. The narrow understanding is back in Ephesians two twenty. That the foundation of the church is what?

Built upon the apostles and prophets. And so the New Testament church at this time did not have what you and I have, what is we call the Bible. The full scripture, the full counsel of God, the canon, the the sealed word. They didn't have that. And so both apostles and prophets, specifically prophets, received inspiration from God to give out certain truths and doctrines relating to the Christian faith.

And so that's simple. Nobody walks around calling themselves a prophet with the idea that they can say things or write things with the same authority that these men had in Ephesians. Red flag. Red flag. But what do we do with this word used in the broader sense?

Let me just read some verses just in case you're not convinced that the New Testament uses this word concerning individuals in a specific type of way. Acts thirteen one. Now were there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers. Now there were in the church prophets and teachers. Acts thirteen one.

Acts fifteen thirty two. And Judas and Silas, who were themselves prophets. What were they? Prophets. Who are these guys, Judas?

We don't know really, except that they're prophets. Encourage and strengthen the brothers with many words. Acts twenty one twenty. While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea. K.

So we see in the book of Acts that there are people who have given been given this name prophet, this title prophet. In Ephesians four, we see that Jesus Christ gifted the church with apostles and prophets. So what's the difference between a prophet and these other positions that we see? Well, the bible tells us. If you just go and see these men that were mentioned and see how they operated in their gifting with their title, we have an idea.

Go back to Acts thirteen one. What does it say? It says that there were in Antioch certain prophets and teachers. And what did they do? Verse two, while they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called him.

So we all know that and we use that in prayer all the time. We say, Lord, speak to us. Lord, if there's anything that you want to impress on our hearts, reveal that to us. And in Acts 13, all it says is the Holy Spirit said. So what happened?

Were they all worshiping and fasting on Wednesday night prayer and God spoke with an audible voice? Did they all hear this booming voice saying, set apart from me, Saul no. Some would say that. But I believe when you connect verse one with verse two, it's probably God speaking through one of these men who were prophets. When you go back to Agabus in Acts twenty one eleven, Agabus, this man who was known as a prophet, it says in verse 11, and coming to us, he took Paul's belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, thus says the Holy Spirit, this is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into hands of the Gentiles.

Okay. We see that. No time to go into first Corinthians twelve, thirteen, 14. But just based on the people in the New Testament that were referred to as prophets and the activity that we see them moving in, we can come with this definition of what the gift of the prophet is concerning the spiritual leadership of the church. And I'm just gonna read it so I don't butcher it.

The prophet carries the ability to declare a message or give a report to others with the purpose of edification, encouraging, confirming, consoling, or guiding. This is the important part, by spontaneous revelation of the Holy Spirit given by him. It is a revealed truth prompted by God that deals with a church or an individual's walk with the Lord in a very specific and personalized way. So what does it look like in simple terms? This is what it looks like for somebody according to this word.

Not my opinion, not what I what I grew up with, not with what I'm comfortable with, according to the word of God. A person in the New Testament was referred to as a prophet, with somebody who had the ability to sense and have something come to mind by the Holy Spirit for the sake of others and their benefit and their encouragement and their building up in a very personalized way. Something that was revealed to a person for another person that would not have been known otherwise. And not just for an individual, but we see even here in Antioch for a church. And I am not here this morning to debate how that gift operates today.

That's not the purpose this morning. I'm just giving you what the definition of it is. And there is a cautious warning for this as well, that many people bear this title and are making disasters in the name of Christ, are robbing people and convincing the naive and tricking them for their own gain. Be very careful and discerning. Even in this sense, the prophet who had this ability, their word did not come with the same level of authority as the scriptures.

It did not come with the same authority as the Bible. In fact, those who heard it were instructed, according to first Thessalonians in different places, to discern what is being said through the scriptures. And not just through the scriptures, with wisdom to say, okay, to judge what's being said even if it sounds good. The prophet. There's an end there.

There's the evangelist. The evangelist. Now evangelist simply means the bearer of good tidings, one who has good news. And this is what an evangelist is specifically doing here. The evangelist has one goal, to reach the lost.

The evangelist has this impression on their hearts, has this burden, and has the ability to communicate the truth of the gospel to people who do not know the gospel. The evangelist is not concerned about teaching as much. The evangelist is not concerned about knowing how the people of God are doing in a local church and doing visitations and checking up on them. No. He's saying we got to get out there.

We got to reach the lost. We got to preach the gospel. And what does he do? He brings these souls in and he gives them to the pastor and says, here you go. I'm going back to work.

That's what the evangelist does. And we might be thinking to ourselves, well, I thought this gift was for the body not for the lost. How does the evangelist edify the church? How does it build up the church? Well, two ways.

One, he adds people to the church. The evangelist has been given to bring souls in. And guess what? When we see souls saved, is that not edifying? Praise God.

And so people have that gift. They have that desire. They're usually the ones fidgeting church saying, okay. You've been teaching for a long time. Can we go preach the gospel?

Those are the evangelists. And secondly, the evangelist in some sense has the ability to teach other believers in Christ how to evangelize. So an evangelist could take the people of God with them and say, let's hit the streets and let's do this. And And while everybody is shaking and on the on the on the verge of passing out, the evangelist is calm and collected and just showing them how to tell people about Jesus. This is the role of an evangelist.

And then the next part is pastors and teachers. But some would group the pastor teacher together. Some would group them as one. Because for one to be a pastor, one also has to teach the word of God. But some would not.

Some would say, well, here's a pastor and the pastor would focus on the well-being of the church. He would check up on them and their walk with the Lord. He would come and just counsel and hear them out while there are teaching pastors within the church and their main focus is to take the word of God every week and to expound upon the scriptures. And so for our sake, we're just gonna group these guys as one, the pastors and teachers. And what is the pastor?

What is the teacher? What is the responsibility concerning their activity within the church? It's simple. The main goal of a pastor, and this is important whether you're part of this local church or any local church, this is important to understand. The main goal of a pastor and teacher is to feed the flock and to protect the flock.

To feed the flock and to protect the flock that God has entrusted to them. So he's the mirror of the evangelist. The evangelist is concerned about going out, the pastor is concerned about those who are within. And we have to understand that Timothy has been instructed to do the work of an evangelist. So it's not that the pastor is not concerned about the lost, but his main attention and his energy is given for the well-being, the growth of the people that are under his authority.

When Paul was speaking in Acts twenty twenty eight concerning the people, the elders of Ephesus, look what he said to them. He says, pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock. So pastor, what does a pastor have to do? Number one, pay attention to yourself. He told Timothy to watch yourself and your doctrine closely.

Persist in this, for by doing so, you will save both yourself and your hearers. So the pastor has to check on himself. He has to make sure that he is interpreting the scriptures carefully. He has to laboriously give himself to digging up the word of God and making sure that he is delivering sound teaching to his people. He has to also watch himself in the sense of his character.

He has to watch himself in the way he speaks, how he interacts, how he walks in wisdom, what he does outside of the church. That's why in first Peter five three, he says, be an example to the flock. So the pastor doesn't do this. The pastor doesn't just come up and give a message and divorce himself from associating with his people. Why?

Because the people need an example to follow. The people need a a standard. They need to see somebody living out what they're preaching. And so pastors need to live a life worth imitating. Listen.

If you're a pastor and you're not passionate about the truth, your sheep are not gonna be passionate about the truth. If you're telling your sheep to pray and you don't pray, if you're telling to get serious about the word of God and you're not studying the word of God, you're dishing out things that are are just shallow, borderline self help stuff, you're not being an example to the flock. Proverbs twenty seven twenty three says, know well the condition of your flocks and give attention to your herds. And we can spiritualize that. He's saying know well the condition of your flocks and pay attention.

So the pastor is what? Watching your life more than you think. Thank God for Facebook and all these things. Makes it so much easier. Oh, I see where you went for the weekend.

I don't have Facebook anymore, so it's hard. But I have people who know and have it. Oh, I know where you went on the weekend. Okay. That's why you skipped church.

Okay. I see that you've been discouraged lately. I see that you've been out coming lately. And he knows the condition. And if you want a little insight of how pastors, at least a faithful one, knows how to prepare their messages, one way of looking at it and one way of applying it is true.

They come into the presence of God, they say, Lord, what? What is it that you want me to speak? Is there something that I don't know of that you want? Is there something that people need to know and it's just buried underneath their bosom and I can't know it? Lord, reveal it to me and the Lord will impress it on their hearts what to speak on.

But another way is simply by observing the condition of the people. And so if something happened on a corporate level, the pastor will know it and he will come up and address it. If there's a sin in the church that's plaguing the people of God, he's gonna come up knowing the condition of the flock and address it. If there's something to be warned of, he will come up and address it. And so a major part of his sermon prep is simply knowing the lives of the people and coming up to speak of it.

And sometimes the Holy Spirit can do that without the pastor even knowing. Those times are exciting as well. But the pastor has a responsibility to not only, yes, know the condition but pay attention to them. And we know this about shepherds as we talked about Psalms 23, that a shepherd, at least back in that day, knew every name knew every name of the sheep that he had, was so familiar with them that you could blindfold them, some would say, and they could recognize who that sheep was by simply touching the face of that sheep. What an awesome responsibility to watch over the souls of men.

That's why even I understand we're we're identified as a young adult. It's not a light thing. This is not some social gathering. This is not something to take lightly. That's why we come to the word of God week after week.

That's why we want to come to the scriptures. That's why we're involved in each other's lives because there is great responsibility. You can't just bear the name pastor and do what you want just because you want to be known as pastor. If you're not living it, you're in trouble with the chief shepherd. So people want these titles and they don't understand what's at stake.

And he says there are pastors and teachers. And just to be personal with this specific house, that my desire that my desire, as long as God keeps me on this earth, is to fulfill Acts twenty twenty six and twenty seven amongst many other things. But to be able to say this, therefore, I am innocent of the blood of all. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. That though this culture pulls and pulls and pulls with the temptation of being relevant, of being shallow, trying to convince people that young people don't want the word of God.

They don't understand the word they can't understand the wickedness and the depths of depravity of the world. They can't understand the depths of truth. That people don't want the word of God, people don't want to pray, people don't want to seek the things that people don't want by God's grace may never be so here. Because the Bible gives us the responsibility of what a spiritual leader is in his house and we can't change that just because the culture wants to change that. The pastor and the teacher.

And though these things are specific, there is a general assignment that's given to all of these leaders and it's found in verse 12. What are they to do? To equip the saints for the work of ministry. To equip who? The saints for the work of ministry.

Meaning what? Wait. Wait. Wait. We just talked about how every one of those positions had a role to do what?

To serve the church. To do ministry within the church. So why is it saying that the saints need to do ministry? Because the main activity, though, yes, it's given to the leadership, their main purpose is actually to make sure that each one of you are active in the church as well. This is revolutionary.

This is revolutionary in our consumer age. This is profound in our give me give me give me give me mentality of 2018. Every person that is a believer in Jesus Christ has a ministry to fulfill in the local church that they have given themselves to. Every person. Why?

Because he's graced you with a gift. Jesus paid a high price with his blood to grace you with a gift, not to sit on your hands week after week. Not just to receive, receive, receive and not give. To equip the saints for the ministry. So these leaders, yes, they're pouring in.

They're pouring in. What else are they doing? The leadership of a church helps identify your ministry and comes alongside to supply whatever is needed for you to walk in that ministry. Identify and supply. Identify and supply.

Identify and supply. So they come to look at your life and say, I see this gift in you. Or they come to help you unwrap what you feel called to do. And they come to give you whatever you need to be able to walk that out. Don't get distracted.

Don't get distracted. So what does that look like? Supply. Supply what you need to walk in the ministry. That doesn't mean you get paid.

That doesn't mean you get paid. What it means is this, is that your leaders will encourage you. Your leaders will correct you in your character so that you could be more effective in your ministry. What does it mean? It means that your leaders will create opportunities for you to serve at a capacity in which you feel like God is leading you depending on what it is.

What does it mean? It means that your leaders will do whatever it takes to make sure that you are a benefit and that you are a blessing to your brothers and sisters in Christ. What does it mean to supply? It means that your leaders pray for you, that whatever you're serving Jesus in would be empowered by the Holy Spirit and to bring glory to his name. That's what it means.

So the leaders have to equip the saints. And just in case you might feel discouraged because you feel like you do not have that spiritual leadership gift, or you don't sense God pulling you towards that direction where you have a speaking gift, because if you notice those five gifts, they're all speaking in nature. They're all declaration in nature. Just in case where you feel like my gift has no impact, he says in the next part, for what? The building up of the body of Christ.

If we as a church desire to have greater influence and cover greater territory for the gospel of Jesus Christ, If we want that, it's gonna require not just the leaders, but every person in the church to invest in that church. If people do not want to invest their gifting, all it's doing really is slowing down the process of us becoming what God wants us to become. This is monumental. This is monumental. There's a direct effect based on the laziness of people in the church and the growth of where that church can go.

And it's just practical. It's not very deep here. The more people are doing stuff, the more it can get accomplished, the more we can see the glory of God touching people's lives. It's as simple as this. So what does that say for you and me?

Back to this point. You have a ministry. I don't know what it is yet. That's fine. Don't don't worry about what that ministry is.

As long as you can acknowledge within yourself that I am not a sideline Christian, that I'm not just somebody who is aimlessly just here floating around in the church, hearing some teaching and just having a good time. No. No. When you escape all of that and realize Jesus paid a price to deposit something within me, it's time to figure it out. It's time to find out what that gift is.

It's time to get out of our selfishness and say, what can I invest? My prayer for you, if you are part of this church, is that you would be able to confidently say, this is the part I play in this church. This is the role that I play in this church. If someone were to ask you, what do you do at your church? You wouldn't be like, listen to sermons.

You'd be able to say, this is how I serve. This is where I'm at. This is what I do. This is what I've owned a part of this church. And guess what?

It may and most likely will not have a title. It won't have a title. So if you're hearing this, you're like, yes. Oh, I feel like this. This is my calling.

You come up and you're like, hey. I think I'm called to this and it's a title. It might not have a title. Are you still willing to do it though? So what Paul is concerned is concerned about is more about activity than identity here.

I want you to serve with a specific ministry in the church. What do you own? What do you own? What's what's your involvement here? It could be the worship team and it could be as small as getting people to sit in their chairs on Sunday morning.

That's what you've dedicated yourself to. Every Sunday morning, I make sure that people come into church and find a seat so it's less distracting and people don't feel awkward when they walk in. There's a need. We have multiple prayer meetings a week. Is there a prayer meeting where you feel like, I'm gonna commit to this prayer meeting.

I mean, I'm not gonna I'm gonna come early. I'm gonna show up. I'm gonna be the first one in the room. I'm gonna own this prayer meeting, and I'm gonna pray. And that's my thing.

That's where you're gonna find me on Friday nights, men. That's where you're gonna find me on Friday mornings before the service. I'm owning this. There's no room for that. There's no room, sorry, for somebody who doesn't do anything.

And there are needs. So it's not something as much as I desire, though that's part of it. Part of identifying is, yes, to have this burning passion. But another realization is that there's a need and we just need to fulfill it. Do Do you remember in Acts chapter six, there was growth in the church, in the early church, and the apostle says, listen, we can't wait on tables.

We got to dedicate ourselves to preaching and to prayer. But there was a need. And so what did they do? They gladly chose seven men with character, with wisdom, spirit filled to wait on tables. There was a need, and these men met that need.

Why? Because you die to yourself in the gospel. Dying to yourself is not just me not committing sin. No. Dying to yourself is me seeing needs and fulfilling it.

Even if I might not like it, even if I'm not prone to that kind of activity. There's a need so here I am. And we we love that story but we don't we don't realize the result of that commitment. Let me read this to you. In Acts six seven, and the word of God this is after they've been assigned and people were rejoicing the fact that these people have been elected.

And the word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem. And a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. That is the direct result of these men who said, yes. We will serve at whatever capacity in the local church here. The gospel was able to go out.

It was able to flow with a greater flow. There is no hindrance to these men who have been called to do just that. And if we're gospel minded, kingdom minded, gifts should not conflict here. It should not create strife and jealousy. We're all a part of, was we learned last week, one church, one baptism, one Lord, one faith.

So let's all come in the diversity within the unit unity and say, let's move forward here. Let's move forward here. Look at the end of 16 of Ephesians four. When each part is working properly k. So when each part is working properly, what happens?

It makes the body grow that it builds itself up in love. So when everybody's fulfilling their ministry, the direct result is growth. Growth. Growth not just in number, growth in the quality of the people. Growth in the quality of the ministry within the church.

And I would strongly encourage you after this message, if you don't feel like you have a specific ministry, don't involve yourself in more than one ministry. Let's not spread ourselves too thin here. Dedicate yourself to one thing so that it could work properly, so that it could grow, so that it could become something that's sustainable and something that bears fruit. This is what we need if we want to excel. This is what Paul is saying.

This is what the Holy Spirit is saying. And the leaders that have been assigned are more than willing to usher you into one of those things, are more than willing to identify and not only identify and supply, but encourage, pray, and all the other things above to help you fulfill it. Where's the boredom in Christianity? Where's the sense of, I don't know what I'm it's nowhere. It's nowhere in the new covenant.

It's nowhere in the New Testament. Everybody should be busy. This church should be vibrating with activity. So he says, we need people to be equipped so that they could fulfill their ministry as a result in seeing the body built. And while people are doing that, while the church is doing that, the leaders still have more to do and it's found in verse 13.

What does it say? Until we all attain to the unity of the faith, number one, the leaders have to manage and maintain unity to make sure that conflicts are resolved, to make sure that nobody's coming in to bring division, to make sure that the sheep are in harmony with one another, maintaining unity, continually observing, hearing, intervening when need be to make sure that Jesus' plan for his church, which is a oneness, would be accomplished. Not just that, To, yes, maintain unity and of the knowledge of the son of God. So these gifts, these leaders, what do they do? They continually unveil.

They continually proclaim. They continually expound upon greater truths concerning our lord and savior Jesus Christ. That every person in here would receive from these leaders, those who teach and those who preach. Jesus Christ being the center theme. His word, his purposes, his commands would be understood to greater degrees week after week after week.

Not just that. To mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, To make sure that you grow. To make sure that you grow. To make sure that you are mature. That you were not who you were three months ago.

That you were not who you were last year. That you have a greater grasp of this sword of the spirit, that you know how to wage warfare, that you know how to overcome certain things because you've been trained by the leaders. Do you see how church is not a game here? Church is not a game here. What happens?

Verse 14, so that we may no longer be children. So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the ways and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes that you would be so aware of the truths of this faith That when you step out of here, every doctrine of demons, every lie from the pit of hell that tries to contradict or try to twist this word, you would be able to know it, you'd be able to identify it, and you'd be able to resist it. And so leaders have an important job to equip you, to protect you from doctrines that would damage your soul. This is the activity within the church. Whether you're part of this church or another church, the leaders that have been assigned are God's gifts to the church.

They've been called to serve the church. They've been called to serve you. They've been called to equip you. They've been called to pour into your life, into your Christian that is their job description. Your life is my responsibility.

But at the same time, God's gifts are given to all men. Every single person here has been gifted. And so you and I have to do what? Know what that gift is, allow that gift to be supplied by our leaders, identified by our leaders, and to walk in it faithfully. What is your assignment here?

What is it? And once you know what it is, realize that whatever, it may seem small, it may seem large, it is gonna be used to build the church. It is going to be used to exalt the name of Jesus Christ, to bring our family to places that could not go if you did not involve yourself, which brings a comforting concluding truth concerning you and me as believers. Our lives are so much greater than our nine to five. Our lives are so much bigger than what we do in this life.

There is an eternal purpose that Christ purchased for you and me. And I am dumbfounded. I am amazed at how people who just can realize such a glorious thing, that there is a grace given concerning you and your life, a grace that, yes, only yes, reveals not only what your gift is, but the grace to empower you to live in it, and people don't want to search or inquire for it. There's nothing within them that says, I want to know why why I'm here. I want to know what my assignment is.

And so the simple exhortation of this teaching is this, that every person in here would leave here this morning knowing that they have a part to play. If you are not a part of a local church committed, you are contradicting this message here. You're contradicting what Jesus is requiring of you and what Jesus purchased for you. There are no such thing as lone wolf Christians. Jesus put too much in you for you to be that.

There's something within you that needs to come out and it needs to be expressed within the local church. You need to be committed somewhere. Find that place. In time, serve in that place and fulfill the mission that Jesus called you and me to. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you so much that you have ascended on high leading a host of captives. Putting to shame Satan, putting to shame sin, putting to shame the grave. But Lord, you also showered us with gifts. That you did not leave your church alone. That she is not walking aimlessly in this life.

But you have called men to be spiritual leaders with specific gifts to serve the church. Lord, all across this country, all across this city, all across the state, would you Lord strengthen those men that have dedicated their lives to proclaiming the word and to teaching the word, who've been called to manage unity, who've been called to equip the saints. That is not an easy task. Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit. We pray for every single saint in this house and every other house that's represented.

That Lord, we would begin to discover and unwrap what you've deposited in us. That Lord, we would not be so selfish to to see a need and say, well, I I just I don't I feel like that's not glamorous enough for me to be involved in. I feel like there's not enough recognition for me to serve. Not realizing that waiting on tables could be the direct reason why there's a multiplication. Help us see that, Lord.

Help us fulfill the ministry that you've given us and to do so joyfully. And so, Lord, we rejoice this morning to the fact that you are ascended, that you are seated at the right hand of the throne of God, and that you have given us a purpose in this life. Help us see the beauty of the local church and the necessity to be committed to it and to realize that my life has greater purpose than what the world tells me and that what I even convince of myself if it's outside of the word of God. Thank you for purpose. We give you praise and we worship you in song and response.

In Jesus name we pray.