Walk Worthy Pt 2: The Goal of Maturity

chapter 4. Ephesians, chapter 4.

As we come now to Ephesians, chapter 4, we come to the second part in our study on walking worthy. We said that as we moved into chapter 4, we moved into a different section of the book of Ephesians, the first Christ. All had to do with the riches that we have in Christ and really where we sit as far as our relationship with Jesus Christ is concerned. Knowing that, starting in chapter 4, he begins to tell us about our responsibility.

And ultimately, he continues to use the same word over the next three chapters. And that word is walk. And so the first way that he told us to walk is he told us to walk worthy. And so the first 16 verses of chapter 4 are all about walking worthy. And we said that within that realm of walking worthy, there were two things that we needed to do, two things that we needed

to understand. Number one, we needed to have a heart of unity. But number two, we had a goal of maturity. He's told us that we were to walk with humility, and gentleness, and patience, and tolerance one another, being diligent to preserve the unity because there is one Lord, there is one Father, there is one faith, and there is one God who is over all. But just because

we're unified does not mean that we are uniform. One of the beautiful things about the body of Christ is that he made us all different. And that's sort of what we talk about with this goal of maturity here this morning. So we pick up in chapter 4, verse 7, and this is what it says. 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, but what does it mean that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he could that he might fill all things. And he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers.

Work of the service to the building up of the body of Christ until we attain to the unity of the faith and of 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 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 all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted together and held together by what every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual person causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. And so as we talk about

this goal of maturity, there's two things I want you to pay attention to. We're going to see the gifts and then we're going to see the goal. He starts off by talking in verse 7. It says, But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. When we begin to look at the gifts, we have to understand something. There are different gifts

because there are different people. He says there, therefore to each one. When it says to each one, it means to each one of us specifically there was some sort of a gift that was given to us. There was a gift that was given to us according to the power of the Holy Spirit and we'll see in just a moment according to the riches of the grace of Jesus Christ. Therefore,

each one of us plays a little bit of a different role within the body of Christ. He'll go, I'll go over a handful of those individual roles in just a moment, but I want you to be aware of something and this is a theme I'll hit on two or three times throughout the message today. You are important to the body of Christ because you play a role within the body of Christ that only you can play because while we are unified under the headship of Christ, we are not uniform and we're not all intended to play the exact same role within the body of Christ. We each run a different race.

Your race looks different than mine. My race looks different than somebody else's because we're all individuals. And so he says, but to each one of us, I want you to pay attention to this next phrase, grace was given. That tells us that these gifts that God has given to us are according to his grace. Now this word grace is a really important word. It's used often throughout Scripture

and of course we know that the word grace means unmerited favor. That means that when God blessed you with a wonderful gift, it wasn't because he said they're just so deserving of it. No, it was because God showed unmerited favor in your life and said, I love them so much that I want to make them an important part of the body. So I'm going to give them something that only they can do.

I'm going to give them a gift that is specific to them that will be according to my power in their lives just because I love them. It is according to God's grace. And so as we look at the body of Christ, fulfilling their roles, we have to understand it's not because of how good that person is in anything that they're doing. It's because that's the gift that God has given to them.

It is to each one of us, grace was given, but then I want you to notice the third thing, according to the measure of Christ's gift. So the grace that was given to us, to each one of us individually, had a measuring stick, right? The measuring stick of the grace that was given to each of us individually is according to God's grace. It's according to Christ's gift.

Well, what was Christ's gift? I suppose that's the question that we need to answer. Well, I think there's kind of a two-fold aspect to that answer. The first aspect of Christ's gift is that he came for us and he died for us. The immeasurable grace, the immeasurable love that was shown to us at the cross, the great love that he lavished upon us, that great gift of salvation

that he sent salvation did not just stop with the fact that your sins were forgiven. Because if you remember, one of the very last things that Jesus told his disciples before he went to the cross was this. He said, Hey kids, just so you know, I'm taking off, but don't worry, I'm not going to leave you as orphans. I will send the helper who will be with you and will be in you and will empower you to do all things.

Therefore, the gift was not only his salvation, but the gift was his Holy Spirit that empowers us to do everything that we need to do, that gifts us to do everything that we need to do. Therefore, each one of us individually has been gifted according to God's grace by the measure of the gift of Christ, this ability within the body. Right? He goes on to tell us that this gifting is directly from Christ himself when it says in verse 8, Therefore it says, and if I remember correctly, he's quoting Psalm 68 here.

When he ascended on high, he led captive, a host of captives, and he said, and he gave gifts to men. Now this expression that in the lower parts of the earth, he who descended is himself also he who ascended far above all the heavens so that he might fill all things. So he quotes Psalm 68 there as his proof text that he who ascended when he ascended gave gifts to men. Only he knew that there might be some who knew the Psalm and understood the context of it who thought to themselves, who's the one who ascended?

What's he talking about? He ascended. And so he goes on to describe. So who is the one who ascended? Well, that's the very one that born of a virgin, lived among us on the earth, faced death, was buried, and then rose again. He who ascended was the one who first of all descended into the lower parts of the earth. And after he descended into the lower parts of the earth,

he ascended into the heavens. What's the ascension that's being spoken of there? Again, I think it's twofold. I think the ascension first of all speaks of his being raised from the dead. And then second of all, his ascending into heaven. Because remember when he gave that promise of the Spirit, he said, I know you're sad that I'm leaving, but it's good that I leave

because if I don't leave, I can't send you the Holy Spirit. But once I leave, I will send you the Holy Spirit who will testify of all these things, who will bear witness, witness of all of these things. Therefore, when he ascended, he gave gifts through the power of the Holy Spirit to man. Make sense? So, after specific gifts, I want you to look at verse 11.

It says, And he gave some as apostles, and he gave some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers. Now, depending on who translates this verse, depending on who's teaching on this verse, they will tell you that there are either four or five different gifts that are mentioned here. I lean towards the four. I don't necessarily disagree with the five.

But let's go over what these things are. Now, I want to point something out to you. These are four specific areas of gifting that are given to the church. Interestingly enough, these areas of giftings that Paul's going to talk about, we must remember, first of all, are not extensive. These are not all, all of the gifts that the Holy Spirit gives. Because you can actually look

multiple places throughout Scripture and see other gifts that are given to us. There's places in Romans. There's places in 1 Corinthians. So understand, these are not the only gifted, the only giftings that are given to the church. There are specific offices within the church that are important for the maturity of the church. Everybody with me on that? So these specific offices are these.

He says, And he gave some, as apostles. Now, this is a little bit of a dangerous word in our culture today. And I'll explain why in just a moment. The word apostle means a sent out one. That's what the word literally means. One who is sent out. Now, the word apostle and the office apostle takes on what I would call the general context of what he speaks, or the specific context of what he's speaking here.

And the general context of what we know it as today. The apostles that he's speaking about here, are the 12 and himself. They are the ones who set the doctrine for the church. They were specifically sent out by Jesus Christ for the purpose of setting the doctrine of the church. When they set the doctrine of the church, they wrote it down in the scriptures and we later canonized it

after following specific guidelines to decide what was scripture and what was not scripture. Therefore, in that context, there are no more apostles today. Ryan, why do I care? Because there are people running around today saying that they are apostle so and so, and they've had a new revelation. They've had a new revelation from God. And let me tell you what he said,

because we've realized that we've been doing it wrong all of these years. We can now expand our borders. We can now expand our tents. We can now expand our table and change the way that we've always viewed things. Because after all, we've learned a lot more since then. Now, I'd like to say I'm making that up. I'd like to say that that's a joke, but it's not.

That's what really goes on today. There are people roaming around in churches today that make statements like that. And they consider themselves to be apostles. And I would say this, I would use the same criteria that they used when they canonized scripture. It better line up with all of what scripture says. Otherwise, it doesn't line up with any of what scripture says.

Everybody with me on that? Instead, there is more of a general sense of an apostle because there were other men who were sent out. Timothy was sent out. Barnabas was sent out, right? Those are other apostles, but they didn't set the doctrine for the early church like the 12 and Paul did. They had a specific office. In that way, are there apostles today? I have no problem with that word.

I have no problem with that word if we understand that they are simply sent out on a mission from God to carry what this has, to say to people. I have no issue with that. Oftentimes, we might refer to them as missionaries. If someone were to say a missionary is an apostle, I would have no problem equating those two words. Maybe some would disagree with me. That's okay.

We can agree to disagree, but they are sent out on a specific mission. So he gave some to be apostles. Number two, he gave some to be prophets. Oh, the hits just keep coming, don't they? Because that's another sort of like catchphrase word today, right? So let's talk about what prophecy is, first of all. And then we'll deal with what a prophet is. We need to understand that there were

Old Testament and New Testament prophets. Old Testament prophets were given a word directly from God, and they were told to write it down because it was a message in general for the nation of Israel, sometime for the other nations, usually with one goal, and that was to point them to the coming Messiah. But they would speak forth the truth of God, some of it predictive, meaning things that will come, some of it not predictive prophecy, meaning things that are going on right now. This is God's word.

This is what's happening. This is what God has to say about what's happening right now. All of that is prophetic in nature because prophecy is simply the speaking forth of the word of God. Then you have what I would call a New Testament prophet. And a New Testament prophet may do some predictive prophecy. These are things that are to come. But in general, a New Testament prophet

is going to speak forth what Scripture already says. But oftentimes they do it in a very pointed way because they speak directly into someone's life or directly into a situation. We might refer to it as a word of knowledge, a word that God has given to someone to share into their lives. I'm going to be honest with you. This gift has been used, over me, two times in my life.

One time when I was in high school and I wasn't walking with Jesus at all. I had no desire to walk with Jesus. My dad, we went up to the Calvary Chapel in Wichita that Don Duncan pastored at the time. My dad either filled in there or he did worship there. I don't remember which one it was. But I do remember some guy coming up to me and saying, the Lord's going to use you.

And I want you to know that. God has a plan for your life and he's like, I'm sure. Right? Just kind of rolled on because I was like, I'm going to use you. Whatever. But the one that I remember more than anything, and I've shared this before, but I'll share it again, is that when I was in Bible college, each of us, if we felt like the Lord laid something on our heart

to share for a devotion, they would allow us as students to get up and share in front of the entire body during our devotional time, every morning. And I did a devotion one time and I got up and spoke. And when I finished, went on to my next class and a friend of mine I was sitting next to in class, her name was Jennifer. She wrote me a note. And somewhere in a box of things

I still have this note. And she said, Little Ryan, because that's what everybody referred to me as in Bible college. She said, Little Ryan, God used you to speak today. And I want you to remember this because you need to understand that there are times that are coming in your life when you will question not only your calling but who you are in Christ. Hold on to today

because God wants to use you in the exact same way. I folded the book. I folded the note up. I put it in my Bible. Later I put it in a box of my stuff and I didn't look at it again until I went through a time in my life not long after Bible college where I questioned everything about who I was and everything about my calling. And I opened that note up and I read it

and I thought, that's the gift of prophecy. It wasn't crazy. It wasn't wild. It wasn't something that nobody could believe. It was just someone speaking the truth of God into my life. Was it mildly predictive? Yes. She probably didn't know it at the time. But that's the gift of prophecy. Therefore, God has given to us prophets. People who are willing to boldly

speak forth the truth into situations because they are always speaking forth what God's word has to say. Everybody with me on that? God has given some to be apostles. He has given some to be prophets. Number three, He has given some to be evangelists. I looked for some sweet definition of the word evangelist. You know what the word evangelist means? A preacher of the gospel.

Well, I could have come up with that on my own. But anyway, I looked it up anyway to make sure I was defining it correctly. A preacher of the gospel. Some have the gift of evangelism. And they can give out God's word and people will flock forward to be saved. I've shared it with you before. I'll share it again. I don't have this gift. I don't have the gift of evangelism.

I may occasionally lead someone to Jesus Christ simply by teaching the word and then the Holy Spirit takes hold of their heart. But I don't think we're ever going to see an altar call where 10,000 people come forward at our church. Not only because we can't hold 10,000 people, but because that's just not what I'm created for. I've tried in the past. I have tried to be an evangelist in the past

and give out what I felt like was the greatest message of the gospel I could have ever put together. Like, would anyone like to receive Christ? And then cricket eyes are because nobody was into it. Either way, nothing happened. And I'm like, what's going on? And then some guy can be like, gee, Jesus loves you. And everybody's like, I want to receive Jesus, right?

Like, what the heck? Well, that dude's got the gift of evangelism, right? Because you're preaching the gospel and you're bringing people into the flock. You're bringing people into the body of Christ. We're not all evangelists. As a matter of fact, I would say I'm the next thing, not an evangelist. Some of you may have that gift and you should use that gift

because you have the desire to go talk to random people about Jesus. You know how to put forth the gospel in an understandable way. And quite frankly, the Holy Spirit moves through you and people are drawn to Jesus through you. That's the gift of evangelism. And I think of guys like Billy Graham, Franklin Graham, Greg Laurie, right? Guys who just have that gift.

And no matter what they say, people are going to get saved. Maybe he's got to line up with scripture. Don't get me wrong. But no matter how they preach God's word, people get saved because God uses them in that way. And then the fourth one that sometimes is divided into two is a pastor-teacher. A pastor-teacher. Of course, a pastor is one who shepherds. A teacher is one who feeds.

And again, some people see these as two different offices, that there is a pastor and there is a teacher and some view it as the same. So let's just kind of deal with it as the same. Because that's a really important part of what you do. Pastor-teachers shepherd and teach the flock. You know where we get this idea from? We get this idea from when Jesus restored Peter.

Remember when Jesus, Jesus came to him those three times and he said, Peter, do you love me? And he says, Jesus, you know, I think you're a really good guy. And he said, why did he tell him to do that? Because he was making him a pastor. He was making him a shepherd. One who would take care of the flock. One who would feed the people. And my job as a pastor

is to give you guys what God's word has to say in the best way that I possibly can. I'll explain why it's important in just a moment. But that's what a pastor, pastor, and teacher does. Now, I am willing, I am willing to separate. People have the gift of teaching, but they don't have the heart of a shepherd. In that way, I'm willing to separate that part out.

Because some people just have that ability to teach. A friend of mine that used to live at Lakeview Village where I took care of the yards, the retirement community, his name was Truman Page. I've referenced him multiple times because he was such an important person in my life. He was one who felt like he had the gift of a teacher, but not the gift of a pastor.

And man, did he have the gift of a teacher. Because God used him to teach on the university level to teach people what the Old Testament had to say and how it all pointed to Jesus. And quite frankly, God used him to teach a little knucklehead 22-year-old kid a whole lot more about Jesus in the Old Testament than he'd ever learned before. And so, some of you may have that gift and God wants to use you in it.

Some of y'all need to be using the gift of teaching to start teaching some of these kids. Whether it be in Sunday school classes or whether it be because you're willing to pull them aside and teach them what God's truth has to say. Some of you God wants to use to start leading small groups here at Calvary Chapel of Arc City and use that gift of teaching that you have to begin to teach the people, to begin to guide them into truth. But that point is, it's used, that gift of pastor-teacher to shepherd and feed the flock.

And so, now that we've seen the gifts, the different gifts that they're all from Christ, and that there's some specific offices within those gifts, let's look at the goal. It says in verse 12, forgive me. It says in verse 12, 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 of 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 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 all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth, the growth of the body for the building of itself up in love. And so what's the goal? It's fourfold. Number one is the equipping of the saints.

The equipping of the saints. Now, the word equipping literally means to completely furnish. We think of a soldier, right? Going to war. When a soldier is going to war, they completely furnish him. They equip him with everything that they need. Not only the training that he needs, but all of the tools that he needs, all of the equipment that he needs in order to do the job of a soldier.

Those four offices that were mentioned, apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher, have a specific goal. What is their specific goal? The equipping of the saints. The equipping of God's people. What are we being equipped for? For the work. Of service. We are being equipped to do the work of the ministry. Now, you know my philosophy if you've been here for any amount of time.

That's that the day that you became born again, you didn't just enter the family of God, you entered the ministry. Because at Calvary Chapel of Arc City and every other church in the world, the goal is not that there would be a pastor and some elders and maybe a couple of people on, and those are the people that do the ministry and the rest of us just show up on a Sunday morning. And we watch them do the ministry. That's not the goal, kids.

The goal is that you all do the ministry. You see, I'm teaching you the Bible not only so that you can know God, but so that you can serve Him in the ministry. Because I'm only one person. I can't get to everybody that's sick. I can't get to everybody that needs to move. I can't get to everybody that needs to have some need fulfilled in their life. I can't do that because I'm one human being.

The body of elders is a handful of human beings. And there's a lot of us in this church. I don't really keep track of numbers too much, but based on what I see at the two services, plus you have the fact that we have a thousand kids, there's probably two to three hundred people that attend this church every Sunday morning and would probably consider themselves to be a part of Calvary Chapel. I don't have that kind of time in my life because there's only 24 hours in a day.

And I'm not a big guy, right? There's only so much of me to go around. Therefore, my job, according to what Scripture has to say and according to what God says, is to equip you. How do I equip you? I teach you what this has to say so that it can change your heart and your understanding of who you are in Christ so that you can walk worthy by going out and doing the work of the ministry.

You see, when those prayer requests come through Flocknote, you should go to your directory, look up that person's number, and give them a call. When those prayer requests come through Flocknote, you should write it on your prayer journal or your calendar, whatever it is that you use to keep track of prayer requests, and you should pray for them. You could even go so far as to go and visit them or send them some flowers. Those are the things that we do as the body of Christ to care for each other.

I was so blessed when Mary Slocum moved the other day because so many people showed up to help. We had just the right amount of people. Any more people, we'd have been tripping over each other. And if you were people, I would have sweat more, right? Like we had just the right amount of people. It was awesome. And so that's what we're called to do is the work of the ministry.

And the job of those main offices is to equip you for the work of the ministry. Why? Notice what it says next, end of verse 12. To the building up of the body of Christ. To the building up of the body of Christ. Because our goal, our mission is to see the body of Christ grow into what God has intended for it to grow into. It's been a while since I've talked about

kind of our goal statement here at Calvary Chapel, but our statement is very simple. It's twofold. Calvary Chapel, reaching in and reaching out. We reach in to build up the body of Christ so that we can then reach out with the gospel. If we're not in the body of Christ, if we're not in the body of Christ, if we're not in the body of Christ, if we're not in the body of Christ,

not building up the body, then we're not strong enough to reach out. And so we build up the body and we do it through the work of the ministry that hopefully you are prepared to do through the equipping that takes place in the Bible studies that you attend. That's the goal. And so we are to equip the saints. Number two is to become mature. To become mature. And so we all,

verse 13, attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. It says that we are first of all doing these things, the work of the ministry to build up the body. Notice these things all build on each other. The saints are equipped so that they can build up the body so that as the body is built up, we can attain a spirit of unity. Oh, there's that word again. Unity. Because as the body is built

up and as the body ministers to each other, and I don't just mean the body of Calvary Chapel of Arc City. I mean the body of believers in Arc City. You know, we could get outside the walls and we could minister to somebody from a different church. You stop that now. I will not stop that now because we're all the body of Christ, right? We are looking to attain the spirit of unity. And as we are built up, we maintain the

spirit of unity, not only here, although we should definitely start here, but within Arc City, within the whole community, to attain the spirit of unity. And the second thing is that we may grow, in the knowledge of Christ, to know the Son of God. Why are we equipping the saints? So that we can become mature. What's maturity look like? It looks like the spirit of unity. It looks like

increasing in our knowledge of God so that we can become a mature man. Sorry, ladies. We're the bride of Christ. You have to be a mature man, okay? To a mature man. One of the interesting things about raising kids is watching them mature. Because there comes points in time when you're like, huh, they're never going to mature, are they? They're just, they're always going to be, they're always going to be that way.

Like you think they're never going to start walking and then they start walking and you're like, I wish they'd stop walking. They're never going to start talking and then they start talking and you wish they'd stop talking. And they're never going to do this next step. But the amazing thing is, if you keep giving your kids everything that they need, you keep equipping them, you keep pouring into them, the right food to eat, you keep teaching them, you keep talking to them, you keep reading to them, all the things, then eventually they begin to mature. I'm watching it happen before my eyes

with my now 15-year-old daughter that I'm not okay with, right? Then Facebook starts sending you all the pictures from when she was three and you're like, you stop that. Because they're maturing, right? And you watch them grow. And it's amazing to see. And that's what we're to be. But as you watch them grow, there's milestones you're looking for, right? I remember one of the first appointments we took my daughter to, passed like she got her first

shots. Getting the first shots, sidebar. That's the saddest appointment you ever take your kid to. I will never forget taking Violet to get her shots. And I'm very new. I'd never really been around babies a ton. My sister babysat, but kids were just like, nah, whatever. So I wasn't around them a whole lot. And we took her in to get her shots. And you go to the doctor and, hi, right?

And she's like, you know, she's all chill and whatnot. And they're like, oh, we're going to give you some shots now. And they have no idea what's coming. And then all of a sudden they go, boom. And she goes, right? They go from like zero to scream faster than you've ever seen. That's the saddest thing in the world. But anyway, that's not the point I'm talking about. The first real appointment

and they start going, okay, these are the milestones you should be looking for. This is when they should start rolling over. This is how much tummy time they should be willing to have. Those different kinds of things. And they tell you, if they don't hit these milestones, you should be concerned because they're not maturing. Well, we as believers in Jesus Christ

are to mature. We should be looking for milestones. What are the milestones we're looking for? The spirit of unity and the knowledge of the son of God so that we can grow into a mature man to the fullness of the measure of Christ. Because that's the goal. The goal for the body is not just that we have a whole bunch of people in our church. The goal is that the people that are in our church will start to mature,

will no longer be dependent upon milk because now they can eat solid food, will no longer be dependent on everybody else doing everything for them, but start doing some things for themselves. They don't get their feelings hurt every time they turn around, but have a little bit of love and understanding because you have matured. And so number two is to, to become a mature man. Number three is that we would no longer be children.

Notice what it says in verse 14. As a result, we are no longer children tossed here and there by waves and carried out by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. The word children there literally means immature ones. So the exact opposite of what we said that we're supposed to be. Immature ones. And what does it look like to be an immature one? He says, I don't want you to be

children anymore who are tossed here and there. I should prefer the King James on this one, tossed to and fro. There's just something about that phrase, right? Just tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. That phrase tossed here and there carries with it the idea of a ship that's being tossed about by the waves on the sea. Paint a good picture in your mind. And what are we being

tossed about by? Every wind of doctrine. Every, every generation is a little bit different. When I was early in ministry, I hated whenever a new book came out. Because you know what would happen every time a new book came out? Every time a new book came out, the calendar came out with it. The stamps came out with it. The doilies came out with it. And everything was, you know, the big one I remember

early on in ministry was the prayer of Jabez, right? The prayer of Jabez was everywhere. And basically they had turned what was an amazing prayer into a new prayer. And that prayer was an amazing prayer into a Lord give me everything I want prayer. Because it's like the prayer of Jabez is like, you know, expand my borders and all that kind of stuff. And it turned into the,

I won't say anything else. Anyway, it turned into something that shouldn't have ever been. And we get tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Well, now we don't really have as much of the books being written. They are still being written. But you know how people are tossed about by every wind of doctrine now? Instagram. We call them influencers. And everybody comes up with a new idea. They usually call themselves apostles or prophets. And they

tell you how you should feel about things. And they have crazy ideas. And you know what happens? Immature people start reposting those things. And then all of a sudden it becomes a thing. And people are being tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Tossed about not only because they believe every wind of doctrine that blows their way, but then they're shaken by every wind of

doctrine that blows their way. Okay, so early on in ministry, I had to learn to not allow myself to be to believe all of the doctrines that come along. Okay, nope. Something feels off about that. Let me check that out with God's word. And I screwed up a few times. I threw in with some things a couple of times because it's what all the cool kids were doing. Eventually I had to be like,

nope. No matter who's doing it, I got to make sure I know what's going on here. So I learned to not be tossed about with every wind of doctrine to where I believed everything. But now I'm in the process of not being shaken by every wind of doctrine that comes along. Because sometimes you hear the next new thing come out and you're like, oh crap, who else? Who's leaving? Who all's going to follow this? Who all's going to go after this? But what I'm

learning right now is people are going to do what they're going to do. All I can do is give you the truth. When I see you doing something stupid, say that's stupid. I might not use those words. I might use those words. If I see you reading or doing something I think is wrong, I'm going to tell you. Other than that, you're going to have to make your own decision. I've had to tell some

people a couple of times in the past couple of years, hey, I have a real issue with that. Because that's actually pretty evil stuff. But it seems so innocent. I know, it always does. Satan doesn't couch anything in evil. He couches everything in innocence. And some of them have come around and some of them haven't. But so goes it. I'm having to learn to not be shaken by those things. Not tossed about by every wind of doctrine. He uses two other phrases.

By the trickery of men, and that's what we need to understand about false doctrine, it's trickery. By crafty and deceitful scheming. In other words, you can identify truth and you can stand on truth. No longer children. Number four, to grow up into him. To grow up into him. We read verse 15 to you. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head,

even Christ. It would be wrong for me, not to encounter that very first phrase with you and spend just a couple of minutes on it. But speaking the truth in love. So let's take two aspects of that and we'll put them together in just a moment, okay? Number one is speaking the truth. As we've talked about before, truth isn't quite the premium right now in our world. It's really a little bit hard to identify

because the enemy, when he comes to kill, steal, and destroy, doesn't do it by the way. He doesn't do it by the way. He doesn't do it by the way. He doesn't do it by the way. He doesn't do it by the way. He doesn't do it by the way. He doesn't do it by the way. He doesn't do it by the way. He doesn't do it by the way. I'm here to kill, steal, and destroy. He comes out deceptively. So we have to identify the truth and then we have to speak the truth.

Only the problem in the world that we're living in today is when you speak the truth, you are considered hateful because love means you affirm everything that I do. And so as believers in Jesus Christ, if we are equipped, if we are mature, if we are no longer children, but we are growing up into him, then we must learn to identify the truth, to stand on the truth, and to speak the truth. We need to be willing to do that. We have to, first of all, count the cost. And you really

do need to count the cost before you start standing up and speaking the truth, because you need to know that it's going to cost you. People are going to get upset with you. I don't know that we live in an area yet where we're going to get canceled for it, because we still live in in the Midwest. But the potential is always there. And so we have to be willing to count

the cost. Jesus told his disciples, no man who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is worthy of the kingdom. So you should count the cost and understand that standing on the truth and speaking the truth may cost you something. But once you've counted the cost and you realize then speak it. Speak the truth. It will require boldness. It will require the power of the Holy

Spirit. There's a wonderful story in the book of Acts where the disciples had been arrested for speaking the truth. And they were brought before the chief leaders of the synagogue. They were brought before the Sanhedrin. And they said, listen, you can no longer speak in the name of Jesus. You can no longer preach this message. Remember what Peter looked at him and said,

whether or not it's right in God's eyes for us to do this, or whether it's right or not in your eyes to do this, that's up to you. We are going to continue to obey God. And so they left and they went back and they gathered with everybody in that upper room. And as they gathered with everybody in the upper room, do you remember what they did? They prayed for boldness, boldness to speak for

the truth. And do you know what happened? As they were praying, the whole ding dong place shook, right? And they went out with boldness and spoke the truth. And my friends, as mature believers in Jesus Christ who are equipped for the work of the ministry, you need the boldness of the Holy Spirit to speak the truth. But the truth that you speak has to be couched in these two words,

in love. You need to speak the truth in love. And if you don't know what love looks like, go back and read 1 Corinthians 13. Right? Because it describes what love looks like. Love is patient. Love is kind. Love doesn't boast. Always looks for the best, right? We speak the truth in love. You know, I think the greatest understanding of that speaking the truth in love is that when I speak the truth, it's for the goal

of restoration. That when I speak the truth, it's for the goal of transformation. It's not just for the goal of proving myself right. When I speak the truth into someone's life who's living in sin, it's for the goal of seeing. It's for the goal of seeing them transformed. It's for the goal of seeing them restored. When I speak the truth into the lives of the people living in the world, it's because I want to see them

transformed and restored to what God originally intended them to be. But as we see the sin around us, you can't speak out in anger towards the sin around you. As a matter of fact, if the sin around you makes you angry, you should probably just be quiet and pray. Because you're not ready to speak the truth yet. Because the truth always has to be spoken in love.

You say, but Ryan, Jesus turned over the tables. Jesus made a whip and drove everybody out of the temple. But his goal was restoration. His goal was repentance, not just to prove his point.

And so we speak the truth in love. And speaking the truth in love that we would, second part, grow up in all aspects into him. That we would grow up into him. Let me put this to you in really simple, I don't think wrong terms, to grow up and look like Jesus. But I want to tell you what that first part just said. Grow up. Sometimes as believers in Jesus Christ, it's time for us to grow up.

To have that goal of looking like Jesus.

There can oftentimes be a time when we don't have that goal. We don't have that goal of looking like Jesus. There can oftentimes be complacency that comes into the life of the believer. You can stop setting goals for yourself. I read this article not long ago about, sorry, I read workout articles a lot. It said, are you not seeing the gains you're looking for? And I'm like, no.

Here's why you're not seeing the gains you're looking for. And you know what the number one reason was? You stopped setting goals. You became complacent. You quit challenging. And because of that, you don't challenge yourself anymore. Your heart's not in it anymore. Therefore, you're not going to see the results that you want. Now, I usually take things like that and I equate it to my walk with Jesus Christ.

Because I thought, you know what? If someone were to say, are you seeing the gains in your walk with Jesus Christ that you want right now? I might go, maybe. But I could always be doing better. Maybe it's because I stopped setting goals for myself. Maybe it's because growing up is no longer my goal. Maybe it's because looking like Jesus is no longer my goal.

Maintaining is now my goal. I just want to not sin and try to be a good person. No. I want to grow up and keep looking like Jesus. I want my life to reflect Him. I thought about this the other day. You know, Friday was September 1st, right? September 1st starts the last one-third of the year. You ever thought about that? You ever break your year up like that? I do. I know I'm weird.

I'm in the last one-third of the year, right? And so, as we enter the last one-third of the year, I was thinking about this. I thought, how did my first two-thirds go?

It was up and down. It was up and down. Some things I did really great. Some things I didn't do really great. But now it's time to look and go, okay, so how do I improve in the last one-third of the year? And I thought about that verse in Philippians where Paul says, Not that I have already attained, but this one thing I do, forgetting what's behind, I press on.

What does it mean to forget what's behind? Well, number one, you've got to forget the victories of yesterday. Because if you live on the victories of yesterday, look back. You'll be Uncle Rico, who's always looking back to when he could have won the high school state championship, right? You can't live on the victories of yesterday. You've got to forget what's behind.

But the other thing that you can't do is you can't live on the failures of yesterday and live defeated. All you can do is forget what's behind and press on. Press on towards growing up into Christ. Press on towards growing up into Christ. Because Christ is the head. And then I want you to notice what it says in verse 16. From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by one,

every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building of itself up in love. What does he mean by that? He means that if you are growing up, if you are growing up into Christ, and Christ is the head, and if you're growing up into Christ, and we all as members of the body are being equipped, are becoming mature, are no longer being children, but instead are growing up into Christ, and Christ is the head, then the whole body is supplying everything that is necessary. Because the whole body is working together.

And if the whole body is working together, then the whole body is being built up in Christ. Friends, we are unified in Christ. We are not uniform in Christ. And you perform a function within the body that only you can perform. And I want you to be equipped to perform that function so that we all as a body can grow up into who God wants us to be. Amen? Amen.

I'm going to ask the worship team to come on up. This morning is Communion Sunday.

So I'm going to take just a moment to talk. I'm going to talk to you about communion. Which, speaking of the body of Christ, it's a great time to talk about communion.

We're told that on that last great night of the feast, when Jesus gathered with his disciples, he took the bread and he broke it. He said, this is my body, which is broken for you. Take it and eat. Then he took the cup and he said, and as often as you do this, do this in remembrance of me. Paul then in 1 Corinthians gave us instructions on what that's to look like.

Only the instructions, the instructions that he gave started off with a correction. He said, I understand that when you gather, you don't care about the body. And he didn't mean the body of Christ. He meant the body of Christ. He said, some of you go away hungry. Some of you go away drunk. And it's to your shame. He said, therefore, when you come together, remember what he said.

Remember that he took the bread and he broke it. And he said, take and eat. This is my body that's broken for you. And he took the cup and he said, take and drink. This is my blood, which is shed for you. As often as we do this, we proclaim the death of Christ. Therefore, we are to partake in a worthy manner. What's it mean to partake in a worthy manner? Well, first of all, you need to be a part of the body of Christ.

Otherwise, this doesn't mean anything to you. But second of all, it means that your heart needs to be right with Christ. You need to make sure that you are considering the body and understanding. Understanding what we're doing here. But also consider the body and make sure there's nothing between you and somebody else. That there's not a spirit of bitterness that has grown up in you.

It's time to confess our sins to the Lord and open back up those lines of fellowship with him. Amen. And so I'm going to ask the ushers to come down. And they're going to hand out the elements. As always, the two cups there. The bottom cup has the cracker. The top cup has the juice. As you receive your elements, please stand and we'll partake together. But as we sing this last song,

and these guys hand out these elements, I just want you to take the time and allow God to search your heart and see if there's any wicked way in you. There's love for treasure. He should give his only son his treasure.

Face away the chosen one.

And he's son to Jesus Christ. Resurrection. Resurrection. Why should I gain from his reign?

Father's love for us. Beyond all measure. Bless his treasure.

Would you bow with me?

Father. I'm sorry. Father, thank you.

Father, thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus. I thank you for his blood that was shed. I thank you for his body that was broken. And Lord, I pray that as we partake this morning, that we would... that we would truly understand the sacrifice that you have made for us. We thank you and we praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's partake.

Would you bow with me one last time? Father, thank you. Thank you that you have blessed us with your word. Thank you that you have blessed us with the gift of the Holy Spirit. And so, Lord, as we go out from this place, I pray that you would keep us ever in mind of who you are and who we are in you. We thank you, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.