Why Church? | Ephesians 4:7-16 | May 5 | Derek Neider

Speaker [00:00:06] We're in verse seven, chapter four, book of Ephesians. The Bible says, 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 gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended. What does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth? He who descended is the one who also 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 ministry. I want you to say that phrase today with me because it's really important. Okay? Starting in verse 12, ready one, two, three to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up. Oh, you just want to keep going. All right. Look at you guys. Yeah. 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. Grow up, y'all. We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Father, thank you for this beautiful picture that Paul gives us under the inspiration of your Holy Spirit of the church.

Speaker [00:02:04] We pray today that there'd be a working of your Spirit, God, that you would illuminate our understanding. Help us God. Help us to see what the church truly is and father, as we do. May our experience not go underutilized. God, may we get everything. Everything. Out of our experience of the church that you have intended. In Jesus name, Amen. You can have a seat today. I think that there are a lot of things that we live with, that we don't always understand what their purpose is. And if you don't fully understand what the purpose is of the things that you use, well, then you know that those things will go underutilized. I mean, you might get a little bit out of them, but you may not necessarily get everything out of them. I was thinking about, this this week and, you know, there's a lot of things that that we use on a daily basis that we just don't even realize what is there for. Kind of like the Coke can. Did you know the tap on your Coke can was designed and I did to say Pepsi because no one in their right mind drinks Pepsi, I said Coke. Do we have Pepsi fans here? Raise your hand if you're a Pepsi drinker or do we have Coke fans here? Raise your hand. Now look, this is how bad it is for me. If I go to a restaurant, I'm like, hey, I have a Coke Zero. And you're like, oh, we don't have Coke. We have Pepsi products. I'm tempted to get up and walk out. Is that is that bad anyway? Anyway, you can turn the tab around and that little circle that's been created has been intended, intentionally made so that your store doesn't.

Speaker [00:03:46] If any of you actually use a straw when you drink out of a Coke, can you know, if you put a straw in there, it's all over the map and your mouth can barely get it. Well, that's what the hole in the tab is for. We did what? You didn't know that. How many of you knew that? Raise your hand. Okay, well. I'll do. Way to go, girl. That's awesome. We've got one. You know, when you go to get takeout from a Chinese restaurant, the boxes that they're made in. I know sometimes it can be really frustrating because if they turn over, the juice of whatever is in there pours out, but, they've been intentionally made. So not only do they carry your food, but they they are actually a plate for your food so that when you unfold the box, you can you can eat the food right there and that. Isn't that cool. How many of you guys knew that? Okay. All right. We got a couple people, the bottom of your your wine bottle. Should I do a poll right now on this one? The bottom of your wine bottle has a divot in it. It's called a punt. And so a lot of you are like me and the manufacturers trying to rip me off with my wine. Well, no, not not so actually, it is built for the stability of the bottle. It is built in because the corking process is high pressure. And so that helps with not breaking the bottle. It's designed so the sediments of the wine are collected on the edges of the bottom of the bottle, and don't go into your glass. And, and then it's also for pouring. I don't know if you knew that, but there you go.

Speaker [00:05:15] Your spaghetti, your spaghetti spoon, your spaghetti spatula has a hole in the back of it. And you know what? The whole this for a well, okay. So, you know, I mean, you get your spaghetti out of the out of the pan, you've been boiling it in and you don't. What's that? Would you like to preach the message today? Hahahahahahahaha I love you know. It's good. I love the curiosity. Questions are awesome. So are statement. So. So if not just so that water goes through the spoon. It is so you can take your spaghetti and actually put it through that hole. And that is, the average size of a serving of spaghetti. So it gives you the perfect measure of spaghetti that you need to serve. So so there you have it today. Thank you for coming to church. All of these like enigmas of life, you can lead the day. And it's like, hey, my pastor answered some of the hardest questions I've had in my whole existence. Look, my point is this. Like we can be using stuff on a daily basis, not necessarily know what is it is for. And the result of that is that thing can go underutilized. I think it's that way with the church. I think there are a lot of people who have ideas about the church and, and, you know, opinions about the church and perspectives on the church. But there are many people today that that are gathering with the people of God and, and sitting in a building and not even necessarily they don't even necessarily know why they are there. And maybe they've never even thought about it, never even considered it, maybe never even asked the question what? What really is the purpose of the church? Why the church? And I think it's a good question for you and for me to ask, because if we don't ask that question, our experience of the church will absolutely be underutilized.

Speaker [00:07:12] It will. Absolutely it will. It will never get to the place that God wants you to be. And you know, God is the ultimate creative. We talk about creatives in our culture and and the power of the creative capacity. And all of that comes from God. God is the ultimate creative and he dreams into reality. God dreams into reality. I didn't say God's dreams turn into reality. He dreams into reality. He imagines and it becomes that's that's a powerful thing when you think about it, all God has to do is simply think. And that that thinking shapes the physical world that we live in and the realities that we are immersed in on a daily basis. I mean, our God is amazing, by the way. You can't do that because you're not God. You can't just dream and make it happen. You can't just imagine and make it so you don't just think and create from your thinking. Only God is able to do that. And I think that is one of the things that must compel us to praise him and can give him, give him the worship that he deserves. Because, you know, he thought of the whole universe and spoke and it came into existence. Give him praise today, chance. And you know with God his dreams are fly by night. Fancies that never materialized. Like I said, they're the concrete realities of life. And God's got a big dream, right? I mean, we are all living. This is what I'm saying today. We are immersed in the imagination of God. That's become the physical reality all around us. But God has a big dream. God has of all of the things that God has imagined and dreamed, there is one thing that kind of rises above the rest of them.

Speaker [00:09:00] You know what it is. Let me share a scripture with you today. Revelation chapter seven, verses 9 to 10. This is the big dream of God. When we think of the scope of time itself, the Bible says, after this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the lamb that is the. That is the dream, that is the dream. And listen, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, that is your future, that is your destiny, because God has decreed it so that hasn't even taken place yet, but because it is, it is in the mind and the heart of God. It is all ready, as if it's been done. It's already as if it's been done. And one day you will, as a follower of Jesus Christ, be part of that group that is standing before the throne and before the lamb. And you will be saying, and I just want to like, you know, when we all are in heaven and people are like, you know, where are you from? Or I'm Awaken Las Vegas and and I'm like, I don't want you guys not to know what to do because it'll be super embarrassing if you, like, look lost in heaven. Okay. So what you're going to be saying is salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb. And just a few, because I'm always looking out for your best interests just to prep you for your moment in heaven.

Speaker [00:10:38] Let's say that together, okay? Can we? Ready? One, two three. Salvation belongs to. Yeah, you're going to say just that lamely in heaven, I, I'm like, I'd be like, yeah, Lord, I did my best. I did my best with that crew. Let's try one more time. All right. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne. Yeah, yeah, that is that is your destiny. But, that on earth right now is called the church. That on earth right now is called the church. The church is a slice of heaven. The church is the dream of God. And what does that mean? Well, this is the dream of God. To create a diverse people united in faith around the one true God and His Son, Jesus Christ, and eternal people, fully functioning, fully functioning, gospel radiating spiritual gift, using culture, transforming, built up, grown up, unified, bound up in love as a force of gospel truth and love in his sovereign hand. That's that's the church. The first service was way more excited than you guys were about that. That. So let me, you know, forget it. It's too late. All right. I'm going to read it again, but don't like don't don't try to make up for the lost opportunity. God's dream to create a diverse people united in faith around the one true God and His son, Jesus Christ. We are. We are. By the way, the church is not boring people, right? The church is not boring like I used to think before I was a Christian. I'm like, man, those those old mothballs smelling, polyester wearing ancient songs, singing people like, what a miserable group of people to be around. I want nothing to do with that. Then I got saved. I'm like, man, the craziest, wildest, funnest.

Speaker [00:12:37] You fill in. You fill in the blank. Maybe a couple other words in there too. Group of people to be around is the church and eternal people. Fully functioning gospel radiating spiritual gift, using culture, culture transforming. We're not passive. And this is what Paul is saying here in these verses. Built up, grown up, unified up, bound up in love as a force of gospel truth and love in God's sovereign hand. All right. So what what Paul does in these verses is he explains, he explains the how, the who and the where of the building of God's church. He explains that. And I know this sounds really instructive today. And it listen, it is instructive because you should be wondering what the church is all about. You should be wondering what God's plan and intention is, because if you don't fully understand yourself, and I'm not saying that we all get it right off the bat like our understanding is progressive. There's no doubt about it. But if you're not knocking on that door, if you're not pursuing and seeking like you can find yourself going through Christian motions and for years, for months, for years and even decades, and not fully understanding what God intended all along in the first place. And so, in this very instructive section of Scripture, Paul explains the that the that, that the that that is I'm going to rap now. No, I'm not the how, the who and the where. Let me just remind you today we don't just go to church. We are the church. We don't just go to church. We are the church. Daniel, as he leads us in worship and he's addressing you, oftentimes he'll say, hey, church, hey, church. You know, and he's saying that because the church is not a building.

Speaker [00:14:32] The church is not a physical location. The church is not a brand. You know, the church is not about the brand. Awaken the church is the called out. We are the church. We are a people who've been gathered to God through faith in Jesus Christ. We are his own special people. We are heaven bound and we belong to him. So we are the we are the church. Check this out. He says in verse seven. Let me just reread a little bit here. 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. Drops into a parenthetical, to give some description. We're not going to drill down on this today because we don't have the time, he says in saying he ascended. What does it mean? But that he had also descended into the lower regions? Comma, the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers. and that is connected back to the Old Testament quote here. When he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. So, Paul, Paul, number one is establishing how God builds his church. How does God build this church while he does so through the fivefold gifts that he has given to equip God's people, the fivefold gifts that he is given to equip his people apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher. He says this, he says when he ascended and like, make no mistake about it, when Jesus was crucified and laid in the tomb and, had died for our sins, the tomb did not have the power to hold him down.

Speaker [00:16:24] Death could not hold him back. His bones are not there today. He rose again on the third day, and not only did he rise again victoriously on the third day, but he ascended to the very right hand of God. He is the living Savior. You know, some people might say, hey, why do you why do you worship a dead rabbi? Because our our dead rabbi rose again on the third day, and he sits at the right hand of the father, making intercession for us. This idea of ascension, you know, Paul has already talked about it. He was talking about the power that works within every single Christian, and that power is the same power. So if you are a follower of Christ, there is a power at work within you. It is the same power that not only raised Jesus from the dead, but it. Empowered him in the Ascension. Far above every principality and power gave him the name that is above all names, and is seated him at the very right hand of God. As he was ascending, the Bible says, he distributed gifts to his people. Remember when Jesus ascended, the ascension of Jesus signified the initiation of the Great Commission. In other words, as he ascended, he commissioned his disciples. He handed off the baton, as it were, for them to carry on his redemptive work. Not that they would themselves die to redeem anybody, but they would preach the message of the gospel, so that whoever believes in Jesus would be redeemed by the power of his blood. This is the Great Commission. They were called to go into all the world, listen and and make disciples, not make converts. Right? I mean, there's a big difference. Sometimes I think today, you know, the idea of thank God for the gift of a gift of evangelism.

Speaker [00:18:25] But we have this idea, hey, if we can just get people to take that one step, if we can just get them to respond, if we can just get them converted, if they can just choose Jesus and I say, yeah, absolutely. That is a critical, absolutely critical step for every single person to take that they might have the assurance of everlasting life, because without trust and faith in Jesus, there is no assurance of everlasting life. There's only one way to the to the father eternally, and that is through the son. But after that step is taken. The Bible calls us then to to make disciples out of those who have chosen to follow Jesus. It's not just about converts. It's not just about numbers. It's about making disciples. And God has supplied gifted men and women to lead the way in discipleship, making the word gift here when he says gifted men. And of course, he's talking about gifted men and women. The the word is dome. In the original language it means a gifted person. And so in every local church there will be leaders that emerge. And in every local church there will be the fivefold gifts of the Holy Spirit at work. Apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd and teacher. Now, I know some of you were like, well, wait a minute, wait a minute. Aren't those first two gifts, office gifts? And didn't they cease to exist when the scriptures were canonized? And and so, yes, apostle and prophet, there's two aspects to the apostle and prophet. There for sure are the original apostles and prophets. And these were individuals, specifically apostles, who saw the resurrected Jesus Christ. They were authorized by God to be instruments through which he breathed His Word. And so it was required to be a person, in an official capacity as an apostle or prophet, to be able to write a book in the Bible.

Speaker [00:20:25] And that certainly is the foundation of our faith. Paul says it like this in Ephesians 2:19, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. And so with respect to that type of gifting that ended with the canonization of Scripture, but there are today still apostles and prophets at work within God's church, even though they're the capacity of their service and their calling is different. God has given, like I said, every local church, all five of these gifts. And the purpose of these gifts is to equip the people of God to engage in his mission. Sometimes these individuals have an official, church function. Sometimes they're acknowledged. This is what I'm saying in an official capacity. More often than not, though, these gifts are scattered throughout the congregation, and these individuals are operating in a non-official capacity. This is important for us because sometimes what we do is we professionalize the clergy, and we think there's only, you know, a very small percentage of individuals who are actually authorized by God to do the work of the ministry. And what Paul says here is going to really, tear down that concept, that caste system that operates within the church. We need all five of these gifts. Sometimes when I'm developing leadership teams, I will make sure that we have the apostolic gift, that we have the prophetic gift, the evangelist, the shepherd, the teacher, because you don't want the team of leaders to be all apostolic, because we'll be running over everybody. We'll be dragging everybody along. To fulfill the mission. You need the shepherd that's present as well to care for the people. You need the teacher present to make sure individuals are well instructed.

Speaker [00:22:26] You need the prophet present to bring a word of God to the people of God in a specific context. In time, that's going to hit the mark. Let me say it like this. We need apostles so that we are pushed out of our comfort zone to relentlessly expand the Kingdom of God beyond our four walls. We need the prophets to discern culture and covenant, and have an awareness of sin so that we can be exhorted to live out our faith. We need the evangelists because people need to be saved and they need continual exposure to the gospel. We need shepherds because as the people of God, we need guidance, we need care, and we need to be compelled to live in community. And we need teachers because we need to know truth. We need to know biblical doctrines. And we need to know how to live them out in our lives. And so in every local body of believers, God is building his church through these fivefold gifts so that the people of God can be equipped. That is the who of the building of God's church. And Paul says it here in verse 12. I love this verse to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Man, that is so good. You should highlight it, underline it, memorize it. It for sure is the memorization verse in the life Group curriculum this week to equip the saints for the work of ministry. So in other words, listen, God has given the fivefold gifts so that the people of God can be built up to do the work of the ministry in building up the body of Christ. I'm going to say this quote a couple of times this weekend. Every Jesus follower learns to reach their full spiritual potential in the local church.

Speaker [00:24:15] Every Jesus follower learns to reach their full spiritual potential in the local church. And like I said, God has given the fivefold gifts so that every Christian can be equipped for the work of the ministry. There are some differences in translation here. And it comes out by the insertion of a comma, which I just want to point out today, because maybe your translation, verse 12 says to equip the saints comma for the work of the ministry, comma for building up the body of Christ. Comma. And if it reads like that, the problem is you can start to think, well, the fivefold gifted individuals, they're the ones who do those three things. They equip the saints. They do the work in the ministry and they build up the body of Christ. If you have the ESV, you know the comma is not there and it's not intended to be there because we are all called to do the work of the ministry. Do you know that today? Do you know that today? Listen, I. I mean, I think you should know it because I say it all the time. But the reality is, there are so many people in churches today that have created, like I said, a caste system where you have the professional clergy, the paid staff, you know, the people that are on the payroll, they do the work of the ministry, they're the gifted ones. They're the qualified ones. They've like reached this place of spiritual maturity where now they're able to be used by God. Then you got the rest of us. You got the rest of us, man. We're just, you know, trying to figure it out. We're not super spiritual, so we probably don't qualify. We never went to Bible college or or seminary, so we don't have the degree.

Speaker [00:25:59] And you know what? We work out in the marketplace. And so we have these reasons why we feel like we've been disqualified for the work of the ministry. And that absolutely is not the perspective that Jesus ever had for his church. The perspective he had for his church was that all of us, every single one of us, would be being equipped. The word equip means to be trained. It means to be prepared, to equip the saints. The word saint refers to every single person who put who has put their trust and faith in Jesus Christ. You're a saint. You're a saint. I'm not being sarcastic today, okay? You're a saint. You. If you believed in Jesus, man, you've been forgiven of your sins. You're blood bought. You're a child of a living God. You've been set apart for divine purposes. There's this extraordinary thing. There's this extraordinary thing. The devil comes and says to you, man, you're such a loser. You're such a bum. God could never use you. Like, really get a clue. And you say, no, devil, you know I'm turning the volume off of your voice. I'm shutting the door on your lies I'm a saint in Jesus name. That's what I am. You know, because you can look at your life just like I can look at my life. And you can focus on your failures. And there's not one of us who have had an absolutely perfect, sinless week this week. If you are a person who has the gall today to say that you live the last seven days without falling short of the glory of God in any capacity, have a conversation after this service today. I just want to show you some Bible verses. I'm just saying today that it's not our works that qualify us to do the work of God.

Speaker [00:27:46] It's his work on the cross that qualifies us. So it is every Christian, and it is the work of the ministry that simply means that God wants you. God wants you to use your spiritual gifts and talents in his service. God wants you to use your spiritual gifts and talents in his service. There are spiritual gifts that God has given you. There are innate talents that God has placed within you. There are things that you've learned over the course of your life that God has blessed you to have the capacity to learn, because you can't even live without him giving you breath in your lungs. And you can take all of that and bring it into the service of God. It's an amazing thing to consider. You know, I know a number of professional athletes, and when it comes time for them, maybe, you know, over the course of time it's been people that are in track and field, people that play baseball professionally or football, and my, my athlete friends, you know, they always live a healthy lifestyle. But when it comes to, season, maybe for baseball, like months ahead, they are, man. They are training, they are preparing. They are preparing body, soul and spirit. I mean, they have refined their regimen to make sure that when they're on the field performing, they are fit enough to fulfill the purpose. And the purpose is to win. And so, you know, they have a very restrictive diet, restrictive diet that they're on. They have this regular routine of of exercise so that they're strong and that they have stamina. And I would just say if if athletes do that for an earthly goal, how much more should Christians do that for a heavenly goal? We are the people of God.

Speaker [00:29:37] Why do we gather together on a Sunday morning? Well, yes, because it's a sacred place where we can worship God and meet him. Yes, it's a sacred place where we can have communion with his people. But I just want to say, also, brothers and sisters, if you've been hanging around Awaken Las Vegas for any amount of time, you know this is true. This is also gym time. It's gym time. I'm not saying come in your gym clothes. I'm just saying it's gym time. This is prep time. This is grow time. This is equip time. This is train time so that you can be built up so that you can be strengthened up so that you can be trained up in the things of God. This is the time where we take our relationship with God seriously, not passively. You know, God's desire is this that all of his people would be exercising their spiritual gifts to build up and to be built up. And it's then and only then that the church will be fully activated to reach its full potential. For instance, today, maybe there's 20% of us in this room that are actually taking our relationship with God seriously, focused on being equipped up in our faith so that we can do the work of the ministry. Well, the truth is this in this congregation, at this service, we will only really experience 20% of the potential of what God could be doing in this room. And so maybe after the service today, you know, some of you are stirred up and so we get to 30% and 30% would be amazing, but that's still only 30% of the potential of what God could do with us as a church. And, and and then maybe as 35 and 45 and 50 and 75 and listen, any pastor, any pastor would love a church where 75% of the people are not just passive.

Speaker [00:31:32] And there will. Ship, but cob. But there's serious about taking steps to grow so that they can do the work of the ministry. But the truth is this we will not be settled or satisfied until it's 100%. We will not be settled or satisfied until it's 100%. So the moral of the message today is this don't make me wait, y'all. Duh duh. Don't be the holdout. Don't make me wait. Right? I mean, think about it. If the Vegas Knights. Go, Knights! Go! Knights! Go! Knights go! Game seven. Come on baby. But. But if the boys all year long showed up for practice with an int. With a double double in their hand, animal style with animal fries. And their coach is like, hey, get on the ice. I'm like, nah, I'd rather I'd rather binge on Netflix, you know, while they're scarfing down their Double-Double. You know, the coach is saying, well, what are you doing to get yourself in shape? They're like, yeah, you know, I mean, we're it'll all work. We'll just show up. Like, we'll just show up and it'll happen. Well, what would happen tonight at game seven is they get run over by the stars. That's exactly what would what would happen because the other team is taking this seriously. And so let me just tell you, the other team is taking it seriously. The adversary is wasting no time. He's wasting no time. And it's it's Sunday is more than just showing up. Listen, showing up is good, but it is not a winning strategy. You yourself. I have a I have a strategy for my own spiritual growth. Rachel has a strategy for her own spiritual growth. There are times, honestly where it is a struggle. It's a battle.

Speaker [00:33:11] It's a fight. You've got to press in. Sometimes it's three steps forward and two steps back. But if you do not have a strategy for your own spiritual growth, right. Because and not that you see it this way, but pastor's not always going to be there in the morning saying, hey, listen, devotion time. I am with my kids, but not with you guys. Devotion time. Come on, get up. Open up your Bible. Time to pray like you have to have that desire and passion within yourself. The Bible says in Titus 2:13, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are who are what zealous self, what a zealous mean. Miriam. Go ahead. There we go. Give me a word. Passionate. Fiery. Fire on fire in Fuego. If you were to an oasis today, I mean on fire, right, zealous. We're called to be zealous. Fired up on fire, passionate for the things of God. And I'm saying to you, like when that happens, when the. When passion for God grips a church, then the body builds itself up. When passion for God builds, when passion for God grips a church. Then it's not just the pastor standing on the stage that's doing the equipping. Pretty soon you guys are equipping each other. Pretty soon you're building each other up. And when you are building each other up, that is when the church grows exponentially. I don't know if you've ever seen an Amish barn raising. Have you ever heard of that before? When they in the Amish community, when they build a barn, what they do is the whole community comes out all the all the wood and stuff like that is there.

Speaker [00:35:07] There's a group of leaders that are kind of organizing the event, and the whole community builds the barn in one single day, builds a barn in one single day. A building that probably would take a week or months to build is literally built in 24 hours because everyone is doing the work. And the same can be said for the church. When all of us are working in community, our church grows. The way Paul puts it here is that that church that has individuals being equipped for the work of the ministry will have the unity, the faith, the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God. That church will be standing on truth, not tossed around by every wind and wave of doctrine. That church will grow up into Christ speaking the truth and love. That church will be joined, will be joined and held together like ligaments, muscles, tendons and joints in the physical body. That church will be working on each other, not working each other over. There will be a mutual equipping happening in that congregation. Why? Because the who, which is everybody, is engaged. The final thing today is this it's the where. That obviously is the local church that you're planted in. Paul references this in the first six verses he talks about. He talks about the culture that we're called to grow in. Let me just reread this quote to you. Every Jesus follower learns to reach their full spiritual potential in the local church. And Paul laid that out. Like all living, things grow when they're planted in the right soil. When you're planted in the right soil, that's when you are cultivated and incubated. That's when you begin to grow. And the soil, the culture of the church should be humility, gentleness, patience, love, and an attitude where we are eager to fight for unity, where we maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Speaker [00:37:08] Paul is saying to to this church, hey, be planted, be planted in the local church that you're a part of. Because when you're planted in the church, that is when you grow. You know, back in this time 2000 years ago, there was one church in Ephesus. There was one church in Philippi, there was one church in Thyatira. Today, in the city of Las Vegas, there are literally hundreds of churches to choose from. And there are amazing churches in our city. And if you don't like our church anymore, come and talk to me. I'll reference that. I'll reference a great church for you. But the thing is this sometimes what happens is people just church hop. They're like, well, I like that preacher and I like that worship team, and I like the way they do production there. I like the way they have their building in their property. I like the fact that they give donuts, after the second service on Sunday morning at that church. And, and so it's kind of like you got this smorgasbord of churches and so you, you know, you church hop, you pop from church to church, all of that under the guise of, well, I haven't really found the right church for me. What? Like what? What are you waiting for? Are you serious? How is that even possible? No. The reality is this. Sometimes people do that because they prefer the shallow relationship. Sometimes it becomes a cover. It's a it's a way to conceal the reality of how shallow they are with the Lord, because they never are able to dig deep in relationships. They're never exposed to somebody saying to them, hey man, how's your devotional time? How's your marriage? How are you doing with your kids? How can we help you grow in your relationship with God? Like if you pop from church to church? I'm just telling you today you will never grow in your faith.

Speaker [00:38:55] You will never grow in your faith. Christian growth does not occur in isolation. I love the fact that we have online services, and I think it's great for people who are in the military or are shut ins. But if you think that you can just engage with the church on a regular basis online and grow as a believer, you'll grow in your head knowledge, but you will not grow in your heart knowledge. You need the body of Christ, and the body of Christ needs you. If you're walking down the street this week and maybe after the service and you're going to lunch and you're walking along, all of a sudden you see, you see a finger on the ground. I'm just prepping you for lunch today. It's like you're walking along. You see this finger on the ground? Just like you know. You know something's wrong. You know what I'm saying? You know something's wrong. Because you know that finger supposed to be attached to somebody. And so you're thinking, man, that poor person who lost their finger and that finger is not meant to be there alone. There it is all lonely on the sidewalk, bleeding out, not connected to life, not connected to life. No longer able to be used at all because it has been dismembered. And this is the whole picture the Apostle Paul gives as he likens the body of Christ to a body like we are not meant to be dismembered from the body of Christ, because when we're dismembered we lose the flow of life. I mean, there is evidently and obviously something wrong because we're built to be together. Brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you like plant yourself, plant yourself, be connected. The phrase we use all the time is plug in.

Speaker [00:40:47] Thank God that you're here. But while you're here, be all in since you're here and take small steps to do that. I don't mean to sound like a fortune cookie today, but the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Okay, now you don't need to go get Chinese food, because there it is. I gave I gave it to you today. The journey of a thousand miles. Because I say all of that. And some of you are like, pastor man, I am so far away from that. Like, that sounds so big to me. You've just, like, laid this whole thing out. It sounds like Mount Everest. Well, listen, start the journey by taking one small step up. And as you take that step, take a small step, another small step, and then as you take that step, don't stop stepping. And pretty soon, what you'll see is that you are being conformed and shaped into the image of Jesus. And not only that, but but God's going to give you so much purpose because you're going to discover that this church needs you.