Well, I want to thank you for coming out and love having you young people. You deserve purple hearts coming out here. I always went to church because my dad was bigger than me until I got saved. Uh, let's kind of, uh, would you be okay if we had come a Bible study? It's a Bible conference, and so tonight I'll just, instead of preaching at you and making you feel guilty, maybe we can look at Ephesians 4, and as I looked at it, I really think we'll go, let's see, I won't go over so long. And see, no time on that. That it's a great chapter. We could be looking at verses 11 through 16, which are classic in Bible churches, by the way. MacArthur's, first time I ever heard John MacArthur, he spoke on this passage. But I'd like to give you kind of a sweep of the book a little bit, and then focus what 4 is about. Let's take it this way. The first three chapters of Ephesians are about the riches we have in Christ. Chapter 1, we've been chosen by the Father, been predestined, we've been adopted, we go to the Son, We've been forgiven. We've been purchased by his blood. The spirit becomes the earnest of our salvation. The down payment seals us into Christ. He goes into this magnificent prayer in verse 15, praying for the saints. Many times, if you want to get out of the rut of praying, pray the apostolic prayers. Pray Ephesians 1. Pray Ephesians 3. Pray Philippians 1. Pray Colossians 1. You'll be amazed if you'll just pray those prayers, you'll know how to pray for the church, because he's addressing what we really need. Because some of our prayers get rather drab, kind of routine, bless the grandchildren, help me not to have to pay too much taxes, and help my wife to be sweet. God's heard that enough. You ought to move on to some other subjects. because we just get in ruts and that's why I think we really need to pray the Psalms. I find them, they bring my mind and give me an outline to pray because if my mind just wanders, No telling. So then you go to chapter 2 and he begins to describe what our salvation. He said in his prayer that you need to thank God for the power that was able to raise Christ from the dead. It's beautiful what he does in 2. And he said the power that raised Christ from the dead is the same power that raised you from the dead when you were in sin. Because God viewed us as corpses. We were dead towards him. cut off from his life. He goes through that and describes what it was like. In chapter 2, the classic verse, for by grace are you saved, verse 8. And not by words, not anything you've done, it's a gift of God. But we often forget verse 10. Let's see what verse 10 says. We know we got saved by grace. This was not our own doing. It's a gift of God that no one should boast. It's all of grace, right? God saved you from a motive of unmerited favor. You never did anything to merit his love. And as a believer, can you ever do anything to demerit or get him to unlove you? Well, he says over and over. I don't plan to stop loving you." He says, God has stubborn love. Kathy Tricoli recorded it, but God said it first. The word for loving kindness in scripture is the word for stubborn love. It's bulldog love. It won't let go. It's mama love. Honey, I don't care what you do. I'm your mama. You got it? Got it straight. This is God. I love you with a bulldog tenacity. I'm in covenant union with you, Israel. I love you with a steadfast love. Well, then he comes to verse 10, for we are his, and let me say it in the Greek, poema, which was often translated poem, and it also was translated masterpiece. It's beautiful that you are God's masterpiece, okay? Created in Christ Jesus for a life of boredom, for a life of do nothing. No, no, but God who foreknew you before the foundation of the world, here it says he saved you on purpose and he's got a preset, a good works lined out that he intends to do with you. In chapter three, he's gonna say we were fitted into the body of Christ. Let me tell you something about being fitted there. It means chiseled. is the idea. And whether you know this or not, when Solomon was building the temple, guess what? They were not allowed to use one hammer on the temple site. None of this kink, kink, kink. No hammers building Solomon's temple. And yet the stones fit perfectly. You know why? At the quarry, where they got these stones, that's where they fitted them. They cut ridges in them. They cut, everything was so laid out, pre-planned, that by the time they got them to the temple site, they just fit together, like the pyramids. The stones just cut the groove. No hammers. They were designed at the quarry. And he uses this word of you in Ephesians 2 and 3. You were fitted. He made us fit to be in the body of Christ. You know what he's saying? God chiseled you out from the quarry of sin and designed the very time in history when the body would need you and all of a sudden he slipped you into the body of Christ where the Jew or Gentile at the exact time, the exact moment, you're a masterpiece, you fit in the body of Christ. because he chiseled you out at the cost of his son. So, you're there. There's no misfits in the body. He chiseled, it's all that you got. You fit. And he said, I've outlined you, chiseled you, put you in the body, gifted you in the body, In order that you can be fulfilled doing all the wonderful works I've already designed for you. Just finished reading Amy Carmichael's life by Elizabeth Elliot. What a life, what a life. God designed her life. Mary Schlesler. Read her life. Wow. Amazing the different lives what God accomplished. Look at Spurgeon. Died, I believe, at 57. Whitefield died about 58. I called my friend Frank Griffith when my friend Steve Fernandez died. And I said, boy, isn't it amazing that God takes so many great men when they're so young? I said, Frank, that means you and I have a long life coming. The greats die young. The so-sos can live a long time. Well, was it gratifying? I know. He goes on here in chapter 3, he says only God can make people come together. He takes Jew and Gentile. So the first three chapters is all about our riches in Christ, our position in Christ. But then the second half of the book, he picks up our responsibility now that we're in Christ. Our responsibility to these riches. We've got this wonderful position in Christ, Now what's going to be our practice on earth? Position you've got made. Now he's going to start dealing with the practical nitty-gritty issues of how do you function down here on earth. Now we pick up chapter four. The first thing he's going to deal with is unity. And unity is based, he says, on two things. Subjective attitudes. and objective absolutes, subjective attitudes. Look what it says. I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you've been called. The word worthy means equal weight, balance. May your walk equal to your position. Keep, it was actually, the word was used of balance as axis. And he says, put your life, you've got these wonderful riches here in Christ, these wonderful things God's done for us. Now, let your life walk in keeping, worthy of it, in a proper response. And guess what? The one that's really walking in the riches of grace, the first thing that ought to tell you is humility. He says that. You remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11? And this just kind of blows your mind. I came all the way from heaven. And one of the main things I want to teach you disciples, if you'll ever get in the yoke with me, the first two things on the agenda is I'm going to teach you to be humble, to be meek. You mean you got to send God and flesh to teach men to be humble? Yep. Because God lost the whole human race due to pride, and he lost one-third of the angels due to pride, and he's lost many a saint due to pride. Preachers either die from pride or discouragement. They don't know which one is worse. They either get so big-headed they fall, or they stay so discouraged they can hardly open the Bible. And somewhere in between there, maybe we just got to learn to be humble and meek and say it's a life of desperate dependence. We can do nothing except Christ do it. So he says, the first part of our unity is people that feel humble about themselves. See, humility always sees the other person as equal or better. Pride always looks down. Pride always puts people under you. C.S. Lewis says, pride feeds on comparison. You know, you just think, you think you've got a nice house until you go to somebody's house that's nicer. And then all of a sudden, you don't want to be good, you want to be better. That's our pride. Can you be just happy in what God gives you? Who cares about being better? I take music here. I'm not even good at music, but I love it anyway. I was with John Hannah a while back, and we get ready, did a lecture on John Owens. He said, man, I want to lead you in some music. But he said, I don't really know how to sing. I thought, oh, great. Now he said, you know, I'm really no good at singing, but I open all my classes with a song. And he said, you know what? Some of the happiest people in the world are people that have learned to be happy with being average. It's all the perfectionists that are miserable. That's good enough. That's good enough. Man, when I first played guitar, they thought I learned to demolish chords. supposed to be diminished but I made them demolish. Uh my sister wrote the chords, did the teaching, and if I couldn't hear a a chord or something, my dad said, you must not have the gift of music cuz we don't read sheets in our family. We hear it, then we find it on the instrument. Don't need a sheet. God just puts it in between years and you know it. You hear that? That's a minor. What's a minor? I don't even know a major. And John Hannah said, why don't you learn to be happy with what God's made you? You can enjoy a lot of things and just be average. Huh? I don't have to give up the guitar because I don't play like Atkins. I just hate to get my guitar at church and find gasoline poured on it. I mean, it's not kind. They never even let me play in the band anymore. They've upped their qualifications. I used to play all the time, but he says they want to be humble, gentle, patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit. If you don't have that subjective attitude, you'll be a hard person to get along with. Then he goes on to seven doctrines that all believers ought to hold together one God. one god and father, one lord, one spirit, one baptism, one faith, the faith, one hope. So, it goes into seven common things that are seven essentials for any fellowship. If we can't agree on that, we might not be able to make it in the same local church. I mean, if we just can't agree on one lord and who that is, yeah, we might, we People who have unity don't throw truth out. We have solid, objective absolutes that we build our lives around. We don't exclude a person because they baptize infants, but we differ. We baptize only believers. Do I think that guy that sprinkles babies going to heaven? I really do. He can go to heaven. You can go to heaven and be wrong about a lot of stuff, right? Can you be mixed up on prophecy and still make it? Well, I hope so. Most of the church is mixed up. That's God's problem, isn't it? It's not my problem, but I do want the basic essentials. What do you think of Christ? What's the basis of your faith? Is it the Bible or your dreams and revelations? So he talks about this and then he says, the body needs to be equipped. Now, did they do PowerPoint? I asked Bridget, are you here? Hi. Oh, okay. Well, it's like a lot of my points. There's no power, no point. That's okay. Hey, I could just rattle this. Six things, six things I would say. God's plan to mature the body I'm going to just list the six things. We need to be equipped, even if we're saved. So Christ gives gifts to men, verses seven, right through there. Then he comes to 11, that classic verse of Bible churches of Dallas and said, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds or pastors and teachers. Why did he give them? Number one, to equip the saints for the work of ministry. The word equip is a graphic word, kadartizo. It meant to set broken bones. It was used in Matthew 4 of the men mending their nets. It was used, translated, fitted, prepared. And the idea is it's in an incomplete state. In the case of the broken bone, it's not able to function unless it's adjusted, unless the bone is set right. the net, if it's left unmended, the fish get out, and the purpose for which it was designed is lost. And so he says, I'm saving 3,000 people on the day of Pentecost, but nobody knows how to minister, nobody is equipped. Just like you when you first got saved, what did you know how to do that could build up the body? And then I think of men, apostles, prophets. I think they knew, but their role pretty good. But by the time we get to Act 6, the apostles are about to be drowned in church business. They're about to step away from what their purpose was to settling disputes among the widows and the daily distribution of food. And the Greek Jews did not feel they were being treated right. And so guess what? The apostles themselves were being embroiled, being tempted to go in there and settle every church dispute, even over something like widows fighting that they weren't getting enough food. Should the widows be cared for? No question. 1 Timothy 5 tells you how to treat the widows. They're important to God. They're important to the church. But the apostles immediately knew, if we get bogged down in such affairs, we will cease to carry out our assignment, which is this, to equip you, the saints, those 3,000 people that had gotten saved on the day of Pentecost, 5,000 later, who is going to equip 8,000 brand new believers? There's no Bible colleges, there's no seminaries, there's no local churches, there's just springing up in house churches. Who in the world would teach the saints how they can have a divine ministry in the body? Who? Who? I grew up with pastors that were expected to make all hospital calls, always had to come by the house, had to be in homes all the time, had to do visitation, had to do so many wonderful good things, the parson kind of stuff, nice, nice, nice, nice, and were very ill prepared for Sundays. They did not have any equipping ministry. I sat in one. I was in this church 15 till I, I never was equipped. I never knew the Bible until I started paying tuition at a Bible school. I could never get equipped in the church I went to. It was recycled sermons, it was ignorance, it was a lot of prayer meetings, a lot of good things, precious memories, but the pulpit, there was nobody that taught me anything. I learned everything I learned in my home, but not in my church. I learned to play guitar, because we were a bunch of southerners, played mandolins, banjos, guitars, and I'd go to church just to hear guys play music. Because some of them can play rock and roll too. And we do that after church. But I never could get equipped. I didn't know anything. And my own dad, he said, we never get equipped. We're never taught. I love prophecy, but the pastor doesn't know anything. And all over the country, good men. men that love the Lord, but never learned to teach the saints what they needed to know for them to have a ministry. See, Our ministry up here ought to be to see you have a ministry so that you go to a church and all of a sudden the ministry is happening by the people. I'll give you an example. When we first started the church, boy, when you don't have any people, you do everything. We set up the building. We did all the visitation. We ran off the bulletin. We did it all. We're church planters. We don't have anybody sponsoring us. We do everything. knock on doors on Saturday, do evangelism, teach all the classes on Sunday. You know, do it. Loved it. I was young. Plenty of energy. But I noticed this. Seemed like everybody we visited were the ones that never came back. And we used to laugh. Don't visit them. They won't come back. There's something about your manner that is just turning them off terribly. And then, then, uh, hospital visitation. My wife is better at that. She's got the gift of mercy. That's why she married me. I needed it. Uh, but she is, she'd say, have you gone see this one in the hospital? I think, well, do I have, pastors have got to visit the sick, but I would go there. Some people would just cry because I was there. You know, that one guy wrote me the note. Pastor, would you quit standing on the air hose? You know, and he nearly went out on me, you know. I wasn't good at visitation. But guess what, started teaching the word. And this is true, by the time I get to the hospital at our church, I would say on an average of 5 to 10 people have already been there. They hate to see me coming because then they know it's fatal. So keep him away. Why do I have the master touch on hospital visitation? When did I get the monopoly on comfort? The body of Christ can do it 10 times better. Can't they? Are you just a bunch of infants that I can't do? My only role in the body is to listen to you poor preachers. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. This church is no better than the functioning of every member. And that's the goal. Every member finding their fulfillment where they fit in the body, where they can contribute in the body. It's not building a church around us guys up here. We're fading, we're passing, the body's going on. It's to make the body where everybody is having a ministry. And that's what fulfills you, right? When you're contributing to the body of Christ. In our church, we say amen when we agree. So next time I just kind of do like, you say amen. Good, you're contributing. Now I'll go longer, thank you. Come on, chill out. I'm up here working, killing myself, and I can't hardly hear you breathe. Come on. If you don't believe this stuff, say boo. Ushers, get them out of the building. What does this happen when they get their ministry? It builds up the body of Christ. And then notice the whole emphasis on maturity. We will come to the unity of the faith and experiential knowledge of the Son of God. We have come to mature manhood, to the measure of Christ. He's the measurement. Not are we as big as Rick Warren's church. That's not the measurement. He's not going to ask us when we get to heaven, how many did you run? Numbers will never come up. He'll ask you, did I do, did you do what I told you? Not how big you got. That's what men are all good. How, by the way, how much do they pay you? Won't come up. I hope I don't have to stand next to the martyrs. Please don't put me by some people I've read about in history. And I've groused about small things and they sung as they went to their, the stake. You know, we are believers that are walking in the steps of the martyrs. Those who have done this ministry, many have been beheaded, have been killed. Just the first 300 years, Dioclesian, Caligula, Nero, Trajan, they loved to kill us. They loved to kill us. They loved to dress us in lion skin and put us in an arena and watch us die. But they could snuff out this church. They came up with the saying that the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church. You can't snuff it out because it's built not on a pope, not on a preacher, but upon a resurrected Christ, a living head. Do you believe that? That's who we follow. He goes on you'll grow up, you'll grow up, the body will be built up, on and on. Then he goes on when he says, if these gifted men will do their job and not get sidetracked, and do their job. Then he goes on to say, let me tell you practical ways maturity shows itself. And it's basically maturity manifests itself in its ability to get along with people. That's the real test. In the book of Proverbs, the wisdom sometimes is how to handle money, how to handle booze, how to beware of the immoral places and seductions of life. But the majority of the wisdom taught there is how to get along with a fool, how to avoid and how to learn from a wise man. It's people interaction. The way we interact with people shows if you're wise or foolish. And that wisdom isn't most of wisdom, not how to fix your car, but how to get along with your neighbor. That's where wisdom really kicks in. Now he goes down, he says, you're not like the Gentiles. I don't want you to act like the Gentiles. And he picks up down here in verse 20, by the way, put off your old life and put on the new life. Now, I think what's very interesting, we all as a whole came from a family. Some of us might've been adopted, you may have been fostered, but you wind up in some sort of family system. And most of us, what's really tough when you get married is two systems come into class, contrast. My folks did it this way. My folks did it this way. Well, which is the right way? Well, neither one might have been right, but you usually opt. This way my folks did money. I don't know about you, when you got married, I went after the same products. They weren't still making gifts in refrigerators or we would have bought one. My folks always had the gifts and I think the last one they made was 45. But I wanted to buy the same products. because a family system. And then you get into the family of God. All of a sudden you wind up in first mixed up Baptist church on Alley Street. Now you're thrown in there, let's say with a hundred other believers from different backgrounds about everything, morals, money, politics, a lot of stuff. And all of a sudden you're to come together and be one. Maybe ethnicity's different, Jew, Gentile. And he says, now in this family of God, put off the old systems, the old behavior of the unsaved life, even family life. and start learning a new way of life, the new way in the body of Christ, the family. You've got a new father, you've got new brothers and sisters, you've got a new spirit in you. Start putting on the new life. And then he starts telling them ways to do that. And let me just list it to you. Okay. First of all, unity, subjective and objective. My attitude is subjective. Objective are seven basic truths. He goes on, the duties of those gifted men that he wanted to train the church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor, teachers. You got to have those men equipping. the body will mature. Now he's just giving us some practical outworkings of how the body that's maturing and is what God wants, how they get along. Let me just rattle these off and then we'll wrap up. First thing he's saying, put off, put on. Then he says, verse 25, simply become truthful. Become truthful people. Verse 15, he said, when you tell the truth, do it in a loving way. In my family, my mother could tell you the truth, but not in a loving way all the time. She wasn't concerned about love when she was upset with you. You better get with it. And there's some people that can, they're good at telling you off and they think that's the way God made. I'm truthful. I'll just tell you like it is. Could you just say it a little nicer? Can you imagine your doctor? I'm going to just tell you like it is. You've got cancer. Mr. Bedside manners deficient. Could you say it kinder? It won't change the prognosis, but you could be gentler with me. And so he said, learn to tell the truth. And the blend is, can you tell the truth and then walk away feeling loved? And you know, it's easy to be a liar. We were all born liars. I mean, all little kids lie. At least my family, they do. I know yours were immaculately conceived, but mine weren't. They lie. They just, they want to get out of a spanking or get out of pain or, you know, it's just, it's just part of human nature. Uh, adults, we get more refined at it. I'll see you at one and we're not there all the time till 1 30. Well, he's just lied. Well, that's just about, you know, I'm busy. Can you keep time? Can you keep your word? Let's move on. He goes on, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Is it a sin to be angry? How many say yes? How many say no? Well, good. I'm at home with you. If I'm angry, would it be, and the classic counseling thing is you either blow up or you clam up. You either just really go berserk, or you won't speak to your mate, let's say, for three days. Because you're angry. I'm not going to make up quick. In our early marriage, I blew up the most, so I'd always ask forgiveness and want to make it right. But take my wife four days to be in the mood to let it go. So I thought, ooh, this isn't fun. I don't get her back for four days. because we both, the anger went two ways. I exploded. I can do all this. Oh, honey, by the way, forgive me. Well, I'll think about it. What do you mean the Bible says you are to forgive? By George, I'll quote it to you in the Greek. She said, well, I happen to be a Dutch and I'm not in the mood. You blew it, Bozo. And I'll forgive you when I'm in the mood. I'm in the mood for love. Well, I'm not. Okay, we took anger two ways. I blew up, she clammed up. Both of us wrong. Probably the way to be angry is to say, you know what? What you just said made me angry. I really am angry about that. That's all you'd have to say. It's, we would be in denial to deny the emotion, wouldn't we? I have, that angers me, but I don't want to sin. Anger can sometimes move you to action. If it's good action, the emotion is a good emotion. Most of the times, James says you'll do something wrong. Seldom do you do anything right until you work out the anger. What am I going to do with it now? Be angry, but don't sin. And then he says, don't let the sun go down on it. Don't go to bed mad. or walk away, go for days without selling. And it's amazing here, lest the devil get a foothold. I think it's really interesting, marriage. Two verses that I use this in marriage. In 1 Corinthians 7, he says, don't withhold conjugal physical relations, lest Satan tempt you for your lack of self-control. So there, when the bodies are being withheld, Not, he said, if there's a spiritual reason, you need to be a part, grant that permission. But this seems to be spatting. No, no, you don't get my body because I'm angry. There's something there. That's one form. But he said, the devil steps in. He steps into your marriage over that issue. And you come over here. If anger is not dealt with in a right way, guess who else comes in? The devil, he comes in and the picture is a wrestler. He gets the foothold on you. And what I've seen in marriage couple, the couple, they get married, you know, they get married with stars in their eyes and they wake up to find out it was sand. And, uh, they're all, uh, you know, disappointed and they're having their little spats, not working things out. So the love life is shutting down. They're saying, no, I'm not available. It starts with anger, starts with unappreciation or whatever. Then I say no over here and we get this vicious cycle going. The offense, the grief, the grievance, whatever it was, plus the penalty. I'm going to penalize one of them. I'm withholding. And the devil is laughing all the way. He's now got into your marriage. He said, beware with your anger, lest the devil take advantage of you. He goes on, become a giver and quit being a stealer. He says right there, let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor. You know why you ought to work? He gives you a motive here for working. To have money? He didn't say that. Work. so that he might have something to put in his 401k. Is that what you're saying? Why? Why does he work? That he may have something to what? I can't hear you folks. To share? I ain't working to share. I'm working for me. He said, you thief, quit stealing, quit taking from others. One of the great motives for us being workers, I want to have enough to feed my family and I want enough to help feed another man's family. Do you think that's the American view of economics? Don't think so. I want to, I work so I can share in an offering. I work so I can bless a missionary. I work so I can help a widow. I work so I can alleviate the needs I see all around me. I'm not working to hoard. I'm not working to see how much money I could set on or how much money I can leave. I'm working to share, not just with my kids, but with a needy, needy world. This is relational. I just had one of my elders did a report on our church. We got about, oh, nearly 800 members. 120 last year gave nothing. Members, they're covenant breakers. They're lying to us. You're not supposed to be able to join our church without supporting it. Do you think I want their vote on anything? No. If you don't support us, you have no right to say anything. You have no authority in this fellowship. Matter of fact, I'll have to go to an elders meeting and recommend discontinuing membership or find out. What's wrong that a believer in the Bay Area that on an average makes 50 to a hundred thousand on an average, you didn't give anything? What's your problem? You're revealing your heart. Your heart's not in heaven because Jesus says you'll invest where your heart is. Well, he goes on, turn your speech into something that builds people up and not something that tears them down. He goes on to say, don't grieve the spirit. And then verse 31, get rid of bitterness and wrath and anger. clamor, loud speech, slander. Put all this away from you with all malice. When I was going through tough times in our family, the elders told my wife and I, you've got to go to family counseling. Your family's going through a lot of stress. You need help. So I went to this one Christian therapist guy and he said, man, I'm glad to have you. He said, I've been depressed for 10 years. I need another patient. One session was enough for me. I said, I'm already fighting depression. I don't need to pay for it. I thought this was absurd. And we wound up with a Jewish Christian woman who is a pastor's wife. She was the best thing we ran into. And they're talking to my girls, talking to Carolyn. And then she comes to me. And like I said, we'd been in the church about 18, 19 years. And so she started drawing stuff out of me. And what about this and that? Well, this one hurt me and this one happened, this and that. And all of a sudden she just stopped. She said, you know what, Mr. Howard? It's been a long time since you emptied the garbage. Seemed like you're carrying around a lot of garbage in your heart. I will never forget it. She said, well, if I were you, I would shake out the garbage can. Your heart just can't continue carrying it. You won't admit to it. Just shake it out. Get along with Jesus and shake out the garbage. Well, this one hurt me. This happened. This. Get out of the self-pity. Get out of the poor me. Get out of this. Why don't you just put everything that's hurt you, everything you could say, I'm just angry, I'm just becoming a negative person. I told the Lord, this is me, this is true confession from the pastor, don't call Phil Donahue, don't let him get on the TV. I told the Lord, after I had so many hurts, one day I made a deal with him. I said, Lord, I'll keep pastoring, but I'm just gonna stop loving. Would you accept that? I'll give him a sermon on Sunday, say, there you ungrateful beast, I'll see you next week. Because I have a pastor's heart. You think God was gonna put up with that? I hadn't got before him and just, and I was mad at God. I said, why didn't you protect my girl? Why didn't, you know, you sold me out. I'm doing your work, you know. You need me. A lot of humility. And I just proceeded to tell him off after I read Jeremiah. Heard the prophet tell God off, said, well, I'm telling him off. And I started, and God just spoke to my heart, said, well, I knew that's the way you felt. I'm glad you finally told me. And the pus, the garbage, the junk, that I hadn't poured out at the feet of Jesus until he filled me with his fruit, his joy, his meekness, his, his wonderful love. Wow. It's so, and I see so many people in church life that their garbage cans running over. They've been hurt here, they've been hurt there, they've been hurt in marriage, hurt in this, hurt at the last church. I don't know about you folks here. We get so many people at different times, they'll come to our church, and they were dissatisfied with where they left, obviously, and within a month, they start trying to make us over to be like the church they just left. You ought to do this. Well, who does that? Well, my former church did it. Well, if they did it, you liked it, why didn't you stay? Just chill out. We're not everything. We can only do certain things. But he said here, the mark of maturity is that you can deal with people without staying angry at them. holding grudges that make you bitter. I think bitterness is held over anger, held over grief, how unresolved problems that are poisoning the system. And then finally he says, you'll learn to start acting like the father towards people, which means you can treat them good when they don't deserve it. You're giving them forgiveness. I get this question a lot from people say, well, why should I do? They've never asked me for forgiveness. Should I forgive? Well, did Jesus forgive on the cross? Did the soldiers ask him to forgive? Did you know what? None of the soldiers at the cross will go to hell for crucifying Christ. They could go to hell for the rest of their sins, but it won't be for carrying out Roman orders to nail him to a cross, because Jesus said, don't charge these sins to them, Father. They won't be in hell for driving the spikes and lifting the cross, because Jesus forgave them that day. And Stephen did the same thing in Acts 7. Forgive them, for they know not what they're doing. Can you imagine, this person is causing me pain and grief, and Father, I want you to forgive them, forgive them, forgive them. Without merit, without begging, without earning, I grant them the gift just like you forgave me. It's the challenge, it's the mature believer. They have taken on humility. They've come to believe the truth. They've allowed some gifted person, whether Bible college, pastor, somewhere in their life, somebody's help, give them the tools for maturity. And then they begin to act out these ethical, practical ways because we all can rub each other. We can all have the misunderstandings. It's a wonder any family stays together. For sure, any church. There's enough misunderstandings, enough hurt feelings, enough this and enough that. What in the world is going to keep us together? Maybe it's Christ, that if you grow up into him, you'll all come to the full stature of Christ. And you'll begin to treat each other like the father's treated you. He's the template. He says, it's hard. I can't do that. I'm not God. Tell it to him. That's your problem. He's willing to give you grace. He's willing to enable us to forgive as we've been forgiven. And so this conference has been it's time to grow up. James 1 says you can grow up if you become a doer of the word. 1 Corinthians 3 says you can grow up if you'll quit giving into the flesh and start growing in grace. 2 Peter 1 says you can grow up if you'll cooperate with God. And if you'll add to your faith, these are the virtues. And you won't be unfruitful, and you'll never fall, and you'll never be shaken. Last night, you can grow up, and you won't have to panic and have a nervous breakdown waiting to see another bad headline. You can just say, no matter what ISIS does, no matter if we have another 10 years of a Democrat, No matter if we have another economic, I'm going to be serving, I'm going to be praying, I'm going to be sober, I'm going to keep my mind about me. And tonight, the goal of every church, the goal of every pastor, every elder, every deacon, is to see the body be mature and not act infantile. to see his care for one another. That if the pastor, you know, I've had five surgeries since 50, 19, when I, when I was 53, uh, I had this hip replaced, uh, it threw off my body. Then I had to have a back surgery. They tried a laminectomy, did not work. So they had to go back less than a year to a triple fusion. By the time that did, I wore out this prosthesis after 14 years had it replaced. Then the man said, you've worn out your other hip. So I had five surgeries over 53 to 70. So that means I was out of the pulpit eight weeks to 10 weeks at a time. The church is going to die. You know, I'm the founder. Man, I gotta be there to sprinkle something. I went on radio the first time when I was having my hip replaced. My other elders got me on KFAX. I'm in the hospital finding out I'm on radio ministry now. Every time I'm sick, we have a mini revival. McGee used to always take a yearly vacation. And he came back one year to the church with the open door and he asked his associates, how's the church? He said, we haven't had such a move of God in this church since the last time you left. So, you know what? Get over it. The guys up here preaching aren't the backbone of this church. You and I are. It's what God does through each one of you that makes people in this community want to come. If you're down on this church, I don't care how good the preaching is, nobody wants to come. If you're on it, God's blessing you, using you, and you can't be quiet about it, They will come. Ninety-five percent of all people that go to church are brought either by a family member or friend. Ninety-five percent. George Barna. This church is growing either because you're inviting or you're not. Because the greatest advertisement we have is a body that's growing, enjoying, and tell him the good news. It's not the job of the pastor to grow the church. It's his job and the staff's job to grow you, equip you, love you, and give you the tools to be everything God made you to be. It's been such a joy to be with you. I want to pray for you. Father, we thank you so much for your kindness and your grace and I pray continue to guide this church, enrich it, revive it, strengthen the pastoral staff, the board, everything this ministry is involved in. I pray that you will bless it and use it and magnify your name. We bless your name for the good work you're doing here. In Jesus' name, Amen. or come visit us in person at 4575 Badger Road, Santa Rosa, California 95409. You can also give us a call at 707-538-2385.