Welcome to the weekly podcast of Wildwood Baptist Church in Ackworth, Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. We are so glad that you're joining us today. If you'd like to know more about Wildwood Baptist Church, you can find us on the web at wildwoodbaptist.org, or you can email us at info at wildwoodbaptist.org. Thanks for joining us. Let's open the Word of God together. I assume, and actually I know this to be true, there are several of you who are very familiar with the Pauline epistles. Those are the letters that the Apostle Paul writes to the different churches. There are some letters that he writes to individuals, some letters that he writes to churches. And those of you who are familiar with those epistles, you know this to be true, that he says a lot of the same things to all of the churches. And there are some whose thoughts are that he's writing specific things to specific churches based upon the things that they're dealing with. And that's kind of true. I mean, there are examples of that in his writings, but it's amazing when you study these letters, how much he repeats himself from church to church. Like you can read in one letter for one church, him say this, and then he'll say the exact same thing in another place and in another place. And you begin to realize that this isn't just for that church. And the point behind me telling you that is I believe the things that the Apostle Paul writes in these letters are for all New Testament churches in most cases. There are some cultural things, there are some traditional things that are brought up that we wouldn't necessarily glean from, but for the most part, these things are being written not just for the church in Ephesus as we study this book, but for our church here today as a New Testament church. And what he often does is he takes themes and he repeats them. So one of the themes that we learned about last week in our study of the third chapter of Ephesians is the idea of there being a mystery. And he reveals the mystery in chapter three by saying here's what wasn't known, wasn't formerly known, and that is that now Gentiles are welcome into the family of God. The reason that this is so important is that they'd never heard that before it was not only not known It was not believed if you were not of Jewish descent then and nationality It was believed that you could not be part of the family God in worship Jehovah God Yahweh God you could not do that and so what they were doing was they were forming their own gods and They were forming their own idols and and we know scripture well enough to know that God says you were to put no other God before me the reason I say that is because we make gods of things even in our modern day lives that God says that can't come before me I I I must be first and so in order for us to worship him in a manner that he's worthy of being worshipped we we have to to um put him first and we have to put all other things and God so to speak aside but we weren't even welcome to do that until the door was open for Gentiles to do that now I believe that God always intended for that to be but people didn't know that so the way that it was a mystery as we talked about last week was the ancient people the prophets of old the heroes of our faith that we speak about just saying about of the Old Testament they weren't aware that this door of salvation was going to be open now to Gentiles as well as for Jews well this week he adds kind of a different Theme that he repeats often in many of his letters as well and you'll be familiar with this phrase Even if you don't fully understand it, it's the phrase that he refers to us as being in Christ What does it mean to be in Christ? Or sometimes he says we are in him. Well, there are a few things that it means. Number one, it starts with having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That by believing that God sent him as his son to be the only rightful and righteous atonement for our sins, that we pursue now, we now have an open door to have an ongoing relationship with Him based upon the faith that we place in the grace that's been extended to us for what Christ has done for us on the cross. So that's the beginning, but that is not the end. That is not the only thing that being in Him means. I want you to hear me say this, because I think this is incredibly important. It also means that the things that are true about Christ, are also now true about us. Now, I'm not talking about us being gods, what I am saying is that the things that Christ says are now true are now true for us. There is nothing impossible for those of us who trust in Jesus anymore. I mean, there are no limitations. Everything is possible in Jesus Christ. And so, the fact of the matter is, when we place our faith and trust in Jesus, the door is now open to what seems to be impossible for us. Things that we'd never dream of, ask for, even think about. These are now the things that are being invited, we're being invited to participate with him in. That's what being in Christ really means. So I want you to turn to Ephesians chapter four with me. and Paul's going to open this up by telling us that you need to walk in a manner that's worthy of your call and I want to explain that to you this morning let's look at this first verse Ephesians 4 verse 1 the apostle Paul writes this I therefore And then he adds a familiar phrase that we heard last week as well, a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. So he opens by reminding us, as he told us in the last chapter, that he's a prisoner. But notice this again, for those of you that weren't here last week, he's an actual prisoner of the Roman government. He's in home incarceration, it's believed, in this particular letter, which means at some point in his day or evening, he's in chains. He's free to stay home. He can only leave his home a certain proximity, but he's under Roman guard there as well. And he says, this is what he basically says, both in the last chapter as well as this one, I don't see myself as a prisoner of Rome. Well, physically and visibly, it looks like you are. And he explains, no, because I'm a prisoner of the Lord. And so what he's basically telling us is that regardless of the situation that I'm facing, God is God, and he's God over all things. He has authority over all things. And if this is part of the plan that he has for my life, then so be it. I can be in chains, I can be in jail, I can be in home incarceration. It doesn't keep me from being the person that God has called me to be based upon my faith and trust in him leading me through this particular dilemma the second thing that we see that's very clear here is the urgency he's urging us watch this again to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling now he adds something at the end that I think it's intentionally repetitive he could have ended the sentence there but he says I want you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called it's kind of like an addendum that reminds you by the way this is what you were called to or you need to discover what it is that you were called to right you're you are called you need to walk in your life and we'll talk about that in a moment in a manner that's worthy of your calling I think most of you understand that word calling or what it means to be called but it's important for you to know that God has a specific and unique plan for your life You exist for the express purpose of honoring and glorifying God. However, the way that that happens in your life is different from most other people, almost anybody else. We have similarities in the way that we glorify Him. I'll touch on that in a moment. But the way that He is going to use you to glorify Him by is different than the way He uses others. and so he has to again emphasize the fact that you're called to live a certain way to live a certain life as a believer and there's a specific and unique way that you are to do that he calls you in a certain way now the theme of walking in that I've often told you this that you can almost substitute the word walk with live the way that you live is the way that you walk and that is in part true but it's not fully what that word means because to walk really means in a biblical sense that you are aware of the presence of God on an ongoing basis that everything that you do that your entire existence it is you embrace the fact that you are in the company of God that God is with you he not only wants to lead you and guide you but he's with us he's constantly there and so when we walk in the spirit when we walk with the lord when we walk in christ we're doing so with a christ awareness that he is guiding us empowering us leading us to do the things that he desires for us to do and you and i we we do this and this isn't a bad thing in fact i think it's wise we make plans We have schedules. We have commitments that we need to fulfill. We have responsibilities. Folks, we have bills to pay. I understand that. So I'm not saying you stop doing everything and just go, okay, God, what do you want me to do now? Okay, what do you want me to do now? That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is always including God in your everyday life. Because the things that we've planned, they may be good plans, they may be necessary plans, but the things that God wants to use you for and do both in and through you are the things that he rewards you for those are the things that he is honored and glorified by so this ongoing relationship that we have with him requires our attention to his presence and his power in our daily lives so here's some examples of how He talks about walking in a manner worthy of that calling. Colossians 2, verses six and seven, Paul writes, therefore, as you receive Christ Jesus as the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. I just love that. I mean, he sums it up so well in those two verses. He says, if you're saved, walk with him right rooted built up established in the faith and he said you've been taught this you've been trained to do this abounding in thanksgiving listen to what he says in galatians 5 16 he says but i say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of your flesh so paul is saying hey you you want to avoid sinful actions sinful thoughts sinful activities just walk by the spirit walk in the spirit follow the spirit's leading the spirit's never going to lead you to fleshly desires or carnal activities or or worldly things right so in order for that to happen in order for that to be true in their lives because I would be surprised if you haven't heard that before, right? I mean, most of us, there's not a single thing probably that I've said that you didn't already know. If there is, praise God for that. But I don't expect that to be surprising. It's how we do that that seems to be somewhat challenging. Because I'd be surprised not only if you haven't heard that before, I think you have, but secondly, that it's not something that you desire to do. I hope it is. I know I desire to do it. So here's the question, how do we do it? I mean, if it just automatically happened, we'd all be doing it, right? So how exactly are we supposed to do it? There are a couple things that I want to suggest to you that need to happen in order for these things to happen in your everyday life. Here's the first thing. Jesus must be the most important person in your life. Now, are you ready for a zinger? Because this is going to bother some of you. What that means is Jesus has to be promoted in your life to be more important to you than your spouse, or your children, or your siblings, or your parents, even your best friends. Jesus has to be more important to you in your life than yourself In order for you to walk in his spirit by his spirit Because you will be distracted by those other things so easily That you potentially will miss what the spirit is leading you to do now. I know that that sounds bizarre even maybe over the top and little dramatic to be honest with you but listen to what Jesus tells us in Luke 14 verse 26 he says if anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters yes even his own life he cannot be my disciple we know this about Jesus Jesus is not promoting hatred he's not suggesting that you harbor hatred in your life for other people here's what he's telling you that in comparison with your love and devotion for him all of your other relationships and the love and devotion that you have for them almost looks like hatred there's no way that jesus is telling you to hate people he's not a god of hate what he is telling you is that your devotion and your love must be centrally focused on him here's the beautiful reason why that's absolutely true because when you focus your relationship on him and you turn your love and devotion to him and you sense his leading and you sense his presence the love that he fills you with then will allow you to love others better your spouse will feel more loved your children will feel more loved the people around you, whether they acknowledge it or not, you will be more loving because of the power and presence of Christ in your life. So what he's telling you is not selfish or self-centered. What he's telling you is what's best for us in order to be the people of God that honors and glorifies him best. And there's other things that have to happen because those relationships in part play a part in, again, some of the distractions that we have to deal with on a regular basis. So he not only has to be the most important person in your life, here's the second thing that has to happen. Jesus must be the center of your life. Being the center of your life means that your life doesn't revolve around you, or the people that I mentioned before, or your job, or your career, or your income, or sports, or media, right? Or family, or friends, or all those other people. Your life must revolve around Christ. After all, He is the reason that you live. He's the reason that you can breathe. He's the reason that you exist as your creator. He is at the center of everything you do, everything you think, everything that you say, and everything that you believe and follow. When that happens, I'm gonna tell you this, you live and lead a completely different life. And God uses you in astonishing ways. when he's at the center of your focus. I want you to think about this very familiar verse, John 14, 6. Most of you know it. You could quote it right now. Jesus says, I'm the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. Now, here's what we know that to mean, that Jesus is the only way for you to be saved and to go to heaven and be with the Father. That's absolutely true. But look deeper, look more deeply into that verse. Jesus says, let me explain this to you. I am the only way for you to experience new life. You're gonna keep living as you always lived, even with faith in me, if I don't become the central focal point and focus point of how you live. I'm the way for you to achieve that. I'm also the truth, the truth of everything that you need to know, everything that you need to believe is found in and through me. I'm going to guide you to what is true. I'm the truth in your life. but I'm also the life I am the one who gives you life I gave you life when you were born I give you new life when you believe in me and your life will be so fulfilling I want to be careful with this because I don't want you to construe that as meaning easy it's not going to be easy in this world you will face trouble But take heart I've overcome the world Jesus says that he's going to get you through that but you're going to experience Purposeful and meaningful things that God later rewards because he is the giver of that life He offers you those opportunities in your life. So understand this I'm sure that as I say these things you may be thinking listen, that is way over the top That is way too dramatic. Can I tell you something? I used to think the exact same thing I got tired of hearing people say Jesus this and Jesus that and every time we're doing something we have to pray and every conversation that we have has to include Jesus and and I was done I was like listen you're the reason that Christianity is failing right now because you guys are way too over the top of this stuff just believe in Jesus and let the chips fall where they may here's what happened I began to learn more about him. I began to pray more often. I began to understand through the discernment that the Holy Spirit gives a believer that this life is no longer mine. It's not to be lived for my plans or purposes. It's not gonna be fulfilling even if I achieve the wonderful things that I had set my eyes to achieve. It wasn't ever gonna be good without Jesus. And so all of a sudden I began thinking about Jesus every day. I began needing to read his word every day. I began having to have ongoing relationship with him through prayer because without there's always something missing when those things go away. I feel less equipped, less strong, less mentally and physically and spiritually prepared for life when I omit those things. Those things became foundational things in my life that now provide an opportunity for me to say, I need to talk about Jesus a little bit more. This is life changing. And that's what I personally experience. I can stand before you today to say everything that the Apostle Paul is teaching us today is 100%, not only true, but necessary in order for you to experience the fullness of Christ in your life and then be able to reveal that truth to those that you're surrounded by. So there is an act of surrender and submission involved, which I talk frequently about, but there's also a desire. a hunger a thirst for these things because they exist and so as a believer why would you not want to experience them that's kind of what he's suggesting here so how do we do this how do you and i walk in this in this way well the apostle paul goes on to explain it in verses two and three he says with all humility gentleness with patience bearing with one another in love eager to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace that is a powerful two verses here's why you don't walk in a way that is worthy of your calling alone Watch this, you don't walk in the way of your calling, even only with Christ. That sounds a little strange, doesn't it? Coming from me. It is necessary for you to have other people involved in your life. in order for you to walk in a way that's worthy of your calling you are called to minister to others and we are to relate to one another in a humble with a humble attitude with a gentle disposition with patience and watch this with the ultimate goal to pursue and maintain unity and avoid division and through the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit who's at work within us we are connected with his peace so we can do that in a way that's honoring and glorifying to him I want you to consider the fruit that comes through and from a life that's totally connected with the leadership of the Holy Spirit in their life. It's found in Galatians 5 verses 22 and 23. Here's what it says. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. Now, here's what he just told us. that all of these things come from and through your life based upon the power of the Holy Spirit that's not only sitting dormant within you I mean that's obvious right he's actively leading you to produce these fruit this fruit in your individual life and he says when you do that listen there's there's no need for the law There's no need for you to say told the line don't step over and do this. Don't act this way. Don't say those things Don't think those bad thoughts you're being led by the Spirit now and the Holy Spirit will guide you in the way that your life will be most honoring and most pleasing to God that's the potential that exists in the life of a believer the fruit that's produced in these ways by the Spirit's presence and power in our lives provides unity between us. We're drawn together by his love in order for us to be the people of God that he's not only calling us to be, that he wants others to see us being as well. In fact, I want you to understand how valuable and powerful Love really is. I'm going to make this comment. Love is the supreme unifying force in our lives. Now, that's not on your outline. That's just a bonus line. But I want you to understand this. Love is the supreme unifying force in our lives. It seems somewhat obvious. When you love someone, you're drawn to them. But typically we only love those who love us in return. And Jesus says, no, no, no, no. You can love people who don't love you. You can love people who hate you. You can love your enemies just as you love those who love you in return. In order to be a Christian, in order to be a disciple of Christ, you have to forgive and show mercy to everyone and love them, watch this, as if they'd never done anything wrong. I know that sounds naive and maybe even over-assuming that they're not going to do wrong before. But you're going to forgive them and treat them as if they've done nothing wrong, just as Christ did for you as well. He loves you just as if you'd never sinned. That's what justification is. So here's a passage that talks about love first Corinthians 13 13 so now faith hope and love abide that means remain these three but the greatest of these is love John 13 35 says by this all people will know that you are my disciples if You have love for one another. This is how they will know we are His, by our love. So here's why this is so important. According to the Bible, we exist to make Christ known and to glorify His name. Therefore, bullet point number three, love that unifies us with others is the clearest evidence of God's presence in your life. Love that unifies us with others is the best way that people can see, ah, you must be a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. Paul continues in verses four through seven of Ephesians four about the emphasis and the importance of one. Listen to what he writes, there is one body and one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. That's a fascinating statement. Paul uses the word one eight different times there. And three different times he says, here is the one that I want you to know best and reflect upon. You have one Holy Spirit, you have one Lord, and you have one God, Father of all. That's a picture of the triune God, the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And he's saying here, watch how they get along. They are perfectly unified. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit have never been divided. They've never disagreed. They've never wanted what they want more than what the other want because they always want what's best. And that's supremely the way that God operates. And he's saying you and I can be like them. rather than focus on our wants and our wishes, we can turn our lives over to him and want and wish what he wants and wishes, and then he will do those things because he places those wants and wishes within us. I love this passage. There's so much that divides us today. Our unity with one another is really truly based on the unity that we see in the Godhead. And when we get to heaven, I think you already know this, we are not gonna be divided by denominations. Do you know that? There's gonna be no denominational differences in heaven. There's no division with political affiliations in heaven, right? I mean, that's pretty obvious, I would say. Our nationalities are not going to divide us. We're not gonna be divided by our favorite schools or our favorite sport teams. I mean, unfortunately, those things divide us. I try to be as transparent with you as I can be as your pastor. And so I have to admit something to you this morning. In fact, Cindy, if you wanna help me with this, Cindy wants to admit this to you as well. Cindy and I are divided in something. And I want you to see how we are divided with this banner. Yeah. Now, June Thomason gave us this. I don't know why the Eagles are on top because it seems to me the Cowboys should be on that. But this not only divides my wife and I, this divides our family. We have family members who cheer for the Eagles and cheer against the Cowboys. And we have family members who cheer for the Cowboys and cheer against the Eagles. And this divides us. So anyway, thank you, Cindy, for that. I want you to know that I believe that when we get to heaven, there will be one team that we all cheer for. the Dallas Cowboys no no no team Jesus we will cheer for one another listen when you get to heaven no one will ever say a disparaging thing about you behind your back or in front of you no one in heaven will ever gossip about you again No one will ever utter words that tear you down rather than build you up ever again. You won't do that, neither will anyone else do that. So if that's the way that it's supposed to be in heaven, or will be in heaven, then let me ask you this question. Why don't we start practicing that now? And stop being divided by our differences. So here's our fourth bullet point. Stop letting our differences divide us. Even though every human being has been made in the image of God, can I just tell you this? No two human beings are exactly alike, not even identical twins. In fact, this is interesting. You were made to look different. You were made to sound different. You were even made to think and function differently from anyone else, no matter how similar you may think you are to certain people, because we gravitate to that, don't we? We love being around people who are like us. But if you held to that truth and you said, hey, I'm only going to be with those who are like me. Do you know what you would eventually find out? You would be totally alone because no one else is exactly like you. You are different from everybody else. And there are basic beliefs about God that I still think that we have to maintain. I stand by this because of the love and the truth that God says that we have to uphold. But I do believe that we have to proclaim that there is one God. out of love with other people even when people feel differently we can we can still communicate with them we can still be with them with the hope and desire that they will come to that truth but when people tell me no your God's not the true God my God is the true God in order for me to show them the love that God fills me with I have to tell them that is not true according to the one true God and that is he is the true God and we're gonna all find out at the end, but I don't want you to leave this Conversation if I'm having conversation with someone who believes otherwise, I don't want you to leave this conversation without me Telling you that I don't believe that that's true. We can still be friends, but there is only one true God There's only one way to be saved And that's through faith in Jesus Christ based upon the grace that's been extended to us through him by God. That's the only way the Bible says that you can be saved. And so you almost have to agree with this kind of third caveat. These are things that we stand by even when others disagree, but we don't let them divide us. I would stand by this as well that the Bible is divinely inspired That it is infallible and inerrant and the reason that we have so many Contradictions that we seem to try to find in it is because we don't fully understand it. God is continuously teaching us how to understand what he's given us as an instruction manual. Those are the three things that I stand by. We can debate other things that we believe through interpretation of the Bible. We can debate on things that we believe outside of those things in our Christian faith, but we cannot be divided over them. With that said, that doesn't mean that any one of us should ever accept false doctrine and beliefs of others. We can't say things like, you believe what you wanna believe, I'll believe what I wanna believe because their lives are at stake for it. Their eternity is at stake. So I'm gonna share what I believe and I'm gonna pray that God will allow their eyes to be open and their hearts to be open to his truth because their eternal lives are at stake. look again at what we just read in order for you to fully understand the emphasis that Paul is making on this passage with the teaching of one verses four and seven again here's what he says again there is one body one spirit just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call one Lord one faith one baptism one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. When I, I like a little sweetener in my tea. I can't drink sugar anymore because it's not good for me. And you all know that the artificial sweeteners are so healthy for us, right? So anyway, every once in a while when I want a little sweeter than unsweet tea, I put a small cup of sweetener in it, artificial sweetener. But when I really want it to taste good, I put a couple in. And I know that it's sweeter and it's almost super sweet. And that's the closest thing that I can tell you to the filling of the Spirit and the acting upon His Word. Like if you want more, more is there. Just keep heaping the scoops on and God will provide that that's the measure That he's talking about here of Christ's gift We can measure a whole lot more in our cups from his grace if we want to and and I stand by this It's the truth I'm gonna make a statement here. I hope this doesn't offend anybody, but if it does, I'm sorry I'm not gonna put a bumper sticker on my car that says coexist. I Coexist sounds really good. It sounds like hey, we can all exist together and I'm for that But the theme behind the coexist bumper sticker is you believe in Islam and Allah? You believe in Judaism and Jesus is it Messiah or you believe in Christianity? We can all believe whatever we want to believe folks. I can't stand by that because at one at one point God is going to return and he's separating those who believe things that aren't of him From those who do believe in him and those who aren't of him go to eternal damnation and torment forever And that bothers me too much to not stand for what is true based upon what the word of god tells me And so I have to stand for that. But how do I do it? I do it with love I do it with humility. I do it with gentleness. I do it with patience. And this is done by the power of Christ within me. So Paul continues in Ephesians 4 through 8 by explaining the excellence and the superiority in the authority of Christ. Listen to what he says. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, and he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men and women, and saying he ascended, what does it mean but that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth? He who was descended is the one who also ascended far above the heavens that he might fill all things Paul is actually quoting Psalm 68 18 here and what he's essentially saying his Christ started in heaven with God and in order for him to descend he had to start there and I mean, it makes sense that he's paramount. If he's already in heaven, that's his starting place. He didn't start in the womb of Mary. He started on the throne of God. But he descended in order for us to know the truth about his love for us. and then he died and went into the depths of the earth and then he ascended again back to heaven. Why? After his resurrection, he exists here for 40 days so people know that he's fully alive. Then he ascends to sit at the right hand of the throne of God so that you and I could receive the Holy Spirit to be a permanent fixture of his presence in our life. That's far better than having to find where Jesus is speaking next week so we can go hear him. It's far better than anything that anyone experienced while Jesus was alive. You now have Christ living in you to be your guide, to be your strength, to be your hope, to be your eternal companion. So it's incredible when you think about the gift that we've been given and the position that he holds based upon God's authority that he's given Christ on this earth. And when we're all given these gifts, they're spiritual gifts that we've all been given that we have to recognize and know. In fact, here's what he goes into. He goes into a list of some of these spiritual gifts. Listen to what he says in Ephesians 4, verses 11 through 13. He says, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, those are pastors, the teachers, they're kind of shepherd, pastors, teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness in Christ you hear me talk about this all the time you are becoming more like Christ you are growing the goal is to become like Jesus Christ that's where he says it that you are growing to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ you are filled by Christ and therefore he should be not only living within you but being the fixture of guidance in your life and God gives us all different spiritual gifts they're they're they're used for spiritual work in his church and we've been given apostles, we've been given prophets, we've been given evangelists, we've been given pastors, we've been given teachers, we've been given fusion leaders, we've been given Bible study teachers, we've been given spiritually mature mentors in our life and which can mean only one thing to us as a church. This is now Wildwood's motto. Membership means ministry. If you're gonna join Wildwood, what we say is welcome to the ministry. You're entering the ministry by joining Wildwood. We're called to the ministry of the saints, according to what Paul just wrote, for the building up of the body of Christ. Not just those who were named here. They are given those gifts to build us up for ministry. Now, there are three primary places where we see teaching on the spiritual gifts in the Bible. 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Corinthians 14, Romans 12, and this passage in Ephesians 4. I want you to hear what Paul says about spiritual gifts in Romans 12 in regard to the church. Listen to what he says in verses three through six. For by the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith, here we go again, that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them. Paul tells us that by the grace that is given to him, he now informs us, you're to be humble, you're to be gentle, you're to be patient, but you need to be active in pursuing the spiritual gift that God has given you. Here's why. Wildwood will never be the church that she is called to be if you don't act upon the spiritual gifts that you've been given as its members. You must act upon the spiritual gifting that God has given you. And when we talk about spiritual gifts, well, what are spiritual gifts? Let me tell you what spiritual gifts aren't before I tell you what they are. Spiritual gifts are not natural talents. You were born with those. Spiritual gifts are gifts that you were given when you were reborn as a believer in Christ. Every human being is given natural talents, but only believers in Christ are given spiritual gifts. And here's what spiritual gifts are. Point number five in your outline. Spiritual gifts allow us to perform the spiritual work that is ordered by God. This is why he's given us these gifts. We have to differentiate between these natural talents that we already have. I love people who play instruments on this stage. Many of them are naturally gifted. That just doesn't happen to be a spiritual gift. A spiritual gift, it performs the spiritual work that God is leading us to do. We all have natural talents, that's called common grace. But only believers have spiritual gifts, which are available for us to use once we trust in Jesus Christ as Savior. We begin to serve him as Lord. God gifts us, he enables us, he empowers us to do those things. Talents are what you are born with. Spiritual gifts are what you are reborn with once you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And so it's wonderful how God uses these spiritual gifts in ways that go outside of our areas of comfort or even understanding. The number of people who've told me I would have never ever guessed that I was going to be doing this, but God has given me a gift and has called me to do this, the number of times I've heard that, you'd be amazed by it. And almost always, it's something that we wouldn't necessarily choose or believe about ourselves. Because it's spiritual. It's something that God has given us to overcome kind of our natural failures and flaws. That's the beautiful part about it. So if someone were to say to you, well, who do you think you are as a Christian? God's gift to the human race? Kind of. I mean, He's given me spiritual gifts and he's given me to you. So yeah, I guess I kind of am that kind of thing where I'm doing his ministry. I would highly recommend that if you don't know what your spiritual gift is, go to our website, wildwoodbaptist.org. Click on the key that says ministries. And then under that heading, you'll see ready to serve. Click on that, it'll give you a spiritual gifts assessment test and you can discover at least in part what your spiritual gift is and then figure out how you can apply it here at Wildwood. Or call me and I'd be happy to try to help you with that. Here's something that I kind of need to wrap up with it that you can take away from this passage that I think is incredibly important for you to hear what the Apostle Paul is saying. What do you think is the most important thing that we do here at Wildwood? Some would suggest that it's worship. That the single most important thing that we do when we gather together is that we worship and praise the Lord. And I would say that's incredibly important, very valuable. God's deserving of that. But that's not what the Apostle Paul just taught us. Some would say it's the fellowship of the believers and the saints together. That there's a koinonia and a power that comes from that. I agree. God said it's not good for a man to be alone. Amen to that. We need one another as Christians, but that's not what the Apostle Paul just said is most important. Some people say that it's prayer, that the most important thing, everything starts and ends with prayer. I love that premise. I think it's very important to include God in everything you do, but that's not what the Apostle Paul said. Some would suggest even giving, that the more you give to God, the more that God gives you to give, and it's a wonderful thing, and so giving, all right, I'm not gonna stand in front of you and tell you not to give. But that's not what the Apostle Paul says. Listen to what the Apostle Paul just taught us in this passage. It's your sixth bullet point. We gather together here to equip the saints for the work of ministry. Now, why is that so important? Paul tells us that in verses 14 through 16. 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 and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. He just told us so much. One of the things he clearly said is when spiritually gifted people in the church exercise their God-given spiritual gifts, in the church the church becomes stronger and those individuals within the church grow in stature they grow in strength they grow in wisdom and they grow in discernment and we will not be pulled away we will not be fooled we will not be lulled into false teaching and false doctrine as we grow into spiritually mature believers. So how do we know when we get there? How do we know whether or not we are spiritually mature people? Your last bullet point is this. Our maturity, according to what Christ just wrote, in Christ can be measured by the way we speak the truth and love to others. He says that, speaking the truth in love, verse 15. He holds us together to speak the truth in love to others, to one another as well. but we always do it from the motivation of love. I'm gonna invite members of the praise team to join me on stage. I need to let you go and have your lunch, but I want you to know something. I absolutely love what we did together this weekend. It's by far one of my favorite things. All of our pastors would tell you that. Pastor Matt, Pastor Steve would tell you this is one of our favorite things to do, but I would be doing you a disservice If I did it alone. Now, number one, I couldn't have done it alone. You know that. If you weren't here, if we don't have four to five hundred people packing those bags, it doesn't happen. But I could have done that over the course of a half a year. Steve and Matt and I could have filled bags until we got that job done based upon the commitment that we made, the money that we raised. here's why we don't do that because the bible clearly says in acts 6 and acts chapter 7 that when leaders of the church aren't able to accomplish those tasks and in this particular case there were widows that were being ignored that needed to be taken care of the leaders of that church the pastors the apostles of that time they said listen we're not going to go do that even though there's a need Here's what we're going to do. We're going to continue to pray so that our relationship with God stays strong. We're going to continue to study God's word so that our presentation of the gospel is accurate. But go find seven men who are filled with the Holy Spirit to do that. So what they're basically saying is if you're part of our church right now and you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ You're the ministers that are supposed to minister to these places and these people We are here pastor Steve Pastor Matt and myself as well as the spiritual mentors that we have in this church. We are here to equip you for the ministry And even though it's sometimes easier for you to clean your child's room rather than teach your child how to clean the room, it's sometimes easier for us to do the ministry rather than teach you how to do it. But I'm telling you, we would not be doing our jobs, would we? So I'm going to ask you to consider that. Consider what is your spiritual gift? What is the ministry that you are to be involved with? Don't only discover it, but define it and become part of it and work in it because that is what God has gifted you to do. Would you stand with me now? We're going to wrap up with another great song of praise and commitment. But before we do that, there's one thing left to be said. One is none of this is true for anyone who has not placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. If you have not done that yet, if you are not a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, would you admit one thing that we can all readily admit this morning? We are all sinners. And that means we've all fallen from God's glory and from God's grace. We have that in common, by the way. In order for you to become saved, you have to first admit that you need to be saved. The Bible says to repent. I'm not capable of turning from my sin. If I would have been, I wouldn't have sinned as often as I have in my past. But by God's power, I'm able to turn. His presence in my life leads me in a different direction. We studied that today. If you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ right now, you will not only receive forgiveness for your sins, you will receive his power to live differently until that day comes that he calls you to be with him in heaven. So make that decision and pray and invite him to to be your Savior today Receive his salvation gift of salvation. Our deacons are going to be down front They're available for you to pray with them If you'd like this altar is open if you would like to bow to the Lord, here's the second comment Many of us know that we're destined for heaven. Let me ask you how fulfilling is your life right now? I We're wasting our time with temporary things and God has gifted you To tend to eternal things that make a difference for all of eternity in heaven Seek to find what it is that God would have you to do next and then walk out in the steps of faith out of the areas of comfort zone and be the people of God that is calling you to be maybe you need to address God about that today as well and These men are available to pray. This altar is open for you to bow. Let's pray together right now. Father, use this time as a time of evaluation and self-reflection in us becoming the people of God that you are calling and making us to be. Help us each one to individually analyze where we are, speak to us and show us that accurately, and then help us to see where you're leading us to go as we become the people of God that you're calling us to be. And I ask for that in Jesus' name. Amen. You respond to the Holy Spirit's leading as we sing this last song of praise together. You've been listening to the teaching ministry of Wildwood Baptist Church. We hope that today's message was an encouragement to you. For more information, you can find us at wildwoodbaptist.org, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Just search for Wildwood Ackworth on the web and on social media. Thank you for joining us, and we look forward to hearing from you.