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[0:00] Ephesians chapter 1. Nick, look inside the drawer.

[0:12] God works. Alright, so last time, last time we began talking about the fact that God works.

[0:40] And we talked about the fact that He works. We've been talking about God speaking and the Word of God and the importance of the Word of God. All Scripture is given by inspiration to God.

[0:51] Properable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, righteousness. All of those things that it does. And then the Word helps us with our teaching and preaching ministries.

[1:05] Where is that supposed to take place? In the church. And so we said, number one, the church is God's idea. Remember we talked about that last year? Last week? Last year.

[1:16] Last week, the church is God's idea. It's not a human institution. And I have the verses there that I gave to you when we talked about the fact that one of the purposes of the church is that in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it talked about the fact that there are diversities of gifts, there are differences of ministration, there are diversities of operations, but they are all manifestations of the same spirit.

[1:41] God working in His people. Different people have different gifts, different personalities, different talents, different whatever. God brings us together in a church and we get to use those things that we have in our life that He has given to us for the furtherance of the gospel.

[2:00] We talked about the fact that a church is not a social outlet. We do have fellowship and it's great that we have fellowship together. It's great that we can get together and have friendships and things in church, but that is not the primary purpose of the church.

[2:17] It's to have that fellowship together and that fellowship is again, as we talked this morning, to get the gospel out, to share the gospel with others. We talked about the fact that it's not a runway.

[2:28] By that I meant it's not a place to have show off. It's not a place to go out and to say, look at me and all the things that I've got going on, all the things I'm doing.

[2:43] Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and 12 about members coming and they used to have a supper before the Lord's Supper and some people would bring lavish meals and things and some people wouldn't have anything.

[2:58] It was, hey, look at us and look at what we can do and look what we have. So he says, nope, it's not supposed to be that. And then he said, it's not supposed to be a competition either. And we talked about, again, in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, where they talk about the fact that some said, I am of Paul and I am of Paulus, I am of Cephas, Peter, or I am of Christ.

[3:22] And Paul reminds him in 1 Corinthians 1, 13, is Christ divided? No. Was Paul crucified for you? No. Were you baptized in Paul's name?

[3:35] No. So why are you fighting about all this? It's about Jesus and what he has done for us. This other stuff doesn't matter. So it's not a club.

[3:45] It's not a runway. It's not a competition. What is it? Better be what is it? It's the product of God's wisdom. A product of God's wisdom. And God gave people like Paul to write epistles to help us to understand what our role is in the church and what we're to do.

[4:04] He praised God for his wisdom and knowledge. In chapter 11, verse 33, it says, Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out.

[4:26] And then he said in verse 34, For who hath known the mind of the Lord or who hath been his counselor? Paul's trying to point out it's not about us and what we've done. It's what God has done and how he has brought us together and how he has got a program by having a church where we can learn.

[4:44] And so number two was Christ is active in the church. Christ is active in the church. We talked about the fact, first of all, that he is the foundation and the founder of the church. Paul talked about the fact that there were schisms in the church.

[5:00] There were different things happening. There were divisions and things. First Corinthians 3.11, he said, For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

[5:11] Again, everything comes back to Christ. When God works in a church, when God works, he's trying to show that Jesus Christ is active.

[5:21] Jesus Christ is the foundation. Jesus Christ is the founder of the church. And first Corinthians 15.17, he said, And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain. You are yet in your sins.

[5:32] If Jesus did not do everything that we say he does, if he did not do what the Bible says he did, he says, And your faith is vain. And it's just, we're here for no reason at all.

[5:46] Other than waste an hour of Sunday afternoon. But that's not why we're here. Because Matthew talked about, Peter, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

[6:01] Talked about who Jesus is. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. He is the rock upon which the church is built. Which brings us to letter B. I gave it to you, I think, but we didn't talk about it.

[6:13] He is its builder and head. He is its builder and head. Jesus is building his church.

[6:30] In Ephesians chapter 1, there you're there. Look at verse 22. And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

[6:47] Jesus Christ is the head over all things to the church. The church, which is his body, is the fullness of him that filleth all things in all.

[7:01] Colossians 1.18. And he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. So, Christ is the builder.

[7:15] He's the head of the church. And the body of the church functions according to the head. Your head. You have a head.

[7:27] What does it do? All the thinking processes, all the decision making, all of the, and you know, even, I don't just automatically go, I have to think about, putting my hand up.

[7:43] I have to think about putting this hand up. I have to think about speaking to you. I think the words, but I have to think about speaking them to you. Everything is controlled by the head. The body functions after the mind, the head, tells it what to do.

[7:57] Christ is the head of the church. So, we need to be thinking when we go out. Each church is a small example of what the body of Christ does.

[8:16] We're a church and we function as the head gives us instruction. And he is giving instruction all over the world to the body.

[8:26] So, people are doing things for Christ based on what he is telling them to do. He's giving them the information they need. 1 Corinthians 12, 12 and 13 says, For as the body is one, and it hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

[8:49] For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we be bond or free, whether we and have been all made to drink in one spirit.

[9:03] So, Jesus Christ, he tells us, he gives us instruction, he gives us commands, he tells us what to do. And we as the body operate on what he tells us.

[9:15] Too often, people begin to think that differently. The pastor begins to think he's the head. I went to church to do this, and I went to church to do that, and I went to church to do that.

[9:28] Well, that's good, he's supposed to be an under shepherd, but it's not my decisions of what we're going to do or how we're going to do it. It is God's. It is Christ. I'm just like part of you, I'm part of the body.

[9:43] And so I do what he tells me to do, and I share that information with you. And you listen to the spirit. One of the great things about this is that Christ is the head.

[9:59] So when I make a decision and think we ought to do certain things and stuff, it doesn't mean it's always right. I know you find it hard to believe, but it's not always right. We listen to Christ and what he has for us.

[10:13] I am a member of the body, just like you. So, we have to make sure we are listening to the head. We take the things that he gives us, the spiritual gifts and things that he's given to us, the different administrations, and we use it for his service.

[10:34] And then he feeds the body. I shouldn't say this, this way. I was going to say, do any of you just eat without ever thinking about it?

[10:49] Yes, we do. Okay, so, alright, that's not a good illustration. Yeah, let's be honest. But, actually, we do think about it, you know, I need food.

[11:01] I need things that are going to keep me going. I need things for strength. I need things that, and so Christ is the head of the body, tells us, eat the word. Spend time with me.

[11:12] Take in the water that you need. Take in the food that you need, so that we do the things that he wants us to do, and he strengthens the body. We are the hands and the feet of the ministry.

[11:25] Jesus' goal is for the entire world to be saved. He would love the whole world to be saved, but men have free will. But how does he get that message out there? He gets that message out there by saying, Nick, go talk to these people as they're having that conversation.

[11:43] Trish, go out and go door-to-door to these different areas. By the way, I was thinking, you said that, about you being deaf, and he said, yes, I'm deaf, and I believe God, and he's been good to me, and so you can hear, what's your excuse?

[12:05] What's your excuse? Anyway, I just held it out, Christ built the church. He is building the church. And all goes to him.

[12:16] You know, understanding that Christ is the head and the builder should motivate us to work for him. He is the builder. Letter C, he is also its instructor.

[12:31] He is also the instructor. We have to learn to do things. As the Bible refers to us as newborn babes when we're first saved, babies have to learn how to do things. They have to learn how to use a spoon.

[12:42] They have to learn how to get dressed. They have to learn how to do things and stuff. Christ is our instructor. He teaches us. The Holy Spirit teaches us how we are to live.

[12:54] He says, look, in the great Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

[13:10] He says, all power is given unto me. It is. Now here's what I want you to do. As my body, here's what I think I want. I want you to go into all nations and teach them.

[13:22] Wear the hands and the feet to go and do that. To teach all nations. We are part of the disciple making process. That's what God wants. He wants disciples to be made of all of those that are out there.

[13:37] As we come to know Christ, our job is to teach people how to grow in Christ. In John chapter 16, do you want to turn there?

[13:48] You can. Look at four or five, probably four verses there. John chapter 16, beginning at verse 12.

[14:01] John 16, beginning at verse 12, it says, I have yet many things to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when he, the spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth.

[14:14] For he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you.

[14:31] All things that the Father hath are mine, therefore, said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you. God wants to do this.

[14:43] So, when we say the epistles are teaching us how to build the church, how to be disciples that God wants us to be, what is the Holy Spirit trying to teach us through those epistles?

[14:57] He is trying to teach us Christ's words, and he's trying to declare them to the writer, so the writer can share them with us. God wants you to do this.

[15:08] This is what God's thinking is. Here it is, through the word of God. Now you, as the feet and the legs and the hands, go fulfill what Christ is thinking, what he has for you.

[15:21] He provided those epistles so that we would know how to make disciples. Again, all scripture is given by inspiration of God, and it's profitable for doctrine.

[15:38] direction, instruction, all of those different things. The bulk of the directives given in the church, for the church, are found in the epistles. So we go and study those.

[15:50] Matter of fact, you don't have to remember, Romans 6, verses 16 through 22. The Bible makes it clear that we are not under the law, but we are under grace.

[16:03] We're not under the same laws as they were in the Old Testament. We are under grace. So therefore, we are free from some of the commandments of the Old Testament.

[16:18] Some of them are repeated in the New Testament. Some are given again. Grace gives us the guidelines of how we are to act as believers and what we're supposed to do. In the commissioning of the church, Christ gave command to the disciples.

[16:32] He said, go and make disciples. You know, that is the only imperative really as given in the New Testament? Go and make disciples.

[16:44] Now, there are things that go along with that, what we are supposed to be as disciples, what we are supposed to teach as disciples, but our imperative is go and make disciples. Go and share with others who Christ is and what he wants for us.

[17:00] And you notice how I said that, what he wants for us. Not just the commands that he gives us to make us go do things, what he wants for us. He wants us to live right, he wants us to do right, he wants us to walk according to his will.

[17:16] Why? Because it's going to help us as well as take the gospel to others, which God wants. But it's going to help us in our life and be what he wants us to be. disciples should make other disciples who will go and make other disciples.

[17:36] That's our job. What would it be like if everybody in our church lived according to that great commission? We all lived to make disciples who will go and make disciples.

[17:52] disciples. We'd have a whole lot more people here, wouldn't we? Number three. And the third one, I always feel uncomfortable about talking about these things.

[18:05] But the third one is the pastor is God's man. Wrong.

[18:18] The pastor is God's man. You see it now? Okay, good. And the pastor equips the church to serve.

[18:30] My job is to help you know the word of God so that you can go out and serve. If my job is to help you to make disciples who are going to make disciples, I have to teach you things to help you make disciples.

[18:42] I have to teach you things because when I go out to make disciples, it's not just giving them the gospel message. We talked about this before. It is to give the whole counsel of God.

[18:55] So I have to teach you all kinds of different things. I'm going to come back, I think, to doing a little more on how to give the gospel and to be disciple makers that way, but I'm supposed to give you all, the whole counsel of God.

[19:09] So I try to do that. And if I do that the way I'm supposed to, it affects you guys because you are not just spectators. And just like, okay, the pastor, we pay him to go do this and we pay him to go do that and we pay him to go do the other thing.

[19:27] No, you're not just spectators. You are now part of the ministry. You are going to help make disciples who help make disciples. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, you know well, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

[19:51] So what's my main job? My main job is to help you understand the word of God and know what you're supposed to do with the word of God so you can teach others about the word of God.

[20:02] you know, I think God might want me to work in a nursery, said no one ever, but what is your purpose of being in the nursery?

[20:19] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. God might want me to teach Sunday school. Why would you teach Sunday school? For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

[20:32] God may want me to go into missionary work. Why would I go into missionary work? For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

[20:44] You get the idea? Chuck, God may want you to take up the offering. Why am I taking up the offering? For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

[20:57] Everything we do should be for that. And he says he gave some apostles and some evangelists and some pastor teachers and some he gives all of us gifts.

[21:09] That's why we started out this study, you know, with different ministrations, various, you know, administrations and all that. Pastor's workload gets to be too heavy.

[21:21] what do we do? Today, most churches will go, it's time to hire an assistant pastor or hire a youth pastor or hire, but what about the people sitting in the pew?

[21:39] Who are there for disciple making? Because I'm teaching you, you're going to teach others? For what? Oh yeah, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

[21:50] That's all of our jobs. So we need to be careful about how we do certain things. What?

[22:09] Uh, no. Because that is contrary to scripture. I know you know that too. Very good.

[22:22] Yeah. So anyways, sitting, sitting by and just letting your pastor do this and that and the other thing. He says, no, that's, that's not what the purpose of the body is.

[22:33] We're all part of the body. We're all supposed to be part of the ministry. Let it be. The church honors its pastor. And I really hate this part.

[22:47] But the church honors its pastor. You know, there are some, we're talking about people getting involved. There are some people who need to be less involved.

[23:00] What do I mean by that? There are some people who want to gossip about the pastor and his family. There are people who want to try to manipulate the pastor and his family.

[23:11] There are some who always have little critical comments and things and stuff. I have known people who have gone out of their way to make a pastor's life miserable until they finally left.

[23:26] I've seen that happen even recently in some areas of some people I know and some pastors I'm acquainted with. Pastors not above constructive criticism, but notice I said constructive.

[23:44] Make sure it's constructive. And don't make it criticism. Make it constructive observations. That's a good word.

[23:55] Observations. You know, if God called him there, then let God work and you may say, okay, you know, have you thought of this or have you thought of that?

[24:05] Let God do a work in his life, just like you would anybody else. Always a little theory of people will say, well, you know, so-and-so should do this and so-and-so should do that.

[24:19] Yes, you pray for them and you help them and you can give them some instruction. You can help them understand some things, but be careful of the attitude that you go in there with, how you do it.

[24:33] the goal, remember, is that Galatians, he says, you know, we're supposed to give them instruction, but we give them instruction to help draw them back, not to push them away, but to draw them back.

[24:56] We need to be careful. Hebrews 13, 17, every pastor's favorite verse, obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you.

[25:16] He said, look, listen to what your pastor has to say. Submit to him. Why? Because they watch for your souls.

[25:27] Now, let me put with that, like I said, I don't like this whole section, I don't like doing that. God also told us to be like the Bereans, who search the scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

[25:46] A pastor can be giving you information, he can be sharing things with you. Always go back to the Bible, say, is what he's telling me true?

[25:57] Is what he's telling me line up with what this book says? if it doesn't give that constructive observation to him.

[26:07] Say, you know, the Bible says, you said this the other day, but the Bible says this. How do we, how do we connect those two? How do we put those two together? Right.

[26:22] Have your eyes on me as mine are on Christ. If I'm not following Christ, don't follow me. that's why my favorite verse is looking unto Jesus.

[26:33] Keep your eyes there. There's other verses in the Old Testament that talks about my heart is fixed. Oh Lord, my heart is fixed. You know, as long as his heart is fixed, as long as he's looking unto Jesus, follow him.

[26:47] If he's not, if he's going a different direction, make the observance. And if things continue and he's going the wrong direction, what's your job? Ah.

[27:06] There you go. Matthew 18. And then if it's still not fixed from there, it might be, I say, you can boot him out or you can go find another, go find another church.

[27:18] But don't talk bad about him. Don't be saying things about him. Some churches take what pastors do kind of flippantly.

[27:30] You know, they only work one day a week, you know. Some churches, they move pastors in and out quite regularly. Change the drapes.

[27:43] We need new drapes. Let's need a new pastor. I was in a church like that for a little while where pastor would maybe last four or five years and then it was time for a new one.

[27:55] Four or five years and it was time for a new one. Until they finally got one that was there for 16 years. It's like, whoa, a whole different philosophy when you got a guy who's there and can build a ministry and do things.

[28:09] So, be careful of how you treat your pastors. be careful because he said there in that verse, let me go back to it, he says, obey them to have the rule of you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable to you.

[28:40] Someday we're all going to be standing before the judgment seat. How you handle things in your life makes a whole lot of difference.

[28:53] You can lose reward, like I talked today. You can be rewarded for seeking God. Be careful. Seek after him. Look for his direction.

[29:05] And so when you're talking with your pastor, be praying that he is seeking God and looking for his direction and what he wants. Basically, to be a joyful pastor, I'm going to stand before God and say, these people are part of this church.

[29:34] I can rejoice over them because they wanted to do this. I cannot rejoice over some because they wanted to go and do things that were contrary to your word.

[29:47] When I stand before God, I want to be able to stand before God and give a joyous account of what happened here. And that's enough on that.

[29:59] Okay? Any questions? questions? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah, I think that's what that means, yes.

[30:21] It's not profitable for the pastor either, but not for the people. do it. All right. Yeah.

[30:33] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[30:49]  Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I 내가