Spiritual Gifts Part 2

Take your Bibles, if you would please, and turn to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 4, verses 7 through 16, is where we're at, and this is Spiritual Gifts, Part 2. And we're going to be thinking on the subjects of this.

The spiritual gifts are for the maturing of the church. And so Christians are the makeup of the church. And so the spiritual gifts that each one has been given are not for your personal experiences, right? Not for your personal enjoyment, right? The gifts that God has given you are not for your personal enjoyment. The gifts that God has given you are for others, for the maturing of the church. We're going to see that today.

And as we have gone through this text, it is about the church, the body. And the body is the metaphor of the church. And I want to take just a moment with you and build up in your mind the importance of the local church and how amazing it is. It is the highest endeavor that you can be a part of. It's the greatest journey that you could ever go on. It is where we need to wrap our life around.

You say to yourself, "Oh, wait a minute. My children have my entire life wrapped around their finger." No, we need to put life into perspective and wrap our lives around Christ and His church and be examples to our children. You may say, "Oh, my life is wrapped around sports on Saturdays." Or, "For 30 years I have worked and now my life is going to be wrapped around retirement, relaxation, and the occasional enjoyment of exercising." Nope, nope, nope, nope. There is no greater endeavor than being fully invested in the local church. This is God's number one plan. He doesn't have a plan B.

And just for some ammunition, I want you to know that the Bible says that the church is the only institution that God promised to build. There's no other institution that has that promise — that God actually promised that He will build the church. In Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, the Bible says, "I will build My church and the gates of Hades will not overpower it." That is the only institution, the only organization, the only place that has the power of God to be built upon it. So wouldn't you want to be fully invested in the local church?

I want to build up this idea of the local church in your mind. The church is also the gathering place of true worshipers. Those who are truly worshiping God come together corporately, and this is where they do that. The church is the most precious assembly on earth, since Christ has purchased it with His own blood — that's Acts chapter 20, verse 28. Christ purchased the church with His priceless blood, and so it is without value. It is beyond value. So the local church is a place where you can feel like, "Oh yes, this is exactly where I want to invest my life. I want my life to be wrapped around this place."

And another reason is that the church is the earthly expression of a heavenly reality. In Matthew chapter 6, verse 10, it says, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And so the church is a heavenly reality here in person on earth, and that's the only place that has that. That is incredible.

Also, the church will ultimately triumph both universally and locally. Philippians 1:6 says, "He who began a good work in you will perfect it." And so this is amazing because He is perfecting in you something that He started, and this will ultimately triumph over everything. And so you are a part of the greatest endeavor ever because you're on the right path to victory. We already have the victory, and as we're on this triumphal, victorious journey, it is the greatest journey to be a part of.

And I'll continue to prove it to you. Another reason is that the church is the proclaimer and the protector of divine truth. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 3:15, "The church is the pillar and the support of truth." And so there's no better place to wrap your life around and to be a part of. There's no higher endeavor than to be part of the place that supports and protects the truth, because Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

And also the church is the realm of spiritual fellowship. In 1 John 1:3 it says, "Our fellowship is with the Father." We have fellowship events all the time. We have fellowship before church, after church, at people's homes, and we have fellowship in Bible study. We have fellowship around prayer, before prayer, after prayer, during prayer time. We have a lot of fellowship, but the church is the only place where our fellowship is truly with the Father. You see, His omnipresence is in the midst of our being, and we are having fellowship with the Father. This is the local church. This is the church. This is the congregation. This is the gathering of God's people together. Our fellowship is with the Father. And so there's no higher or greater endeavor than to be about the purposes of the local church.

Not only that, we also see that the church is the chief place for spiritual edification and growth. Here in our text in Ephesians chapter 4, we see that spiritual growth happens as a result of the gifts being utilized — such as pastors and teachers and evangelists and more, gifts of help and administration and hospitality. All the gifts come together for the edification of believers and the maturing of believers, resulting in spiritual growth.

And the church is the launching pad for world evangelism. There's no other place that has such a worldwide vision that has promised success. And so Mark chapter 16, verse 15, says, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all of creation." And so the local church is the equipping station for us to be able to utilize our gifts locally and globally. Acts 1:8 is a mission statement for Christians to utilize their gifts both locally, nationally, and globally. All around the world, we're to be faithful to share the gospel and make disciples. And the local church is where we start.

The church is also the environment where strong leadership develops and matures. In 2 Timothy chapter 2, verse 2, you see the Apostle Paul pouring into his son in the ministry, Timothy, who is expected to pour into all of those faithful men who are underneath his leadership in the local church of Ephesus, who then can go therefore and reach others. That downline of 1, 2, 3, 4 — Paul to Timothy to others — is kind of like how you can gauge your spiritual faithfulness to make disciples.

Your life, investing into a Timothy, and is your Timothy — whom you are growing in the faith — able then to go therefore and make disciples of other faithful men who then are also able to go and make disciples? So making disciples who are disciple makers is the Great Commission. It's not a one-stop drop and then go. You don't evangelize, share the gospel, and leave. The evangelist is also a disciple maker. So the Great Commission is making disciples. That's a process. It's not a drop, stop, and go. It's a working out of someone's faith. It's a building up of someone's faith. It's a lot of work. And so the local church is where a lot of all of this happens.

The local church is God's number one plan. And so the spiritual gifts that we see here in Ephesians chapter 4 are for the maturing of each individual believer and ministering in the church. It is truly the highest privilege. It's the highest honor, and it's the highest realm of significance. It's the highest realm of seriousness. And it's the highest realm of self-fulfillment to be fully engaged with what God has given you on the inside — to be able to execute that, to be able to live that out, to be able to find out what those gifts are that you have, and to be able to exercise it. There's no greater joy than to be able to live those out. And so I would ask you by way of sarcasm: would you then wrap your life around something else? I hope you wouldn't. I hope you would see everything else in life is secondary.

Now, spiritual gifts are for others. They're not for personal experiences. The Corinthians were using — misusing — the spiritual gifts for personal experiences, especially the gifts of tongues and prophecies and such. But back in Greece, there was a mystery religion that indulged in what they defined as ecstasy. And this mystery religion capitalized on these ecstasies. And according to those involved in these mystery religions, they were cultivating a sensuous communion with deity. And so these mystery religions would cultivate these experiences, and they said that that was communion with deity.

So getting oneself emotionally worked up and emptying the mind of everything and chasing some type of euphoric feeling — with these long sessions of mind-numbing, heart-manipulating drums, music, and such — was to reach a climax of what they called ecstasy. And this is what the mystics described as communing with deity, a union with even Christ, that crept into the church. Historians explain that Corinthians were brought into this mystical union with the deities by suspending the normal doubts of the mind and suspending the normal precautions of the mind and getting to an unguarded state. And then the emotions would be accelerated during this time of chasing this ecstasy, so that the brain would be neutral and the senses and emotions would be heightened. And so this is a controlled, manipulated atmosphere that's from the mystery religions back over in Greece.

And now, when the emotion takes over and the person has no longer any normal self-control, they are in this state of ecstasy. And this is when awful things like orgies would take place and the tongues would be rampant and there'd be roaring like a lion. These intense sessions with these mystery religions were promoted through heavy fasting, lots of dancing, stirring music, maybe even spray fumes in the air, and they would have frenzy-like behavior to try and invoke everybody to get involved. And it led to ecstasies, and this was also a source of hallucinogens — they would see things. And so whipping people into great anticipations and overemphasizing these religious experiences was something that the Corinthian church was subject to, and they, like any Christian, had spiritual gifts. And the gifts that they had were being misused and misapplied and abused.

Mystery religions corrupted the Corinthian church, and they had all of these mystical, even magical experiences happening inside the church. So mystery religions corrupted Corinth with ecstasies. And do you see similarities today in how mystery religions have corrupted our churches, especially in worship? Do you see similarities in these types of abuses of the church? And I would say to you that Ecclesiastes chapter 1, verse 9, says there's nothing new underneath the sun. Don't be surprised by these types of things — it's just a rerun. And so modern pseudo-worship experiences invoke similar ecstasies, and we see this all around us, and people believe that they need an exhilarated experience to get close to God. And that's not true.

Abnormal consciousness, heightened trances — that's not worship. That's not an experience with Christ. That's not union with Christ. These abnormal behavioral frenzies that happen, that cause people to do things that they would not normally do if they had their wits about them — if they had not been whipped into these types of frenzies, they would not have done these things had they not been manipulated. And so abnormal consciousness and trances and frenzies and such are not worship. It's not utilizing your gifts for Christ.

And so gifts are not for personal experiences. The gifts that you have are not for you; they are for others. We need to get this down first before we move forward in the text, so that we know for sure that the gifts that I have from God are not to be manipulated by somebody else and used to whip me into some type of euphoric experience. Don't be lied to — don't be told that you do not have all of who Christ is unless you have some type of euphoric experience or some sort of supernatural experience. That is the underlying lie that is perpetuated today: that unless you throw off all restraints and fully engage in all of this atmosphere's manipulative stuff, you will experience this. And folks, this is simply manipulating the human psyche and mind and such.

So I would say to you, number one today: prioritize service for the church. Prioritize service for the church. In Ephesians chapter 4, we're going to go through the text and see that this is for the maturing of Christians and obviously magnifying Christ. Everything is to be to the glory of God, whether you're eating or drinking or whatever you're doing — 1 Corinthians 10:31. But now as we see the gifts, especially in the local church, are for — okay, specifically. So we've got some guidelines here as to know where we start and stop. It's for the church.

In verse 12, the Bible says it's for the equipping of the saints. Okay, now just to be sure that everybody's on the same page — if you circle words in your Bible, I have circled in verses 7 and 8 the word "gift" and "gifts." Okay, the word "gift" and "gifts." Now as this subject starts to unfold, the gifts in verse 11 of apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers are going to be unfolded in what they are for. Now the gifts of evangelists, pastors, and teachers are what are primarily used for today. Okay, the prophet's role is done — we talked about that. And the apostle's job is done — we talked about that last week.

Now, verse 12: these gifts of evangelists and pastors and teachers are for the equipping of the saints for the work of service. And so we pastors, we teachers, we evangelists — we are to be all about you, equipping you and developing you, spending time with you and leading you to be able to serve others and serve Christ. This is equipping the body for the work of service. And so we're to equip you, to help you, to do all we can. We are under-shepherds; we're not lords. We are under-shepherds supporting you, lifting you up. And now "for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ."

This is not church growth. And so we're not teaching how to go and get the entire community in the church doors to maximize numbers — we're to build up the body in spiritual maturity. Okay, maturity first, and then what comes would be others as well. Evangelists lead others to Christ; they come to church and worship God, so you see numeric influence or increase there. But the purpose here is not church growth; it's spiritual growth.

In verse 13, the gifts are for unity, knowledge, and maturity and fullness. Verse 13: "Until we all attain the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." So this job description of those who have gifts — all of us do — is for others, and seems to have an indefinite end to it. We're going to be working on these things forever and ever and ever. It's the greatest endeavor, it's the greatest purpose: to work toward unity in the faith. Okay, doctrinal unity, relational unity. Christians who are close to Christ absolutely cannot stand disruptions in unity in the church. It bothers their soul. They pray about it and do everything they possibly can to be an answer to the problems. They want to help lead everyone to be in unity, and that glorifies the Lord. And so we work towards unity to the best we possibly can, especially in faith — in what we believe. And so that is coming from teachers and training and such. And the knowledge of God — that's just an amazing thing. Your job to continue to equip the saints to a full knowledge of God — well, that's an impossible job description, but enjoy the journey. Amen. Every time you find something else new about Christ, it's invigorating. It is soul-stirring. "And to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ."

In verse 14, you'll see that the gifts are for the resulting of being no longer children. In verse 14, as a result — okay, this result of equipping the saints to use their gifts results in the maturing of each individual person. As a result, "we're no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves, carried about in every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming." I just mentioned to you one aspect of deceitful scheming in regards to mystery religions from Greece creeping into the local church today. And so you should not be fooled by these things. We know that we should not be fooled, especially in the book of Colossians, chapter 2, verse 8, where there's already this admonition not to be fooled by these things because there's all kinds of trickery out there.

Turn to Colossians if you would with me and look at chapter 2, verse 8. Colossians 2:8 says, "See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ." Now this is important — that you're not going to be taken captive here. In verse 18 of chapter 2 it says, "Let no one keep defrauding you." You don't want to be bamboozled — that's one word for it — or defrauded of your own spiritual walk with Christ. You don't want to be hijacked and taken captive.

We need to prioritize what we're serving for the church and not be taken captive. Now back in Ephesians chapter 4, the result is no longer being taken captive, no longer being children. In this spiritual word, "children" is referring to where you are in your walk with Christ. And so it kind of goes like this: you are dead in your trespasses and sins — Ephesians 2:1. But then when you are born again, you're a baby in Christ. And then as you grow just a little bit, you become a child in the faith, and you grow a little bit more, you're a youth in the faith, and then a father in the faith. Those are the spiritual categories that the Apostle John sets forth for us to be able to understand where we're at.

And each one of those categories is very descriptive. If you're a child, you're dependent — very dependent upon what your parents and others say, and you're gullible. All right, well, we've got to grow out of that doctrinally and not be spiritually dependent on others. We need to be able to extract from the Bible truth for ourselves and be able to know Christ. Okay. So you've been born again, you've been saved, and now you're a child in the faith. A youth in the faith is one who is an overcomer — the strength of a youth is what's pictured there — so that you can overcome the sin that is a bondage to you and trying to keep you down. So overcoming those areas is a matter of fasting and prayer and spiritual discipline, and being dedicated to that, and really, really putting a lot of effort into freeing yourself up from the bondages of this world and overcoming those areas, so that you can be a father in the faith and truly lead others to what it is to be a dynamic disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A father in the faith can lead someone from being dead in their trespasses and sins to being a Christian. From a Christian to being a child in the faith and knowing what the Bible says. From being a child to overcoming things in their life. From overcoming things in their life, then also being able to teach others. The same system that 2 Timothy 2 talks about — from Paul to Timothy to faithful men to others. This discipleship process, this equipping of the saints to be able to use their gifts, is for the maturing of men.

And now this is really cool. Because in verse 15 — Ephesians 4:15 — it says, "But speaking the truth in love." And so when a child then grows up, they are able to speak the truth. I've heard a lot of people say to me over and over and over again, "Yeah, I've heard it before. Yeah, I know that. I've heard it before. I've heard it before. I've heard it before." But can you say it? That is my question. Because unless you can actually articulate what you know, you really don't know it.

You've got to get to the point where what you think you know, you are able to speak that truth, and it's qualified with love. And so we need to be able to speak sound doctrine. We need to be able to speak the truth of Jesus Christ. We need to be able to speak to others in a way that they know what their next step in Christ is. It's very important. It's the reason why I wrote the book Next Steps — what's your next step in Christ? Whether to become a Christian, to be saved, to be baptized, to belong to the church, to know how to study the Bible, and then to make disciples for yourself. Where are you at in your spiritual walk with Christ? And someone would say, "Okay, where am I at? Well, I need to work on my next step in Christ. I need to keep maturing." And we who are faithful to utilize our gifts in the local church know that. And so we are working toward maturing others in their faith, and we simply see people as ones who are on their spiritual journey to Christ, where Christ is working in their particular life. It's a beautiful thing to see people grow in their faith. There's nothing more rewarding than to see spiritual maturity in people's lives.

And so, "But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ." In verse 16: "From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by whatever joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth." You see that the proper working of each of you individually causes the overall spiritual growth of the church to increase. And so as everybody is participating and everybody is serving, everybody's doing something, the overall spiritual temperature of the church starts to rise. Everybody's growing. Everybody is increasing. Everybody is becoming more and more like Christ. It's a beautiful, wonderful thing.

And so number one, I want you to know that we should prioritize service for the church. And this is emphasized back in verse 8. Ephesians 4:8 says, "Therefore it says, when He ascended on high, He led a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men." And so after Christ had been beaten, battered, and bruised, scourged, and humiliated, and then tortured on an old Roman cross and died — after He was crucified, He was buried, and after He was buried, He was resurrected, and after He resurrected, He gave the Great Commission, and He ascended. After that ascension, He gave gifts to men. The emphasis is on the point that He gave gifts to men. And at this point in His ministry is when He gave gifts. And if He gave gifts at that point, I think it's worth noting that this is a very important part of the life and ministry of Christ, and this is therefore a very important part of your life and ministry as well.

And so He gifted — and first off He mentions here in the text these apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers — "therefore equipping the saints, work of service, to the building of the body until the body is mature, resulting in spiritual maturity." And so I want you to write down this: what is my life here for? What am I here for? What am I here for? All right? The word "for" is something that I want to kind of lean into with you today, because you are here not only for Christ, to worship Him and to make His name known — you are here for the maturing of Christians. You have a purpose in life. Your purpose is to be here for others.

You know, I've heard so many times throughout the years, "I can have church out on the lake fishing with God," or "I can have church out in the woods in the deer stand," or "I can have church driving down the road with Christ." That is not it. I mean, that makes it all about you, right? The exact opposite of what is being perpetuated here in the text. You are for others. And so you matter in others' lives, and to have a self-centered outlook on life is a child's outlook on life. A child does not have the wherewithal — a child has no concept of world hunger. A young child has no concept of what's going on in others' lives. A child has no concept of others. But as a child grows up, they realize more and more and more and become more aware and more concerned and more willing to work towards solutions in others' lives.

You know, the Apostle Paul, as a gifted apostle and pastor and preacher and disciple maker and disciple trainer, clarified what his work was for — it was for maturing men, for laboring to teach men. He says that in Colossians chapter 1, verses 27, 28, and 29. And like a good military man, his mission is clarified. He's got an objective to his mission, and he specifies this as to who are the participants in Ephesians chapter 4 here. Not only the participants, but the objective. So you've got the participants, the objective, and then you have a mission description. You have mission participants, mission objectives, mission description. He also gives the mission conviction — the why behind the what. And then he also gives mission expectations. And so think of military Paul here as setting forth the church militant as ones who are to march as Christian soldiers with an objective.

This is the basic writing skills of those who formulate paragraphs and write papers — the who, what, when, where, and why. It's the same thing. The participants are the who, the objective is the what, the description is the where and when, the conviction is the why, and the expectation is the wow. The wow factor. Wow — it really is a wow factor. For those of you who saw earlier our little children line up here on the stage, they saw a wow factor. It's like, okay, they actually know and can think through the entire book of James, chapter by chapter, and they know where to go in the Bible when it comes to faith and trials, sin and prayer. They know where to go in the Bible when it comes to these concepts. They have this now in their heart. They have matured to the point where they have this inside of them. And this is an amazing mission. There's no better mission than to be on mission in the local church and to be part of these results, to see children growing in their faith all over the place.

And so to summarize Paul's mission, it would be to mature men and glorify God. Paul's mission was to mature men. Obviously you have to share the gospel for a man to be converted before he can be matured in Christ, right? Paul did that, and he also taught the word. And so what is my life for? I ask you that question again: what is my life for? What's your purpose? What am I to do? What does it result in? I hope your answers are being answered in the text today. Because your purpose and what you're here for is not so that you can get a comfy house and get a fat retirement. It's not so that you can one day get a boat. It's not so that one day you can say "I'm happy." Because if your life objectives — if what you live for — is you, you will never get there. That goalpost always changes, because we are sinful human beings. We'll never be satisfied with anything that this world has to offer. As soon as you get the house, you'll want a two-story house. As soon as you get the house, you'll want a porch. As soon as you get a boat, you want a bigger boat. We're just feeble and sinful like that.

And so now to reel ourselves in and to purpose ourselves in and through the local church to utilize our gifts for others — that is the greatest endeavor ever. It's the greatest endeavor you could possibly be a part of. Have any of you ever struggled with identity? Have you had an identity crisis in your life — when you dress like this clique or you want to be part of this crowd, or "who am I?" Hey, struggle no more. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 1 through 14, talks about how we are in Christ. It says it 11 times. For those of us who need repetition — 11 times — your identity is in Christ. Look no farther than who you are in Christ. You're in Christ, you're before Christ, you're through Christ, you're sealed in Christ, you're redeemed in Christ, you're rich in Christ, you're forgiven by Christ, you're wise in Christ, you're blessed from Christ, you're hopeful in Christ, you're to praise Christ and glorify Christ and honor Christ, and your faith is in Christ, you're saved by Christ, you have peace in Christ, your blessings are from Christ, and you have a heavenly home because of what Christ has done for you. All of these truths in verses 1 through 14 in Ephesians chapter 1 give you your identity in Christ. And so you need to look no farther as to where your true joy lies other than being in Christ. If you are having an identity crisis, it's not logical, my friend — it's theological. Simply study who you are in Christ, and you'll no longer have an identity crisis.

And so you ask yourself: well, what am I here for? Have you ever struggled with purpose in your life before? Why was I born? Why am I even here? Well, your answers are being answered in this message today, because your purpose is beyond this — for the maturing of men. There's no greater concept than being involved in the local church. There's no Lions Club, no Masons Club, no Rotary Club, no CrossFit, no skydiving experiences, no dirt biking, reading clubs, hiking clubs, sailing clubs, scuba diving club — there's nothing in this world that compares to the heavenly realities of being in Christ and being a part of His local church.

And so if you're struggling with these things, perhaps you have not truly invested yourself in belonging to the local church. You're not fully engaged — you're kind of one foot in and one foot out. Well, that doesn't work. It's kind of like the ingredients of a cake or cornbread. If you only have some of those ingredients, it does not work. You need the full thing. You've got to be fully engaged in Christ, to be all in — in His local church, in the purposes and what we do. Our custom design by God for you and your spiritual growth affects every area of your life: the whole of your being, your psyche, your cognizance, your emotional state, your physical state, your purpose in life, your drive, your joy, your happiness, your everything.

If you're kind of partially committed, then you've really cut off a lot. But if you realize that people are not perfect — and I'm one of those — and "I'm going to be part of the solution by being fully engaged in the local church, and I'm going to give myself unreservedly, like Christ gave Himself to save me, and I want to be a part of this whole spiritual temperature being raised up, and I'm going to utilize my gifts to my fullest ability, and I'm not going to hold back because Christ didn't hold back for me" — my identity is in Christ; my purpose is for and through the local church.

And so number two, I'd like for you to know that we should praise various gifts in the church. Here in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11, He gave evangelists, pastors, and teachers — just to name a few, to kind of keep us on track today.

Praise these various gifts. Don't be jealous of these various gifts. Praise the measure of the gift that God has given these individuals, and don't be envious of the measure that He has given others. You have different measures of gifts, and you have different variances of gifts. Some are pastors, teachers, and some evangelists. So you have different proportions, different amounts of time that each individual is able to dedicate, different amounts of capacity and ability. They're all measured. Verse 7 makes that clear: "But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ." You cannot judge or be envious of the measure of a gift in somebody else, because you're judging and being envious and scrutinizing what Christ has done in someone's life. The opposite of that should be true in your life, and that is that we should praise the various gifts. We should praise these things.

How so? What's the imagery for praising? Glad you asked. The imagery in verse 8 — when "He ascended on high and He led captive a host of captives and He gave gifts to men" — this is imagery that's borrowed from the book of Psalms. And so Psalm 68:18 is a place where you want to turn. I want you to know that Paul has repeated this imagery from Psalm 68:18: "You have ascended on high and You led captive Your captives, and You received gifts among men." That's Psalm 68:18. And then the last verse in this Psalm is, "O God, You are awesome from Your sanctuary. The God of Israel Himself gives strength and power to the people. Blessed be God."

Here the psalmist acknowledges that God gives power. And this imagery — the backdrop of this — is like when Roman soldiers had a victory and they would throw their captives in cages on the chariots behind them, or they would handcuff them to the chariots and drag them through town, and there would be a procession, a victorious processional of victory. And so the Romans would go through town with their captives held captive behind them, and they would parade them through town and say, "We win. We're victorious. We all have the victory here." And the Romans would give gifts to men — okay, they would take from the spoils of where they had just conquered, and they would give them to the crowds, and walk through, and everybody would be celebrated and be happy and praising all of these types of things.

Well, in the same way that everybody is praising this victory, we as Christians, in regards to the gifts and the victories and the marching processionals, should be praising the gifts that God has given to men. I say praise God for the ability of so-and-so to teach the word of God. Praise God for his ministry of encouragement. Praise God for the ministry of hospitality — I particularly like that one; it always involves food. Praise God for the ability to teach little ones, or to have patience, or to visit the sick, love the poor, to administrate. Praise God for all of these gifts. Praise God for the gift of helps — that's the most predominant gift that everybody has. Because why? Well, God in His brilliance knows that there's a lot that needs to be helped; there's a lot going on. And so the Roman victory in battle was followed with a victory march where they displayed their captives in cages and chariots, parading through town, and Christ's ascension portrays Christ's triumph over death, sin, and Satan, and it ultimately is a victory for the people in the church.

John Calvin said that Psalm 68 was a victorious psalm and it is a victory of the church, and then the victor Christ gives gifts to men. And that gift in Psalm 68, in the last verse, is power. He gives you power — power to men. Power to preach the gospel. Power to overcome sin. Luke 24:49 talks about this power to share the gospel. Luke 24:49 says, "And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you, but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high." And so the power of the Holy Spirit that rests upon and works through the believer is a gift from Christ, and it portrays His victory over Satan.

And you, my friends, have wonderful gifts. So leaders are gifted differently, and we see that, and they have different proportions to which God has given them. So you praise God — in the text — for evangelists. As you look around and you see the evangelism that's going on in and through Beulah Baptist Church, praise God for the evangelist. An evangelist is one who is a bringer of good tidings. The New Testament says he's a herald of salvation — one who declares the basic facts of salvation: that man is sinful in their disposition and needs to repent and have faith in Christ, His substitutionary death and burial and resurrection and ascension, that leads into salvation. Evangelists proclaim the gospel.

Philip in the book of Acts is an evangelist. He's an example of one who, in Acts chapter 8, verse 5, evangelized. In Acts chapter 8, verse 12, he's preaching. In Acts chapter 8, verse 30, he's explaining. In Acts chapter 8, verse 35, he's preaching again. In Acts chapter 8, verse 38, he's baptizing. And so you see — you get that evangelist. It's not just a public street preacher. He's also one who can sit down and explain the text to the Ethiopian who is struggling to understand the book of Isaiah. And he's also one who can baptize. And so there's no reason why our evangelists, if the Lord would see fit to grant them the ability to lead someone to faith in Christ, should not also be the ones who would baptize them here at the local church.

And so evangelists, in their proper working to build the church — the results are conversions. And also evangelists train others how to evangelize. So we praise God for evangelists. And you praise God for pastors. The Greek word for pastors is poimen, and that simply means shepherd. Shepherds tend the flock. They guide and oversee. So mainly a shepherd is for feeding, leading, overseeing, and protecting. And we could talk about this for months and months on the role of a shepherd, but that's not the purpose of the text. I just want you to know that this gift primarily equips the man to be able to feed, lead, oversee, and protect — these elders, pastors. Who are properly working to build up the church? The result is a healthy congregation, a maturing flock. And so also we should — like Christ's triumph, His ascension, like the Roman processions — praise God for pastors. And praise God for evangelists. And praise God for teachers.

The gift of teaching — what a wonderful gift that is to the local church. We have all benefited from the dynamic teaching here at Beulah Baptist Church. Teachers educate the mind. They instruct the will and they clearly communicate God's word. They spend time in the text and they rightly divide it, and they are able to interpret the truth and to explain the truth. And so the facts are taught, and instruction is oftentimes causing understanding to happen inside the mind. And so the text is to be taught, and sound doctrine is the take-home truth. Interaction at this point in teaching is very appropriate — it's how people learn. They ask questions along the way. It's the reason why teaching is essential in a local church. So teaching properly works for the building up of the local church, resulting in people knowing Christ more.

Some may ask the difference — what's the difference between teaching and preaching? And Martyn Lloyd-Jones said one time, "If you don't know the difference between teaching and preaching, you've never heard good preaching before." But oftentimes the difference between teaching and preaching would simply be things like urgency, things like expectancy, things like conviction upon the heart. Oftentimes there will be uses of the English language such as indicative facts, or interrogative questions, or imperative commands, or excitement and passion and fire. "Theology on fire" has been described as what true preaching is. And so preaching calls for obedience and expects life change. Preaching is something that is bringing people to a decision point. That's one of the reasons why preachers are attacked so regularly — because true preaching will expose the error and bring them to a point of decision. And if a sinner refuses to repent and align himself with the word of God, that preaching has brought them to a point of decision and they either defend themselves or align. And so oftentimes preachers are attacked because of this.

So I want to give you some brief take-home truths from today's text. Evangelists, pastors, and teachers are for the equipping of the saints for service.

Take-home truth number one: prioritize service. Prioritize service. And I want you to write down one, two, three underneath this number one. Okay, how do you prioritize your service in a local church? The priorities according to the word of God are very simple. Number one — salvation. Okay, that's how you prioritize your service. If you're going to serve another person, the number one area that you are serving someone else is in the area of their salvation. And so if a person whom you have influence over in a particular life, or you have a friendship with someone or a connection with someone — the number one place you should be prioritizing your service is in the area of their salvation. If they're not saved, you're talking about the gospel. You're talking about true Christianity. You're talking about pseudo-Christianity. You're talking about Christians in the Bible, how to become a Christian. You're talking about the gospel, clarifying what it is and what it's not. And so prioritize salvation. That's your way of service.

Number two is sanctification. And so if one is truly saved, if you want to really, truly serve them, then your words and your actions will be aimed at their sanctification, their maturity. And so encouraging them on how to study the Bible — do they have a regular time where they open up God's word? Not just read it, but dig into it and find the truths for themselves. Can they rightly discern God's word? Are they in a Bible study like with us on Wednesday nights, learning theology? Or are they in a Bible study on Sunday mornings going through books of the Bible? Are they being sanctified by the word of God? John 17:17 says, "Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth." And so if you were to prioritize your service to others, you would aim at their salvation firstly, then their sanctification, and then you would help them to serve.

So number one: salvation. Number two: sanctification. Number three: service. Do not get service ahead of sanctification or salvation. It doesn't work. The logical flow of things is salvation — then they grow, and they become ones who love Christ, and out of their love for Christ, they learn how to serve Him. Otherwise, it doesn't work. Okay, so prioritize service.

Take-home truth number two is to serve with purpose. Serve with purpose. You're not just showing up to greet. Okay, if you're a greeter and you're serving, you should say to yourself, "No first-time visitor will ever come back if they're ignored. I want to make sure that they feel valued and loved in this local congregation. They meet someone whom they can become friends with, and they feel welcomed and comfortable here. I'm serving with a purpose. I want to see them grow and mature in the faith." If you're cleaning, then you say to yourself, "Nobody comes back to dirty facilities. And so you're serving with purpose — they come back to mature in Christ." If you are visiting people, serve with purpose. Say to yourself, "The sick may need my help. There may be a lost person in that house that I can share the gospel with. There may be someone wayward that I can go and visit, whom I can help become untrapped by Satan. I can help them get out from behind the bondage of those sinful bars." If you're assisting and serving by way of assistance, say, "I'll be the humblest and hardest working servant there is. I'm going to serve with humility and I want to serve with passion, because this ultimately works through the maturing of men. All of this is for a purpose." And if you're leading, say, "I'll be the humblest leader, the hardest working servant there is." And if you're serving by praying, then pray in a way that you know that it won't happen unless you pray, and that everything is by prayer, and that you need to be one who is given to prayer.

And so serve with a purpose. Stir this purpose inside of you. Say to yourself, "If this Beulah Baptist Church light — the collective light of all the believers — is going to be bright, I've got to throw as many logs on the fire as I possibly can. I've got to stir. I've got to encourage. I've got to do all that I possibly can to stoke this fire." Serve with purpose. It's not just picking up trash in the parking lot. It's not just mowing the grass. It's not just these things. All of these things have a collective purpose in mind. And when you serve with purpose, you get beyond what you're doing in the moment, and you have an incredible amount of motivation and energy and purpose.

Take-home truth number three — this is good; I didn't realize this until I studied the text — serve for results. Paul didn't serve aimlessly, right? He didn't preach aimlessly. He was looking for a prize. He was looking for results. And so I want you also to serve for results. In Ephesians chapter 4, verses 14–16, as a result — right, there's a result here in our service. There's a result in utilizing your gifts. As a result of the gifts being utilized in and through the local church, people mature in Christ. And so the results are that children are no longer gullible in the faith and they're no longer being stolen. Children today — nine out of ten church kids grow up and leave the church. Satan is stealing our children, right? Serve with a purpose. This whole thing is for a purpose, because I want to keep our kids, and I want to see our children grow in the faith.

Serve for the results of keeping kids, and serve for the results of seeing everyone being able to speak the truth in love. In verse 15: "But speak the truth in love." I want everyone here to be able to articulate what the deity of Christ is, right? And you think to yourself, okay, write down this: what would I say if I were to articulate the deity of Christ? And you'll find out exactly what you know and how mature you really are in Christ. And as a simple solution to kind of get your wheels rolling, you can talk about how Christ was the creator from before time began. And then work through chronologically in the Bible and see — well, the Old Testament foretold Christ, prophets prophesied Christ. And talk about the virgin birth, and get to the New Testament, and the death and burial and resurrection of Christ, and the second coming of Christ. Just think about all of these things, and now all of a sudden you are articulating the deity of Christ — especially in the book of John: "I and the Father are one. He is God. Jesus is God." What do you know about Christ? You need to be able to speak the truth and grow up from being a child in the faith to being a mature articulator of sound doctrine — Titus chapter 2, verse 1.

And so serve for results. The reason why you're serving is so that all of these things that the local church working together can accumulate into someone's life, and that they are able to be mature in Christ. You know, when it comes to serving for results — last Wednesday and this morning we talked about children who have memorized some concepts through the book of James. James chapter 1 is about trials. James chapter 2 is about faith. James chapter 3 is about the tongue. James chapter 4 is about sin. And James chapter 5 is about prayer. And they've all memorized those. Those are wins. Those are results. Those are why you show up to work, to serve at the local church.

And just so that every little area of ministry here at Beulah Baptist Church can happen — how much service goes in just so that can happen? Well, just so that kind of teaching can happen, there have to be servants who are fixing the ACs over in the education wing. There have to be servants cleaning those buildings. There have to be servants mowing the grass, paying the electric bills, paying the ever-escalating insurance bills, paying for the ever-increasing code requirements from the fire department around here to be kept up with. We have to have someone caring for the families of those little children, just so that the children keep being trusted in our care. We have to have those who are training and arranging assistance to the teachers, with kids every single week. We have to have someone buying supplies and cleaning up after the hurricanes outside and the storms and washing the buildings and remodeling the bathrooms and spraying the weeds and trimming the hedges and a security team while the teaching is happening. All of this service. "Wow, just for that?" Yes.

Serve with purpose. Serve for results. The reason why you mow the grass, the reason why you pay the bills, the reason why — the why behind the what — is for the maturing of the church. This is so important. When you have purpose in mind in your service and you're results-driven, say, "I want to see people saved and sanctified in Christ, and I'm going to serve to that end." Then you've got a reason as to why you come to church. You're no longer given to the curse of this day of just attending and giving. Attending and giving. When you show up before Christ and you say, "Well, I was faithful to the house of the Lord" — no. Just showing up and having your rear end in the house of the Lord is not faithfulness. But somehow in our church-growth culture we have perpetuated the idea that just showing up and giving is faithfulness. That is not true. That is not what a true church truly is. A true church is all of this stuff and much more.

And so, take-home truth number four: mimic someone serving. You say to yourself, "How do I get involved? How do I do this? How do I get somebody else beside me?" It's very easy. This is not rocket science. And we don't need to go through every single spiritual gift and define how to use them, because Christ will teach you along the way. The Holy Spirit will help you — He is your helper. And as you get going, your spiritual gift will rise to the surface in your mind. You will in heart gravitate to what God has gifted you to do. And the joy will increase. Your passion will increase. Your involvement will increase. Things of this world become more and more dim, and you are on fire for Christ if you are passionately serving for a purpose, for results.

Now just come alongside someone. Mimic what somebody else is doing. Say, "Hey, what do you do around here?" "Okay, I'm going to come beside you. I'm going to help you." That's the reason why we purchased two lawnmowers — we don't have just one, we have two — so we can mow two by two. Sounds biblical, right? We can do it together. We can have someone else come alongside. Same with the tech booth. Same with the bulletins. Same with an office assistant — we would really love another office assistant to come in and work during the week. All these areas of service. I don't want to belabor the subject, but 1 Corinthians 11:1 says, "Imitate me as I am an imitator of Christ." And so it is right to come alongside and to imitate someone.

You know, as a young, voluntold youth pastor — I was voluntold, a voluntold teacher as well — I was asked, "What's your favorite part of ministry?" And it was great because I sat back and I knew exactly what the answer was. My favorite part of ministry, period, is when you see the light ignite inside of someone's mind. When you see the light come on. When you see maturity happening. When you see concepts comprehended. As a young, 20-year-old minister, my answer is still the same today. My favorite part of ministry is the results of spiritual maturity. When I see things comprehended and the increase of our spiritual temperature. When I see the children growing in Christ. When I see our men who are doing so well — their prayers are increasing in quality. I see, I feel, I hear that. When I see the marriages being strengthened and our men humbly loving their wives and loving their children and leading them spiritually. When I see spiritual progress and results in faith — that is the most soul satisfaction that this pastor gets to enjoy.

And that is happening all over the place here. And I am so overwhelmed with how much joy is in the midst of this congregation. I get testimonies after testimonies after testimonies after testimonies of what God is doing in your life. And I'm just simply going to say our main verse around here is John 8:31: "Continue in the word." Just continue. And we'll see these things continue — see Christ magnified and Christians matured.

Let's pray. Father, thank You so much for today, and thank You for this wonderful text in Ephesians. And I pray that as we commit ourselves to utilizing our gifts to serve in the local church, that we would see saints sanctified and maturing in their faith, so that You would be glorified. Father, if anyone here has never been saved, I pray that You would draw their soul closer to You. I pray that You would help them to see the need to repent and believe the gospel. Lord, I pray they would come to You.

I pray, Father, that as they consider the fact that they are a sinner in need of a Savior, that they would repent and believe that the only way that they could ever be saved is that You would impute Your righteousness in the place of their sinfulness, that You would take on their sin and their shame. I pray, Father, that as they comprehend that — in Your goodness and Your willingness to do that — that they would repent and say, "Jesus, I'm sorry. Please save me." That inner disposition to where they know that they are nothing and that You are everything.

Father, I pray that You would make souls alive and that You would save souls, and that You would bring them from death into life, and that they would not only be saved but grow in their faith and be baptized and belong to the local church, to learn how to study the Bible and make disciples for themselves. God, we love You, and it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.