Ephesians | Week 4 | Full Service

The question I ask for us as we go into Ephesians chapter four, it starts off talking about we need to live the life worthy of this calling. We have a call from God. And the question is, are you taking the call or are you too distracted?

In other words, you can summarize all of chapter Chapters one, two, and three has been all about this incredible redemption and the incredible love of Jesus. You I cannot understand. The first three chapters are all about how Jesus loves us and redeemed us,

and it's about his love and his power. And we live from his love, not for it. And once again, in chapter four, he starts getting really practical. He goes, well, what does that look like?

It looks like live this life worthy of your calling. It sounds like it's saying, you better do this or else you know. He's like, I've already given you this life. Trust the Holy Spirit and live it. And and so what we're gonna see, you can summarize this whole chapter in this big idea. United, we're called.

I that's the part I think we all need to grasp. United, we're called. There's there's two parts. There's two parts of the same coin. And I think some of us struggle one way or the other. What does it mean? We're gonna see that we are called and we are uniquely gifted. We are uniquely wired in that calling.

But that calling is always to be operated through the community called the church or the body of Christ. Meaning, you can't live your calling disconnected from the community. It's it's this it's it's the most un American thing that the Bible talks about. It's the one thing where Americanism and the Bible do not jive.

And it's the biggest thing that makes churches struggle in in in in in America, even if they get a lot of attendance, because people think there's my spiritual life, I live my calling, and then there's a church I go to. And we are united, we're called. We are to have this calling

that cannot be disconnected from the community. In other words, you have to embrace, engage, and go all in in a local expression of the church, the body of Christ. You can't just be a person that attends a church. In other words, some of us commit to a building. We'll show up at church, but not the body.

And other people say, I can be a part of the body of Christ without showing up at the building, showing up with the people.

They're both it's both and as we'll see. So what does that look like? What does that even mean for us? How does that work? Well, I just wanna read through the whole chapter here and break it down in in in a couple sections because it says this is what that calling looks like.

What you have to understand as we read this is it's all about unity that united our calling. And if you don't understand, it's a unity that's brought brought by the Holy Spirit, and our job is to surrender to that. That's our job is to surrender. So we do do some actions, but it's in a responsive surrender,

And then the Holy Spirit is who changes us in this call. If you don't understand that that's what he's talking about, this is gonna seem like an ADHD

person that's just free flowing their thoughts and said, gotta write all this down on a piece of paper. Or, you know, or it's like Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind, you know you know, all that stuff. It it sounds very unrelated. Like, wow. He went from this and then jumped over this. But when you understand it's targeted through this whole big idea, united, we're called,

it makes complete sense. Because it drives. It goes each piece pit builds right into the next as he gets clarity on what that means for us. But here's what I I just gotta say again. This is all about responding to the incredible love that Jesus already has for you. If you don't get it, you won't get it. Get it? Good.

Got it. So let's just start. Verse one.

Come on. Stay open, bible. Therefore, I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.

Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other. Making allowance for each other's faults because of your love, make every effort to keep yourselves united in the spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.

For there is one body, one spirit, just as you've been called to one glorious hope of future. He's now starting to talk about the unity. And he says there's one lord, one faith, one baptism, one god and father of all, who is overall in all and living through all. That last little part is saying, hey, listen. We have a calling. We need to live out this life that he's saying Jesus died to give us his life. Live the worthy life. Live it out.

And he goes, and and why we should do that is we'll have this humbleness, patience, gentleness. Talks about these three things. And he says, and if you don't remember, it's because there is one God, there's one mission, and and he's the one that is overall, in all, and living through all. In other words, we should do it because he's God and we're not.

He knows us better than we know. We if you haven't the first three chapters, you haven't landed how much he loves you, he created you, then don't fight him. He died to give you this life. In other words, he's writing like a parent

that, you know, you you sacrifice something to get your kids something they desperately need and they don't care. You

know, and and and then he's not mad. Now, as parents, we probably let a little anger out because we get hurt, but God doesn't hurt. He's like what we really are. That anger comes from sadness. I can't believe that my kid doesn't understand what I just did for them. And by the way, kids, that does happen.

Now, your parents might get passive aggressive and act a little mean to with you on the side. Forgive them too Because

it just gets that way. So he's saying, just just trust me on this. And what he's talking about in this unity is it's basically the first thing he's setting up and it continues. Every one of these points I'm making continues through the whole chapter. But this launches this first kind of thing. We are called to first and foremost unity, not uniformity.

You know, but it just said, there's one God, there's one this, there's one call. Yes. The unity is in that. What's our mission? What's our calling? What's our purpose to live it out? We should be unified on that, on this big picture idea. But as we're gonna read later on, we're not robots.

We're not supposed to be this thing. We we are very uniquely gifted within that context, and we're gonna have a lot of differences. Like in other passages, like at this point, they had, you know, slaves, free people, Jews, and on. They had a lot of different people, personality wise, stage of life wise,

economic, socioeconomic wise, political kind of views wise, all of these things, people did not look or sound a lot alike. And that's still to this day. It's like, unity is not the same as uniformity.

Uniformity is from our flesh, our old self. Uniformity means I feel most comfortable when I'm people that are exactly like me.

I mean, I've actually pushed small groups. Like, I know it's easier to get someone to get into a small group if everyone's in the same stage of life. We all had our first kid. The problem is, in practicality, that's horrible. You're all pooling your ignorance. And it's hard to get together when everybody has kids.

And and you're like, this is terrible. And then and I realized it because we had a small group early on that Snowy, we were such a young church that we had this older couple that had like six grandkids. And they finally said, forget it. They got into a small group with my youth pastor who just had their first kid at the time. And they're all in this group. And they're like, they thought this is gonna be so weird. Guess what? Their grandkids all lived out all of other parts of the country. Guess who became grandma and grandpa to this group?

It changed their lives. You know why? Because you don't have to be uniform. You have to be united. And that's the goal. And he says, and when we trust the spirit in that and choose unity, meaning we have the same mission and we're all gonna commit to the body of Christ and the mission of Christ,

the Holy Spirit then changes us is what he's saying. When he says you must be humble, you must he's saying that the spirit gives you that ability if you surrender. And there's three words he talks about. You will have humility, patience, and peace. That's what it talks about.

And it says, when I trust the Holy Spirit, I wanna pursue those, but you don't just force yourself to be that. That's a natural outgrowth of committing to the unity of the mission, of the calling. And when that happens, these start to happen. And so here's the issue. It's a good litmus test.

Does humility, patience, and peace describe you and your relationships? See, I noticed that we live in a world that the church, a lot of American churches, we want uniformity. And so we just become angry Christians, especially when there's an election.

And and and and you know what? The church needs to be everybody, even even Seahawks fans. Yes. It's true. God does love them. He loves everybody, even the ones that aren't so bright.

Totally teasing, by the way. It's fun. It's so what is this? The humility does not thinking less of yourself. It's thinking of yourself less. This patience, the Greek word described as the ability to endure hardship and delay without getting angry.

And then the peace that comes, that word for peace, that's the critical word. It doesn't mean the absence of conflict. You gotta work through conflict when you have different people. But what it does mean is wholeness. The word literally is referring to wholeness. It's describing

the that word really describes the concept of of of the idea of bringing different parts together to form a unified whole. And that unified whole that God's forming is we are called the body of Christ. Well, a body is united if it's healthy, but it ain't uniform.

What if how would your life work out if every one of your organs was exactly the same? What if all you had was lungs and a mouth? You'd be a politician.

But, no, think about it. Your body won't won't won't work right. If if if it's it's gotta have unity. And in unity works, the brain makes it all work together. Right? Well, Jesus is called the head. He's the brains.

He's the one that sends out. We just gotta do what we're called to do. That's what it's talking about. We're very divergent, but we are united in the same purpose. Most people come looking for uniformity

and reject the unity part of what we're supposed to be after. We all have our own little personal agenda on what it means to grow spiritually, on what we should be doing. What we're the Bible already told us what we should be doing. We don't need to argue about that.

If you come in and say, well, I don't like how many people are here. Why do you you just wanna be a megachurch. No. I just wanna preach the gospel to everyone, and the Bible happened to say the harvest is plentiful. The workers are few. And that's what we're discovering right here. We're reaching more people to Jesus than we have to serve.

And and and and the reality is that's the truth. It's like, see, if you have a different idea of the unity of the mission, we're gonna disagree. And then you look, I want people that think alike, and and and and and it's unity.

You want the wholeness of a working body, because you need all the body parts. Do you realize you even need toes? You know what happens if you didn't have toes? You fall on your face. And I know some of you are saying, I fall on my face and I have toes. That's because you're an alcoholic. Okay? Stop drinking so much.

It says, and when the whole body doesn't have unity, it it it doesn't work right. I blew my knee out in high school. When when before I blew my knee out on our baseball team, I was leading the team in stolen bases.

I was the fastest person on the team. After I blow my knee out, I have ran like a pregnant sasquatch ever since. People don't know if you know this, but I have a slight limp.

Ever since I blew the knee, it just doesn't work the same. And it affects my ability to walk. That's what happens when people aren't committed to the call that we share for unity. United, we're called. There's a very individual aspect that we'll see here in a sec to our calling, but it is to be united around the same mission, the same prayer, the same Jesus, the same God, the same thing he called us to.

Individualism, we are individuals. But to think my whole Christian walk centers around my little individual walk and I just use this church to get what I want from it won't work.

It makes us all ineffective. It's unhealthy. People say, well, I don't really need church. I can be spiritual. I don't need organized religion. You realize we're called a body. I've said this before. Do you really want a disorganized body?

You it's good that our body's organized and united under the head with the same purpose. It's good that we all have a different part but the same purpose in doing it. A a disorganized body is basically what happens as we age.

Our body's becoming a copy of a copy of a copy. It's it's it's it's starting to fall apart. It's very disorganized. Like it's like, what's going on here? Why did the hair stop growing where I want it and started growing where I don't want it? That's disorganization at its finest.

And and and I'm like, we would say that that we the church is a body, and we we sit there believing this calling is to be disorganized. It doesn't work. We're called to unity, not uniformity.

And then he gets a little deeper in this body illustration when he goes to the next part. He says, however see, this is connected. What he's about to say is a deeper dive into understanding how this plays out.

He says, however, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. That is why the scriptures say when he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people. That's a prophecy. Notice that he also says he ascended.

This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. He's trying to say, do you realize that Jesus, God himself, came to us to bless this mess, to make it right? It's like what the back of this church shirt here says about our children's ministry. Can anyone read it? I don't remember exactly how it's worded.

It says, we broke it. Jesus fixed it, basically. And he says, so you should trust him. Because he says, he came to so he descended as the one who also ascended higher than all the heavens so that he might fill the entire universe with himself.

And now he's saying, and look, here's what he's done. He's given us gifts. Now, these are the gifts Christ gave to the church. The apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, the teachers.

Those there's other lists of spiritual gifts. This is not the only spiritual gifts. There's there's ones and even the others, I think the fact that they're all different is they're just pointing something different out. I think there's a lot of different gifts.

And and but what he's listing here is because what he's trying to make a point about about this unity is those are leadership calling gifts. These are leaders'

gifts. And so then he's gonna describe what their mission is, what they're supposed to do. Because what he's trying to do is the same thing I'm trying to do in the next few minutes here in talking about this. He says, they their responsibility

is to lead all the ministry, do all the things so that people can come and enjoy it and be fed and get what they want out of it. And then if they liked it enough, they might tip a little. Oh, no. That's not what it says. Sorry. That was the that was the the uniformity bible.

Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do the work and build up the church, the body of Christ. See, says they're gifts. These are special gifts he gave to the people. Pastors and teachers. I'm a pastor and teacher. So I'm preaching this whole sermon to say, I am God's gift to y'all. So

start treating me nicer. Okay? No. That's not what I'm saying. It's saying that that that my job, the staff's job is not to do the ministry, is to develop the people. We all do the ministry. We all have our gifts. In other words,

if you're a Christian, do you know your spiritual gifts and you're actively using them in the service of the church of the body? Because if you're the toes and you're not doing your job, we're gonna fall on our face. It's what it's saying.

And then he gets a little bit deeper in this. He goes, people wonder how long will this? He says, this will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.

Then we'll be no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. Did you catch that? At this point, when you take your gifts and you start serving and bring that unity and be on mission, that will mature us in the Lord. And then we will no longer be immature like children who tossed and blown about by every new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with the lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly as each part does its own special work.

It helps the other parts grow so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Did you catch what he's saying? You or we're called to unity, not uniformity. And this is saying, we are called to service, not self.

We are called to engage intentionally with our gifts, with our time, and later on, he even mentioned something that involves money too. We are engaged to say, we have got to join the church in that way. We can't just commit to coming to a building. We gotta be the body. And guess what he tied it to? He tied it to your actual maturity.

If you are a Christian that does not serve, that does not know your gifts, and is not actively engaged in that, you are still a baby. That's what he's saying. You're

not mature. And you're like, well, stop saying that to me, Bill. It's making me mad. Of course, that's what he's saying here. He's saying it it could upset us because we're thinking like the world. We're thinking out there. And then what we do is you hear it. You're like, I don't wanna hear that.

But it's true. And I am doing my job to equip us and encourage us, throat punch us just a little. But the reality is this, I am doing what it told me to do, speaking the truth in love.

This is all from God's love. It's a life you're missing out on. You're gonna miss out if you don't trust him. And and and here's the thing, serving and giving, those are that is matures you.

It's an act of trusting the Holy Spirit. It's an act of saying united, we are called. It's an act of giving yourself to something beyond yourself because you got loved enough to be included in it.

And it's a sign. And if you don't, it's immature. And it's funny how it says, then you will no longer be tossed around by every new teaching. I think that's hilarious.

Because the number one thing I've learned as a pastor for thirty two years is almost every time someone complains about me talking about serving or money, they connect it to, and I need a church where I wanna be fed more on the weekend. I want the preaching to feed me more. I look them up every time and almost every time they don't give, they don't serve. What are you looking for? You're believing I gotta go find a different teaching. What they're really saying is, I gotta find someone who's gonna tell me and give me what I want. And here's my view of what the church is called to, uniformity.

I wanna find a church that's uniform to how I wanna be, not united around who Jesus died to make us. And so when I challenge us in this way, I am loving you more than you even realize. Because those things you're holding on to

are keeping you from maturity, and maturity means you are not experiencing the supernatural awesome love of Jesus in your life to its fullest. You see, we all wanna see supernatural, don't you? Don't you want supernatural to work in your life? Here's the golden rule of that.

Daniel actually said in his sermon when I was there last week. First smart thing I've ever heard him preach. Leaves and then he figures it out. No. Just kidding.

He says, supernatural only happens when we surrender the natural.

And then God brings the super. See, that's where I think a lot of us are frustrated and we're not listening and we don't like this truth in love. Because you know, speak the truth in love is not speak love in truth. Meaning, oh, we're all friend, love, love, eat up. The the the point of that phrase is the truth.

I'm just gotta do it in a loving way. But the reality is, if you wanna see the supernatural, you must surrender the natural. You have time, you have talent, you have money. Surrender those to the united calling we have as the church. And watch what happens when God brings the super.

But you get frustrated because most of us dig in and you say, I'll give when God gives me money. I'll serve when I get this time. All that you keep saying, when God brings the super, then I'll surrender the natural. It doesn't work that way.

And then we won't answer the call because we're distracted. Running after the teacher, running after the voices, after the things that we think will make us happy,

that will give us the joy, that will give us the peace, the patience, the gentleness, the joy of living, the purpose in life. You know what's crazy? The secular world has figured this out.

I just read three studies this week by secular organizations where they took people and and they and they analyzed people who struggle with depression, struggle with this, and things and all that, and then just everyday people. And they question about serving and giving to a to in the context of community

in something that's beyond them. And guess what they found out? That category of people that served less depression, less drug dependency and alcohol, less suicidal ideation, longer lifespan, and that it none of their circumstances changed other than the fact that they decided to be service above self.

You know what that's weird? That's almost as if there is a God. He did make us, and when he asked us to do this, and guess who's figuring it out? The secular world. You know how many Christians you've been in this room for a long time and you've known the Lord? God already built us for that. We know the reason,

and you won't even do it.

What are you searching for then? What do you not get about God's love and the fact that he is God and we're not, and he knows you better than you know yourself. And you have to surrender self to the service. That's where the joy and purpose in life, because that's the calling. Live the life worthy of the calling

because of his love.

But I know this is hard. When you hear this, this is is this this goes

I get it. Some of us struggle in here, and some of you are kinda ill talks about anger in a second, and and and and and you get mad, and then, you know, I know that when I challenge us to serve, especially if I talk about money, there's always something. Yeah. Why didn't you do this instead of talking about that? And I'm like, because this is what we're supposed to talk about, because this where we need to go.

And it's not about us taking something from you. It's about what you need and what God will do with it. But I get it because I'm you.

I get how it's frustrating. We get defensive. We get angry. We get weed shield. Because God is so good at this because he knows I only learn one way. I'm about to preach something and then he's

throat punches me. I was reading my bible yesterday morning, and it was on some issue, and I was like, oh, that's a good point. That's gonna preach so well. One not this sermon, but then and I it's gonna be really good. I'm talking about how it's gonna just be a good point to preach. The church really needs that. And then I have felt the whisper of the Holy Spirit say,

but you need it. But you need it. And I'm like, wait, what's that? You I'm talking to you about this. And I went, what? Who? Who? Who? Me? No. They. And I get, no, you. And I'm like, not me. They.

I had to wrestle with it. And I realized, you know what? I'm wrong. I need to confess this. I gotta deal with it with God. So I start confessing it. I go, but God, I already know you died for me. You called me. You love me. And I start talking about, you know, it's really hard about this. And I realized in the way I'm praying, I don't know if this happens to you. I'm praying in a way they go, wow. I

I said, God, I'm not trying to manipulate stuff. I'm not trying to manipulate to say, let me get away or do this. I'm really not trying to do that. But in my heart, I knew I was trying to do that. And then I'm trying to put that together with the fact that I know I'm talking to the God omnipotent of all that knows all, that knew this moment was gonna happen. He knows I'm trying to be manipulative, and I'm telling him I'm not trying to be manipulative. He already knows that. Now I'm really confused, And I'm frustrated. He's like, what is this prayer thing even about? And then I realized, but part of me doesn't want this. I know it's coming across this way and he's right. There is a little bit in me that's trying to go,

I can make this right, God. I can make this right. And and I'm trying to do that to go like me because I'm gonna make it right. And then I go, but then I realized that's not right. He already loves me. This isn't about me making it right. It's about me trusting him who already made it right. So in the middle of that, I was praying, and I literally felt like there was two people praying. Two bills were praying and this one bill kept leaking out that's like, you know God, I I could do this and you I was like salesman guy. And then there was this part of me that says, what am I doing? This is not what I mean. And I literally started praying, God, don't listen to that guy. You

know I love you, and you know I don't believe that. In my heart, you know that. There's a part of me that that don't let then all of sudden, God brought to mind scripture about the our old self and our new self, which is what I was preaching on this week. And he says, I already don't listen to that guy

because that guy's not you. So don't worry about it. Trust me. When you try to listen to both guys, you get frustrated, you get fearful, you get angry. And the reason I know that for a fact

is I do it too. It's called being a human being. And we wrestle with it.

And that's why this last thing is so important. Verse 17.

He says, with the Lord's authority, say this, live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused.

Their minds are full of darkness. They wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him. They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity. Lustful pleasure there is refers to also sexual pleasure, but

it doesn't mean just that. Lustful pleasure is any when you lust after something, it's something that you crave and you want that God says that's not gonna provide what you need. And the problem with lust is the more you get, the less it works.

And that's why lust destroys us. When we run after stuff that we think, it takes more to get less of that response,

and then it controls us, enslaves us, it doesn't free us up, it kills us. Like, you know, I drink a little, I feel good. I can forget the pain. But then all of sudden, need to drink more and more to get less and less. Now I'm unhealthy. Now I'm an alcoholic. Now it's ruining my life and my relationships.

It's the same thing. There's lots of things that that we lust and and we go after that really mess us up. They they they don't help. But why do we do it? Because the dopamine. The things about these things of the world, those less things we run after that we think are gonna give us what God only can give us, is it gives you an immediate response. You can immediately feel better. It doesn't even have to be drugs, alcohol, or sex. It's can be food.

I know this because I go to bed if I go to bed early, I have this moment when I get tired. If I stay up too long, I hit a second wind, then I can't fall asleep. The problem is if I stay up too late, I get really hungry again because I haven't eaten in six hours, and I lay in bed and I have this point of no return. I'm like, if I go to sleep now, I can handle this hunger pain. I step fifteen more minutes, it's too late. I went over the line, and I'm gonna go downstairs at midnight and start eating something. And I guarantee you there is a truth beyond all truth. This is the most truthful thing. Never a wise decision was made eating at midnight because you got out of bed because you're hungry. I

could have eaten nothing but vegetables all day, and by that one break, I probably double went way over my calories and ate twice as much fat and sugar as I should have, all in one meal. One time I just kept eating stuff. I added up. I go, I just had 2,900 calories. No wonder my a one c's going up. It's not healthy.

Lustful pleasure. You know why I wanna do that? Is if I start stuffing that stuff in my mouth, I immediately feel good. And then I feel gross. And then I go to the doctor and says, hey, this is gonna kill you. What's your lustful pleasure you're going after? What's that thing that you've replaced God with?

Because look what he says. He gets pretty serious about this. He says, but that isn't what you learned about Christ. Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from Christians here. He says, throw off the old sinful nature and your former way of life,

which is corrupted by the lust and deception. He goes, that's not you anymore, so quit wearing the dead man's clothes. Instead, let the spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.

Renew your thoughts and attitudes. How does the spirit do that? Through the word, through sitting there like what happened to me yesterday morning, connecting with them in the word of God?

Because when our thoughts and attitudes change, the power comes in, and then we put on our new nature, created to be like God, truly righteous. Thus, he says, so stop telling lies. Let one of the lies we talk ourselves is I can be mature without leaning into the call. It's a lie.

The devil loves it when we listen to that lie. He loves it when we we don't let the spirit change our attitudes and our thoughts. Well, the way you let the spirit do that is you have to saturate yourself with the word of God, but we don't have time because we're too busy saturating our things with the words of the world.

And so we never get mature. We get stuck, and we tell lies. Let us tell our neighbors the truth, as he's talking about the church here, for we are all parts of the same body. I mean, when we come here, let's be honest. Let's be real. And don't let sin

don't sin by letting anger control you. Don't let the sun go down while you're still angry, for anger gets foothold to the devil. That's why I talk about we get angry when we hear this. I get angry at first, but I can't let that happen.

And then here he talks about money and stuff. He says, if you're a thief, quit stealing. Instead, use your hands for good hard work and then give to generously to those in need. He's not talking about just going out and robbing a Circle K and being selfish. This extends beyond just that. He's talking to church people.

He's talking about those who won't get a job and they they live off others. He's talking about, you know, those kind of things. But there's also scripture in the old testament that talks about when we don't honor God with our money, he asks for a percentage of our money back because it's all his.

He says, you are robbing me. And just like he said, don't get angry,

when God went to the Israelites and said, you're robbing me. And they go, but we we're making the sacrifices. What do you mean? We're going to church. We're bringing these sacrifices. But they were bringing lame ones. They weren't doing it the way he said. In other words, they brought leftovers.

They brought what wouldn't affect their lifestyle to God. Instead of God says, you trust me first with money because that's the only way I can show you that I'm the one that keeps you alive, not that money.

It only works when you give it first. First fruits. You give the percentage upfront and then let the rest of your life organize around that. But guess what? Every time I say that, people get angry. And you know who gets angry? Not outsiders.

Not people. Makes sense. You come to be part of a movement. We need to do something. You know, I I I think my money should join this. It's people that have been Christians a long time that have looked for uniformity, created, listened to the teaching you wanna listen to, organized your life around I can wear the old dead man's clothes, but still be a Christian on the inside, and you're just missing out. You're not experiencing the joy of what happens when you honor God and what he'll do with it and what we get to be a part of. He's saying, stop doing that.

He goes, don't use foul or abusive language, which now that I challenge some of us all to do giving, you just use foul and abusive language in your heart towards me. It hurts my feelings, by the way. Let everything you say be good and helpful. What I'm saying right now is good and helpful. It'll change your life,

and it'll give you the thing you're seeking so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them. And do not bring sorrow to God's holy spirit by the way you live. See, he's not mad at you. He's sad because he knows what he died to give us and we don't take it.

We're like little children that go do something stupid instead of the good thing and we think we're right. He says, remember, he has identified you as his own. That's a key part. He identified you. Your identity comes from him.

Guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tender hearted, forgiving one another just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

In other words, we're called to unity not uniformity, through service not self, from a place of identity not idolatry.

He says, we knew embrace our identity in Christ and nothing else is what he's saying.

We don't need to find our identity in the old self, which is the way this world the world confuses us. We live in so many of us try to say, I believe in Jesus, but I'm gonna still live like the old dead guy. We embrace the ideas of the world. So many of us, you know Jesus, but you're running around trying to find your identity. What's your purpose in life? What's your we already know the purpose. We know the calling. It's obvious. He already told us. Be the body of Christ.

Point people to Jesus by loving them like Jesus, and that'll change you.

We already know what we're called to. Be united in that. Join in on that. Don't just go to the church. Be the church. Because he already loves you. And he's the one that identified you. He's the one that loves you. He loves me. He made us. He built us. And we run after these other things, think it's our identity, and we live such a lie. We have confused young Christians. Young people are so confused. If you're young, you're confused because you think identity is found as I believe in Jesus, but this is who I am. No. That's not how it works.

And we've shown them the way. So many of us are leading the way with we found our identity in our job, in our money, in the stuff we have, in our relation. We found our identity in being a parent, in being a a spouse. We found our identity in all these things. One of the biggest lies is we find our identity in our sexuality.

That was the greatest lie that the devil ever did. It's blowing the church apart. It's confusing young people. People that have find their identity in that are living less. They're having more depression. They have higher rates of suicide, of drug abuse, of so many things. And the answer to the world was, well, it's because you Christians and everyone treats us bad. It's flipped. The script has flipped. There is no oppression on that right now, and it's not changing the numbers.

It's a lie from the pit of hell. And then they the world says, if you look at someone says that's not the way to live, we are bad Christians because we're telling someone who they are. Well, the Bible already tells us who we are. It's not that.

And if you are a young person, it's it's it's we think it's a loving thing to do. It is the most unloving thing to do, let someone think that they're gonna find meaning, purpose, joy, and contentment going down a road, they'll never find it.

You'll never find it. But guess what? It's not just that. Some of us, it's your money. You want this. It's your time. It's your things. It's it's it's it's being a parent. You know what? The reason I said that's idolatry, because that's what idolatry is by very definition. It's not bowing down to a statue. It's anything,

even a good thing that you make the God thing and that's a bad thing. Anything that you say, hey, I may believe in Jesus, but this is my purpose. This is who I am. This is what I need. If you say, I can't give because of this, you're saying, this is more important than God. Anything you put in that spot is idolatry.

And you can't grow like Christ and worship idols at the same time. And and guys, just real quick. And this is the same for you ladies, so don't think I'm trying to speak down to women and make them less. We are all uniquely wired and gifted. And God uniquely wired men and women in a way. He called us to something.

See in a few weeks when we get to the part of Ephesians, we're gonna stop and do marriage for a few weeks. But there is this idea of how we're supposed to operate. And and and and and men and women, we're supposed to be like Jesus.

And in this world, he says men are to be leaders. Doesn't mean women don't lead us, it's men are called uniquely if you go back. What God calls us to do is to do the opposite of what Adam and Eve did in the garden.

Adam stood there and watched Eve do this. Listen to the he wasn't off on his own. He watched it. He literally let her bite the apple first, thinking if she dies, he'll make me a new one.

He didn't lead. It wasn't an apple, by the way. It's just a piece of fruit. We don't know what it was. Men, leadership is not boss ship. And some of us Christians have twisted that. The reason you struggle with your wife is like, you must submit to me. You mean, I'm the boss. Nope. It means you go first.

Twice as many women serve as men.

I hear two to three times as often, I wanna give but my husband won't.

That's a huge problem in the church. Man, you are the biggest biggest percentage of people that are falling for the lies from the pit of hell. You men are the ones that don't read their bible or pray as moats, so you don't get the thoughts of Christ. You're not leading. You're not. Step up and lead.

That's what we need. It's what families needs, our cultures needs. It's not be better than it's be it's just go first. There's a study that shows that if you get families that come to Christ, if if the mom comes first, the percentage of the kids and the dad is about thirty percent.

If the dad's the first one that comes to Christ and lives it out genuinely, ninety five percent of the time, the whole family comes to Christ. That's a unique calling God gave men. And we're not doing it. And you know what? You're getting mad. You're like, why are you rattling my cage?

Because you're in one. And what I need you to desperately understand is Jesus died and broke the lock off of it. If the cage isn't even locked, if you know Jesus.

That's why he says put off the hill. He'll say, are sitting in a cage of lies. And here's the funniest thing. Men get really competitive out of two reasons. You're arrogant or you're insecure. That's really what drives hypercompetitiveness.

And you know who gets mad at me? Hypercompetitive men. How how dare you tell me that what I'm doing is wrong? How do you I'm not telling you the Bible is. And I'm gonna get your face because I love you enough to know this. If you're so competitive, then why do you keep losing to the devil? Why are you such a a a tool that's getting used by the enemy? You are totally losing

because you're being tricked. So if you're competitive, figure that out and look at that and say, not in my house, not in my life. I'm gonna draw a line and I'm gonna surrender to God. And the biggest thing that we struggle with, man, is you will not surrender the natural. And that's why you ain't seen the supernatural.

That's what we need. We need a lot of other things too. But what we need to understand is, guys and ladies, God does something supernatural to all of us when we surrender the natural to this, when we embrace united we are called. Story of Nehemiah.

I don't know if you know it, but God's people went into exile for seventy years. And then they got brought back. And a guy named Zerubbabel brought a group back, and he was there. It was ninety three years before Nehemiah came. And in after twenty two years, they got the temple rebuilt. That's it.

So they had their church building, and they went to church. But it says they didn't rebuild the walls. The thing was in the shambles. Israel. Jerusalem

was supposed to be the city on the hill to point the world to Jesus. It was one of the ways that God was doing it. And by not rebuilding the walls, they were basically just, oh, we got a building. We're going to church. That's about it. They weren't living their calling. They weren't united. They were discouraged. They would fight. There was divisiveness. They all had their different ideas, but they they had their building,

and that was it. And so nothing else happened. Then about eighty years after that, a guy named Ezra led a group back, and they finished up the devil. He led a little bit of reform. They got a little bit more spiritual, but they still divisive,

couldn't get they had enemies on the outside. They're fearful of that. Still couldn't finish these walls. They they it wasn't really about the walls. It was about do we really wanna lean into the united call we've been given by God in this world? And they weren't. Nehemiah hears about it.

He comes thirteen years after Ezra, ninety three years after the first group. And more two generations later, he shows up. And, yes, he wanted to build these walls as a strategy. But what he was really doing is we need to unite

in our call to be the people of God. And the walls was the first step. If we build the walls, we protect ourselves, the people see this as a serious city and not a joke, We can get back to business.

And he got the people united. Everyone united. And you know after ninety three years of not getting this done, you know how long it took Nehemiah once the people decided united were called? Fifty two days.

It took them fifty two days. I look at what we're doing. These buildings, we're trying to raise $6,000,000. You realize the size of people. Everyone in this church, every man in this room, if you said we're tithing 10% and every person that's houses their church home, we did that, building would be done, next building would done, and we'd be spending millions of dollars in the church planting.

That's what happens when you give the natural. Fifty two days. And so to raise my son and to teach him this, his mother and I named him Jaden. Because in the bible chapter three, it said that he did this with everybody. Everybody took their unique calling and just surrendered their natural what they had.

And they started building. And it lists all these people of what they did. And in chapter three verse seven, it mentions a guy named Jaden the Maranathite. We don't even know today where Maranathite was. It just says he built in between these two groups.

He just said he was just a faithful dupe. And being a Marinette, he probably wasn't even Jewish. He just came in from the outside and realized, I believe in this God. I believe in this cause. I'm a part of this body. I'm gonna do this.

And so we picked the name Jaden. It's the only time it's mentioned in the Bible. He's just a dude that just did what he was supposed to do. That's all he did. Well, the cool thing is I've been to Israel with my son, and they've unearthed some of the original wall.

And I wanna show you a picture of this. This is the original walls that Nehemiah built. Part of it, That just looks like a pile of rocks. That's further back. See how that's a wall kinda turning there?

It is so accurate where it describes which streets each person worked on. You are looking. I stood there with my son and said, that is the section that Jaden the Maranathite built. Your namesake. He's just some guy that all we know about him is he chose to unite to the call and bring the natural.

And here's a reminder that God used him, but it was everybody. If he only built his piece of the wall, that's not gonna help the city much. But that's his part. And I said, son, be that kind of a man. That's why I named you that. It's not about success, popularity. It's just be faithful. Be united

we're called. Because you know what? When that happens, fifty two days, you realize God is still doing that. We have so many Jadens the Maranathites and Nehemiahs in this room. Guys, I am not saying this like this church is all terrible. I'm just saying there's a lot of people in this room that you're missing out.

That if you joined in, what would happen in fifty two days here

if everybody said we're gonna live this way? If everyone said I'm gonna trust God this way? What would happen to this community in fifty two days? What would happen? Amazing things would happen because they still are. They already are happening. Matter of fact, God still builds walls in order for walls to come down in people's hearts, and he's done it here

supernaturally. So many people sacrificed the natural. God brought the super. If you don't believe me, watch this.

We are called to a victory that transcends our culture. We're called to a trust that transcends our fear. We are called to a mission that God is allowing us to be a part of seeing eternity change, and we get to be a part of it.

That's what happens when united were called. God does something through us. And that happened because I may have challenged us a lot in this room, but the reality is I'm trying to reach out to those of you that maybe have sat on the sidelines. You've come to church, but you haven't been to church. You've been watching.

But that is what this church is. We are filled with Jadens of Maranatha or whatever, the Maranathaite. We are filled with Nehemiah's. We are filled. Most of our church is doing this. And if you're new and you sit on the side, it's easy to come in here and say it's big. They have these buildings. It must be nice. But, man

and and you think that you don't need you. But, guys, we keep sending people out. We sent 1,400 people out. They all served. They all gave.

Millions of dollars, we just sent. You know why I was willing to do that? Even though the lender said, I don't know if we wanna give you any of the money you want if you're gonna do that and you're gonna build this building and not have more seats. And my answer was, we'll just send a thousand people away. They all give. They all serve. Like, well, how's that? How can I help you pay for it? I trust this body. I trust what God said. I trust that when we reach people, when we lean into the call, he brought more people in. We're right back there. So step in. Step into this like everybody else that's doing it. And God will do something so special to you. When you watch that video, there's two reactions. If you loved it because your kids loved it, you love that you're gonna get to use it and be a part of it, and you get to, like, see it. You get to employ it in in in it.

But that's not as deep as everyone here who sacrificed to make that happen. We got to deploy it. We got to see it work. We God used us to build that, and he did it by us giving the natural, and he brought the super.

And you know what the supernatural is? Lives are changing. Lives continue to change. That's not a children's building. That's an opportunity. Because you know what's happened? Kids are better evangelists than we are these days. We have more families coming because they went with their friend, and then they went home and said, you gotta take me. And if you don't believe me, just the other day, I drove up into my house. I get this old '91 Chevy truck I've been slowly restoring.

The UPS guy delivered to my next door neighbor walked out, saw me, and goes, that's a really cool truck. Comes over. We started having the bro moment, and he shows me the pictures of his truck he's restoring.

We got talking, and after a few minutes, he goes, wait a minute. I know you. And I go, you should. I'm kind of a big deal. No. That's not what I said.

I said, really? And he goes, yeah. You're Bill Bush. You're the pastor at Rock Point. I go, yeah. And he goes, we come to your church. I mean, we've been to your church. We kinda oh, he goes, I'll be honest. We haven't been in a long time. And I go, that's okay. You can always come back. And he goes, that's weird you would say that.

And I go, why? He goes, we were driving by the church just yesterday, and our seven year old daughter pointed at the church and said, why don't we go there anymore? I wanna go to the church. I wanna go back. And last night, I saw him walk by in his UPS uniform. He came from work. I'm telling you, that changes eternities.

And you're sitting here wondering about your identity, wondering about this, wondering about that, hoping that this is gonna make you feel good or that's gonna make you feel good. No. This is what makes us mature and whole and complete. When we realize united

in the gospel and the love of Christ, together as the body of Christ, we are called to point other people to Christ. That's where the victory is. Men, man,

you live your lives wanting to be heroic. We love sports and war movies. Guess what? Letting God use you to change all of eternity. Rescue people not for a few years, but for all of eternity. It doesn't get any better than that.

See what happens when you lean into that. And you know why I know this works? We have the scripture. It's already been doing this. God's been doing this for thousands of years. He's gonna continue to it. He's doing it right now with us, and it works because he said so. Because he said it. He said, you will reach your city. You will reach your state. You will reach your country. You will reach into the far ends of the world, and God will change all of eternity all because he loves us, and we get to do it. So let's stand, and let's sing those words that God said it as we close. Amen.

In darkness for the glory of Jesus' name. If you haven't, come celebrate with us in the new building. It's gonna be full of new families to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's why we do it.

Hey. Thanks for joining us for online service this weekend. Be sure to follow us on social media and connect with us on the Rock Point Church app for prayer and everything happening here at Rock Point.