Transcript for:
Ephesians 4:7,16 -Filled Up- (Part Two, Verses 11,16) Pastor Rick Beaudry 2026-03-01

Ephesians chapter four verses, 11 through 16. This is gonna be the second part of our title, filled up. We watched the first part last week. We studied seven, seven through 10, And, now we're going 11 through 16 for part two of our message, filled up. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God unto a perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slate of, of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth and love may grow up into him and all things which is the head even Christ. From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working and the measure of every part make it increase of the body and to the edifying of itself in love. Father, we thank you for your holy word. We thank you that we are a part of the body of Christ, that Lord, your son is the head and all of us are different parts of that body, places within the body of Christ that we move and work in harmony as you direct, as the head directs us to. And Lord, we pray that we bring you glory and honor, that there'd be no schism in the body. We pray that we'd recognize the gifts that you've given us, Lord, and we'd use those gifts for your kingdom and glory. We pray that we'd be filled up, continually be being filled with your Holy Spirit, filled with your love, and with the power of your Holy Spirit to exercise these gifts on the last days, Lord, that that you would be glorified, that your church would grow, that people would come to a saving knowledge, in your precious son, dear heavenly father. So blessed now, we pray. Be our teacher as we desire to sit at your feet and be taught of you, Lord. Build us up. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? As Christians, God's desire is for us to be filled up, to experience the fullness of Christ. So we as a body of believers in Jesus Christ are very diverse in our giftedness. No two believers are completely the same. We may have the same gift, but that that gift and other parts and how that gift is utilized and worked and and, to be used in the body of Christ, be used in a different way. Yet the body is to function as one. We don't want it to be, limping or spasmodic or, you know, be sick in any way or grieving the holy spirit or rebellious. Sometimes within the body, we have a cell that's called a cancerous cell that's a rebellious cell. We don't wanna be a rebellious cell. We don't wanna move against the head. We don't wanna move against the body. We wanna be in harmony and, flowing in the power of the holy spirit that God be glorified. And so we saw last week that to be filled up, we look up to receive our gifts, from Jesus who ascended up far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. And so we, we look up, we pray, we ask, we seek, we knock, and we say, Lord, where did you gift me? Where do I fit within the body? How can I be used of you for your kingdom and glory? And there's a desire to, take that which God has invested in our lives and reinvest it in the lives of others that the body of Christ would be edified and built up and strengthened, and that we would continually be filled up as Christ. We wanna experience the fullness of Christ. We don't wanna live like homeless people. We wanna live like the plutocrats we are, the riches that are ours in Christ Jesus. And not just bury those riches, but reinvest those riches that God has invested in us and in the lives of others that Christ, would be glorified. So today we continue our study of being filled up noticing that after we have looked up, God intends for us then to what? To build up. Verse 11. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers in verse 11. So in addition to gifts plural that you would see in in first Corinthians twelve and fourteen, each of us have gift. The Holy Spirit's giving gifts to every man separately as he wills. In this case, the Lord is giving gifted men to the body of Christ. And I'm holding back saying women because, you know, there are gifted women too given to the body of Christ. Philip has four daughters who are virgins and they are prophet prophetesses. They don't have the office of a prophet, let's say, but, they definitely have the gift of prophecy. And boy, I I have two daughters and and two granddaughters and it would just bless my heart, my wife, my daughters, everybody, if if they're prophetesses, you know. If they're speaking forth the word of God, what a what a great, helpmate in regard to my wife to work with me and to get the gospel out, get the word of God out. And so we we see, different nuances of these of this kind of gifting in our lives and in people that we love, especially in Cathy. I I definitely can see some speaking forth God's word and some gifts of the spirit and such. But she doesn't have the office of the pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton. God's given me that office as a pastor teacher and has sent me here. And, and he has he has his he has his his servants all over the world. All of us are are called of the Lord to serve. So he gave, the Lord gave, these gifted men to the church, and so who are appointed to an office within the church. So the first one is an apostle. When I first came to Bremerton, I had a guy come up to me and say that he was an apostle. And I was like, oh, wow. I've never met an apostle. And and so he had authority over me as a pastor. I was a new pastor in town here. And he being an apostle, he's above me, you know. The apostles are above the the pastors and all. And so I said, well, I don't I don't know about that. I don't know that you meet the qualification of an apostle. The apostle has to have seen the risen Christ. Have you seen the risen Christ? Were you there? You know, when Jesus raised himself from the dead? Have have have you seen the risen Christ? And, you know, some of them will tell you they have. Some of them will tell you they spent twelve twenty minutes with Jesus, and and and he talked to them audibly. And and they're they're writing a book right now, you know, they're gonna tell us about it. And so, wow, you're an apostle. I didn't know that. So the apostles, the 12 apostles, and the apostle Paul, one born out of due time, helped to lay the foundation of the church. What are the qualifications? Number one, they needed to be a witness of the resurrected Christ. Number two, they needed to be appointed directly by Christ. So if we look at the 12 that the Lord chose, he said, have not have not I chosen you twelve and one of you is a devil? You know, Judas Iscariot and, the son of perdition and all. So Jesus chooses, you know, the 12 apostles and, they hang out with him for three and a half years and he says he's gonna build the church upon them. You know, he's the chief cornerstone and they're little stones and, you and I are built upon that. And so he uses the imagery of a building. In this text, we're looking at the body of Christ, the imagery there of a body and how we fit in with the body. And so these are these are foundational, these apostles, guys that the Lord appointed directly by Christ. And the third qualification, that of miracles. They're able to prove their apostleship, being apostles by various miracles. And so we saw Peter as an apostle raising Dorcas from the dead. We saw the apostle Paul, who was Saul of Tarsus, and he described himself as one born out of due time. He wasn't with the initial 12, but when Judas was gone and Peter says, hey, you know, there needs to be 12, and Peter probably should have waited a little bit until acts two instead of acts one because in acts two, when the holy spirit comes upon them, they have a greater clarity, greater understanding. What they're doing is they're casting lots in in chapter one to try and discern god's will concerning who should be the twelfth person, and the lot fell on casting the dice on one called Matthias. And so Matthias became, he met these qualifications, but he wasn't, you know, directly appointed by the Lord. So Peter says, well, it's Matthias. Well, some would say, well, Peter should have waited because a little while after that, you have Saul of Tarsus whom the Lord directly appears to in acts chapter nine. Saul Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who art thou Lord? I'm Jesus whom you're persecuting. Can you kick against the goats and all that? And, and so Saul of Tarsus described himself later as one that was separated from his mother's womb. God intended this all along, but as an apostle, one born out of due time. He came later to be one of the apostles, the foundation a foundational person within the church in his office and, the Lord directly. And he said, show him, Anas Ananias the prophet told him, show him what things he must suffer for my name's sake. He's a chosen vessel unto me. And so a chosen vessel, he has the office of apostle, and part of his calling is that of suffering, filling up the sufferings of Christ. He described himself as the chiefest of sinners. He described himself as one that previously wasted the church and, compelled people to blaspheme. And, and so he saw it as the greatest privilege ever that here he was an enemy of the cross heading toward Damascus to incarcerate Christians, and the Lord arrested him on that Damascus Road, revealed himself unto him, transformed and changed him, baptized him, caused him to be able to see, and he spent three years in the area of Arabia, sitting at the Lord's feet, getting to know the Lord and putting together his theology, taking all that he'd previously learned in the Old Testament and, with the help of, his the rabbinic teaching and with Gamaliel, and now he's got a factor Christ into it. Now it's coming alive. Now it's in, you know, color. And, didn't even know Jesus. Didn't even know that, you know, he was trying to kill the Messiah. And so, so his his great awakening, if you will. So Paul, one born out of due time. And then we come to the next office out of prophets. So the New Testament prophets were itinerant teachers, so they travel around and they would teach the word of God in various cities, who under divine inspiration instructed the church, speaking forth the word of God. So, in first Corinthians chapter 14 verse three, the prophet speaks toward edification, exhortation, and comfort. So for me, I don't I don't see that, I necessarily have a prophetic gift of predicting the future. Sometimes, if you try, if you bat 10 times, you might hit it once or twice. Right? Batting 200. But these prophets were 100% accurate. If they weren't 100% accurate, then they get taken out and stoned. Right? So if you're gonna say, thus saith the Lord, I think I think, I I have a real hard hard time today with everybody having dreams and visions and having a prophecy out there on YouTube, these YouTube prophets. I've had people come into the church again that told me that they're prophets, apostles and prophets. And I say, okay. If you're wrong about what you're prognosticating, then we're instructed to take you out and stone you. So you really wanna go for there? You really wanna speak in the first person that thus saith the Lord? And now if you want to say, hey, the Lord gave me a dream, pastor Rick, or a vision, and I think I have a word of knowledge for you, then, you know, you can you can try that stuff with me. That's fine. I'll, spit out the bones or or thank the Lord that he's speaking to you. I want the Lord to speak to you. Some of you have come up to me and said, you know, the Lord, I had a dream or had a vision or the Lord spoke to me and he'd like me to do this. And I was like, great. Praise the Lord. That's great. But it's more in a general, you know, manner, not a specific type of thing where, you know, like for instance this weekend with all the planets aligning themselves, you know. There was a time where the blood red moons were a big thing and everybody was talking about what's gonna happen with the blood red moons and, you know, these eclipses are, they come all the time. These lunar eclipses, you know. And so to build a book and to build a whole thing of what's gonna happen, the blood red moons align, everybody's getting all caught up in all that, and I'm just like, chill. Chill. Chill. Just wait. You know, wait. Don't don't sensationalize with this stuff. I can only imagine what they're saying right now with the planets aligning, you know. And does that mean the second coming of Christ? Does that mean, you know, I don't know. I don't know. I just know the Lord hasn't spoken to me and say, hey, teach them about the flat earth or teach them about the moons or teach, you know, stay with the scripture. And, it's a much better place to stay. We live in a time of great great great deception. And if somebody comes into a group of people and says, hey, I'm an apostle, I'm a prophet, and you take that at face value and don't look at the qualifications thereof, you set yourself up to being deceived. And you don't wanna be taken for a ride in that way. So they're itinerant teachers, they're instructing the church, they're speaking forth the word of God. So as we take God's word and we speak it forth, first Corinthians fourteen three, he that's the prophet speaks to edification, which means to build up, it's what we're talking about right now, being built up. Exhortation, which is encouragement, which is motivation, and then comfort is showing you the cross, the love of God. So if I'm gonna present a sermon on Sunday morning, I'm gonna ask the Lord to give me a balanced sermon. I don't want it to be an extreme on one side. I don't wanna be a guy that's given in to people with itching ears and only telling you what you wanna hear. The message needs to build you up spiritually. That means I need to feed you God's word. Secondly, I need to motivate you. I need to try and exhort you. Edification, exhortation, that you might hear from the Lord and act, put it to practice. Repent. Do something with it, you know? Don't just sit there. Don't be a hearer of the word, not a doer. So that's another part of the message. And then but not condemnation, not throwing you at the pit of hell, but maybe conviction of the holy spirit, where the holy spirit speaks to your heart, you know that you know that you know that God is, you know, speaking to you. And then thirdly, love. We don't want the condemnation. We want love. We wanna present the cross. We wanna present the love of Jesus and comfort. There should be a means of comfort within the message that even though I'm a sinner, even though I'm a wretched man, even though that, you know, I I still blow it, it's the blood of Jesus, God's son that continually cleanses me of all unrighteousness. I need to walk out of here dependent and confident in the finished work of Jesus Christ. I need to walk out of here every week every week knowing that, you know, he said, it is finished. To tell us I paid in full. I can't let the devil, condemn me nor can I allow the devil to give me a false sense of security where I'm like a pharisee and I think I'm better than everybody else? Every now and then, the message needs to convict you and humble you and get you to look closely at, at who you are, you know, in Christ. So that would be a balanced sermon, the speaking forth of the word of God, and then also, to predict the future. We speculate about Iran and Iraq and all these things right now. We have prophecies that that teach us what's going to happen. We just don't know when, and a lot of times we don't know the application if the application is clear or not. And that's why Peter said this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel after he saw it. He's able to connect the dots. We try to connect the dots of what's happening. So for instance, if we see the whole world going to a digital economic system, we we like to go to Revelation thirteen sixteen through 18 and say, the bible predicted a couple thousand years ago that nobody would be able to buy or sell without a mark on their right hand of their forehead. And and that's a plausible, you know, reasonable application of the technology that's taking place today that's moving us in that direction. And and so we we do the best we can because we, we don't know the future unless God reveals it. So in acts eleven twenty eight, we have an example of Agabus, a prophet named Agabus, that signified by the spirit that there should be a great dirt throughout all the world, which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. So Agabus is up at the church of Jerusalem, and the church of Antioch is is starting to grow. And so some of the heavies come on down, the prophets come on down, they come down to Antioch, and he makes a a declaration, prediction that there's going to be a dearth, a famine that's gonna hit in the area. So what do the apostles do? The prophets, those in Antioch, the elders, they begin to gather together some money, they gather together some food, everything they can to try and bring, sustenance to Jerusalem because Jerusalem church under persecution would be the most affected by a, you know, a a famine that would come in the area. So the church acted upon that information that Agabus gave. Also, in acts twenty one eleven, the same prophet Agabus, took a belt and he bound himself with a belt and he said the same one, the apostle Paul that owns his belt, so it's gonna be bound if he goes to Jerusalem. But Paul said, hey, why are you crying? Why are you making me why are all weeping and crying? You know, I'm I'm ready not only to be bound, but also to die for the Lord. And so they finally stopped trying to convince Paul not to go to Jerusalem, knew that he was gonna go, and they said, alright, the Lord's will be done. But, the Lord spoke through the prophet Agabus again. And then in Acts twenty one nine, we have Philip. Now Philip is one of the deacons. In Acts chapter six, you talk about offices, offices within the church. In Acts chapter six, the Grecian widows, the Hellenistic widows were complaining that they weren't getting the ministration, the food, and the sustenance that, was being distributed. So someone like Barnabas comes along, who is also an apostle, but one that was sent. And and Barnabas, sold a piece of land in, island of Cyprus, and he brought the proceeds thereof and laid at the apostles' feet. They could take the proceeds of that and begin to minister to the poor. Well, the Grecian widows were complaining that the Hebrew windows were getting a greater portion of this distribution of goods and stuff, so the, division is created. So the apostles go there, Peter and the big boys, James and all of them, and they said it wasn't appropriate that they would leave the word of God and and minister to tables, you know, the the menial, the the physical, service there there you have. So they said, we're gonna give ourselves to the word of God in prayer, and you guys need to choose seven people, who are of honest report and filled with the holy ghost, and you'll point over this matter. And so one of them that you know is Stephen. He's the first martyr there in chapter seven, but also a guy named Philip. And Philip is not only a deacon, and that he's gonna help distribute that. And interestingly, these seven that they chose were all Grecian. So the Hebrew the Hebrews that are receiving this this administration, they're able to see the seven of honest report and filled with the holy ghost that God appointed to be deacons. That's an office of a deacon. What do the deacons do? Deacons help with the physical needs of the church. So the loading the van, offloading the van, setting the chairs up, sound, all these kind of things, the administrative things, the physical things. Maybe cutting grass, fixing cars, shopping. You can have deaconesses in the plural too. I mean, in the in the feminine. Junius, was of note among the apostles, and so some say there might have been a a female apostle in in the sense of one that was sent as Paul described somebody in in first Corinthians 16, or I think it's Act, Roman 16 of Junius, and her name is in the feminine. So that's interesting there, a little a little side note. Not the office of an apostle, but, one being sent kinda like Barnabas and all. So anyway, you got these these seven guys, and, they're doing their job. And, when chapter seven, when the persecution came against the the church there and Stephen was stoned to death, the church left Jerusalem. The church was content to remain in Jerusalem to enjoy the mega church and all the amenities and all the stuff that's there, but now persecution came against the church, and now they start to go and do the great commission that Jesus told them to go into all the world and preach the gospel. They weren't gonna go. They're gonna stay right where they were. But persecution, God used to get them to go. So where did where did the deacons go? Philip went to Samaria. And Samaria's an area that the Jews hated, and he's preaching the gospel. So we call Philip, Philip the evangelist, who has four virgin daughters who are prophetesses. And the apostle Paul and Luke and them, when they're traveling in acts acts 16, they come over to Caesarea Philippi, and they stay, at the home of at the home of Philip, the evangelist. And so, very interesting that he that he is a deacon, but he also has the office of an evangelist. So the evangelist does the missionary work, the preachers of the gospel. And, as I said, Philip went to Samaria in preaching of the gospel, and also not just to the Samaritans, but he had a divine appointment with a eunuch, a eunuch from, Ethiopia and, who was there on reading and had left the Passover empty and didn't know who Jesus was. And the Lord, told him, with a graduated, you know, direction of Peter, or excuse me, of Philip, you know, leave Jerusalem, go down to Gaza, which is desert. Why would you wanna leave the revival to go down to Gaza, which is desert? Well, God had a divine appointment for him where this Ethiopian eunuch from Candace the queen, he was going home, he was empty, but he had a scroll and he's reading the scroll. And then the Lord says, go near. Second step. He's obeyed the first, he went down there, now he's now he's right there. And, do you understand what you're reading? How can I unless somebody teach me, you know? And he's reading Isaiah 53. And so Philip's able to preach Christ unto him. The guy comes to Christ, gets to know Jesus, and then, hey, there's some water here. What hinders me from being baptized right here? And then this Ethiopian eunuch's able to go back to Ethiopia and share the gospel there with with the folks there. And so, powerful moving and working of the holy spirit. So you got apostles, you got prophets, and these two offices, as listed here, we would say those offices, we don't have any apostles today. The that of being an apostle ended with the death of those 12 apostles. That's what's referred to here. And these prophets, we don't know if there's any designated in this way today. Although the gift of prophecy is still operational, people prophesy and speaking forth the word of God. And I do believe people can speak, sometimes have a have a dream, a vision, or a prophecy. The problem is it's so broad that, you know, I I just can't hang my hand on it. It takes twenty five years to fulfill, you know. They speak and said, like for instance, I think America's ancient Babylon, it's gonna burn to the ground, you know. And we're we're, we're the one that the Lord's describing in Revelation chapter 18, Babylon, the mystery Babylon, the city of Babylon, you know. And we go into this whole thing of America's Babylon and it never happens. And if I look at the text a little closer, literal Babylon's being built right now. There's a whole trade corridor being built. There's a whole harbor being built. There's there's roads being built and trains and everything being built. Why? Because a lot of the wealth is gonna transfer to the East where the antichrist has his headquarters in Babylon. And Dubai and Gaza and all, that's literally happening. So all the prognosticators during my Christian experience that says America's Babylon, and they had dreams and visions and wrote books about it and all, it's like, well, I I don't think it's lining up. I I don't I don't think that's that's working, you know. So it's just fascinating the way God literally fulfills these prophecies. You know? You don't have to allegorize or, apply them to something that that is not what the text is allowing, and so the the symbolic Babylon. And, so you got the apostles, you got the prophets, now evangelist. I would love to have an evangelist in the church. Timothy is a pastor, a young pastor. His grandmother and his mother, taught him the scriptures from a early age. His, father was a Greek, but his grandmother and mother were Jews, Jewesses, and they taught Timothy the scriptures at an early age. So there you have teachers. You have grandma and mom teaching little Timothy the scriptures, and then the apostle Paul comes along and mentors Timothy. So Timothy is a pastor at the church of Ephesus, but also Timothy is exhorted by Paul to do the work of an evangelist. Doesn't mean, you know, he had the gift of evangelist, the office of an evangelist. That'd be great. Paul did. Paul could go to a city and preach Christ and, you know, hundreds of people come to Christ. Peter could preach, you know, at Pentecost and thousands of people come to Christ. He had a gift of evangelist as well as being an apostle, as well as raising people from the dead. I mean, Peter Peter had it going. But to have an evangelist I I was fascinated when I used to go to Calvary Costa Mesa as a young Christian, and I got saved there in 1980. But every Monday night, pastor Greg Laurie would do a Monday night service there, and seventy, eighty people get saved every Monday night. I love that. That's that that is amazing. Absolutely amazing to see so many people coming to Christ and to, invite your friends and family to come to that service knowing that he has a gift of evangelism, That many many people come to Christ. They bear a lot of fruit. And then to see the harvest crusades, you know, be birthed from that, and to see pastor Greg, still as a pastor teacher, but also with the gift of evangelism, so too with, pastor Ralph Reese. He has a gift of evangelism. And and these guys have seen a lot of fruit. A lot of people come to Christ over the years. Now for me, I don't consider myself to be have the office of an evangelist, to be an evangelist. But one thing I do is I do the work of an evangelist. I'm obedient to the Lord to go and make disciples. An evangel is a herald. That's why at the end of the service, I'm always trying to within the in the sermon, I'm always trying to preach the gospel and invite people to Christ, be doing the work of an evangelist. And then you are also doing the work of evangelist as you're going to making disciples. You're teaching people God's word, you're sharing the gospel, you're preaching the gospel. We collectively go out, but when we do have somebody within the church, within the body of Christ, with a distinct gift of a as an evangelist of a Billy Graham or whatever, we as the churches, all the different denominations, we support a Billy Graham to come to the community and all support that effort because we know with that gifting, the Holy Spirit's going to anoint and bless and people are gonna get saved. We all love to see people get saved. And so I pray the Lord for more evangelists. Maybe one of you are an event have the gift of evangelism and the office of an evangelist. And, so this would be missionary work, preachers of the gospel. Kathy and I, Calvary Bremerton has done a lot of outreaches in years past, and the whole effort of outreach was to try and get the unsaved saved. And for the Christians to have an opportunity to invite their unsaved friends and family, to an event at church, maybe a concert, maybe a prophecy conference, maybe a marriage, seminar that we had a few times, all the different ways that Christmas potlucks parties, all all sorts of ways to try and engage the community and to see if if the Lord's gonna save somebody. I got saved at a concert. I wasn't invited to a church, I was invited to a concert. And at that concert, the gospel was preached, and and that was my day, that was my time. The Lord saved me, that night. And so, and then we come to the fourth office, pastors and teachers. Now, this is this is where I fall in. I didn't know I was a pastor teacher. I didn't aspire to be a pastor teacher. It hit me upside the head. I didn't know what my gifts were. And like I told you last week, I spent about the first eight years just just sitting, receiving, trying to discern and understand. And, and then as time went on, the Lord began to send people into my life that told me that that I had a gift, number one. And then number two, that God has called me to do this. And so, as my faith grew and as I, finished school, I needed to go to school because I didn't wanna go ruin a bunch of people up in Bremerton. I needed to go to school and test it and see and see if, the pressure would make me quit. And, there was a lot of pressure, very difficult, kinda like a boot camp maybe, but, it's never been easy. And so that's one of the ways I know that I'm called is that we haven't quit. And at this point, what would I like to accomplish? I would just like to finish. That's all. I just wanna finish. I want the Lord to come. I wanna be raptured, and I wanna be faithful to the Lord till the day I die. I wanna be preaching like pastor Chuck did with oxygen coming in his nose, and he's preaching on a Sunday, and he goes home to be with Jesus on a Tuesday, you know? Whatever day the Lord wants. But at this point, I don't have great visions of grandeur of what God's gonna do with Calvary Bremerton. Been there, done that, tried everything, and, the Lord could surprise us. But at this point, I'm taking the office that he's given me as a pastor teacher as a unique a unique calling in our community. There aren't too many churches that are bible teaching churches anymore. So I take it serious. I see it as important, but I don't see it as popular. It's not popular because we're living in a time of apostasy. People don't value my gifting as a pastor teacher. They don't want to be taught the bible. How do I know? Look at the churches they're attending. They don't teach the bible, and the people love it so. So that might be the reason we're still here is because there's a few people around that still want to, be taught the word of God, and they don't want sermonettes for Christianettes. They don't want a social gospel. They're not looking They're willing to endure sound doctrine. You're willing to endure sound doctrine, healthy doctrine, teaching of the bible. Paul said that the last days would come, men would not be in willing to endure sound doctrine, and instead would heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. So the churches would be places that teach psychology and self help motivation to help you to have your best life now. It'd be a marriage counseling, all other sorts of thing wrapped up in psychology, psych one zero one, and a very, very, very little of the bible. And I've seen many of you come here from COVID, and I hate to I hate to, insult you. I'm not gonna insult you. But I'm just gonna let you know that after your twenty or thirty years wherever you were, very few of you have a working knowledge of the scripture. Very, very few of you because you were not taught. Now, what you were taught, you notice it says apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastor teachers. You know what you were taught? All of those churches have another office, and he's called the fundraiser. All of you were taught to give. You're givers. That part you were taught. They taught you every which way. Up, down, around, every three, four months is another campaign on giving. You were taught that there's needs out in the community, and we're gonna raise the money, and we're gonna alleviate suffering. But no doctrine, no teaching. Because Rick Warren's model is its deeds, not creeds. And you don't need to know prophecy. You don't need to know the bible. That's that's morphing into Catholicism, where you don't learn the word of God, but you're exhorted to give so that we can alleviate suffering. How about let's do both? How about you know what the devil's most afraid of? It's a group of people that know God's word. And they're it's very difficult to deceive them because they know God's word, and they have discernment. An illiterate, biblically illiterate group of people that don't know their bible, they rely upon feelings. And feelings are easily manipulated with sensual messages that pump you up and give you the goosebumps, then you go away. And as soon as there's any kind of difficulty, man, you you you crash and burn because you don't have the moving and working of the Holy Spirit. Your faith isn't growing. You're not able to stand upon the word of God and know which way is up. You're easily deceived. And so I had probably the greatest pastor teacher of of my generation, pastor Chuck Smith, and he he taught the word of God, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, and he was so incredibly consistent. So it isn't anything that I came up with. It's what I was taught. It's what was invested into me, and this is what we're trying to do. We're trying to have a good hermeneutic. We're trying to take the scripture and and break it down, break it into meal, break it into grain, and then take the grain and and put it together with the other ingredients and make a nice loaf of bread for Sunday morning or Monday night. Something you can feast in, something that you can put your teeth in, that'll nourish you spiritually, that'll help your marriage because you're getting the word of God and not the psychology and the self help and the doctrines of demons of men. So two functions of one office, one man with two functions. The word pastor is the Greek word is is comes from the Latin and it speaks of being a shepherd. So a shepherd is gonna tend the flock and the shepherd's gonna feed the flock. And the shepherd if need be is gonna lay its life down for the flock. When the enemy comes, When heresy tries to creep in, he's not gonna let it happen. Not gonna allow heresy to come in and and pollute or poison the food, you know, of the people. So he provides guidance and protection. He's trying to keep the flock safe, and, boy, that's a that's a full time job in this day and age for me to continually refute a lot of the lies that are out there, to try and keep you on track, to make sure you're you're not susceptible. Some of the guys, I I I didn't have enough time with them. They they stand up and they they think they already know and they don't know. And you just it's sad when you watch them be deceived, watch them run off before you have a time. You know, you baptized them, you're pouring into them, but now they've got some other little titillating thing over here they're gonna run to, and it's too a lot of times, it's too hard for them to listen to. That's that exhortation part. And so they wanna go somewhere that's softer, where they don't have to think, where they don't have to let go of their idols. So we love that verse in in Jonah chapter two, those that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercies. If you're gonna caught up in idolatry and idolize men, you're gonna be set up for a fall. You're gonna miss out on God's mercies. So I'm always trying to knock down the idols, whatever they may be in our culture, and get people to focus upon Jesus. In John ten eleven, Jesus said, I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. In Hebrews thirteen twenty, the Lord's described as the great shepherd. In first Peter two twenty five, Peter describes him, as the shepherd and bishop of men's souls. You were going astray, but the shepherd and bishop of your soul brought you back around, brought you back into the fold. Now there's different words for shepherds. We saw pastor being used as a shepherd. There's also the word elder that's used as a shepherd. There's a word bishop that's used as a shepherd. As we saw here, the shepherd and bishop of men's souls. Presbyter is another form of church government, maybe a plurality of church government where you have a five, six, seven pastors on staff. Today, another one is overseer. All different names for the same office, which is that of a pastor. Now today, we encounter Church Incorporated. The five zero one c three Church Incorporated. It's a business. And in that business, you've gotta put businessmen on the board and you call those men on the board elders. Now, they're not pastors. They're not teaching and feeding the flock like like we see biblically. They're simply businessmen who have given lots of money to the church and now are given a place of leadership within the church, and many of whom are very, very carnal. But they know how to run a business, and they know how to do fundraising. And they get a hireling rather than a pastor who they give a good salary to, and then they tell him what he's gonna speak on. And oh, by the way, we need to raise more money, so you're gonna talk the next six weeks on giving again. So you keep having all these different cycles of giving because it's church incorporated. And nowhere do you see you see an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, pastor, teacher, but nowhere do you see here listed fundraiser. And yet pastors go to seminary today taking marketing classes to learn how to market you. Peter said that's an earmark of a false prophet. A false shepherd is they will make you merchandise. They will make merchandise of you. You become a commodity. You become something they wanna, get as much money out of as they can. And to me, that's derelict. That's it's it's an abomination. It's evil because I was always always always able to invite people to church knowing that my pastor would not beg for money. And when I'm trying to share the gospel with people out there in the world, they always say the churches just want your money. And I said, no. No. No. No. They're not gonna ask for money. They're worship the Lord and give him, but they're not gonna put the bite on you. And you'd have that freedom of knowing. You wouldn't be embarrassed by the pastor going on with a forty five minutes of music, then an hour and a half of begging for money. You know what's funny? It works. They get that jet that they're whining about. My jet's too small. I need a bigger jet. I'm CFO dollar, and I need a bigger jet, you know. The guys are worth almost $1,000,000,000 now, these televangelists. And that's that's what a lot of your friends see is these guys on TV. And then you're wanting to invite them to church or share the gospel with them. They're like, I want no part of it. They see right through it. So fascinating to me. It's so fascinating. The times we're living in. Two functions, one office, one man with two functions. Pastor in the Latin, a shepherd, to guide, to protect, to keep the flock safe. He's the great shepherd. He's the shepherd and bishop of our souls. In first Peter five four, he's the chief shepherd. Psalm 23, the Lord is my shepherd. David is looking at the Lord as his shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pasture. He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil for thou art with me, thy rod, thy staff, they comfort me. Thou prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. The enemies are watching, and the Lord's preparing a field for you to eat without worrying that the wolf's gonna get at you. He prepares a table before me. He's removing all the noxious weeds because you're a stupid sheep. He's removing all the lies from YouTube and all the stuff that you could get sick on. He's getting rid of all that so now you can come in and eat. He prepares a to a table before me in the presence of my enemies. He anoints my head with oil. What's that about? Because sheep have little gnats in their nose, in their memories, their ears. These gnats drive them crazy. He takes the oil and he puts it in and rubs it in and he smothers those gnats. My cup runneth over. The sheep oh, cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I'll dwell in the house of the Lord forever. David, a little shepherd boy, he sees the comparison. He sees that, you know, it's the Lord that's my shepherd, and I shall not want. He's gonna meet every need that I have, and that's what the pastor should be doing. He should be trying to meet those needs as best he can. He feeds the sheep the truth of God's word. In John 21, you remember Peter was about ready to quit the ministry. He was ready to give it up because he failed at crunch time. He failed when Jesus needed the most. He denied the Lord on three different occasions. And then he said, I'm going fishing. I'm gonna go back to my old trade, a fisherman. I give up. Too big a too big a work for me. And I would agree with Peter. It's way too big a work for us. We're just men. If it's all predicated on me and my faithfulness and giftedness or whatever, ingenuity, whatever, man, we're all gonna fail. It's gotta be a work of the holy spirit. So Peter goes to fishing, a bunch of his buddies go with him, they fish all night, they catch no fish. And then upon the shore, there's a person there, they don't know who it is yet. Children, you caught any fish? Cast the net on the other side, deja vu. Remember three and a half years ago? When I first called you to make you fishers of men? And then the the net is full, it's bursting, and they're trying to bring it to the shore and Peter's doesn't have his fishers coat on and he jumps into the water. It's the lord. It's the lord. Resurrected Jesus is there greeting these guys. And he's got some fish on the coals. He's a carnivore. He's got some bread and he says, come and dine. Let's fellowship. Come, let's eat. And then after they're done eating, he says to Peter, Peter, do you love me more than these? What are the these? Is it the other guys? Peter boasting, though they all betray you, not me, or is it the fish? I propose to you it's the fish. Because for a man, his identity is production, being successful. That's who we are. Do you want this success? Do you wanna be the greatest Filet O Fish franchise in the whole Galilee area? Is that what you wanna be known for? And Peter sees the emptiness of it all. Are you willing to be humiliated for Jesus? You willing to fail for Jesus? You willing to be a failure for Jesus? To deny him when he needs you most? Are you willing to go through that? The breaking of your humanity, the breaking of your manhood, so that Christ might live through you? Can't quit. Gotta be faithful. Peter, do you love me more than these? Yeah, Lord. You know that I love you. Feed my sheep. Then he says, tend my lambs. Tend them. So you feed and you tend, you protect. And then he says, feed. Agapeo, agapeo, agapeo. And Peter's come back with, brotherly love. There's a play on words there for love. You know I love you. Peter, get back to work, just like Elijah, get back to work. I'm not done with you yet. Your responsibility, your sphere of responsibility as a shepherd is to feed and to tend my flock. That's the job description. You don't need to be a fundraiser, Peter. I'll provide for you. When you see a man that's impotent, that's laying there as a beggar, and you and John are coming by in acts five, silver and gold have we none, but in the name of Jesus Christ, stand up and walk. That's the power you'll have, Peter. That'll bring attention to your ministry. You trust me, I'll build my church and the gates of hell not prevail against it. Jesus told Peter, Peter, saint desires that it might sift you as wheat. But I'm praying for you, Peter, that your faith fail not. When you're converted, when you come out of this stupor that deny me on three occasions, strengthen your brothers. Strengthen the guys. Don't be taking them fishing. Strengthen them in the calling that that, I've given all you guys collectively. You're gonna be a leader, Peter. No fleecing the flock. No fundraising. Care for the flock. Lay down your life for the flock. Now in first Peter chapter five, you can turn there with me. Chapter five verse one. He says, the elders that are among you. Again, elder is a pastor. An elder is one that looks over the spiritual needs of the flock. Let me give you another word title for the same office, bishop. A bishop, as we saw in first Peter two, He says He says, for you were, verse 25, as sheep going astray, but are now returned under the shepherd and bishop of your souls. Bishop is an overseer, spiritual overseer. And then you got the presbyter, the plural. You got the word overseer. And, I don't know, in some of your, you know, you don't see priest, you know, in the church. We don't have a priesthood, if you will. But you and I are kings and priests in the millennium. We rule and reign with the Lord, but not an office of being a priest here. And and so in acts chapter 20, Paul says, I'm pure from the blood of all men. He's meeting with the Ephesian elders. He's been there three years building that church up. And now he's letting them know, I'm pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. So Paul said, I'm innocent of everybody's blood where I would be accountable from Ezekiel three and Ezekiel 33. If you don't warn them, then their blood's gonna be upon your hands. But you as a pastor, if you give them the full counsel of God, the teaching of the word of God, the ball's in their court of what they do with it. But if you don't warn them, if you don't teach them, when you stand before God, you're gonna give an account because you didn't give them the full counsel of God. He says, take heed verse 28 in acts 20. Therefore, unto yourselves to all the flock over which the holy ghost has made you overseers. There's that word, overseer, pastor, bishop. That's your spiritual office. To feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. So their blood bought and your job again is to feed them. Now Peter, in first Peter five verse one, he says, the elders which are among you, I exhort. So just like Paul in acts 20, he's exhorting the elders, the pastors. He's having a pastor meeting, a pastor exhortation. The elders which are among you, I exhort, who am also an elder. Peter's a pastor, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. He said, feed the flock of God. What don't the pastors understand? This is your job description. This is your function. Your function is to feed the flock of God. It's a no brainer. And what is the food? The word of God. Not man's wisdom. Not the latest greatest social media. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight. So there's there's where you're tending over him. You're caring for him. Thereof. Not by constraint, but willingly. Not for filthy lucre, not for money. Filthy lucre is money. You're not lording over me, not driving the sheep cracking the whip. And not for filthy lucre, but for a ready mind. Neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. So lay your life down for him. And when the chief shepherd you're just an under shepherd. You're just an under shepherd. The chief shepherd, the lord is my shepherd. He's the one in charge of the church. He's the head. So when the chief shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fades not away. So the blessing of a crown of glory that the Lord's gonna give you and I as we're faithful for the ministries God's entrusted unto us, and he doesn't want his sheep to be emaciated sickly, preyed upon by predators, fleeced. He wants his sheep to be the most loved and the best fed in the community. So why are these men given by God? Verse 12, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. This word perfecting means complete furnishing of everything you need. It speaks of no broken bones. We're not gonna just throw you away if you got a broken bone. We're gonna care for you. Take you to the ER. It's the mending of nets. When your life is broken, we're gonna seek to seek the mind of the Lord and the help of the Lord to try and put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Get you going again. And we're all acquainted. We're all aware of the sly and the tactics of the wicked one that seeks to steal, kill, and to destroy. And so we're there to build people back up, not tear them down, build them up. That's what the word edify means, to build you up. The perfecting of the saints speaks of maturity. Everything you need to mature. Why? It says for the work of the ministry. Because God wants you to participate in the work of the ministry. It's not just one a one man show or one woman show. We all participate in the work of the ministry. All of us are missionaries at the places we work, in school, in the community. Everywhere we go, we share the love of Jesus with people who are perishing. And you're equipped. I I'm watching some of you, the last few years that you've spent here, you're ready. God's using you. You know prophecy. 27% of the bible's prophecy. Only 2% of the churches are teaching prophecy, and you, because I won't shut up, Because I keep repeating myself over and over and over, repetition, redundancy, trying to get it through to you. And you've got it. You've got it. And now when things are happening out there, you're putting the pieces of the puzzle together to people, and then they're like, where'd you hear that from? It's in the bible. And you're able to show them where it's at in the bible. Praise the lord. Collectively, corporately, we might make a difference in somebody's life. Because god wants us to get his word out, and then we have the more sure word of prophecy. We read an article recently where the kids that are raised in in the church and in the schools, the Christian schools, when they get to college, they backslide. They don't know how to defend their faith. Well, one of the greatest defense of the gospel is the more sure word of prophecy. Jesus fulfilled over 300 prophecies in his first coming. There's no professor, there's no upper area of learning that can refute what Philip Stoner laid out, who is also an educator. It's, one in 10 to the seventeenth power, the compound probability that one man could fill fulfill just eight mathematics guy, you're a mathematic major, eight of the 300 prophecies. So you go through those in class, those eight prophecies that you know of the 300, and you let them know that it'd be like taking the state of Texas and covering it with two feet of silver dollars marking one silver dollar and sending it in the state of Texas and send one man blindfolded in there, the compound probability of one man reaching down and grabbing hold of that 1 silver dollar is one in 10 to the seventeenth power. It's impossible. It has to be God. And so we teach each of us to equip the many infallible proofs, and and we we love to give a defense of the gospel. To be able to give a reason, and that only comes with being students, with being disciples. Go and make disciples of all nations. If Iran is gonna open up, then we need to send missionaries there to disciple them before the cults get there and get them off track. Because the cults sound kinda close to Christianity, but they're off, aren't they? They have a different Jesus. They have a different gospel. They have a different spirit. But brand new babes in Christ are very, very vulnerable. So we have a responsibility to to go and make disciples, send the teachers in, send those that can bring them through the foundational truths of the gospel to get them grounded in the faith before they get ripped off, to do the work of the ministry, which all equipped for ministry. We all are called to serve. Now when we had the, Roxy and we had the Calvary Building, and we had the little lighthouse behind it, And we ventured out in faith, and we didn't have any money, but we ventured out in faith, and the Lord began to provide. And one of the things that this community is very, very wealthy in is skilled, highly skilled servants, workers, men and women. That shipyard, keep horn, banger, all these different places that people in this community work. Construction stuff's easy for them. They can put a floor in, they can put windows in, they can do a heating system. There's nothing they can't do. And they're all just volunteering doing the plumbing, didn't charge a thing to the church, and then they're showing up like an army week after week after week, volunteering their time to do a build out on buildings that were vacant for over twenty years. It is the most we got an architect from the other side of the water that moved over here. We got everything you need to tackle a project like that, and it was clearly a step of faith. Guys donating their time to do the came in on Wednesday because they were doing ductwork and heating work in the shipyard somewhere as contractors, and now they're doing ours on the side at night. Parking their trailer in my yard in the meanwhile, buying all the heaters from from where he works, you know, getting a better price on them and all. Just fascinating. Amazing to watch the people like in Nehemiah, they had a heart to work and they came and they built the walls up in fifty and two days and the enemies looked on, knew that work was rod of God. And and to me, was fascinating. It was so cool to see God move and work in that way. And that's what the body of Christ can do when they step out in faith. And once you step out in faith, you gotta continue walking by faith. You can't stop and start fighting over who's the boss. Pastor Mike McIntosh said that the guys will help you build it, but once it's built, they're gonna fight over who rules it. And that's what happened. Lots of fights over who's gonna be in charge, who's gonna rule it. And boy, that's hard to that's hard to fix. The perfecting of the saints, all equipped to build up healthy sheep glorify God, healthy sheep reproduce. He says, verse 13, till we all come in the unity, or it says here, for the edifying of the body of Christ, edify, the word edify means to build up, to build you up. Verse 13, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God under a perfect man, under the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So he wants us to mature. We're not perfect yet, but we're gonna be perfected and we're being changed from glory to glory into the image of Christ. So he wants to use your life to build others up, that the body would be filled up experiencing his fullness. So to be filled up, we gotta look up and then be built up. And thirdly, once you've looked up and you're built up, now it's time to grow up. Time to grow. Time to mature as a Christian. He says, verse 14, that we henceforth be no more children. So his emphasis here upon growing up, not babes in Christ. Paul says in first Corinthians three that, you know, I had to speak to you as under carnal, as under babes in Christ because you're fighting over. I'm Apollo, I'm Apollo, some of Cephas, you know. Is Christ divided? So they had factions there in Corinth, people fighting the little and that's what happened to us, you know, in the past. I'm well acquainted with that sort of thing. The immaturity. So grow up. In Isaiah twenty eight nine, whom shall he teach knowledge and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts. So we teach milk. We have milk here, entry level. Every week there's milk. There's milk for babes in Christ. We never tire of the gospel. But most people out there, their level of understanding is John three sixteen, and they don't wanna go any further. They don't wanna know prophecy because all hey, all that matters, man, just preach the gospel. Can't tell you how many pastors have told me that. Hey, don't worry about those politics. Don't worry about this stuff. Don't worry about the prophecies and all that. It's doom and gloom. Just just preach the gospel, man. Well, is that what you see them doing here? Paul said he gave the full counsel to God. He wanted them to mature, wanted them to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Not just entry level John three sixteen. There's verse 17 too. For God sent not his son in the world to condemn the world, the world through him might be saved. There there's 18 too, and there's 19, there's 20. How far do we wanna go from Genesis to Revelation? How much do we wanna learn? I wanna keep learning. I like learning. I'm getting so tired of the boredom of the world in which we live. It's just insane. The time wasting stuff, it's just no substance. There's nothing in it. But the word of God. The word of God, you can't you can't exhaust it. We had no more children. Time to grow up. He says, tossed to and fro and carried. The word carried means you're helpless. It's like you're at the store and you're a little one and, there's a person that's going to try and steal you, grab you and put their hand over your mouth. You're gonna be carried away by the enemy and you're helpless to do anything about it. That's what the devil would wanna do. Toss to and fro like a stormy sea. You're all over the place. You're not rooted and grounded. You're easily deceived and manipulated and coerced with every wind of doctrine, everything that comes through. You always wanna know the latest, greatest, newest thing coming through the church. Hey, what's new? I'm bored with Jesus. I'm tired of the manna coming down from heaven. I want some savory food. Tell me something I've never heard before. You mean these planets lining up, that's a sign? And now, boom, the experts start writing books, tell you what that's a sign of. And no biblical background just because you don't know anything. They can spoof you, you know. Oh, wow. It's gonna happen on Rosh Hashanah. The rapture's coming. Easily deceived. Children tossed to and fro. And then he says every window doctrine by the slate of men and cunning craftiness. So here you see the devil, you see the serpent beguiling Eve. That cunning craftiness, the subtlety of the serpent. And Paul said the second Corinthians eleven three to the church of Corinth, I'm jealous over you with a godly jealousy for I've espoused you to one husband, even Christ. But I fear, lest as the serpent beguiled Eve, so you shall be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ Jesus. That when the devil brings a different Jesus or a different gospel or a different spirit, you won't recognize it. You'll be tricked. You'll be seduced. And that's what happens to babes. That's what happens to those that are not skilled in the word of God yet, not growing. They don't know their Jesus yet. They know of him. And he says away from me, I never knew you. You that practice iniquity, you didn't really know him. Jesus said in Matthew 24 verse four, take heed that no man deceive you. Be not deceived. Tossed to and fro and carried about every wind of doctrine by the slate of men and cunning craft in this whereby they lie in wait to deceive. So it's a roller coaster ride on a stormy sea of deception of unstable children. And so that's where the pastor teacher's job comes into mature, to grow them up, to feed them, to care for them, to help them to grow. In contrast, he says verse 15, but speaking the truth and love may grow up. So we're looking up. We're building up. We're growing up that we'd be filled up. May grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ. Knowledge puffs up but love edifies. Love builds up. Sound doctrine applied helps to grow up. The fruit of the spirit is love. A loving church. Last week when we went out to lunch with Pamela after the service, one of the things, the greatest testimonies that we heard from her was about you. And Kathy and I were just so blessed to hear Pamela say the time that she's able to spend here, and now she moved away. But she said that you are the most loving church, the most loving group of people she's ever been with. That's the highest the highest compliment you could ever receive as a body of believers. You're not gonna be able to go out there and boast about how many people were there today, or how big a building you got, or any of that stuff. If any man boast, in Jeremiah nine, don't let the wise man boast in his wisdom, the rich man boast in his riches, the mighty man boast in his might. But him that boast boast in this, that he knows me. You guys know Jesus. How do I know? Because you're loving. Love is the fruit of the spirit. Him that boasts boasts that he understands and knows me. He's a God of loving kindness. And that's the greatest compliment we could ever have as a fellowship of believers is that, you know, they're very loving people. They love Jesus and they love one another. Jesus first and then one another. In Mark four twenty four says, take heed what you hear. So take heed what you heard today. So I'm doing my job in getting the word of God to you. Now you have to take heed in what you what you heard. What are you gonna do with what you heard today? How are you how are you meditating upon this word in Psalm one? Chewing on it, trying to get all of the nourishment that you can out of it. You've got seven stomachs in your cow type stomachs, and you you bring it up and chew on it again, bring it up and chew on it again, you're gonna chew all of the juice, all the nourishment out of it you can because you're the Psalm one man. Not the marble man, Psalm one man. Oh, how happy is a man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate. There's your word, meditate day and night. You've got it, now you need to meditate on it. Chew on it. Chew on it. Write notes and chew on that. Ask the Lord questions. Lord, what's that mean? What what's it mean in this coming year, Lord? What's it look like for me to serve you? What's it look like for me to grow up, to be filled up? Lord Lord, what what's it mean to to look up? What's pastor Rick saying? When you see these things begin to come to pass, then look up for your redemption draws nigh. Lord, what's the time we're living in? How much time is there, Lord? Should I be about my father's business? What should occupy my time? How should I invest my time in this coming year, Lord? How can I serve in the body of Christ? Where do I fit in the body of Christ? It's time for you to take heed of what you've heard. You need to be a doer of the word, not a hearer only. If you're only a hearer, then you're an unwise man that builds his house on sand. If you're a doer of the word, you're a wise that built your life upon Christ, that rock, and then the apostles and prophets, and you and I as lively stones upon it. Upon this rock, Jesus said, I build my church and the gates of hell not prevail against it. There's gonna be maturity, stability. So take heed in Mark four. Take heed what you hear, with what measure you meet it shall be measured to you and under you that hear shall more be given. Some of you didn't hear a thing that was said today. And you know what? There's no more gonna be given you until you hear. You can't bypass the basics. It's a matter of the heart. Once you obey the Lord and what you've heard and do what he's telling you to do, he told Philip, go down to Gaza, which is desert. He didn't give Philip the next 10 things for Philip's life. Philip could evaluate and say, was that really worth my time to go down to Gaza, which is desert? I've got some real estate deals cooking and you know, I've got some other stuff going on and I really don't have the time to go down to Gaza, which is desert. A waste of my time. Well, because he obeyed the Lord. When he got to Gaza, which is desert, there was a guy on top of a camel reading, just sitting there. And the holy spirit told him step two, go near him. Obedience in the little things. He came near him. They engaged and you know the story. He wound up preaching Christ. Isaiah 53 baptized him, and then it's not over. Philip was raptured. He got to go to a Zodus. Raptured. Oh, he'd have missed out on the rapture had he not obeyed the Lord. He'd have missed it. Enoch walked with God and was not. Enoch got to be raptured. I wanna be raptured. I wanna enter into all that God has for me. And so you've got to apply it. You've got to apply what you're learning and the Lord says, and I'm gonna give you more. You're not gonna be like the Dead Sea where stuff flows in, but nothing flows out. Now you gotta be active. You gotta get activated. You get you have the privilege of starting to serve and give and help and do in the body of Christ. You see, we're a little bit different than Rick Warren. We wanna teach you first, build you up. We're more concerned about you than we are the poor. Jesus said, the poor you'll have with you always. Always gonna be an opportunity to minister to the poor. Right now, we want you to minister to Jesus. We want your focus to be on Jesus. And then as you minister to Jesus and he ministers back to you, you're gonna be built up. You're gonna be filled up. And guess what? Now you're gonna be able to go and adequately minister to the poor. Minister to those in the community. But to arrogantly say, it's deeds not creeds, goes against the very office of a pastor, Rick. You it's it's not teaching the bible anymore. It's not prophecy anymore. We don't need to teach these people. All we need to do is collect money and go do good things so they feel good. But they're biblically illiterate. They're easily deceived. They're gonna be unhealthy spiritually. They're gonna remain babes in Christ and not have an affinity and a working knowledge of the scriptures and be minimized in how God can use their lives, the spreading of the gospel. He says in second Peter three eighteen, but growing grace in the knowledge of our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Notice verse 16, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies. So the picture of a body according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, each part of the body compacted together, make it increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. So the body grows through the energy, the work, the empowerment of the holy spirit. The edifying, the building up of itself in what? In love. Let our love grow. We don't wanna say just because Pamela said we're loving to stop loving, and a year from now, get a letter from the Lord where he said, I got one thing against you. You've left your first love, church of Ephesus. Used to be very loving. You're very loving in the beginning days, but once you got a little bit of success and got all enamored with that success and oh, wow, look at us. You've left your first love. You left me behind. You kicked me out of the church, church of Laodicea. What happened to your first love? What happened to sit at my feet and and and just listening to me speak to your heart? What happened to reading reading my word and meditating upon my word until your heart says so overflowing with my love? What happened to that? What happened to our honeymoon experience? Where's the honeymoon again? Why is it so stale? Why is it so lukewarm? Why is it so insipid? The world's looking on, the world doesn't want what you have. They're not jealous, they're not provoked to jealousy. You don't have anything they don't have, you're religious. But God's placed each person with a God shaped hole in their heart, a thirst for God. Do they thirst for God when they see your insatiable appetite for the things of the Lord? For who he is? Or you're now indifferent, complacent, left your first love? Make it increase of the body under the edifying itself in love. So as each member of the body looks up, discovering their gifts, your build up exercising those gifts, The body then grows up being filled up with the fullness of Christ. Are you looking up? Are you building up? Are you growing up? Are you filled up? Be filled up. Be being filled with the holy spirit. Be a doer of the word not here only. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our lord and Jesus Christ. Build your life on him. Get to know him. Be filled up with Jesus. Father, thank you for the simplicity, Lord. Just the work of your Holy Spirit. You do the work, and we yield, we cooperate, we flow in a with the power of the Holy Spirit. You direct our lives if we simply ask and yield. Lord, you take control. We give you control. We surrender to your lordship in our life. And you speak to our hearts and as we respond and as we're doers of your word and the little things, Lord, you make us ruler over much. You give us more responsibility. You give us more opportunities. You help us to grow. We're not in an arrested state of development. Lord, we're growing and growing and growing. Lord, keep us from backsliding. Keep us from falling backward, Lord. Help us to grow, to grow up. Make us excited about your soon return. Let us be on tiptoes watching, knowing the hour, knowing the times we're living in. Let us not be like children of darkness where it overtakes them as a thief in the night. But Lord, in contrast to those of the world, Lord, we as children of light, Lord, we can discern the weather, we can discern the times, the spiritual times we're living in. And Lord, this is a time for us to be about our father's business, and Lord, we need to be equipped, strengthened. We need to be built up. We need to be filled up continually, continuously. So help us, Lord, as we yield to you. Help us to not compartmentalize our Christianity, but Lord, that it absorb all of our being with every vestige of our being that we'd be permeated Lord with your love. Everything we do Lord that it's a service as unto you. That whatsoever we do, Lord, that we do it heartily as unto the Lord, not unto men. Recognizing we serve Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of his love. So bless, Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit afresh. And Lord, if there's anybody here now that doesn't know Jesus, you don't have a relationship with Jesus, now is an opportunity for you as you're turning from your sins, the Holy Spirit showing you the cross of Calvary that Jesus died in your place, that he paid for your sins past, present, and future. That his blood was given to purchase you, to pay for your sins as you were bankrupt. There's no way you could pay. And as the Holy Spirit shows you the cross that Jesus died for you because he loves you, and he's calling you into a love relationship with himself. And as you turn from your sinful ways, and you're crying out to him, God be merciful to me a sinner. He promises to come into your heart and life. Anyone here this morning, you're crying out for Jesus. You want to know Jesus. He's knocking on the door of your heart. The bible says, as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Do you believe in the name of Jesus? Just lift your hand up. We wanna lead you in prayer as you receive Christ. Anyone here this morning? Father, we thank you for this loving body of believers here that you've let us gather together. We thank you that you're the focal point, that you're the focus, Lord. You're the center. And Lord, we wanna keep you in the center. We don't wanna be self centered, Lord. We wanna be Christ centered, Christ centric. And so Lord, we pray more and more that the old man is passing away and the new man is renewed day by day, that we continually grow, we continually be being filled. We're looking up. Continue to build us up Lord. Strengthen our family, strengthen our marriages, strengthen our home, strengthen our community, And God use us with the gifts of the spirit. All the various gifts of the spirit as the holy spirit's given to each one of us separately as he wills. And Lord, as Aaron and Hur held up the arms of Moses, Lord, we pray that we could hold the arms up of James as he intercedes on behalf of his beloved Sally. We pray that we could intercede on behalf of those who are sick and nobody would have to do it alone, Lord. But as a body of believers, we're there for one another, encouraging one another, carrying one another's burdens, weeping when one weeps, rejoicing when one rejoices. Lord, let us operate. Let us live out the Christian life as a body of believers under the lordship of Jesus Christ with you at the head, Instruct and teach us, Lord. Help us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.