The Purpose of the Great Gifts part 1

If you would go ahead and take your Bible and turn back to Ephesians chapter 4 Will be in verses 11 to 13 and as you're turning there. I do want to say a thank you I appreciate you praying for me as I was out last week It's not that often that I'm out preaching somewhere else But I was at one of our sister churches one of our anchored in truth churches that would be Shebbleville Mills Baptist Church in Shelbyville, Tennessee many of you know brother John O.

They are a sponsoring church They sponsor us and help us and support us So I was able to go and give a report of all that God is doing here I'm very thankful and they were eager to hear about you and I did say from the pulpit and I say to you I was there representing you it wasn't about me. It was about God and what God is doing here But I did miss you. I miss being in my spot. I miss being behind this pulpit that I call my pulpit and I miss being With with our people so appreciate your prayer So let's take our Bible. Let's get back to Ephesians chapter 4.

We were there earlier in our scripture reading now I did go back to verse 7 I did that on purpose, but we will really divide verses 12 and 13 really all of these verses go together Now if you know where we've been in our study through Ephesians, you know that we are really picking up where we left off From our last two messages in verses 7 to 11 We looked at two messages that I called great gifts given to his church And in verses 7 to 11, we really did see that Christ has given Wonderful great gifts to his church and that would be us this applies to us in Verses 8 to 10.

We learned that after Christ descended as the God-man and he purchased salvation for men the text says he Ascended back to heaven and because he obeyed his father in every way perfectly and he fulfilled every prophecy Concerning the promised Messiah the text says that Jesus ascended back into heaven and he ascended in great victory And he was given ultimate authority all authority He had purchased his church with his own blood and he had earned the right and he had earned the authority To rule his church and then we see in these verses He had earned the right and earned the authority to give great gifts to his church and his people In verse 7 specifically we learned that he gave two particular gifts to his people This would be individual Christians.

This would be individual believers He gave grace the text says to each believer and this is a unique grace. This is an enabling grace This is an empowering grace to live the Christian life And then he gave a measure of a particular gift That's what the text says and this gift is the gift of position in the church This gift is the position and the role and the function of each believer in the body in the church And then in verse 11 we learned that Christ gave four particular gifts to his church This would be the body the church as a whole He gave the Apostles the text says he gave the New Testament prophets not to be confused with the Old Testament prophets He gave the evangelists he gave the pastor teacher and these are four particular offices and these offices are filled by men and these are gifts to the church and you might say wait a minute pastor men are Gifts to the church.

Yes men are gifts to the church So Christ Jesus in his wonderful victory and authority He is given great and wonderful gifts to his people and to the church now verse 12 Starting in verse 12. We see a transition But Paul is not leaving these great and wonderful gifts that Christ is given to his church Starting in verse 12.

He transitions into the reasons why Christ is given such gifts Paul transitions into the purposes for these gifts Now I occasionally mention the fact that I expect you to take notes now I say that lightly we all learn differently Some of us like to take notes and some of us like to listen and go back and study on our own and the reason I Say things like this take notes is because we want to be good stewards and students of all that God's given us Now if you're taking notes, this is what I'd like you to do Write verse 7 down and put a circle around it write verse 11 down and put a circle around it because I'm gonna call you To connect some dots here and sometimes a visual helps you it helps me Now the purposes of these gifts from verse 7 in verse 11 These remind us are really the overall themes of verses 1 to 16 Verses 1 to 16 are really one unit I've mentioned that before and verses 1 to 16 are about several things.

There are several themes there It's about unity and oneness in the church We're gonna see that this morning Verses 1 to 16 are all about building up the church as a whole we're gonna see that and Verses 1 to 16 are all about the good of the entire body the good is of the church as a whole So the purpose of the gifts verse 11 verse 7 are for the building up of the church the gifts here or for the Unity of the church these gifts here are for the good of the entire body the church as a whole and we will see that There's a lot more here. We're really just getting started Now remember my illustration?

Remember my illustration of the priceless coin That's what we have here in the church folks The church is a priceless coin and on one side we see individuals we see diversity we see Individuality but on the other side, what do we see the church as a whole? So we're going back and forth between one side and the other between one side in the other Well this morning We will see that these great gifts wonderful gifts that were given or for the good of the church The church is a whole you can see it like this the purpose of the individual gifts or for the good of this Priceless coin.

Oh this priceless coin called the church Now let me show you how we're gonna approach these verses We're gonna examine what I call two major truths from the verses. This would be from verses 12 to 13 and really verses 11 to 13 kind of go together because verse 11 is connected with all the rest of the chapter So we need to go back and grab verse 11 We're not going to divide it and I think you'll see how it all goes together But you see what we're going to study this morning This is what I call the purpose of the gifts The purpose of the gifts and we're gonna look at the work of the gifts verse 12 And then we're gonna look at the goal of this work in verse 13 Now we did read our scriptures earlier and we'll read them throughout the message to keep them before us because the message comes from The text it comes from the verses.

I think you know that so let's get started in what I call the body of the message number One I want us to see I want us to examine the work of the gifts The work of the gifts. Let's go back and I want to read verse 11 and then get into verse 12 And he this is Christ. He gave the Apostles. He gave the New Testament prophets He gave the evangelists he gave the shepherds that can be translated pastors He gave the shepherds and the teachers one office To equip the Saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ Now the gifts that I'm referring to that I'm mentioning here are in verse 11 I think you could see that that would be those four Offices those men that were given to the church the Apostles the New Testament prophets the evangelists of pastor teacher Now let me review something that you need to keep in the front of your mind We know and we understand that the Apostles and the New Testament prophets those gifts have ceased But yet we do have the Apostles and we do have those New Testament prophets in the pages of the scriptures So when we read what the Apostles taught us when we study their teaching in their lives Really the Apostles are walking down the halls of our churches.

They're in here with us But yet we know that the evangelist and the pastor teacher are still alive today. So just keep those things in your mind Now it may help us here if we see verses 11 and 12 like this this might help you it helped me Starting in verse 12 Paul gives the purposes the works of these church offices and the men who filled and do fill these offices that were given in verse 11 and If we look at the original language, we see that verse 11 all the way to verse 16 is really one long Senate So so that helps us see that these things are meant to be interpreted together Now I want to call your attention to something It might seem I may seem like I'm leaving verse 7 out in those gifts I'm not hold on to that hold on to verse 7 because it comes all the way back into how all of this applies So here verse 12 We see the purposes the works of these men listed in verse 11 and these works in verse 12 These purposes are clearly seen three phrases and they begin with three purposeful Physicians I'm gonna test you and see if you know your English now look at verse 12 in your copy of God's Word Remember now we're grabbing verse 11 these men they were given to equip the saints for the work of ministry For building up the body and I'm reading from the English Standard Version So let's look at each of these these works here.

Let's look at these phrases and go a little further First these men in verse 11 are to Equip the Saints now. There's a key word here that we need to see this word equipped I'm reading from the English Standard Sometimes I do read and preach from the New American Standard the English Standard says to equip the Saints The New American says for the equipping of the Saints now notice the King James it reads for the perfecting of the Saints Now honestly this word perfecting is not the best word to use here This can lead some to think Paul was talking about some type of a Christian perfectionism or some type of a sinless perfection But that's not what Paul was saying But this word equipped it means to complete something It means to restore something or to finish something It was used often in their day When a fisherman was restoring or mending his nets to make them complete for the purpose of fishing It was also used in medicine in that day when a broken bone was mended.

It was set it was restored I think you can understand the meaning But here Paul was saying that these men these men who were appointed to these offices They were given to the work of making the Saints more complete and more fitted These men were given to the church to do the continual work in the Saints So that the Saints in the church would be more restored more complete and put in their proper place for a particular purpose and purposes Now said earlier that these phrases begin with certain prepositions Sometimes these words mean something in the original in this phrase It literally reads toward the equipping of the Saints toward the equipping of the Saints The preposition here speaks to direction it speaks to moving forward Simply the Apostles the New Testament prophets we have them in the pages of God's Word The evangelists that are alive today the pastor teachers that God gives to the church They are given for the work and the continual work to help move the Saints forward to help move the Saints towards being more and more complete and Towards being more fitted and more restored for a particular purpose and particular purposes One commentator said this spoke of the Saints realizing their purpose I think that's good realizing their purpose and he goes on to say that they are also being made more complete and more fitted for that purpose One of the scholars that I do study Linsky CH Linsky He says and I'm quoting word for word here.

The Saints are to be perfectly completely Fitted or fitted out by all those in the church who will who were able to transmit the word But a question here I ask you to think with me sometimes use your mind. Okay I want you to think and ponder this question here if the Saints If the believers in the church are to realize that they are to be more fitted for a purpose From the word and from these men listed in verse 11 Then for what purpose are the believers being formed and outfitted? For what purpose are the saints of God being formed and restored and equipped for what purpose?

Well, that leads us to the next phrase because all of these phrases they're all connected. They're one teaching So second these men are to equip the Saints We've covered that for the work of ministries right there in your copy of God's Word for the work of ministry Now here we see that those men these men in verse 11. They're given to equip the Saints For the work of ministry the King James uses the word ministry the New American says for the work of service Now right here. I want to take a timeout in the progression of the message Let's stop for a minute.

I Thought that the church hired a pastor and other men like associate pastors and music ministers and youth ministers I thought that the church hired men to do this kind of a work Think about that Think about it and see folks this leads us to something we must see This is one of the most tragic mistakes in the modern church This thinking here This is one of the most tragic mistakes that the modern church is made and that is thinking that the church hires Professionals that the church hires unique men is thinking that the church hires Professionals to do the work of the ministry this philosophy of ministry this hiring professionals to do the work It is horribly unbiblical and it is horribly unrealistic Listen church no single pastor can do everything a church needs to be done two pastors three pastors Oh ten staff members Cannot do everything in the church that needs to be done and I can tell you from experience because I've tried Years ago I had a lady in the church Cornered me in the hall Me and my wife usually when you get cornered in the hall.

It's a bad thing This was a bad thing, but a good thing In this light, he was complaining that so many weren't serving We had been eating and fellowshipping and and it just so happened that everybody kind of vacated that day and two or three were left to serve and she cornered me and she was complaining and venting her frustration that many were not serving in that capacity and I just calmly Said well, you know when that happens. I just and she interrupted me. She said I know what you do.

You just do it One of the Greatest gifts one of the greatest detriments is if you can do it But let me just show you what I'm trying to say no minister No pastor three four five ten pastors cannot do everything in the life of the church that needs to be done It is an impossibility and those ideas those approaches to church ministry are false They are worldly They are antithetical to what the text says and those false ideas will be challenged here if you pay attention but here we see One of the purposes for which believers are equipped and that is for the work of ministry and that is you But what does this ministry?

What did this works of service mean? The word that's used here simply means service it means attending it means waiting on someone It even means serving someone it even me it even means serving someone when you are commanded And this word here this word for ministry and service It was used all in the New Testament for all kinds of service and it was even used for a humble lowly service One example is in John chapter 2 specifically verse 5 and verse 9 It's the story where Jesus turns the water in the wine and here it was used for service like waiting on tables and waiting on others So we see that these apostles and the New Testament prophets we have them in the copy of God's Word We see the New Testament prophets those apostles Oh the evangelists we have today the shepherds pastors teachers They are to work they are to work to move the saints towards being more and more complete more and more fitted even Restored for what for the work of ministry for service?

But time out again What about the pastor What about the elders? What about leaders in the church? Yes, the pastor Yes other elders and leaders share in serving in the ministry folks and There are others in the life of the church who help equip the saints as well But what I'm showing you is this the clear plan and the clear design that the church the saints of the church are to be equipped for the work of ministry for service But again a question I want you to ponder with me for what purpose are the saints being formed and equipped and What is the purpose for this ministry and this service?

Well, I'll lead just to the next phrase because this is all connected Third these men are to equip the saints For the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ. It's right there in the verse So here we see that the men the offices in verse 11 they're given to the church To equip the saints for the work of serving in ministry in the body now for what to what end?

For the building up of the body of Christ Now there's a key phrase that helps us see what's going on here This phrase building up the King James reads for the edifying of the body in its meaning here This phrase refers to the building up or the construction of a house and in the text it can be used literally And it also can be used figuratively Of course here it is used figuratively And we must see that Paul was not talking about the building up of the body through numbers He wasn't speaking about adding to people and adding to the church people and building up the church in numbers There's nothing wrong with adding to the church in number if people are genuinely Coming to faith in Christ and if those who are coming are truly Christians, but that's not what he's talking about here Here Paul is talking about he's speaking to the building up of the believers spiritually Internally Paul is speaking of building up believers in their personal faith in their Christian walk and in their Christian maturity Simply we see the Apostles the New Testament prophets the evangelists the pastor teacher They are to work to move the Saints in the church towards being more complete More fitted even restored for the work of service and why?

So as to build up other believers So as to build up other believers in their personal faith in their Christian walk and in their maturity You know, I do this often in my teaching. I ask you to take a few steps back We've been waist deep in these verses. I think you can see that but in summary take a step back and look what we see here Paul gives the true work the true work of these men and these gifts in verse 11 These men had the task of moving the Saints in the local church Towards being more complete even restored and outfitted for the work of service in the church That's right service ministry even lowly Service and ministry and why for what end?

So as to build up all of the Saints in their personal faith and in their personal walk with God So as to build up the Saints and each other in maturity and usefulness and greater usefulness in the life of the church and notice folks listen Get this please get it. This is God's plan for his church This is God's plan God has organized his church to function this way and to grow in this manner Any plan that is antithetical to what we see here is worldly.

It's not of God and This plan of hiring professional ministers to do all of the ministry It is not biblical and notice this fact these things are vital This is vital for the maturity of believers and for the maturity and the growth of the church And look if you have another plan here, it doesn't work We've all seen it But a question more personal and I'm gonna speak to you, you know when you use the personal pronoun you it gets personal But what about you? How do you minister and how do you serve in the life of the church? I? Give you an avenue that's right before you small groups Small groups.

I want you to think about small group in small group ministry One of the things that you're gonna hear this semester in our small group ministries from your leaders Is the purpose of small groups now listen to the written out and explain purpose of small groups in the life of Grace Life Church and I'm reading the Grace Life Church of Brookhaven small group purpose strategy states this The church is organized into small groups and it provides an avenue for the ministry of the word the meeting of individual needs the equipping of believers the fellowship of the body and the evangelization of the loss and these are five functions and so what I'm showing you is this the Avenue the arena the greatest place for you to get involved in minister and serve is Small groups and if you plug your life into small groups and you open up your ears and you roll up your sleeves You can be busy serving ministry in a whole host of ways And listen Grace Life Church, I'm speaking to the members of Grace Life Church I'm also speaking to visitors here.

We have two standards here that are emphatically biblical First we strive for what we call a regenerate church membership The membership role should reflect people who profess Christ who profess being converted to Christ Who live as if they've been converted to Christ they live Christian Many of us have come from churches where the church membership roles don't even reflect people who come to church And so when you look at it and explain it it really seems odd But look it is emphatically biblical that you have a regenerate church membership not perfect now and Then second we expect what we call every member ministry every member ministry Let that sink in if you remember the expectation is you minister verse 12 says so This is not extra biblical.

It is biblical The problem is many of us have come from places where the standard is so so low And they expect the hired professional to do all the work Look folks in those situations the hired professional The work doesn't get done and they usually burn out and quit But you know there's somebody sitting here right now and you're saying what Me I can't do that There's somebody sitting here this morning. You're saying pastor. I can't do that.

Yes, you can remember verse 7 Remember verse 7 you if you are born again You've been given this enabling this empowering grace God has given you saving grace and enabling grace to live the Christian life and That enabling and that empowering spills over to the next thing you've been given that is a gift a measure of a gift That is a singular gift and that gift speaks to your role your position your function your place in the body There is a place for you to function in That enabling grace spills over to your gift and that enables you to do what you can't do And that is live out verse 12 and minister in the body see how it all comes together So we see the work of the gifts Is to equip the saints all of you all of us for the work of ministry so as to build up the body of Christ Let's move on to our second major truth.

This would be out of verse 13 number two the goal of this work I Want us to see the Goal of this work now. I want to go back and read verse 11 again. We'll stop down here at verse 13 Paul speaking to the Ephesians and to us he says and he Christ you have the authority to do this He gave the Apostles the New Testament prophets the evangelists the shepherds and teachers.

That's one office to equip the Saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body and notice a transition until We all attained the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God To mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ Now if we have paid attention to what we've been studying we have seen a work that is to be done from verse 11 and 12 There is a work this work of equipping the Saints and the Saints are to be about the work of service It's loaded with work really all of the body is about work here in the ministry.

I think you see that nobody sitting around But here in verse 13, we see another transition We transition to the ultimate goal or goals of the work The Bible commentator William McDonald asks a question here He asks and I'm quoting how long with this growth process? Continue he speaking of verse 12. Let me say it again. He says how long will this growth? process Continue now think about what he is asking McDonald is asking how long does this serving and this working process that we see in verse 11 and verse 12 He says how long does it need to continue?

Well, the answer is in verse 13 And this is what we see his goals and I'm gonna use this question I'm gonna make it my own and I'm gonna ask four questions four times in the verse So first, how long do we stay in the work? Until we all attain the unity of the faith. It's right there in verse 13 How long do we stay in the work until we all attain the unity of the faith here?

Paul gives the first goal of the work unity in the faith Now when we see this word unity those of you who have been with us through our study You should perk up we learn back in verse 3 that the worthy work is Protecting and maintaining the unity of the church and we learned that the unity of the Spirit has been given by Christ to his church We cannot manufacture it or produce it Christ does but we have a responsibility to maintain it. We know that but here Paul is not talking about unity of the Spirit like in verse 3 and this is not a saving faith or a believing faith So we have to ask what is this unity?

This is a unity in the faith that develops and grows from these three basic things happening First when the Saints are taught the word from those men in verse 11 and others second when the Saints are moved along and being equipped for the work of service and then third when the Saints actually do serve and do the ministry within the body and when those three things are taking place a Unity of the faith it develops and it grows it develops and it grows in the Saints and in the body Simply this unity in the faith is the goal of the work that we see in verse 12 Simply this unity is a result of all of this work Now I want to ask a couple of questions here Again, I'm asking you to think I want you to follow me here Who does this include?

You might say well pastor. I'm kind of an immature believer that doesn't include me that includes all those others But who does this include Paul says we do this work in verse 12 until we all all all Attain the unity of the faith this includes all the believers in the body this includes strong saints This includes weak saints this includes new believers These are the saints who have been in the church for years, you know, this even includes those saints who are struggling and who are hard-headed And who are hard to get along with all? means all and Then second how long should this work take place?

Until all the believers in the body attain the unity that is the goal and as long as Babies are being born in the church and as long as new believers are coming to faith in the church And as long as the church has new Christians from other places coming guess what? The goal is always out there in front of us. We're to always be striving for this goal So how long do we stay at this work in verse 12? Until we all attain or get to this unity of the faith that is among the saints in the church We never fully attain it. We're always working for it Well, how long do we stay at this work?

Second until we all attain the knowledge of the Son of God It's right there in the text until we all attain the knowledge of the Son of God here We see the second goal knowledge of the Sun Now just like some may think this unity of the faith is referring to saving faith Some may think this knowledge of the Son of God is speaking of knowing God in salvation, but that's not the case And there's another key word here that helps us this word knowledge The English Standard the New American the King James used the same word This simply speaks of a fool and an accurate knowledge a correct knowledge But this is more than knowing the Bible.

This is more than knowing doctrine This is more than simply not having defective doctrine and this is more than sexually knowing the Bible this is a fuller a more accurate a more correct knowledge that comes from Years and years of growing in a fuller and a deeper in a broader knowledge of God as one walks with God But how does this take place As believers are taught the word verse 11 as they study the word as believers are equipped and fit and and restored more and more for the work of ministry and as they serve in ministry more and more and as the believer does all these Things while walking with God praying the ups and the downs this fuller more accurate knowledge of God develops in the life It develops in the life and how long do we stay at this work? until we all attain Until we all get this unity of the faith and until we all attain or get to the knowledge of the Son of God And we never get there folks that goes out there, too Well, how long do we stay at this work third until we all attain mature Spiritual manhood it's right there in the verse until we all attain this mature Spiritual manhood now here we see the third goal spiritual maturity manhood Now here in the English standard in the new American we see this phrase mature man now the King James reads Perfect man again, that's not the best translation Paul was not referring to any kind of a Christian perfectionism And here Paul is speaking of a complete man in the text says man not a child not a woman But a man this maturity speaks of being full-grown we can say it like this in our language He is finished growing so he's a full-grown man.

I think you understand that phrase But Paul was not speaking here of a physically mature full-grown man This is speaking of believers who are fully grown and mature spiritually just as a physical man Physically is fully grown and mature he is strong and his strength is much different than that of a child and of a woman Well here this speaks of a believer who is fully grown fully mature spiritually they are spiritually strong spiritually mature they are a mature grown man spiritually and How long do we stay at this work in verse 12? Till we all attain or get to the unity of the faith.

That's the first goal and until we all attain and get to that knowledge Of the Son of God, that's the second goal until we all reach spiritual maturity spiritual manhood. That's the next goal And then fourth how long do we stay at this work? Until we attain the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ Here we see our fourth goal Simply the fullness of Christ now again Paul was not aiming at some kind of a Christian perfectionism We know that all believers still struggle with sin all believers still struggle with sinfulness And if you say you do not you just sin because you're prideful Romans 7 Romans 8 all the Bible is full of passages that clearly teach us that our flesh our Sinfulness is all a part of our lives as believers So we are sinning and sinful Saints But what is Paul saying here?

There are three key words here to help us see what Paul saying this word measure speaks of a portion This word stature speaks of maturity and time and age Sometimes it refers to one's height than the original language in this word fullness speaks of completion or something being filled up Simply Paul was saying that one of the goals from this work in verse 11 in verse of 12 Is that all the Saints would attain a measure a age or a height of? spiritual maturity in the Christian life and a fullness of Christ within The Bible commentator Leon Morris says and I'm quoting This points us to the perfection of Christ and to the maturity that should characterize those who are the followers Of such a Christ But will we ever attain this goal?

No We will not but we should strive for this goal So again, how long should we stay at this work verse 12? Until we all get to this unity in the faith and until we all get to this knowledge of the Son of God Until we reach spiritual maturity spiritual manhood always striving for a mature height than our Christian maturity Always seeking a greater measure a greater measure a greater measure of the fullness of Christ in the life And again take a step back from all that we've studied here because we've been waist-deep here Look at the goals which come out of the work of verse 12 We stay at this work in verse 12 until we all attain this unity of the faith Until we all get the knowledge of Christ until we reach spiritual manhood maturity and strength always striving for always striving for a mature height and an age in our maturity Always seeking after a greater measure of the fullness of Christ in the life And listen to how all of this applies Listen to how all of this comes together and how it applies if you are equipped If you're equipped to serve and you do serve you might say pastor I don't feel like I can serve much you serve the way you're equipped and you'll continue to be equipped If you're equipped and you continue to be equipped and you serve and you continue to serve well naturally and Spiritually, although you'll fight sin in the flesh these goals will come to you But you also need to see the goals and these four goals should always be out in front of us in our prayer in our study Working hard striving to attain these four goals in the life And it's all tied together So we see the goals of this work Now I want you to notice something here I've alluded to this but I need to restate it Starting in verse 11.

What we have here is this God's church growth plan Yeah God's church growth plan and you might say pastor you never mentioned evangelism or numbers folks If this work is going on in your life, you're gonna reach folks for Christ This is God's church growth plan. These are God's church growth methods Now I want to share with you my job Because some of you could legitimately say well pastor. What about you earlier? I said you you can say what about you pointing at me My job is an overseer Governed the affairs of the church along with brother Keith is an elder.

That's what elders do My job is the pastor shepherd the pastor shepherd part of pastoring and shepherding is ministering to you in your life And my job is a teacher and explainer of God's Word I study it and I teach you and look I do these things in all of you now I can't shepherd all of you, but I can shepherd some of you But I teach all of you and what about Keith job? He's an elder as well.

He's an associate pastor He shepherds when he can he teaches as well in the life of the church and I think you see our roles But notice there are others who have the gift of teaching we've covered that in our spiritual gifts and Those men and those women who have the gift of teaching they come alongside the Apostles and the New Testament prophets and the pastors and the teachers and they teach as well They're pitching in in the work folks Have you figured it out yet that the main thing in this work is the Word of God? In your job It's ministry service. We have this expectation of every member ministry. It's not too much.

It's biblical You know one of the things that we do in church membership We have a church membership information class It's very purposeful. It's very needed. We have one coming up in September I'll go ahead and make that announcement if you've not signed up for church membership information class You need to come see me we make arrangements for childcare and things like that I want to make sure I have all of the information that you need and so in September We're gonna have church membership information class Usually I will interview people sit down with people beforehand and after brother Keith will do some of the very same work as well But you know I remember sitting in a local restaurant with one of the men in our church And he was talking to me about membership and this is what he said He said my wife and I are a little reluctant and I thought what's up with that?

He'd been articulating how God had led him to our church. He said we're a little reluctant and he leaned forward He said because we know to join means we're joining the church to serve We're joining the church to serve I thought man forget the buoys barbecue. Let's join right now That's verse 12 Every member ministry and what about your area of service?

I know I keep going back to things like vacation Bible school Oh, that's a wonderful ministry in life of our church our children's ministry is growing there are many things that are coming They're on the horizon with our children's ministry look ladies our nursery is bulging at the seams The nursery is so needed We have a nursery so mothers can come and see it under the word and be uninterrupted And they can stay in here and minister to one another and be taught the word and we have ladies in that nursery who love Your children and they love on them My goal as a pastor is that your kids get out of the car and run to the nursery Because if they run to the nursery they'll run to kids class and if they run to kids class They're gonna be learning the word and ultimately they'll run in here and hear the word They're weekly ministries that are going on we have nursing home ministry that we started this summer And it'll be available more throughout the year We have ministry teams that we have not visited in a while and let me tell you we have fellowships and outreach events There's so much to do but folks the biggest and the most immediate place of need in the body is through Your small group I can't shepherd everyone, but you can Collectively we can collectively And look Rice Life Church If you stay under this work of verse 11 and verse 12 It will naturally produce these goals And look we should keep these goals out in front of us and we're always always always doing the work Now you see the title of a message Notice the purpose you can say purposes plural because this a lot the purpose of the great wonderful gifts Let's pray We'll commit these things to the Lord will sing a Short closing song and then we'll look at some important ministry before we dismiss