Welcome everyone to the Together on Mission podcast, where we seek to be with and we seek to be like Jesus. We begin a conversation with Jesus every morning, through scripture, through prayer and meditation. And then we continue that conversation with Him throughout the rest of our day. Your hostess Travis Twyman, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California.
In this season of our podcast, we will be discussing the wonderful book of Ephesians. Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Together on Mission podcast. And I hope everyone is having a wonderful week thus far, as well as a wonderful day today. And I would just love to welcome anyone who is listening to the program for the first time.
We just want to say thank you for listening and we appreciate you, and we hope that you continue to listen in that you're encouraged by it. We also want to say thank you for all of our regular listeners because we love you and we are encouraged by you who keep on listening to keep on doing what we do. Which is continuing to spread the message, which is all about Jesus. My name is Calvin and it is my pleasure to be your host today.
So let's grab our Bibles and let's get started. The title of the podcast today is Bad Knees. Not the B's Knees, but Bad Knees. We're still in the book of Ephesians and we'll be in chapter four today and we'll get to that in a minute.
But the reason for the title for anyone out there who has had a knee injury or any other type of injury, did it hinder you? I mean, it sounds like an obvious question because it should be yes. But if you're not trying to run a marathon or compete in some sporting event, did your injuries still hinder you? I mean, having a knee injury can hinder everything you do for the entire day.
Not only that, it might cause other parts of your body to attempt to compensate for that injured knee. And then that could lead to other complications as well. No matter what type of injury the body suffers from, it will then attempt to compensate so that you can survive in the midst of that weakness. But that's just to survive.
It's not to thrive. It overcompensates so much so that you can go out and run your marathon. But merely just get you through the day and trying to act like we could be able to run a marathon on that bad knee. Wouldn't it be smart, practical or mature, would it?
The best thing for the body would be to make sure that the knee was damaged is repaired completely so that it can function with the knee injury. So that it can function with the rest of the body as it should. So, for all adults here listening today, the question I wanted to ask or the statement I wanted to make is despite your age, which I'm assuming that nobody under the age of five is listening to the podcast today. But who out there feels or believes that they're grown in their way of life or in their way of thinking?
I mean, we're all grown in our physical bodies, but how many of us feel that we're fully grown in our lives? We're fully grown in the way we think and the way we operate. I'm sure maturity is what we're probably thinking of. Now, I know that seems like a weird question because most of us are grown adults who are listening to the podcast, and I guess somewhat rhetorical because we're all answering and responding, no, Calvin.
I don't feel like a child. I don't feel like a child. Come on, man. What are you talking about?
But the Apostle Paul, when he wrote this letter to the church in Ephesus as well as the other churches in Asia Minor, was speaking to all adults. He understood something about how we live our lives. The Apostle Paul said that true maturity comes in the fullness of faith and knowledge of the Son of God. So then are we immature?
Who are the adults listening today considers themselves immature? I'm not talking about the person who is fun, loving, the outgoing, nature person who can sometimes be mistaken for immature, or even that person being slandered saying, oh, they need to grow up, they act like a child. I'm not talking about that. Paul says in chapter 4 verse 11 that so Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
The beginning of verse 14 says, then we will no longer be infants, and I want to stop there. Then we will no longer be infants, so we can be infantile until we attain the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. So what does that mean? Well, in this passage, to be mature means to be complete or fully developed in Christ.
When we read the Gospels, we can see that there was a time when the disciples knew that Jesus was a great rabbi and teacher, but they missed who he truly was until much later. Well, why is this important? Why does this matter? You may say that I believe in the Bible and I know who Jesus is and I love him.
Shouldn't that be enough? I think that's what the Bible says. I mean, I come to church every Sunday and I volunteer as much as I can, so aren't I good? Yes, I think that we've all felt like that at some point in our Christian lives, but the apostle Paul is about to turn our way of thinking completely upside down.
The remainder of verse 14 and the rest of the chapter, to be quite honest, begins to break down the cost of being an infant in Christ. It continues, then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. So there's a price to pay to be an infant in Christ in the body. We can be tossed back and forth very easily.
The things of this world, they become extremely cunning and crafty to our ears and susceptible to us when we're infants. So we're not fully prepared for what the world has to offer when we just have the knowledge of Jesus. We need more of him. We need to know his word because he is the word.
That's John chapter 1 verse 1. And we need to have faith and continue to build a relationship with him because that's crucial to our spiritual lives and how we think. And then it's just as important to the physical and what we do and who we follow. The prince of this world wants to serve you the counterfeit truth.
He teaches you every Christmas that Jesus is still that little baby in the manger and that Easter is all about a bunny who has hidden eggs for children to find. Or everything that we hear on the news matters. So let's get back to the knees. That the best thing for the body would be to make sure that the knee that was damaged is repaired completely so that it can function with the rest of the body as it should, right?
Okay, to chapter 4 verse 15. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect, the complete and fully developed body of who is the head. That is Christ. From him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work.
So if you're a believer in Christ, he is counting on you to be fully developed and ready for action. He wants and desires that your uniqueness is to be part of the body. But being ready doesn't just mean we always know what we're up against, but it does mean that if we're fully developed and working within what God has tasked us with, then we become that empowered body part using its talents and skill to its fullest so that we're useful and effective and worthy of our calling. And I think that this is expressed perfectly in verses 20 to 24 which I'll close with.
That, however, is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught with regard to your former way of life, to put off that old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires, but to be made new in the attitude of your minds, and to put on that new self created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. So my prayer for us today friends is not only do we make sure that we're an active and working functioning member of the body of Christ, but that is what God desires of you. That's what he desires of all of us.
He desires each and every one of our individual uniquely created and designed unique skills to be part of his body for the glory of God. So let's walk in that today friends. Bad knees and all. Take care.
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you are blessed and encouraged by it today. If you had any questions at all about the Inland Vineyard, our ministries, or our Sunday services, connect with us on our app which you can find in the Apple or Android App Store. We also have our social media pages which you can find with the tag at Inland Vineyard, just to see what's going on with our community within our church events, our Revival Youth Group, as well as our Children's Ministry.
Or you can always check us out on our website at inlandvignard.org.