Good morning guys awake all right I think I saw one of my relatives in the back there did I see my a I did Hi, Linda. How are you? Do we have any guests with us today anybody visiting maybe for the first time or haven't been here in a while? We have one here we one here one there all right welcome welcome There's number four all right four guests with us today.
So glad to have you guys here We I'd like you to see one of our team. You can look for one of our team after church. We just like to connect with you and There's a QR code. Yeah, we're high-tech rednecks now.
Let me see what that looks like I'm still old school. We have a QR code So if you have your in the front of you, you don't have to put any money in here But it's like it's offering envelope. There's a QR code on here You can scan that let us know you're a guest and we'll we'll reach out and make a connection with you. So yeah, there you go Thank you all right who's here last week?
About half all right so last week we launched we really launched our new mission statement of city reach church Cumberland We were going into a new season pastor sath come up with the title. We're calling it equipping season And it's really what's been birthed out of what we believe is God's mission for this church for this day for this season for this City and I just want to preface that equipping season is not a season like football or baseball or hunting season It doesn't come and go it doesn't just last three four months a year equipping season started the very day that Jesus resurrected and ascended into heaven and equipping season will end the day that he returns and so if you were here last week I talked a Little bit about that I'm gonna give you a little refresher last week because last week I had three points But I only covered one of them and so my wife she you know she's the boss and she said you have to finish that message I was already I was ready to move on but but we're gonna finish that because it's very important It really has to do with what what I believe God has laid on my heart for this church for right now And you know for the last ten years if you've been a part of our ministry We've been around almost ten years now and our former Mission statement was to reach the one that's far from God and help them become a passionate follower of Jesus So as I explained last week we started asking questions Well, what if somebody's not really far from God? If our mission statement is to only reach the one far from God, what if they're already connected to God? What if they already have a relationship and they just want to grow in it?
They just want to learn more they want to do more they want to get involved and so we found that our mission although good was somewhat exclusive And so we wanted to in one sense refine it But in another sense expand it and so we really started praying about what God would have for us And I believe that what he's given us is really our will be our mission going forward At least for the next ten plus years it's equipping the one that knows Jesus to reach the one that needs Jesus and that The first the first qualification really only qualification to be equipped is you got to know Jesus You have to have a relationship with Jesus and that when you have a relationship with Jesus Then is when the equipping takes place then the training takes place and that what happens a lot of times We go out and we try to minister to somebody and help somebody and we get drug into the very mess We're trying to pull them or help them out of because we're not equipped We're not trained ourselves So what we want to do is come to a place where we equip the body Scripturely that we're able not just to serve people but we're able to serve people more effectively we're able to do it with excellence We're able to represent Christ to the fullest and that's really what his desire is for the body So I explained it last week I gave you this analogy I said if you've ever been on an airplane and and if you notice our pastor sat and his wife family are gone They they are on an airplane So I reminded them to listen as the steward has told the nest the steward is often say in the like unlikely I always say unlikely event in the unlikely event that there's a loss of cabin pressure a mass will drop from the panel in the ceiling Secure your mast first before helping others around you and it sounds selfish when you first hear that But if you don't secure your mask first you're gonna become unconscious before you're able to help anybody else and so It's not selfish in the fact that you have to be equipped and masked so to speak first in order for the oxygen to flow freely In order for you to be able to help those around you and so that's what we're doing That's what our mission is gonna be to be equipping the one that knows Jesus You know Jesus you need equipped you need equipped so that you can help reach the one that needs Jesus and somebody that needs Jesus Isn't just the unsafe person doesn't unsafe person need Jesus. Yes, do save people still need Jesus. Yes I've never met a Christian yet that doesn't need Jesus like you need Jesus in your marriage you need Jesus in your job You need Jesus and raising your kids you need Jesus when you're walking down the street You need Jesus when you're watching the news like you need Jesus impacting every area of your life And so while we're refining our mission at the same time We're we're really opening it up and I believe it's really the heartbeat of what God wants us to do So our our text and I'm gonna go back to it I'll go back and re re rehash the first point a little bit because I did a little more study on it And I want to bring a little more clarity to it when I got the the picture or vision from God last Sunday morning I didn't have time. I didn't think to effectively put it in a PowerPoint I described it But I want to give you a little more visualization today what I was speaking about last week And so if you have your Bibles We're gonna read from Ephesians chapter 4 and we're gonna read the verses 7 through 16 again And then we're really going to hone in on Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 through 13 That's really the heart of the text that we want to dig into today So Ephesians chapter 4 starting of verse 7 says this but to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift Therefore he says when he ascended on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men now this He ascended what does it mean but that he also first?
Descended into the lower part of the earth he who descended is also the one who us ended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things And he gave some to be apostles and some prophets some evangelists some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry For the edifying of the body of Christ until we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God to a perfect Man to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro Caringed about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning crappiness and is of the seeple plotting But speaking the truth in love may grow up into all things into him who is the head Christ from whom the whole body joined and knit together By what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself In love hey man, say amen to that there is so much there we could spend a year on that passage I did forget to mention last Thursday as part of our new mission of equipping equipping the one to reach the one So you can shorten equipping the one that knows Jesus the reach the one that needs Jesus You can shorten it to equipping the one to reach the one or just down to equipping to reach So however you're able to remember that you can keep you know narrowing it down But we started having Thursday night services last Thursday. We call it thirsty Thursdays And so if you want to come out, we're gonna get you know what my wife's ordering my shirt says stay thirsty I think right gonna stay stay. No not that one So it just says thirsty Thursdays. I like to say thirsty say thirsty my friend So come on out pastor Seth kicked that off last Thursday and we're teaching through Step by step verse by verse we're gonna teach through the book ed fiejans because he fiejans is really a book where you're gonna get grounded You're gonna get equipped It really talks about almost anything that could apply to your life So we're gonna be teaching through that book and that will be kind of like our equipping night So Thursday night six o'clock.
I'll be teaching this Thursday and I think that's the end back the following Thursday So come out that I should give a little plug for Thursday night. Alright, so the three points are this the first thing we talked about last week We're gonna revisit it today is the the process and all this has to do with equipping is the process of equipping is this it starts with Jesus And it ends with Jesus. So what happens we can get caught up in the in the middle of it in the equipping and who's doing the equipping and how the equipping is taking place But at the end of the day equipping starts and ends with Jesus Christ number two the people who are getting equipped What we're gonna get to today are the saints and number three is the purpose of the equipping and what we're gonna look at now There's about ten different things in this passage that I just read But really we're gonna hone it down to this for the equipping is for the work of the ministry or really so that we can serve other people more effectively So that the process it begins and ends with Jesus the people is for the saints and the purpose is so that we can serve others More effectively. Alright, so let's just go ahead.
I want to revise or revisit last week So the word equipping just want to look at that for a minute equipping is only used one time in the New Testament It's a noun and it means this it means to fitting to fit or prepare fully It's a perfecting or a complete a complete furnishing and if you remember I use the example of you if you play football right when when the first day of football takes place and practice when you go with All your pads you get down at least where I played you went down into the in below the gym into the equipment room And you have an equipment manager there and everybody that was on the team would get a helmet you get a gin strap you get a jersey You get pants you get pads you get shoulder pads you get a tailbone pad You get all these kind of pieces of equipment and everybody on the team was fully equipped There was nobody on the team and I said you know what we're just gonna give you some pads and you're gonna play without a helmet Now there's probably some people that act like they play without a helmet but but in actuality everybody that's on the team gets fully equipped But within the church somehow we think it's okay to not be fully equipped like we're playing I don't want to say we're playing a game, but we're playing life We're living life And if you need to be fully equipped to play a sporting event How much more so do we need to be fully equipped to live the life that Jesus wants us to live? And so the word the verb form of that catarizo it means to mend what has been broken in that it's actually a medical term That means to reset a broken bone it means to fix something that's broken when Jesus called his disciples It said that he saw Peter James and John they were on the shore mending their nets They were actually putting their nets back into their original tradition. They were fishing they got broken What do you do with a broken net? You don't throw it out.
What do you do with broken people? You don't throw broken people out you fix them you help them get restored It means to to strengthen perfect complete to make one what he or she ought to be Like there's things that happen in life that cause you to get out of joint. I probably had one this morning anybody else a Couple there's things in life that'll spiritually break bones There's things in life that cause scars And it's the process of equipping and restoration that that puts those things back in your life So that you can effectively serve other people see it's pretty hard to help somebody else when I need help myself Like I can do it, but I'm never gonna do it effectively I'm never gonna be able to do it the level that Jesus did it And that's his desire for us actually that so medically in the Greek medically this term meant to to to fix a broken bone But in secular Greek at that time it also meant to to completely furnish a house So that like we have a house. What's the church called?
It's the house the house of God and it should be completely furnished like my wife is a master furniture Just look at my credit card statement. Oh, she's good at it. She's really good at it. No besides that she has an eye for furnishing She she can walk into a room and she'll say oh my gosh They got an even number of chairs and it needs to be odd I'm like well They got chairs who cares of its odd or even and this should like she can mentally look at a room and and reorganize the whole room like like that This past week we had these two heavy and I'm gonna emphasize heavy swivel chairs in our upper loft and in her wisdom She decided that they needed to be on the first floor Because they would look better and so guess who got vol and told to do that So I get these things we have a windy staircase now get them down and after we get them down guess where they don't belong They don't belong on the first floor.
She's like you know what I think you'd look better upstairs and guess who got Vol and told to take them back upstairs so she can completely furnish this house so after I took them back up I made let her know that you're actually a false prophet Like I get that you're trying to fully equip this house, but not have the way to do it. So equipping Equipping begins and ends with Jesus. Here's why I told you earlier. It started the day He ascended first ten of the Ephesians 4 it says the one who descended This is another teaching that on the day when Jesus was buried he descended into shield which was hell Hell at the time had two sides We're not gonna give you that day But says the one that descended into the lower parts of the earth is also the same one that Ascended and the purpose that he ascended was to do what fill all things So understanding why Jesus ascended to the Father helps us understand what our mission as a body of believers is he ascended in order to fill All things and the way he decided to do that was this he said I'm going to give gifts to the church Now these gifts aren't gifts that are like in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12 These gifts are people the people themselves are the gifts that he's giving to the church to do the equipping He wants to do it says that he gave gifts he gave some apostles some prophets some Evangelists some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry until we all come to the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect or mature man to the Statue of the fullness the statue to measure the fullness the statue of Christ and Yeah, it's under someone's up there.
So here's what it is Jesus ascends right and he ascends and he gives gifts to the church So that the church one day can look like he likes until we get to the place that we measure up to the fullness of the He is now in order for Jesus to get something he has to possess it He can't give something he doesn't have and I'm gonna go back into it this week But last week now as we went through the five ministry gifts We have the apostle Apostle means one sent out an apostle was one that really creates and establishes and fixes problems and develops and it's a one that sent out So there's only have the the the apostle the prophet the one that speaks the heart of God to the people the one that gives revelation and understanding and even gives a timing interpretation and And pastors are evangelists evangelists the ones that have the passion for the lost and and always preaching every single Always preaching you need to repent like you need to get saved You need it right that's an evangelist and then there's there's pastors that really care about the body and that it's nurtured and fed And that it's growing and it's safe And then teachers the ones that get in the word and explain things that may be hard to understand And so we saw last week and I gave you the scriptures on that that that Jesus had all of those in him All of those five things or five gifts were in Christ But when he ascends he doesn't give them to one he gives them he splits them into five and when he splits them into five He then wants all five of those to be an operation in equipping the church So that the church can then come out on the other side looking like him sounding like him acting like him to the degree that we measure Up to the fullness of the stature of Christ his fullness So he came he ascended to fill all things so that we might be his fullness So as I explained last week I want to give you a better picture this as I was praying through this God really gave me this picture of one light white light passes Through a prism and when light passes through a prism it split into what we would call the colors of the rainbow or the spectrum of colors Right and so I thought about I didn't even know this was an experiment I found out after googling it this is an experiment that Isaac Newton came up with in the 1660s And he said if you take the spectrum of light and then take another prism and invert the second prism those spectrum of light color that passes through the second prism will then return to its original form or white light on the other side and So the picture God gave me of what he did now That process is called when white light is split into the seven colors that we know of that process is called dispersion When it passes through the inverted second prism and comes back into white light that process is called recombination like it's recombining the colors back into one White is the presence of all color So what happens though if you block one two three whatever if you block several of the colors in the spectrum From passing through the second prism you do not get white light on the other side you get something less than white light If you move the second prism or if you block it you put an interference in there what comes out on the other side is a recombination But it's not a recombination of what the original white light was and so I actually went home last week and I said the Lord I said well Lord Why did you give me that picture because there's seven colors in that we remember talking about Roy G Biv red orange yellow green blue indigo violet well remember the colors of the spectrum? There's how many seven I said God why did you give me that picture in my mind when there's seven colors of the spectrum? But there's only how many minutes or gifts five something that up he said go look it up So guess what I did I looked it up And do you know that in the medieval mind up until sir Isaac Newton did this experiment in the medieval mind? There were only five colors matter of fact when he first did this experiment in the 1660s He only recorded five colors he didn't and when he taught on this in the 1670s He only taught that there were five colors in the spectrum He didn't add the other two colors which were orange and indigo until 1704 when he published the book called optics Because he was also a musician and he thought that the five colors in the rainbow should be not five But seven so they matched the seven musical notes on the musical scale and that was an afterthought So God said actually originally there were five so you were right on I thought that's pretty cool.
That's pretty cool You can fact check that till you're blue in the face and you don't need to it's already done my research I thought that was pretty cool. So here's what it is So when Jesus says in John chapter 8 verse 12 He says I am the light of the world right when Jesus was on the earth What was he he was the light of the world when he ascended what did he do he gave gifts to men so that they could equip the church? So that the church could eventually look like he like he is and what does he tell the church in in Matthew chapter 5 verse 14 He says now you're the light of the world Well, if I don't fully equip the church the light that we are now is not gonna be like the light that he was then It's gonna be something less than and so he wants the purpose of equipping the church Is so that when equipping is done in the right manner by the right people and Scripturally in context that we come out on the other side of being equipped looking just like Jesus It says in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 23 and 24 It says he he put all things under him his feet and gave him to be head over the church his body the fullness of him Who fills all in all the body of Christ is to be the fullness of him? That's his intention.
He already is the fullness It says the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily It says it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell and he not only wants him to be full He wants his fullness to be manifested and in filled in his body the church And so the same is this is that a fully equipped unified and matured body We're not gonna cover all that today, but a fully equipped matured unified body will fully manifest the fullness of Christ That's what that's what it should look like. So if you want more on that That was just a little teaser from last week you listen to the last week's message But I want to get on to the people and also the purpose today equipping That's for the saints equipping is for the saints. What's a saint? Like you ever seen somebody do something good and somebody says all Brenda you're a saint Charlie you're a saint like we equate that they did something good that their goodness or their good action made them somehow a Saint like we use that in over anacular, right?
Sometimes there's denominations that believe that somebody doesn't become a saint until after they die They had to have a documented miracle and then somebody after their death establishes that they were a saint or they are saying But why would Paul write a letter to dead people or is the saint something different? See if we don't understand the term we're not gonna be able to apply what God intended the word saint Means holy one actually means most holy one or most holy thing. I mean most holy ones in here now before you have to Tell you this it's the same word saint. It's an adjective.
It's not an out It's the same word the word hagi-os saint is the same word that describes the Holy Spirit It's the word holy in Holy Spirit. Do I have any holy ones in here? Okay, anybody not sure Okay, that's okay So he's writing to the saints. He's actually writing to the most holy ones Like was that me do I qualify for that?
I didn't really live that holy this week Trying a few chinks in my armor this week or maybe even today Well, let's let scripture define what same is okay Paul writes the fascinating shirt Second thessalonians chapter one verse 10. He says this he says when he comes talking about the second coming of Christ When he comes to be glorified among his saints on that day and to be marveled at among what all who? Have believed because our testimony to you was believed so he's telling the festival like the church of the festival like he's like saints are the ones who Have believed like it's not based on your good works. It's not based on you being holy or living holy you are holy because you believed Do you believe that see but too often we relegate our holiness to what we did yesterday or last night So you're familiar with the verse in second Corinthians 5 17 that says therefore if any man be in Christ He is a new creation old things are passed away behold all things are become new verse 18 says and all things are of God Which means that everything new about you is of God Ephesians 424 it says putting on the new man So it's talking about now conduct put on the new man So he's in you the new man is in you but now you got to wear him on the outside put on the new man Which is created after or according to God in true righteousness and holiness So when you say yes to Jesus your mate is holy on the inside as he is You're made as righteous on the inside as he is now you look at first Peter It says that were to be holy because he's holy that means be holy in your conduct See there's a difference between your identity that you are holy and what you do with it You can be holy and be sleeping around now sleeping around doesn't make you unholy because you've been made holy by faith You look at me I get three heads because it doesn't feel right, but that's grace Now does that excuse to go do that no way See your maid holy you're made righteous by faith and once you've been made holy and righteous your actions should line up with the identity that Of what you are like the two should be congruent I mean I hate it when when when I hear preacher say that the Holy Spirit cannot inhabit a dirty vessel Which is true until the day I get saved so like the Holy Spirit cannot live in an unholy me?
That's why he makes me holy he makes me holy so holy on the inside he can live in me What I do with that doesn't destroy this that might tarnish my reputation It might grieve the holy speed might do all those things it might limit what God has planned for me But it doesn't change who I am Paul says this to the Corinthian church so the Corinthian church is probably the most the worst church in the Bible Like they're like what we used to be I mean the Corinthian church is that it had problems with immorality like there was a guy sleeping with his mother In law they had problems with abusing spiritual gifts. They had problems with authority. They had problems with doctrine They were a mess But look how the apostle Paul addresses them in first Corinthians chapter 1 He says to the church of God which is at Corinth to those who are sanctified now sanctified Saint is haggios Sanctified is haggioso, which is the verb form of haggios So like your holy your saint Sanctified means you've been made holy and the interesting part about this He writes this in the perfect tense perfect tense means that you've been sanctified once for all time never to be repeated again And it's also in the passive tense which means you weren't the one doing the holy making Somebody did it for you. Let me give you a guess it was Jesus He says to those who are sanctified once and for all time not because you did it But because I did it in Christ Jesus called and I put two B is in italics you see that because anytime you see a word in your Bible It's in italics it means the translators added it, but it's not in there You're not sanctified to be called to be a saint you're sanctified and because you're sanctified you're called a saint Once you've been made holy that's who you are So sanctified in Christ Jesus called saints with all who all in every place call in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ our Lord So do I have any saints in here like if your hands not up then you need Jesus Like if you're a saint You've met the criteria needed to be equipped.
That's it Like have you ever seen I haven't seen this so maybe you have I'm just asking it like hypothetically Would the military equip a Marine that wasn't drafted into the Marines? Okay, I see I don't know that I can't be drafted in the Marines Alright, well, let me ask you differently with the military with the Marines equipped a Marine that that wasn't that wasn't like what they Let me ask you would they equip me with Marine equipment? No, why I'm not a Marine if I walked up to the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp And I said hey, I'm gonna walk on I'm 54 years old. I'm in pretty good shape.
I played football 35 years ago Sue be up coach and they're gonna laugh like you guys did Because I'm not I haven't been drafted. I don't even qualify to walk on Yeah, I got a death wish I'd probably get hurt See everybody that's on the team gets equipped But if you're not on the team, you don't need equipped so once you've accepted Jesus by faith and you're a saint You're now on the team and if you're on the team You need some equipment you need to be completely furnished you need to be restored and repaired and and perfected matured all those things we talked about If you're struggling with sanctified, I'm gonna give you one more verse Hebrews 10 verses 10 and 14 Remember I told you that Paul addressed that the Corinthian church. He said they were sanctified perfect hands Yeah passive voice same thing in Hebrew chapter 10 verse 10 It says this it says by the will so the will is not that God's choosing the will if you read the Preverse it it says that Jesus came to do his father's will he says you prepared a body for me I'm coming to do that will he says by that will we have been sanctified perfect Hence through the offering of the body of Jesus once and for all time once you accept Jesus you are a saint Once you accept Jesus you are holy Like you can't get any more holier than you are right now, but you can't base it on you You know based on what he did now. There's also an aspect of sanctification that's ongoing We're not going to get into it today, but he hits it in verse 14.
He says he says by this one offering He's perfected forever. That's sanctified present perfect tense. He's sanctified forever perfect for those who are being sanctified See I told you like your conduct needs to be holy so you've been made holy because of faith But now you're in a process of becoming more like Jesus being more holy living holy living holy conduct You know putting off the old putting on the new all those things renewing the mind all those things that's a lifetime That doesn't stop. It's ongoing Next slide says this it says if you've been saved by faith in your saint.
Everybody say this I qualify I qualify You qualify Don't even you're on the team But don't don't play the game without the equipment. That's dumb. It's real dumb The last thing is this the purpose now as I told you there's about 10 different things and I'm gonna cover them But I really want to hone in that equipping is an ongoing process until the body comes to the fullness of Christ until he returns It's for the saints just for those that have accepted Jesus and the purpose is this so that we can serve effectively So we can serve effectively like we want it we want it to do it the right way We want to represent Jesus well, you know any you know an unsafe person can serve an ill-equipped believer can serve But an equipped believer can serve at a higher level Like you can represent Jesus really well if you allow this process to take place in your life Equipping on the saints for the work of the ministry let me just give you these because it's good to understand So work is this because a lot of times we think this Let me ask you just to show any ministers in the room today. Just lift your hand Ministers any ministers?
Okay, all right. That's good because in a couple minutes. Hopefully you're all gonna raise your hands I saw a couple of like this is a trick question and I'm not a minister. What's the work of the ministry work is this?
It's anything one is equipped what is occupied with business or employment? What one undertakes to do? It's any kind of deed or labor or action So it's work. It's an activity work in the ministry ministry is this it means service or ministering Especially those who execute the commands of others it comes from the word that means serve an attendant minister even deacon or waiter What happens a lot of times is is when we think of ministry only for people in full-time ministry?
What's that make everybody else part-time ministers or not minister at all? See if I'm a part-time minister, I only need part-time equipping I'm a 10% minister. I only need 10% equipping And we begin to think of ministers. Somebody somebody gets paid to do it.
That's not what a minister is a Minister is somebody who serves a minister somebody who waits on other people a minister is somebody who does acts of service for somebody Now does ministry take place here in this church? Yeah, it does But does ministry take place in your job? It should this ministry take place on your street It should this ministry take place on the downtown mall. It should wherever you go is an opportunity for ministry Every saint is in full-time ministry regardless of his or her profession your profession what you get paid to do does not determine Whether you're a minister or not see this this whole thing about like the clergy and the laity Like like people that get paid to do full-time ministry here and everybody else is here.
That's not biblical That's not biblical There are people in that God has gifted the church with to put in positions of authority to train everybody to be like him Everybody that has believed in Jesus is a saint Everybody that's believed in Jesus needs to be equipped and everybody that believes in Jesus needs to be the equipped for the purpose of serving other people Better And that's what we're talking about look at this verse that the apostle Paul writes the church of Colossi He writes this to a guy named when you love to have the name archapace I mean if you're looking for a name for your next son, it's probably not it actually means a horse master in the Greek, but like So Paul says he says tell archapace. What's he saying now? Remember he's writing this letter. This is the closing couple verses of the book of Colossians He's writing the letter to the church in general the whole body He says tell archapace see to the ministry which you have received in the Lord So that you may fulfill it see to the ministry that you have received in the Lord that you may fulfill it What do I know about when I read that verse?
What does that tell me it tells me that God gives every person a ministry? He says tell archapace. He mentioned twice in the Bible. We don't really know much about him He's like the guy that you don't know about but he had a ministry He wasn't some high-flying apostle He says tell archapace telling this he says consider or see to it The ministry which you've received to the Lord that you may fulfill it.
So first and foremost God has given you a ministry Secondly I learned from this is that your ministry can go unfulfilled You can have a ministry a place in the body that never gets met or filled because you're not doing your job He tells him this he says tell him to see to it. Look at your neighbor and say see to it see to it That means to consider it means to keep it in front of your face Like God's given you a ministry that ministry will go unfulfilled if you don't see to it and Then beyond the broader stroke is this he's writing this to the whole church at Colossae And he tells the whole church tell archapace which tells me this is that the body needs to encourage each other to see to it to fulfill your ministry So you might be seeing to it all alone And you'll probably lose hope or get sidetracked But the body needs to come alongside you and say come on See to it consider what you're doing. Come on artists. Don't let it go to waste See to it Ray fulfill it fulfill it see to it like God has given each one of you a ministry You got a seat to it.
We as a body need to encourage one another Let me give you this definition of ministry real quick. I don't have this you might write this down Because really what's ministry? Well the work of the ministry, so it's three things It's any activity or Endeavor any activity or endeavor that lines up with God's word That's motivated by your love for Jesus For the purpose of advancing his kingdom any activity any Endeavor any type of business any action any deed that Lines up it's congruent with God's word That's motivated by your love for Jesus for the purpose of Advancing his kingdom or as we like to say of bringing heaven to earth of bringing his rule into the situation that you're facing See you you could you could be really passionate about your love for Jesus, but what you're doing doesn't line up with God's word What you could be doing might line up with God's word, but you're doing it to advance your own kingdom See it's got to be all three it's anything that you do any activity any effort That's congruent with God's word. It's it's sound it lines up with the word of God It's motivated because you love Jesus and it's for the purpose We'll call it of kingdom come of advancing his kingdom of Jesus pray your kingdom come you will be done on earth as it is in heaven Does ministry need to take place in city research?
Yes Does ministry need to take place in the business world? Yes does ministry need to take place in politics? Yes? Oh, yes people said Does ministry need to take place in education?
Does ministry need to take place in entertainment? music movies Everything See when you think about that Not only is everything you do worship to the Lord, but everything you do should be ministry And when you allow those gifts that Jesus gave the church to equip you to the level that you can effectively represent Jesus You can actually impact your job. You can actually impact politics. You can impact education.
You can impact entertainment All of those areas of life need Jesus But it takes somebody that knows Jesus to be equipped in order to reach somebody that needs Jesus There's no lack of people that need Jesus. There's definitely a lack of people that want to be equipped But that's what he's called us to like he's called us to that. I think we'll close there for the day