Equipping Season: Spiritual Body Building

Well today, I want to pick up on our message series, equipping season. And I didn't call it equipping season part three. I just thought that just kind of gets old after a while. I changed the title.

I'm going to call it spiritual bodybuilding. So when I texted that to Pastor Seth that he said, I feel like we're going to get some big gains today. So spiritual bodybuilding. And if you think about, and I've never actually been a bodybuilder, I've worked out for probably, I don't know, I feel I've tracked it maybe 40 years.

It's just been a part of my life. But I was watching on the airplane a couple weeks ago when I was going somewhere. But I don't remember where. I was watching a movie about our documentary about a guy that was getting back into competing for Mr.

O'Limpia. I think I remember here at Mr. O'Limpia. Back in the 80s, it used to be a big deal.

You know you'd have these guys with arms the size of my leg and head. But there were all juice stuff. So we're not juicing. We're not going to juice anybody up today.

And I remember even Saturday, the picture. You guys ever watched Saturday Night Live? Ponds and fronds? What are here to pump you up?

Well, here's the thing about pumping you up. The pump eventually goes away. Like you can get pumped up today. And you might leave here pumped up.

But that pump will evaporate. And so what we want to do is we want you to be built up and to grow up and to mature. And so that you carry that with you, not just come to church to get a quick pump on, but to come to church to be built up, to be equipped to mature in the Lord. And so today when we talk about spiritual body building, it comes, we're going to go back to Ephesians chapter 4.

But when you think about a body builder, it's not just lifting weights. A lot of times people think, well, it's all about no. They're concerned with a lot of different things. They're concerned not just with the lifting weights, but they incorporate like diet as a big deal.

Rest is a big deal. You know, what they put into them, all these things go into, the goal that they're trying to get to. Oh, by the way, let me just tell you, I had a dream last night. And I'm just going to say the devil's a liar, because in my dream, every seat in this church was full.

Right? Oh my gosh, do you guys not want to have a full church? All right, well, I had a dream. Let me tell you again, I had a dream.

And in my dream, I was sitting right there and looked around every single seat was full. So the devil's a liar, like the empty seats are going to get filled up. And those that aren't here today, they're going to miss out. But you're going to be blessed.

So the verse in Ephesians 4, as this says, for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up. Now, the other word, the New King James that I typically read from is for the edification or the edifying of the body. And the word edify or build up, it just means that the word edify, it could mean the actual building itself, the edifice or the building, the thing that's built, or it can actually also mean the act of building something up. It expresses promotion of spiritual growth and strengthening the strengthening effect of ministry.

And it conveys the progress resulting from patient effort. I never met anybody that was a bodybuilder that got big overnight. It's something that they made a lifestyle of. It's something that happens over years.

You've heard the term Rome wasn't built, what? In a day. Anything great that you ever desire in life or anything of value does not happen overnight. It's a process.

It's progression over time. And as we talk about being built up spiritually, it's a process. You get saved and you're made new on the inside instantaneously. You're forever changed.

You're forever new. You're forever like Jesus in here. But then the rest of your life, getting what's in here out here, is a process. And we're going to talk a little bit about that today.

Next slide. So here's the, I want to give you a little overview of the message today before we read from Ephesians 4, but three main things I want to talk about. Because what happens a lot, let's just call these like building blocks. Because what happens if we walk out of here and if we don't step from one to the other to the other, we never get to the point of being effective.

Because as we talk about our mission statement, which is equipping the one that knows Jesus to reach the one that needs Jesus. Like there's certain things that have to take place. So as we start, it starts with unity, and from unity to maturity, and from maturity to e-factivity. Now if you're not familiar with the word e-factivity, it just means this.

It means the ability to get the desired results. It's, see, what happens a lot of times, we confuse activity with e-factivity. Like, oh, well, I'm active. I'm doing this.

I'm doing that. Well, did you get the results? No. Well, then something's amiss.

Because if we follow the, you know, God would never give us a plan in life to have us just do a bunch of calisthenics, call them spiritual calisthenics for nothing. Like there should be a purpose. There should be an end goal. The end goal is going to be the building up of the body, the edification of the body.

You're going to see as we read this, verses 11 through 16, and Ephesians 4, it's going to begin with the edification of the body. It's going to end with the edification of the body. And as we follow this through, there's an effectivity at the end that if we do these things, like what happens a lot of times is we abandon unity and never make it to the point of maturity. Because what happens as soon as somebody comes to church and thinks don't go their way, I'm out of here.

I'm going to become a lifetime church hopper. See what happens a lot of times when things don't go your way, you live the next 20, 30, or 40 years in the wilderness of offense. Because you didn't have the stamina in the character to stay in the midst of the thing that was required to bring about change in your life. See what happens is maturity only takes place in the context of unity.

Because what happens in the context of relationship as I'm around people, and if you're married, this is even more so, as I'm around people and in relationship with people, all of a sudden, certain things that cracks in my armor, any efficiencies, deficiencies that begin to be exposed. And God puts me around people to expose areas in my life in your life that you need to grow from. And do you ever hear of the term pruning? Like those things come out.

It's kind of like, did you ever look at somebody and you see a hair sticking out of their face? And you look and you're like, do they not see that thing? Yeah, how you not see that? It's like woo!

And then Kristen will say, my wife will be like, did this thing grow overnight? I'm like, no, it's been there for four weeks. Why didn't you tell me? Like, I thought it was like your pet, like you liked it.

But no, what happens when God exposes these things, He exposes them so He can prune them. And when He prunes us, we actually grow to a place of more fruitfulness. And but when we isolate or we just associate with people that are like us, those things never get exposed and we never mature. And we basically stay the way we were for the rest of our spiritual life.

So in the context of unity, maturity will be the natural progression. And once we begin to mature, then we can actually live the effect of Christian life. Then we can actually participate and play the role that God designed for us to play within the body. If you, I was thinking about this, I don't like Tom Brady.

Let me just be honest with you. I mean, a lot of people call him the greatest of all time. I don't like him, I think he's arrogant, but he's good. So let's just say he's good.

He probably is the greatest of all time. But do you realize that the talent that Tom Brady had, he had that talent when he was 10 years old, but he didn't play as a pro when he was 10. So he had he not played youth sports, had he not played high school. If he had quit the team early, he probably never would have matured to the place where he could be effective.

And once he got on the team, if there was nobody else on the team, guess what? He never would have been the greatest of all time. If he had lined up just one person facing 11 on the other side, he would never have been the greatest of all time, because you can't be the greatest passer without a receiver. You can't be the greatest passer without a line that blocks for you.

And so in the context of effectivity, there's a giving and receiving. I'm not talking about monetary, I'm just talking about this, this mode of exchange that takes place where I have something to bring to the table for you and you have something for me. And in the context of unity, maturity and effectivity, when we actually do what God's called us to do, all of a sudden the body begins to grow. So let's look at this.

Ephesians 4 verses 11 through 16, it says, and he gave some. Now I'm not going to go back a lot on this. I preached two other messages on these two verses, so we're going to go through these. It says, and he himself came some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry.

Here it is for the edifying. So he gives the five-fold ministry gifts, the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, the teacher for the equipping of the saints. We talked about that the last two times I preached. And he wants you, the saints, to be equipped, for what?

We're the work of the ministry. So remember we said, we're going to close with a verse today that I said, what happens a lot of times is we try to reach the one that needs reached, but because we're not equipped, instead of pulling them out, they pull us down. And so in order to be effective in ministry, we have to be properly equipped. The word equipped is a medical term in the Greek, it meant to reset a broken bone, to take something that's broken and to mend it or put it back into place.

It also meant to completely furnish a house. So it has the idea of being fully furnished, completely furnished, completely equipped. And so the purpose of these ministry gifts within the body is to equip you for the work of the ministry, and then for the edifying of the body of Christ, so that as we move and grow and do life together, the natural result is that the body increases and grows. Till we all come to the unity of the faith, to the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, that word also means mature, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

Go ahead, next slide. That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting. But speaking the truth and love, we 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 and love. Do you see how we started out with, for the purpose of the edification of the body?

Right, the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying or the building up of the body. And then verse 16 ends, when all that works, that we're gonna talk about next few minutes, it results in the edification of the body in love. That there's an effectiveness, that we're not just going through these routines, just to say we did it. We're not checking off spiritual checkboxes.

There's a purpose in what we're doing. And so we're gonna start with number one, which is unity. And before we talk about unity, I just wanna give a little context of this. This word, I have up there, under unity, maintaining and attaining, right, maintaining and attaining.

So the word unity in the Greek is this, hey, no taste. And I tell you this, because a lot of times when we think of unity, we think of this, well, we're just gonna have to agree to, that's not unity, that's not unity as the Bible describes it. The word, hey, no taste means this, it means unanimity, it means complete agreement. So think of it like this, you ever, anybody watch boxing?

If it goes all 10, when I was a kid, it was 15 rounds. I think it's 12 now, anybody knows 12. Yeah, if it goes all 12 rounds, what to do? It goes to the card, right?

And the judges have to decide who wins the fight. Well, if two decide for one boxer and one decides for the other boxer, it's called a split decision. But when the announcer says, by unanimous decision, we crown Evie the champion of self. Yeah, yeah.

She knocked him out, deep. Actually, it wouldn't be a decision if you knocked him out. He went the distance. But a unanimous decision means that all three judges voted the same way.

So unanimous means complete agreement. It's like if a board of directors votes, a lot of times we need what's called a simple majority, which means, well, we just need 51%. That's not unanimity. Or we need a super majority, we need 67 or 75%, depending on how your bylaws are written.

That's not a unanimity. It's a majority. Unanimity or complete agreement means that we agree on 100% of the things that are being addressed. Now, that sounds tough, right?

That sounds tough because we all come from different backgrounds, we come from different denominations, we come from different styles, we come from different lives, we come from different environments. So how do we get to the place of attaining unity? Unanimity, the verse says that until, it says the fivefold ministry gifts for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Before we can attain or till we can get to that place, there's something that has to happen first, and that's called maintaining.

Maintaining, not just unity, but Paul uses this verb twice. He uses it in Ephesians 4 verse 3, then again here. So I wanna look at Ephesians 4, 3 first. It says this, it says, Therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, I urge you to walk in the manner worthy of the calling to what you've been called with all humility and gentleness, with patience bearing with one another in love, eager to do this, maintain the unity of what?

The Spirit. See, if I'm selling something, I've sold cars my whole life. I've never really sold it other than when I was a little kid, I used to sell door to door for the Boy Scouts. Like, you know, let me just say it's a pet peeve of mine, I'm sorry I'm gonna offend almost everybody here.

It's a pet peeve of mine when you post and say, Will you buy my kids candy? You know why? Because when I was a kid, I actually had to go door to door and knock and have a little flyer. You wanna support the Boy Scouts?

I'm not sure why you wanna tell that. It is. You know what, confession, confession. Good for the soul.

Confessure false one to another that you may be healed. Come on, I'm just, there's healing going on right now. And dealing with this since I was a kid. It says, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit.

See what happens a lot of times is, is we unify over our differences and the result becomes division. Let me say that again, is we unify over our differences and the end result becomes division. I know what I was saying was when I've been selling my whole life, if I ask you to buy something and you say no, what I have to do is I have to start from a place of agreement. I have to go back to the place in the deal, the negotiation to a point where we actually agree.

And that's what the Apostle Paul's doing here. He says, eventually I want you to attain the unity of faith and the knowledge of the God. But in order to do that, you have to maintain the unity of the Spirit. It doesn't say that you need to produce it because it's already true.

See what he's, the word maintain means to preserve or to protect, which means this. It's the same word that was used in the Bible when a prisoner would be in jail and the guard would have to protect and not let him out. And to that same degree, Paul's saying, you need to preserve the unity that's in the Spirit that you have with one another. See, we gotta go back to the place where the one thing that we can, remember it has to be unanimity, right?

Unanimity, we gotta go back to the place where we can all agree 100%. He goes on to say this, he says that you maintain the unity of the Spirit, he says, just as there is one body, there's one Spirit, and just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father of us all who is above all through all and in you all. Did you hear a word repeated seven times? Do you see a word highlighted seven times?

He says, you have, you're part of one body. The day you accepted Jesus, the Holy Spirit placed you in the body of Christ. Can we agree on that? There's one body, the same Spirit that indwells me and dwells you.

There's one Spirit, we have one hope of our calling, we have one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, one faith, one baptism, one heavenly Father who's above all through all and in us all. Can we agree to that? That's the place that we have to start from. Because if we start from the place of like, well, I don't like that new music they play in church, I like the hymns.

Well, the Pentecostal, well, the gift ceased 2000 years ago. And all of a sudden we start dividing over things that we associate with people that think like us, and thereby we never get to a place of maturity in the body. And if we want to mature to the place that God wants us and needs us to mature to, we have to start by maintaining, preserving and protecting the one thing that we can agree 100%. So you think about this, you may not like me, but you're going to spend eternity with me.

So why not like me now? Why not get used to me now? You're trying, you know, we just celebrated 31 years of marriage this week. Did you hear what she said?

I'm still trying. That's right, you know why? This is true of marriage. What God has joined together, let no man put his thunder, said the two shall become one flesh.

See what happens is a lot of times this is true in marriage too, and I'm just going to go there now that you brought it up. See what happens is too many times we don't go back to the thing that we agreed on the day we got married, that we made a covenant with God, that the two became one, that we're one flesh. And I might disagree with you on everything in life, but I can agree on one thing that we're one. And it's worth fighting for.

See, it doesn't happen, it's not easy. It's not easy. But you can say this, in Christ we're one. We have the same Jesus, we serve Him.

We have the same Holy Spirit, He's in us. We have the same heavenly Father, and He's a good Father to me, and He's a good Father to you. That's where we need to start. And He says, when you maintain the unity of the Spirit, then you can begin to attain the unity of the other things.

But what happens too often is we get offended in the midst of maintaining unity, and we depart, and we never get to the place of attaining the things that God wants us to attain to. What's He saying? Go back. He says, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ, until.

You realize this, until we all. So we're 100% unanimous that we're in Christ, that we're one, that we serve the same Jesus, we have the same Father, right? Now, the equipping of the saints that's administered by the five fold ministry gifts is to last until we attain that same unity in faith, and until we attain that same unity of the knowledge of the Son of God. So think about this, having unity or unanimity in faith is more than just signing a doctrinal statement.

It's more than just standing up and repeating the apostles' creed. Well, I believe in the Holy Spirit, I believe Jesus was Son of God, I believe Jesus was born, born of a virgin, I believe Jesus is down across, I believe Jesus was right up to the third day, I believe He ascended the Father, I believe He seated at the right hand right now. That's great, and I believe all that. But that's the starting point.

See, we can all agree to that and still be in disunity. What this is saying, it says, until we come to the unity of faith, how about that I believe that there's no impossible situation? How about that I believe that my God can change anything? How about that I believe that when I lay hands on the sick, they will recover?

How about that I believe when the Son sets you free, you are free indeed? Like, if we don't agree on those type of ministry things, if we go out to pray for the sick and we don't believe the same, you're like, well, if it's God's will, God will heal you. And I'm saying, well, it is God's will because He said to the leopard, the leopard, the leopard, I was just in Africa. He said to the leopard said, yeah, he said, I believe you can do it, but will you do it?

And He says, I will be cleansed. Like Jesus just exhibited the very perfect will of His fatherways on the earth. So if I see Jesus do it, then I know it's God's will. But we have to believe the same.

Like we've got to get to a place where we're not arguing over those type of things. And it says, until we get there, which means what? It's a process. It means we don't automatically, we get put in the body instantaneously.

That's a given. The moment you accept Jesus says the Holy Spirit baptizes you into the body of Christ, you're part of it. But us coming together, it's like marriage, right? The two become one, the minute you say I do, but it takes a lifetime to become one.

Like it just doesn't happen. It happens in one realm, but not in another. It takes time. He says, until we all come to the knowledge of the Son of God.

Okay, we got to believe the same. We have to come in unity the way we believe, but also the way we perceive Jesus. Do you realize that if we all had, that this word says to the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God, the word knowledge there is epignosis, which means precise knowledge, correct knowledge, accurate knowledge. It means that we actually all collectively think the exact same precise about Jesus.

That takes some time. See, I think this, if we all had the same view of Jesus, we'd all have the same worldview. The reason we have differing worldviews is because we have differing Jesus views. But if we stay together long enough, and we study the word long enough, and we get equipped together, eventually God will begin to do a miracle in our minds and the way we think and the way we perceive to the point where we come into agreement about the way we see Jesus, His ministry on the earth, and the way He flows through each one of us.

That takes time. But what happens is when you unite with somebody who like you only associate with people that are like you, you're never gonna grow. So don't take that to think this. I do believe that unity is not uniformity, that there has to be diversity within the body, right?

But we don't unify over diversity. We embrace it, we honor it. I honor the differences in you. I honor that.

But what we unify around is the thing that Jesus put us together, that we're one, that we're one body, we have the Holy Spirit in us. That's the place that we start from. See, Paul says this, he says in I Corinthians 12, he says, there's different ministries, but one spirit. There's different gifts, but one Lord, and there's different activities, but one Father or one God.

And so the consistency is the Trinity. The gifts, the activities, the ministries, they vary. We need diversity within the body, but the consistency comes back to Jesus. I was thinking about this, remember I said about the unanimous decision, right?

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, unanimously declared that you're a child of God, that you're free indeed. It's not a split decision. It's not like Jesus and the Holy Spirit were over here, and the Father was over here. No, it was a unanimous decision.

That you're my child, you're part of the body, that you're free, that you're gonna be equipped, that I put my spirit in you, I placed my stamp upon you, no questions asked. Without maintaining unity of the Spirit, we have little chance of ever retaining to the unity of the faith, and I'm a knowledgeable Son of God. Number two, maturity. So we have maintaining and attaining, and we have grounded and growing.

I had a tree fall over last week. You guys remember last Thursday night with a really bad rain storm? I had a willow tree, we've had this willow tree, 15 years, it had a big base, went and knocked it over. One of my favorite trees, thing was huge, probably 30, 40 feet tall.

When I was looking at that tree laying there, do you realize that if you're not grounded, you can't grow, like you have to be grounded. Now, as soon as that tree falls, it's no longer grounded. It might have a few roots left in the ground, but you've gotta be grounded in order to grow up. See, a lot of times we grow out.

I look in the mirror the other day, and I'm definitely going the wrong way now. But the intention is that we have to go down to be grounded to go up. And a lot of times we try to go up first, we try to go out or we try to go different directions, but grounding has to take place in order for us to grow up into Christ. It says this in Ephesians chapter four, it says, too mature manhood, this is the ESV version, to the measure of the status of the fullness of Christ so that we may no longer be children.

See, the point is not to remain a baby Christian. Like if I stood up here, like we're having thirsty Thursdays, but I'm not handing out bottles. There's no nipples on thirsty Thursdays. You're gonna drink out of a big person cup.

Now, come on. Let me rephrase that. Let's strike. There's no sippy cups.

There's no sippy cups. You guys, come on, let me break. But we're not drinking out of a little kid cup. We're drinking out of a big person cup.

It says that you mature to manhood, that you mature to womanhood that we're no longer children. Paul said this in 1st Corinthians 13, 11, he says, when I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child.

But when I became a man, I put away childish things. Like there's nothing worse than seeing a 50 year old person that has a body of a 50 year old, but trapped inside it like there are two. That's sad. That's more common in the church than it is in the world, unfortunately.

He says it's time to put away those things. It's time to grow up and mature. It's time to quit talking baby talk. It's time to quit understanding things that are remedial level.

So here's a great thing about the Holy Spirit. He can take anything complex and he can bring it to the level you're at right now. I can be teaching from this word and the Holy Spirit is applying it differently and at varying levels simultaneously. So don't ever be concerned about the level you're at because he actually meets you at the level you're at right now.

Paul says this is so that we may not be touched to and afraid, carried about by everyone at doctors. So what happens? Well, I was on TikTok and I heard this. Well, I was on TikTok and I heard this.

And I was watching the Facebook and all of a sudden we just get bombarded with various types of doctrine, but we're not grounded. I can watch any of those and it won't sway what I believe because I'm grounded. See if you're not grounded, what happens is you begin to vacillate. Well, one minute you're all about the law then you're about grace.

Well, I think the gifts passed away. Well, I think the Holy Spirit and the fullness of the gifts are for today. Now I'm a Baptist. Now I'm gonna call it like get grounded.

Get in the word. Paul says this, it says, I'm sorry, James, the brother of Jesus, he says, but when you ask, talking about asking for wisdom, when you ask, let him ask in faith with no doubting. Ask in faith with no doubting for he that doubts is what? It's like a wave of the sea tossed by the wind.

Let not this man supposed to receive anything from the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways. So here's what he's saying. When you can't even ask the Lord in faith without doubting, your entire life is in a state of instability.

Like you can't grow if you're not grounded. You've got to get grounded first. How do I get to a place where I can ask God in faith with no doubting? Any hints?

Man, let the word get in you, get grounded in the word. Paul says in Ephesians chapter three verse seven, he says that you may be rooted and grounded in love. Look at this, Christ made dwelling your hearts through faith. That you being rooted in grounded in love, he says in Colossians two, seven, he says rooted and built up in him established.

Like you've got to be, have a foundation of God's word. So if I'm not grounded and convinced, and the word actually means to have a strong conviction, not that like conviction always, but just a conviction to where you're sure. Like nobody's gonna talk you out of it. Because you're not hearing this and well, I'm on the left one day and I'm on the right.

And they're on this and that. Back and forth. Said you're like a wave of the sea. You're just being pushed back and forth by different types of doctrine.

But there's one thing, says all scripture. Paul says the Timothy, all scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for reproof, correction, instruction and righteousness for doctrine. Like the word of God will give you the grounding you need to grow up. Like Jesus is what?

Jesus is the word. Like if I'm gonna grow up into Christ, I need to put some roots down in the word. I need to be rooted. I need to be grounded.

I need to be established. It goes on that in Ephesians chapter four verse 15. I'm skipping over speaking the truth in love because I might spend a whole message on that. But speaking in truth in love, you may grow up in what?

In a few things. Look at that. That you may grow up in all things into him who is the, when's the last time your hand asked your foot what to do? Did it ever?

When's the last time your mouth asked your hand what to do? What organ or system in your body is giving instruction to the entire body? The head, the nervous system that's sending impulse throughout your body telling you what to say, what to do, where to go, how to act, wipe that expression off your face, all those type of things. See what happens, it says that you be rooted in him so that you can grow up into Christ the head in what?

All things. Paul tells us this in Ephesians one, I've talked about this many times, but he said that God raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand, far above all principality, power, might dominion in this age and in the one to come and placed all things where, under his feet, that he might be head of the church, his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all. See what happens, we're seated in Christ and too often when we're not growing up into the head, we're going down into the thing that he's actually already conquered. So you need to put your roots in the word, but then once your roots are down, you grow up.

See, a lot of times we wanna grow out, we wanna go, this hand wants to ask this hand what to do. And don't think we haven't done that. How many times you like, you go to one person, you don't get the answer you want, where do you go? I'm going to somebody, oh, nope.

Hey, what do I need to do? My wife and I haven't some issues. Oh, no, I like to answer it what's somewhere else. Hey, we're struggling, what do you think it should do?

Nope, nope, that's not the answer I was looking for, what's somewhere else. And what we have is we have the hand asking the foot, asking the eye, asking the rear end what to do instead of growing up into all things into Christ. It says this in Colossians 1,18. It says he's the head of the body, the church who's the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that end.

Again, all things he might have the, there's a word you don't see quite often, preeminence. Some of your Bibles will say this, that in all things he might have first place. I don't believe God wants first place in your life. First place is a bad translation.

The word preeminence means it can mean first or it can also mean a supreme rank or highest authority. See what happens when you say one put in Jesus first in my life, that's great. But first implies there's what? A second, a third, a fourth and a fifth.

I don't ever tell my wife she's first. Hey baby, where's she at? Oh, see back there. If I say baby, you're number one in my life.

And by the way, Evie's number two and Whitney's number three and Carol's number four. Yeah, all right. Now how do you think she feels being first when there's a second, third and fourth? All of a sudden, first isn't that great.

But when I say baby, you are the one and only that whatever you say goes, not sure I go that far. But see here, I said it, right? But here's what he's saying. He says you need to grow up in all things into the head, Christ, that in everything he might have the final say.

Not that you go to God. Oh, what's God's word say? Oh, that one's not for me. I'm not buying that one.

Let me go talk to the rear end of the foot of the hand. So you need to get to a place in your life where you grow up into all things to the head because he actually knows what's best for you and he has your best interest at heart and he'll never lead you into something that's going to destroy you. Like he has your best interest. You got to get to the point where you accept what he says.

Instead of having little huddles with people that think differently than he does, that you can surround yourself with to insulate you from what he's trying to tell you. You got to have unity. See what happened if you don't have unity and you don't stay in the context of relationship, you never get to the place of maturing in Christ. So you leave before the process takes place.

When it's tough, stay in there. When you mess up, it's okay. I'll never shame you for messing up. I will love you.

I will counsel you. I'll give you a hug because I'm a hugger. But I'm also going to give you the truth in love. I'm not going to pull punches because look, love always seeks what's best.

If I love you, I've got to tell you what the word says. Now whether you accept it or not, that's one you. I'm not going to beat you with the Bible. I'm not going to shame you.

I'm not going to condemn you. But I'm going to tell you what the word says. And I'm going to do it in love. So you have a context to grow and mature in.

Because once you get to a place, we get to a place as a body that we mature, that we attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of Son of God, that we're no longer children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine. We get to a place where we can actually be effective within the body. It's a place of giving and receiving that you actually contribute and I benefit. And I contribute and you benefit.

See the verse says this in Ephesians 4, 16. It says from whom the whole body being talking about Jesus, being fit and held together by what? Look at that. Every joint supply.

That means that everybody supplies something. Don't ever think that I don't have a function because you do. The Bible says you do. Whether you think it or not, irrelevant.

God says you do. He says by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes growth of the body for the building of itself up in love. Efe activity. See, it's not like we just sat in a rock and share and we did a bunch of activity and didn't go anywhere.

So you can be active all the time and not be effective. We're looking for effective Christianity. We're looking for being able to reach the one that needs Jesus. But if we're going to reach the one that needs Jesus, we need to be equipped effectively to do it effectively, to do it the right way.

I'll close with this verse, Revelation 6, 1. I think this will bring it all together. It says brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault or a trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, considering your own selves, lest you also be tempted. Now, I want to point out, when we started this a few weeks ago, the word equipping, caddartesmos in the Greek.

Remember I said it means to, it's a setting of a bone. It's amending. The word restore here is the verb form of that, caddarteso. The mature equipped person is now equipping the one that's broken.

It says brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual restore, that's the word, restore such a one in the spirit of gentleness, but considering your own self, lest you also be tempted. It's talking about when you see somebody that's so stuck, they're overtaken in their situation, that you need to step in and do something to restore that person. That's an obligation. And here's the unity part.

It's in the plural. It doesn't say, hey, one of you, it says brethren, it's written in the plural, and then it says, you who are spiritual, that's also in the plural. Restoration of the person that's broken takes place in the context of a unified body. Brethren, you who are spiritual, what's that sound like?

Maturety. Paul just got done talking in Galatians 5 about that the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there's no law. He goes on to say, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit, that our walk, that word walk actually means to walk in uniformity, that we're actually walking in step with the Holy Spirit, and as we walk in step with the Holy Spirit, guess who else we're walking in step with? Everybody else.

He says, in that context, you who are spiritual in step in sync with the Holy Spirit, restore the one that's broken. That doesn't happen unless we are in agreement. That doesn't happen unless we get to the place of maturity. Because here's even a caution for the spiritually mature, what does he end with?

Consider yourself because what happens? When you're pulling them up, the tendency, they could pull you down. So you have a greater chance of success than being effective if you're mature than if you're immature trying to do that. So that God wants us to be a unified body.

He wants us to be a mature body, and he wants us to be an effective body. So that at the end, we can bring healing, we can bring deliverance, we can bring encouragement, comfort, consolation, all those things that glorify him to the person that needs it most. Equipping the one that knows Jesus, to reach the one that needs Jesus. Let's pray.