INCREASE: Standard of Measure

Alright, so if you have kids, kids are welcome to get downstairs, or you're welcome to stay here. Adults, you're not welcome to get downstairs. You've got to stay here. If you want, you don't have to.

It's ready for God's Word today. I'm ready for God's Word. I've revised this message three times in the last 24 hours, so I hope I'm out to the version that God wants to release, and I'm excited to share with you. We're in a series, we started the beginning of the air series called Increase.

We've looked at several different aspects of that, that the Kingdom of God is an ever-increasing, ever-admerging, ever-advancing kingdom, and that if you're part of the Kingdom of God, you should expect to see increase in your life, because everything in life, everything that God creates increases and grows. Today, I want to look at growing in the Lord. Our main text is going to be in Ephesians 4, we're going to look at verses 7 through 16. Ephesians 4, 7 through 16, if you want to look at that.

I want to launch from the middle of the text, and I put it on the PowerPoint behind me, from the new American Standard Version. It says this, we're going to jump right in the middle, it says, as a result, you should no longer be children. As a result, and we're going to find out what that is, but as a result, you should no longer be children. But speaking the truth in love, you should grow up.

Everybody look at your neighbor and say, it's time to grow up. And then you say, why are you looking at me, right, Jen? It's time to be getting out of the concert. Anybody have a guilty conscience today?

It's time to grow up. It's more than just growing up. So the word grow up is the word increase. It's the same word.

So if you look that up in the Greek, it's used to mean grow up, it also means increase. But speaking the truth in love, you should grow up, but not just grow up, it says grow up in all aspects in him, who is the head, that is Christ. So you're to grow up in all aspects. So think of it like this, when if you have ever had a baby, any newborns here, have a baby recently?

We got a baby here? Okay. Well, when you have a baby, you know, we don't expect that baby to stay a baby their whole life. Some do, right?

Some do. Unfortunately. But you expect the baby to do what? Grow up.

But you don't expect it just to grow in height, right? Because wouldn't it look weird if it grew up and had like, like baby, like T-rex arms, you know? Like little gimpy hands. Like the body grew, but the arms didn't.

So you expect the baby not just to grow, but to grow in all aspects. You can tell people when I was a kid, I was born with ears this size. I actually grew into my ears. Christ is like, you're still growing into them.

I gotta say, we were in Canada last week, and these ears were not made for cold weather. I can tell you that. I did not buy ear muffs, although my wife tried to make me buy ear muffs. It got so cold it actually made the old me come out of the box.

It got really bad. It just was miserable. But when I came back, it actually felt warm here. So that was the only plus.

It was cold. So he says, it's time to no longer be children. It's time to grow up in all aspects, in him, who is the head, that is Christ. So I want to look at three things in this passage of A versus chapter 4, verses 7 through 16.

I want to look at three different things. But before they do that, like when people, do you ever meet somebody and you say, well, you know, how much do they say, well, I want to make more money next year, or I want to, I'm going to the gym, right? What's everybody's goal of going to the gym? I was thinking going the other way.

It depends on which side of the equation. Some people go to the gym to get smaller. Some people go to the gym to get bigger, right? But which way you're going to increase or decreasing, it's a nebulous number, unless you have a way to measure it.

To just say, well, I'm going to the gym to get bigger. What's that mean? I'm going to bulk up. Or I'm going to the gym to shave a few pounds off.

Unless we have a standard of measurement, it doesn't really mean anything. So in order to measure, and that's what we're going to talk about today is measure. That's the word we're going to look at, is measure. So in order to know, how do I know if something's increasing or decreasing?

How do I know if something is going forward or going backward or advancing or regressing? I have to have, first of all, I have to have a unit of measurement. So if I'm going to measure distance, I'm going to measure like the distance between me and Phil. I've got to have a unit of measurement.

Maybe my unit of measurement is this. It's probably not. But it's probably inches, feet, yards, miles, whatever. It's going to have a unit of measurement.

And I've also got to have a standard to measure by. I've got to have a yardstick. I've got to have a tape measure. I've got to have something that has those units of measurement on it in order to measure it.

Now, if I got something and I wanted to weigh something, how much does it weigh, I can't measure weight with a yardstick. I've got to get a scale. If I want to measure liquid measurement, you've got to get a liquid. Okay, this is a pet peeve of mine.

I probably should have brought this up. My wife is a great baker, but she does not follow the recipes ever. If we cook together, which never works out right, but when we do, I'm like, how much milk do we need? She'll say a cup.

And so she hands me the dry measure cup, which Phil tells you is not a cup of liquid, right? I'm like, that's a dry measure. I need a liquid measure because it's all the same. I'm like, no, you can't measure liquids with a dry measure cup.

You need a liquid measure, right? Right, coming from the chef. All right, so we settle it. So in order to measure something, you need a standard of measurement that's actually applicable to the thing that you're measuring.

And so the word measure, this word measure, is the Greek word metron. It's where we get the English word meter, which is a standard of measurement. And so metron is used 12 times in the New Testament. Four of those, I'm sorry, three of those times are in Ephesians 4, so it's probably an important thing.

And so there's three things the apostle Paul talks about. The word metron or measuring, you can see it can be a dry measure. It can be a rod measuring, or it can be applied to also the standard of... Here's the three things I want to talk to you about today.

I'm going to look at the measure. I'm not sure what feedback's coming from. The measure of grace, number one. You want to write these down, the measure of grace.

And grace we're going to look at is empowerment today. We're going to look at the measure of growth at your maturity. It'll be kind of thing about fun with that. And then we're going to look at the measure of giving.

We're talking about money. We're talking about giving of what God's entrusted you with, these gifts of grace. So we're going to look at the measure of grace. We're going to look at the measure of...

Oh, wow. God's our way ahead of me. The measure of growth and the measure of giving. All right, so let me read through Ephesians 4 and then we'll jump into these.

So Ephesians 4, let me just read verses 7, down through 16. It says, 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 he gave gifts to men. Now this, he ascended, what does it mean, but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth.

He who descended above, or descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill, all things. So you'll notice these last couple verses are in parentheses. It's just Paul going back, quoting a passage from the Old Testament saying that when he ascended, he gave gifts to men. He's making the point, the person he's talking about here that was being prophesied about was Jesus.

Because he said, how can somebody us send that hasn't already descended, that when Jesus left heaven, he actually descended to earth, and when he died, he descended into the lower parts of the earth. And then he got back to Kisea, and then he came back, ascended to the right hand of the Father, and gave gifts to men. So he's just really making that point. That's not the point of our message today, but we're going to skip over that later.

And it says in verse 11, it says, He himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till 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. I think I put up there, I highlighted the words measure, and also I want to tell you, when we get to the last one, it's not the word measure, it's the word share. So when you see that, it's the same word, it's just translated differently. That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and carried a bow with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of man in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

But speaking the truth in love, and they grow up in 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 effect of working by which every part does its share, that's the word metron, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Alright, there's so much in there we can probably spend weeks, but we're going to try to give you the quick version today. Alright, let's start with number one. So it says that grace is given, according, verse seven, grace is given to who?

Some people? All people. So what happens, a lot of times when we look at this text, this text is about five-fold ministry gifts, a lot of times we think, well, I'm not an apostle, a prophet, evangelist, pastor, teacher. But that's woven in there, but actually this passage is to everybody.

It says, but to each of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift, and he himself gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, some teachers. So the important thing I want to point out here is that when Christ gives gifts, what does he give with the gift? But to each one of us, blank was given according to the measure or the standard of Christ's gift, so that God actually gives grace in proportion to or in measurement, the standard of the gift that he's given you. So why is that important?

So first let me tell you this, gifts are not rewards. Gifts are not rewards for good character. Gifts are gifts. So did you ever see somebody maybe living in sin but operating in gifts?

Yeah, because gifts are not rewards. See, character comes from the fruit of the Spirit operating in your life. And so it's not, a lot of times people will chase power, but they need neglect of character, or people chase character and neglect power. See, God wants you to have both.

He wants you to have power in your life with character. See, did you ever, I used to go to the gym a lot when I was younger, and there was this guy, he was a lumberjack. I guess it came from like splitting wood his whole life, but this guy was like, he was like this, but he had toothpick legs. And that guy, he'd always wear sweatpants, because he didn't want you to see like the little strings coming out of shorts.

But that's like a lot of Christians. See, you get all, you might have the gifts, but you don't have the character to carry the gifts. Or you're the guy who walks around with the big, my son-in-law calls him meat wheels. He's like his big size, he calls him meat wheels.

He got big meat wheels, and he's got the gippular arm. He's got T-racks, right? So one without, God wants you to have both. Bonus.

He said to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. So what he's saying is when God gives you a gift, he gives you grace and equal measure to support the gift that he's giving you. So what happens a lot of times when we think of grace, we talk about grace on merit of favor, it is that. We think of grace in terms of forgiveness of sins.

We think of grace in terms of God's goodness in our life and cleansing us and all those things, salvation. But grace also is that which empowers you. It's more than just that merit of favor. It's the empowerment of God.

Paul says this when he's going through a time in 2 Corinthians 12 verse 9, he says, but he, speaking of Jesus, said to me, he said, my grace is sufficient for you. My power is made perfect in weakness. And what Jesus is saying is, my grace is my power. They're synonymous.

The apostles in Acts 4 verse 33, it says the apostles with great power gave witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and great grace was upon them. So there's this connection between grace and power so that when God puts a gift in your life, he supplies the power to go with it. Anybody ever get a gift when they're a kid? Let's go back to Christmas.

Now I've got a gift for somebody. This is a Rayo Vac LED, top notch. When you're a kid and you get the gift you've been waiting for, you're like ripping it off, what are the three worst words on the box? Well, you get batteries not included.

That's the parents' worst thing. Some of them sound like a car. For the kids, batteries not included. So, let's see, Curtis, come here.

I've got a gift for you. It's this Rayo Vac flashlight. I want to give the gun, flip out on it for everybody. Oh, no, the button works.

This is top notch, I can tell you, because you broke your gift. I hope you saved the receipt. I actually got this out of my wife's tool bag. See, that's a weird thing about our marriage.

She's the tool man. So, what do you need? What do you need to make that thing work? You need two batteries.

I got you covered. Just so it happens. Because when God gives a gift, what does he give to go with it? He gives the grace.

And the grace of the batteries are the batteries that go with the gift. You're going to put these in. Oh, you broke it. Let me see that.

Here, put that in your tongue. See if it works. It works. You want to try it?

You like the other one. So, what's Curtis' need? He needs the right batteries. See, when God gives you a gift, he gives you grace in equal measure to correspond with the gift that he's given you.

So, he doesn't give you grace or a gift that you don't have. That doesn't work. There we go. I didn't practice this.

So, like this. Oh, look at that. See, so what happens is sometimes we try to operate in gifts that we have no grace for. Thank you.

Let's give Curtis a hand. Good job. Did you ever try to see somebody flowing in something and they just do it with ease? They're like my wife, gift of hospitality.

Like if you know Kristen, gift of hospitality, she can whip up a dinner, she sets the table, and like she's graced to do it. I learned early on the best way to get out of that is if you drop a dish and break it. You get dismissed from having to help. But she has this grace on her life to operate in that, that she does it with ease.

But when I try to do what she's gifted to do, it causes stress in my life. And so, what happens a lot of times is people try to operate in giftings that God didn't supply the grace to you for. See, Paul says it like this. Let's skip this next.

Well, let's just make a point here. He says in Ephesians 3, he says, the gift of the grace that God's given me is for who? You. So think about this.

When God puts grace in your life and gives you a gift, he puts grace with it. He doesn't give you the gift with corresponding grace for yourself. He gives you a gift with grace so that you can actually share it and put it in operation in somebody else's life. Here's what happens a lot of times.

I'll get you this example in 1 Corinthians 7. One of the grace gifts Paul had on his life was celibacy. Now, thank God. God didn't give me that one.

Right? Because Christin would have been a real long marriage for her. I can imagine. So here's what Paul says.

He's talking to him about sexual immorality. He says this. He says, regarding questions you ask in your letter, it's good to abstain from sexual relations, I wish everyone were single like me. No, I don't think so.

Yeah, each person has a special gift from God one after one kind and one after another. So here's the wisdom of Paul. He says, let's just take a touch. When you're gifted at something, I used to be like this.

I used to teach Sunday school. And I was like, why wouldn't everybody want to teach Sunday school? Because I just loved it. I'd get in the Bible.

I'd study God's Word. And I'd say, I don't know why everybody doesn't do this. This is like the best thing. Everybody should do this.

But you know why? It was so easy for me because God put grace on my life to do it. And see what happens is a lot of times when God, for instance, God graced Paul with the gift of celibacy. And he said, you know what?

I wish everybody was like me. But I realized that God gives everybody special gifts with corresponding grace. And it's wrong of me to ask you to do something that you're not graced to do. Think about the Catholic Church.

I'm not picking on the Catholic Church. But they, just to make a point, when they ask priests to be celibate, to do, to, to, to, to, to, yeah, just, hear me out. They're asking people to do something that they haven't been gifted and graced to do. And disaster ends up being the result in more times than not.

And so what happens a lot of times is we see other people flourishing in an area and we try to step into something that God hasn't gifted or graced us to do. And disaster ends up resulting. Now the good thing is you can actually tap into somebody else's grace. Like you can actually step into the anointing on their life.

I'm not prophetic. Like I have a hard time figuring out, like telling you what the weather is going to be after reading it. But I've been around prophets. And when I get around prophets, all of a sudden I start to flow in the grace that's on their life.

Because there's this thing that Paul even says to the Philippians, Church, and Philippians 1, he says, you guys have partnered with me in the Gospel. And in verse 7 he says that you're now partakers of the grace that's on me. And you can actually step into through relationship. And this is why it's great.

So we all have gifts. God gives us equal grace and measure to correspond with your gift. You flow in that. But as a community we can actually tap into the grace that's on somebody else's life to actually operate in something that God hasn't even graced me to do.

But when I try to do it on my own and something I don't have a grace to do, Paul the Cliff. That's why we are a body. Right. Just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same functions.

So we who are many are one body in Christ, individually members of one another. However, since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given. See God doesn't give everybody equal gifts in equal measure and equal grace. Grace for salvation has appeared to all men.

Like that's the same. But grace as it pertains to gifts within the body differs based on the gift. And God knows what he has gifted you to do. And God's, he doesn't say, hey, here's a gift and here's some debatteries to go with something that needs nod goals.

He actually matches the two up and gives you the exact empowerment needed to carry out the gift that he's placed on your life. But sometimes we don't even know it. Like we ignore it. It says, go back there.

It says, just differ according to grace. So let each of us use them properly. So grace has been given to each one according to the measure of Christ's gift. So according to the standard of his gift that he gave you, he gave corresponding grace.

Each one's received it. So there's nobody here that's left out. Everybody's got a gift. Everybody has a battery to go with the gift.

And he says, I want you all to use the grace and the gift that I've given you. Because if every part has a function and one part doesn't function, the body doesn't actually function or even grow or increase or develop to the degree that God wants it to. See, what happens is when you don't contribute and you don't operate in the gift thing and the grace God's put on your life, win up like this. Right?

Maybe like this. I don't know. But we grow, but we grow, but we grow, disformed. And what he wants to do is shape us into the image of Jesus, which we're going to look at next.

So the first thing, the measure of grace is equal to the measuring standard is Christ's gift. And the two are actually equal. So the measure of one is the measure of the other. The measure of growth or maturity says the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

We're going to read through this. There's a couple of verses here. Let's go on next slide. It says, and he gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and some teachers.

So think about this. Every gift has corresponding, what? You guys awake? Every gift has corresponding grace.

And from that, now he takes a subsection of the body and he says he gave some to be apostles. So what kind of grace would an apostle have? Apostolic grace. What kind of grace would a prophet have?

Prophetic grace. What kind of grace would an evangelist have? Evangelistic grace. What kind of grace would a pastor have?

Pastoral grace. Here's a tough one. What kind of grace would a teacher have? Teaching grace.

Actually, I think it's even a revelatory grace to where a teacher can actually understand and communicate things that probably aren't even as apparent to most people. So there is gifts, ministry gift. God puts in within the body, different from the rest of the body. And he also gave grace to those gifts, but for a different purpose.

Now, I'm not here today to convince you that all five of these are for today. I personally believe they are. But I'll just read through here and see what it says. Remember I said you could tap into somebody else's grace?

So if you are connected to somebody that has apostolic grace, what would an apostle do? An apostle was one who would send out, an apostle was one who would build, who would plan, who would bring correction. So if you step into that, you can actually receive grace to do that from somebody that gives. If you are connected relationally with somebody that has evangelistic grace, you might find yourself waking up at night with a passion for souls, a passion for the lost.

You connect with somebody that has pastoral grace. You are going to find yourself having a grace and be able to tap into a care and a concern and a shepherding of people. So there is grace that flows from these five gifts in addition to the gifts of grace that each one of us have. And it says he put these in the church for the equipping of the saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

This word equipping means to perfectly fit. So he puts the ministry gifts who have their own corresponding grace for the purpose of equipping the body. So another way this word is used, remember when Jesus finds Peter and John and when he calls them, what are they doing? Well, they were fishermen, but what were they doing?

If you remember Mark 1, 19, it says they were mending their nets. That's the same word equipping. They were actually putting something back together. Jesus said this in Luke chapter 6 verse 40.

He said a teacher, I'm sorry, the cycle was not above his teacher, but he who is perfectly trained is like his teacher. Perfectly trained is the same word equipped. If you think of Galatians chapter 6, 1, the apostle Paul says, brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual, restore, restore. But be aware that you don't fall into the same temptation yourself.

So restoration. So here's the job of these ministry gifts. They're to train, they're to equip, they're to help bring restoration and healing and training and all those type of things that we need in the body. So, you know, it's funny because doesn't everybody kind of want to aspire to like one of these gifts?

Okay, but think about this. Anybody play football in high school? Did you want to be the quarterback or the equipment manager? Like everybody wants to be the quarterback.

Everybody wants to be the running back. Everybody wants to be the guy on the field. Who wants to be the trainer? Who wants to be the equipment guy?

Here's a helmet. Here's a helmet. Here's your butt pad. Here's your butt pad.

Here's your thigh pad. Here's your shoulder. But that's what God says these gifts are. They're not actually the glory gifts.

They're the ones that actually operate and equip the team to actually be able to play on the field. And so he says, you know, these five fold, equip the body, grow the body, train the body for the work of the ministry and also for the building up of the body. So it's building, it's growing, it's helping to grow the body. Now, side point here, if you want to argue some of these have passed away because some people might believe that, how long did God give these gifts?

Or when Jesus gave these gifts, he says he gave these five gifts for the equipping of the body for the work of the ministry, for the edification of the body of Christ, verse 13, until we all come. That word comes means to arrive. I want you to say this, I haven't arrived yet. I haven't arrived yet.

It says he gave these gifts until we all arrive. Which means we all got to get there. Arrive where? At the unity of the faith.

The word unity, there's only twice in the New Testament means oneness. It actually means, you know, I can't say it. How do we say unanimous as a unanimity? You being unanimous.

So when something's unanimous, what does that mean? Everybody votes the same way, right? You watch Bob, anybody watch Bobby Flay? Beat Bobby Flay?

Like Bobby Flay all the time, the judge will say, oh, it's unanimous. Bobby wins again. That means everybody voted that way. He says, I'm giving these gifts to equip the body, to build the body of Christ up until we all arrive at a place where we are unanimous in our faith.

We actually believe, like Jesus believed. We actually have faith for the same things. We actually believe for the same things. We actually corporately believe that when God says he'll do it, he'll do it.

He says, until we arrive there, there's more equipping that needs to take place. He says, until we arrive at the unity of the faith and also the unity of the knowledge of the Son of God. Which means we've got to come to a place as a body to where we're one in what we believe, but we're also one in the world of knowledges is precise and correct knowledge of Jesus. So that we see Jesus the way he really is, and we believe the same.

The reason we need to see Jesus as he really is, have perfect and correct knowledge of him is because he is the measuring stick. See if I don't know what he looks like, how am I going to measure against him? So Paul says, you need to quip to the point where we believe the same, but also see Jesus and understand him the same as a body to a perfect man. That doesn't mean perfect as, now when you get saved, your born-again spirit is made perfect.

You're perfect in Christ. But there's perfecting that's still going on in your life, right? The way you think, the way you act, decisions, all those types of things. He says, I'm doing this until we get to a place of maturity.

So how do we measure maturity? What do we measure it again? Like do I say, do I measure my maturity against Phil? This Phil measures maturity against me.

No, because I'm not the standard of measurement in Phil's life and Phil's not the standard of measurement in my life. So what happens a lot of times is we begin to measure our maturity either against where we came from. Oh, well, compared to where I was, I'm doing pretty good. Because I used to do this, I used to hang out here and he said, yeah.

Or like, hmm, compared to Phil, you know, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, compared to Ray, oh my gosh, compared to Ray, I'm off the skate now. No, we're not comparing to each other because that's the wrong measurement. That's the wrong measuring stick.

Jesus never said that we are to measure ourselves in maturity against each other. It says we're to measure until we all come to the fullness of the, I'm sorry, until we all come to the stature, the measure of the stature of the fullness. What's that look like? What's that look like?

Think about that. What does that look like if I'm measuring to the fullness of Jesus? John 1 14 says this, it says the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld the glory, his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of what? Grace and truth and of his fullness we have all received.

So you're like, okay, so if I have the fullness, why do I need to grow in it? See, you have it in here, but you don't have it out here. So think about Jesus. It says this in Luke chapter 2.

It says the young child was speaking of Jesus, says the young child was full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit was upon him. So what was he full of wisdom? How much more wisdom could the Holy child get than what God gave him? Probably infinite.

But then in Luke 2 52, it says Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, not talking about height, talking about maturity. Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. See, he actually already had it, but he had to grow into it. And that's what he's saying to you.

You already have it. You have the fullness, but you need to grow into it, just like he did. He said, of his fullness we have all received. What about this?

John 3, 34, John the Baptist talking about Jesus. He says, the one whom God sends, he gives him the spirit without measure, or this says without limit. That's a standard, huh? That's a pretty big standard that Jesus had the Holy Spirit with no limits.

And I'm supposed to measure my life in the spirit, not against Phil, not against Ray, but against a man empowered with the Holy Spirit that always with no limits. I don't measure up. I got a ways to go. We haven't arrived.

Next. How about love? That's talked about love last week. It says that you being rooted in grounded love may be comprehended with all the saints.

What is the width, length, depth, and height? To know the love of Christ which passes all the knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. The love in your life for other people, how does it stack up against Jesus? He's the sick.

He's the standard. I'll give you one more real quick. It says, and all the fullness in him dwells all, get this, all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, everything that they contain dwells in Jesus bodily. And guess what we are?

We're his body. So it's already in us. And we are complete. Like there's nothing you need that you don't already have in Jesus.

But we've got to grow up into it. We've got to grow up into it. It's time to grow up. Go back a minute.

I got my goody back here today. I don't normally bring goodies, but I just want to give you a little object lesson where it says, until we all come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Here's an interesting word. That word stature is where we get our word helix.

H-E-L-I-X. You know what a helix is? It's a slinky. So remember we did that series a year ago on D like 23 and we was on DNA?

Yeah, you see DNA is a double helix. So a helix is a 3D shape that's formed by wrapping itself around either a cone or a cylinder. And when you pull it off, it actually looks like the thing that it was wrapped around. And so I think what happens, what God wants us to do, is if I actually wrap myself around the standard of Christ, what am I going to start to look like Christ?

But what a lot of times we do is we try to wrap Christ around me and actually bring him down to my level of understanding, my level of experience, my level of doctrine and theology and everything else. And I begin to have a God that looks a lot like me. And what he wants is he wants you to look like him that you'd be measured to the stature of the fullness of Christ. Now his fullness, this is just a little stick, but his is infinite, right?

This is ongoing. This is just something I want you to visualize. Like I want to ask you, are you wrapping him around you and making a God that looks a lot like you? Or are you wrapping yourself around him and looking like him?

Alright, last point. We're done. This will just be a measure of giving. This doesn't, this isn't money.

But I want you to think of it more than that God has gifted you with a gift. God has given you equivalent grace to match that gift. God's put us in the body to the place where he puts us around people that can equip us, train us. We can actually step in and tap into grace in other people's life.

But what happens if I don't use what God has grace needed to do? What happens if you don't do what God's grace you to do? Let's go to the next slide. It says that we should no longer be children speaking the truth in love, 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. It's a little wordy there. It says that, so how do we measure the use of our gift? How do we measure our contribution?

How do we measure what we give to the body? It says this. Here's what he says. According to, so it means in proportion.

Here's how you measure how you're doing. I don't measure my, I don't measure my maturity against Christians. I measure against who? Jesus.

And I don't measure the use of my gift against her. I measure the use of my gift against me. See, I'm only responsible for what God has given me. And what he says, he says, according to the effective working, that word means efficiency is what that word means.

So what's efficiency? Efficiency is like this. So I told you guys about a couple months ago, I got this ring that kind of tracks my sleep now. It's like I'm not a guy that wears two rings, but I guess I am.

But this ring, it keeps track of my heartbeat and my sleep patterns and all that. So one thing attracts is my sleep efficiency. So what's sleep efficiency? It'll say, okay, Fred, you were in bed eight hours last night.

From the time you laid down at the time you got up, you were in bed eight hours. But you only slept six hours. Six divided by eight is 75%. Therefore, you have a sleep efficiency of 75%.

So it's grading me against what I have. It's grading my sleep against my time in bed. And here's what Paul's saying. It said that we're graded against the efficiency, what we do with what God's given.

Think about this. When he tells the Corinthians about actually talking about giving money, but it applies. He says, and second Corinthians chapter eight, he says this. He says, if a willingness is present, it's acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he doesn't have.

So the same thing's true of money. So when you give an offering, it's not that God compares the number. It's never the number. It's what are you doing with what God's given you.

It's never the amount. It's just like when Jesus said that he stood and watched the people give gifts in the treasury. And it said that it was that poor widow that gave two mites. And he said that she gave more than everybody else that gave out a whole bunch of money.

So it wasn't more quantity. It was more in proportion to what she had. And so he says when the measure, the standard of your using your gift is based on what God's given you. Like he's given you something.

But what are you doing with it? I would imagine there's a lot of zeros in here. I don't say that to shame you. I say that to encourage you.

That God, you know, what's better than zero? How about a one? How about a ten? How about a twenty?

How about getting a fifty? Like he's not asking you to go from zero to a hundred. He's asking you to do something. I've given you a gift.

I've graced you. I've given you the batteries. I've equipped you. I've put people around to train you.

I've given you an opportunity to step in, grace and other people's life. What are you doing with what I've given you to do? And if you're a zero, own it. If you're a ten, own it.

If you're a ninety, own it. Because you can always do with something else. You can always be more efficient. You can increase your effectiveness by using what God's given you to use.

And as he gives you, guess what? It's Paul calls its stewardship. As you use what gift God's given you, guess what he's going to do? He's going to give you more gifts.

And when he gives you more gifts, guess what he's going to give you a measure? Grace. Because he always gives grace equivalent to the gift. Alright, last scripture.

1 Peter 4, 10. As each one. Let's stand up. Let's read this together.

We're going to close with this. You ready? Let's read. As each one has received a special gift.

Employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the multifaceted grace of God. Multifaceted. Diverse. It means many color.

Verigated. It means that God's grace has many colors. It has many colors because he has many gifts. And every gift he perfectly matches with grace.

And it says everybody's received a gift. Everybody's received a corresponding grace. He says I want you to minister it to who? Yourself?

Minister it to one another as good stewards. As good stewards. Everybody has something. Everybody, when Kim said earlier, Jesus came because you're the purpose.

He also, like he gave gifts, you know when he gave gifts? It says when he ascended, he gave gifts. So he not only came for you in eternity past, he gifted you an eternity past. Like he's got a purpose for your life.

Let's pray. If I want to ask you this, move our heads. I want you to close your eyes for a minute. Wait a minute if you come.

I just want you to take a quick inventory. Paul said this. He said, I labored more abundantly than they all so that the grace that was given to me was not wasted grace. Like I want you to ask yourself God, have I wasted grace?

Have I wasted gifts? Have I stewered them well? Or could I do something I'm not good? I know you've gifted me.

I know you've graced me. Maybe you need an opportunity. Maybe you need to come alongside somebody. Maybe you've just been bullheaded.

I just want you to take inventory just between you and God. Between you and God. This is a personal time. I just want you to say, Father, what would you have me to do?

Father, what would you have me to do?