The Village Church
Learning to Live Like the People of God - Audio
[ Music ] >> All right, the guest preachers has been here for five weeks. So, I hope you enjoyed the break from Alex, but I'm excited about being back in the pulpit this Sunday. So, if you have your Bibles, open them to Ephesians 4. You're going to begin in verse 1. "I therefore, a prisoner of the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner of the worthy of the call to which you have been called, without humility and gentleness with patience. Praying with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, one spirit, just as you recall to one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, the Father of all, who is overall, through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us, according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says when he ascended on high, he led a host of captains and gave gifts to men. And saying he ascended, what does it mean that he also descended into the lower regions of the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above the heavens, that he might feel all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, the teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. Until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge, the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure, the stature, the fullness of Christ. So that we are no longer be children tossed to and forth by waves and carried by every wind of doctrine, by hearing and cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we grow up in him in every way who is the head into Christ, from whom the whole body join and held together for every joint, for which it is incredible. When each part is working properly, makes the body grow up so that it builds itself up in love. Let us pray. Father God, a sermon is nothing apart from your spirit. It's not the special about me, not the special about my words, not the special about my preparation. If your spirit do not take your word and apply it to our hearts, I'm nothing more than just a motivational speaker. So spirit, our deposit, guaranteeing our inheritance. You come, take my broken words, and use them to encourage the people of God, strengthen the people of God, challenge the people of God. Apply it to our lives. Apply it to our hearts. I'm crashing my prayer. Amen. Well, like I said, it's been a while. So, I hope you guys miss me. I miss you. Last time I preached, which was five weeks ago, I talked about how within the church, Christ has brought many different people groups together, and He is the head of that church. Now, we also saw that He Himself is our peace, as He has reconciled us to God, He has also reconciled us to one another, as a body of Christ, and that now in Jesus, we are citizens in His Kingdom, in the household of God. You are part of God's family as believers. You're no longer orphans. You are now sons and daughters of the King. And so, what's next? Is that the end of the story? Shall I just close my bow when we go ahead and eat now? Which, we could do that, if you want to. Far from it. The question now is, the challenge for us now is, as a son, what does a son live like? How do I live as a son? If I've been an orphan, all of my life, and all of a sudden I now become a son, has my thinking changed? What's my mentality? What's my frame of mode? I still have orphan tendencies. And so, I've got to learn how to live like a son, have to learn how to live like a daughter, have to learn how to live like the people of God. What is our responsibility within the church? Our role. This is what Paul shows us in Ephesians 4. Our responsibility. When we congregate together as a body of Christ, what's our role? What's your role? Do you know it? He says, "I urge you to walk in a manner of further the calling to which we have been called." That means to live. That means to take responsibility. Sometimes it means to fight and take action. As one Christian writer says, it means we are to conduct ourselves in harmony with the responsibilities to which our new relationship with Christ has imposed upon us. What is he saying? When I become a Christian, there is responsibility. Do we know ours? Do you know yours? Just as when you become a husband, you have responsibilities. Now, if you get married and still think like a bachelor, well, you ain't gonna be married very long. It doesn't work that way. When you become a husband, you gotta think like a husband. Act like a husband. Live like a husband. Share it like a husband. Work like a husband. When I become a Christian, think like a Christian. Walk like a Christian. Speak like a Christian. Live like a Christian. Same thing. Same thing. Lifestyle changes. That's what I've been talking about. Lifestyle changes. When I become a Christian, I have to make lifestyle changes. I do. We all do. And he says, this lifestyle change has to be consistent with the call to which you have been called. What is this calling that he's talking about here? One of the things about Paul and any of the New Testament writers, they always start out with Christian truth. This is true. This is the gospel. Then they take it to the next step. This is how you are to now live because of that truth. You gotta live it out. So the first three chapters of Ephesians, Paul talks about this call. He talks about the blessings of this call. Listen to some of the things he says. In Ephesians 1 and 4, he says, he chose us in him before the foundations of the world. Wow. He chose us in him before the foundations of the world. Well, that's cool. That we should be holy and blameless before him. Good news. He has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. Before the foundations of the world. If you believe you have been blessed in Christ in every spiritual blessing, that's great. 1 and 5 says, he predestined us for adoption as sons as daughters through Jesus Christ. Family, sons and daughters. 1 and 7 says, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. Wonderful news. 1 and 11. In him we have attain inheritance. You know what that is, right? Heaven. Glory. 1 and 13. You are sealed with the promise Holy Spirit. Promise Holy Spirit. Good news. 2 and 8 says, you have been saved by grace. Now result of works. It's a free gift of God. Wonderful. 2 and 9. We are Jesus's workmanship. Created for good works. See, in chapter 3, it tells us that we are citizens in God's kingdom, that we have been reconciled to God, that Jesus has brought different people group together. Chapter 1, chapter 2, chapter 3. It's all Christian truth. 1 truth after the next. And here's the thing about the Christian life. What you believe. What you believe. Your theology, your diaphragm, whatever it is, means nothing if you don't live it. There's nothing. I can read all the books in the world. I got tons of books on my bookshelf. It talks about theology this, theology that. All I do is read it. I'm just an intellectual. It's always meant to be applied to your very life. And this is the point Paul is making here. But in chapter 4 and 6, he gives us the practical applications of Christian truth. He says in verse 1, "In light of all the things I've said." In chapter 1, in chapter 2, in chapter 3, "Therefore now I urge you to strongly live, walk, in a matter worthy of the call to which you have been called." If these things are true, if you are sons, if you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing, if you now have the inheritance and go into heaven, if you now have the Holy Spirit, if you are now in God's kingdom, then live it, then live it, then live it. It ain't going to be perfect. We're not talking about perfection. We're just talking about striving to live the way God wants us to live. There's always application. A few weeks ago, I was born a few weeks ago, doing a running Olympics, Madison, she loved the skin part when it was skinned down the mountain. One day, she looked over to me and she said, "Daddy, I want to go to the mountain and ski." I was like, "Well, that's pretty brave of her. She wants to go ski, pretty brave." I thought it was so sweet. I was thinking about that. I also realized, when I looked at those guys in Lady's Ski, they spent time training, learning, practicing, listening, in order to be prepared for the Olympic competition. They just didn't show up one day and say, "Well, I haven't had any training, but I think I'm going to ski down this mountain here." I think I'm going to show up and now I'm going to ski. I didn't practice in beforehand. I had no learning. I just want to ski. Can I ski down the mountain? They train. They learn. And the Olympics were just the application of all they learned. Just the application. All of life is that way. Your job is that way. School is that way. We know that we live a life applying the things that we know. Marriage and our relationships. We are just the application. In the Christian life, there's no difference. We should be applying everything Jesus is teaching us in this world. When Jesus says, "Love your enemies," that's not a suggestion. It's not. Applying it to your life every day. And sometimes we get stuck in the training mode. That's some of our problems. And in churches, you sit there a lot. You know, you have a church who, they get convicted about not being involved in the community. So they're like, "We want to get involved in the community." Do you know the first thing they do? We've got to have a Sunday school lesson on evangelism. So we just do that. We're going to have a six week Sunday school lesson on evangelism. And evangelism is good. It's great. We should share our faith. But what usually happens, you only have a few that get on fire for God and go show their faith. A lot of them get stuck. We've got to go read some more. We've got to go do another Bible study. We've got to go listen to another sermon tape. How many Bible studies? How many sermon tapes do we have to listen to? Before it becomes real. And we'll live it out. So we can't sweep application of our faith and the world. If it's really true, if it's really true, what shouldn't it be in my life? Shouldn't you see it in my life? Not just in the books that I read. Not just in the preachers that I listen to. I urge you to walk in a matter worthy of the calling to which you have been called. How do we do it? Paul tells us in verse 3, the way to live life within the church that is worthy of our calling is to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. What does that mean, Alice? We are to be eager and diligent. Make every effort to maintain, preserve the bond of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace within the church, this church, this local church. And we spoke about this six weeks ago that we are the body of Christ. There is unity within this church. And it's through his blood that we are one, every believer in the world as part of God's church, we are connected to every believer because of that. And in the local church, we have to maintain that unity in the bond of peace. We have to have responsibility for it. We have to safeguard it. We have to fight for it sometimes. You know, I can't figure this out, but it seems like every kid go through this phase of life when they ask you to constantly ask you to why question, you know, is trying to take a bath. Why? Why? Because big girls and girls, big boys and girls, take baths. Why? Why? Why do they have to take baths? Why? This goes on and on and on and on. The why question, until you get to the point where, because daddy says so, that's why. That's why you have to take a bath. And some of you this morning probably ask yourself the same question, why? Why is she talking about this? Why is this important? Well, how must I maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace? Why? Short answer because God says so. Your daddy said so. But he still gives us the reason why. And it's in verse four and six. Verses four and six says, there is one body, one spirit, just as you recall to one hope that belongs to your call. One law, one faith, one baptism, one God, and father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Verses four and six gives us the foundation for maintaining this unity that we have in this church, the foundation for it. These things here, these are a foundation of unity that they are outside of us. And so what you see here should reflect that. The unity of the spirit we have is based upon the unity that we see in that Christian faith, one body, one spirit, one lord, one faith, one father. Those things are a fixed reality. And what we do and how we live should reflect that. It should reflect that and how we treat one another. And how we operate as a church, there's one lord, there's one faith, there's one baptism, there's one God and father of all, and there is one church. And we are all members of it. The village church is part of the kingdom of God, part of the church of God. We're not the church, we're part of the body of Christ, we're just a local body. And how are we going to be local? How are we going to be unified? How are we going to do church here? It's the question. What would be your role as a member of this church? That's the first reason why we should maintain, we should fight to maintain the unity of the spirit. It's because it reflects our faith, the unity within our faith. But there's a second reason. I don't know how many of you watch football, NFL, anybody NFL fans? Now, if you follow the sport in some form of fashion, then you should be familiar with this name, T.O. Anyone familiar with T.O.? Okay. He is a one man wrecking crew. He utterly destroyed two NFL locker rooms because of his selfishness, his negative high maintenance attitude. He would call our coaches and teammates in public through the media. Everything was everybody else's fault. I'm a victim. I'm always a victim, like Charlie Brown, why is everybody always picking on me? He was such a bad alpha, that two NFL team had to ship him out of town. He had to cut ties with him. He was a great player, but he's not a very good teammate. The lesson we have to learn from and remember from T.O. is that each of us here, you're T.O. I'm T.O. Because when you're in an interrelationship with Jesus, you're drawing a church, you have fellowship with him through Word and Prayer, you show your faith with others, you're excited. You're on fire for Jesus. It's like a fresh start on life. But don't forget one thing. One minor detail, when you become a Christian and you're drawing a church, guess what? Hold it on to your coattail as you walk through the door. What are you bringing with you? There you go. You bring your T.O.ness with you. Your T.O.ness comes with you. You're seeing your issues, your high maintenance, your Christian divilliness. You bring it with you. And here's the thing, your T.O.ness can destroy the unity within the church. It can kill it. If I all of a sudden get the big head thinking I'm all that, thinking it's all about me, I can ruin this church. It can. Pride comes before the fall. Seeing kills. T.O.ness will destroy our unity. That's where we have to fight it. Either you fight it or they take over. How? How do I fight my T.O.ness versus one and two? Tells us how to fight it. He says, "Therefore, I present the Lord urge you to walk in the mouth of the road to call it to which you have them called. How? With all humility, gentleness. With patience. Ban with one another in love." And that's how. And my question is, who will you be? Will your life reflect these qualities when you join the church? Or will it be your T.O.ness when you join the church? One and two, you would have one of those two dominate in your life, in your time at this church. Which one would you be? Which one would I be? That's the question. You have to pray that the Spirit will produce these qualities in us. Because our sinful nature, our sin, is going to wage war against these qualities. These are qualities of the Holy Spirit. I can't just wake up the next morning and say, "Well, I guess I need to be humbled today." I guess I need to be patient today. I guess I need to love people today, man. No. You have to pray that the Spirit will produce those things in you. Because if you're humble, what does that mean? It means thinking about yourself less. It's not all about you. Not all about me. It's not thinking too highly of yourself. That's humility. I love seeing that in people. Being humble, gentleness, meekness. It means you're not easily provoked. You're kind. You're tender. You have an attitude of submitting to others. And patience, this is long-suffering. It's showing patience in spite of how hard life is. Or how difficult life is. Your patience, even when your troubles are caused by someone else. Forbearance, what is that? It's the practical outwork and of long-suffering. It means you bear with one another's weaknesses. That's what it means. It means you keep short accounts. It's not ceasing to love one's neighbor or friend because of their faults or when they hurt you. That's forbearance. And finally, all these qualities mean we love one another. If we love one another, then we will bear with one another. Jesus says, you know you are my disciples because you have the right theology. Did he say that? You would know you are my disciples because you do this or you do that. What did he say? They would know that you are my disciples. Why? Because you love one another. That's why. Wait, humility, gentleness, patience and forbearance. Does your life look that way? Does my life look that way? Does your marriage look that way? Does our relationship look that way? In John 3, 35, Jesus tells the disciples, yeah, I just said that. Never mind. In John 15, 13, he says, "Great of love has no one in this. There's so many laid on his life for his friends." And that's what I'm talking about. Laying down your life for your friends. Basically, that don't have to be, I got to die for you. It means I put your needs before my own. I consider your needs before I consider my needs. Land down my life before you. You know what else it means? After Jesus washed the disciples' feet. What did he tell them? You are returned are supposed to wash one another's feet. That means I need to sometimes wash your feet, Brian. That's what it means. If Jesus, God, Savior, Redeemer can humble himself and get down and wash the disciples' feet, how much more us to one another? Are you willing to wash one another's feet? Are you too good for it? That's loving one another that way. That's what we're talking about. All this applies to us. We show grace. We keep short accounts. Operating this way will help maintain the unity of this church. And don't come easy. We love one another that way. You see, I want us to think of each other as a family, not just people we go to church with. I don't just want to be, oh, that's Alex, my pastor. No, Alex, I'm your friend. Don't introduce me as your pastor. Don't introduce me as your friend. We should have genuine relationship, genuine friendship, genuine community. You see, now the church does not fill with separate questions where we just mimic some of each other or we look just like one another, but not. Where is diversity? Because the church, you have many different personalities, many different gifts in the church. And so there is diversity within the unity. There is. He talks about this in verse 7. He says, "But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift." But what does that mean? Notice what Paul has done here. He's been talking about one this, one that, unity here, unity there. But now he's coming to a place where he says, "Hold up. Now there's diversity. Diversity when it comes to personalities, when it comes to our gifts." Do you see that? In the body, we don't all have the same gifts. If we do, we'd be messed up. We'd be dysfunctional. Paul says, "The body does not consist of one member, but of many." If the foot should say, "The whole, because I'm not a hand, do not belong to the body." That wouldn't make that any less part of the body. If the ear should say, "Because I'm not an eye," well, I'm not, I don't belong to the body. That would not make it any less part of the body either. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? The whole body was an ear, where would the sense of smell be? Where would it be? But as it is, God has arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. If you were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. There's one body, Christ. And we're all in the different parts in the body. And you all have a function. All your hand, all your foot, all your ear. It doesn't matter what part you are. You still have value. You still have value within the body. Every member and future member of this church will have value. Have a role to play. And we will treat one another with dignity and respect. We will treat one another with dignity and respect. We will. Just like I need every part of my body, we need every part of this local body. We need you. You see, the body cries, we're not corporate America. We're going to step over each other for selfish gain and promotion. We're not going to do that. We're not the survival of the fittest. We're only the strong Christian survive. No. The weak wants to the curve. No. That would not happen here. Paul says that I cannot set to the hand. I have no need of you. Can't do it. The foot can't say I have no... Well, nor can the head set to the feet. I have no need of you. We need one another. We're going to say that the parts of the body that seem weaker are indispensable. And on those parts that we think are less honorable, we will still the greater honor, the greater honor, on those parts that seem weaker. That's counterculture to our culture. If you're weak, you get one ran over. You get pushed to the side. We're in the church. Those who are, we seem weak. We put up, we put those, we still greater honor to them. We would do that. We have to do that. Last night we were watching the movie. The guy in this movie, all he does is he travels a lot. So he racks up a lot of mouths when he's fine. And he also speaks for living as well. And what he does in his... When he speaks, he always has a backpack. Something like this. And in one scene of it, he says, "Think about all the relationships that you have. Parents, spouse, grandparents, kids, friends. Put them all in the bag. Put them all in the bag. All your relationships, stuff them in the bag." And he says, "Do you feel the weight for those relationships on your shoulders? Do you feel that weight?" He says, "You need to take off that backpack and set it down." Because we, we want to create it to carry that weight. That's what he says. You need to set it right there. You see, that's not Christianity. That's not the church. Sometimes we will carry each other's weight. Sometimes I'm going to need you to help carry me. Sometimes I'm going to have to carry you. That's what I'm talking about. See, we will not kill our wounded, and the church has a reputation in doing that. If you fall into sin, we're going to love you. We're going to help shepherd you back to the place you need to be. If you need our help, if you're having problems in your marriage, problems with your kids, you need to let us know we will help you. This is not, I said this before, we are not a country club. As Frank said, the church is a hospital for sinners. We are all sinners, and we all got issues, and it don't live like you don't. The problem is, churches, people wait to the problems will wait over here. When they get way over there, it's hard to fix them. If you have problems in your marriage, you need to let us know here. Don't wait until you call in the lawyer because there ain't no hope then. Let us know here, and we can get to the place we need to be. We got to start operating that way. Everybody got issues, man. We just try to hide it. I don't care where you live, I don't care if you live down in South Huntsville. Everybody got issues, and we all do out there to try to hide it. If I could be a flower on a wall in anybody's house, I know what your issues are. Howling it doesn't solve the problem. God let us know. We're running behind here. Let me hurry up. We have different gifts. We have apostles, their prophets, their evangelists, their shepherds, their teachers. The point is, do you know your spiritual gifts? Will you use that gift within the church? Whatever God has given you, He has given you to use that gift for the benefit of the body of Christ, not just for yourself. Brian Chapel, he's president of Covenant Seminary, he says, "People served God for two reasons, either for self-promotion or self-protection. Which one are you? Which one am I? Am I here for self-protection or self-promotion?" You see, we have to serve God our self-sacrifice, that's the true reason. Self-sacrifice. Every church, every organization has an unwritten rule. You know what the unwritten rule is? It's the 80/20 rule. You know what that means? 20% of people do 80% of the work. And I don't want that happening here. It's every church I've ever been a part of. 20% of the people do 80% of the work. And we say here, this church, if you're going to be going to remember this church, if you're going to be on a disciple you, we're going to teach you to write theology, we're going to do all these things, not so you can sit on it. But you can go out there and live it. That's what we're talking about. To go out. You don't live here. You're here once a week. You live out there. You live in your neighborhood. You live in your jobs. And all you representing Christ is there. Are we? Am I? We're not what we're discipling you to, not to warm up a chair. We have problems. I have to take up the chairs and we just stand for the whole service. We're serious about this. We are discipling you to live out your faith, to get in the game, to engage. And so, what can you serve here? We have a music ministry, we need help with the kids, hospitality, helping with the facilities, running the soundboard. Anything you see where you can serve serves. Serve. You usually give God has given you for His Kingdom. And all these gifts that He has given us, when we use them, they build up the body of Christ. You are equipping the church when you use your gift. Wherever that gift may be. If it's preaching, if it's administration, if it's whatever, if it's serving, when you use your gift in a church, you use it to build up the body of Christ. Can you envision what kind of church will be if we live that way? If we operate it that way? Man, a church that really serves one another and a love one another. Put one another's knees above their own. Nor will be if we build a healthy church. That's what we'll be. That's what we'll be. That's what we'll be. A healthy church. That's what we want to be. That should be our goal. And a side note here. I'm almost done. We already got to get hungry. I have two questions for any man who will one day look to be a future elder dick in this church. That question is two questions. Are you willing to get dirty or are you already dirty? See, our elders are not going to rule from a high office. If you're going to be an elder, you're going to get dirty. You're going to be dirty. You're going to be involved in ministry. You're just not going to come make decisions. You're going to get dirty. If you're a man thinking about that, you need to think about that. Think about this. Are you dirty and are you willing to get dirty? Our leaders have to be in the trenches with us on the battlefield with us. Not in the over office trying to rule a war. You need to be out in the battlefield with your troops. And that would be the expectation of every man who's in leadership at this church. I've said it here. So you can't say I didn't say it. So that's something for you to think about and pray about. And the purpose and the gate and I goal and I aim here is that we all want to grow. We want to grow and look like Jesus. That's what happens. We want to look like Christ, grow into mature manhood. And basically what he's talking about there is that we begin to look like Christ. We are continuing to grow and our faith as believers. And part of that is using our gifts. If you don't know what your gifts are, please talk to me. Growing in maturity means you are being filled with the love of Christ. And you are begin to look more like Jesus. And the things that you love and things that you value. You see, the whole life changes. The love of Christ compels me. Do you love the things Jesus loves? Do you love the people Jesus loves? Or is it something else? Is it something else? Growing in maturity means you hold on to Christian truth. And you also live it out. You got to live it out, brothers and sisters. What did Paul tell Timothy? He said, "Watch your life and what you believe." Because they worked together. They worked together. And don't forget that who makes the body function properly? It's Christ. He is the one. He created the body in the first place. He says here in verse 16, "From whom the whole body joined the hell together by every joint was which it is held together. When each party is working properly, makes the body grow up in love." That's what we want to be. Jesus would get us there. Let us pray. Father God do praise you that you have given gifts to your church. And I pray that your spirit will help us to use those gifts. That we can build up one another up in love. And I pray, Lord, that the unity that we have here, that you will help us to fight to maintain it. That we will love one another. I know they probably get tired of me saying that, Lord. But, you know, we like one another now, but trust me. We're going to get on each other's nerves soon. It's going to happen. It's inevitable. But, Lord, we cannot forget Christ in us, Lord, that we need to love one another. Treat one another well. Treat one another with dignity and respect. And Christ in my pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.