Please turn with me to Ephesians 4 - starting at verse 7.  Last Sunday we began a new series of sermons call The Walk - in which we’re looking at Paul’s teaching on what it means for us to live worthy of the name Christian.  We live in a world at war - there’s spiritual conflict going on around us - Satan and God - demons and angels - a spiritual battle with eternal consequences - the eternal destiny of humankind.

Sometimes we tend to forget that truth - the war we’re in.  Maybe we try to ignore it or downplay it.  But we see the effects of it - people and marriages and families - even neighborhoods and nations - that are broken  - hurting - wounded - searching and without hope.

Paul writes to the Ephesian church and reminds them - and us - that we’ve been given a tremendous gift - by God’s grace and mercy and love - that we we’re formerly on the other side - in Satan’s clutches - hopeless - destined for destruction and eternity without God.  And yet, God - through Jesus has put us on His side - we have life and hope in Jesus.

And so, in this battleground of life - its crucial - its urgent - for us - who know Jesus - to live worthy of His name - to live in a way that testifies of Who He is and what He’s done for us.  To live for Him together.  How we walk the walk - how we live our lives - has eternal consequences.

Last Sunday we talked about walking towards unity.  This morning we want to look at what Paul says about walking together towards maturity.

Ephesians 4:7:  But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.  Therefore - because of Jesus’ grace given to us - Therefore it says, - “it” meaning Scripture - specifically Paul is going to quote from Psalm 68:18 - therefore it says - quote - “When He - Jesus - ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.”

All of which is really confusing - so, verse 9 - Paul is going to explain what he means - Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean - good question - except that He - Jesus - also descended into the lower parts of the earth?  He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.

What Paul is reminding us about - with Jesus ascending and descending and filling things - Paul is reminding us that Jesus - through His death and resurrection - has given us a tremendous gift - that is salvation and life in Him.  By God’s grace - that’s the very foundation - the basis - what makes possible our being able to walk together towards maturity.  We could never hope to grow up - to move towards spiritual maturity - if God hadn’t made it possible in Jesus Christ. 

Grab this truth.  God wants us to mature.  Try that together, “God wants us to mature.” 

If we’re ever tempted to say to ourselves, “I am never going to get this.  I’m miles behind the pack.  I am destined to repeat the same stupid sins over and over again.”  Or, “This church is never going to move forward.”  Grab on to this truth.  God desires for you - and us - to grow spiritually and He makes it possible.  Even for us a congregation.  To grow up together to be who God has called us to be.

Verse 11:  And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.

Some of you - over the last few months - have been hearing about my experiences coaching a boys under 10 soccer team.  Up until August I knew enough about soccer to be one of those parents  - arteries popping - neck straining - screaming encouragement on the sidelines - while inside churning at what I was seeing on the field.  Have you seen parents like this?

Back in August I got asked to coach.  Apparently they were desperate.  I thought - this is a great opportunity to coach Nicholas’ team and I can be on the sidelines and yell all I want.  What can they say?  So, I’ve been learning about soccer and coaching a soccer team.

For the season we have a perfect record:  0 wins 9 losses.  But, despite that, it is an honor to coach this team.  We’ve gotten creamed in just about every game.  But, these boys have heart.  Every game they go out an play the whole game full out - all 50 minutes.  And they’re maturing as team.  Learning how to play together.  How they play now is significantly different than how they played 2 months ago.

What I’ve been learning is that its not whether you win or lose, it's - what?  How you play the game.

That’s part of what Paul is writing about here.  Sometimes we think we’re getting creamed - spiritually.  Or, we’re never going to get this.  But, the outcome of the season has been determined by God through Jesus Christ.  What God desires for us as team - a congregation - is to mature spiritually.  To walk the walk - how we play the game.   

Paul is writing that it takes a whole team to play the game.

Paul writes about apostles - prophets - evangelists - pastors - teachers - the coaches.  If you look at a quarter there are two sides - heads and tails.  Heads has one purpose - tails another.  But, both are part of the same coin.  Looking sideways its hard to tell where heads ends and tails begins.

Last Sunday was weird.  About a third of you were up at Camp AREV.  That whole side was really empty - tumble weeds blowing across the chairs.  We missed you.  Last weekend what you were doing - the Fall Retreat - was really important.

But, seeing those empty chairs pointed out something that we need to be impressed with.  God has each of us here for a reason.  Every player is important to the team.  We need you.  We can’t be effective as a church - and grow towards maturity - if all the players aren’t here.

We need to think about this - when we’re tempted to worship at the church of the inner spring - sleeping in late and thinking that it really doesn’t matter if we’re here.  Or, just kind of putting our time - part time - showing up for stuff but not really committed.  Or, when things get hard or we don’t get our way - we’re tempted to check out or move on.

We can only mature if we work together - learn how to serve together - study together - worship together.  Each of us needs to be teachable, moldable, open to God’s working in our lives.  We need to allow the Spirit to use what He’s gifted us with to help others and to be helped by others.  We need to be as excited about helping the person next to us become what God wants him or her to be as we are about becoming what God wants us to be ourselves.  That takes showing up - physically - mentally - spiritually.

Share this with the person next to you.  “I need you to be here.”

In verse 12 - notice that Paul describes a process of moving towards maturity.  What happens when the team shows up.

The first part of the process is “equipping.”  The Greek word for “equipping” is “katartismon.”  It has the idea of preparing - making fit - completing.  When Jesus called James and John - the fisherman - to follow him. - they we’re in their boat “mending” “katartizo” - same word - they were mending their nets - getting them ready to be used.  We need to be mended spiritually - prepared - made complete - to be useful in God’s service.

In the Bible we see that the disciples were acquainted with Jesus before they became His disciples.  They became disciples when they choose to leave everything and follow Him.  Following Him, they were in a place to learn from Him - to be mended spiritually - to be matured and prepared for useful service.  That’s the attitude we need to have in order to be equipped.

One day the disciples were arguing with each other about which one was the greatest.  Jesus called a child over to Himself and turned the child around so they all could get a good look at the child.  Do you remember this?  Jesus said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted - notice that conversion comes first - so He’s talking to the already converted - those who thought they had maturity in God’s kingdom - unless you are converted and - then -  become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.  Whoever humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 18:1-4)

That’s hard to hear.  Especially if we’ve been around the church for a while.  It means that we need to admit that we need to be equipped - prepared for service.  In 4:11 - Paul specifically mentions up front - teaching gifts - the coaches - to emphasize that we need to be taught.  We need to be teachable.  To seek to be discipled by Godly teachers - those who have been gifted by the Spirit to teach in the Body.

The second part of the process is “building up” the Church.

In Matthew 14 there’s an account that’s familiar to us.  Jesus is out by the Sea of Galilee teaching.  Towards evening the crowd - about 10,000 or so - become hungry.  Jesus takes five loaves of bread and two fish - blesses the food - breaks bread - distributes it - and everyone is fed - stuffed worse than being at an all-you-can-eat buffet.  A powerful lesson in trusting Jesus - having faith in Him as the bread of life.

Somehow the disciples didn’t get it.  We can almost see them yawning.  “We’ve heard this before.  Trust Jesus.  Trust Jesus.  Now the miracle.  Okay, next town.”

So, Jesus sends them out on to the Sea of Galilee - alone into a storm.  The wind is blowing them around.  The waves are crashing over the boat.  The boat’s taking on water.  The disciples are hanging on for dear life.  They look out over the waves and they’re terrified.  Because here comes Jesus walking on the water.

When Jesus gets into the boat the wind stops.  Jesus turns to the disciples and says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”  “Do I have your attention now?”  “Uh huh.”  Its a lesson they won’t forget.   (Matthew 14:14-33)

To often people come to church and want to hear the same old thing - the comfortable - what we already know - what we want to hear.  Or we say to ourselves, “This is a great sermon.  I hope so-and-so is listening.  They really need to hear this.”  Its easy for us to discount or reject what challenges us as Christians.  Or, to reject the one given by the Spirit to teach.  To swim around and around in a stained glass fishbowl well within our comfort zone.

Hebrews 4:12 says, “The word of God is living and active and sharper than any - what? two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

To be built up - God’s truth needs to get under our skin - to bother us - to challenge us - to rattle around in our hearts - to bring us face to face with ourselves and what God wants to do in our lives.  Have you heard the slogan, “No Pain.  No Gain”?  Its true spiritually.  It hurts.  But allow God’s word to penetrate into our hearts - to be taught - and that builds us up - that brings spiritual maturity.

Verse 13 - the purpose of all this equipping and building is so that, “we - all of us together - attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”

When I was growing up we had a ritual that took place on my birthdays.  My dad had a long board that he would bring out.  I would stand with my back to the board and dad would record my height.  Any of you do that home?

Verse 13 is God’s measuring of our spiritual stature - our spiritual maturity.  A guide to where we're at spiritually.

First - “unity of the faith” - a singular - unquestioned - commitment and devotion to Jesus Christ who is the Head of the Church.  A unity that comes from a deepening personal - intimate - knowledge - relationship - with Jesus Christ.  As we grow closer to Him we grow closer to each other.

Second - “to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.”  Literally - maturity as a Christian is when we’re like Christ.  Please hear this:  Being like Christ does not mean that we do whatever Jesus did.  That somehow we become Jesus.  Being like Jesus Christ means that we live our lives as if Jesus were living our lives today.

WWJD stands for what?  What Would Jesus Do?  Have you seen these bracelets and key chains that have the letters WWJD on them?  We ask, “What would Jesus do in this situation?”  That’s having the “fullness of Christ” in us.  It’s a process of being equipped - built up - maturing in our relationship with Jesus - so that our minds and hearts are full of Him - so that we live in each circumstance of our lives - living according to how Jesus would live our lives.

Verse 14:  “As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;” 

Children are captivated by the latest thing.  As a church, we’re in trouble when we get our eyes off Jesus - captivated by opinions of others - gossip - peer pressure - teaching that has no Biblical basis.

Verse 15:  “but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

Imagine this as a church.  The Holy Spirit working in our lives - orchestrating all the gifts He has given to us - to lead us together through a process of maturing - so that together we live demonstrating Jesus to the world.

The kind of person - the kind of church - that God wants us to be can never be produced through our own effort  That lack of control bothers us.  But when the Holy Spirit fills us - controls us - has freedom to work in us and through us - He will bring forth His fruit in us - maturing us - to use us for His glory - to demonstrate and to declare the power of Jesus Christ in today’s world.

Remember the tortoise and the hare?  The tortoise by its slow and steady - dogged determination - beat the faster rabbit.  Its how you play the game.  Maturity is a slow and steady process with a definite goal - a finish line with tremendous reward.  As far as the fable goes - the lesson of the tortoise and the hare is clear.

But, there’s another side to the nature of a tortoise.  It withdraws into its shell at the slightest sign of danger.  Think about that.  A tortoise shell may be comfortable and secure, but its very limiting.  When we retreat into our safe and  secure shells we can’t grow.  We can’t mature.  We shrink.  The team suffers.  God’s purposes are left unattended to.

_________________________
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible®, © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation.  Used by permission.