Major Bible Themes
Craig Kaes · Sep 25, 2011
Major Bible Themes (2011), No. 39
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926248196524

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So Mike read the chapter. Well done, Mike. But we're going to go in a completely different direction today. So for those of you who did not read the chapter, no worries. We're going left when Schaefer went right. So the church, her service and stewardship, we're going to try to answer a few questions that come up pretty commonly around this. he said before it advanced very slowly.

So what is God's ultimate purpose? And that is that he end up being glorified. So how does the church glorify God? And so we have to look to scripture to figure all this out because we're not bright in and of ourselves. And we're going to answer a few questions. So question number one comes up in scripture a fair number of times. We need to present X to God. And so we'll talk about what presenting looks like and what sorts of things we're going to end up presenting.

Next one is, it turns out we all have a spiritual gift, and that gift is certainly used in service, and so we need to understand what that gift's about, what sort of service we're talking about, and this passage I think is especially cool. I'm excited about the topic this morning, so if I start jumping up and down, it's not a charismatic movement. topic. This one's particularly sensitive here at this church.

The next question is, we teach grace, we teach faith rest, and quite often people hear, okay, you just need to rest, you need to rest, you need to rest, and what comes out of that is, well, then I should probably not do anything whatsoever, right? Or if somebody hints at, you know what, you really do need to do some stuff, then all of a sudden it's law. Well, we throw up our hands. You can't possibly talk about that here.

It's all about grace, grace, grace. So the fundamental question, does faith rest? And good works, do those two things mix? And the answer is absolutely, because it's all part of God's plan, and we'll cover some of that. And then we'll spend about five seconds on how much you should give financially, because that always comes up in the context of stewardship.

And for the engineers in the room, there's some mathematical calculations we can do to write some things in the Old Testament that ends up being somewhat fun. Don't worry, Mike, I'm not teaching that. I kind of like the old IRS. How much did you make? Send it in. Give us your money, please.

Before we can talk about service, it's very important to talk about position. It's essential. There are some prerequisites in terms of how we are living our lives, how we're walking around, before the notion of service can even begin to enter in. And so what are those prerequisites? Prerequisite number one is that we be walking by faith. And so that we can see this.

Let's look at Colossians 2, 6, and 7. And I'm going to contrast some of the things that we get to do in good works that are exciting with where the unbeliever is, with where the carnal Christian is, so that we can see, you know, Very clearly, what a wonderful position the Lord has put us in with respect to good works. So give me just a moment. Colossians 2, 6 and 7.

Oh, who here has the NASP? The New American Standard? Okay, so I'm going to ask you to make a correction in your Bibles for those of you who have iPads and NASB. You're in a lot of trouble because I need you to cross something out and write something else in. All right. So, therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, and before we go on, how have we received Christ Jesus the Lord?

By faith. By faith. By a simple belief. And what's that belief in? It's in the gospel, which is a very clear and simple message that Christ died on the cross for our sins, was buried and raised the third day. Okay, so by faith, we've received the Lord Jesus.

So, walk in Him. So, by faith, we are to walk in Him. And this walk is, as you're walking around, it's, you know, as you're going through your day, sort of walk, it's peripetual. and this is an imperative. So we are being told, you have received the Lord Jesus Christ by faith, now go walk in him in the same manner. So it's by faith that we walk in him. So we are told, as you've received him by faith, Now go walk in him by faith.

So it's a simple matter of believing what we learn in scripture and having a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ that we walk around. Everything else in this next verse and a half is in passive voice, meaning these are things that we get, bennies that we get out of this walk. These are not additional commands to us. So the extra bennies we get, so by walking in faith, then We are firmly rooted and we're built up in Him and established in, and this is where if you've got the NASV just cross out the word your and write in the word the because it's not your personal faith here. So having been rooted and now being built up in Him and established in the faith just as you were instructed and overflowing with gratitude. So let's Let's start with looking at the faith. When scripture says, the faith, not your personal faith, what does it mean? What is the faith? Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, what He did for us, death, resurrection. So, believing in the gospel is one element of it. I completely agree with that.

When we're talking about the faith, we're not talking about just one particular doctrine. We're talking about the whole kick and caboodle. So the faith refers to all of the truth that we can derive from the scripture. Okay. So we are built up and rooted in all the truth that is there in scripture. And that happens by simply believing what God tells us. So through that belief, now we're built up in Jesus Christ and established in the faith, which means we have this firm foundation underneath us that comes from understanding and believing scripture.

And it's not just enough to understand scripture, because we've got a lot of theologians out there who may or may not be believers. Okay, yes? Would that also include from way back in the entire Bible? It absolutely would, yes. We're talking the entire Bible here. Yes. Okay.

And what we're going to learn later on is being established in the faith puts us in a great position. And we'll see that when we get into the last portion of this where we're looking at the Holy Spirit and our spiritual gifts in more depth. But just as you were instructed, so this is something that we were told, and overflowing with gratitude. And notice how this isn't, and to now go be really grateful.

It is. This is a natural outflow. So as we walk around by faith, we get established in the faith, and we just happen to be overflowing with gratitude. Now let's contrast that. Where is the unbeliever? And you don't have to go there. I'll read this to you. The unbeliever is in the following place.

For even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened." So the unbeliever is in a place where they can't even possibly give thanks. That's not something that's within them to thank God for what's going on. So, because of what God has done for us, by the simple act of believing, we end up being grateful and thanking, which is something that the unbeliever is completely incapable of.

Does that make sense? It's pretty cool. And as we go through this, we'll see everything that God has done for us with respect to good works puts us in a position where we can now be pleasing to God. Okay. So, we're walking around by faith. And because we're walking around by faith, we're being built up, and we're now grateful. And that just happens, right? So, next one is, you are abiding in Christ. And so let's go to John 15, 5.

This one is Vine and the Branches. So this is Christ speaking, of course. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, bears much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing." So, in this abiding, this is not something where we get to be really excited, you know, I'm abiding and therefore I'm growing this groovy fruit. So, in the analogy that's being given here, the vine is everything that has the life. Everything about the quality, the characteristics, the timing of the fruit, is given by the vine. What the branch ends up doing is simply conveying the nutrients from the vine over to the fruit that's sitting over here. And all that is is a simple conduit. So we're not growing grapefruit in and of ourselves. This is not something where I can improve the situation that I'm in.

What I can do is abide. And what this abiding looks like is just hanging out with the Lord Jesus Christ. So the question is, how do we hang out with the Lord Jesus Christ? I mean, we're told to do various things in scripture. Here, this is not a direct statement, you must abide. Right? But there are places where we're told, you know, abide in me. Okay, so, how do we abide? Spend time in his word.

I think that's the number one way in which this happens. Because this is how God reveals himself to us. It's how he reveals his son to us is through scripture. So yeah, I think absolutely. Okay, so we have to be careful because we're at Holly Hills. Did I just give you a law? You now need to spend half an hour a day every day in the Word. If you put it that way, yes, absolutely. So let's be really clear.

Let's separate out the notion of sanctification from salvation. What do I have to do to be saved? Believe what? Believe the gospel message that Christ died on the cross for my sins and was raised the third day. Okay, so that's a done deal. If I spend time in the Bible, am I going to get more saved? No, absolutely not. Not one bit. If I don't spend time in the Bible, am I going to get less saved? No. Okay, so that's completely off the table. We're not talking about salvation here. But if I'm spending no time in the Word whatsoever, what does my spiritual growth look like? Zero. Zero.

Okay, and we all know a bunch of carnal Christians who are out there who believe the Gospel. They're saved. That's cool. That's very cool. but they're not walking by faith. They're not abiding in Christ, and their life looks like it. I'll give you a great example, well, what I consider a great example. So I was at the Broncos game with my dad last week, and it was cool. They won. That was nice.

But as we were walking out, there was a group of people who had this enormous Jesus Saves poster. And they're standing up there and they're holding their Jesus Saves poster up. What's wrong with that? Nothing. That's great. They've got a megaphone and they're yelling at the crowd. They're not, you know, inviting. They're yelling at the crowd. And what do you think? I bet somebody here can guess what they were yelling. You sinners. You sinners.

Close enough. They were using the opportunity to hit every single one of these people with the Ten Commandments. Okay, so what value did that end up providing? So here they are. They're trying to do good works. They're trying to do service. But they're probably not abiding in Christ. They're not walking by faith. They don't understand their position. They're poorly taught. And so they are beating up the crowd. And what's the end result? Negative. Negative. How many people walking along there heard the Ten Commandments being screened at them through a megaphone by people at Jesus Saves and walked away saying, I really want to know this Christ?

They were yelling in love. I have another good example. My brother Jim was driving one day and he pulled up behind a guy and it had a honk if you love Jesus on there. So my brother honked at him and all of a sudden this blue smoke was flying out. Can't you see there's a red light below him? He's swearing and cussing. The bird comes flying out that window. Wow. That does not look like a binding.

If you're going to do that, if you're saved by the gospel message, then why would you proclaim the Ten Commandments? I think that they miss a real opportunity to proclaim the gospel, and I was thinking about that again this morning as I prepared this lesson, and I really wish that I had gone up to them, not that it would have done any good, but to say, okay, you've got a megaphone, you've got a Jesus Saves poster, take this opportunity to give these people the saving gospel. What in the world are you trying to accomplish by telling them, you know, thou shalt not commit adultery? How did that help?

If they're believers, they know that. If they're not believers, it's nonsense to them. That's what Paul tells us. They don't get scripture. The same thing we dealt with in CSU all the time. There would be local people from whatever church. They'd come and just scream at people on the plaza. Same thing. Take diamonds. You're all drunks and you're all half as ripe.

Just that, you know, for those of us involved with ministries up there, it was tough because we would get these people into our ministries who would say, you know, well, what do you think about those people out there? It's like, that's not love. That's not the right approach.

Like you said, it's by grace we are in Christ and not the list of laws that we're condemned by. Yeah, it's tough to deal with those things because I generally believe those people on the plaza are believers, but they're, like you said, misguided in their efforts.

So, what we learn from these few examples is that a lot of good works, a lot of ministries, are done out of the old man. They have nothing to do with what Christ would have. So that's why it's very important to have these prerequisites. Number one, you're walking by faith. Number two, you're abiding in Christ. And to pull this back to the last point, that abiding in Christ happens prayerfully. It happens through scripture. If you're not spending time in the word, you're missing out on building a wonderful relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ.

So that's not law. That is, here's how you get to know the coolest person that ever was. All right. So now let's talk about how we go about this glorifying God. So given that we're walking by faith, given that we're abiding in Christ, how do we go about glorifying God through ministry, through service? And number one is by presenting to him. And so the question is, what do we present? So, number one, we present ourselves. So, I'm walking by faith. I'm abiding in Christ. And I keep saying this over and over because we can't do any of this without that.

So, now we're going to present ourselves. And Romans 6 talks about stop presenting yourselves as instruments of unrighteousness, but instead present yourselves to God. And we can venture there. Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. So this is something cool.

We've been put in a position where we can now present ourselves to God. And the point that Mike always loves to make in this particular verse is, as those alive from the dead. So are we talking old man? Are we talking new man? The answer is very obviously, we're talking new man. So this is walking by faith, abiding in Christ, we can now present ourselves as the new man to God. So, okay, this is, it turns out, command. We are to present ourselves. So how do we present ourselves? We found out there was actually something that we could do to abide in Christ. So how do we present ourselves?

So when Hal taught this, he had a very simple prayer that we can say. That is just a reminder to us, Lord, here am I. Okay? Isn't that long? Now you've got to pray this every day or every 45 minutes? No, this is a natural offshoot of walking by faith, abiding in Christ. This is what the new man wants to do. It's to present. Vernon would characterize it as a logical imperative, rather than a get-busy imperative. Because of who you are in Christ, this is something you want to do anyway.

So House was, here am I. Crystal and I, we were talking about this last night, and we went a slightly different direction. Who watched Welcome Back, Cotter? This is Arnold Horschak whenever a question is asked in class. Ooh, pick me! Pick me! Pick me! It's so exciting that we're in this position where God can use us as instruments of righteousness, that we can be used to bring others to Christ. that we can be used to build up and edify the body of Christ. That is so cool. Pick me. Okay? So whichever one of those models works for you, you know, Lord, here am I. Ooh, me. Doesn't matter. It's the same concept. We get to be chosen by God. So we simply go and say, pick me. All right.

Yeah, actually finishing up the how so many people are the law. I mean, it's all in the law, but when you look at scripture, there's so many places where Paul says, pleads with people. You are not under law. You're under grace. We are dead to the law. We're alive to God.

And I just see Paul trying to get the Jewish mindset out of there, where you're so law-based. It was such a foreign thing for them to get out of law, to have this freedom. It's kind of like you're suddenly in a fishbowl. from all the history and all the law and now it was a very hard concept I think for them to understand because ever their whole life had been based on law and so you see these things now where it's like you're not under that you are dead to it you know and trying to get that separation trying to keep saying you're dead wanted to have the Ten Commandments in his courtroom or in the courthouse.

Yeah, right. And what a wonderful thing. It was like, as a believer, you know, do we want to have the Ten Commandments and be able to have the Ten Commandments and that's our, you know, what we're striving for? I would not choose that. Yeah. No. You know, that's, I mean, this was is the Ten Commandments. So let me make one more point about abiding in Christ and the position that it puts us in before we go on to presenting our body.

So in this, I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. So in Christ, we can do good works and we'll find this out as we go on. We can do good works that are very pleasing to God. Contrast this with the good works that we talked about before, where people are screaming out the 10 commandments and abusing crowds with them. They feel like they're doing a good work, but the description of what the carnal Christian's good works or the unbelievers good works look like is in Isaiah 64 6 And I shall give you that critter For all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment and filthy garment turns out to be a menstrual cloth and So, this is a filthy garment to folks who are worried about, okay, now you've got to go live in that shack for a week because you're menstruating. Okay, all our good deeds are like a menstrual cloth. So, we're now in a position where our good deeds, by Christ's death, burial, resurrection, our simple faith, we can now abide in Christ, right? And that abiding is what creates these good works, which we'll see. And so, entirely by God's plan, we get to do good works that were impossible to do without Him. And why is that important?

Let's look at Romans 12, 1 and 2, when we present our members. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your body's living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. So what I want to zero in on is this, by the mercies of God. Sometimes how this is taught is because God was so merciful to you Now you should go out and get really busy. Okay, so thanks God, and now I'm going to go out and do some work. And that is not at all what's in view here.

Because of the mercy of God, he has sent his son to die on the cross for us. And by our simple belief in that, we are placed into Christ. And as we walk by faith, abiding in Christ, we can now do good works which were not possible without that initial mercy. So it's by the mercy of God, by his very mercy, that we're now in a position where we can come and say, God, use me however you want to use me. That was not possible before. Does that make sense? Alright, okay. So we can present our body. We're running shortish on time, so let's look at Hebrews 13, 15. I was going to skip over this, but I think it's nice because it reinforces that exact same point.

So through Him, then, Him being Christ, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of the lips that give thanks to His name. And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased. So the good that we now do because we're abiding in Christ is pleasing to God.

That's not a position that we were capable of in any way. Our good deeds before were filthy racks. So God has set us up in the perfect situation that we can now go out and do good deeds that are God's good deeds. And so let's Let's look at those. I'm going to skip ahead to number three on this slide and talk about God performing good works through you.

So let's look at Ephesians 2.10 and then we'll come rolling back to number two. And I'm going to teach this a little differently than it's typically taught and we'll find out if that's okay or not. So, for we, are his workmanship. Who's we?

Believers. The church. I mean, that's what's in focus this morning is the church's service. So, we, the church, are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand. So, we, who's we? The church, would walk in them. So, the good works. Whose good works are these?

Jesus Christ's good works? It says, we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God, who's probably God the Father, has prepared beforehand. So these are God's good works. These are not ones that we dream up on a Sunday afternoon to go out and beat people up with the Ten Commandments. These are God's good works. So the question for you is, should we be concerned that God's good works will not be fulfilled?

It says that he has created these good works. He has preordained these good works in some translations. He has prepared them beforehand. So God's good works are going to get done. How I've often heard this particular verse taught is, Courtney, God preordained 17 good works that you are going to do in your life. and you are going to accomplish all 17 of those good works.

So let's look at this overall passage. I'm going to back up actually in Ephesians to 1.22. Then I'm whole. Yeah, and then, you know, once you get 17 done, then Lord pulls you out of here, right? I'm working on that 17 to get me out of here. That's beautiful. So he put all things in subjection under Jesus' feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. So in focus in this particular passage is the church as a whole. We're talking about the church as a whole.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked. So, it's important here, is the U singular or plural? And unfortunately, English doesn't pull that out super well. U is plural. So, if you were from Texas, this would read, and all y'all were dead in all your all trespasses. So, we're plural. And as you read this passage, we're plural all the way through.

Everything, for by grace all y'all have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. So when we get to, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, we're staying in this plural. So the whole passage is about the church. At no point does it say each individual person has a set number of good works that they do. We're talking about the church as a whole is going to carry out God's good works. And why is this important?

Because if we look at 1 Thessalonians 5.19, and I'll just read that for you.

1 Thessalonians 5.19. This is Paul speaking to believers. And he says, how many do we have? Five simple words.

Do not quench the spirit. Why would he tell them don't quench the spirit? Because it's possible to quench the spirit, right? We all know carnal Christians who are out there not listening to what God would have. So, well now this is a puzzler. If we're talking about one person, one individual, who has seventeen things that God has preordained that they do, and they have the ability to quench the spirit, and it seems to me they have the ability to not do those seventeen things.

In focus in Ephesians 2 is the church as a whole. So the church is going to carry out God's eternal purpose. And all of those good works which God has ordained, He's going to carry out. And if you mess it up, Courtney, don't worry about it. Mike's got it. Yeah. Does that make sense? Yeah. Not to chase a rabbit, but on Wednesday we've been working in 1 Corinthians 3 that talks about that Paul said, I planted the polis water, but it was God who gave the increase. And he said, his conclusion was, therefore I and the polis aren't anything.

Everything is God. And so we're used of God to plant and water or to build on the building. It tells us to be careful how you build on the building, on the foundation, which is the body, which is the church. The great lesson there is that the worker isn't anything and they're united in that frame of reference. It's God who does everything. You're just the one who's used. You are the branch, right? That's right. You have nothing to do with the fruit except being the conduit.

Yeah, I completely agree with that. And something that is clear is there are a lot of ministries that have absolutely nothing to do with God. That's right. There are ministries that have everything to do with God, right? And we get to participate in those, and it's those that are the ones that are pleasing to Him. What's interesting about that is, is that if you're out planting or watering, you don't have to worry about the results because the results are all God's business, not yours.

Yeah, I'll give a great example of that. And this is extra biblical, so qualified. And in my experience, those good works which are of God are easier than those good works that are not. I mean, this has been, and I'll give you an example. And again, completely extra biblical here.

There was a man at my work who did not know the Lord. And his life was completely chaotic. I stressed about, you know, should I go and minister to him? In the workplace, given my level relative to other people's level, it's not okay in the United States. It's terrible, but it's true. It's not okay in the United States for me to be ministering in the workplace, right?

So I'm riding the train home. This guy gets onto the train, sits directly across from me, looking at me, and he says, my wife wants to put my kids in vacation Bible school, and I think that's stupid. What do you think? Well, let me tell you. And it's not like we got to the end of that, and through the train it was like, okay, here are your objections to God, A, B, and C. And here's why A is, you can remove that from the table and he nods his head. And here's B, why you can remove that from the table and he nods his head. And here's C, and this is something you're just going to have to work out. And he agrees, all right, I'm going to go work that out.

I have no idea today if it's a believer or not. But I have confidence in God. I know who God is. And I know that that situation was set up 100% by Him for me, abiding in Christ, to do a good work that was preordained. And 10 years from now, He's going to tick C off. And maybe He came up with D, and somebody else helps Him through D. But He's going to be a believer. I'm confident of that.

So, I mean, it's so cool to be used of God. And in my experience, extra biblical, It's not hard when it's God's ministry that you're stepping into. Where it gets hard is when you're doing it because you feel obligated. I mean, we've been involved in the children's ministry here for 10 years now, something like that. It's not hard. God gives us a heart for the children. We love them dearly. We want them to grow up in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not hard. And we'll constantly hear people say, you know, you need to take care of yourselves too. You need to take a break. You need to have a... We don't.

Because it's of God. It's easy. Extra biblical. So it's three seconds before you change the view. We want it now. We want it done quickly. And it's not like the watering. One waters, one plants one. We want the whole shebang and we want it notched on our belt. That's the carnal side. Whereas if you just, it's God's you can do things. It doesn't matter whether that day he accepted the Lord. It could be 10 years,

20. I think I said it last week, but Bob was playing racquetball with this guy for 30 years. Never really got anything. A week ago, the guy, what about this faith of yours? 30 years. 30 years to that day.

The Lord was present for that day, and Bob was used that day. tiny time frames, and that we're so important in this process. I'm going to skip over the Philippians 1-6 passage around this, but y'all should feel free to go and read that after class, and keep in mind that the you that you see there is all y'all. Again, we're talking about the Church. I'm going to spend 35 seconds on financial giving so that I can spend the rest of the time on spiritual gift. Financial giving, the most common thing that gets tossed around is tithing.

Tithing is 10% and therefore if you give 10% then your life is going to get infinitely better as you get heaped rewards upon rewards for giving 10% to the church and it's all hot wash. So the tithing as 10% came about. God told the 11 tribes who were not Levites, hey, you need to give 10% to the Levites because I'm not giving them any property, I'm not giving them any animals, and they're going to spend their lives in ministry to me.

And so somehow they've got to eat. So we'll give 10% of everything to these Levites. And here's where the mathematician in me gets a little distressed, right? Because you've got 12 tribes. 11 of them are going to give 10% to the remaining tribe. So one tribe gets 10% of everything, and then you've got 90% that's now going to be split among 11 tribes. This is not even. So how did the Levites end up with more? The thing is that the Levites then tithe 10% of what they got, so they end up with 9%, everybody else ends up with 8.3%. God gets a chunk. And so you're scratching your head, okay, they still got 9%, these guys got 8.3%. I think God was keeping the math simple for them because he's so gracious. He was, okay, you need to give 9.1% of everything. So 10%. But it was all about the tribes. It has absolutely nothing to do with the church today. And anybody who tells you differently does not know how to rightfully divide scripture. So what are we supposed to get? It's pretty well laid out.

I'm going to say 2 Corinthians 9.7, which I will read super quickly. Maybe super quickly was a mischaracterization. So 9-7, each one must do as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. So I sum it up like that.

It's the new man who gives, not the old man. when there are people up there banging the pulpit saying we need to raise all of this money to build that church wing over there and we've got the thermometer that's going to measure how fast we get there, that is an appeal to your old man. That is not an appeal to your new man.

God loves a cheerful giver. So, Holy Spirit ministering his spiritual gift through you, I'm going to establish first that All y'all have a spiritual gift. 1 Corinthians 12. Concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware. Skipping ahead. There are a variety of gifts, but the same spirit.

Do we all have the Holy Spirit? Turns out we do. That's good. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. So, all of us end up with manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, and that is where spiritual gifts come from. So we all have a spiritual gift, which is cool. So, what's the spiritual gift about?

And for this, let's look at Ephesians chapter 4, starting in 11. So he gave some as apostles and some as prophets and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers. So you'll note that all of these particular spiritual gifts in this verse relate to instruction of doctrine.

And so what's instruction of doctrine good for? For the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. So we end up equipped because of the work of those who are teaching, the teaching being a spiritual gift. And it's for the work of service. So the very fact that we can serve comes from an understanding of doctrine, which comes from teachers, which comes from the Holy Spirit. So this whole process is to get us equipped so that we can then serve.

So this is again, very clearly, not everybody go out and get busy without thinking it through. This is because you have this relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ, because you know who you are in him, you're going to do the good works that God preordained. right, until we all 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. So this equipping is all focused on Christ. It all comes focused into the unity which is our Lord Jesus Christ.

So here's where we get into the results. As a result So these are the bennies that we get from, again, this whole thing started out by the Holy Spirit manifesting himself through us. And this is where we end up as a result of that. As a result, we're no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine. We have a firm foundation. We know who we are. We know the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't be tossed about here and there. by the trickery of men and craftiness and deceitful scheming.

But speaking the truth in love, we are able to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. So that's where we end up as a result of the Holy Spirit's work, as a result of the mercy of God. So hopefully, the point all of you get from this particular Sunday morning is that the good works are not ours. They are God's. We are put in a position to be able to perform these good works by the mercy of God, by everything that he set in motion. We can stand in the way of being used ourselves, but the church is going to carry out the good works of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have the opportunity to raise our hand and say, pick me, pick me. I want to participate in that.

And that's all because of the work that he's done. is that the focus of everything is on the church and not on the world. Yes. It's not on good works across the street, it's right here. Even back in the Corinthians you build on the foundation which is the church. The equipping of saints is a process of ongoing for the edification of the body itself. So you don't need a seminary.

Yeah, that's true. And back to the giving It was actually an issue that I had going beyond local church ministries. How much should I give to those relative to how much I should give to the local church? I guess it's a topic for a different day, but scripture is pretty clear that the bulk of your giving should be to the local church for the equipping of the body. All right, let's stop here.

Lord, thanks again for your love and for your mercy that you would set us up into such a wonderful position that we're now able to serve you and be pleasing to you and that we get to carry out your good works here on this earth all because of what you set in motion. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.