Thriving In Ministry

Well, it's great to see all of you here this morning. I do wanna encourage you to be paying extra close attention to your bulletin over the next few weeks because, a number of our ministries are, are starting up again in the month of September. And if you look in your bulletin, for, today, there's a number of ministries that are coming. in the, in the coming weeks of September, they'll be starting, but for this week, our man forum begins, again Tuesday morning at 6 o'clock in the morning and it meets here in the alcove of the auditorium.

And then also you see the, the Women's Bible studies that, are also starting up again, meeting at different points, of the week and our Thursday man forum also. So those are the, the men's ministry things, with the man forums and the Women's Bible studies are starting up this week and we would encourage you to, if you're available, and can use the fellowship around God's word, to join us for those, those wonderful times. Well, as a church, we are all about helping people to journey from brokenness to Wholeness through the gospel, the good news of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, and we ourselves are on that journey from brokenness to wholeness, and we wanna bring as many people on that journey as, as possible.

And that journey involves us being converted to Christ, being born again.

living a life that is immersed in this reality of the good news of the gospel, which is huge. It's ginormous, and it's all encompassing, and we want to be immersed in that and have our lives oriented around that good news. it is also, a journey that involves being involved in gospel community, relationships with one another in the Church of Jesus Christ, also living a life that is, characterized by full-on gospel intentionality, a life of gospel mission, and a journey that culminates in glory.

with our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the journey we're on and we want to bring as many people with us on that journey as possible and all the ministries that it's dark on the perimeter right now, but all the ministries that, that are represented in this room this morning are designed to assist you in that journey from brokenness to wholeness or to be a means through which you can come alongside of others and be a help to them, as well. And I hope after the service today you'll take the time to check out the ministries of our church and just rejoice in what God is doing and seeing also how you might be involved in, in these ministries.

With this being the launch of our ministry year, I want to speak to you from Ephesians 4. So if you would turn to Ephesians 4, next Sunday, we'll be back in the Book of Genesis as we continue our study through that book.

but Ephesians 4, I wanna speak to you on the subject of thriving in ministry, and to that end, we'll be looking at Ephesians chapter 4, verses 7 to 16. We won't notice everything in these verses, but we will, try to pull from these verses, what God has for us this morning. Let me start off by telling you a sad, pathetic tale from my childhood. when I was around 11 years old, I, I started begging my parents for a guitar.

And I had shown no propensity for music at all, but I had seen other people play their guitars, and I liked the sound. That came from their guitars, so I wanted a guitar to play that would make the music that those other guitars made. to my great delight, after about a year of pleading with my parents, my parents finally gave me the gift of a guitar. I don't know where they got the guitar from or how much it cost, but when I sat down and began to play the guitar as a 12 year old, I was immediately disappointed.

And the sounds that it made. My new guitar did not make music like the other guitars I had seen made. I realized that my lack of skill probably had something to do with that, and I realized that I didn't know the first thing about playing a guitar. Fortunately, my parents also knew that and had already thought about that.

They had purchased guitar lessons for me and had already set those lessons up with a guitar instructor. So shortly thereafter, I went to my first and it turned out to be only guitar lesson in my life. there were about 7 other students that were in attendance and they were all adults. And I was a 12 year old and I quickly found out into that lesson that all of them, all the students knew how to play the guitar already to some degree.

I didn't know the teacher, I didn't know anyone who was in the class, and I didn't know the first thing about playing a guitar. I was the youngest and the dumbest person. In that room when it came to guitar playing. On top of that, at the very beginning of the class, the teacher started off by saying, I just want to show you guys how to tune.

Your guitars. And as I was trying to follow the teacher's instructions, one of my guitar strings broke. I didn't know how to fix it. I didn't have any replacement strings, so I had to sit through the rest of this guitar lesson with a string dangling from my guitar, and the teacher just looked at me condescendingly and then ignored me and focused on the other students who showed a little more promise than I did.

I felt humiliated. I felt embarrassed. I felt out of place, so much so that I never went back to guitar lessons after that. When I got home, I put the guitar in my closet and it stayed there until the day that we got rid of it.

I remember my mom asking me in the days that followed if I had practiced my guitar and if I was ready to go back to guitar lessons, but I never even answered her. I didn't even want to talk about the guitar, which really bothered my mom and rightly so. She said to me, you begged us for this guitar. And we bought a guitar for you with our hard-earned money and gave you lessons even, and now you don't want anything to do with this instrument.

She was right. But to my shame, I never played that guitar again. I share all this at the outset to say to you that I could have been a musician. I could have become your music leader.

I could have grown up and become a Mike Berry. but none of that came to pass because I did not make the most of the gifts that my parents had given to me of a guitar and guitar lessons. I should say, that I did pick up the guitar a few years ago and I started learning to play a little bit. I actually have a guitar at home that I play from time to time and I'm proud to say that I can play just about any worship song.

That you might want to sing. Seriously, you name the song. And I can play that song while you sing it. The only thing is you have to sing that song to the tune of Amazing Grace.

Because that's the only tune I know how to play. so yes, today, I can play one tune now, but even if you heard me playing that one tune, you would know that Milton is not thriving at guitar playing like he could have if he would have made the most of the opportunity that he was given when he was younger. All of us. Probably have things that we look back on in our lives and we see times when opportunities, gifts, resources presented themselves and we failed to make the most of them.

And what I want us to see this morning is that Christ has given to us gifts. He has given to us resources that are specifically designed to help you and me to soar. In ministry in the local church. And my goal this morning is to encourage you to make the most of those gifts, to make the most of the opportunities that you have, and to reach your potential for ministry in the church of Jesus Christ.

there, there's no greater institution. In all the world to be involved with than the Church of Jesus Christ. According to Ephesians 3:20 and 21, The church is the premier place where God wants to put His glory on display. It is the means through which he wants the manifold wisdom of God to be put on display before the principalities and the powers.

The Bible also teaches us that the church is the one earthly institution that will still remain after the world as we know it passes away. And we will see this morning that Christ has given to us. If you're a born again child of God, Christ has given to all of us who are his children, all the resources that we need to soar, both in giving and in receiving ministry in the church. That he has made us a part of.

If Cornerstone in this coming ministry year is to be the church that Christ wants it to be, we need you, every one of you who know Him, who consider Cornerstone your church home to be involved. And if you are to grow and flourish and become all that Christ wants you to be, you need to be involved in the giving and receiving of ministry in the local church. So with this being the start of the ministry year, this seems as good a time as any to remind ourselves of some things in Ephesians 4 and essentially, we're gonna look at 5 steps, 5 steps toward thriving in the giving.

And receiving of ministry in the church.

let me read the passage to you though, beginning in Ephesians 4:7. Paul says, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. Now this expression he ascended, what does it mean except that he also had 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. 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. 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.

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 and deceitful scheming.

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 and love. This is the word of God and may God help us to understand his words, this morning. this is how we'll frame things, 5 steps toward thriving in the giving and receiving of ministry in the church.

And if you have your notes in the bulletin, you'll at least notice with the 5 points that the 1st 4 begin with the word appreciate. the 1st 4 steps are simply appreciating certain, realities, and then the 5th 1 is actually engaging in action. Step number 1 is appreciate the fact that Christ has given to each of us a gift of enabling grace. Paul says in verse 7, but to each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

In verse 7, Paul's telling us that this grace was given to each one. So no one is excluded, no child of God, born again, saved through Christ is excluded from this. In verses 4 to 6, Paul tells us all the wonderful things that we have in common in Christ. That's the passage where he says, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.

But here in verse 7, Paul conveys a way in which each of us are similar but also different. We have so many things in common, but Paul says, but to each one of us, a grace was given according to the measure. of Christ's gift. In other words, every single Christian has been given a particular grace or giftedness from Christ, and this gift is different from person to person.

The word grace here speaks of a particular ability, a particular way that each of us can contribute to the body life of the church. As a whole. And according to the language here, everyone has this unique contribution to, to make. The special enabling is called a grace, which means you didn't earn it.

So don't take pride in some grace that you received. Imagine walking around taking pride in a thing that's called an unmerited favor. And it's also called a grace because we are to grace other people's lives with the exercise of those gifts. If you walk around and only use your gifts for the benefit of those who are deserving, And who merit it, then you can't really call that a grace, can you?

It is a grace that you have that gift and a grace that you are to lavish on others, whether or not you think they are deserving in a given moment. Paul tells us more than simply that Christ has given to us particular graces. He tells us that each of us has a special grace that was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. In other words, your gift and my gift are all really simply just a part of one larger gift, singular.

They're all simply separate items that are found inside of the single care package. From Christ to the church. I know when I was in college, I loved getting care packages from my parents. I was 500 miles away from them and it was always a blessing to get those care packages and sometimes I would write to my mom and say I am suffering from the lackage of the package.

And encourage her to send me a care package. it's a delightful thing to receive that, especially when you're away from home, and Paul is saying Christ has given to the church an, an amazing care package, inside of which are gifts that are given by measure to each one. Notice Paul's use of the word measure, which is a translation of the Greek word that we get our word metric from. His point is that each person has only received a measured portion.

of the full care package. Christ has taken the whole of the fullness that he wants all of us to experience, and he's measured it out and divided it up, and he only gives a measured portion to each. Believer in the church. This means that Christ intentionally gives to each Christian a practical grace, no one is excluded.

And it also means that he intentionally withholds from you graces that you do in fact need, and he gives those graces that you need to your brothers and sisters in Christ. He gives you some of what you need, but the rest of what you need, he gives it to other people. So how do we experience the fullness of this care package from Christ? Christ would say, if you want to experience the fullness of the full package of my grace that I am giving to you, then you will need to enter into relationships with your brothers and sisters in Christ, then and only then in relationship with them, will you experience the full package of all the grace.

That I want you to experience. This is why the church is so vital. This is why we don't live our Christian lives by ourselves, or at least why we shouldn't. This is an ingenious strategy of Christ to bring us into community with one another.

He intentionally structured things in this way to ensure that you and I would be brought together and experience wholeness in relationship with one another and thereby reflect the image of the communal God who exists in a trinity of persons. By yourself. You have only some of what you need from Christ in community with others in the local church, you have the full package of all that you need from Christ. That's how Christ designed it and that's why he only gives to each of us a measure of that full package of grace.

that he wants us to experience. Knowing and appreciating what Paul is saying here in verse 7 helps me to make the most of what Christ has directly given to me. It also helps me to make sure that I'm bringing my gifts to the table for everyone else's benefit in the church. And it also helps me to make sure that I am living my life in community with my brothers and sisters in Christ so that I am receiving the full benefit of the giftedness and the graces that I need that Christ has deposited inside of them.

There's something else. That I need to do and that you need to do, though, if we want to thrive in the giving and receiving of ministry in the church, and that brings us to the next step. And that is number 2, appreciate the fact that Christ went to great depths in order to give us these gifts. Appreciate the fact that Christ Went to great depths to give us these gifts.

Verse 8, Paul says, therefore it says when he ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. But then Paul, he's not content with that. He then says, now this expression, he ascended, what does it mean except that he also had 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.

You see Paul's burden here? In verse 8, Paul depicts Christ's ascension as a victory parade. With Christ as the triumphant general who's giving out gifts and graces in this victory parade. Paul wants you and I to know that the spiritual gifts that you possess are celebratory tokens of the victory that Christ won.

Over the evil one. But Paul doesn't just want us to connect our gifts with the victory that he won, with the ascension that Christ attained to. He also wants us to think about Christ's descent. Prior to his ascension, when we think about our spiritual gifts.

Paul wants us to know that Christ descended first before he ascended. He wants us to know that Christ was debased before he was exalted. He wants us to know that these gifts that we have, that my brothers and sisters have come from someone who descended to the lower parts of the earth before he ascended to heaven to give them. The expression lower parts of the earth could legitimately be paraphrased in this way, the lower parts of existence, which is the earth.

Some commentators suggest that translation. But it means even more than this. Christ did not just leave heaven and descend to the lower parts of existence, which is life on earth, but even upon coming to earth from heaven, Christ descended even lower. Descending to, we could translate it this way, the lowest parts of earthly experience would be one way of translating this.

In other words, suffering, death on the cross and burial in the ground. As one writer says, this expression could mean that he suffered the greatest humiliation when he endured death itself. Our salvation comes to us not simply because Christ left heaven and came to earth, but because when he came to earth, he descended even lower and suffered and died and was buried in the ground. Why?

So that we would have the gifts that we have. We see this expression, the lower parts of the earth, used in the Old Testament in Psalm 63:9, David uses the expression the depths of the earth as a synonym for dying. In Psalm 71:20, the psalmist says, you will bring me up from the depths of the earth speaking to God. And when you read through the length of that Psalm, in the context, it's clear that this expression speaks of being forsaken by God, forsaken by man, being accused and put to shame, scorn, disgraced, experiencing troubles and calamities.

And putting all those pieces together, guys, Paul is wanting us to know that Christ who ascended is the very one who first descended. He came to earth and experienced the ultimate depths of humiliation and death in order that we might be saved, and in order that he might be able to give the gifts. That he's given to you, and given to your brothers and sisters and the Lord. This means that every gift that your brother or sister possesses is a blood bought gift.

I dare not devalue or look lightly upon anybody's giftedness, because their giftedness was purchased by the blood of Jesus. Christ descended to the lowest point of humiliation on a cross, so that the least of the brothers and sisters in this church could make the contribution that he has gifted them to make. We should honor their giftedness because we see the price tag that is attached to it. As for yourself, you should view your own spiritual gifts not merely as tokens of Christ's victorious ascension, but also as tokens of the depths to which he descended in order that you might now use those gifts to bless other people.

Your ministry to others is so important. No matter how large or small, every moment of ministry where you meaningfully impact a brother or sister in Christ, or you, you witness to the lost and mark their lives with the gospel in some way, every single moment of ministry you engage in. Christ died for that moment to endow you with the ability you need to do what it is that he's called you to do. We should appreciate this, and there's something else that we should appreciate if we're going to thrive in the giving and receiving of ministry.

Yes, Christ has given us special abilities to help us to serve other people, but he has also given to us the gift of people, of persons to help us in that ministry, and that leads to the third step. Toward thriving in the giving and receiving of ministry in the church, and that is appreciate the people that Christ gave you. To mend and equip you for ministry. He says in verse 11, and he gave.

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 or the work of ministry. The word that is translated. Equipping here in verse 11. is a wonderful word.

It's loaded with a variety of meanings that I think are captured even in a passage like this. This word is used in Galatians 6:1, where Paul says, my brethren, if any one of you is caught in a trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one. And that word that is translated restore is the very word that is translated equipping. Here in Ephesians 4:11.

In Galatians 1, this word means to restore a person to a place of obedience, to a place of freedom. The same word is used in Matthew 4:21 to speak of the disciples who were mending their nets, nets that were torn, nets that were broken, and they are repairing these nets, mending these nets. So this word that Paul uses here in Ephesians 4:11. means to take something that's broken and not functional and to make it whole and functional again.

And then this word is also used in the sense that you might expect throughout the New Testament with a clear sense of resourcing somebody and equipping them, making them complete and sufficiently trained and resourced to do what it is that God has called them to do. Putting these pieces together, Paul's use of this word indicates that Christ has given to you particular people, persons in your life in order to mend you and make you whole. If you are really into the journey from brokenness to wholeness, this ought to catch your attention because Christ has given to you people who are intended by Him.

To contribute to your mending, your being made whole and being fully functional and sufficiently resourced to minister in the name of Jesus.

What are these gifts? Paul identifies four of them. first of all, he says Christ has given to us apostles. Have you ever stopped to thank the Lord for the apostles?

We should. The first century apostles of Jesus Christ, what a gift. They are to all of us. Technically defined apostles were eyewitnesses of the resurrected Christ commissioned to proclaim his message in oral and in written form for the establishment and the ongoing direction of the church.

And we basically find the content of the teaching and the ministry of these apostles enshrined in our New Testaments. Secondly, Paul says that Christ has given to us prophets. Prophets are those who function as God's mouthpiece, speaking forth divinely inspired, freshly given revelation directly from God. And again, while there may not be prophets today who are speaking forth divinely inspired, freshly given revelation, From the Lord today, the ministry of the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament prophets, the content of their ministry is enshrined in our Old and our New Testaments.

We benefit hugely today. While there's not apostles and prophets in the strictest sense of the term, we benefit hugely today from the ministry of the apostles and prophets every time we read the Bible. Every time we memorize scripture or hear God's word being taught or preached. This is why we preach the Bible here at Cornerstone.

This is why in all of our ministries they're centered around the teaching of the word of God in our man forum, in our men's leadership meetings, in our women's Bible studies, in our Sunday school program. Adult equipping school program, our youth ministry, our Ana ministry, all of these ministries and others are centered around the apostolic body of teaching, the Old and the New Testament. This is why in our care groups we come together to process the preached word on Sunday evenings.

Because the Bible is central.

This is, this is what Christ gives to us as a gift for our mending and for us to be equipped. To serve others. Thirdly, Paul tells us that Christ has given to us evangelists. Evangelists are people who preach the good news.

They herald, they announce the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ, and then they show us how to respond to that, and they show us how that good news applies to every area of life. These evangelists also show us how to turn around and share the same message with other people. An evangelist is not simply someone who knows what the gospel is and they can declare the gospel, but they also show us how we should respond and how we can apply gospel truth to every area of our life.

Paul is one of my, probably is my favorite evangelist.

In Romans 15:20, he says, I aspired to evangelize not where Christ was already named, clearly indicating that he wanted to evangelize non-believers who had never heard the gospel before, and yet the same Paul in Romans 1:15. speaks to the Christians in the church of Rome, and he says, I am eager to evangelize you Christians who are at Rome. Paul evangelized people until they got converted and then once they were converted, he kept on evangelizing them with the gospel of Jesus Christ, explaining to them how to apply this good news to every area of their life.

Paul's ministry to the lost and to the saved was a ministry of constant and ongoing evangelizing.

And here in Ephesians 4, Paul is telling us that Christ has given to us evangelists to minister the gospel to us in the same way that Paul did to others. Finally, Paul tells us that Christ gives us pastors and And teachers or pastor teachers. The word pastor. In this passage is the Greek word for shepherd, and a teacher is someone.

in an, an authoritative community who instructs others in doctrine and in practice, and they draw the content of their teaching from the prophetic and apostolic body of truth that we call the Bible. In the New Testament, a pastor is an elder and an elder is a pastor. In 1 Peter 5:1-2, Peter speaks to elders and literally he says, I exhort the elders among you, literally, the verb is pastor. The flock of God.

Shepherd, the flock of God. Paul's language in Ephesians 4. Makes it clear that a pastor is a teacher, which is why in 1 Timothy 3:2, Paul says that an overseer, who is an elder, who is a pastor needs to be apt to teach. And why in 1 Timothy 5:17, he speaks of elders who work hard at preaching and teaching.

So guys, in summary, we have the gift of apostles, we have the gift of prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers. These are gifts from Christ to you and he died to be able to give these gifts to you and to me, and Christ would only pay this price. And would only bother to give us these gifts if they are truly valuable, right? And necessary to us.

Christ doesn't die to give us gifts that upon second thought, we don't really need. So think about what these gifts say about you and about me. They say that we need the written word of God, which contains the ministry of the apostles and prophets. They say that we need people in our life who keep the gospel in front of our face and who communicate the wonderful realities of the gospel to us and help us to apply the gospel to our lives.

These gifts tell us that we need Pastors and teachers in our life who exercise oversight, who lead by example and who instruct us in doctrine and in practice in order to facilitate the mending and the equipping that is needed so that we ourselves can do the work of the ministry. So if you are really interested in reaching your full potential as a minister for Christ, you will want to maximize your use of these gifts from Christ, you, you will want to be a student of the Bible, you will want to obtain From God's word, the content of your ministry to other people as you seek to help them in their journey from brokenness to wholeness.

You will want to be centered in the gospel of Jesus Christ and you will want to be a part of a gospel centered church, where the ministry of that church is centered on the gospel, and you are always being evangelized and equipped for gospel ministry. You'll want to be in a local church community where you're living your life in a way that is under the leadership and the oversight and the care.

The teaching of pastors in your life that Paul says we're given as Christ's gift to you. Feels awkward for me saying that. I'm Christ's gift to you. but that's what the text says, so I gotta, I gotta preach it.

And you are Christ's gift to me. I feel on so many levels more pastored by the people of Cornerstone than I feel like I pastored them. I'm so thankful for all of you and the ways that you have marked my life. My greatest heroes attend this church.

and any, a lot of the good that's in me is just a sorry rip off from the people in this church that I admire and who have marked my life in such deep ways. so thank you for pastoring me, pastoring all of the pastors who are here and for allowing us to, to be able to pastor you as well. We are Christ's gifts to each other. Number 4, a 4th step toward thriving.

In the giving and receiving of ministry is appreciate the fact that Christ wants you involved in the work of the ministry. This is a no-brainer, but I wanna just linger here for a moment. Christ gives us all of these enabling gifts and these people gifts for the equipping of the saints for the work of service or the work of ministry. Christ didn't just give you these gifts and resources so that you can be fat with good teaching.

And so that you can live a comfortable life of ease. He gifted you with these resources so that you would engage in the work of service. He does not want this congregation to simply be a well taught congregation. He wants the cornerstone congregation to be a group of people, all of whom are equipped for and actually engaged in doing the work of service.

Christ would say to all of us, I gave you these gifts, so that through these gifts, you might be equipped for the work of service. That I have saved you for. Here's my theory, if Christ was willing to suffer and to die in order to give us these gifts so that we would be equipped for the work of ministry, then my theory is that the work of ministry is pretty important. Christ died for you.

And he died for the ministry that he has saved you for. What is that? Every day is an adventure of discovering what that ministry is that Christ died to call us and equip us into. The word here that is translated work is the word we get our English word energy from or ergonomics from.

This word speaks of anything you do that requires an expenditure of energy on, on your part. And I know those of you probably under 20 you don't like to do anything that requires an expenditure of energy. You would happily do whatever is needed, but if it requires an outlay, An expenditure of actual energy, you're not all that keen on it, or at least that's the way I was when I was younger. But Christ has saved you so that you would do things that require an expenditure of tremendous energy.

And what is that? He says the work of service. This is the Greek word dakania from which we get our word deacon for the work of deaconing, which basically speaks of seeing needs. And then doing the work necessary to address those needs.

This expression speaks of any ministry that we engage in, official or unofficial ministry that we engage in, wherein we are addressing actual needs that arise in the life of the church. Addressing needs that arise in the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ, addressing needs that arise in the way of charity, or evangelizing that is needed by those outside of the church as well. You've probably been watching the news with the refugee crisis in the Middle East. It's just heartrending and tragic and And I know some of you probably have already been thinking about this, but I'm asking myself what outlay of energy.

Will that require from us to be able to contribute to helping with the great need so that ministry can be given to these refugees in the name of Jesus. Putting the pieces together, we see that Christ has given to All of us, each of us enabling graces. He's given to us His written word, He's given to us people who evangelize or gospelize us. He's given to us pastors and teachers, all that we can through these means be mended and equipped to engage in the work of ministry that He has called us to and he died to make all of that possible.

If for example, your marriage is broken and dysfunctional today, And you need counseling from a pastor, you will be provided that counseling, not as an end in itself, and not simply so that you can then have a good marriage, but you will be given this shepherding so that you can be whole. And you can then now more effectively. Do the work of the ministry. That's the end goal in these gifts that Christ has given to us.

And by the way, don't think, oh my goodness, I can't, Christ can never use our marriage until we're whole. no. he will use you when you're on your way to wholeness. There's no instrument more powerful than the hand of God, than a broken person and a broken marriage that's surrendered to Him, saying, Lord, use us, use us.

When it comes to the ministry that needs to be done, Christ wants to see more than the apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and teachers doing stuff. He wants everybody. He wants to see everyone in the church engaging in the work of the ministry and part of the thrill of being a pastor here at Cornerstone. is by and large, that's what we witness.

That's what these ministries along the perimeter are all about. So many of our of our people are engaging in the work of ministry, sacrificially. Giving of themselves and their time and their resources to be a help to others in their journey from brokenness to wholeness. The last step, and we'll just look at this briefly toward thriving in the giving and receiving of ministry is Lock it in, make your decision to give and receive ministry for the purpose of building.

Christ's body. What Paul tells us here, look at this verse 12, he says, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up, the edifying of the body of Christ. Paul tells us here, the giftedness that we have received should lead to this outcome, and that is that we give ourselves to the task of giving ministry and receiving ministry. And we use the resources.

that Paul has just outlined for us. In verses 12 and 13, Paul gives us the fivefold goal of giving and receiving this ministry. He says, so that the body of Christ would be edified and built up. He says that the church as a community would grow in its unity of the faith, that the church would grow in its knowledge of the Son of God, and that the church would grow in communal maturity as a single unified entity.

And that the church would grow in the measure. Of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ. And it's only when everyone is serving in this way that these goals that Paul has in mind, that Christ has in mind are truly achieved. This is why we cannot be tossed about by every wind of doctrine.

This is why we need to be grounded in God's word. This is why we want to be speaking God's truth in love toward one another with the goal being that we would all grow up into Christ because it is from Christ that we draw as we minister our gifts and cause the body of Christ to grow as a result. It's interesting what causes the growth of the body, according to this passage. It's Christ, it's from him, but through what means does Christ accomplish this growth?

Look at what Paul says in verse 16, from whom or from Christ, 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. Grammatically this is a monstrosity, but to make it very simple, here's what he's saying. The whole body causes the growth of the body. That's grammatically putting this as simple as possible.

The subject is the whole body, the verb is causes the growth. Of what? Of the body. It's the whole body, the whole body.

That causes the growth of the body and it all comes from Jesus. In other words, as each individual member does his or her part, the body causes the growth of the body as it builds itself up in love. This is why it's important that everybody do their part. This is why Paul tells us that this growth happens according to the proper working of each individual part.

Notice how central it is in verse 15 that we be speaking the truth and love. For us to be effective ministers for Christ, we must know the truth and we must open our mouths and be speakers of the truth to one another. We must be people who speak the truth and love, and that means more than just speaking the truth in a loving way. It means speaking God's truth to one another in the context of sacrificially loving relationships with one another.

Relationships are like the vital matrix for ministry. Paul tells us to speak the truth. But he tells us to speak the truth in the context of relationships in which, look at this verse 16, we are fitted and held together by what every joint. supplies.

We don't want to be a church here where everyone knows the truth and everyone walks around speaking the truth, but no one has a relationship with each other. It is truth spoken in the context of committed covenantal relationships that is most powerful in affecting change. And it's this ministry that Christ has saved us for. It's this ministry that truly builds the church with the growth.

That Christ died for. There's other kinds of church growth out there. This is how Christ wants Cornerstone to grow. As we are saturated with His truth and we speak his truth and we speak it in the context of committed covenantal relationships with one another, sacrificing for each other, loving each other.

We grow. The body, the whole body builds itself up in love. All of our ministries here at Cornerstone provide opportunities for you to deepen your relationships with others. Our care group ministry is primary among them designed to facilitate these relationships.

If you're not a part of a care group, stop by the care group table, today and, we'll have someone there to answer your questions about our care group ministry and Explain to you how you can become a part of one. If you are a part of a care group, take advantage of the opportunities for relationship that are there and even beyond care group, make the most of the opportunities for relationships in all of the ministries. That you are provided with here at Cornerstone. So guys, if we truly want to soar, In the giving and receiving of ministry, we need to appreciate.

that Christ has gifted us and all of our brothers and sisters. We need to appreciate the depths that he went to in order to give us these gifts. We should appreciate the people that he has placed in our lives to lead us and equip us and mend us for the work of ministry, and then we should embrace the work of the ministry, ministering for the benefit of others and opening our hearts to their ministry as well. Today marks the launch of our ministry year.

Surrounding us in this room are like, I think 27, 28 ministries of cornerstone, and that doesn't even by any means represent all that happens in the life of our church. But these ministries, every one of them represent opportunities for you to be ministered to and for you to minister to others as well. And we hope that you'll take advantage. Of the opportunity today to talk to the different ministry leaders, the people at the tables, and And become a part of this journey that we're on from brokenness to wholeness through any of these ministries.

We would love to have you, join us in this journey and to be a part of what Christ is doing. We look forward to your giftedness, blessing us and being able to bless you, in return as well. Let's look to the Lord in prayer and ask His blessing on us as we Launched this year. Lord, we're so thankful for the privilege of being saved into the Church of Jesus Christ.

You caused us to be born again. We can take no credit for, for this, Lord. You've been very good to us. You've been so good to us here at Cornerstone.

We, we have so far to go. We have so much to learn. But your grace is upon this church. Your grace is upon.

This precious people, Lord. And I, I see your grace. I see your heart on display again and again and again, and it's a privilege for me to even be one of the pastors of such a great people who have been saved and gifted for the work of the ministry like this congregation has. But Laura, we, we know, we know that.

That we can grow still more, we can flourish still more, and I just pray for myself and I pray for all of us, Lord. That are here. We just present ourselves to you right now as ministers of Jesus Christ and we're asking you, Lord, to bless our ministries, make us whole, use us in a mighty way to be a blessing to one another and also to be a light to the community that surrounds us. that they might see the light of the glory of Jesus Christ, and that many over this coming year would come to faith in Jesus through the ministry of the brothers and sisters of this church.

You have died to give us all that we need to do whatever it is you want us to do this coming year. And so, we know that you will be behind all of this, Lord. And you will not fail to guide us and to strengthen us and to empower us each to do what it is that you have gifted and called us to do. We thank you, Lord, for all of your goodness to us that you have lavished upon us, and we thank you for this opportunity to give of our offerings to you.

And to just return a portion of what you have blessed us with, Lord, with, with joy in our hearts, we give to you this morning. Not only of our resources, but also we dedicate ourselves, we present ourselves to you. In the name of Jesus, and all God's people said, Amen.