Church Is War | Pastor Jake Sweetman

So the message today is church is war. Yeah. And so, oh, ominous. Yeah, okay. No, it's exciting. Okay, so let's do this. Let's just begin with a brief little recap of what Ephesians is about, which really ties a lot into what our kids' ministry is talking a lot about as well, which is awesome. So if you guys could just pop that first slide up for us here, that summarizes the message of Ephesians, that God has a cosmic plan with eternal implications, that he is fulfilling through the everyday ordinary lives of Christians. Now, let's just leave that statement up because we've got to double-click on a few little phrases in there to make sure that we understand what we're talking about. Cosmic plan with eternal implications. What's that all about? Well, the Bible from the very beginning, from Genesis chapter 1 all the way throughout the Scriptures tells the story of God's desired partnership with humanity, to overcome the powers of evil, and to fill the earth with the goodness and the glory of God. So God designed humanity for relationship, yes, but one aspect of that relationship is partnership with him to overcome the powers of evil because there's kind of this story pre-creation that the Bible tells of the rebellion of Satan and some angels who were cast out of heaven down to the earth in its sort of primordial state. And then God creates the garden. He creates living things. He creates humanity to partner with God in overcoming those powers of evil and filling the earth with God's goodness and glory. Basically, to share in God's reign over the world. That's what you were actually created to do. Now, isn't that so awesome that you were created to share in God's reign over the world? When the Bible says that you and I are made in the image of God, that's what that's about. So in ancient cultures, that phrase, for example, for someone to be made in God's image was reserved for royalty, for kings and queens who were made, quote unquote, in the image of their God and the ideas that they share in their God's rule over their little plot of soil, their little domain. So when the Bible says in Genesis chapter one that all of humanity are made in God's image, it's quite literally claiming in the midst of those ancient cultures that actually all of humanity are kings and queens. All of humanity are royalty sharing in God's reign, not just over a little domain, but over the fullness of the earth. And the goal is to be made in God's image. To partner with God, to take Eden and spread it everywhere. Fill the earth with the goodness and glory of God. That's the cosmic plan with eternal implications. Now, how is God doing this? Well, he's doing this through everyday, ordinary lives. Why? Because the battlefield of this conflict is your everyday life. Why? Because that's where the actual work of loving God and loving other people actually takes place. I mean, think about the kind of activity that the Bible describes in association to Adam and Eve. Gardening, growing a family, working. Some of you didn't know that working was priesthood. Yeah, I know. Some of you hate work, but work is actually part of God's design. It's so exciting, which is why I'm so excited. In a few weeks, we're going to kick off a series on the theme of work. It's going to be really, really great to help us change the way we think about work. But there's ordinary act, growing a family, right? And so that's the kind of thing that comes along with Adam and Eve's activities, everyday, ordinary lives. And this happens specifically, the way God is fulfilling this plan today is through the lives of Christians. Why is that? Because ultimately, our success in this plan is grounded in Christ, right? His sacrificial death, His victorious resurrection, His exaltation to the place of lordship over all of creation, including over all of the rebellious, evil, spiritual powers. That's where our victory is grounded. Yet at the same time, our participation in this plan is grounded in the fact that Jesus went first to make a way so that we could follow. You see, it's always been God's intention that humanity would participate with Him in filling the earth with His love. It's goodness and glory and overcoming the evil one. I'll just read one scripture in regards to this. Romans 16, 20. Such an amazing scripture. Look what Paul has to say. That the God of peace, well, that sounds really awesome, will soon crush. Now, that's such a great juxtaposition. Crush Satan under your feet. Now, that's a reference back to Genesis 3, right? This is messianic prophecy where God says the son of Adam will be the one who crushes the serpent under his feet. And so we are the heirs of that promise. We'll soon crush it under the church's feet. And that's why you need the grace of the Lord Jesus to be with you because you are in the midst of a fight. So it's because of this reality that in the book of Ephesians, Paul addresses so many parts of your everyday ordinary life to help you see it all by the means of which God is fulfilling His plan. Basically, what Paul is doing in Ephesians is he's helping you to make sense of your life. That's what he's out to do. And the aspect of everyday life that Paul begins with is not surprising. Surprisingly, our contribution to and our belonging in a local church. And it's actually very logical that Paul starts the practical stuff here because if our church life isn't working, then nothing's gonna work.

Our place within and our responsibility to the body of Christ is foundational in our lives and everything else is meant to grow up from there. That's where Paul begins the practical application. So the first three chapters of Ephesians are all theological. The second three chapters, it's divided into halves. The second three chapters are the practical outworking of that theology. And the first practical place Paul goes is your life in the church to help you see how your commitment to the church and not just to the church, but to a church is in fact your engagement in spiritual warfare and a fulfillment of the plan of God. So let's begin in Ephesians chapter four, verse one, just the first part. It says,

Now let's just pause right there and get some context. So Paul was actually in prison when he wrote this letter, probably under house arrest in Rome. So his circumstances aren't very good. And yet he sees his trial, his suffering, his imprisonment as connected to his purpose in life to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. So even though Paul is imprisoned by Rome, he sees himself as imprisoned for Christ, for the sake of life, living out the purpose of God in his life. And the reason Paul can think this way about his hardship is because he sees that his hardship is resulting in other people's benefit. Because he's committed to suffering for the gospel, that means that not only people get to hear the gospel of the cross, people also get to see the gospel of the cross because they see the power of God at work through a man who is suffering in far less than ideal conditions. And so that's why Paul says just prior to this in Ephesians chapter three, in verse one, I ask you therefore not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory, Ephesians. So he understood that their salvation is a direct result of his willingness to suffer as a servant of the gospel, which begs a great question. What kind of suffering would you be willing to endure for the sake of somebody else's experience with Jesus? What kind of suffering would you be willing to undergo for the sake of your local church? Because if you're willing to undergo if you follow Jesus faithfully for the sake of others and following Jesus faithfully always involves the sake of others, that will cause you to experience various levels of hardship in life. And that could take the shape of many different things. It'll look like denying your flesh instead of taking advantage of others or instead of being steered by your own preferences. It'll look like giving money away for the cause of Christ when you'd rather spend it on yourself. It'll look like sacrificing your time for the sake of others hearing the gospel and encountering the gospel. Jesus, so many people here this morning, dozens of people serving to create a space where people can come and encounter the risen Lord. It'll look like overcoming the fear of being open about your faith and maybe enduring rejection or ridicule as a result. Why? Because loyalty to Jesus will produce hardship. That is a fact. Now, hardship is not the point. God's goal for your life is not hardship. Loyalty to Jesus is the point. And loyalty to Jesus also comes with a great deal of blessing because God is that good. But it will also come with hardship. Why? Because this is war. Your daily faithfulness is a fight that the spiritual powers of evil rage against. And they don't rage against your progress in the kingdom in altogether obvious ways all the time. Now, often the way that the powers of evil rage against your progress is through subtle distractions that drive you to inactivity. Little offenses that make you feel justified in your disengagement. Small sins that supposedly aren't getting you off track. Have you ever read C.S. Lewis' book, The Screwtape Letters? Really interesting book. A fictional expose of an elder demon mentoring his nephew, his protege. And this is one of the things that the elder screwtape demon has to say to his protege. He says, It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the light and out into the nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one. The gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts. Basically, the enemy is trying to rob you of your life by robbing you of your days. He wants you always focused on something other than the present moment in front of you. Why? Because the present moment in front of you is the perfect opportunity for loving Jesus. And reflecting the goodness of God. So Paul says, As a prisoner for the Lord, what I urge you, still chapter 4 verse 1, I urge you to live a life. Now, of course, Paul has all the clout in the world to urge the Ephesians to a particular kind of faithfulness to Christ because he himself is living that as a prisoner for Jesus. He wants you to live. That word live right there in the book of Ephesians is actually a very common word that Paul uses. It's the Greek word peripateo. Which is a really fun word. Do you want to give that one a go? Yeah, okay. Ready? One, two, three. Yeah, peripateo literally means to walk. And what peripateo is about is about your daily conduct. Your daily behavior. And remember, it's your everyday ordinary life that according to Ephesians is the battleground. And so this is really cool. So after three chapters of awe-inspiring theology, right? How many have read Ephesians chapters 1 to 3? Right? Like pretty amazing. Right? We didn't understand it, after we read it. It was like, wow, Paul, that was a lot of words.

And then as soon as you get to chapter 4, right? The very first verse, Paul takes all that theology and he comes straight for your daily life. He comes for how you walk daily. Now, the idea of a cosmic fight taking place in your everyday life actually might sound kind of mundane. Because it doesn't feel like an adventure. It doesn't feel like a fairy tale. But actually what Paul is helping us to see is the depth of meaning that is available to us in every single moment. Because every moment is an opportunity to honor God either with our attention in prayer or our action in service. And so when you approach the moments of your life, the mundane moments of your life in this way, what happens is you reintroduce wonder. You reintroduce enchantment into those moments. Did you guys watch that movie a few years ago? The documentary about Mr. Rogers? How many grew up on Mr. Rogers? Yeah? The rest of you are Gen Z. So, so, amazing documentary that was made about Mr. Rogers and it talks about this relationship that he has with this journalist who's writing this story on Mr. Rogers, you know, as a kind of an antithesis to all of the garbage that's on TV. And this journalist, he records his first conversation with Mr. Rogers on the phone. And at the end of that conversation, Mr. Rogers says, do you know what the most important thing to me in the world is right now? It's talking to you on the phone. And the point that he was making is that Mr. Rogers had such willingness to be present in whatever moment he was in, as ordinary as those moments were, and that's what brings the wonder. That's what brings the impact into those daily moments. So whether a particular moment would make it into your August carousel or your summer recap does not change the fact that it is of particular significance to the Lord God Almighty. Why? Because God sees those moments and he calls them what in the Sermon on the Mount? He calls them the secret place. And God promises to reward what we do in secret. You see, the reason some of us are so impatient in regards to what's next is because we haven't properly taken account of how much value God places in all of our little nows. And we have far underestimated what God's reward, and he promises reward to the secret place. We've far underestimated what God's reward looks like for stewarding those moments well. And so what happens is that we're always ahead of God, so to speak. And we're never actually available to God.

So what does every day you look like?

What does home alone you look like? What does in the car driving to work or school you look like? What does mid-morning meeting you look like? What does the after work, I'm tired but it's time to take the kids to practice you look like? Because all of those are secret places and your stewardship of those places is a matter of immense importance. And you'll start to view them that way when you understand that. God himself views them that way. But if you keep waiting for more important moments in life, then you will miss a lifetime of important moments. And that is not how God has called you to live. Now this way of thinking is actually increasingly difficult for us today because of things like social media and YouTube have made significance and recognition so much more accessible, so much more normal. And so something is only worthwhile if it gets enough attention. And so we don't desire present moments, we desire punctuated moments.

And this doesn't integrate well with the kingdom. Think about Jesus. Jesus walked this earth. He peripeteoed this earth for 33 years. That's it.

And yet he had more punctuated moments than a thousand other lifetimes combined. But the reason for that is because Jesus didn't look for punctuated moments. Jesus showed up to present moments. Whether that was waking up early to spend time with the Father in prayer. Whether that was welcoming little children who just wanted to be around him because they thought he was interesting. Whether that was just ministering to the sick person whom everybody else had overlooked just to be present to them. Whether that was reclining at a dinner table with his closest friends and partners in ministry. Jesus saw the present moment through the perspective of eternity. And because of that, he steward those moments in such a way that they were punctuated with wonder. They were filled with enchantment. They were filled with the power of God because Jesus was present to them. That is how Paul is calling us to live here as a prisoner for the Lord. I urge you to walk daily, to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Now this is amazing. Because right here, Paul is calling your salvation a calling. And that is significant. We would expect Paul to say something like, hey, live a life worthy of your salvation. we would then interpret to mean, hey, do enough good things because you should do them to say thank you for everything God has done for you. And that's how most Christians think about the good works that they do. As I'm just doing this to at least make an attempt at paying God back for what he's given to me in Christ Jesus. And so because we go through our whole life thinking that way about the good works that we do, we are perpetually robbed of the joy that God actually intended you to have in your service. But here Paul is saying something very different. He's inviting you out of the mentality of this is what you need to do. This is what you should do. And he's inviting you into the mentality of actually this is what you were made to do. Why? Because what does Ephesians teach us? It teaches us that God's plan of salvation for your life is not just his forgiveness of your sins. No. Ephesians chapter 1 teaches us, like we learned last week, that God's plan of salvation for your life involves your redemption back into his purpose. Back into your ultimate purpose of overcoming the evil one and filling the earth with the goodness and glory of God. Which means that your salvation can rightly be defined as a calling. And Paul, in fact, described his own salvation this way. Look at Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 7. Paul says this, that word became there is indicative of an event. Paul is recalling his own moment of encounter with Christ on the road to the city of Damascus. And Paul was heading to that city called Damascus because he hated Christ and he hated Christians and he was going there to arrest Christians for what he considered to be idolatry. But on his way to Damascus, the risen Lord Jesus encounters Paul. This great burst of light. Paul is blinded. He has this incredible conversion moment where he comes to faith in Jesus Christ. And Paul says, I became in that Damascus moment, I became not just saved, I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. And here in chapter 4 and verse 1, Paul wants the Ephesians to know and he wants us to know that it is exactly the same thing, for us, that we have received a calling and that calling is to serve. Now he's about to directly apply that to our role within the church because remember, that's the everyday part of life that he's dealing with in this section. But before we get to that, let's just let this simple truth set in that you were saved to serve.

That's why. You were saved to serve. Serving is not just a byproduct of your salvation for when it suits your season.

You became a servant the gospel when the gospel served you with salvation. Now remember what I told you last week? You were born for a fight. You were born to overcome. Right? That's why that pesky little snake comes creeping into the garden in Genesis chapter 3. Adam and Eve haven't even sinned yet and yet there's the presence of evil coming creeping into the garden. Because remember like I told you, God created humanity to partner with him to overcome evil. So you were actually made by God for confrontation. You were made to overcome the evil one. You were made for that fight. And when you got reborn through Jesus Christ, it is exactly the same still. You were reborn back into that fight. Redeemed back into that fight. But here's how you fight. You serve. You overcome evil with good. And this is not an optional part of Christianity. This is Christianity. This is synonymous with your salvation that it comes with a calling. Look at Ephesians. Ephesians 2 and verse 10. You probably know this verse. We are God's handiwork. God's masterpiece. Created in Christ Jesus. Literally saved because of Christ Jesus to do good works. Now in the Greek, that phrase to do is literally for the purpose of. So we would read that as you're God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus for the purpose of good works. And when you read good works, don't think random, acts of kindness. As great as those are. Think cosmic plan with eternal implications. God has redeemed you back into your role of being made in His image, right? To overcome the evil one and fill the earth with the goodness and glory of God. Think sharing in the rule of God over the world. That's what's wrapped up in good works. But then you have to ask the question, okay, if I'm sharing in God's rule, how does God rule?

He serves. He lays down His life for people who are undeserving.

So going back to Ephesians 4 and verse 1, putting it all together, as a prisoner for the Lord, I urge you to live a life worthy of your calling. We would say that, well, the life that is worthy of our calling is a life of servanthood based in sacrificial love for God and for other people. That's what you were made for. And the church is the first place where we live, and we live that out. So no wonder Paul begins to take his line of thought in exactly that direction through the next several verses. Look at chapter 4, verses 2 and 3. Paul says this, be completely humble and gentle. Some of us are failing already.

Be patient, bearing with one another in love. I yelled at my children this morning. That's not sarcasm. I actually did. every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Now, what in the world is Paul talking about here? Like, that's not self-evident. Paul used normal language. So here Paul is officially launching into the aspect of our daily lives that involves our place within and our contribution to a local church. And it's important you understand that he's saying this instruction to local churches in Ephesus. In other words, he's saying this to organized, structured, groups of people who gather in the name of Jesus. They know each other's names. They know each other's kids. They know each other's business, personality flaws, and sinful proclivities. Why? Because the plan of God, the cosmic plan of God with eternal implications is not being fulfilled in an impersonal way to you. No, it's being fulfilled through local churches. It's being fulfilled through individual Christians. It's in the hands of every local church. So here's how this takes shape. Paul says, well, it begins with being completely humble, gentle, and patient. In other words, a lifestyle of servanthood begins with our inward posture and disposition towards others in the community. It's the attitude of our hearts becomes the foundation for the activity of our hands. So the battleground is first of all the condition of how things are going in here. And if this ain't good, you need to make it good. This is how Paul tells you to be. Like, well, I don't want to be that way. Well, tough. This is what I want to be. This is what it is to be a Christian. Right? So that looks like forgiveness. That looks like reconciliation. That looks like allowing the discipleship of your attitude. And don't just be open to that. Paul says, make every effort for that. So watching over that in each of our lives is absolutely essential because we are all in the process of becoming more like Jesus and we all have a very long way to go. Which means that there are still parts of us, let's call them unbecoming, there are still parts of us that are annoying to be around. Right? And so oftentimes we are tempted to opt out of living up close to people who are still in process. And so we distance ourselves. Now this is an amazing thing that within the body of Christ you have the two-fold sinful dynamic of sin that repels other people and sin that wants to run from other people.

We're like two magnets of the same pole. And we just repel one another. Right? So how on earth does this thing stay together? Well, Paul tells us again, verse 3, make every effort to what? To keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. Now this is important because implied within the fact that we are keeping unity and not creating unity is that the unity of a church is present from the moment of its inception. Because we did not create this unity on the basis of shared interests. We received this unity on the basis of shared relationship to Jesus. Right? Jesus himself is our peace. Okay? So when it says through the bond of peace, well look, let's just go back to Ephesians chapter 2, verse 14. For he, for Jesus himself is our peace who has made the two groups, Jew and Gentile, one has destroyed the barrier of the dividing wall of hostility. So our peace, our unity was achieved through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit when he brought us from death to life and joined us to Jesus Christ so that his life became our life. And that was not an individualistic individualistic endeavor. Because when you got brought to life, your eyes opened up and there were other people there with you. Because they are in Christ as well. And so we didn't achieve our unity, but Paul says we do need to make every effort to keep that unity. To maintain it. How? Well, it looks like this. It's all of us collectively bonding ourselves to peace. Bonding ourselves to Jesus. That word bond there go back sorry to the other verse Ephesians 4 you had it. Yeah, through the bond of peace that's the related to the word that Paul uses when he describes himself as a prisoner.

So Paul is saying in the same way that I am bound to this Roman guard with a chain so I want you to bind I want you to chain yourselves to one another in Jesus Christ. Now that is a level of commitment to a local church that we simply cannot fathom today. And you may be sitting there thinking Pastor Jake what on earth does this have to do with spiritual warfare? How is this in any way related to overcoming the powers of the evil one? Well go back to the beginning think about Genesis chapters 3 and 4. What happens as a result of sin in Genesis chapter 3? It says that Adam would have a bent towards tyrannical rule abusive rule even over his wife. Eve would have a bent towards obsessive control of her husband. Genesis 3. Genesis 4. Their sons Cain and Abel. Cain invites Abel out into the field for a little picnic. Surprise surprise Abel. Cain's here to kill you. Cain kills Abel. God comes looking for Abel. Cain says to God am I my brother's keeper? What the story lets us know is that Cain hated Abel in his heart before he ever attacked him with his hands. So both what happens with Adam and Eve and with Cain and Abel are fundamentally relationship breakdown issues. So what does the peace with one another through Christ in the church have to do with spiritual warfare? It has everything to do with spiritual warfare because the church is God's answer to the breakdown of his original image bearing covenant family. So no wonder Paul starts his practical application in the church because the church is how God has overcome the devil himself who led Adam and Eve into sin and who led them into relational breakdown. So what this means is that by simply committing yourself to genuine belonging in a local church and working to bring the goodness of God within that local church you are engaging in an act of war against the devil. So are you binding yourself to one another? Are you chaining yourself to one another? Or do you try to squirm free every time it gets a little bit uncomfortable? My daughter Mabel is six years old. I still try to cuddle her like she's two years old. Fifty percent of the time she tries to run away. Laughing at me. The other fifty percent of the time she's trying to squirm out of my bear hug. And that's like a lot of us in the church when the intimacy gets too intimate when it's too close when it's too vulnerable when that person who's discipling you touches on an area of your life that you didn't want Jesus to deal with you try to squirm free. And as long as you are running away from intimacy you will never get married that way. I'm sorry. Did I say never get married? I meant you will never have intimacy within the church. I meant you will never be in the church that way.

So we are called bind ourselves together in this way. Now here's how this works in action. The way we keep unity with one another is by each of us conforming ourselves to Jesus because he's our peace. Right? I line up a hundred guitars on the stage. I use a tuner to tune the first guitar but then I tune every other guitar on the basis of the previous one. By the time I get to the hundredth it's going to sound a lot different than the first. So we don't tune ourselves relative to one another. We tune ourselves relative to Jesus. He's the standard. Okay? So when the experience of community grates against you get in the habit of asking the question Holy Spirit what are you trying to show me? What would you like to change about me Holy Spirit so that I'm more like Jesus? And you'll know you're doing it right when somebody else grating against you becomes an occasion and an opportunity for you to grate against your own flesh. And we all need lots of experiences like that to become like Christ. When I was 18 years old my mother rebuked me for not tithing. When I was 20 years old I got rebuked for my leadership because I was too harsh and I kept on making all of my sensitive team members cry. When I was 25 years old I swung the pendulum in the other direction and my mentor told me I was falsely humble and soft. Now I'm 36 years old and I just call my pastor tell him how I'm thinking and ask him to rebuke me because I want my inner golem to be crucified and you all got to stop treating him as a pet so that you can become more like Christ. You're like, I don't know that sounds kind of hard. If your pride's flaring up that's why Paul begins the whole thing with be completely humble because humility is the posture of viewing yourself as still in process instead of pointing the finger of blame at every other person. Now for all you married folk out there you can use this methodology in your marriage. You get in a disagreement you start to have a fight ask the Holy Spirit what are you trying to show me? What do you want to change about me? Stop trying to change them all the time. Ask the Holy Spirit to change you because if Jesus is the tuning fork of your marriage then you will go the distance and you will rage against the trend of divorce that is going on in our world.

Now what this whole picture presupposes is something that is night and day different to Western Christianity's approach to church. What Paul's instruction presupposes is genuine belonging and genuine commitment to a local church. Now many Christians could not follow Paul's instruction here even if they wanted to simply on the basis that they are not committed enough to a local church to put these things into practice in the first place. Church for them is a buffet of experiences to choose from. It's a preferred worship set or preaching style. It's a hunt for the perfect pastor who will 100% agree with you and serve your agenda and your desires. Last time I checked that's not how mentorship works. It's a well to drink from instead of a vessel to pour into. And the person that's hurt the most is themselves because God has ordained the body of Christ to be the place of growth and protection for every single one of his children. But it also hurts the body as a whole and every member individual inside of it because now they are not receiving what God intended them this person to bring to the benefit of their servanthood in that body. Right? And so that's why Paul will go on to describe and we don't have time to dive into it in detail but just look at this verse in Ephesians 4 in verse 16 from him from Jesus the whole body that's the church joined and held together by every supporting ligament that's every member every committed person grows and builds itself up in love as Jesus does all the work. Isn't that so great?

Did I get it wrong? Oh my gosh. No. As each part of course as every member does its work that's how the body of Christ builds itself up in love.

So the way we overcome this way of approaching church today is actually quite simple. At Cathedral we pursue a culture of genuine belonging and commitment because wishy-washy Christianity isn't going to win the battle into which we've been called. Loose affiliation with a local church is hardly showing up to the fight at all. We must recover the ancient practice of devotion to a church. Acts 2.42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching to fellowship to the breaking of the bread that is taking communion together and to prayer. And so this is why we designed Essentials. This program that we put together to help people belong in the church. And Essentials isn't just designed to help you answer the question of what does it mean to be a part of Cathedral. Essentials is designed to help you answer the question of what does it mean to be a Christian. So we teach you things like the Nicene Creed. One of the earliest summaries of the Christian faith. We teach you what the Bible has to say about life's big questions around hot topic issues. Because we understand that your commitment to Cathedral can never exceed your commitment to Christ. But when you understand your commitment to Christ that comes part and parcel with your connection to His body. Your lifestyle of servanthood. Your lifestyle of being planted and engaged in the body of Christ. Because if the battle can't be won in here then friends you're going to have a heck of a time winning that battle of sacrificial servanthood out in the world where people are unholy and unsanctified but you're called to serve them anyway. And you guys can come I'm out of time.

This is what the scriptures are calling us to. And it's grounded in our unity but it's also grounded in our diversity. Look at Ephesians 4 and verse 7.

The Apostle Paul says this but to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. So there's an intentional contrast here that Paul's going on and on about our unity but now all of a sudden he brings our diversity to the foreground. And our diversity has to do with the grace that God has given to each one of us so that we can serve. Because belonging isn't just a mental state belonging is an active state. The attitude of our hearts is the foundation for the activity of our hands. And the way we do this is through the grace that God has given us. Just like Paul said back in chapter 3 in verse 7. I'm a servant of the gospel through the grace the gift of God's grace that was given to me and it's the same for us. Now grace in this context is not talking about God's mercy. It's not the forgiveness of your sins. Grace in this context is God's divinely given empowerment for you to be used by Him to take up this lifestyle of serving Him. So not only are you saved to serve you are graced to serve.

God has empowered you for this and you actually receive that in the moment you came to faith in Him. Don't be thinking you're not up to that. Paul says in Ephesians 3.8 although I am less than the least friends you don't get lower than less than the least. Like the least would have been good enough. Like you could Paul you could have said although I am least of all the Lord's people. Paul's like no no no go a notch lower. I'm less than the least. This grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ. Such great grace given to such an unworthy unqualified person. You see God's grace God's power is so great that He can entrust the infinitely valuable contents of the gospel into fragile jars of clay and the gospel will still do the heavy lifting and the power of God will still be displayed because God's power isn't displayed through power. God's power is displayed through weakness. God's power is displayed through present moments. God's power is displayed through this feels really ordinary but I'm going to show up anyway because God goes to work in the midst of available planted people planted people. Like that. The biggest thing that will keep you off that battleground are the lies of the enemy. You're too much of an individual. You're unqualified. You're redundant. You don't belong. You're not gifted enough. The church doesn't need you. You're not a good fit. Because the devil's goal is to drive a wedge between you and the body of Christ. And he'll use whatever lie he can to get that done. And so the way we overcome that is by realizing that we don't need to be ready so much as we need to be planted. Because it's God's grace that grows us and God's grace goes to the planted.

So when we're planted we grow. When we're not we don't.

Here's the summary of the message today friends and family. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 1 to 7 are telling you this story. If you guys can pop the last slide up for me. In a nomadic and non-committal world commitment to Christ and His church is an act of war against the enemy of our God. Souls. That's what Ephesians chapter 4 is trying to teach you and I today.

So Father in the name of Jesus we thank you for the high calling of our salvation that you have called us not just to sit still and be inactive but you have called us to make every effort and pursue unity and to use the grace that is given to us to make a difference in the lives of the people in this church and the people in our cities. It's because of that great calling that we give you praise and honor and thanksgiving today. And in Jesus name we pray. And everybody said South Bend, Nashville we love you guys. God bless you. Have an amazing rest of your day.