The Day to Day of Church Life: Part 2
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Handout
Scripture Reading
Opening Prayer
Introduction
RECAP
What is the church?
A Definition: A local church is a group of Christians who regularly gather in Christ’s name to officially affirm and oversee one another’s membership in Jesus Christ and his kingdom through gospel preaching and gospel ordinances.
What does the church do?
Be and Make Disciples
Through worshiping and gathering more to worship
By loving one another as well as others
The Day to Day of Church Life: Part 1
Big Idea: Walking worthy of your calling means using your gifts in the church for unity and purity.
Christ Like Character
Unity in our one faith
Empowered by the gifts given to believers
TODAY
We are continuing to visit this idea of what the Day to Day of Church Life looks like in Ephesians 4:11-16
We talk a lot about living the christian life but, once again we are talking today about church life.
Exposition 1 (11)
Remember from last week, we ended on the previous thought of how God gifted the church.
In verse 11, Paul talks about how God has specifically gifted some for a special purpose.
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,
Verse 12 will talk about what that special purpose is, but for now, know that God has given us our leaders. He has specifically, to use the language of verse 8, gifted them to us.
For the sake of this time we will simply think of this as Pastors but know that there is more to it.
I. Christian leaders are a gift to the church (11)
I. Christian leaders are a gift to the church (11)
Be careful as you choose your Pastors
Be careful not to neglect your pastors
Exposition 2 (12)
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
Verse 12 has that purpose statement
to equip the saints
Equip - To give the needed knowledge and skills for a specific task
Who? The saints. Who are the saints? You, if you are a follower fo Christ
Why?
What are the saints equipped for?
The work of the ministry
What does this accomplish
It builds up the church
People ask, “how do you grow a church?”
I am no “church growth expert”
God is the only church growth expert
Scripture tells us, this is how it is done
All this points us to...
II. Christian leaders lead, not by being ministers but by enabling the members to be ministers (12)
II. Christian leaders lead, not by being ministers but by enabling the members to be ministers (12)
Exposition 3 (13-16)
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.
15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
III. When to stop? When we are all perfectly like Jesus (13-16)
III. When to stop? When we are all perfectly like Jesus (13-16)
Conclusion