SEP 29 2024 | One Thing: The Purpose of the Church S1E5 | Do Something

Sea Change Church · SEP 29 2024 | One Thing: The Purpose of the Church - S1E5: Do Something
Ephesians 4:1-7
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

We never get tired of hearing about Your love for us Your love for us Thank you for serving us When we're aware of it When we're unaware of it Help us be servants And walk in line With our Savior Jesus Who gave up his life As a ransom for many Bless the tithes and offerings And bless the preaching of your word In Jesus' mighty name Amen The book of Ephesians Chapter 4 Verses 1-7 I therefore A prisoner for the Lord Urge you to walk In a manner worthy Of the calling To which you have been called With all humility And gentleness With patience Bearing one another in love Eager to maintain The unity of the spirit In the bond of peace There is one body And one spirit Just as you were called To the one hope That belongs to your call One Lord One faith One baptism One God and Father of all Who is over all And through all And in all But grace was given To each one of us According to the measure Of Christ's gift This is the word of the Lord A culture of serving Is important for our church That's the way we get healthy True healing comes When you get involved In the community And I believe it's A scriptural principle To be able to minister And to help brothers and sisters And then reach out To the non-Christian world Beyond that It's a fundamental part Of being a Christian I'm inspired when I read The New Testament To see that money Wasn't the thing That drove Jesus It was time He invested in his disciples And he took the time To invest in people Along the way And if Jesus is our example We need to invest time In our church And in our community A way A act of an important thing A thing in the world A thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing I have a thing �� I have a thing ��c I have a thing ��c Thank you.

Awesome. Man, I'm so excited to give the message today. This is your first time joining us at our church. I am Joshua. I am the campus pastor here at La Jolla Christian Fellowship. And we have been going through a series of GPS talking about giving, prayer, and serving. And I had the opportunity to kind of talk about the serving portion of all of that.

I told my wife also, too, that even at the church, I said to her, I was like, hey, look, if people sign up to volunteer, that's awesome. But what we're going to do, we're going to donate $100 in splash cash that you get right over next door. So that's what we're going to do. We're going to do that for the entire church because we have to splash cash all over our home for my boys.

And just the awesome job that Miss Kim does over there. So we definitely want to celebrate her, too. Miss Kim, this is a 10-year here at the church. So I'm just so grateful for everything she has done for our church. But as I was saying, I want to talk about serving and just how important serving is to the body of Christ. Something I truly believe, and this is something that's near and dear to my heart, is that if the body of Christ understood exactly what Jesus Christ did on the cross for all of our sins, we would do something.

We would do something. I think it's so easy to forget just everything that God has done for us. Maybe that's in our past. Maybe that's in our current situation right now that God's grace and His mercy is always keeping us on a daily basis. So if we understand that, if we truly understand that, it should cause us to do something. Because I believe that every single person in here, whether you're a believer or not, God has given you a purpose.

God has given you something to do that can affect the person next to you, that can affect the person that's at your job, that can affect the person that's at your home, if you just do something. And I love in Ephesians because Paul talks about just walking worthy and what that actually means. But just to give you a little background of what's going on in this particular part of the Bible and where Paul is at.

This is in Ephesians. Paul is in Ephesus where he has spent at least two to three years there, one of his longest ministries that he has ever done. And he's preaching the gospel. He is telling people exactly what they should be doing. Also, what we find in Ephesus is that a lot of them are worshiping a false god called Arnimaeus. They're doing magic and they're doing all these different types of sorcery.

And so much that when Paul goes there and starts to preach the gospel, starts to preach about Jesus Christ, that they get so upset with him and wants to get rid of him. Because what he is preaching about is actually affecting their business. So they make idols and do things like that. And while Paul is there, he's telling them, look, those are false gods.

The true God is Jesus Christ. So we have all of this going on within Ephesus. And then we also see Ephesus show up also in Revelations. Where God says to them, he says this, he says, look, I praise you for your perseverance. But my fault with you is that you have lost your first love. You have lost your first love. And I wonder if because we get so easily into the routine of doing church and coming to church that, have we lost our first love?

Have we forgotten exactly what God has done for us to get us to the place that we are currently at right now? If you study Ephesus, you see also that in the first three chapters, chapters one, two, and three, Paul is actually kind of laying the foundation of what it means to be in Christ. He highlights our different spiritual blessings. He talks about grace and unity and how there's no more Jew and Gentile that we all are one in Christ.

He talks about the mysteries that we find in the gospel. And then as soon as he gets to chapter four, he starts to make a transition. He starts to talk about the practical applications that all believers should do in walking worthy. But if you miss chapters one, two, and three, you don't know the reason why. So Paul is, he is so concerned like, hey, look, I want each and every one of you guys to walk in a worthy manner.

Because when you understand that God has done something for you, you have to ask yourself, are you united? Are you united? Do you believe in the gospel that we have read, that we have been preached to? Do you believe exactly what has been spoken to us? And if you have decided to unite with the body of Christ, then you should do something. You should do something.

Because I know that we all actually display a picture of God, no matter where we go, no matter where we go, no matter where it's in your marriage, with your kids, within your church, you are always displaying an image of God. So what picture of God are you displaying to the world? What picture of God are you displaying to the world? So in Ephesians 4, verse 1, Paul says, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling.

Now, it's so funny that Paul is writing this letter because he's in prison. Like, I don't know about any of you guys, but if something happened where I had to go to prison, I'm not writing no one. I'm probably crying the whole entire time wanting to be out of there. Like, that's just not, my thought is not to, hey, let me write the Hoya Christian Fellowship.

Like, that's, I'm sorry, I love all you guys, but that's not what I'm going to be thinking at all whatsoever. Just me. But Paul is so concerned with the body of Christ that he is writing to them and urging them to walk in a manner that is worthy. And if you want to walk in a manner that is worthy, you cannot forget what God has done. If you do forget what God has done, I think we all fall into this category where we start to make excuses.

We start to make excuses. We start to develop what I like to call the Moses complex, where we forget exactly about the God who we serve. Moses started to complain about being unqualified. He tried to talk about his poor speaking. Matter of fact, in Exodus chapter 4, verse 10, it says, But Moses said to the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.

Then the Lord said to him, Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Like, it's so easy to make excuses when God is telling us to do something. But what God has really showed me over the years is that if God has called you to do something, whether that's in a church, outside of a church, no, it doesn't matter what it is.

He has to provide everything you need. You don't have to worry about that. God will provide. But will you trust in him? You see, walking worthy is not about doing everything right. It's not about saying the right things, looking a certain way. But it's about trusting in the one who did everything right. It's about trusting in Jesus Christ and what he did on the cross for every single person.

Because when you don't trust, you will make excuses. Now, I've been in ministry for a little while, and people always make excuses. Now, they say one thing, but I'm going to kind of tell you guys what I actually hear when people make excuses to me, okay? So just bear with me real quick, all right? I'm just not a people person. Can I serve somewhere without people?

This is what I hear, okay? I'm letting you know. My hands are too holy to make coffee or pass out bulletins. Okay, okay. I'm allergic to toddlers. Kids, they make me break out of hives. Like, you have kids, okay? You should be okay with other kids, all right? Just saying, all right? I'm still praying about where God wants me to serve. It's been five years, and you're still praying about it, okay?

I don't know. This is a little shaky here. I need a sign from God, like a burning bush to be on an altar somewhere in a sanctuary to say that, hey, this is where I should serve at. And my favorite one, my favorite one is this. I have a very unique spiritual gift. The gift of finding reasons not to volunteer or serve. That's my—this is what I hear.

Now, my hearing may be messed up, but this is what I hear when people make excuses. Look, I could make so many excuses in my life, but once I learned that my obedience brings deliverance in every part of my life, it changed everything. I'm at the place in my life where I'm like, Lord, here I am. Here I am. My life is only because of what he did.

I'm only alive. I'm only able to get up here and speak. I'm only able to be a father, to be a husband is because of what he did. And we have to remember that, or we will make excuses. It's so easy. Look, just pick one. There's plenty of them out there. You know, your dog ate your homework. I can't serve no more. There's plenty of excuses. The second one I see a lot of people—I see a lot of times happening when it comes to people doing something in churches.

When they do something wrong, they become very defensive. And that first blank up there, I kind of skipped that real quick. The first one is—you can write this down if you're taking notes—Moses Excuseless. Moses Excuseless. And the second one will be Adam's defense. A lot of times when we make a mistake, when we fall short, we feel like we got to defend our wrongdoings.

Like, oh, I made a mistake. You know, I'm prone to that too as well, especially with my wife. I'm always trying to defend myself. But when you make a mistake, don't be like Adam and do the blame game. Just own it. Just own it. Look, any married man in this building right now, I want to share something with you. Because I did one time with my wife.

I didn't own it. And she has never let me forget it. Okay? So, look, just own it. Own it. It'll help you out so much. Still to this day, when something—we have a decision to make. And I'm like, well, I think we should do this, babe. And she's like, nah, this is a better way to go about it. And her idea is actually better. But she'll say, you know what?

Look, whatever you want to do, I'm okay. It's okay. I don't want to offend you. You know? So, I've learned to just, hey, look, I'm going to own it. If it's the wrong thing, I own it. It's on me. And that has really just changed our marriage as a whole. And we work together at whatever God is doing in our lives. The third one that I see, and I think it's the best attitude to have when it comes to doing something, is the perfect timing Noah.

Perfect timing Noah. Noah didn't wait for the rain to start building an ark. Which means you really have no excuse to keep procrastinating on what God is telling you to do. You have no reason at all whatsoever. If you want to be a Christian that walks worthy, when God says go, you go. When God tells you to do something, you do it. And once you can be obedient in that, a lot of things become so much easier.

But I know we have our own agendas. We have our own plans. But if you're trying to walk worthy, if you're trying to maintain the unity in the body of Christ, you truly want to be obedient to when God tells you to do something. We all know the famous verse that says, faith without works is dead. Meaning it's dead. It's not alive. It's not doing nothing.

It's not going to go anywhere at all whatsoever. It's dead. So you have to pitch your faith. Take whatever you believe in it, and there should be applied action to it. Let's go down to verse number two in Ephesians 4. It says that, With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing one another in love. With all humility. In order to maintain verse number two, in order to really walk around and walk in word and create in this unity with gentleness and with patience, you have to maintain the awe of God.

You have to maintain the awe, the reverence, and the fear of God in your life. For if you don't maintain this, if you don't maintain the awe of God, if you don't fully understand that God can do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think, you're not going to do nothing. I've been that person where I just sat back and just did nothing at all whatsoever.

And two, I got a revelation on how good and how great God is. And what you will do, if you don't maintain the awe of God, you're going to make excuses. You're going to be waiting for the perfect time. Or are you going to blame someone else? You will blame someone else. But we all have a past. Like, I could pick someone up right now and you say, this went on my past and we could have a whole encyclopedia of things that we all have to go through, come through, and probably still going through.

But if you maintain the awe of God, it won't stop you. We have to. That's why Ephesians tells us again in Ephesians 3, it says, Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or think, to the power that work it in us. God truly wants to move in our life. God is always trying to say, hey, I need you to do that. I need you to take care of that.

Just because you believe a truth doesn't guarantee you possess it. Just because you believe a truth does not mean you possess it. Look, I don't know about everyone in here, but I believe I should eat healthy. I believe I should work out. And I all the time fail. Like, I'm right now waiting to get a donut as I leave church. Okay? Like, that's my mind right now.

Help me, Lord. But, like, I know that's probably not good for me, but it's so good. It's just so good. Right? So I know the truth. I know that if I want to lose weight, if I want to look a certain way, I can't eat certain things. If I want longevity in my life, I know there are certain things I need to do. That's true. Do I possess it? It's a little shaky at this point.

Okay? So just because you know what the Word of God is saying about walking worthy and about maintaining unity, it doesn't mean that you have actually possessed it yet. You have to maintain the awe of God. You have to understand, like, what Jesus Christ did on the cross of my sins, that was a lot. And if you could develop that, you will maintain a unity.

You will maintain exactly what God is telling you to do. For the people, for the Word of God tells us that the people draw close to me with their mouth, but their hearts are far from me. Matthew 15, 8. Like, we, as the body of Christ, we love coming to church. It's an amazing church. We have so many things going on. But in order to maintain that unity, we have to seek the presence of God.

We have to truly, fully understand what God is calling you individually to do something. A.W. Tozer said this. He said, It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is earnest or inadequate. I'm reading this book that he wrote. I can't remember. I think the Knowledge of the Holy, that's the name of the book.

Such a great little book. But in that, he talks about, he says, like, man, as man and women, we do a lot of thinking. We think about all kinds of stuff. What we should go next. What we should be doing. What we should be working at. All these different things. All this thought goes into our own personal lives. But in this book, he says, if we're going to think about anything, if you could choose just one thing, he said that you should think correctly about God.

You should really take the time to think about what God has to say to you. What does God have to say about the body of Christ, about the unity that's supposed to be inside the church? Because it's so easily we could start to point fingers at what the church is not doing and not understand. We have to come closer together. Because God cares about this body.

He cares about the church. And I don't know about every married man in here, but there's two things you should not mess up with when it comes to me. That's my old bride and my kids. We are all children of God. He cares about each and every single one of us. So you should do something. And then you're doing something. If you truly believe of what God has done, it should cause you to take action.

Because your belief should always be coupled with action. Faith without works. Faith without works is dead. Verse number three says this. It says, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Once again, Paul is in jail. And he's telling the church to be eager to maintain the unity. So what that means is that there's going to be a lot of different things that wants to separate the church.

But we have to be eager to maintain it. There's an urgency and an intentionality that has to take place to maintain the unity that's supposed to be inside the church. You see, unity doesn't happen by accident at all. It doesn't happen by accident. If you've been married for any time, you know that it takes effort to be unified with your spouse.

It requires effort. It takes dedication and an ongoing commitment to prioritize relationships and peace within the church. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. Like, we have to always come together. For the world is always trying to separate us. Oh, you do this. You believe that. You think that. I heard someone say one time that the most segregated time or most segregated day in the week is on a Sunday.

So we have to make sure that we as a body of Christ maintain that unity. Galatians 5, 13 says this, For brethren, we have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. I love being a Christian because there's freedom. Like, Jesus died once for all of my sin. He died once for all. So there's freedom in that.

But I don't use my freedom to serve only my flesh and do only what I want to do. I use my freedom to serve wherever I possibly can. Not just in church. I serve at my home. I serve when I'm around people who don't even believe in the God that I serve. Use that freedom to serve other people. You see, we are created for unity. Saved to be unified and we will spend eternity worshiping as one body.

Not as separate church, no, as one body. As one. Verse 4, it says this. I love this part. It says, there is one body and one spirit. Just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Who is over all and through all and in all. One. One. One body. Not separate. One body. One. I love this famous quote.

It's one of my favorite quotes from Theodore Roosevelt that he's speaking in Paris. And maybe some of you may have heard it. It's called The Man in the Arena. Such an amazing quote. And I'm going to read it real quick. It's such a powerful, just a powerful statement that he had wrote. And it says this. It is not the credit who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena. Whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood. Who strives violently. Who errs. Who comes short again and again. Because there is no effort without error or shortcomings. But who does actually strive to do the deeds. Who knows great enthusiasm, the great devotion. Who spends himself in a worthy cause.

Who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement. Who at worst, if he fails, at least fails daring greatly. So that his place is never to be with those cold and timid. Who neither knew victory nor defeat. Who knows great enthusiasm. This quote is often used to kind of encourage people to take action. To face challenges and overcome different things that you may be struggling with.

Regardless if you fail or not. What I love though for the Christian is that Jesus died for our failure. He died for our sins. He died for our shortcomings. So when he's calling you to do something, that is not, that he's not looking for your resume. He's looking for your obedience to just do something. And that's like I said before, it's not necessarily inside the church.

It's not necessarily in this building. For the church goes outside of these walls. So you got to say to yourself like, am I eagerly trying to keep the unity of the body of Christ? Henry Ford said this. He says, coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is a progress. Working together is success. God has died for the church so that we can always be unified in every single thing that we do.

We may not believe all the same things, but one thing that unifies us is the blood of our Savior. So I want to give you some practical things you can do when it comes to serving as we get ready to close. The worship team can start coming forward. The first one is meeting physical needs. You can volunteer at food banks. You can go to shelter homes.

We have an amazing homeless ministry here at our church that does a lot of great things. I actually had an opportunity to go there and speak right here downtown. And it was just seeing so many people volunteer to help out people who are in need was awesome. You can encourage others. After this service, I'm going to need a lot of encouragement, okay?

So that's one thing you can do right there. Start right now. No, I'm playing. I'm just joking. But no, you can literally encourage people. I was sharing with someone today, a close friend of mine that's here today. And I say, like, she was a key part of me having the courage to even know that God was calling me to even minister. Like, that stuff is important in the body of Christ.

Using your skills. Maybe you have a practice or something like that that you can offer to someone in the church for free, right? Or have discount or something like that, you know? Whatever skills you have, you can use it in the body of Christ. Acts of kindness in a person's daily life. You can, you know, be a babysitter for someone's kids. I have four, so, you know, you can volunteer for me.

I'm just letting you know. I'm just like, I don't need that. I'm good. But no, seriously, though, you can do that. Like, there's a lot of families who need help who haven't had a date night in years, right? So, you could do things like that. You could start a community with that. And lastly, which is near and dear to my heart, is serving the church.

We have plenty of different ministries that you could actually plug into and start serving. So many different things that we need within the body of Christ. That's why we have a volunteer fair so that people will sign up and say, Hey, look, whatever you need, 30 minutes out of the month, an hour out of the month. It doesn't take a lot. But if we all do it, if we all are focused on keeping that unity, it becomes so easy.

It's effortless. No matter what church you go to, it is effortless. So, stand to our feet as we get ready to close. And I pray that this message actually causes everyone to do something. No matter where you're at in your walk, in your life, maybe you're not even believing right now. Maybe you're going through a tough situation, tough time. You're like, where is God at?

I strongly encourage you just to do something. Do something that could help and benefit someone else out. For use not our freedom to serve our flesh, but use it to serve others. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the ability, oh Lord God, to be in your house, oh Heavenly Father, and just to be one in the body of Christ, oh Lord God.

I pray, Lord God, that we truly understand exactly what you did on the cross for all of our sins, Lord God. And there's a person in here today, oh Father God, that doesn't know you, oh Lord God. I pray that they come forward to get prayed for. I pray, Lord God, that we as the body of Christ, oh Lord God, would seek your face, oh Heavenly Father.

That we would put our hands to the plow, Lord God, of whatever it is you are calling us to do. And we would do something. And in our doing, oh Lord God, you will, Lord God, give us everything that we need. And you will direct us, you will guide us, and you will lead us into the right place. For we thank you, and we praise you. For it in Jesus' name, Christ we pray, amen.

We're going to go back into who else, that new song that we sang. And I just wanted to say that, like what Joshua said, the closer you get to God, and the closer you get to that wonder and awe of God that maybe you had when you first started believing, or that he showed you, or maybe he hasn't showed yet, but he will, the easier it is to see those fruits of service.

And just fruits in your life in general. So this song really just fixes us on our awe of God. So let's just gaze upon him. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one. Only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one. Only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one. Only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy?

Who else is worthy? There is no one. Only you, Jesus. Lamb of God. Oh, he's the Lamb of God. Let's bring a praise to God. Lamb of God. Anointed one. Who was and is and is to come. Seated on the throne above. Holy, holy. Righteous one who shed his blood. Proved to us the Father's love. Jesus Christ. Be lifted up. Holy, holy. Lamb of God. Anointed one. Who was and is and is to come.

Seated on the throne above. Holy, holy. Righteous one who shed his blood. Proved to us the Father's love. Jesus Christ. Be lifted up. Holy, holy. Lamb of God. Anointed one. Who was and is and is to come. Seated on the throne above. Holy, holy. Righteous one who shed his blood. Proved to us the Father's love. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Be lifted up. Jesus Christ.

Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one. Only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one. Only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else? Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? There is no one. Only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy? Who else is worthy?

Who else is worthy? There is no one, only you, Jesus. Who else is worthy? That was awesome. Awesome, awesome. As a prayer team, make us their way forward. If you need prayer for anything at all whatsoever, don't leave for what I've been prayed for. We have an amazing prayer team that wants to pray for you. If you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, please come up to myself or anyone up here, anyone on staff or anything like that.

And we want to definitely talk with you. We want to get you plugged into an amazing man that died for all of our sins. So let's lift our hands real quick. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word, O Lord God. We thank you for your truth, O Lord God. As we leave this place, Lord God, celebrating of how good and how great you are, Lord God. God, speak to us, O Heavenly Father, on what it is that you want us to do, O God.

And we can sometimes figure it out by simply reading your word, O Heavenly God. So I pray, O Lord God, that you, Lord God, be ahead to protection as we leave this place. And let us go out of here with the joy of the Lord as our strength. For we thank you and praise you. For it's in Jesus' name. Amen. And we've got one more thing to do real quick.

I'm going to invite Pastor Joe real quick. And, yeah. All right. If y'all can sit down for one second, except for Virginia, Statt Miller. So this is, as our church has grown, I think I came here and there was like 70 people nine years ago, and it's grown. We are an organization. We are a family of God. And we always want to keep the family of God.

And this amazing woman mentored Pastor Adam, who mentored her. Aren't you blessed by Lily and the team leading in worship? Like the generational blessings, Virginia, that you've passed on through Pastor Adam. So let's sing happy birthday to her. One, two, three. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Virginia. Happy birthday to you.

All right. Hope you guys felt the love of God. It was such an awesome time to worship with you. Enjoy. Peace.