to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ,for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ,For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:
6 sermons cite this verse
… really involved in media. Yes, we want to win unbelievers and we hear it all the time, but the real goal of our ministry is to equip the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ. And that's what Ephesians 4, 12 says. The plan is to equip the saints. That's you for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. You see, God wants you to be equipped. Students listening to me, he wants you to be equipped so you can go into that classroom debate and logically argue and present why Christ is the only way to salvation. Workers, he wants you to be able to go into that break room in your business and have a conversation with other people. He wants you to be able to articulate with that religious family member or friend who doesn't know Christ about why Christ is the only way to be saved. That is God's plan for getting this message out. It is a ground war. Now, if we're going to be successful in doing what God has called us to do, we need two resources to effectively market the gospel. Write them down. First of all, we need to be equipped with compelling reasoning. Compelling reasoning. How do we get equipped to do that? Well, certainly with the Word of God. Nothing's more powerful than the Word of God. Hebrews 4.12 says, for the Word of God is living, it's active, it's sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of …
… Great job. Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11 through 16 says this. So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature. Everyone say mature. And become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. In other words, God has created the church so we could do good works for the reason of two things, unity and maturity. God wants to develop you and grow you. He wants to stretch you so you can have unity and maturity. Isn't this so cool? Maybe you hear like, well, why do we got to have pastors at this church? Why do we got to have worship leaders? Can't we all just kind of like, you know, gather in a room? Well, we have people who are pastors and evangelists and teachers. …
… the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. God says he gives these different gifted people to the church for the reason to equip the saints for the work of ministry. why are there leaders in the church? Why are there these gifted leaders in the church? It's not so that they can perform for you. Their job is to equip you for the work. Back to David's question. It was really wordy, so I don't remember it all. But basically, do you believe that you could make disciples and plant churches without the performance or the program or the professional. Thank you, thank you. But no, but did you take that to heart? Because we're very good at, you know, in our gatherings to go, oh, that was very convicting. …
… That's you. Equipping of the saints unto the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. Very clearly he says the purpose, the reason, the ministry of these gifted men is that they have a responsibility to the flock, to the fellowship, to the body, to the bride of Christ. Now, what is that? Let me show you something here, and that is that what he's doing here, he's linking these men, their gifts, and the gifts within the fellowship, he's linking that all to his love for the body. He didn't just save us and say, well, get along the best you can, but he has called men to the fellowship to do what? To do something very specific. Now, but listen to what he says. in this passage because here is one of the most misunderstood things that God ever said. He said he gave these men to the fellowship for the purpose of equipping the saints. That word in the Greek means to make the adjustment necessary and to adapt, which means, listen, now watch this, our responsibility is an equipping responsibility, training you, teaching you, getting you in the Word of God and building you up in your confidence in the truth of the Word In order that, in order that you, listen, that you may carry out the work of the ministry. …
Why does God give us church leaders? Put down Ephesians 4, verses 11 and 12. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints. God gave you a pastor teacher to perfect you. That means for the maturing of the saints, for the work of the ministry. Now, you are to be made mature, so you do the work of the ministry. You say, that's what we hire you for. No, you don't hire me. I'm not a hireling. I am, I'm going to smile when I say this, but I'm God's gift to you. I'm God's gift to you. I'm God's gift to you. I'm not a hireling. Well, no, no. I'm not asking for applause, but I am saying this, that you cannot hire somebody to be spiritual for you. God gives you a pastor to mature you so you can do the work of the ministry. God's plan is that every mother's child in this building and on this church row be a minister for Jesus Christ. …
… and he christ gave the apostles the prophets the evangelists the pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the ways and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, does that sound familiar? That's one of the indicatives of the members of the body of Christ. So that imperative of the way that we speak to each other in that last paragraph comes from the indicative of what the members of the body of Christ do when they speak to one another. Look at this. We're to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 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 up itself in love. …