Please open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4 and find verse 1. I'll read it in a moment. Let's pray first. Oh Lord, pray that you would pour your grace and wisdom out upon this congregation. Pray you'd favor this congregation.

Make her strong, make her holy, make her loving. All these things that you have ordained for us, these wonderful things. I thank you for creating the local church for your glory. What a blessing it's been, amen. I'd like to talk about a reality that our church is experiencing, and that is a changing sociology in our church.

Our church is changing in particular ways that I wanna point out. When we think about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, We should think in terms of God's design, God's pattern for life. God has designed two institutions, two great institutions, the church and the family. He designed those institutions to preach the gospel, to sustain the truth of God in the world, to nurture people. In the family, God has delegated the family to raise the next generation, to have a marriage that's a picture of Christ in the church, to bring children up in the training and the admonition of the Lord.

That's the jurisdiction of the family with the church. God has ordained that the church would be set aside to be an independent society of holy people where they are taught the ways of God, where there is the discipline of the church and the preaching of the gospel and to deliver the ordinary means of grace to people the things that they need the most. So you have these two institutions. The church is the only enduring institution eternally. The family disappears in the eternal state but the church continues.

The church is the most important institution on the face of the planet and everyone should organize their lives around the means of grace in a local church. You all know that. You're doing that. You do that all the time. I've been so thankful for that.

The church is a protective and insulating institution. It protects people from the wiles of the devil and all the gyrations of the nations and the ordinances that come down from governments. The church has its own rules to operate by and we found so much blessing in that over the last year and a half to be able to just function just like the family we always were while the rest of the world is going crazy and doing the strangest things you can imagine, social distancing and all these things. And so for us it has not been crazy. One reason it's been crazy is that our church isn't crazy.

Our church has just been ordered by God, not by the government. If you want to have a crazy church, then get ordered by anything else but God. And so, you know, the happinesses that we've experienced, the stability has really come because God has given the church orders. And it's not for churches to make it up as they go. So You know, we've had such a wonderful time over the last several months, but I attribute so much of the blessing that has come even to our individual lives to being part of a church where doctrine is being preached, particularly the doctrine of God, that God is sovereign.

So as a result of that, you can't hardly find a fearful person in this church. And I just find that so refreshing to be around fearless people. And the reason is because you believe that God is sovereign. That God is good, he's in control, and he's ruling the nations. He's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and everything else that Revelation has been telling us every single week for the last however long.

So but there's things happening in our church I want us to just acknowledge it just for a brief period here this afternoon. We do have a changing sociology of our church. I don't know if you noticed it. The average age in our church is plummeting. With every child born the average age of the church drops, you know, another degree.

That's one thing that's changing. I think I could count around 40 children that have just shown up in the last period of time and many of them they're very little you hear them you know you have You have children that grew up in this church that got married, lots of them. And a lot of those little children are coming from those kids that grew up in our church. They're now having babies. And there's one over there right now, this incorrigible child, my granddaughter.

You can please eliminate that from the live stream. And so we have, we have new families that have come with little children. And we have single parents in this church like never before. It's such a blessing to have them with their children here, to serve up the ordinary means of grace and to just find their fellowship so sweet. And you also have, when you have babies, when you have new babies in a family, you have a reordering of your whole life.

So the young kids that got married here, their lives are being completely refashioned because they have children. And they're, you know, you used to, you know, see them, you might, you might, you know, see them carrying a volleyball. A while back now they're carrying a baby basket, you know. And they're, and they have baby wipes with them, you know, and all this kind of stuff. Their whole lives have been altered, and their sleep patterns aren't like they used to be, and they don't get to do, they put their volleyballs in the closet because there's just no time for it.

So I know that's, I'm being hyperbolic here. But so there are new, really, these are neat challenges. I'm delighted, I'm not pointing out a problem in our church here, by the way. I'm not here to do that here this afternoon. I rejoice in the Lord.

God is the one who shapes his church. God is the one that brought you here. God is the one that creates the sociology of the church, the demographic of the church. God draws people into your church and you're stuck with them. You know, that's actually a good thing because it helps everybody to grow and to be sanctified.

So it's good when you know as God kind of reshapes the contours of the church. I'm pretty sure I'm the oldest male in this whole church. So These are just demographics and God has done all these things. So I want to just encourage us to be aware of that. I want you to recognize you have new families here that have new challenges like they've never had before.

And you know they're trying to figure out how to be married, they're trying to figure out how to nurse babies, they're trying to figure out how to deal with crying babies in the service, and all kinds of stuff like that. It's fantastic. Pray for them. Pray for the new marriages. Pray for the little ones growing up in this church.

You know, these parents are bringing their kids in here and they're hearing preaching. You know, pray that they would love the sound of the prayers, pray that they would delight in the singing, the sounds, these wonderful songs that we sing, pray that as they grow up, They delight in the reading of scripture. Pray that they delight in the preaching of scripture. I pray that they have the children that grow up here, they delight to hear my voice. Because when I get up here, I wanna speak of the beauty of Jesus Christ.

That's pretty much all I do, all I want to do. But pray for the little ones. Hey, there are a lot of new little ones here. Babies in arms all over the place. And you know, Jesus embraced the little children.

He loved the little children. He compelled them to come to him. They were such a delight to him. You know this morning after I finished preaching a little boy came up to me, he was so excited. He was so excited about the Father-Son Retreat.

He told me all about it that's coming up this weekend. But it was a joy just to look at the excitement in his eyes that we were going to get together and do some stuff together. So I want to acknowledge that God is reshaping the demographical footprint of our church and the average age is getting lower and there are a lot of new families here who are trying to figure out how to have a sweet family. And you're here to encourage them and to bless them. I know I want to be an encouragement to them.

I want to encourage them to make their homes a little piece of heaven, to make their homes the happiest places in the neighborhood, because Jesus Christ is there. Because they bring the truest words that have ever been written into their families, the words of God. They bring the best thing you can ever do in your life, the worship of God. They bring their children into the best place you can ever bring your family to the Church of God. You know, the Church is the most important place you ever take your family.

You're going to take your family a lot of different places, but the Church is the most important place you ever take them. And you know, you've heard me encourage you to make the Church of Jesus Christ the central matter of your life and then fit other things around it, not the other way around. Most people in this world, they just kind of, the church is sort of a by-business, it's sort of an alternative, it's kind of an optional thing that they do when they when, you know, they feel good or they have time or they're not going somewhere. You don't do that. You've made it your priority.

You know, I was so delighted to stand up and do a wedding of a couple of the kids in this church a couple of months ago and it just struck me that couple had probably heard 500 of my sermons that couple had probably been to 30 of my conferences on church and family life and various matters of doctrine and so there's there's quite a quite a deposit that's been laid in a lot of these that are here and God ordained that you know all the water under the bridge in this church, some of the great chew mulch and trials, some of the sweetest things, all of these were ordained by God to strengthen these young families. To give them an understanding of how to go through trouble and how to experience the goodness of the Lord how to be a family well the church really is a family and So I want to talk about that family. I'm but I'm I won't elaborate on this passage in Ephesians 4, but I just want to make some comments to all of us to help us direct our steps in this church. I want to read this to help you and me to direct our steps toward one another to create the kind of family that God has ordained that we have here.

God is the one who is, God is the only one who can define the church. Man ought not try to define the church and shape the church in her own image. This is what all the megachurches have done. They've shaped the church in the image of man. And it's tragic.

And that's why they lose 80 to 90 percent of their kids. Because they don't think the scripture is sufficient. But this is, what I wanna read here really is kind of the sufficiency of scripture for the navigation in the family of God, in the church of God. And so I'll begin in verse one. And the first few verses, verses one through five, speak about a way of walking, a way that you walk in the church.

And he says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called with all lowliness and gentleness with long suffering bearing with one another in love endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one spirit just as you were called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all. So there is a way to walk, not in your own way, But learn how to walk the way that God wants you to walk in the church and there's this long list With lowliness and gentleness and long-suffering Bearing with one another in love By the way, if you have to bear with one another in love, it means that there's something you have, there's something to bear. And for most people it becomes unbearable.

God is saying, don't be unbearable. Bear. Bear the burdens. And then in verse 7 he says that that everybody's been given grace. Everybody's been given a gift to in order to to be a blessing to the church.

But to each of us, each one of us, grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore when he ascended on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men. Now this he ascended what does it mean but that he first descended into the lower parts of the earth. He who descended is also the one who ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. Part of God's filling all things has to do with you.

He fills all things, including his people, infusing them with particular gifts. The gifts that God has given you are energized by the Holy Spirit which are stimulated by the Word of God. The more you're in the Word of God, the more you're filled with the Holy Spirit, the more useful you'll be in the church. So the best thing you can do for this church and for the loving of people here is to nurture your own soul, to be filled with the Holy Spirit so that God is the one who is filling you according to the measure of Christ's gift. He makes us have, all of us have a different function in the body.

Fulfill your function. You know, I was talking to somebody earlier about friendship in the church, and I was telling this person, I said, I don't really think of my relationships in the church at all on the level of friendship. I think of my relationships with people on what my duties are to those people. What am I supposed to be to them? What they are to me is a far less concern.

My concern is what am I to them? If I find that if I or if anybody begins to think about how people relate to, if I begin to think about how people relate to me, then it might constrain what I'm, what my duties are in relating with them. So frankly I'm not really looking for friends. I'm looking to do my duty when I'm with you. I want to do what I'm supposed to do and God is in charge of all the rest in that way.

And if we all do that, there'll be lots of friendship that's cultivated. So then, he gives different kinds of gifts to the church. This is verse 11. And these are actually, these are gifted men. He gives different kinds of men to the church.

And he himself gave some to be apostles, these are men, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors, and some teachers. Now you can see that in our church. Like if you see the guys that are up here preaching, they're all different. We all preach differently. We are a different kind of men.

That's why. That's a good thing. The diversity is very, very helpful. Why? Verse 12, for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

So God gives men to the church for the edifying, for the actually for the repairing. This whole idea of equipping has to do with mending. It's a word that comes out of mending nets. So what pastors are supposed to do, what these kind of men are supposed to do is be in the mending business, putting things back together, strengthening the saints in one way or another. So there are some men that have a different role in the church and they act differently, they think differently about the church.

They think in terms of equipping, they think in terms of building up, of edifying. That's what they care about the most. That's what I care about the most here in this church, is that the people are being edified, being built up. And so God gives these men with particular roles. They have gifts that go along with their roles in the form of pastors and teachers and evangelists and apostles and prophets.

And then verse 15, we learn that every member must be sharing their gifts. So when you come to church, you do come as a receiver and a worshiper of God, but you also come as a minister every person is a minister in this church but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does its share causes the growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love so my encouragement for all of you and particularly particularly those who kind of grew up here recognize that you have an active role in ministering to one another when you grow up in a church a lot of times you you You're not as aware of your role as a minister. But if you become a Christian and come to a church fresh, say in your 20s or 30s, you're more well aware that you're going in here to minister to the saints. But if you grow up in a church, you've just been kind of floating around, right?

So you need to make that transition. Come in as a minister. Come ready to seek and save the lost. Come ready to encourage your brethren. Strike up meaningful conversations.

It says here every joint supplies. That means every person has this function in the church. Every person has a function. You know, what is your ministry? We live in a world where, you know, there's a ministry, a special ministry created with it for everything There's this title We're not a we're not a church that is is really that focuses in on Ministry niches and titles.

We're not focused on that. We're really focused on the ministry of the saints to one another. And that's why we say pretty often, what's your ministry? Your ministry is the next person you meet. That's your ministry.

And so we don't have a lot of programs for people to plug into, but we want people to be filled with the Spirit and we want them to come together to minister. And maybe you're one of those people who just kind of grew up here and you just come and you just talk to your friends you should just stop doing that and grow up and become a minister in this church why for the effective working of every part which does its share that's what it says The effective working of every part which does its share. Everybody should be doing their share of the work. Why? And this is the best part.

This is the sweetest part. Why? Why should you do this? Why would I issue such a command like this? Well, it's from the Bible, but the reason is given here.

It's the way of love, for the edifying of itself in love. That's why you should do it. That's why you should get off of autopilot if you're on it. Because God wants love to be spread in a local church. He really wants it to be a quintessential expression of his love in the church.

In the same way that a marriage is supposed to be a picture of Christ's love for the church. The church as well is is meant to be a picture of love. So and then in verse 17 it speaks about how this happens not not walking in the ways of the world verse 17 therefore I say therefore I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of your mind the church is a holy nation it's a separate a separated people we live differently we talk differently we dress differently, we raise our children differently, we teach differently, we have church differently. We govern everything differently according to the Word of God. We don't walk in the ways of the Gentiles.

The worst thing you can do is copy the ways of the Gentiles, but the best thing you can do is to do what is in verse 20, but you have not learned, so learned Christ. Learned from Christ, that's the deal. So there you have it. God is reshaping our church in some really good ways, and I'm delighted to be here in the midst of it and God has put you here to minister to the people in the way that they've been configured by the sovereign hand of God that includes the babies that includes the new couples that includes the single mamas and papas that are here, that includes the old people like myself and everybody in between. Come and be a minister of God in his precious church.

Make this church a strong church. I believe that we're gonna need to have strong churches as the years go on. Churches that really are directed by God. And as that happens here, you'll find God bless us. In the midst of a wicked and perverse generation, in the midst of tyrannies, in the midst of attacks and reversals, God will preserve his church.

But let's create a sweet, biblically ordered church here as we see it change in ways that really delight us. Okay? Got it? Would you pray with me? Father, I pray that you would bless this local assembly.

Pour your spirit out upon all of us. Lord put the gospel in our mouths more powerfully and regularly than ever before. Help us to love one another. Mobilize us to walk in here. Each one is a minister.

Oh Lord that you would help us to preserve love in the world to preserve your word and the practices that are so beneficial for your people. Lord we just read this passage in revelation where we saw how blessed you are toward your people, how kind you are. And so let the kindness flow, Father, in this church. Amen.