In the sermon titled 'How to Grow a Healthy Church?' by Carl Provost, the focus is on spiritual growth and maturity within the church, as derived from Ephesians 4. The speaker emphasizes that true church growth is not measured by numbers, but by the maturity and unity of its members under Christ. Every believer is uniquely gifted by Christ to serve the body, and these gifts are intended for the edification and unity of the church. Roles such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers are foundational and serve to guide and mature the congregation. The sermon stresses the importance of speaking the truth in love, which fosters trust, unity, and growth. The ultimate goal is to be rooted in love, mature in faith, and to function collectively as the body of Christ, reflecting His glory on earth.

Please take your copy of God's word and turn to Ephesians chapter 4. Starting verse 7. But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherefore he sayeth, When he ascended upon high he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is but that He also descended first into the lower parts of the earth.

He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things. And He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, until a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. Heavenly Father, we come before you, for we are the church, and you have called us and set us apart.

And Father, we see that you have taught us how we are to walk and how we are to appear and grow as the Church of Christ. And Father, I pray that you would open our hearts and teach our hearts from this word and help us to be more like Christ. I pray in your Son, Christ Jesus' name, amen. Well, as we look at the text today, Paul's dealing with the church and the unity of the church and the growth of the church and how Christ works in the church. I titled today's sermon, How to Grow a Healthy Church.

If you've, this is actually a topic that comes up quite often within circles of ministers and within circles of seminary students, where they want to grow their church. And we have lots of ideas about how to measure a church. Growing up as a child and a young man, I often remember the sign that had posted Sunday school attendance and worship attendance and the numbers were posted up for all to see. And those numbers were very important to certain people because that was how they determined the growth of the church or the condition the church was in. And oftentimes numbers have been the focus.

In fact, a lot of the church growth programs that are in use today are, for the most part, focused on numbers. Having taken church growth classes and seminary and reading textbooks that speak to church growth methods, it's interesting that the methods that are often taught, which when applied are very successful at growing numbers in the church, oftentimes do not match up with what we see in God's Word. Because God is not interested in the numbers, but He's interested in our hearts, and the maturity of our hearts. And the way He looks at church growth is by the maturity of the body of Christ. And whether we are a small church or a large church, for oftentimes a small church could be more mature, further along in the growth than a much larger church.

In fact, the entertainment model that's often used to build what we would call mega churches, because of the nature of the message and the reaching out to what they consider the unchurched or the lost, they oftentimes never delve deeper into God's Word. And so they have large numbers of people, but they are those who can only receive milk. They cannot receive the meat of the Word because they haven't grown beyond the infancy stage of Christianity. But when we look at today's text, we're going to look at how Christ grows His church. Last week we looked at what it meant to walk worthy of the calling which He had placed on each of us and how we are to walk in unity.

This week we're going to look at the gifts that he gives us to be the church. And we're not going to look particularly at those gifts. There's many lists of spiritual gifts throughout the Bible in different places. But here We're going to talk about the gifts in general and some specific gifts that he gives for the corporate nature of the church and how we are to mature in the faith. Verses 7-11 is the gifts of Christ to his church.

Says, but to every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Wherewith he saith, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. So Christ gives gifts to the church.

In verse seven, we see that he gives gifts to every believer. We are told that every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. That means each and every person who is in Christ is gifted in some way. There are no spectators in the church. We are all gifted to be members of the body of Christ, to be effective members, for He gifts us abundantly.

He never calls us to do what He does not gift us to do. So each and every one of us is uniquely gifted. We are gifted for some area to serve within this body of Christ. And we are told that it is according to the measure of the grace of Christ. And what we learn there is that each gift that's given is by grace.

It's a free gift from God. It is according to what He has determined to give each of us. And there's no reason to be prideful that he has made one person a leader. He's given another person a gift of service, another person a gift of compassion. There is no pride in the gift.

The only pride that we have is in the one who gives the gift, in Christ Jesus our Lord. And He has called us to serve in the body of Christ, each of us, according to the gift which He has bestowed upon us. So if every believer is gifted with gifts, what are those gifts for? See, some use their gifts to serve themselves, But what we see here is that we are to use our gifts in the body of Christ. We are gifted uniquely to serve within a body under one head under Christ Jesus.

And those gifts are by the power of Christ Jesus. So how do these gifts operate? We see in verses 8-10 that Christ gives gifts from his victory over sin and death. It speaks of him ascending upon high. It says, wherefore he saith, when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men.

So this is the authority by which he gives us the gifts. These are the gifts that he obtained by his victory when he ascended on high. And so what's Paul speaking of here? Think of him when he had appeared after the cross, after the resurrection. And he said, I must ascend.

I must depart in order to send a helper. And he ascended and sat down at the right hand of the God, of God the Father, until his enemies had made his footstool. And so he's ruling now in heaven at the right hand of God the Father, but he said he must depart so that he could send a helper. What's being referred to you also in verse 8 here is actually a reference or a quote from Psalm 68, verse 18. I want to read the psalm so we can get an understanding of how Paul is applying this Psalm to what is taking place in this gifting and the victory of Christ.

In Psalm 68 we read, let God arise, let his enemies be scattered. Let them also that hate him flee before him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away. As wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God. But let the righteous be glad.

Let them rejoice before God. Yea, let them exceedingly rejoice. Sing unto God, sing praises to his name, extol him that writeth upon the heavens by his name, Yah, and rejoice before him. A father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary and families, he bringeth out those which are bound with chains.

But the rebellious dwell in the dry land. O God, when is forth before thy people, when thou didst march through the wilderness? The earth shook, the heavens also dropped at the presence of God. Even Sinai itself was moved at the presence of God. The God of Israel, thou, O God, didst send a plentiful reign whereby thou didst confirm thy inheritance.

When it was weary, thy congregation hath dwelt therein. Thou, O God, hast prepared of thy goodness for the poor. The Lord gave the word, great was the company of those that publish it. Kings of armies did flee apace and she that tarried at home divided the spoil. Though you have lean among the pots yet shall ye be as the wings of the dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold.

When the Almighty scattered kings in it, it was white as snow in Samhain. The hill of God is the hill of Baishan, A high hill as the hill of Baishan. Why leap ye, ye high hills? That is the hill which God desireth to dwell in. Yea, the Lord will dwell in it forever.

The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels. The Lord is among them, as in Sinai in the holy place. And then here's the verse he quotes, thou hast descended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men, yea, for the rebellious also that the Lord God might dwell among them." What we see here is that Paul is directly applying this psalm to what was accomplished by Christ when He ascended. Well, there it said, He received gifts for men. And here it says, in verse eight, it said, And He gave gifts unto men.

And we don't need to see any difficulty there, as many commentators spend a lot of time talking about that. For he received those gifts for a reason. He received them in order to give them to the body of Christ. For we as the body of Christ represent Christ here on this earth. We are His hands and His feet.

We are the ones whom He has called to serve as the body of Christ. But Paul goes on a little further to explain what happens here. For we see that God would deliver his people and that Christ in this Messianic Psalm pointing forward to what Christ would accomplish that he would come and he would set the cactus free and that he would ascend upon high to fill the earth with his glory. But it goes on to say that if one ascended, now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descendeth is the same that also ascended up far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things." Well, there's a lot of talk and speculation about what exactly is meant here by descending into the lower parts of the earth.

You'll read that this descent is oftentimes, especially historically in some of the church fathers, that Christ ascended to the place of the dead. Or that he ascended to Abraham's bosom or to paradise. And at that point he defeated sin and death and he sets those who had been held in captivity until He came and redeemed them on the cross and had set them free. You'll see that as a classical understanding, but I don't think that's necessary here. This is usually driven by a passage from the letter of Peter, where it talks about him descending and preaching to the prisoners.

But here it's speaking of a descent that is speaking of him lowering himself for the incarnation. In fact, I think it's consistent with Paul's words to the Philippians. In 2 5-11, it said, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in the fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and of things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." See, in there we see that he lowered himself. He came, emptied himself, and took on the form of a baby.

A small child. And he came because of the love that he had for his people. And he humbled himself for us, and he came to serve us, our King, our Sovereign Lord, but yet he came to serve us and to save us in this life he lived obedient to the law perfectly fulfilling all aspects of the law He went to the cross and he willingly took our sins upon himself. He paid the price, he redeemed us, he died for us in our place. And on the third day, he raised himself again.

He defeated sin and death. And in that, he set the captives free. For see before this we were all in bondage to sin. We were all set apart for that death, that second death, yet He redeemed us. And so, the greatest gift that we receive from Christ Jesus is life.

We are no longer slaves to sin. We have the power to live in Christ Jesus. We are freed from the power of sin and death. And as a people who walk in the ways of Christ Jesus, The power that we have to live a life set apart comes from being freed from this power of sin and death. Being in Christ Jesus, no longer under the rule of Satan, but under the headship of Christ Jesus.

We also see that by Him being the firstborn among many brethren, we are all made sons and daughters of God. We become joint heirs with Christ. And so we are gifted as being a part of the family of God. And that illustration has already been used by Paul. We're clearly part of the family of God.

We've been brought into the family and that Jews and Gentiles are all the same part of that family. He talked about walking worthy according to your calling, walking in unity. And now he's talking about how do you live together as the body of Christ, each uniquely gifted to serve Christ Jesus as the corporate body. It's by being united under the headship of Christ, being gifted by Christ Jesus to serve one another according to each Unique gifting. See, we see that each and every Christian has been gifted by Christ Jesus.

So how do you bring order to the church? We all don't have a unique goal. We all have the same goal. We all have the same Lord. We all have the same Savior.

See, Christ gives gifts to the corporate body as well that establishes a foundation and establishes the framework by which we are to function as the church. He tells us this in Verse 11, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Now this first group here, some prophets and some apostles. Paul has already explained that this is the foundation of the church. That the church is laid upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.

See prophets were those who were the mouthpiece of God. They spoke the authority of God that was given to them a message and in fact the Old Testament said you could test a prophet that if he prophesied something and it did not come true, he was not of God. Prophets were 100% accurate. What they said that God was going to do came about because they were speaking or God was speaking through them. They were the mouthpiece of God.

They were an instrument that God used to warn the people, to bring judgment upon the people, and to bring them back in a right relationship with Him. And we have the prophets now. Not speaking of modern-day prophets, there's a movement today that speaks of prophets that claim to be 80% correct, but by the Bible standard that makes them false prophets. This is speaking of when I say we have the prophets with us today, God has recorded in His Word all that He would need us to know. And the prophets are contained in the Scriptures He has given us.

He also gave the apostles as a gift. The apostles were unique. They also were messengers of Christ Jesus. They were those, the word apostle means a messenger or one who is sent with a message. And they were those who were sent out by Christ Jesus.

And those apostles, the twelve, sat at the feet of Jesus under him and under his teaching for three years as disciples. And they were sent out as messengers to take the gospel out to the world, to the ends of the world. We are told that they turned the world upside down. They were given gifts of miracles so that they were able to establish the authority of the message that they carried. And so they would go into a new town and they would be able to heal the sick.

And it would establish that this person was from God and People would hear the message that they had to speak. But we are told that the apostles also no longer are with us. We have the writings. We know that one criteria for being an apostle was you had to be an eyewitness of the resurrected Lord, Christ Jesus. In fact, Paul lists this as one of his credentials in 1 Corinthians.

And we're told this when they were trying to pick an apostle to replace Judas Iscariot, that this was a criteria they used, one who had been with the Lord, one who knew the Lord. Paul came in an untimely manner, but Christ met him on the road to Damascus, blinded him, said, Paul, why do you persecute me? Who was Paul persecuting? Think of it. It was Christians.

He was hunting them down, dragging them into jail, persecuting them. He was responsible for their death, their stoning. Christ says, Paul, why are you persecuting me? For Christians are the body of Christ. And when the body of Christ is persecuted, it is Christ that is persecuted.

It is Christ working through the church. And when the body functions as the body of Christ, it functions in unity. What we also see from this is that The foundation being established upon the apostles and the prophets was that doctrine is important. They were given these teachings and that had to be the foundation for all that they did. It also says that they were given evangelists.

Evangelists was a specific call of someone who was given a gifting to take the gospel out and plant new churches to new people, people that had never heard of Christ. This would be separated from apostles, meaning that he didn't necessarily have to be one who had witnessed or had seen the resurrected Christ. Now there's a lot of discussion about whether this office in itself still exists as an office. And you will see quite a bit of discussion on this. Calvin himself did not think that this was an office that existed anymore.

But however, we do see that Timothy is told to do the work of an evangelist. And so what we see is, is there is a work of evangelism that all of us are called to do. And that that is a gift of Christ, to be able to share the good news of Christ Jesus with others. And to have someone share the good news with you. We are all sitting here today because of some gift that Christ gave.

Someone shared Christ with you. Someone gave you hope. And Through the Word spoken, through the Gospel spoken, your heart was transformed. That heart of stone was taken out, you were given a heart of flesh, and you have been given hope, and you've been given love. And we're also told that he gave us the gift of pastors and teachers.

Now pastors and teachers are the offices or the office that we have with us today depending on how you divide this up. There again Calvin saw this as two distinct offices, Augustine saw it as one, two, two sides of the same office basically, that shepherds also teach. Calvin thought that there were those who were teached that were not given the responsibility of shepherding. Those who would serve maybe in the schools to teach and train ministers. And so he saw a division in this office, but yet he recognized that those that were shepherds were those who were directly given the care of souls, directly given oversight over people and to shepherd them.

And the division we see in these offices is that the first two offices, that foundational office, apostles and prophets, ceased with the close of the canon. For God has given us His Word in a complete form. We no longer need the revelatory gifts that the apostles had, for we have his word and it is sufficient. And this pastors and teachers, they are instructed to teach this word to the people. For what it means to be a shepherd is illustrated in Jesus' discussion with Peter.

He said, Peter, do you love me? Peter said, you know that I love you Lord. He said, feed my sheep. He repeated this three times. And one of the gifts that Christ has given the church is shepherds that feed the sheep.

The art of shepherding is important to a healthy church. It's an act of protecting the sheep. He gives us this illustration, I believe for a reason. If you study the history of shepherds, especially in the time of the New Testament, you will find that they took their job very seriously. In fact, a good shepherd would be one who would give his life to protect the sheep.

He was one who would fight off wolves, bears, whatever was threatening the sheep. He carried a staff and with the staff he could use it to defend himself against those wild animals that would seek to destroy the sheep. And so one of the jobs of shepherding is to fend off anything that is a danger to the sheep. But there was also a crook in the staff, and that was used to pull sheep away from danger. So if they were getting too close to a pit or a cliff, or they might fall to their death, He could reach out and hook them with the staff and pull them back to safety.

And He would lead them to new grass, to green pastures, in order to feed them. And so the illustration we see here is that Christ gave the church the gift of pastors and teachers for the building up of the body of Christ in order to teach them right doctrine and theology. So who or what are these shepherds responsible for? We see the purpose of these gifts in verses 12 to 14. It says, For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, and for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." We see that Christ gives gifts for edification first here.

It's in verse 12. For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now there's a little bit of controversy around this text and about this comma that's, if you're reading the King James Version, it's after the perfecting of the saints. The Roman Catholic Church believed that the perfecting of the saints and the works of ministry apply back to pastors and teachers. They believed that all three of these are subject to the work of pastors and teachers.

And so they draw this divide between the laity and the clergy. And within their system, the clergy are the ones who do ministry, and the people come to receive. Well, the Reformers challenged this. In fact, the concept of the priesthood of the believer was to challenge the need of having the priest do everything for us, that we would only be those who receive. And there is a level which we receive when we come to church, for he did give us pastors and teachers.

And most modern commentators hold this position that the comma should not be there. In fact, the evidence within the text itself seems to support this. The preposition for in perfecting and edifying the saints is different than the preposition used in the two statements directly behind it. And The grammar itself seems to teach that the, for the work of ministry and for the edifying of the body of Christ are underneath this, the perfecting of the saints. So the way you would read it, there's two ways to read it.

Basically, one is that pastors and teachers are perfecting the saints, are doing works of ministry, and are edifying and building up the body of Christ. And the other way to read it is that the pastors and teachers are perfecting the saints so that the saints can do works of ministry for the edifying and building up of the body of Christ. Well I believe the evidence shows clearly that this second reading is the correct one. In fact, I think it fits the text better because what is this gifting, this individual gifting that everyone, each and every person has received if it has no use. We are gifted for a purpose and it's to be the body of Christ and we're all important to the body.

Sometimes when we're uncomfortable after a long day we take a shoe off and your foot fills this relief. But that's an accessory. It wouldn't be the same if somebody removed your foot. It's a part of you. And that's how the body of Christ is.

Each and every person here, we're not an accessory to the church. We don't come to just receive. We are a part of the body. We are in Christ Jesus and each and every person is important and gifted uniquely for that service. So we see that the purpose of the gifts to the church are the same.

It's for the building up of the body of Christ. Now this word perfecting, the job that pastors and teachers are called to, is perfecting of the saints. It's a term that some translations read edifying, but it's actually a term that is used elsewhere to talk of mending one's nets or fixing nets. So when you use nets for fishing, they drag them through the sea to catch fish, and oftentimes they develop holes in them. And so when they're not fishing, they go through and they, anywhere where there's a tarot hole, they mend their nets and make them hole again.

And So with this understanding, it's saying that as a shepherd of the flock, the pastors are to be mending the people of God. That means helping them to discover their own gifting, helping them to discover their place in the body of Christ, coming alongside the weaker brother and lifting him up, encouraging service in the body of Christ, encouraging love, encouraging compassion in the body of Christ. So that the healthy church are those that are doing the work of ministry. The healthy church are those that are edifying one another and building up the body of Christ. There is nothing better for the church of Christ and for the elders to go to minister to a need in the church and find out that the church body has already been there.

The church body is loving one another and serving one another, ministering to one another. That is a healthy church. But we also see that Christ gives us gifts for unity. Verse 13. It says, till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, till we all come in the unity.

See, these gifts are given so that we can be unified in the faith. In fact, he talked about this in the previous verses about that we are unified in the faith by the bond of peace. And that one way we are unified is by being peacemakers within the body of Christ. And here we're told that we are to be busy about using our gifting to all come into the unity. That's speaking of the universal Church of Christ Jesus.

We are to be busy in the ministry of Christ Jesus until He brings all of those whom He died for into the Church of Christ Jesus. That means that we should work together and not against each other. We have a common enemy? We should all be led by the one head, Christ Jesus? See, We are unified because we have a unified purpose.

And one of those, and what we're told here is that we are unified around the knowledge of the Son of God. You know Jesus? Is He in your heart? That's what should unify us. That's what should unify us.

We should be those who have a personal knowledge of Christ, as well as those who share Christ with others. When you have Christ in you, when you have this hope in you, we are told that when we have this great treasure, we don't take it and hide it. But we show it to others. We tell them about Christ Jesus. We minister the love of Christ one to another.

We share the hope of the gospel with the lost. We also tell that we are to do this until, it says, until we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God into a perfect man. We are becoming a perfect man and that's speaking of the body of Christ. It's speaking of us as if we are that perfect man because of the gifting of Christ Jesus. He takes each of us as flawed as we are and He puts us together into one body.

And through the Church of Christ, He ministers to the world. See, when we exercise the gifts of the church and we grow in the knowledge of Christ, we mature into the fullness of Christ. We are Christ manifested on the earth. We are those who represent Christ on earth. Christ gives us this.

He gives us these gifts for our spiritual maturity as well. For there are dangers. And by maturing in the faith, we are told that this protects us from these dangers. He wants us to become mature so that we as we see in verse 14 this is that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the slight of men, and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive." See, when we're mature in the faith, we can stand against the attacks of Satan. We can stand against those who would attack our faith, those who would call us foolish, those who would persecute us for the sake of Christ.

We don't deny our faith because of persecution when we're mature in the faith. We are those who have been gifted uniquely. We are those who have been perfected by the ministers of the gospel and by God's Word. We are those that stand upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, a sure foundation. See we have the right to exercise the gifts of the knowledge of Christ and it's the exercising of this gift that keeps us from the deceptions of the evil one.

Lastly I want us to look at the exercise of his gifts in our life as the church And I think this is key to living out this life. Verse 15 says, But speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head, even Christ. Speaking the truth in love. I want you to notice three things about this first phrase here. First is that they are speaking.

It's hard to have a relationship without communication. They're speaking to one another. See, in order to be a true family, we have to talk with one another. We have to know one another's problems and weaknesses. And I'm not talking about gossip here.

I'm not talking about that where somebody maliciously speaks something in order to tear somebody down. But I'm talking about the loving concern of a family when someone is sick or when someone is struggling and a genuine desire to see them restored, or to suffer with them, to come alongside them, and to love them and to pray with them. See, the true openness with the body of Christ is what is needed in order to function as the body of Christ. It says, speaking the truth and love. It's the kind of openness with one another that builds trust.

For you won't tell somebody your problems or your weaknesses if you don't trust them. And so the body of Christ has to be built upon a type of communication that builds trust. James 516 says, Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual prayer of a righteous man availeth much. That's speaking to that openness of communication that we must have with one another.

The second thing I want to notice about this speaking is that it's in love. See, love is the motivating factor here. This type of communication that I'm speaking of can only happen when it's in love. Without love, this communication will break down and trust will be lost. If you speak the truth in a judgmental way, you will not build trust.

But When you speak the truth in love, it tears down barriers. It opens doors. It builds trust with one another. And third, I want to notice what they are speaking. It says they're speaking the truth.

See, this is not telling someone what they want to hear. You can build a large group by just telling people what they want to hear. In fact, there are very large churches that only tell people what they want to hear. Tell them about how good of a person they are. People like to hear that.

But speaking the truth in love is telling people what they need to hear. This is not surface talk, but this is intimate talk, where we speak truth. See, we speak the love of Christ to one another. We speak the forgiveness of Christ when someone has failed. We speak the hope of Christ to those without hope.

We apply the truth to every area of life. See the truth shapes who we love The truth shapes how we love The truth shapes why we love but we are told to love our enemies And you cannot do this apart from the love of Christ. We are told that we should be known by the love that we have for one another. We are told that the truth will set you free. So where does this type of speech lead us?

To speak the truth in love, that you may grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, that you may grow up in all things. See, the closeness of this church and of any church is dependent upon communication. The maturity of this church is dependent on this type of communication, this speaking the truth in love. An openness with one another where we share one another's burdens, we come alongside each other, we pray for one another, we know what's going on, we share the joys and the hardships with one another. How can the body of Christ pray for you if they don't know what you're going through?

It's a type of communication that builds the unity. It builds the trust. And it's an openness that we have to have. It's allowing ourselves to be open with someone knowing that we could be hurt. But yet knowing that the only way we can function as the body of Christ is when we display this type of love one to another.

See, this type of loving communication is from being unified under His head. It's when we no longer are only concerned about our own interests, but we are concerned about the interests of others, that we can begin to open up one to another. We also see that, it says, but speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things, which is the head even Christ. We grow up in Christ. It's under his head that we mature.

And it says, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth." See this is the type of loving communication that joins us together. It says that as the body of Christ we are fitly joined together. And it says by every joint that supplyeth. It's this type of loving communication that actually brings us closer together, this openness. It's saying that it's this type of communication that is sort of the glue that holds us together.

It's speaking of a body where if you try to tear it apart, if you try to separate the joints, there's tendons and things in there. It's not going to just come apart. There's things that are holding, there's something holding it all together. If we don't know what's going on in each other's lives, we're just a bunch of individuals sitting in a room together. And one can easily be separated from us.

But when we were sharing each other's burdens, we are drawn together and held together. And we're told also, in fact some translations say that we are knit together with other believers. Kind of thinking back to that term of what pastors are to do and mending the nets. If we are knit together, there's a bunch of knots holding us all together. Everything's sort of twisted and intermingled together.

And of course in knitting, I think also you can pull one strand and it'll start to unravel. But when it's all solid and held together as a whole, it's one piece. The importance of everybody in the Church of Christ Jesus. And we also see that it's according to the effectual working and the measure of every part. It's according to the effectual working of Christ Jesus that we serve one another like this.

Some are shepherds, some are teachers, some have gifts of service, some have gifts of compassion, hospitality, but we are all uniquely gifted and we fit together in one body. Some are in different stages of life. Some have a house full of young children and their main ministry is to raise up godly offspring. That's their season of life. And some of us are actively serving the body of Christ.

And some of us, the best service we can give is being prayer warriors and praying for the Church of Christ Jesus. Spurgeon said that the power of his ministry in the pulpit was not in his sermons. They said it was in the people that prayed for him. We also see, lastly here in the text, that the increase of the body comes to the edifying of itself in love. It says, the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love." The increase in growth in the body of Christ.

This is what church growth really looks like. It's a body that is edifying itself in love. Think of taking care of a plant. We've already been given that illustration earlier when we were told to be rooted in the love of Christ Jesus. And when you take care of a plant, you put it in soil, and you feed it, and you water it, and it grows.

And it's saying that this is how we nurture the Church of Christ Jesus. We nurture the Church through love. And when we love one another, the Church grows by being rooted in the love of Christ and exercising the gifts that He's gifted us with in love. So if we're going to grow, we must be exercising the unique gift that he's given each of us. We must be serving the body of Christ.

If we're going to grow, we must live free from the power of sin and death and live by the authority of Christ Jesus. We must be those who overcome the sin of this world by the power of Christ Jesus. If we're going to grow, we must recognize the foundation and structures of authority that God has given us for his church. If we're going to grow we must edify one another. If we're going to grow we must be unified in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God.

If we're going to grow we must have an intimate relationship with one another. An intimate relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus speaking to one another the truth and love. If we're going to grow we must imitate Christ and be the body of Christ. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father we come to you and we thank you that you've given us your word, that your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path, and that We as the body of Christ serve as those ministers of the gospel who take the gospel to the world.

And Father, I pray that we would clearly be a mature body of Christ. Help us. And we pray in your Son, Christ Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.