Bulletins - Horizon Church -o

Opening Question:
How are you doing on shaping the Masterpiece Progress?
Are you working on yourself?
Are you pouring into others?

Main Point:
Christ gives gifts to the Saints to equip the saints to grow themselves with the mission to grow others, using truth in love to stand firm and focus on the unity and maturity of the church to function as one for ONE.

Giving of Gifts
History of the Times — The context
Greek, Jewish, Pagan and Roman influence where the four major culture influences of the time when Paul wrote

Tensions were high when Paul was writing in the Early 60s - about the same times as Colossians Letter

AD 62 James Martyed by Herod

AD 66-73 Jewish Revolt and the destruction of the Temple in AD 70

This is the culture at the time of Paul’s writing
conflict, disunity, and earthy power seeking to push there way there influence
yet Paul is teaching that we are NOT part of this world any longer

King JESUS rules differently.

Christ Gives the Gifts
the HEAD of the Church — gives the gifts to each to grow the kingdom
let me show this to you in the next verse
Ephesians 4:8 “Therefore it says, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.””

our Lord gives in Victory

Ascending and Descending
eph 4:9 “(In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth?”

This indention in our Bible is Ps 68:18

it is a victory Hymn by King David

Paul does not quote this verse but rather paraphrases it

the words from King David state that God would receive gifts from man
and Paul changes the intent that in VICTORY

--- God is Giving gifts to men

the captives WERE us --- we were caught in sin and failure of the following of the Law

Christ and the Cross ushered in Grace and the Giving of Gifts

another sign of the change of dynamics in OT and NT.

Another proof of the NEW NATION that we are part of
Christ came from Heaven to Earth and then returns
but He sends spiritual gifts to each believer to be HIM ON EARTH.

There is reference here historically to sub earth Hell,
but i think the verse is referring to Christ coming to earth and NOT the existence of Hell in the center of the Earth.
This is great example of the wisdom of men seeking to expand on the PURE wisdom of God.
We must keep the emphasis on the ASCEND -- not the Descend

in the ESV it says in verse 9 “ but that He descended to the lower regions, the earth”

Tradition teaches that this is into the center of the earth.

hell, in many religious traditions, the abode, usually beneath the earth, of the unredeemed dead or the spirits of the damned. In its archaic sense, the term hell refers to the underworld, a deep pit or distant land of shadows where the dead are gathered.

This creates a hidden world, and modern commentaries state that this was teaching in the mid- church (next stage after early church likely 200 AD forward )

it was easier for people to envision -- focusing to the sky and the limitless boundaries in contrast to the limited CENTER of the earth they were standing on .

The focus must be on the ASCENT

Christ came from Heaven HE DESCENDED to EARTH -- lowering HIMSELF from the Mightly THRONE to the lower regions -- EARTH

Christ lived as man -- tempted but never sinning -- and taking on the Cross all the sins of the world.

Rising to display HIS power and victory -- Showing HIMSELF as LORD and SAVIOUR

Then ASCENDING back to Heaven to sit at the RIGHT HAND OF GOD
Equipping of Saints

APEST

verse 11
Apostles -- their experience one on one with Christ
Prophets - TRUTH OF GOD SPEAKERS
Evangelists - spreaders of the WORD to the unknowing in our life.
Shepherds -- goal in our church is to have the PASTOR become and focus on both.
Teachers - to our spouse, our children and our CIRCLE -- stay in our circle --- this is what Christ appointed to us.

PEOPLE confuse the Fruit of the Spirit and the gifts
a simple google search will reveal that to you
Most times the gifts are set as 7 gifts -

The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians & Colossians (B. The Cultivation of Unity (vv. 7–16))
Spiritual gifts are at the heart of Christ’s strategy for building his church.
The gifts are ministers (or ministries) for the church.
While this issue is strongly debated, particularly by Pentecostal and charismatic theologians,
evangelical doctrine has traditionally held that of those four gifts two of them are still in existence and two have passed away.

The foundations of the church, this new nation, was set by the Apostles and Prophets and carried on today by the Evangelists, Shepherds and Teachers.

The building of the Church has been passed to us and we must use these gifts to build community,
build our walk --- to be worthy of our calling ( Eph 4:1) and to fight to keep unity in the Church.

Purpose of Ministry

Jesus gifted us to grow the church,
by gifting every Believer to Equip others
SO THAT they perform an intended Function in the body[church] for His Glory.
Staying truth to the one truth
We are to Equip the Saints to Build the body of Christ

Eph 4:12 “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,”
Ministers run or participate in the running of ministries
We are Administers of God’s Will and Plan
We are the quartermasters of God’s Plan
The officers, and servants that follow and ensure knowledge and adherence to God’s Word God’s Plan

Growing the Saints
Growing Self
Diversity was what Ephesians is teaching.
NEVER to make anyone lesser,
but rather in love discussing
and discovering an individuals diversity
to see where they fit in to the larger frame of God’s Masterpiece

Illustration:
Have you ever put together a puzzle
1000 of individual pieces — each a little difference each with a specific place in the overall picture ---
I love this analogy
A picture on the box to give us the Goal --- This is what the Evangelists do
the pieces emptied on the table all mixed up and even upside down
there is a sorting of the pieces seeking the common colors and identifying the gifting of each pieces some are the frame and others to fill the picture
We are called to identify the individual pieces --- it is not our calling to change the shape of any of the pieces but rather to discover HOW the pieces fit.
to do the work of putting it together bases on that vision of the end result
Every piece different --- but the diversity is key — every piece with a purpose to fit together to bring the fullness of the Masterpiece that Christ is forming in YOU and OTHERS.

Growing the Others
Diversity is what makes us UNIQUE --- God made you who you are
Phil 2:13 “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”
we are called to build others up in the FAITH — that is our job and mine
you are here this morning to grow in your knowledge of Christ SO THAT you can build up others
It is a weekly training center — Then you get into GROUPS to fine tune, and build up the resistant to LIES and Falsehoods.
Ephesians 4:14 “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
Sound Doctrine
Centered and Grounded
YOUR GOAL it to stay focused in ALL ways on CHRIST.
Christ is the Solid rock on which you stand, all other ground is sinking sand.
Tossed To and Fro

False Teaching -- always has a part of Truth to create the allusion of Truth -- Relative Truth vs. Absolute Truth
Look we all go through this daily
What is right, what is wrong?
What am i justifying in my life, because i want it even when i know it is questionable
Well maybe that is true, but does it align COMPLETELY with Scripture

We need to be a laser beam on Christs Word , not a FLOODLIGHT seeking to simply fit into the light
You need direction and like driving a car
Fully focused on your LANE --- otherwise you are drifting and dangerous to others

Unity and Maturity
Speaking Truth in Love
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians & Colossians (B. The Cultivation of Unity (vv. 7–16))
Speaking the truth in love is a mark of maturity, which will enable us to grow up spiritually.
Immature people often fall into one of two opposite errors.
They speak the truth, but without love,
or they love without speaking the truth.
When we do the first, we often brutalize others, pounding them with truth but doing it in an unloving way.
When we do the second, we don’t tell others the truth, thinking that by shielding them from the truth we are sparing them from pain

Unity of the Body
Unity is based on LOVE and TRUTH
our mission is to growing in learning how to apply this
We can love — meet, pray, connect with any one in SIN, rather than IN CHRIST
we can love without condemning or condoning
we can allow the Spirit to work in us and THROUGH US to lead others to the ONE path of CHRIST

Paul continues to preach the SIMPLE TRUTH and as CHRIST did
- HANGS WITH SINNERS —

realizing that there is one doing the teaching also that image in the mirror every morning.

Body of Christ
we must strive to be the body OF CHRIST

— not a body of event attenders, or concert attenders -
that is attractional
but it is NOT affirming
The attractional church entertains
The Disciple Church encourages, Trains and empowers

we must be focused on the BODY OF CHRIST >>>>> moving as ONE and BOUND in LOVE

Focused on being the Body
Moving as One
Bound in Love

Lets stand in worship ....
New Life, New Ways
We are to live differently than the world for we are no longer identified with the world. We are His and we need to use what we are taught to live to honor Him.
Paul starts to show us specifics in the NEW and the OLD.
We must PUT ON-- action statement -- we must chose what to
"wear" daily.

Illustration -- what we wear defines us... uniform, tight hair cut, Hawaiian shirts, long hair, suits, shorts, hats they give an image of who we are.

How we are perceived, the choices we make are important
Lets remember what we have learned so far...
Change Your Walk
Lets remember earlier in Ephesians that we are HIS and we need to act accordingly.
We Ephesians 2:1 were dead in our sin, in the way that we USED to walk
We followed the world and its power that is supplied by Satan, we sought our earthly desires
BUT in Ephesians 2:8 we learn that because of Christ and the gift of grace we were able to live again. Live NEW, CHANGED lifes. NOT because of any thing we did but because of everything that HE did.
Ephesians 2:11 tells us that we were separated from Christ, alienated from God, WE had NO HOPE.
Christ died and rose again to display the dead in the old and alive in the NEW
and when we accepted Christ by Faith we were born again.
Part of a NEW NATION
With access to the WISDOM of God Ephesians 3:10 and part of God’s eternal purpose.
Paul prays an amazing blessing through prayer for us to remember and know the Spiritual Strength that we have through the Holy Spirit who resides in US.
It is because of ALL of this that we are joined in a new nation, each individually gifted to DO OUR PART for the Glory of GOD and HIS eternal Purpose
Colossians 3:17 “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
We do all things to equip the saints Ephesians 4:12
Ephesians 4:12 (ESV)
12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,

We learn to speak in love to teach, correct, rebuke and encourage others to grow and live in the Fruit of the Spirit
So that we move, live and operate as the BODY OF CHRIST
Now in today's verses Paul will change his TONE
He changes to an example of speaking TRUTH in Love
What the Gentiles Do
Paul tells us, Commands us to Stop living in the OLD WAY and DO NOT LEAN INTO CULTURE.
The Gentiles in Ephesus were particularly sinful.
Ephesus was a leading city of commerce and culture in the Roman Empire, the home of the pagan temple of Diana
The temple of Diana at Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.
Worship of Diana involved the worst immorality of degraded pagan religion.
Diana. Roman name for the mythological Greek goddess Artemis, daughter of Jupiter and Latona and the twin sister of Apollo.
She renounced all idea of marriage,
supposedly because she was appalled at the birth pains her mother had suffered in bearing her,
and remained the unattainable virgin goddess.

That influence made Ephesus a wretched hive of scum and villainy, a wicked place indeed.
Temple prostitution, graft, crime, immorality, idolatry, and every conceivable form of sin abounded.
Many of the Christians in Ephesus came out of that kind of background.
In contrast with that evil background,
Paul made his appeal, “Don’t live like that any longer!”
First, he says, it is futile to live like that.
It leads to nothing.

Learning
Ephesians 4:21 “21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus,”
Look at the words and phrases that Paul has chosen
No longer walk as Gentiles
Futility
darkened
alienated
ignorance
hardness
become callous -- this is a hardening process- callous build with use
impurity
----- not the way you were taught
Put off your old self
be renewed
Put on the NEW self
created in likeness of God [Gen 1:26-27]

This list is straight to the OLD heart that we all can relate to.
Paul is never going to leave us hang on a matter of our honoring GOD.

We are part of a church and the church’s mission must be a form of Horizon’s mission
To Glorify God, but growing others in Christ
We do this by submitting to sound teaching on sound doctrine and learning NOT to be tossed to and fro
Ephesians 4:14 “14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”

To grow into mature Christians able to handle and administer the WORD of GOD.

Applying Our Learning

Paul reminds us that we are to live different.
Ephesians 4:22 “22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires,”

ILLUSTRATION- EDC -- everyday carry - popular in the culture today
It is bringing "things" that you carry everyday so you are prepared
it may be a knife, wallet, keys, phone, tissues, even a mask
company market-- everyday carry bags, --- place for your multi tool, flashlight, first aid, snacks, pens, ipad --- etc.
Hey women have been doing this for years -- its a purse
US studly men --- call it a backpack

The point is as Christian we EDC the HOLY SPIRIT

Do you bring other items -- bible (whether in book, or in your heart)
do you know Scripture to bring Spiritual first aid
do you bring prayer

Paul is telling US --- change your clothes, dress as a Christian in outer and inner coverings -- live differently -- see things differently -- chose your perspective in all things James 1:2

We are to PUT OFF THE OLD SELF --- not maybe or it would be a good idea, or if you want --
but our COMMANDER IN CHIEF telling us to cease and desist - it is an order!

Put off the OLD --- you are HIS fully and completely - So live like it!!

in verse 17 the "must" is a translation of the word for INSIST.

we must see this section of Scripture as an imperative

Paul is not being wishy washy or suggestive.

He is telling us WE MUST NO LONGER.

Mark your Bible -- this is not to be read with hope, but with command of our daily actions -- our JUST FYI —

I told you that Paul was going to move from our Position - to the Practical ---

He laid the foundation, and now we are going to start the remodeling ---
we are to walk worthy and then strongly tells us to get rid of the old self --- Our character is going to and NEEDS TO CHANGE

Renewed Mind
Ephesians 4:23 “23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,”
We are to live as redeemed people because of the work of Christ, we are to live as we are born again putting off the old and walking as the new in Christ
this word === RENEWED in the original Greek
- not a changing of clothes but a changing of character.
the verb is used as a command, not a suggestion.
Chose to live differently
make the choice that Glorifies God
Take of the Old and Put on the NEW

there is a connection between the original Adam, the image bearer,
then the fall and the curse To the coming of Christ,
the death of the curse and then the redemption

-- it is a return to “WITH GOD” that Adam first experienced.
We can walk with God in cool of the day (Genesis 3:8)

Workmanship to Wicked to Wonderful in God's eyes??
We are returned to be an image bearer and therefore should act and live like it!

Likeness of God
Created in the beginning as the image of God, failed and lost Eden because of submission to sin,
BUT God so loved the whole world that He sent HIS SON to pay the needed price
we are redeemed made anew
and we are once again able to be with GOD in our Eden.

Ephesians 4:24 “24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Remember this verse in Genesis 1:26-27 “26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
We were in the Very BEGINNING created to be HIS Masterpiece, Created to be LIKE HIM.
Sin enters the world and that relationship and that position are changed.
Humans were cursed, but never abandoned.
we are adopted children of God given the eyes of our heart to walk wise, to focus on the grace and love of Christ .
Redeemed to live a new life that is lead worthy of our calling -
honoring and fulfilling Christ by equipping the saints to build the body for His glory.

New life, New man ,
New ways,
New directions and goals,
New measuring stick
not the world but Christ.

Don't miss this -- if we are saved, seal, and secured in Christ --
Then we have a guide with us every moment of every day of our NEW LIFE, NEW BIRTH -- the NEW YOU
Lets Pray and Finish in worship to our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Giving of Gifts

Christ Gives the Gifts

Ascending and Descending

Equipping of Saints

APEST

Purpose of Ministry

Growing the Saints

Growing Self

Growing the Others

Sound Doctrine

Centered and Grounded

Tossed To and Fro

Unity and Maturity

Speaking Truth in Love

Unity of the Body

Body of Christ

Focused on being the Body

Moving as One

Bound in Love

New Life, New Ways

Change Your Walk

What the Gentiles Do

Learning

Applying Our Learning

Renewed Mind

Likeness of God