Do You Really Want To Grow Up?
January 22, 2023
Ephesians 4:1-16 / Common English Bible
Unity of the body of Christ
4 Therefore, as a prisoner for the Lord, I encourage you to live as people worthy of the call you received from God. 2 Conduct yourselves with all humility, gentleness, and patience. Accept each other with love, 3 and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. 4 You are one body and one spirit, just as God also called you in one hope. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 and one God and Father of all, who is over all, through all, and in all.
7 God has given his grace to each one of us measured out by the gift that is given by Christ. 8 That’s why scripture says, When he climbed up to the heights, he captured prisoners, and he gave gifts to people.[a]
9 What does the phrase “he climbed up” mean if it doesn’t mean that he had first gone down into the lower regions, the earth? 10 The one who went down is the same one who climbed up above all the heavens so that he might fill everything.
11 He gave some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers. 12 His purpose was to equip God’s people for the work of serving and building up the body of Christ 13 until we all reach the unity of faith and knowledge of God’s Son. God’s goal is for us to become mature adults—to be fully grown, measured by the standard of the fullness of Christ. 14 As a result, we aren’t supposed to be infants any longer who can be tossed and blown around by every wind that comes from teaching with deceitful scheming and the tricks people play to deliberately mislead others. 15 Instead, by speaking the truth with love, let’s grow in every way into Christ, 16 who is the head. The whole body grows from him, as it is joined and held together by all the supporting ligaments. The body makes itself grow in that it builds itself up with love as each one does its part.
Footnotes
Hello Kingdom Family,
Welcome to our Jesus-centered community. We are glad you are listening to today’s message. “We are People Helping People Experience a Jesus-centered Life.”
Today we start our new 40-Day Growth Campaign called 40 Days of Prayer. Saddleback Church created this series. We tailor the message series to our context and a Jesus-centered foundation.
Before you listen to the message, you are encouraged to go to our website and download the lesson plan and bulletin for this message, dated January 22, 2024. Our message today is, “Don’t You Want To Grow Up?”
This sermon is Part I of VII, which sets the stage for the next six messages, which will be spread between now and Easter.
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Shalom,
Hill-Tran Ministries
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