I'd have you open your Bibles this morning to the letter of Paul to the Ephesians, chapter 4. Chapter 4 of Ephesians. Children, today we're going to use at least one word that you may not know. And that word is agenda. Even if some of you don't know the word, you all know what it means. You see, an agenda is simply a list of things that you need or want to do. Whether it's programmed into your palm pilot, written on your calendar, or just rattling around in your head, we all have and follow agendas. You even followed one today. When you got up and did all the things you needed to do in order to get here to church for this worship service, you followed an agenda. Now, as much as we might like to set our own agenda, often it is others who set our agenda for us. And this is especially true for your children. Your agenda is largely set by your parents, not only from day to day, but for the course of your life. My parents set for their children an agenda that still impacts our lives. There was never any doubt that they expected us to live in a way that would not embarrass them or disgrace the family name. Many things were spoken to us and many things left unspoken, but of those many things, two things still guide me, and I think probably guide you. First of all, we're to stick together as a family. And second, we are encouraged to discover and develop the qualities and abilities that make us unique. Not to be like our sister and not to be like our brother, but to be who God made us to be. Well, our Heavenly Father has an agenda also for His children. Now, He's revealed in chapters 1 through 3 the truth about who He is and what He's done for His people in Christ. And if by the grace of God you have a deep-rooted assurance that it is true for you, then you can count yourself a child of God. And as a member of his family, you are from now on more and more to live like you belong to the family. Think like it, speak like it, and act like it. See, God has an agenda for his family. And that agenda for Christian living is summarized in a very simple but comprehensive command in verse 1 of our text today. Where Paul writes, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. That's the agenda. And verses 2 through 16 start to explain in two very broad strokes what is involved in this Christian life we are to follow. First of all, we're to preserve organic unity. We're to stick together as a family. Even as we practice our given diversity. Developing and using our unique gifts within the body of Christ. That's the agenda. So listen with me as we read Ephesians chapter 4, verses 1 through 16. As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. One God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. but to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says, When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men. What does he ascended mean except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. It is he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men and their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the head, that is Christ. From Him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. Here ends the reading of God's Word, God's agenda for Christian living that begins with the charge for us to preserve organic unity. The mystery of the Gospel, as Paul wrote in chapter 3, verse 16, is that through the Gospel, The Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise of Jesus Christ. Through the Gospel, men and women from every nation, men and women from every status of society, are made living members of the one and only body of Christ. Now Paul frequently uses in his letters our familiarity with our own human body to teach us about the reality and the unity of Christ's body. He writes in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12 that the body, that is the human body, is a unit. Though it's made up of many parts and though all the parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. The one and only body of Christ is not so much an organization, not so much an institution, Certainly not a building as much as it is an organism, a living being in Christ. And it's intended by God to be vibrant and to be growing. Well, how can this be that many individuals, even in this room today, are all in fact truly one? We can't see it. We can't touch it. We can't smell it. We can hear it from God's Word. How do we know? Well, Paul answers this question in verses 4 through 6 where he presents a profound and beautiful description of the unity that is ours because we've been joined to Christ and therefore joined with God. Our unity rests on the unity of the Godhead. His choice of words is specific and symbolic. Each of these three verses speak of one person of the Trinity. In verse 4, the Holy Spirit. In verse 5, the Lord, Jesus. And in verse 6, God, the Father. And then bound up with the Trinity are four more things that unify the body of Christ. So that we have a total of seven. There's seven things Paul listed here. The biblical number for completeness and perfection. And to make it clear that this multitude, this seven things make us one. He repeats the word one seven times. So by repeating the word one a total of seven times, he expresses the complete and perfect unity of the church that is grounded in the complete and perfect unity of our triune God. Listen again to these verses that seemed out of place when we read this chapter to begin with. And listen to what Paul's doing here. There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. You see, we find in verse 4 three things that bind us together. One body, one spirit, one hope. And these are joined together. As we heard over and over again from chapters 1 through 3, there is only one body of Christ comprised of all who hear and believe the gospel by the working of the one Holy Spirit. And this one Holy Spirit is the deposit guaranteeing our one and certain hope for resurrection body and soul on the last day. One body, one spirit, one hope. And in verse 5 we find another three things that bind us together. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. And these are tied together. As we were reminded on Ascension Day, there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ. The God-man who descended from heaven and ascended to heaven and who reigns over all things. Now, in the last day, as we heard Thursday night, every knee will bow before His sovereignty and every tongue will confess His divinity. But now, already in this life, men and women, boys and girls to whom God gives the gift of true faith can already bend a knee and can already confess his name. See, everyone who shares this one faith in this one Lord, Jesus Christ, shares one baptism no matter how it was done to you. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13, we are all baptized by one spirit into one body. Jew or Gentile, slave or free. And then finally in verse 6, Paul turns our attention to God the Father of all His people, whether in heaven or on earth. Our Father in Christ Jesus. And the perfect unity of the Trinity is displayed here in this final verse. For it is He, God, who is over all and through all and in all. God the Father is over all. He created all things, but specifically He redeemed all His people. It's He who sovereignly chose us in Christ. And God the Son is through all. The mediator of all God's blessings. It is He who has redeemed us through His blood. And God the Holy Spirit is in all. Dwelling within the hearts of His people and binding them together as one. It is He who sanctifies us and conforms us to the perfect humanity of Jesus Christ. Because the unity of the body of Christ is established in the very nature of God, we must never think that the unity of the one true church can ever truly be broken. It cannot. For God cannot be broken. At the same time, we can deceive ourselves and deceive others into thinking that it is broken. When we do not display this unity that is ours in Christ, To the world, we bring disgrace upon the family of God and we bring shame to the name of Jesus Christ. Therefore, we're commanded in verse 1 to live a life worthy of the calling you've received. Now we're all called to be saints. And by God's declaration, saints we are. But as Martin Luther so well observed that Paul so aptly portrayed in Romans chapter 7, even though we've been declared saints, we continue to be sinners. That's why we are prone to neglect our own defects and sin and preoccupy ourselves with the defects and sins of everybody else. That's why we can stare at the speck of sawdust in our neighbor's eye even as we walk around with a plank in our own. This is why we're prone to focus on our own needs and desires and not the needs and desires of anybody else. You see, as sinners, we're all wrapped up with ourselves. We're quick to snap and snarl at the differences in the faults we see in others. We're quick to visit vengeance on anyone who slights us or ignores us or offends us. Oh, we may put on a pious facade. We may hide our anger and flash a smile even as we murder them in our hearts. and gossip about them to our friends and our family. Or bottle up our anger and resentment so that it ferments into bitterness that poisons the well of our relationship. We're sinners, yet saints. But by nature, our agenda is selfish. But God's agenda for the saints, for Christian living, is an agenda of selflessness. Verses 2 and 3 of our text present us with a particular set of actions and attitudes that are to characterize this selfless life. And before we can act in a selfless manner, we must have a selfless attitude. An attitude marked by humility, by gentleness, and by patience. Verse 2 begins, Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient. That's our attitude as saints. It is this attitude that we are to mimic that is the attitude of Christ who according to Philippians chapter 2 being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant. Therefore Paul writes further on in that chapter that we are to do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others as better than ourselves. Each of us should look not only to our own interests but also to the interests of others. That's the agenda for the saints. It is this selfless attitude in which we're like Christ who according to Isaiah chapter 53 was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is silenced so he did not open his mouth. When you're offended, consider the offense against Christ. And he did not open his mouth. Likewise, Paul writes in Philippians chapter 4 verse 5, you are to let your gentleness be evident to all. And the selfless attitude we are to be like Christ, who according to 2 Peter chapter 3, will come on the last day to judge the living and the dead. But who even now is patient with you. Not wanting any of you to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. Patience in the face of the most horrendous sin and offense. You see, the selfless attitude is ours not by birth. It's only ours by rebirth, by virtue being filled by the Holy Spirit. And yet as saints of God, we're responsible to express it, to show it in selfless acts in our relationships with others. In all relationships, there are two sides. We're either acting toward the other or we're responding to their actions towards us. And we find in verses 2 and 3 both sides being instructed. As we respond to other sinners, who are called to be saints for sure, but they're sinners, and as they offend us, according to verse 2, we are to bear with them in love. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, In the love chapter, of course, love, this love, is patient. It's kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It's not self-seeking. It's not easily angered. And it keeps no record of wrong. Brothers and sisters, you're going to be sinned against. You're going to be offended. Bear with one another in love. At the same time, we remain sinners and we interact with other people and we offend. And so we who ourselves are sinners are called as saints to act toward others, as verse 3 says, by making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. This means, according to Romans chapter 12, verse 18, that as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. You see, you're only responsible for you. How you respond and how you act. You're sinners, so you're not going to get it right all the time. But as saints, you're called to forbear and you're called to work hard. God's agenda for Christian living begins with his charge for us to preserve the organic unity of the body of Christ with a Christ-like attitude that expresses itself in restraint when offended and in strenuous effort to preserve peace with others. But Paul goes on in verses 7 through 16 to make it clear that this organic unity of the body is not preserved in a prescribed or programmed uniformity where everybody looks, acts, talks, and thinks the same. Rather, it's served by the diversity in the membership of this one body. The second part of God's agenda for Christian living is for the members of the body of Christ to practice given diversity. As he does in Romans chapter 12 and 1 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul, throughout these verses, 7 to 16, uses the metaphor of the human body for the church, again, to remind us of the coordinated and complementary gifts that Christ has given to the members of the one body. And the first thing we need to note about this given diversity is that it's given by Christ. Verse 7, Paul writes, but to each one of us, grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. And then we have this reference in verses 8 through 10. That can be confusing to us, but what Paul is doing here is offering a scriptural support for what he's just said. Christ is the one who's given his gifts. He's apportioned his grace, and this is why I say this. And he applies to Christ, Psalm 68, verse 18. You see, it's he, the second person of the Godhead, who descended to the lower earthly regions and became like us in every way, except without sin. He humbled himself. He was humiliated. He was found in appearance as a man, and he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on the cross and in the flesh. He perfectly obeyed the will of God the Father and fulfilled all righteousness in our place. And in the flesh He suffered the perfect justice of God against sin in our place. And in the flesh He was resurrected and ascended to the right hand of God the Father in our place. There He reigns as victor over Satan and sin and death. And in his glorified flesh, he has led the captives in his train, his church. He's gathered the spoils of war. And as the victor, he dispenses them as he sees fit. Therefore, just as Abraham and King David were victors in war and distributed the spoils of war to the people of God, so also Christ, as victor, distributes the spoils of his victory to his people. His body. He placed you here. Instead of Timbuktu or Cairo or Alaska. He has apportioned you here with a gift for His body. That's why Paul says again in verse 11, It is He who gave gifts to the church. Now the second thing we need to know about this given diversity is its word-dependent nature. The gifts of God are exercised in the dependence upon the word of God. Paul makes special mention in verse 11 of four categories of persons gifted by Christ for his church. We must not think this is a complete list of all the gifts that God has given to the church. It's not. We can go to Romans chapter 11, 1 Corinthians, I'm sorry, Romans chapter 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 1 Peter chapter 4, and we'll find a large list of gifts. And I don't believe that's even exhaustive. So this is not the sum and substance of what Christ has given the church here. Neither is that the sum and substance of all the offices he's given to the church because he doesn't mention elders or deacons, and we know that they've been given to the church. So why does Paul give this special mention to only a few of the many gifts and offices that Christ has given to the church? Why does he pick these out? Well, Paul did so because the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and pastors, here called pastors and teachers, were men appointed by God and gifted by Christ to minister His Word to the body. Ministers of the Word are gifted and commissioned to serve a particular and essential purpose within the body. We're not over the body. We're within the body given a particular charge. And that charge is to prepare God's people for works of service. Or as other translations put it, for equipping the saints for the work of ministry. For perfecting the saints under the work of ministering to others. So what does Paul mean here? The word in the Greek translated to prepare, to equip, is really the word for to perfect. And Paul's not saying that the ministers of the Word who are imperfect themselves somehow remove all the imperfections of their hearers. That's not what he's saying. That's not our job. What Paul does mean is that through their preaching and teaching the whole counsel of God, they give the saints everything they need for life and godliness. As we sit under the preaching and teaching of God's Word, we are equipped with all the tools we need to accomplish our individual part in the greater purpose for the body of Christ. That purpose of growing and maturing the body into the image of Christ. Listen again to Paul in verses 11 to 12 and see how this all flows. It is He, that is Christ, who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body may be built up. Like pebbles tossed into a pond, the ministers of the word are to set into motion through their preaching and teaching ever-expanding waves of Christian ministry and service within the body of Christ. So that together with the rest of the body of Christ, the body may be built up. We've all watched some of the activity over here as they've remodeled the parsonage. Did you notice the variety of equipment that men brought with them to the work site? Some arrived with a van full of tools and parts, some with paints and brushes, some with compressors and nails. But no matter the job, each worker came equipped with the tools he needed to do his part and contribute to the total project. Did any one of these workers do the entire project? Not at all. Did each one come with his own set of plans and do whatever he wanted every day? Did the electricians do the plumbing? And did the carpenters finish the concrete? And did the painters do the roof? Not at all. You see, each was commissioned by the owner, which in this case is the church, through the contractor to do a specific job specified on the blueprints. And when we apply this analogy to the church, we come to the church and we see that Christ is the owner. The ministers of the word are like the contractors. They study and apply the blueprint, the Word of God. And through them, Christ calls upon each and every member of his body to use the gifts and tools that he's given them to build up the body. No one would expect the contractor by himself to plan and prepare and to purchase and to build the entire project. At least if he wanted it done in his lifetime. No, the owner, in this case, Christ the Lord has already planned His church. He's already prepared His church. He's already purchased His church. But for His own good purpose and for our good, He has chosen to build His church using people like you, and like you, and like me. Worthless in our own right, but powerful and effective tools in His hand. If we understand Paul's meaning here, we cannot continue to live lives of complacency and inactivity in the church. Waiting on the pastors to build us up and make us mature. If we're waiting on that, we have a long wait. Because it isn't going to happen. See, ministers of the Word are members of the body just like the rest of us. And they can't build up the body all alone any more than any of us can. They're just as dependent upon each and every one of us as we are upon them, but in different ways, different gifts. It says, Paul says in verse 16, It is only as each part does its work that the body builds itself up in love. We've used a lot of construction and building imagery here to help our minds fathom what Christ is teaching us through this Word. But we must not slip into the error that he is talking about the organization or the building of this church structure. He's talking about the body of Christ. That through all the parts, like in our body, that we can't see, that work together, make us grow from children to adults. We're all those parts. And we're all working together to do our part, to grow this body. So you see, every time you sit under the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, you are shown more of the blueprint. And you're called again to get to work. No one's too young. The youngest one here that can hear this word is not too young. And no one's so old that they need to retire. Now certainly, the jobs will change as our bodies age. And our minds become less clear. But there is and will always be something to do in the building up of the Church of Christ. And I praise God this morning, as we all should, for the many and gifted members of His body who faithfully practice their gifts in this place. Some that you see, most that you don't. God knows who you are, even if no one else does. Well, how long is this project going to last? I keep getting asked that about the Parsons. How long until it's done? How long is this project going to last? How long is this body going to be built? Well, he says in verse 13, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Until we are conformed completely to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Not only individually, but as the body. And when will that be? I don't know. And neither does anyone else except God the Father. All I can tell you is that this is the agenda God has given to His church. And it will be good for the servant whom the Master finds busy at this task when he comes back. God's agenda for Christian living is clear. As the body of Christ, we are to preserve organic unity even as we practice our given diversity. But how will we know whether we're on track? How will we know that we're actually pursuing the agenda? Well, Paul paints a vivid picture here in verses 14 and 15. A picture that ought to call to your mind exactly what his point is. It's a picture of the change that will occur in the body of Christ as we are obedient to God's agenda for us. He begins then, not speaking of some point in the future when it will all be done, but then as we preserve and as we practice, then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men and their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the head, that is Christ. Speaking the truth in love here is a little misleading. Paul addresses that actually a little bit later in chapter 4 that we're to speak the truth in love. Speaking the truth in love here is really an attempt to translate being steadfast in the truth as opposed to the insecurity pictured by the winds and the waves were to be secure and anchored, steadfast in the truth. So in other words, as we follow God's agenda, we will no longer be unstable and vulnerable like infants. Rather, we will become stable and secure like adults. We will put off our childish and worldly ways by becoming more steadfast in believing the truth, in speaking the truth, and in living the truth, in love. We've seen the beginning. The overview of how we are to apply the Word of God to our lives. We've been introduced to God's agenda for Christian living that is indeed simple to remember. We're to preserve and we're to practice. We will find as we go through this letter some particular applications to those most vital relationships that all of us encounter. But even before we do, from what we've heard today, we know that this is a difficult task. In fact, you should know it's an impossible task in your own strength. But that being so, is that reason to leave our tools on the ground and walk home? Is that reason to neglect the agenda that God has set before us? If God has called us to this task, He has gifted us for it. And we need to remember. And we need to call on Him for His power to do it. Listen to what Paul prayed. Again, we've been through this, but listen again now with this before you, what you need to do. What Paul prayed in chapter 1, verses 18 and 19. He prayed that the eyes of our hearts might be enlightened in order that we might know the hope to which he's called us, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. His incomparably great power for us who believe. And remember that power is the very power that raised Christ from the dead. That's the power at work in us. We need to submit to it instead of fighting it. And he prayed again in chapter 3, verse 16, that out of His glorious riches, the Father would strengthen us with power through His Spirit in our inner being. People of God, as you survey the task God has set before you, and you compare your allegiance to it, Do not despair. Turn to Christ. Submit in prayer. Ask for the power of God to do that which He's called you to do. Because it's only the power of God working in us that we will ever will or ever do this agenda. It's only His good pleasure to work in us that will give us any success in this task. And that's why Paul closes out God's agenda here in this first 16 verses. He closes out with this reminder in verse 15. We usually skip to the end, but the beginning of this verse is very important. He says, From Him, that is Christ, from Him, the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. From Him, we do our work. And we build up the body of Christ together. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this word. We thank you, Father, that in your good grace you have chosen instruments such as us, those that belong in the scrap heap, those that have no useful purpose apart from your saving grace, apart from your enabling grace by which you enable us to do that which you call us to do. You've called us from darkness into life. You've raised us from death to life. You've brought us from being homeless into the household of God and made us your children. And you've set before us your agenda for us. You've made us one in Christ. That is a fact that will never change. And yet, Father, you're calling us to preserve that unity. You call on us to forbear with the sins of others and to work very hard to be obedient to you. And Father, you call upon each of us as we are informed by your word to be about the work you've set before us. Help us, Father, to look for ways to serve. Help for us, Lord, to see that which needs to be done, trusting that you have given us the skill, the ability, the gift to pursue it. Thank you, Father, that you've not left us to ourselves. Thank you that for the sake of Christ, our Lord, you've given us rich gifts. And for your good pleasure, you use us to build up this body. Lord, haste the day when Christ returns that we may see her in her fullness and see that she has been conformed completely to her Lord and her Savior. In whose name we pray, amen. Thank you.