Audio version
Summary of Grace, gifts & calling
Preamble
Brent gets the crowd engaged and laughing with a story about the recent power outage in his neighbourhood. Brent gets up to some hilarious antics regarding life without power. Brent then transitions to discussing the theme of the Sunday — Global Missions.
Ephesians 4:3-7 – the church should be unified but not homogenous
The writer of Ephesians makes it clear that we need to be a united global church. Then the author discusses how the church is made up of unique individuals, and even though we all believe the same thing it doesn’t mean the church will be homogenous.
Serving Grace
Serving Grace is the outworking of God’s eternal plan in which He calls undeserving people to the privilege of His service, and then directs, empowers, and blesses their work.
Ephesians 4:7 – Serving Grace is given as gifts in appropriate amounts
In this verse Paul is talking about God’s giving of “serving grace”. It is important to realize it is given, meaning we didn’t ask for it and it is given to us in an appropriate amount for who we are as a person.
Ephesians 4:8-10 – Ascended on high and low
Brent takes a small aside and discusses the concepts of this set verses. He brings up a number of interpretations of “When he ascended on high…”. Brent focuses on the point of this aside and that Jesus has the ultimate authority. Jesus is King.
Jesus is King – what does that mean for us as believers?
Brent brings it all back to verse 1 from chapter 4, “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” We are all called to serve God in a God loving and God honouring manner.
Turn outward and live God’s purpose
SouthRidge is to shower our community with God’s love and use our God given skills to do this! But we must remember that as a church it isn’t our job to ask other people to go out into the world and serve God. No, that is God’s job and we are the people who must go out and serve.
Another role of the church is to help test those who have been felt a call from God. Is it a true calling? Are they properly equipped to go?
A sad trend
Brent notices a scary trend of young adults going off to do short term mission works to get experience in the world and for them to see God’s working. And then upon their return they reject God. It is because they are not prepared. As a church we have not tested them. As a church we have not prepared them.
The concept of the body of the church
Brent teases a little bit about next week’s message regarding the “body of the church.” He tells us we’ve got the metaphor wrong. We aren’t stuck in one spot of the body. We aren’t stuck as a “hand” to always serve. Instead Brent reminds us that God can switch our role whenever he wants. Brent reminds us that we are all called to turn outward.
About this Message Series
This is a message in a series called Ephesians. The goal of this series is to discuss the topics and themes that arise from the New Testament book Ephesians. The book of Ephesians is a letter that Paul wrote while in prison. Sometimes it is called a Prison Epistle. It was written to encourage believers. He was encouraging other faithful followers of Jesus to serve in unity and love in the midst of persecution. This series was started in January 2016.
About the Speaker
Brent is the lead pastor here at SouthRidge. He and his wife Pam were part of the original church plant.