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Most everyone wants to live a better story. The hope of living a better story is the premise of every single advertisement. If you attend such-such university, your dreams will become a reality. If you drink this beverage, it will boost your energy and focus. If you can get your hands on an iPhone 6... Election season is upon us. ‘If you elect governor-senator-representative-judge-clerk-sheriff so-n-so, you'll be so happy.'
Last Sunday we introduced this idea of fidelity. Fidelity simply means faithfulness, devotion, commitment. Take your relationship with God. How might you live a better story if you put your hope in God and trusted his word? Or, what if you surrendered more fully to the Spirit of God and learned to put on God's holy character... Or, what if you learned to live within God's will in marriage, share grace and truth, and persevere no matter how hard, messy, risky, costly the relationship became?
Fidelity to our relationship with God is powerfully transformational. Fidelity to our marriages and families, in itself, would revolutionize our society. Ask any teacher, "what would happen to test scores if every student had a stable home life?" Ask any police officer, "what would happen to crime rates if every child found love in their home?" Ask any financial planner, "what would happen if couples could save just a fraction of what gets spent on lawyers, divorce courts, child support, maintaining dual rent, dual utilities, dual upkeep of households?" Ask any doctor, "how much would health costs plummet if people didn't have the added stress of marital/family trouble?"
This morning I want to introduce another kind of fidelity...fidelity to the body of Christ, the Church. Where is there anything else, in all the earth, like the church? I mean, we know the story of God. We have the words of life! And best of all, we're living a better story! God has put us here, in Springfield, IL, at this exact time and place, to prove the power of this life he's given us in Christ. People don't have hope. They don't believe their story can change. But then they see what God's been doing in us!
In Ephesians 4, Paul helps us understand the nature of the Church...
The Church has a commitment to one-ness (1-6).
In Ephesians 4:1-3 Paul describes the essence of a healthy Church: "As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace."
In the church there is a concentration not of flawless people, but of faithful, God-fearing, worthy men and women, from all walks of life. And these people come together as one, to humbly live out God's call on their life, and set an inspired standard for all to follow. No church is perfect. But where is there any circle of relationships like the church, in all the world, so readily supportive, as what's found in a healthy church?
Ephesians 4:4-6 describes the basis for unity in the Church: "4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."
The essence of fidelity is striving for oneness. These verses are an inventory of all that unites us... we are one body. We have one Spirit, one story of hope, one calling. We have one Lord, who is our God and Savior and King, one baptism, one God/ Father.
One of the biggest contradictions to the gospel is a divisive church member. Christ Jesus died to destroy the dividing wall of hostility and to make the two one. But some would just assume rebuild the wall. Unity is a proclamation of the gospel's power. It's one of the most tangible ways we demonstrate the power of this life...
In Philippians 2:1-4 Paul writes, "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interest but each of you to the interests of others."
If people can't see the power of the gospel unifying the church, why would they suppose that power could change their life, their marriage, their family, or their world?
The Church has a commitment to service (7-11, 16).
There is no organization on all the earth so great as the body of Christ. But the church never suffers as much, pastors are never so burnt out and crushed, and members are never so bored and complacent, as when the work of many is put on so few. An essential ingredient that makes the church flourish (in addition to unity) is having leaders willing to both equip and give the work of the church back to the people.
Ephesians 4:7-11 says, "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it says: ‘When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people." 9 (What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? 10 He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers."
Ephesians 4:12 describes how the purpose of leaders is, "to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up" Ephesians 4:16 describes how, "From [Jesus] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."
One of the greatest contradictions to the gospel is a disengaged church member. It's one thing to tell people how in all things God works for the good of those who love him... it's another thing for us all to roll up our sleeves and demonstrate God's love.
The Church has a commitment to maturity (12-14).
Ephesians 4:12-14 describes the goal of the church, "... 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 people in their deceitful scheming."
When I think of growing toward maturity... every storm is an opportunity for us, as a family of believers, to believe more deeply in Jesus, become more fully like Him, build up other one another in our faith, ... it's an opportunity to live larger and bless the world by demonstrating the power of this new life.
Being "tossed back and forth" and "blown here and there" and "the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming" is an apt description of what happens when we try to live a better story alone. Without God, without hope, and without one another... we're more easily deceived, were more apt to get blind-sided by a rogue wave, we're more apt to get shipwrecked.
In a healthy church a commitment to unity, service, and growing toward maturity is our highest priority. But it can only happen as we speak the truth in love.
There is a necessity for sharing grace and truth (15-16).
Ephesians 4:15-16 describes the remaining ingredients for a healthy church... by the way its also the same ingredients for a healthy marriage, or any healthy relationship... "Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of 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."
We don't grow without learning to speak the truth in love with one another.