David [00:00:01]:
Last week, I shared what it meant to emerge. We discussed five things. One was to come forth, another was to rise up and out.
David [00:00:32]:
Another was to proceed from the fourth one was become known, and the fifth one come into being. Today I want to share with you the four steps or phases we go through so we can emerge and be all God created us to be. These four steps are edify, encourage, equip, and empower. We’re going to start with what it means to edify or to be edified. And so let’s look at the power of edification. Ephesians, chapter four, verses 1112, says this, and he gave some apostles, some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now, before we dive into the power of edification, I want us to stop and look at one word here. In Ephesians 412, it says, he gave all these gifts for the perfecting of the saints.
David [00:01:50]:
That word there, perfecting in the Greek, means the complete furnishing or the complete equipping. God called the fivefold ministry, the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor, the teacher, to completely Furnish and equip the body of Christ so that we could go forth and do the work of the ministry. Our father God, wants you completely furnished with all you need to fulfill his purpose for your life. He wants you equipped for whatever he has called you to. And that’s why he gave these ministry gifts to the body of Christ, so you could go forth in confidence and boldness and be all that he created you to be. Ephesians 412 says this, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. And so that last phrase for the edifying of the body of Christ is what we’re focusing on today, and it has a twofold meaning, which we are going to start to explore now. So we see there, by looking at that verse, the fivefold ministry comes for a twofold process, the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry and the edifying of the body of Christ.
David [00:03:23]:
So we are perfected, equipped, furnished with all we need, so we can do the work of the ministry and edify the body of Christ. So let’s jump into this. Let’s define what edifying means. Edifying here in this verse, in the greek, is the act of building. It’s the building up of someone. It’s the act of one who promotes another’s growth in christian wisdom, piety, happiness and holiness. What we see here is God gave the fivefold ministry gifts for building up and promoting the growth of the church in four ways. And those ways are, this is from right there in verse twelve.
David [00:04:19]:
Number one, wisdom. Wisdom is your knowledge of the truth combined with your ability to live the truth. And we remember that in James the first chapter. He says, if any of you lack wisdom, ask of your father God, who gives it liberally, without holding it back, without judging you. He says, yeah, come on, I got wisdom. I’ll share it with you. And so one of the ways that we’re equipped and furnished is with wisdom and the truth, the knowledge of the truth. The second way we’re furnished and equipped is impiety and piety is devotion to God in practice and principle.
David [00:05:07]:
And so we are devoting ourselves to loving the Lord God and serving our God and Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior, practically in practice and in principle. And so we learn how to devote ourselves to the Lord God and give ourselves to him to surrender to him. The third way, we are furnished and equipped and edified, is happiness. It says, edifying is happiness. It means to rejoice and be glad. Now, guys, let me say this, and I’m going to teach on this probably here in a few weeks, but we as christians need to learn how to rejoice and be glad more is something we need to do more often. Part of the reason that in Israel’s history and culture that God had them. They had all these feasts and weeks of celebration.
David [00:06:06]:
They were celebrating the goodness of God and all he did for them and remembering him. And so we need to make rejoicing and being glad and coming with a joyful heart a part of what we do every day. It doesn’t matter what you’re facing, you can still rejoice in the Lord and be glad because he’s right there with you. So part of edifying others is to pour happiness into them, hallelujah. To encourage them. And we’re going to look at that depth here one week, too. The fourth way we edify is holiness. It means consecration, purification, sanctification.
David [00:06:56]:
It means setting apart unto a purpose, your heart, your life. And so as we come in holiness, as we come setting ourselves apart unto the purpose of God for us, we build others up. We build others up. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Praise God. You know, I was on a phone call a couple days ago with one of my brothers in the Lord and man, I felt so energized and so built up personally just from the fact that I called to build him up and edify him and what a blessing it was to see what God was doing in him and for him, and to hear his testimony and to hear how much he gained from our conversation together. God wants you to do that with somebody around you every day, all the time.
David [00:07:55]:
It could be your wife, it could be your husband, it could be your children, it could be your friends, somebody at work, somebody at church. But there’s somebody we can build up. Just a simple word of encouragement, I’m not talking about spending hours. Just a simple word of encouragement can mean more than you know. And I know what it means to me when somebody calls me or reaches out to me and encourages me. It’s priceless. And so that’s how we come. We come with wisdom, piety or devotion to God, happiness and holiness, to edify and build up the body of Christ.
David [00:08:42]:
And so the fivefold ministry works with us to build us up so we can go and build others up and do the work of the ministry, which is inviting others into relationship with Jesus Christ. In fact, let’s look at that. Second Corinthians, chapter five, verses 18 and 19, says this, and all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. So reconciliation is doing the work of the Lord, the work of the ministry. And we have that message we’ve been given that reconciliation means the restoration of the favor of God to sinners that repent of their sin and put their trust in the atoning death of Christ, and come into relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Let me read that again. Reconciliation is a restoration of the favor of God to sinners that repent of their sin and put their trust in the atoning death of Christ and come into relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. So when we come into relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, we are restored to favor with God.
David [00:10:27]:
Unmerited favor. We didn’t earn it, we didn’t deserve it. God just gave it to us because he loves us. God loves us, and so we are highly favored and blessed of the Lord. Reconciliation is God’s initiative here in the earth, restoring a broken world to God’s intentions by reconciling to himself all things, everyone through Christ, including the relationship between the people of God and between one another. As it says in one John, chapter four, love Goddess and love one another. That’s what this is all about. Reconciliation, the ministry, our life here in the earth, representing the kingdom of God, is about loving God and loving others.
David [00:11:24]:
And Jesus said in Matthew 22, it’s about loving God and loving others as you love yourself. So three relationships there, love God, love others, love yourself. Hallelujah. Favor means God’s goodwill, God’s complete acceptance. Wow. Think about that. When we come into relationship with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ, we are completely received. We have complete acceptance.
David [00:12:00]:
God accepts us completely. All sin is washed away. We are redeemed to perfection. God’s goodwill. It is the benefits and advantages of being in relationship with him. And those benefits and advantages are available to you every second of every day. Hallelujah. His favor is a gift to you.
David [00:12:32]:
And I’ll say this again, we didn’t do anything to deserve it and we can’t earn it. We simply receive it. Say, thank you, Lord, for your favor. Thank you, Lord, for your favor for your blessing. I start almost every day with that. Thank you, Lord, for your favor for your blessing. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
David [00:12:58]:
Let’s look at this verse again in the amplified classic version. I want to read it from there. Second corinthians 518 and 19 in the amplified classic. But all things are from God and we know what all means. It means all right, all things are from God, who through Jesus Christ reconciled us to himself. He received us into favor, brought us into harmony with himself and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation. We’re in harmony with him. He resonates with us.
David [00:13:36]:
We resonate with him. And gave to us the ministry of reconciliation. He gave it to us that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with him also. So this is going to be everybody in harmony, everybody rejoicing and singing, everybody glorifying God. But listen to that. I like the way it says it here. And gave us a ministry of reconciliation that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with him. You don’t have to have a theology degree to bring others into harmony with him.
David [00:14:18]:
You don’t have to know all the definitions and all the Greek and Hebrew and all that. It’s just simply by your words and your deeds. People hearing what you say, your words of love, your kind acts of grace and mercy, to them, your acts of love to them, by your words and deeds, you can bring others into harmony with them. That’s all it is. That’s all it is. It’s loving people. It was God personally present in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with himself, not counting up and holding against men their trespasses, but canceling them and committing to us the message of reconciliation, of the restoration to favor. Ha ha.
David [00:15:14]:
Hallelujah. The restoration to favor. You have been restored to favor. I have been restored to favor. And we get to go forth as God’s representatives and offer restoration to favor with Goddess to everyone else we come in contact with. And again, it’s simply by our words and deeds we are empowered to do the ministry of reconciliation. God’s desire for us to introduce people to him and God’s desires to restore his favor in their lives so they can enjoy experience of benefits and advantages. Relationship with him also.
David [00:15:57]:
He wants them to be in harmony with them also. Hallelujah. Glory to God. What a privilege and honor we have to introduce our Father God, our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, our brother, the Holy Spirit, to those around us and see transformation happen in their lives also. Now let’s go back to Ephesians 412. There are two things to notice here. Ephesians 412, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Now, I’ve already mentioned this, but I want to bring it back out again and remind you, number one, we’re edified or we’re perfected by the five fold ministry, furnished with all we need for the work of the ministry.
David [00:16:54]:
And that ministry is reconciliation through our words and deeds and for the edifying or the building up of the body of Christ, the building up of our brothers and sisters in Christ. We’re here to build up each other. Hallelujah. The five fold ministry builds us up, edifies us, the church, so we can invite others into relationship with God. And we are also empowered to build up, to edify one another, to encourage one another. John four seven says this, beloved, let us love one another. For love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
David [00:17:52]:
Your father. God is love. And so when we come into relationship with him, he wants to flow that love through us. Paul and writing there in Ephesians chapter three, talks about that. A part of his mission, a part of his passion, is that we would know the height and depth and the length and breadth of the love of God, which is his fullness in the body in the saints. Hallelujah. God wants us to walk in the fullness of his love. Romans 1419 says this, let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith 1 may edify another or 1 may build up another.
David [00:18:45]:
God wants us edifying one another, edifying those that we want to invite into the kingdom of God. Ephesians 416 says this, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. And so the body of the church is joined together. We’re fitly joined to one another by that which every joint supplieth. We all have something to bring. God wants to flow through all of us, to bring edification to those around us. We all have something to give. We build the body, the church.
David [00:19:43]:
It says here in this verse, in love, the edifying of itself in love, the building up of itself in love. How using your voice and your story of how God set you free, those are your words. See, we’re using the words, using your talent, your experience to serve others, your deeds, till we see it right there. Our words and deeds are used to edify the church, to edify those we’re going to invite into the church to edify one another. Ephesians again, chapter four, verse 29, says this, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace favor unto the hearers. Hallelujah. God wants to use the words of your mouth to edify those around you. First, Corinthians 1412 says, even so, ye, forasmuch as you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that you may excel to the edifying of the church, to the building up of the church, to the building up of your brothers and sisters in the Lord, a part of us all becoming what God wants us to be, who he created us to be, while fulfilling our purpose in this life, is using all our potential, our gifts, our passions, to love and serve others.
David [00:21:35]:
One of the things, if you remember, I’ve shared this over the last few weeks, several times actually. But that word subdue there in Genesis 128, when it says subdue the earth, it means using all of its vast resources in the service of God and man. That’s the way we edify everyone around us. I shared this last week, but I want to share it with you again. Mark Batterson, pastor and author of the Circle Maker, says this God’s gift to you is your potential. What you do with it is your gift back to him. Our heart here at emerge International Church is to edify you, to build you up, to see you happy and whole so you can emerge and be all God wants you to be. We want to see you walk in the fullness of all that God has for you.
David [00:22:48]:
Let’s bow our heads and pray. Father, we thank you that you love us and you desire to partner with us, co labor with us, and to work together with us, to use our words and our deeds to edify and build up those around us. And lord, I pray that you show us this week, give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hard to understand every opportunity and every possibility that you bring to us. For us to edify others, to share the good news of the gospel relationship with you, coming into favor and harmony with you, with those around us. I pray that we see it, we step into it, and we be all that you’ve called and created us to be so that your kingdom can come here in the earth and your will be done here in the earth as it is in heaven. And we thank you for doing that in us, through us, with us, and for us. In Jesus name, so be it. Amen.
David [00:23:59]:
Pastor Conia is coming with a closing word in prayer. God bless you. Have a great weekend. Weak.
