Body Life at Its Best, Part 3

Today on Insight for Living God help us all in the exercise of our gifts no matter how capable we may be to so release the controls that the Spirit of God takes the controls and does wondrous things. And you know what will happen? The world outside won't believe it. They won't believe how you won't get even or won't hold a grudge or become revengeful.

That's a don't. In the last few decades countless churches have attempted to grow their membership through entertainment and activities. But how much better to follow the timeless prescription Paul gave centuries ago to the Ephesians. The key Paul said is to deploy your God-given gifts. Today on Insight for Living Chuck Swindoll reminds us that nothing is more winsome to an observing world than exercising our spiritual gifts, doing so in harmony, and doing so as spiritual grown-ups. Let's open up our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 4 as Chuck continues the message he titled, Body Life at Its Best.

Why has the Lord gifted the body with these spiritual gifts? I mean couldn't he have done it? Sure he could have done it. He can do it all. He's God. Well couldn't angels have done it? Absolutely. All he's got to do is say, go to it, and they're all over us.

Man they're everywhere. But he didn't do that. He said, I want the body to function within itself. I want the cells within my body to serve the body itself.

And so all the way through the writings of Paul, not all the way but in many places, Paul talks about the body functioning in health and the analogy is the church as the body. Now why does he do that? I want you to look at verse 12 because it is the answer to that question.

Why? There's an immediate reason, there's an intermediate reason, progressive reason, and there is an ultimate reason. The immediate reason is for the equipping of the saints. The intermediate reason is for the work of service. The ultimate reason is for the building up of the body of Christ.

Look at the verse. He gave some as, and he names all these gifts here, and the reason he did that was to begin with for the equipping of the saints. Your gift, when it is exercised, equips saints. My gift, when it is exercised, equips saints. Your gift may not be as visible as another person's gift.

It's not important. The Lord looks at the heart, not at the outward appearance. The primary purpose of the gifts, unless it is the gift of evangelism, is not to evangelize the lost, it is to equip the saints. And then the saints evangelize the lost. The church hasn't gotten that message, and the result is starving congregations the world over. The purpose of the gifts is to equip the saints so that the saints take up the work of ministry. Traditionally, people hire staff so the staff will do the work of ministry, and we sit back, arms folded, and if something needs to get done, we hire more, and we hire more.

If that didn't get done, hire somebody else. Nothing is said about volunteerism, it's just hire somebody else. Nothing wrong with staff, but the purpose of the staff isn't to do the work of ministry, it's to train others to do the work of ministry. We are not to be a group of spectators watching a few people do the work of ministry. We participate. We are engaged in meeting the needs of the flock, you with the other, her with him, he with him, her with her, me with you, you with me.

It is a give-and-take. It's like the cells working together, and when they work together, it's remarkable what a health pervades, and we take up the work of service. The word service, by the way, is the word deacon. We deacon.

We learn the work of serving one another, and ultimately, please observe to the building up of the body of Christ. Think of this as a strong body. Why are you laughing?

Really strong muscles, you know, pumping iron, really able to stand firm, climb mountains, go around the world in a boat, doesn't matter whatever happens, you're not gonna, you're not gonna give up, you're gonna go after it. Why? Because you've been built up. You've been prepared.

You've been equipped. When the body functions as it is to function, the life begins to flow, needs get met, and we no longer live like little children. Look, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, mark the word unity, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, mark the word knowledge, to a mature man, mark the word mature. If you wonder what that standard is, it is to the measure of the state of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

He is our standard. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming, but truthing it, mark the word truth, in love we are to grow up. Now I challenged us to grow up several days ago. Some of you remember being a little stunned when I used those words, grow up, and there they are right there in the scriptures. Verse 15, we are to grow up in all aspects into him who is the head, even Christ. We grow up. We are not adults living like children, we are adults handling ourselves in an adult manner.

Now let's be careful here. There's nothing wrong with children. I love children, and in fact often they don't have a clue. That's what's so cute about being with them. Nothing cuter than little children being clueless.

Few things more tragic than adults living clueless lives. Along comes some slick, capable spokesman for the cult, and he opens the door of his car and says, get in, and we slide right in. And we buy that whole message because we have been deceived by the trickery and craftiness of deceitful scheming.

I haven't grown up. When you are properly equipped doctrinally, when you are properly equipped physically and spiritually, you don't give in to the cults. You stand against it. You can sniff it out. You can smell this is wrong, and you have the courage to say, no thank you.

In fact, let me explain to you the truth, and on your own without a pastor nearby you can open the scriptures and show them the way. That's adult. While I'm on the subject, let me add, when you hear of splits in a church and church fights, church arguments, what you're hearing is children at play in adult bodies. That's what you're seeing.

That's what you're hearing. That's why it's so tragic. Few things are more tragic than a child in an adult body because you have the permission, but you haven't the wisdom to handle the role. The exercise of the gifts, the equipping of the saints, prepare you for hard times, and you grow up in all aspects. You know one of the great things about being adult is you're no longer selfish. What is it we remember and love so much about our mothers is that whether it was day or night, weekends or weekdays when we were sick, they were there. It's because we know they gave up this so that we might have that. It's called unselfish.

It's called maturity. I came across a little poem called Selfishness on Parade. I had a little tea party this afternoon at three. It was very small, three guests in all, just I, myself, and me. It was I who lit the candles and drank up all the tea.

It was also I who ate the pie and passed the cake to me. Children love that poem. There's nothing wrong with that to children. They think, man, that is a great party.

That's the way to go. But your ears perk up like a Doberman when you're an adult, and you see that because you know we haven't grown up. One of my constant prayers for Stonebriar Community Church is that we will become increasingly more adult, that I will become increasingly more adult as your senior pastor, that I will release you and not try to fix everything, that I will let you go through the times that you're going through without trying to explain them away or control them, that I will not fight for leadership, that I will not get my image and my name involved in all the things so that I can keep it under my domination. This isn't my work. This is God's work. Long after our names are forgotten, this work goes right on. God help us all in the exercise of our gifts, no matter how capable we may be, to so release the controls that the Spirit of God takes the controls and does wondrous things. I give you my word.

I will watch that carefully. I promise you not to pull rank. I promise that I will not abuse and manipulate you.

I promise I will challenge you to the nth degree. I will, without embarrassment, talk about your giving to the point of sacrifice, because that's adult, because I know in these cases it is eternal in dimension, not temporal, and you give to what will outlive you. Give of your sons to bear the message glorious. Give of your wealth to speed them on their way.

Pour out your soul for them in prayer victorious, and all you spend, Jesus, will repay. That's adult. That's adult.

That we might grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ. And you know what will happen? The world outside won't believe it. They won't believe the way you pay your bills, because that's adult.

That's responsible. They won't believe how courteous you are, even when they're not. They won't believe how you won't get even or won't hold a grudge or become revengeful. While I was away in another country, I heard that this particular nation, a particular nation that was brought up, lives by retaliation. They live to retaliate. What a terrible way to live. There's not a person listening to me right now that can't blame somebody for something.

Let it go. A German skeptic who was a poet wrote of what it would take to convince him that the church was in fact God's message to the world at large. This is what he said, you show me your redeemed life, and I might be inclined to believe in your Redeemer.

Isn't that great? Because chances are good that person will never bother to come to Stonebriar Community Church. They're just watching the church on parade in your neighborhood at work, on that ball team, in that club, among your foursome on the golf course. That's the church.

That's the gospel they're reading. From Christ, verse 16 states, the whole body being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies. Isn't that beautiful? According to the proper working of each individual gift or part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Isn't that great? It builds itself up in love. Parents don't stand alongside adolescents saying, get taller! Get taller!

It's ridiculous. Everyone help them get taller. The body has to build itself up. Stature and emotional stability come from within, not forced from without.

And did you miss what I read earlier? Truthing in love. Truthing in love. There's the balance. John R.W. Stott put it like this, truth becomes hard if it is not softened by love. Love becomes soft if it is not strengthened by truth. You need both.

You need both. While we were in Israel, we asked one of our good friends over there, Samuel Smaja, who is an Israeli man we have known for years and has a travel agency that helps us with our plans. Samuel, we asked him to give his testimonies of Messianic Jew and he stood and did that. It was wonderful to hear how he, a man born of Israeli parents, has now come to Christ, the Messiah. And I expected him toward the end of his talk to refer to the importance of evangelism of the Israelis.

He didn't go there. You know what he emphasized? With a little heavy heart, a bit of a heavy heart, he said, you know how you can pray for us, pray for the church, that we'll get along. Pray that believers here will get along. Pray that we'll grow together and grow up so that as a result our nation that isn't looking for the Messiah as we know him will realize he has come and is available. And our lives will become so attractive they won't be able to deny him any longer. I'd like you to bow your heads and I'd like you to close your eyes. This is an important moment for all of us. Just close your Bibles, shut out all the interruptive stimuli that could occupy your thoughts and attention.

Just be still. Growth is an individual matter and some seem to grow rather rapidly, others it seems to take half a lifetime for even a few biblical principles to get nailed down. I don't know where you are in that spectrum but you know. I had a friend say to me following the first service we had this morning that he was a recovering alcoholic and I told him how proud I was of him for telling me and for doing a hard thing and his wife also going through that.

He said I read something in one of our one of our books that really helped me and he gave it to me and I asked him to write it down because I want to share it with all of you from one of their books. The root of our trouble is selfishness and self-centeredness driven by a hundred forms of fear. The root of our trouble is selfishness and self-centeredness driven by a hundred forms of fear. It's quite possible that you've been abused at another church. It's possible that you've been manipulated taken advantage of and and you're you're afraid now to give yourself and so you need time to heal. Take time.

We need your service and we need your involvement but not to the point of forcing you to it. You'll know when it's right. Take your time. Growth is a slow and tedious process. The thing you're going through right now rather than running from it, run toward it.

Run toward it. It may be the very thing that will help bring you closer toward the level of maturity where the Lord wants you. The thing you fear rather than ignoring it, address it. Admit it.

It just may be that by conquering this fear through the help of a brother or sister or family member, you'll move closer to maturity than you've ever been before and for you who are so intense about other people's growth, lighten up. No one left you in charge of their lives. Lighten up. Release that to the Lord. Let that go.

Just let it go. Of course, if you've never known the grace of God in Christ, if you've never come to saving faith in the Savior, if you've never received Him and found the joy of a new birth, this is a great moment to take care of that right there where you're sitting, right now. Lord, teach us to be comfortable in moments like this. Guard us, Father, from the need to to become almost neurotic about this thing called faith. Give us an easy style, easy to live with, easy to be around.

Give us a sense of acceptance of one another, which is true love, love on parade, allowing others to be adolescent where we once were and not condemning them. Give us patience, long suffering. And Lord, for some, stabilize during this time.

It's rocky for some. The future is uncertain and everything within us screams to get order out of the chaos and it just may not be what you've planned. So give us a sense of quiet confidence in you. And in this ministry, Lord, help us all in leadership to hold it very loosely, to realize that you're doing a remarkable thing. It's not something to brag about. It's for us to brag about.

It's not something for us to promote. It's just we need to respond correctly to it, whatever that may mean. Encourage the congregation, Lord, so that we as a flock, as cells in the body, do what we can do to help in whatever area needs to be addressed. Thank you on this day in your eternal plan for this message, straight from your word.

It says one thing to one person, something altogether different to someone else. Thank you for fitting it, tailor-making it to touch us at a level of need. Finally, Lord, I pray that you would help us to get out of our childish ways, our selfishness and self-centeredness and our tendency to overreact or to be rash or clueless. Help us to be adult in this thing called the Christian life. Help us to take our own responsibility rather than looking for someone to blame. Guard us from rationalization when we've done what is wrong. Help us to admit it like an adult. Help us to come to terms with it.

Amen. You're listening to Insight for Living and the Bible teaching of pastor and author Chuck Swindoll. Chuck titled today's message Body Life at its Best. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. This is a good time to remind you that every Sunday morning you have the opportunity to see the body life at Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco, Texas, where Chuck is the senior pastor. Each weekend we stream Chuck's full-length message live, including the majestic worship music as well.

To take a front-row seat in the worship center, go to this dedicated website for all the details, insight.org slash sundays. Well, most of us look forward to putting the year of 2020 in the rearview mirror. Between the global pandemic and unprecedented unrest, it's felt like we're stumbling in the darkness and certain of what 2021 will bring. Psalm 119 105 says, Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path. This statement inspired us to create a daily desk calendar for you called Quotable Chuck Daily Insights from the Pulpit. It's a flip calendar that'll help you focus on the light of God's Word every day in 2021.

God hasn't left us to stumble in the darkness hoping for the best. You can shine the light of His Word on your path every single day. To purchase the flip calendar called Quotable Chuck, just call us if you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888 or go to insight.org slash store. And then as you measure the impact of Chuck's teaching on your life, and as God prompts you to share this Bible teaching with others around the world, we invite you to add a donation to your purchase. Your gift is what gives us an opportunity to be heard on your station, the internet, and through our mobile app every day. To give a one-time donation, go online to insight.org.

Or it may be quicker for you to call us if you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888. Need a spiritual makeover? Well Chuck Swindoll describes what it means to put on the new self, Wednesday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Body Life at Its Best, was copyrighted in 2000, 2001, and 2009. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.