Time to Grow Up | Ephesians 4:11-16 | Arik Hayes

Your majesty. Frank you might hang out with me brother. I appreciate you man. Welcome to 2018-19 church of beloved. My name is Eric Hayes. I'm one of the elders here. Thank you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you. And I take that call seriously. We are a church that is a house of prayer, presence and proclamation. Want to welcome our online community, digital disciples. Some who may be in the building. Thanks for knowing us. Yeah, a couple. A couple. We give some digital disciples, visitors from all over the world, all over the country, all over the state. I want to say every Sunday. And I just want to acknowledge you, those that are in the room, those that are online. I want to welcome the unbeliever. This is a place where you can absolutely belong before you believe. Is Brittany in the building? Is she here? Okay. That's right. I want to honor her anyway. Right. So Brittany Timmins leads our outreach. Right. And some of you are aware, some of you are not. We have an initiative called serve in 25 and we mobilized. I got the numbers approximately 1000 Christians all over the Metro Atlanta area yesterday for the sole purpose of doing the work of the ministry. We won't get to that. And being the tangible hands and feet of Jesus, and it was not on a Sunday morning. I said it was not on a Sunday morning. That means you had to inconvenience yourself and take some time out outside of just the regular check off the box Sunday and say, I'm going to inconvenience myself to do what the body has been called to do. So I just want to honor her. I want to honor her whole team. I want to honor all of 2018-19 disciples and Christians that went out there. I just want to honor you guys. And as his customary, I will continue to do so. I want to honor the pastor of this house, Philippine Mitchell. Amen. Amen. There's no forcing. I'm going to give you the space to do so if it's in your heart. Because it's a weighty call. It's a weighty call to stay steadfast in the gospel, in your assignment until we fall asleep in him or he cracks the sky to come and get it. So I just want to honor him because he has kept his hand to the plow. Amen. And it's a church where I continue to walk through the book of Matthew and we just finish up the series titled Entry and End Times. And I'll be preaching a standalone message that has been titled Time to Grow Up. Time to Grow Up. By your head, let me pray for us. Holy Father. You know the hearts of men and women that are here, that are tuning in. You even know which recording is going to go up, God. I don't, God. But you, you sit in your Word and your Scriptures for a reason. And God, I just want to be faithful to this assignment. Help me be faithful to this assignment, oh God, to handle your people with care and with courage. To both confront and comfort. By your grace and by your Holy Spirit. God, I look to decrease so that you will increase in this hour. Jesus, then we pray. Amen. So, again, some of you guys know, some of you don't know, I used to teach premarital. Just a little plug. I know you guys been asking, sending emails saying, hey, it's been a while. We've actually, we're redoing the curriculum. Just got pretty much the final rough draft. So just look for the announcement, right? So when it's time, you can jump in there, right? So one of the things, I'll give you a little bit this morning, some of you actually won't make it a premarital. Okay. Right? No, it's really okay. This is why. So one of the things I do, like really on like the first, the first time that we meet, I slow you down, right? Because by the time you get in premarital, you've probably been with this person like a year, year and a half, two years. Y'all all in love, you know, met the family, you know, had some conversations. Y'all love each other, look those in the face. Y'all really spent some time together, right? And you're saying, hey man, this is the person that I want to marry. This is the person I'm really considering marrying. I want to be able to have a covenant with this person. Like we both saved, hopefully. I'm going to tell you man, if you believe you bring somebody here and we're not, we're not, and we're not God, right? But if we're not seeing fruit in their lives and we believe that they're unsaved, I'm going to tell you you shouldn't get married. Why? Right? Because everybody talks about being unequally yoked and we use it in all other instances. We're talking about what does Christ have to do with below? What does light have to do with darkness? What does a believer have in business marrying an unbeliever? And that's your straight Bible. How in love you are? If you love Jesus and you're marrying an unbeliever, you are setting yourself up for unnecessary pain and possibly torment. I love you so I'll tell you. So just say you are believers and I say, everybody says, I want to get married and they're probably looking at each other and they giggle and they smile and all that good stuff and it's beautiful, right? I say, hold on, hold on, hold on. Remove the word marriage. Because I can say I want to get married. You can say you want to get married. But everybody has reasons why they get married. Everybody has reasons. They have benefits. They have plans for the marriage. Not just getting married for no reason. It can be superficial. Yo, she fine. Okay. It can be a reason. Hopefully it ain't the main one, right? He tall, dark-haired, so whatever. He got money or whatever. Or I like the house. Or I like the car. It could be, yo, now I finally get to go home and bring somebody home and don't have a weird time at Thanksgiving explaining why I'm single. Why don't somebody help me with these bills? I'm okay with going 50-50. Listen, listen. But there are real reasons of the heart as to why you get married. And so often they haven't really shared it with each other. So like the first time I say, slow it down. I know you want to get married. Yeah, you love each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, write them reasons down though. And don't frown on them. This is not the time to be cute. Last thing you need to do is get married to somebody with a hidden reason, jump over the broom and get a surprise them with it. Ta-da! This is why I really wanted you. Oh my goodness. And this is going to get crazy in your household. And guess what they going to call? They going to call me. Guess what? I'm going to take it. I'm going to take it. Because I love you. Right? So likewise, man, I think if we're honest, man, like we're very aware of what we want out of salvation. Aren't you very aware of what's in your heart of why you're saved and what you want out of the relationship with God? Right? But too many of us have never stopped and slowed down to ponder and meditate on what God wants out of us as we are the bride of Christ. We don't think about it. Our prayers would be different. How we handle hardship will be different. How you handle assignments will be different. How you handle people will be different or it would be. So I just want to slow down. Look at some scriptures. Let's see what the Lord wants from us this morning. All right. And some of y'all may be ready to check out already. I say don't do that. Right? Because we've already talked about his glory, the weight of his presence is so much more important than anything you want to check out over anyway. And if you intend to have a relationship with him, if you don't figure this out and hear him, it's going to be dysfunctional the whole time. So because I love you, I'm asking you, don't check out. Leave the live stream on. All right family, we're going to jump into Ephesians 4 chapter. And this one is special to me because I find myself in this verse. Ephesians 4, 11 through 16. And it reads, beloved ESV version. It said, he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the sake of the Lord. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. Let's stop right there. Who is to do the work of the ministry? Okay, let's make it plain, right? We talk about the apostles, the prophets, evangelists, and in cultural Christianity, we turn that upside down. We say the preacher does the work of the ministry. Don't we? Don't we? Have you ever heard of the word of the Lord? Having some of us brought people to church to hear pastor Phil whoever's preaching so that they would share the gospel when you have the same gospel in your mouth and in your Bible? To do the work of the ministry sounds like serve in 25 to me. Let's keep going. First, well, to equip the saints for the work of the ministry for building up the body of Christ. It says, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, say mature, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. What is God calling us to? Maturity. Maturity. And what does maturity look like until we grow up and we look like Christ? That should be our lean. That should be our aim. That should be what we are doing. He is our focal point. He is our idol. He is the one we should be imitating. And I want to say to any preachers in the building or listening, that's what we should be pointing everyone towards. And too many times in cultural Christianity, the prophet, the shepherd, the apostle, the evangelist points people to themselves. And it is wicked and demonic. I said, this is personal to me. I find myself in there as a shepherd and a teacher, right? If I point you to me or to anything else or anyone else other than Christ, I am abandoning my call. We are sent as gifts to the body to equip you to do the work of the ministry and to grow up in maturity into the full stature of Christ himself. And verse 14 says, so that, verse 14 says, so that, that means this is why. Verse 14 says, so that, we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Stop. Does that not give you a picture of what we see today in church? Every wind of doctrine just knocks us off and now we are at a church for six months. Now you're not sure your salvation. Every TikTok video, you hear it because we are not mature and leading into Christ. I don't know about the Bible. I don't know about the validity of the Bible. I don't know about the integrity of the scriptures. I don't know. Knocked off. Because there's so many instances, the goal of ministry is not maturity in Christ. And that's why he gave you pastors. Rather, instead of those things, verse 15, we should be speaking the truth in love. Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up. Say, grow up. In every way. Say, every way. Into him who is Christ, who is the head into Christ. Stop. That's what he's looking for as we're married to Christ. To grow up into him. To grow up to look like him. We got the same Holy Spirit that he has. But to walk as he walked. The scripture says he went about doing good. Again, sounds like serve in 25 to me. And what we should be doing all 52 weeks of the year. Because this part time Christianity got to stop, man. It's got to stop, man. We just put on the Christian hat and let's take it off when we're inconvenienced or it gets too hot in the kitchen. No! Verse 16. From the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped. When each part, say each part is working properly. It makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. I just want to extrapolate there, right? So we're talking about a personal maturity. And then we're talking about a corporate maturity with the body. And I want you to consider when we lay off maturity in Christ how we're weighing the body down. Didn't I say? Let's come back. Let's read it again, right? Verse 16. From the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is supplied. When each part is working properly. It makes the body grow. When we're walking and what we've been assigned, what we've been called to, forgiving, loving, being steadfast. We grow up together. We want to know partially why the body is suffering. It could be because of our disobedience. It's my God. It's my God. Me. You. And the person sitting next to you. So we just want to duck off and live in our flesh. We are not concerned with the health of the rest of the body. Selfish. Living fleshy lives behind closed doors saying nobody knows, nobody sees, God sees, God cares and it's affecting the body whether you know it or not. Let's go Romans 8 28 to 30. Are we going to start with a very familiar scripture but the other one's not so much. Romans 8 28 it says, and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. Let's stop. Can I read the amplify there in that verse? I love it. It says, and we know with great confidence that God who is deeply concerned about us causes all things to work together as a plan for good for those who love God to those who are called according to his plan and his purpose. When we eat that up. Oh, we eat it up. It's one of my favorite verses. I like it. Don't you like it? Don't you? Okay. That's okay. We love it. Right. He's deeply concerned about us. This is true. He is going to work all for the good of those who love him and are called according to his plan and his purpose. Right. But a lot of times even people like they, they repeat that verse when they get to the end according to his plan and his purpose. They start mumbling. Don't really care about that. I just want you to work all good for me. They said that real bold. Work all things out. Grab that ear. Throw it back. All that good stuff. Right. Right. Look at the next verse 29. For those for those whom he foreknew. Talking about believers. He foreknew us. He also predestined to be conformed. Say conformed to the image of his son. Stop. I want to, I want to clean it up for you family. Like God, what's your will for my life to be conformed? God, I just want to know God, please reveal your plan to me. I'm to me. Oh God. Even to be conformed. Get up. Read the Bible. Let's write it up to be conformed. He already answered. God, what is my destiny that you sit me to the nations? Go to the nations. But be conformed first to the image of his dear son. Or when you get there, they're just going to get your flesh. Conformed. What's that mean? Fashioned. Shaped. Molded. Say we are all image bearers of God, even if you're not saved. But only believers are being conformed to the image of Christ. Jesus our Lord. And guess what? This is disciple talk. It will not feel good a lot of the time. It's not going to feel good. Be conformed. You know what it looks like sometimes? Literally idolatry being ripped out of your soul. Until you don't even want it no more. Dreams that you had that don't align with his will for you specifically being pulled away from you God. Sometimes you will shed tears God. I thought I wanted so bad God. It will pull it away from you God because you will be conformed to the image of Christ. A life with a real disciple, you're going to shed some tears. And sometimes it ain't got nothing to do with the attack of the enemy. But love is sometimes you just being conformed. Sometimes you just being stretched. And I counsel people and sometimes I wish I could give them a timeline. But sometimes I can't. I just know you being conformed to the image when you hold on to his word. You hold on to his way. Various confirmation happened. We're supposed to progressively look more and more like him. To love more and more like him. To forgive and not hold on more and more like him. And let me talk to the camps right? Right? We're talking about the power of Christ. Right? Some camp is all about healing sick raising the dead miracles. And in other camps all about loving and character. I see both camps in Christ. He was tender and loving and consoling and pastoral. Like a father. And then he also whipped sin, death and the grave. While he was walking and through his death burial and resurrection. All of this is done by the power of the Holy Spirit. Some of y'all camps need to shut y'all church and get a bigger building and join. Because it's all Christ. Are we talking about the unity of the faith? We got way too many church buildings. And I come from a small church in the storefront so don't think I'm talking big. Because I'm at 2019. No, no, no. Some of these churches at 15% capacity anyway. You weighing on the people to pay the mortgage in the name of tithing offering. No, no, no, no, no. Here what I'm saying. Yes, supporting the ministry. But you probably be a lot better if like five of y'all churches came together. Say we lost a minor disagreement but we are seeking the unity of the faith. Let's come together as the body. That alone can start revival. I read 29 again and I'll keep going. He closed whom he foreknew. He also predestined to be conformed, second form to the image of his son. And the last part of that it says in order that he might be the first born among many brothers. And I'm not being sacrilegious or Christ is to be worshiped. But too many of us place Christ all the way over there and just kind of call yourself a regular Christian. When that's not the will of God. He is to be the first born of many brothers and sisters that look just like him in spirit and soul. You saw we messed this thing up. There's a big Christian right on the stage on the front row and I'm just back here. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not the will of God. You in the second and 58th row are to look like Christ. First 30. And those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. You were predestined. You were called. And you were justified. Let me stop there. Right. Justified. Fancy theological term justified in his presence in layman's term, just as if you never send. Right. And I love this because the Bible confirms itself. Like one of the other times I was preaching, I was talking about being perfected while being sanctified. You all remember that same thing here. We're talking about you being confirmed. We have not arrived yet, but you're already justified. That's why I don't want you to check out because you can take this. You can get overwhelmed with things I have to do. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Right. We should all be partaking and facilitating and opening ourselves up to the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification. In layman's terms again, being confirmed to the image of Christ. And guess what family? That takes time. And it's unfair of some of you who just got saved or saved under under five years to compare yourself to those that have been with the Lord for 15, 20, 25 years. That's not fair. So, so also I have to hold this tension because time with the Lord doesn't mean intimacy with the Lord. Right. It does not. I've been with the Lord 25 years. I don't really care. Have you been intimate with him consistently, submitted to him as Lord for 25 years? Then guess what that fruit will show. At the same time, God could do a quick work in 30 days if he want to snatch that thing right up out of you. Why? Why? Because it's not about us. It's about the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. You know the comforter, the one he sent. I'll say this again family. We're talking about maturity. That's why I didn't want you to check out, right? Maturity in God is not something that you can force. However, beloved, it is something that we are called to facilitate. Right. So in essence, what we are doing is we are continuing, continuing to jump on the altar and lay ourselves out and say, God, have your way. Have your way. If I could change this, I would have did it already. God, have your way. I'm depending on the sanctified work of the Holy Ghost. Have your way, oh God. I invite you into my home. I invite you into my life. I invite you into my relationship. I invite you into my business. I invite you into my ministry. I invite you into my heart. Have your way. I belong to you anyway. I am yours and you are mine. Sanctify me, oh God. God. And if you continue to do that and continue to lean into him and continue to pray and repent and forgive and love and obey what you will end up doing by the grace of God himself and the sanctified work of the Holy Spirit himself, the same one that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, the same one that held over the waters before the earth was formed, he will change us. You just make sure it's on his timetable, not ours. That's why I want to give you, make sure you have a firm, secure connection with God through the gospel that you are accepted and loved and also called to maturity and grow in Christ. You know what that does? It stops this transactional business. God, if you just give me XYZ, first of all, quit promising. Quit, quit. Just stop it. He didn't ask you to do it. Just let your yes be yes and your no be no. Don't be making no vows to God that you're probably going to break anyway. That's just one of my children. You know God, if you, that came up to me, hey, Dad, if you just get me this bike, you know, I really be your son. I'm seeing how actually I was a part of the creation process. Even get here. You're already my son. So that's not up for debate. It's all about, are you going to be obedient or not and not attach it to some gift. That I may want to give you anyway. When you attach to that, now we're perverting our relationship with our father. It's dysfunctional to approach him that way. And I love, I'm going to read first 30 in the amplified. It says, and those whom he predestined, he also called. And those whom he called, he also justified, declared free of guilt of sin. And those whom he justified, he also glorified. Check this out. He's raising them to a heavenly dignity. So one of my friends works in the government. He's actually over in, in, in, in Africa, right? Right. And although, you know, I'll leave the political discussion here, right? Right. There was a time when a dignitary came in the room. It was respect. It was an important person. A dignitary, someone with prestige and a place. We are now heavenly dignitaries. See how cheap it is to look for our approval from the world when we are citizens of heaven. Can I tell you something? We play an elder. I say, hey, man, we practice honor up side and down here, right? But I'm okay if one time I ain't called elder or whatever. All right. What I'm not okay with is, is, is if my name is not written in the book of life. I am not okay with that. But since it is, and those who belong to Jesus, your name is there. We have dignity in heaven. The government that supersedes all other governments. That's included in our salvation. Romans 11 chapter. We're going to go 1133 to 12 to help me God. 1333 says, oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways stop. I'll give it to you in the Amplify 33. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and decisions and how unfathomable and untraceable are his ways. Sometimes we need to be reminded who we're in relationship with. He is God. God Almighty created the heaven and the earth. Go read Genesis again. Created man out of the dust. Blue breath into him made him a living soul. God. God. Verse 34, and I quote an Old Testament there. It says, for who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Stop. Who has God called up and asked for advice? Who is God? We'll be tripping sometimes. He's God. He can trounce any type of human wisdom you got right now and change it. Verse 35, or who has given him a gift to him that he might be repaid? Hey, here you go. I gave you a gift. You can give me back later on. No one. Verse 36, it says, for from him and through him and to him. For from him and through him and to him for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. All things. I made me not. All things. To who be glory? Him be glory. For how long? Forever. Amen. Now, family, as I close, I'm going to jump into a very familiar passage of Scripture. But I want you to look at it in context. All right? Now, in light of all of those things, I'm going to jump into 12-1. He says, I appeal to you therefore stop at an old school preacher back in 2004. Whenever there's a fair, therefore, see what it's there for. Right? It's corny, but it's true. Right? If it's a therefore, that means there's something before it that is feeding into the statement that therefore is a result is what was already said. Right? To him be glory forever. Nobody's counseling him. He does not need to repay anybody for a gift from him to him. All things. All right? Now, jumping to 12-1 with me. He says, therefore, I appeal to you, brothers by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. I'm running out of time. I got to say this. And you can look it up. Tell me from wrong. Email me. Right? It was a brother. He was said, he was like, although everything that have breath can praise the Lord, when it talks about worship in the Bible, it's never connected to music. Now, if you feel one wrong, like email me. I really want to know. Right? Wow. But this is your worship. This is what is required of us. This is what he wants in the relationship as the bride of Christ. I'll give it to you in the Amplify. Therefore, I urge you, still 12-1, brothers and sisters by the mercies of God to present your bodies, dedicating all of yourself, set apart as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational, logical, intelligent act of worship. I don't know if I've seen that any other place. It says, if you just think about it in light of who God is, and to him be glory forever, it is reasonable to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to him. Jesus. He said, I appeal to your intellect, to your rational selves. So when Jared sits there and he sings, take everything. I don't want it. I don't need it, God. I just want you. We're called to that heart posture. Not that you can't desire things, but don't you let anything become on par or on level to dedication to the true and living God. You check me out. You say, hey man, I hear you, Adam. You don't show it in the word, but I ain't there yet. I still got things competing. I'm not here to condemn you. I am here to challenge you to keep leaning into God, to find yourself soaking in his presence. Get here early for saturate. Be yourself prostrate. Listen to worship music on the way. On a Tuesday morning, you start your own worship set, or the Wednesday afternoon, you crack the scriptures. On a Thursday evening, you go to squads if you got time there. On a Friday night instead of going out, you stay in a repent and you ring out your heart. Why? Because he's worthy. Because he's worthy. And that's what he wants out of us as the bride of Christ. Too mature to that point. And guess what, beloved? It's going to take time. And guess what? You can get there and you can let idolatry creep up in your heart. And guess what? You got to get back to ringing that thing out. So I want to set you up for the marathon, not the sprint. Because we're supposed to do this until we see him in glory. How? By the grace of God and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. I'll end with 12-2. Once again, that word says, do not be conformed to this world. But be transformed by the renewal of your mind. That's what we're going to talk about today. That by testing you may discern what is the will of God and what is good and acceptable and perfect. Call to maturing Christ, beloved. And I'm over time, man, but I just want to carve out some space. This ain't just a sermon, man. This ain't no show, man. You got to take this and apply this to your heart, man. Scripture in Proverbs says, above all else. Another version, it says, with all diligence. Another version says, with all vigilance, guard your heart. For anything that does not sound like this guard against it. We think vigilance, vigilance-y, like militant-like, does not line up. I don't want it, God. I just want you. My flesh likes it. My spirit hates it. I just want you, oh God. Clean me up, God. I present myself as a living sacrifice, God. Bow your heads. You ain't got to wait for me to pray. You pray. You know what's in your heart. I don't. You take everything. I don't want you. God, won't you take everything? I don't want it. I don't need it. I just want you I just want you I just want you I just want you I just want you I just want you I just want you We just want We just want you I just want you I just want you Oh, I just want you I just want you I just want you I just want you So we say Take everything Take everything I don't want it I don't want I don't need it I don't need it I just want you Take Everything I don't want it I don't want I don't need it I don't need I just want you I just want you I just want you I just want you I just want you I just want you I just want you I just want you I just want you You're all we've ever wanted You're all we've ever Zam Just want you Jesus, just want you Jesus, just want you You're all we've ever wanted, just want you You're all we've ever needed, just want you Jesus, just want you Just want you Holy Father, You have called us You have redeemed us You have justified us You have glorified us You have given us heavenly dignity God help us do our part Help us do what you've called us to do Not by human strength, but by the sanctifying power and work of the Holy Spirit Help us lay down our lives, God Help us seek to walk in a holy way Help us not be ashamed of being set apart and being different And cave into the opinions of men For the scripture say the fear of man is a snare We're only supposed to have reverential fear for you, God God, I pray anybody that's condemned by this message, you would move in their heart And shift something, God That they would see this condemnation, but they would see it as a calling up To walk in what you want us to walk in and in whom you want us to walk in And that is Christ Jesus It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen Blessed are the Lord