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All In
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We've had a wonderful time journeying through this series, All In. We've been learning about our place in Christ and his expectations for our lives. Last week, we were challenged to move from being consumers to becoming contributors. The passage we looked at, in verse 12, spoke about the fact that we are being equipped. Today you'll understand the ultimate reason for your equipping.
Before I begin, let me warn you: it's going to be challenging. But it's good for you. Sometimes we only want to hear what makes us happy — but sometimes we have to listen to what the word of God really says.
Each and every one of us here is on a journey. We are all explorers. If you're exploring faith and wondering what this is all about, you are welcome in this place.
Right now, work is beginning on the atrium. Before any of that happens, there is a technical design that outlines everything — what will be moved, how it will look, the money to be spent. The architect has been consulted. The engineers have been asked whether the building will still stand as it ought to. The finance people have been consulted: this is how much a brick will cost, this is how much everything will be. Every detail is outlined in a technical design.
If you and I can sit and draw up such designs, imagine God — the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the one who was and is and is to come, the one who rules and reigns. He has a plan for you.
"For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." — Jeremiah 29:11
God is not a careless builder. He's not sitting in heaven panicking, "Oh no, Gabriel, Michael, quickly!" No. He's got a plan for you. Before you walked into the doctor's office, God had already provided your healing before you were born. Before that business door closed, he was already ahead of you. He is Jehovah Jireh, our provider. He is Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace.
He is so careful in his planning that he provided you and me with a model, a blueprint — and that blueprint has a face. His name is Jesus. The Bible says the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, so that we may behold and see who he is.
Paul shows us God's plan in Ephesians 4:13–15. Take time to read this passage when you go home.
"This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of the body, the church." — Ephesians 4:13–15
Notice the word we. Paul isn't saying "until you" — he includes himself. He's saying, "I haven't arrived. You haven't arrived. We are all on this journey, growing to be like Christ."
So I want us to call ourselves to a meeting and ask, Am I growing? Maturity is a process. It's not a one-day prayer. It's not a one-day encounter. Paul highlights two things I want to focus on.
"That we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting." — Ephesians 4:14 (NKJV)
Let me be precise. Jesus encouraged us to be childlike — that's not what I'm speaking against. Childlikeness is essential; it's humility, dependence on God, simplicity in faith. But childishness reveals a refusal to grow. It leaves you unstable and vulnerable to every trend, every fad, every thing you hear on TikTok or Instagram that can't be found in the Bible.
Childlikeness is a virtue. Childishness is a danger to the faith. There are two areas where we must reject it.
You can't take your walk with God for granted — you have to work it. Being misaligned to what the word of God reveals is detrimental to your faith, because misalignment ends in the same place: disconnection from the vine.
"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine. And you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me." — John 15:4
Notice Jesus put himself first: "Remain in me, then I will remain in you." You have a responsibility to remain in him.
Misalignment is rarely dramatic. You stop serving because somebody annoyed you. You miss church one Sunday — "I watched online, I was busy." The next Sunday you're still not coming. Six months down the road, you're nowhere to be found. A branch cannot do anything dramatic to become fruitful — it simply has to stay connected.
So stop drifting and start growing. Be planted. Be rooted. Be steadfast, immovable. Growth is choosing to abide, to remain, to listen to truth. That's why we have discipleship classes — not to grow the church so we can clap, but so that you move from being a follower to becoming a disciple.
Immaturity shows up when we still think the way we thought before we became believers. When your thinking stinks, everything about you stinks. You may say "I'm a Christian," but if you view relationships and life through the glasses of your former self, something is wrong.
"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." — Romans 12:2 (NLT)
The answer to an old mindset is not more information — it's transformation: of your thinking, your heart, the posture you take.
"With tender humility and quiet patience, always demonstrate gentleness and generous love toward one another, especially toward those who may try your patience." — Ephesians 4:2 (TPT)
What attitude do you have toward others? Are you humble and honoring, or superior — the lord of the manor everyone must bow to?
This scripture speaks of serving, of proving, of showing. On his last night, Jesus took a towel, rolled up his sleeves, took a basin, and washed his disciples' feet. He didn't preach "31 steps to become rich" or "10 steps to lead well." He demonstrated by serving. The man about to be mocked, lashed, and crucified chose to serve first.
Some of us are being challenged to wake up. You say, "I can't serve, I need to rest for Monday." Yet the one you came to celebrate didn't think of the cross or the pain first — he chose to serve. Wake up and serve God, because that is how we grow up to be like Christ.
We should look like Jesus. Ask yourself: Do I look closer to Jesus today than yesterday? If the answer is no, ask where you are backsliding.
Growth is not automatic. Imagine a couple leaving the maternity ward, and the father hands the newborn the car keys to drive home. You'd be crying out to Jesus! Yet many of us treat spiritual growth as if we'll just automatically arrive.
"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." — 1 Corinthians 13:11
A child only sees McDonald's because that's what's advertised. But there is a becoming that you and I need to understand, and it's our responsibility to put away childish things.
Let me throw in something that wasn't in my notes: A child is served. An adult serves. Where do you lie? Are you still coming to church only to be served?
And remember — the measurement is not what you feel or think. The measurement is Christ. If someone preaches a funny gospel, a Christ you can't find in the Bible, question their measurements.
A consistent pursuit to know him displays maturity. We'll gladly call a prayer meeting about finances or parking — but call one to say "we want to know Jesus," and people say, "I'll join on YouTube." That's how we've been conditioned.
But listen to Paul, writing from a jail cell in Philippi. He's not crying, "God, when am I getting out?"
"For my determined purpose is that I may know him — that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of his person more strongly and more clearly." — Philippians 3:10 (AMP)
This is a man who has seen the dead raised and miracles performed, yet his cry is "that I may know him." Whatever circumstance you're facing, what are you praying? Are you crying, "Jesus, I want to know you, even in this challenge"?
Paul's purpose was not to receive from Christ. He didn't see God as a vending machine — put in a prayer, out comes a blessing. Too many believers have reduced God to an ATM: "In Jesus' name I receive." But God has sent me here to wake you up:
Awake, O sleeper. You that slumber, you that are asleep — wake up. It's time to grow up into Christ and be like Christ.
Let me give you an example you'll laugh at. When the PlayStation came out, my cousins and I got a fighting game called Tekken. I was very born again — tongue-talking, demon-chasing, serving the Lord — but that game threw everything out of the window. We played for 36 hours straight. The only prayer was, "Jesus, Jesus, I'm not losing." Did I read my Bible? No.
A few days later, picking up my Bible again, the Holy Spirit convicted me: "Examine yourself, whether you be in the faith." In 36 hours I hadn't prayed for London, hadn't prayed for anyone — I was praying for a game to succeed. That day I reminded myself of Philippians 3:10: that I may know him. When my wife met me and asked if I played games, I said no — and I told her this story as to why there are no games in our house. Maybe you can play for one hour and be fine; I know myself.
Truth is to be spoken in love.
"Speaking the truth in love." — Ephesians 4:15
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue." — Proverbs 18:21
The words you speak carry weight — only two forces come out of your mouth: death or life. When you speak, is it death or life?
There are people who don't serve in church because of words that were spoken to them. There are people who want nothing to do with Christians because of words spoken. So let me ask: what words are you speaking? Are they bound by love — patient, kind, gentle, warm, showing Christ? Or are you so nasty that "walking on eggshells" doesn't even describe it, because when you open your mouth you nuke the atmosphere?
Maybe you're here and you once served, but somebody hurt you and you never served again. Maybe someone in leadership failed you. Maybe I said something myself. As I was praying yesterday, God told me to say this, because there is someone whose heart is hurting because of a word that was spoken.
With all humility, on behalf of everyone, I say: forgive us.
And maybe you're the one who has been overlooked — someone was in the same room and didn't even greet you, didn't see you, though you are a human being. On behalf of everyone who has ever been hurt, I choose to stand here and say: I forgive you. Let it ruminate. Let it percolate. Let it settle in your heart that God wants us to forgive one another.
Paul challenges us to know Christ. Why?
"We can all draw close to him with the veil removed from our faces. And with no veil we become like mirrors who brightly reflect the glory of the Lord Jesus. We are being transfigured into his very image as we move from one brighter level of glory to another." — 2 Corinthians 3:18 (paraphrased)
From today, your life will testify that you are moving from glory to glory. As you gaze on him, as you make him the center of your everything, your life is moving from glory to glory.
