SERMON: Ephesians 4:7-13 (God Gives Gifts To Men)

I'd like to invite my brother Paul Edgar to preach the word to us this morning. Paul, if you remember, is a elder at this church, one of our favorite churches, and I'm not just saying that because he's here.

One of our favorite churches in the Presbyterian is Tri-City Covenant Church in New Hampshire. They've been so kind and so good to us ever since the beginning of us coming into the denomination. Paul and Harold have been really good friends to me, really good mentors to me.

I've been, thankfully, by God's grace, not rehoboam. I've not listened to just young counselors. I have put myself around very wise men, and Paul is one of those men that I consider to be a great friend and brother to me, and I'm excited that he gets to bring the word to us this morning.

So, if you will, welcome with me Paul Edgar. Oh, yeah. See, I did the same thing. I walked off with it.

It's okay. I'll probably do it on the other end.

There you go.

Thank you.

It's on mute.

And how do I get it off mute?

There you go. You're good.

Well, it is a great pleasure to be here, especially this church, especially your pastor, Pastor Lankford. It's been great getting to know him more, and I'm slowly starting to know some of you more. I'm not that good at names, but I'm getting a few of them.

There was Patrick. He's here somewhere. Oh, there he is. I saw Butch when he came in. Vinny's mommy? Is that correct?

Vinny's sister.

Vinny's sister. Okay. I'm working. I think it's appropriate for this message that it's Christmastime, the time of giving of gifts, epiphany, the time of the gifts of the Magi to the Lord Jesus Christ, a time for a new start, a new beginning, epiphany.

And my sermon today is titled, God Provides for His Church. God Gives Gifts to His Church. Charles Swindoll once said that wisdom, true wisdom, is looking at life from God's point of view. We would be wise indeed if we attempted to learn what are the things that God wants from His church.

What does He want from us? What is His point of view? What's the most important thing on God's agenda? Not necessarily our own agenda. I had this friend one time. He worked for me at the school years ago, and I loved the guy.

He was a great guy, but he wasn't a very good teacher. And he had a lot of incongruities in his work, and I had to let him go. I had to not renew his contract one year. And I pointed him to another school that I thought could use him, but he didn't succeed at that either.

It was out of state. I kept in contact with the guy, but he came back kind of discouraged. It's not working out. I've got a job at Home Depot, and I like that job, but it's still not exactly working out too well.

In my mind, I'm thinking, it's only a question of time before this guy loses this job too. And I looked at him, and I said, what you should do is try to understand the job from your boss's point of view.

And he said, well, I give him all my ideas, and he doesn't seem to look at my ideas, and he doesn't want to do anything I've suggested. He had been there a couple weeks. Try to see it from your boss's point of view.

Try to look at it from your boss's eyes. And he looked at me, and as a teacher, I could tell there was an open window just for a moment, and he took it in. Whoa. He listened. Try to see it from your boss's point of view.

And he said, thank you, went back to work, and apparently he implemented that, because he stayed with Home Depot all the years through, and he retired successfully. He participated in their savings plan.

It was a matching savings plan, and he retired very successfully. And I always look at it that that moment was pivotal, because for the first time, he was able to say, it's not what I want. It's what God wants.

Or in his situation, it's what my boss wants. Wisdom is looking at life from God's point of view.

Yeah.

There was a man who passed away recently, an author. I didn't read any of his books. Maybe some of you have heard of the name Daniel Kahneman. He authored a book called Thinking Fast and Slow. All right, sounds interesting.

A giant in the study of decision-making and behavioral economics. He knew how to make decisions. He specialized in how you make a decision. And he said, the miseries and indignities of the last years of life are superfluous.

In 2024, he checked into an assisted suicide clinic in Switzerland and died. It's time to go, he concluded. That's not from God's point of view. He once said this, if there is an objective point of view, then I'm totally irrelevant to it.

If you look at the universe and the complexity of the universe, what I do with it in my day cannot be relevant. He was only seeing out of the lens of his own eyes. He was only looking at life from his point of view.

He was setting himself up as God to determine right and wrong. He was determining good and evil. Very much unlike our review of the Sixth Commandment today, we have an obligation to foster whatever contributes to our own well-being, our own longevity, our own life, our own health, and the life of others.

That's God's point of view. And wisdom is learning to look at life from God's point of view. This man was a very foolish man. He checked into a suicide clinic and died. He autonomously decided that he was the measure of all things.

He was the determiner of his own significance. Very much a sinful attitude. We want to go as far as we can. My mother one time was in her elderly years. She was lamenting about the aches and pains that come with age.

And I just said one day, Mom, I think the idea is you want to go as far as you can. And she looked at me and said, Yes, that's right. Thank you. Oh, yeah. You want to go as far as you can because God is the one who numbers our days.

When I wake up each morning, I walk out, dump the coffee grounds on the garden. Susan says they're good for the plants. I'm making coffee. It's usually well before sunup. And I look up at the sky and I say, Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for adding this day to my assigned span of days.

We have a certain span of days. It may be short. It may be hopefully long. But it's a certain assigned span. And wisdom is seeing things from God's point of view. From God's point of view, what's the most important thing in the world?

Who are the most important people in the world? Well, it's His church, the one He fled and died and suffered for. Nothing to the Lord Jesus is more important than His bride, us. We husbands know that to some extent.

Our wives are the most important thing in the universe to us. And that's the way God is. Whenever I do a wedding, I say, You know, we're having a beautiful ceremony here.

We have a bride.

We have a groom. We have gathered guests. But this really is not the ultimate wedding. This is a picture. This is a type of the wedding. It isn't like God used our human marriages and got an idea for a metaphor.

Hey, I know what would be a good idea to call the church the bride of Christ. Oh, no. Our human marriages are derivative of the ultimate marriage. Jesus loves His bride. We husbands echo that. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.

Redeemed humanity, the church, the people for whom Jesus bled and died, the people He saved from eternal destruction by interposing Himself in our place, by absorbing the penalty for our sin, He that spared not His own Son but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

If God were to give His only Son, it wouldn't make sense for Him to be stingy and withhold other things that we need, would it? I'm coming up on my 50th. My wife and I are coming up on our 50th anniversary later this year.

And I've got to do a little research. I've got 11 months to go. But I've got to do a little research to find out what are the appropriate gifts, what is the appropriate protocol for a 50th anniversary, 50th wedding.

I really don't know. I did pretty well on my 40th. I won't go into the whole detail. But the 50th is bigger. And I want to give her the very best. She's my bride. Jesus wants to give us the very best.

And we would be very wise and blessed indeed if we adopted His point of view. What is it that's important to Jesus?

It's His church.

We should think likewise. The Lord Jesus Christ, to use an expression from the Godfather movies, I love the Godfather movies. I don't know if you've seen them. But ask anybody around here. He knows how to return a favor.

Some of you get that. Our scripture is from Ephesians 4 through 12. But I'm going to skip 9 and 10. And I don't know if it's going to come up there or not. But I'll read it. It talks about gifts. God giving gifts to His church, His bride.

For the edifying of the body of Christ. If you look at these gifts that Jesus has given to His church, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, you see a pattern in there. If you look beyond the mere words, you can see a cross.

Really. Oh, yeah. Peter Lightheart develops this. He got his ideas from Rosenstock Yusey that wrote an essay called The Cross of Reality. In any church, and really in any nation, you see this fourfold pattern.

What is this with apostles? He gave some apostles, some prophets. Well, what do apostles do? They focus on the past, preserving the tradition, preserving the heritage, making sure we don't lose where we've come from.

That's the apostle perspective. But then the prophet, they're looking this way. Where are we going? What is the future that God has for us? Then there are evangelists. What do they do? Well, they're looking for new people, adding to the church.

They're looking for bringing people in to the faith community. Pastors and teachers, what do they do? They're looking at edifying those that are already in there. The cross of reality, a fourfold perspective on the gift that Jesus gives to His church.

But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of Christ. Wherefore, He saith, when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. What exactly are these wedding gifts?

That's right, wedding gifts that Jesus has secured for us, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. You know, giving gifts is one of the main things we do to image God. You think of that famous Bible verse, John 3 .16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.

God is a giving God. He just gives. The members of the Trinity give to each other. If you look at it, the Holy Spirit is giving glory to Jesus, obeying the Father. And what is Jesus doing? I'm giving all the glories to God, not me.

And what does the Father do? It's not me, my Son. Listen to Him. There's this mutual giving, this mutual outpouring among the three members of the Trinity. We, the church, image that. In addition to receiving from God, we give to God.

I think the Roman Catholics have a pretty good aspect to their liturgy. They have a part of their liturgy where it's called the bringing of the gifts. And it's actually in their liturgy. They actually bring forward the bread and wine to the altar.

The idea being behind it is that God gives to us. We give to Him. Something to think about. But God forms His church with particular care and attention. But now God hath set the members, every one of them, in the body as it has pleased Him.

As it has pleased Him. God assembles the giftings, the members of the church, as it has pleased Him. And He's very careful about that. Sometimes I think of the NFL. The Patriots are back in the running.

They're doing great again. I remember, I used to follow them closer than I do now. But there was this, in the summer, there was this, the draft would go on. Bill Belichick would do a masterful job at recruiting, trading draft choices for this guy and that guy, and assembling the team.

I thought of that sometimes when I build a faculty for the school. I'm missing a third grade teacher, and I need an art teacher over here, and I go out. And what do I do? I try to get the very, very best.

I want the very, very absolute best for the team, for my faculty, whatever it is. But God does it a little differently. God says, my strength is made perfect in weakness. I may not put the very, very best deacon or usher or even pastor in this role.

I might pick a member that has some weaknesses so that I might be glorified in the other members providing for him, the other members serving him or her. God is a master builder. He has set the members, every one of them, in the body as it has pleased him.

And God's plan involves both our assets and our liabilities, both our strengths and our weaknesses. And why has, what is God doing as He builds a church together? For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

In one sense, we're all assets to God because He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. He has chosen us. You are not here today by accident. God has chosen you from the foundation of the world to be a member or a visitor or a guest, perspective member perhaps, of the shepherd's church.

And He's done it with great care. And you were here as a result. Now, this is a truly, especially true for pastors. There are shepherds, and they follow the good shepherds. They're tasked with edifying the body of Christ, building up the body of Christ.

We are the bride of Christ. The pastors are tasked with edifying, beautifying, building up us. And let me tell you, what's happening here at the shepherd's church at this time has the Lord Jesus' special attention, I can assure you.

Sometimes our journey, individuals and as a church, can be a rough road. But God puts obstacles in our journey for His purposes. He has everything, is masterfully planned. In the Westminster Confession, talking about the decrees of God, He has ordained whatsoever comes to pass.

Everything that we might be tempted to call bad or every adversity, God has planned it. It's all put in by His design. Further in the Westminster Confession, chapter 5, paragraph 7 of Providence, as the providence of God doth in general reach to all creatures, so after a most special manner it taketh care of His church.

There's nothing more important to God than His church, and disposes all things to the good thereof. It's going to be a rough ride sometimes, but it happened. Jesus was made perfect through sufferings, for it became Him from whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation, Jesus, perfect through sufferings.

That's the process. That's the program. That's the course we're on. Every challenge we face is perfectly ordered by a providential, predestinating, sovereign, loving God. And I remember one time reading James Jordan.

He has the most colorful illustrations. I might have used this one the last time I was here, I hope not, but he has illustrations that you can never forget. He spoke of the trials and sufferings we endure here, the things we have to go through, and he compared them to the perfumed baths of Queen Esther as she was being prepared for her union with the king.

That's vivid. I can kind of remember that. She went to the baths for like months so that she would smell nice for the king. Our sufferings are like that. We are being prepared for an eventual union with the king.

God loves us too much to spare us from these trials and tribulations. They result in us receiving a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

God loves you too much to spare you from this, but he gives gifts to his church. He gives pastors. He gives you Pastor Lankford who will walk through these trials with you and the other members of the body that will support you in these trials.

You know, Dave Ramsey, I think it was who said, he's the financial guy, he's got a radio program. Some of you might know the name. I love listening to Dave Ramsey basically talking about how to get out of debt and how to acquire wealth.

Good Christian. He seems like a good Christian man to me. I don't know everything about him. But he had this statement, most people don't get rich because they're bad at math. Yeah, they're bad at math.

When you spend more than you have, you don't get rich. You get poor. He's a good guy for understanding temporal wealth. You follow him, you're probably going to get out of debt. You're probably going to retire with a nice nest egg.

But eternal wealth, eternal riches are far more important than temporal earthly riches. Most people risk eternal riches because they're ignorant of the Holy Scriptures. They're bad at eternal math. What does the Bible say about our eternal riches?

Well, how about this? Remember them which have the rule over you. That would be pastors and elders, right? Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.

Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls. Did you ever think about that? Did you ever think of your pastor awake at night or being awakened in the night and praying for you?

Watching for your soul? They watch for your souls, as they that must give account. You mean there's an accounting here? Oh yeah. As they that must give account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief.

For that is unprofitable for you. That's not good math. You want to follow and uphold your pastor and other leaders, other authorities in your life, parents, because that's profitable for you. Could our obedience and our submission to our earthly pastors and leaders affect our earthly bank accounts and temporal wealth?

Yes.

Yes, there's a connection. And even more importantly, could our obedience and submission to our earthly pastors and leaders affect our future heavenly bank accounts and eternal wealth? Yeah. Did you ever think about that?

I had a lady the other day, just kind of reflecting, she says, I know that Jesus is going to take us to heaven and I know that our sins are forgiven and that, but when we get to heaven, like, is that all there is?

I mean, like, what is there? And I just quoted 1 Corinthians 2 .9, I said, But as it is written, Don't worry. You won't be bored. There'll be an infinite amount of joy and pleasures forevermore. But there's more.

In 1 Corinthians 15 .24, 1 Corinthians, by the way, if you know your Bibles, that's an important chapter. That's what we call the resurrection chapter. The theme of 1 Corinthians 15 is the resurrection.

And in that chapter, there's this verse, 1 Corinthians 15 .24. It's a rather compact, simple verse. Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

All right. Something about the end, right? Jesus delivering up the kingdom to God, putting down all rule and authority and power. That sounds real nice and spiritual. It's pretty abstract. Is there anything in there that I can really put in my pocket and use in this life?

Yes.

That Scripture is pounded with profound meaning. What is this delivering the kingdom up to God? God the Son delivering the kingdom to God the Father. That's referring to the end of history, the end of this age.

And more importantly, more relevant to today, it's referring to the bride price. The bride price. That is the Lord Jesus giving the wealth of the kingdoms of this world to God the Father for the bride.

It's a marriage verse. It's talking about the end of history. It's talking about the bride price, the wealth procured by Jesus the Son. As he spoiled principalities and powers, as he made a show of them openly, as he triumphed over them, as he ascended up on high and led captivity, captive and gave gifts unto men.

That's talking about our inheritance, folks. Inheritance procured by Jesus, God the Son, given to God the Father for us, the bride, for us, the church, the bride of Christ. I was asked to speak one time at a Christian school.

A good friend of mine has a Christian school not far away. And I think what it was is he had got his wires crossed up, and the real speaker he wanted, he couldn't get him or something like that. And he said, hey, Paul, can you come down to my….

It was every month they have an agape lunch. It's a high school only. And the whole school, students, faculty, friends, community members, they all get together for this lunch like you do here, a fellowship feast.

And he wanted me to come down and say a few words. I said, okay, what do you want me to talk about? Well, something from the Bible, something about love. I know, it's Valentine's Day when you'll be there, so speak about love.

I said, okay. I went there. It was one of the strangest settings I was ever in. First of all, the place was packed. It was freezing cold. It was Valentine's Day, February. But it was one of those old New England barn congregational churches where they had the old boiler, which was about as big as a car, roaring away.

And it must have been 80 degrees in there. And I went in there, and I was supposed to speak right before the food. And not only that, they had the food all lined up on a table, and you could smell it.

And it was International Day or something like that, and all these aromas were coming by. And I was going to be introduced and have to speak in a few minutes. And then the guy, he had every one of them that prepared a dish talk about what the dish was.

And they all spoke a few moments about it. As you could smell this stuff and the aromas coming across and the guy's talking about the special sauce that he got, on and on and on. Finally, and Paul, Paul's going to say a few words to us from the Bible.

It was a tough setting. At least he had the people sit down. I said, I'm going to talk to you about my favorite Bible story, that in this story, the entire Bible is given. And it's the story of Abraham dispatching his servant to find a bride for his son Isaac.

The bride was Rebecca. That's the story. And I read from Genesis, and I told him the story. And I said, this is the entire Bible right here. And at one point, you know the story about Rebecca and the servant being dispatched from the father Abraham.

You get it? The father dispatching his servant to find a bride for his son. Hey, we have the whole trinity there. Abraham was the type of the father. The servant was the type of the Holy Spirit. And the son, of course, was Isaac.

The bride is the church, Rebecca. You know the story about the camels and the watering of the camels. But they had a bride price going on there, gifts, wedding gifts. And the servant brought forth jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment and gave them to Rebecca.

He gave also to her brother and to her mother precious things. And they did eat and drink. You ever have a wedding without a feast afterwards? And they did eat and drink. He and the men that were with him and tarried all night.

It must have been quite a party. And they arose up in the morning, and he said, Send me away unto my master. And they sent away Rebecca their sister and her nurse and Abraham's servant and his men, and they blessed Rebecca and said unto her, Thou art our sister.

Now think of this as talking to the church. Thou art our sister. Be thou the mother of thousands of millions, and let thy seed possess the gait of those that hate them.

Yeah.

The church. And a Rebecca arose in her damsels, and they rode upon camels and followed the man, and the servant took Rebecca and went his way. Gifts, wedding gifts. Wedding gifts given as a bride price.

That's what God does for us. Where are we all going on this amazing journey we're on? Where are we headed? I'm not a real country music fan, but there is this one song. My wife, she is a country girl, and she likes this one song by Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton.

Maybe you've heard it. Yeah, when I get where I'm going, there'll be only happy tears. I will shed the sins and struggles I have carried all these years, and I'll leave my heart wide open. I will love and have no fear.

Yeah, when I get where I'm going, don't cry for me down here.

I like that.

But where are we going on this journey? What's the end game? Let's answer from the Bible. Till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.

That's where we're going. We live in a world of purpose. Yes, it has some trials in it, but it's a great ride, and God is a very generous giver. We who bear his image likewise learn to be giving people, and thus we find our fulfillment in what we were built to do.

Pastor Kendall Lankford is God's man, and he's the pastor, the under-shepherd, the one chosen by God as a wedding gift to the Shepherd's Church here in Chelmsford, Mass. And his job is to help us all receive a full reward and to help us all to get where we're going.

Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.

Amen.