4. New Year's Eve Conference | Equipping the Church

Equipping the Saints for Ministry

Brothers, you are much needed for the younger brothers in the faith. Older women, you are so much needed for the younger women. Older husbands, new husbands. Older wives, younger wives. And that plays a big part of it because a lot of us go, well, what can I do?

There's a lot for equipping the saints, the church. We don't want to see the church go dry or have to preach over these dry bones and say, can these dry bones live? But we have been given the gospel of Jesus Christ and the way that we are amongst each.

Other.

My dear brothers and sisters, let me tell you, when I first came to know my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, there was nobody there to teach me about Jesus. And for a lot of us, we have fallen victim to being preached to, but never taught.

And so if you're never taught, you can't go and teach and make disciples, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ. Therefore go, that's why we go, to go and make disciples of all nations and baptize them in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son, in the name of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey all that Christ has commanded.

And lo, he's with us until the end of the age. It's not just the pastor's job to do that. We all have been commissioned out. Therefore, there is no more male or female, Jew or Gentile, free or slave, but all one in Christ, and we've all been commissioned.

And I want you guys to please turn with me to Ephesians chapter four. You know, it was really, really hard for me as I, I, uh, I came up here for a lot of you guys that know, hold on, let me time myself, Jeff, I bet you a bet.

I'm going to keep that bet.

I know.

Walking Worthy in Humility and Unity

So here I have been a discipleship pastor for the last eight years and because I was equipped, because I was given the good news, because the older man came up and, and, and really was the, the, um, the one that really showed me how to follow the sound doctrine.

Follow this pattern.

You get it?

Follow this pattern.

Don't break it.

The older man taught me how to be a husband, how to be a servant, a servant in humility and not pride and arrogance. And as a result of that fruit that started to bear in other denominations with the unity of the spirit, the unity of the body of Christ, breaking denominational boundaries and everything by the grace of God, we were able to get over a thousand people off the streets, over a thousand with zero income.

It was all Christ.

And because of that ministry, you know, Jeff and I, we started open air theology and really helping people that were coming out of 2020 that were really let down by the churches because the churches were not equipping them for, uh, to go against trials and tribulations and how to stand firm in the faith and put our hope and faith and trust in Christ and not anything or anybody else.

And it worked. So we kept doing it. And as a fruit of that, now we're having conferences and now we started a school of apologetics, a school of apologetics called passing the torch for the next generation of apologists, pastors, evangelists, and teachers because our young men out there are being devoured.

They're boys, boys, and we're not raising men of God. And that's what we should be doing. And we have prescriptive texts. We have things in here that will amplify that if it's working properly and we're all working in humility and we're all got, uh, but we're all in sound doctrine and we're worshiping and all this has come together.

All this is equipping of the saints, each and every one of us here now is the true and the living word of God. Give ear to the reading of God's holy word. Ephesians chapter four, it's entitled in my ESV right here.

I'll let you guys get there.

You guys there?

I therefore a prisoner for the Lord urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called with, listen, all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond.

Of peace.

You got to understand this gospel message has gone out to you and I, this all a branch.

Of peace.

We should be offering to not only each other within the church, not only we should be practicing listening to the gospel and preaching the gospel, but it's also preaching the gospel to ourselves, a constant reminder.

But I want you to know in humility, counting others more significant than yourselves, bearing one's burdens. See the problem that, uh, Jeff and I and Braden and Andrew Rappaport and all these, uh, theologians that have come into our new ministry of passing the torch, what we all saw was the same thing.

Militant Christianity. I got me, myself, and I, I'll pray for people, but I won't have them pray for me. I'll go preach, but nobody will preach to me. I'll do this and I'll do that. And we, we, well, what happens is we become this stagnant Christian pointing out the wrongs in other people's lives, within the church and doing this and that and, and, and it produces strife and arrogance and, and it's just wrecks and rips the church apart instead of building each other up.

We're all sinners in need of a savior, but it's walking in humility. Let's keep going. For there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who's over all and through all and in all.

And that's where we find our sound doctrine, right? There's a lot of us are confessionalists. We have our, our creeds and our confessions that lay out that this is what we believe.

Right here.

All right. If you notice, most churches just have, it's like this copy and paste statement of faith. And then when you get there, it has nothing, it don't match up. And what we're producing is church attendees and not disciples of Jesus Christ, disciples of Jesus Christ, follow Jesus Christ, make other disciples of Jesus Christ and pass this.

Torch down.

And that's just it right there. Let me tell you, if you have a different Jesus, a different gospel or a different spirit, guess what? We as the body of Christ put up with it readily enough, and it ought not be like that.

We have a layout of this is what we believe. We're not being ambiguous. This is what is we believe, and this is what we pass on down. We believe in a triune God, one in essence, three in person. See, I mean, the hypostatic union, and we can go right down the line.

Let's continue.

7.

Christ Gives Gifts to Build Up His Body

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men. In saying he ascended, what does it mean?

But that he had also descended into the lower regions of the earth. He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, get this, here we go, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

You hear that? For building up the body of Christ, not tearing down the body of Christ. For building up the body of Christ, 13, until we all attain the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood.

We are to take them from infancy to maturity. We go from a child, a little child, to a man or woman, man of God, and especially in our relation with God as we grow in the knowledge of God, he starts to reveal more and more of his attributes to us, which in turn we draw closer to him, knowing that he's the one that keeps us, holds us, is there for us.

In times of trials, in all this, and it increases our faith, and let me tell you, you as the body of Christ, us, when we see a brother or sister going through a trial and tribulation, and we're praying for them, and we're there for them, we're bearing their burdens, we're crying with them and laughing with them and stuff like that, others see that within the body, and it becomes infectious.

And these natural attributes start to flourish, they start to blossom, they start to blossom. Because let me tell you this, for those that are planted in the house of the Lord will flourish like a palm tree, and in their old age, they will bear fruit.

That's the word of God, that's what God says, and I believe him, but let's continue. To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14, so that we may no longer, no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes, 15, listen, this is eating potatoes right here, rather speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ.

And let me tell you, brothers and sisters, when we have younger people in the faith, we kind of try and do this, and it's something we really need to repent of. And what it is, is we think we are equipping them, and we think we are building them up, but the fact is, when we take an infant in Christ and we expect him to act like a mature believer in Christ, it really does a number on him, all right?

Because what you need to understand is, we are growing in the knowledge of the Lord just like a child, we go through growing pains. And when we have the older brothers and sisters that sit there going, I understand, I've been right there, but let me tell you, you grow, you grow through what you, you grow through what you go through.

Do you understand that? They really come up along the side of them. Every way into him who is the head into Christ, 1916, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

That's what we do. We're not doing this out of compulsion, we're doing this out of love. When we go to correct, we do it with gentleness and kindness, not with the iron fist. You need to know, we have all, all, male and female, been adopted into the family of God.

We are no longer children of wrath, we are children of God. And there is something I really want to focus on right here. Let's go back to 11, 4 -11, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip, here comes the definite article, the saints for the work of ministry.

And what is this ministry? You know, I've had so many people feel so bad, they were like, gosh, you know, I didn't have a ministry like yours. I'm like, thank God he didn't, he would need a therapy medication and a hug after that.

What is this ministry? And notice he said, the saints. That's both male and female, by the way.

Okay.

Maybe not at the pulpit, but amongst us, let me tell you, everybody turn with me to second Corinthians, beautiful scripture right here. Second Corinthians chapter five, verses 17, 21, you know, and I'm just starting 16.

I'm going to get crazy right now.

Just going to go for it.

Here it is.

Second Corinthians chapter five, verses 16 through 21. From now on, therefore, therefore we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded, excuse me, Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, anyone, he is a new creation. The old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this from God, who through Christ, listen, reconciled us to himself and gave us, guys, us, the ministry of reconciliation.

I mean, let me, let me just read that again. Let this soak in real fast. All this is from God who through Christ reconcile us to him and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 19, that is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

Therefore, that means regarding everything he just said, we are ambassadors of Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ. Be reconciled to God. Most powerful verse in scripture right here, 21.

For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin so that we, so that in him, we might become the righteousness of God. That's our olive branch of peace. I don't care if you're a man or woman, if you're working at Taco Bell, if you're a stay at home mom.

I don't care if, look it, we've all be given the same ministry. We go out there with the gospel of Jesus Christ, imploring, imploring means to be on your knees begging them to be reconciled to Christ.

This is why we are equipped within the church. It's not just to be a couch and cushion Christian or I'll just go to Sunday when I, you know, you know, no, no, you should be running here. He says we're ambassadors.

We're in a foreign land.

This is the embassy right here and we are the ambassadors going out. Not only do we build each other up, but we, we, we go out and shine bright to proclaim Christ and him crucified. If the Presbyterians were here right now and say, and the children, we got to get them all pumped up too, but I won't say that.

Oh, all right guys, you get it. I see your post.

I see your post.

Reasoning Together in the Church

So again, brothers and sisters, as we assemble together, as we come together, let's not tear each other down. Let's walk in humility and count others more significant than each other and bear one's burdens and not, not, not, not hide behind the fig leaves, so to speak.

You know, let's boldly come before the Lord, our Father in heaven and ask for forgiveness and come to our brothers and sisters when we need help. We need to talk. We need to work these things out or maybe work out our theology, whatever it is.

If God wants us like, uh, you know, Isaiah 1 18 says, come, let us reason together. So if God wants to reason with us, we can reason with one another.

Amen.

All right.

Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, Lord. Lord, I ask that this word take root, Lord, Lord, I ask that this word take root so that one day it can produce fruit, Lord, to glorify you, Lord,. Lord, we, we thank you for allowing us to come together and worship you, Lord.

We love you and thank you for the name of and the sake of your precious son, Jesus the.

Christ.

Amen.