Robert Jeffress - Body Building
Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress. And welcome again to "Pathway to Victory". Did you realize that you have a special superpower given to you by God himself to strengthen his church? Well, it's true. But many Christians are completely unaware of the tremendous power they possess. Today, we're going to uncover the spiritual gifts that make each believer an essential part of the body of Christ. We'll discover what these gifts are, how to identify them, and, most importantly, how to use them effectively. My message is titled, "Body Building," on today's edition of "Pathway to Victory".
Ira Yates was a sheep herder in West Texas born at the turn of the 20th century. He was very concerned that he wasn't going to be able to make his mortgage payments on the ranch. Not only that, he was concerned about even placing food on the table for his family. So one day he took a risk and engaged a geologist to see if there just might be some of that black gold, Texas tea. Oil, that is. If some of that might be running underneath. And so, on October the 28, 1926 they drilled their first... well, they called it Yates 1-A, and at 992 feet they hit a gusher, producing 450 barrels of oil each day. So they thought they'd try again.
A couple of months later, they drilled Yates 2-A and that well produced 3,400 barrels a day of oil. Two years later, they drilled Yates 30-A. It produced, get this, I had to write it down, 8,528 barrels of oil an hour, 204,000 barrels a day. By 1929, the Yates's field had produced 41 million barrels of oil. You know, Ira Yates made the mistake of thinking the value of his land was limited to what was visible, what was on the top, the grass, to feed his sheep. But his real wealth was that endless reserve of wealth that was underneath the ground.
You know, Christians are like that when you think about it. Most of us think we're limited in life to what we can do for ourselves, what's visible. We try to scratch out an existence, if you will, until we die and go to heaven. We live our lives unaware of the tremendous spiritual wealth that God has given to us. We might not realize that wealth but the apostle Paul did, and that's why he wrote the letter to the Christians at Ephesus, to remind them of their great spiritual wealth. Think of all that God has done for you. He has chosen you, he's predestined you, he has saved you, he's redeemed you, he's adopted you into his very own family.
In light of all of that wealth we have inside through the Holy Spirit of God, it ought to affect the way we walk, affect every area of our life. And that's what chapters 4 through 6 are about in Ephesians. Not our wealth from Christ, he's already talked about that, but our walk with Christ. And specifically, Paul is going to discuss four areas that our spiritual wealth ought to impact in our everyday life. Interestingly, Paul talks, first of all, about our walk with other Christians, our walk in the church.
Now, why in the world would he start talking about the church? Isn't the family more important, or our work life, or our moral life? Why the church? And we saw the lesson last week, we saw why the church. The church is, first of all, God's representation in the world. You know, the fact is, most people, especially unbelievers, can't see Jesus. The only Jesus they see is the body of Christ, called the church. And many people's opinions are formed about Christ by what they see in the church. Is it any wonder that people are turned off to Christ today when they see so many churches fussing and fighting and bickering?
God is very intent that we be diligent, as Paul said, to preserve the unity of Spirit in the bond of peace. But the church is also the Christian source of power. We need the power that comes from being in a united body of believers. We can't make it on our own, we need to be connected to the church. And when churches start to fight and show disunity, it, first of all, alienates people from the church, they just exit out. And once they're alienated, they're isolated from God's people. And once they're all alone, that's when Satan loves to attack them. And so, that's why Paul is very diligent about talking about the unity of Spirit in the bond of peace.
Ephesians 4:1 says, "Let us walk in a way worthy," literally, of equal weight, "with who we are in Christ". First of all, in the church. Now, after talking about unity, beginning in verse 7 Paul is gonna make sure we don't misunderstand unity. Now, listen to this, unity does not mean uniformity. To be unified doesn't mean we all have to be the same. There is diversity in the church, there's diversity among Christians, and diversity is a good thing in the church. In fact, the only way we can truly be unified is if we understand the diversity in the body of Christ, just like there is in the physical body.
Samuel Brengle wrote, "The best neighbors I know anything about are my two hands. They have lived on opposite sides of the street for many, many years, and they've never had a row. If my left hand is hurt, my right hand immediately drops all other business and rushes across the way to comfort it and help it out of its trouble. My two hands are members of one another, and Christians should be like that. They are members of Christ's body. They should be loving, and as forgiving, and as sympathetic and helpful toward each other as are my two hands". That's a great illustration.
Now, to carry it one step further, those two hands can be nice to one another because they're alike. But just imagine one day the left hand says to your pancreas, "What in the world do you do all day? I mean, we're up here working. When dinner time comes, we're busy preparing the meal. But you do nothing. What value are you"? The pancreas would probably say, "I've got a different function than you do. And without me, you wouldn't be able to do what you do". It's the same with us in appreciating other Christians. We are not all the same. And that's what Paul is going to talk about beginning in verse 7 of Ephesians 4. We are different, meaning we have different spiritual gifts. What is a spiritual gift?
Let's look, beginning at verse 7. Paul talks about the reality of spiritual gifts, and we're gonna look at a definition of spiritual gifts. Verse 7, "But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift". Now, Paul loves the word "grace". "For by," what? "Grace you have been saved through faith". In that context, grace is God's undeserved favor. We are saved by grace. But also, beginning in verse 7 here, grace has a different meaning. It's about God's undeserved enablement. Let me explain it this way. There is an inseparable link between God's grace that saved us and our spiritual gift. It's the same word, basically.
Grace is the Greek word "charis," C-H-A-R-I-S, charis. The word for "gift" is "charismatan". It has "charis" and a "matan" at the end. Why is there a link between grace and our spiritual gift? Listen to this. When you were born into this world, physically, you are born with certain natural abilities, certain interests. But when you were born again into the family of God, when you became a Christian, God's grace brought you not only the gift of the Holy Spirit, but a spiritual gift as well to use in spreading God's message to other people.
There's an inseparable link between God's gift and our grace. And this leads to a definition of a spiritual gift. A spiritual gift is the unique desire and the power God gives you to share his message to other people. It's, first of all a desire. It's something you enjoy doing. It's something you're drawn to do. But it's also a divine enablement. It's something when you do, God uniquely blesses. A spiritual gift is a desire and a power, not to work at the Kiwanis Club or at the Red Cross, but to serve in the body of Christ, to spread God's message.
Now, hold your place here and turn over to Romans 12, verses 6 to 8. You'll find a list of seven gifts, and did you know you've got one of these gifts, whether you know it or not? Paul writes in Romans 12:6, "Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly; if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness".
Let me explain it this way. There are some people right in this church who have the gift of serving. That's meeting the practical needs of other people, and that's the way they express Christ's message to others. Other people have the gift of exhortation. You know, exhortation means to come alongside somebody. Their interest is in the practical application of scripture. How does scripture help people get out of the problems they're facing, either as non-Christians or Christians? Different people have different gifts and all the gifts are important in the body of Christ.
And let me just say, if you don't know what your spiritual gift is, I think next to salvation, the most important thing a Christian can understand is his spiritual gift and how to use it. Now, a natural question when we come to Ephesians 4 is, well, why does Ephesians 4 give a different list of gifts? In fact, if you look in the scripture, there are three separate list of spiritual gifts. Some include things the other list includes, some are omitted. Why do we have three list of gifts? I believe the reason is there are three categories of spiritual gifts. We refer to all of them as gifts, but there are really three categories of gifts.
And there's a popular Bible teacher who teaches that, but I think he is right for the most part about that. This is actually given to us by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 4 through 6. Paul said there are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit; there are a variety of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are a variety of effects, or manifestations, but the same Spirit. When we talk about finding our spiritual gift, we're talking about Romans 12, the passage we just looked at. You have one of those gifts, and I believe you have only one of those gifts. 1 Peter 4:10 says, "As each one has received the gift," singular, "let him use it in serving one another".
Look at Ephesians 4:12, "For the equipping of the saints for the work of service". The reason he gave pastors, evangelists, prophets, and teachers was to equip the saints for the work of service, here it is, "To the building up of the body of Christ". That's the ultimate aim of spiritual gifts: to build up. Oikodomé in Greek refers to the building of a house. We are to build up the spiritual house of the Lord. What does that mean, to build it up? Well, he's talking about, first of all, growing larger.
Did you know in 1 Peter chapter 2, Peter describes Christians as building a holy temple to God? How is it built, a spiritual temple? Not by bricks, not by stones, but by individual lives. God wants this temple, this spiritual temple, to get larger. He wants more people to be a part of this spiritual temple. God is interested in numbers, the numbers of true converts who come to know Christ. And so, that's why we're having this emphasis on one life, to go out and reach somebody, invite them to become a part of the body of Christ.
So he's certainly talking about growing larger, but he's also referring to growing stronger. He wants to build up, to strengthen this body. To have a strong building you have to have the right foundation. And at First Baptist Dallas, the foundation is the living Word of God, Jesus Christ, and the written Word of God, the Bible. He wants to make sure that the pieces of this temple, the stones, the bricks, are connected together through the right mortar. We've got to be connected. We're not 16,000 individual people at First Baptist Church, we are connected, we are cemented together.
That's what spiritual gifts are meant to do, to increase the size of the church and increase the spiritual strength of the church. Well, how do we do that? How do we build up the body of Christ? Well, you know what some churches do? They say, "Well, we'll go out and hire the best staff, the best pastor we can and we'll pay them to do the work of ministry".
I'm reminded of Bud Wilkinson who, for years, served as the chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness. He was a well-known professional football player before Kennedy appointed him. And a reporter asked him one day, "Mr. Wilkinson, what contribution has professional football made to the health of the American people"? And Wilkinson said, "Absolutely none. No help whatsoever. Just think about it," he said, "in a football game, you've got 22 men on the field desperately in need of rest, being cheered on by 50,000 spectators in the stands, desperately in need of exercise".
You know, that's a great picture of many churches, too many churches. Too many churches hire a pastor and a staff and they're out there on the field with a few dedicated laymen. And if the team is doing well, if the church is succeeding, the spectators in the crowd yell, "Go, team! Go! Keep on going. We're for you, we're behind you". But if the church isn't doing so well, they yell out, "Call in the second string"!
Now, that may make for exciting football, but that's a lousy way to run a church. God never meant the paid professionals to do it. Those who are apostles and prophets and music ministers and evangelists and whatever else in the church, our job is to do what? To equip the saints, that would be you, for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. That word "katartizo" refers to the equipping, the loading up of a ship with supplies before it goes out on a long journey.
Did you know that's the reason we come together once a week? Besides worship, we come to get equipped, to go out and do the work of ministry. You know, occasionally, and thankfully, we have people who are saved in our service. But you'll never have that many people saved in the service. You know why? It's real simple. Unbelievers, by and large, don't come to church. A lot of believers don't come to church, but a lot of unbelievers don't come to church. If you're going to reach them, it's not gonna be in the pew of a church. You reach them out there where they are. And that's why we have you here, to give you the tools you need to go out and share the good news of Jesus Christ, equipping the saints for the work of service. And by the way, when everybody's on the field and playing the game, when everybody's out blocking and tackling and sharing the gospel, it creates a much healthier attitude in the church.
My old mentor, Howard Hendricks had a dad who was in the military, was unsaved for most of his life. Dr. Hendricks says one day his dad said to him, "Son, remember this. You can always tell where your troops are by what they're complaining about. If they're complaining about warm beer, they're nowhere near the front lines. But if they're complaining about a lack of ammunition, then you know they're right in the heat of battle". What are you complaining about? Hopefully, not warm a beer but something maybe just as ludicrous. "I don't like the sound. I don't like the music. I don't like the ties the pastor wears. I don't like the way my Sunday school teacher teaches. I don't like the temperature of the auditorium". You know, blah, blah, blah.
When people start complaining about that, you know they are nowhere near the front lines of spiritual battle. But when they're complaining about, so to speak, "Man, I need more meat. I need more food. I need more business cards to pass out to invite people to come," you know they're right in the heat of spiritual battle. God's plan for the church is to equip the saints, that is, to equip you, for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. We talked about the reality of spiritual gifts, the goal of spiritual gifts, building up the body. What's the measurement of spiritual gifts? How do we know if we're succeeding? I wanna do this very quickly. One word is maturity.
Look at verse 13, "Until we all attain to the unity of faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ". You know, everybody loves a baby. Babies are cute and cuddly when they're about five or six months old. But there's nothing cute about a 40 or 50 year old who acts like a six month old. In fact, when we see that happen, we think it's tragic. We call such a person mentally challenged. It's the same way in the body of Christ. We enter as babies, spiritual babies, but God doesn't intend for us to stay that way. He wants us to grow up in all aspects, and the measure of our spiritual maturity is the fullness of Christ.
Second word: stability. "As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried away by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming". You know what characterizes a child? They're highly volatile in their emotions, up and down; they're extremely self-centered, they've got to have it their way; and they're easily led astray, which is why we tell them to beware of strangers. Same way with spiritual babies. One way you know that somebody is immature spiritually is they're always giving into their emotions, their emotions rule their life, and they're easily carried away by false doctrine that make promises they can never fulfill.
Don't be that way. He said when we're mature in Christ, there is stability. And finally, there's activity. One way you know, if your body of believers, your church, is healthy, there's activity. Look at verse 16, "From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies". The church is the body of Christ. It means every part, every joint has to be supplying what it's supposed to supply. Remember I said if a cell in your body starts taking nourishment from other cells but never gives anything in return, causes cancer. It's the same way in the body of Christ. When you have members taking and taking and taking, and not giving, the result is cancer, spiritual cancer.
Now, what does he mean? What is it that every part of the body supplies? He says, "According to the proper working," the working, "of each individual part". You know how you can know if your body is healthy? Every body part is present and each one is functioning as it's supposed to. Every part is essential and every part has to be correctly connected to the other parts. And if it is, and if they are, then a beautiful picture of Jesus emerges for the world to see. That's God's way, that's God's method, for building a strong body.