Grace for Everyone!

Sermon Summary:

This powerful message invites us into a profound exploration of grace, unity, and divine giftedness within the body of Christ. Drawing from Ephesians 4, we discover that Christ himself has distributed gifts to each one of us—not as rewards we’ve earned, but as grace freely given for the building up of his church. The text beautifully connects Christ’s ascension with his ongoing provision for the church, reminding us that Jesus didn’t abandon us when he ascended to heaven. Instead, he took his position at headquarters, overseeing the grand operation of redemption and equipping us for the mission ahead. We’re challenged to understand the crucial difference between unity and uniformity—God doesn’t call us to be identical clones, but rather to find beautiful harmony in our diversity. Like an orchestra where each instrument plays its unique part to create something magnificent, we each have a role that matters. The message highlights five specific gifts Christ gives to the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers. These aren’t just historical roles but living gifts meant to equip every believer for works of service. The stunning truth is that every single one of us has been uniquely designed and gifted by God to serve both within the church and beyond its walls. When we discover and exercise our gifts, we experience double blessing—we bless the body of Christ and find deep personal fulfillment in being used by God for his purposes.

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Sermon Points:

Key Takeaways:

• The Great Commission seems overwhelming, but Christ equips His church through the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts
• Christ’s ascension wasn’t abandonment—He’s at headquarters overseeing the redemptive mission and distributing gifts
• Unity in diversity is essential; the church needs people from different backgrounds and perspectives, not uniformity
• Christ has given five types of gifted people to the church: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors/shepherds, and teachers
• Every believer receives grace and gifts from Christ, not just church leaders
• The purpose of specially gifted leaders is to equip all believers for works of service
• When believers discover and use their gifts, both they and the church are blessed
• The church is like an orchestra where everyone plays their unique part to create beautiful music for God’s glory

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Scripture References:

• Ephesians 4:7-13 (primary focus)
• Matthew 28:18-20 (The Great Commission)
• Acts 1:8 (Jesus’ commission to be witnesses)
• Psalm 68 (referenced regarding Christ’s ascension and gift-giving)
• Romans 16 (mentioned regarding Junia as an apostle)
• 1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12 (mentioned as other gift passages)

Stories:

• The pastor’s grandson Connor graduating from Navy boot camp, illustrating uniformity versus unity
• A story about a violinist in Chicago who was mugged, suffered amnesia, and couldn’t remember who he was until members of his orchestra found him at the hospital and restored his memory—used as a metaphor for how people are lost until they meet Jesus and find their place in God’s church
• The pastor’s participation in the Flourishing in Church project, with upcoming meetings and a retreat in Assisi, Italy
• The formation of the Ascent missional collective, bringing together centrist Orthodox Christians from various denominations (Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, Mennonites, etc.) to re-evangelize North America
• The Junia Network, a collective for female ministers, with representatives visiting the church

Sermon Transcript:

And the people of God said amen. Right. Thank you, choir, orchestra, worship minister, for leading us today. Well, you know that our theme for 2026 is still flourishing Together. It’s Transformed on the Jesus Way is what we’re highlighting this year.

But just so you know that, as we have volunteered to be a part of this Flourishing in Church project, we’ve actually been meeting with the leaders of Flourishing in the Church this week. Kurt has met with them, and Kate long sends her greetings. Y’ all remember Kate. And we are just now getting all the information compiled from the 12 churches that are participating in this here in the U.S. we have one more church that is finishing up their survey, and we have meetings scheduled this summer for us to learn together as a collective. What are we learning from these various churches?

What are we learning about flourishing in the lives of individual Christians? What are we learning about how churches are flourishing? What are we learning about how churches are spilling over into their communities with a message of hope and flourishing? We have also the research has taken place in Europe, not just here in the US and so in October, we, we have a retreat scheduled in Assisi of all places, in Italy for all of us to come together and compile this research and determine how best to implement the things that we are learning from this study as we connect it to our individual congregations. And so just want you to have that update, continue in prayer for that project because it really is a very meaningful journey for us, and I’m looking forward to how God is going to use it in the life of our church.

With that said, our theme for the year is Flourishing Together. But as you know, each season of the year, we highlight a different facet of the overall theme. So that’s where we are for the Eastertide season. And our theme is shaped by the Spirit. And we are aiming toward Pentecost Sunday, which is this next Sunday, and we will bring the Eastertide journey to a conclusion.

And as I said today, you know, when you come to the springtime of the year, there’s so many things happening in the life of our church with dedicating parents and babies and celebrating Mother’s Day and college grads and high school grads. I mean, we’ve had all of that, today’s high school grad celebration, and our family’s excited about today. But I want to give you all an update. We have another grandson who also graduated this week. I’m going to show you this photo.

I think we have it. Our grandson, Connor. We’re so proud. Anyway, he has graduated from boot camp. He called me on the day of his graduation.

He said, poppy, this is Connor. I said, I know I do have a smartphone. I saw him. But nevertheless, I said, I got it. He said, guess what?

I said, what? He said, I’m a sailor in the United States Navy. And I said, congratulations. So excited for him. But you all have been a part of his journey, some of you know that since he was a little boy when Hannah adopted him.

And he is just such a part of our family. We’re proud of him. So. So, yeah, it’s a season of celebration. Well, when we think about what God’s doing in the life of, of our church, what he’s doing in the life of his churches, there’s reason to celebrate because of the work of the Spirit of God in our midst.

And so let’s just continue our conversation that, that we’ve been having about the work of the Spirit being shaped by the Spirit during this entire season. And we’ll find ourselves today back in Ephesians 4. This is where we were last Sunday. So if you have your copy of the New Testament, let’s look at the fourth page of Ephesians and we’ll pick up where we left off last week. We’ll start in verse 7 of Ephesians 4.

I’ve entitled the message Grace for everyone, which is Paul’s message in Ephesians chapter 4. So let’s look at verse 7. Paul says, but to each one of us, grace has been given. Christ apportioned it, as Christ has distributed it, as Christ has given it, if you will. This is why it says, when he ascended on high, he took many captives and he gave gifts to his people.

What does he ascended mean, except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. Now, when you start verse 11, this is another one of those long Pauline complex sentences. Verse 11 through verse 16 is just one sentence in the Greek text. The NIV has broken it up so we can make sense of it.

And so we’re going to stop mid sentence at the end of verse 13. So look at verse 11. So Christ Himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers to equip his people for works of service so that the Body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. So here’s where I’d like for us to start this morning as we think about what it means that God has given grace to all of us. I want you to think about the very end of the message from Jesus, his earthly ministry after his resurrection from the dead.

The Bible tells us that we have two accounts, really. We have actually, we have the four Gospels and the Book of Acts. But we have this message from Jesus that Matthew shares with us where Jesus gives the Church the great commission. And he says that you’re going to be challenged, be called, be commissioned to make disciples of all nations. And he says you’re supposed to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

Teach them all the things that you have observed, the things you’ve learned from me. In other words, teach them everything about me. You’re to make disciples out of them, which means you’re to help them learn how to become like me. And he says you’re to do that to all peoples, all nations. Then in the Book of Acts, we get a very similar message from Jesus.

In Acts, chapter one, he tells the disciples, the Holy Spirit’s going to come upon you and you’re going to receive power and then you will be my witnesses, he says, and it will start right here in Jerusalem, but you’ll find your way all the way through Judea, you’ll go through Samaria. And the calling is to take this to the ends of the earth. And so this magnificent, comprehensive, incredible task, this commission from Jesus to his church surely felt overwhelming to that small group of people who received that message from Jesus. And most of them had never been anywhere they hadn’t been outside of Israel. And God is calling them through this commission through Jesus to make disciples of the whole world.

Now how in the world is the Church going to do that? How are we going to reach the whole world with the Gospel? And when we reach people with the gospel, help them transform from being pagans, gentiles, whatever their backgrounds might be, into full fledged followers of Jesus. So it’s an incredible, huge task. In fact, it is beyond those early disciples, beyond their capability, beyond ours on our own.

And then the most interesting thing happens, y’. All, Jesus issues that commission and challenges them. Then he disappears and ascends. And I’m not, I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t given a whole lot of, through the years in my ministry, a lot of theological reflection on the Ascension. But think about how that must have felt to those early followers of Jesus.

We’re going to talk about that Next Sunday, as we bring Eastertide to a conclusion, we’re actually going to look at that story. But I love how Luke puts it, because after Jesus ascends into heaven, Luke says, these angels appeared. Y’ all remember. You remember what the angel asked the disciples?

Y’ all remember what were the disciples doing?

And the angel said, why are you standing here gazing up into heaven? My answer to that would have been, duh. I mean, Jesus just disappeared. That’s why we’re standing here gazing. So my question would have been, is he about to come back right now?

Right. I mean, he went to get the angel. He went to get all the army to take this thing over. So maybe we just wait right here. And the angel says, get busy.

He’s going to return just like he left, which is how did he leave? Well, surprisingly, wouldn’t you agree, in power, and in a way that only he could do so. Well, since that time, we have been engaged in this monumental task of making disciples of the whole world and leading people to be disciples. Well, how in the world can we do that? Well, let’s look at what Paul says, because I think we find clues to that, to the answer to that question.

But let’s start with the Ascension, because Paul references it here in Ephesians 4. Paul actually uses a psalm, which he’s prone to do, to highlight his theological reflections and his teachings about Jesus. So he uses Psalm 68. You may not have. It may not be one of those Psalms that’s very familiar to you because it’s a warrior psalm, actually.

And he uses that psalm to highlight the victorious nature of the life and ministry of Christ, who has now ascended to the right hand of the Father, and he is victoriously guiding the church to fulfill its role in the grand plan of redemption. As a matter of fact, this past Thursday, I don’t know if you noted it on your calendar, but this past Thursday was Ascension Day. It was the day we Mark on our liturgical calendar that after Easter, Jesus made his way into glory. What the disciples are going to have to learn, and we’re going to follow up on this next Sunday, is Jesus actually didn’t really leave us. That’s not really what happened.

Physically he did, but that’s not exactly what happened. But why would Paul use this particular psalm? Well, if you will go look at it this week, Psalm 68. It paints a picture of God being victorious over his enemies and ascending up to a mountain. And once he makes his way onto the mountain, the people bring gifts to him because they’re honoring him for his victory because he is the victorious God and he was blessed by receiving these gifts from his people.

He was honored by these gifts. Paul shifts that now when he refer, uses this psalm to refer to Christ who ascends. And Paul says, this time, when Christ ascends, rather than us giving him gifts, he’s giving us gifts. So the favor is being returned, so to speak. Paul alters the image a bit.

That’s caused scholars a little bit of consternation to wonder, why did Paul do that? Well, Paul is depicting Christ as a victorious warrior. He’s now entered into glory. His earthly ministry is complete. In his very presence is the union of heaven and earth.

He has descended to earth. That’s what Paul says. What has he ascended? Look at verse nine. Unless he descended to these lower earthly regions, some people, I think, misunderstand that and think that’s a reference to Jesus descending into hell.

I believe it’s actually the incarnation. Jesus just descended here and now in his glory. He’s actually overseeing this great plan of redemption. He did not leave us. Think of it this way.

This is what NT Wright says. He’s actually at headquarters. He’s overseeing the whole operation. That’s what’s happening. And he’s giving gifts to all of us so that we all can play our role in the great plan of redemption.

So that’s exactly what’s happened now as he is distributing these gifts. It’s fascinating because there are so many of us and we are all just so different. Have y’ all ever noticed that people are just different? Have y’ all noticed that at all? People are just different.

They have different ideas, perspectives, proclivities, talents, abilities. I mean, look at how diverse our world is. It’s incredible. In this diversity, all of creation is certainly humanity is. Well, here’s the beautiful thing about the church.

We can actually find unity in diversity. God’s spirit is at work in the church through the provision, through his provision of unity amidst this great diversity of people and gifts. And there’s a lesson here for us that I think is important because there’s a difference between unity and uniformity. Now, I just showed you a photo of my grandson Connor. I didn’t get to go to the graduation.

Cindy was able to go along with Hannah and the rest of the family. They sent me photos. Do you know all of those men and women all wear the exact same uniform? I don’t know if y’ all have ever seen that or not. There were 600 graduates in this class.

And when they took the big Photo. They all looked just alike. Connor has the exact same haircut of every man in his group. Exact one. He has learned code and discipline, and what’s being built in him is a certain uniformity.

Does that make sense? And that’s fine. I think you need that in the military. Actually, I don’t know what you need in the military. I’ve not been to it.

And after listening to what he just went through, I’m probably not highly likely to be a candidate for it, just going out there on a limb. But there’s a difference between that and unity. And sometimes churches and Christians get that confused and think that the only way we can stay together is if we’re all just alike. And that is. That’s dangerous theology, in my opinion.

And unfortunately, I’m living in a culture right now where that seems to be the path that many people are on. I’m only going to get along with you if you’re just like me. And as I’m watching it play out, it’s amazing how exacting it can be in theological conversations, because I’m watching people in our family. I’m talking about the Christian family when having conversations about all the things that we have conversations about. And you can agree on 98 things out of 100, and those one or two things can completely separate you for the rest of your life.

It’s fascinating to me because there’s this desire for uniformity. The Scripture paints a very different picture. There’s unity amidst our diversity. That’s the way the Bible portrays the church. Are y’ all still with me?

And so we don’t need churches to be filled with everybody who looks and thinks just alike. In fact, I would contend that just might be dangerous. You need to rub elbows and shoulders with people who are very different than you and have different perspectives than you do, as long as they’re faithful to the Scripture. Because, believe it or not, there are various interpretations of passages in the Scripture that are not necessarily grounds for breaking a fellowship. Now, there are some things we hold onto.

Doctrinally, I agree with that. But there are many things on the periphery that we can hold very loosely and demonstrate our maturity. And so here’s what Paul teaches us in this text. Look back at if you’ve got your Bibles on, look back at the opening passage of chapter four. And Paul says, yeah, there’s one body, there’s one spirit, there’s one hope, there’s one Lord, there’s one faith, there’s one baptism, there’s one God and Father over it all, yes, there is deep, profound unity.

But then Paul says, but to each one of us, grace has been given because there’s so much diversity. The beauty of the church is that we can be rich in our diversity because there’s a place for all of us. And diversity enriches the life of the overall whole. Think about the early church. The early church was birthed into a segmented society.

And that society, people maintained their positions. They didn’t get out of order. And then all of a sudden, the church is birthed. And the next thing you know, the church has men and women and slaves and masters and Jews and Gentiles. I mean, this was unheard of in the ancient world.

No other organization did this. You stayed among your own in the first century. And that’s why Paul had to write about so much of these relationships, because these people weren’t used to relating to each other. And now they find themselves in the church. It’s a beautiful, beautiful picture.

And like I said right now, if there’s ever been a time when our culture needs to see unity amidst diversity, surely it’s right now for the culture to see examples of colonies of heaven where people don’t cluster into homogenous groups that are politically motivated or socially motivated. Because when that happens, you live in an echo chamber that further entrenches you and isolates you from the rest of the world, particularly from people who are different. And so that’s why one of the things I love about our church is the diversity of it. When people ask me sometimes about our church, what kind of people come to your church? I usually say all kinds of people from all different walks of life, all different kinds of views, all different kinds of perspectives.

And that’s what we like, it’s what we want. I believe it’s a beautiful picture. You know, our church is helping to launch a brand new missional collective called Ascent. And one of the beauties of Ascent is that our desire is to re. Evangelize North America with.

With an eye on the whole world. And the people that have come together in the Ascent movement are centrist Orthodox Christians from numerous denominational backgrounds. We have Baptists, Texas Baptists, we have American Baptists, we have Canadian Baptists, we have French Evangelicals in Canada. We have Evangelical Methodists, we have Presbyterians, we have Anglicans, we have Mennonites, we have the Church of God General Conference. There are just all across the denominational spectrum this group of Christians who have decided that we have more in common with each other.

And we’re going to Unite around what we have in common and take a gospel to a world that is lost and needs to hear it. It’s a beautiful thing. I love it. I love the fellowship we have. In fact, some of the representatives of the Ascent movement are going to be here in our next service.

They’re a part of a. Of a brand new organization, ministry collective that we have called the Junia Network, which is a network that is designed for female ministers to have fellowship and community with one another and encourage one another and bless each other in best practices in their churches. And we have some representatives from the Junia Collective that will be here today. Your own Katie Hodges and Ashley Berryhill are members of that Junia Collective. Aren’t we proud of them for what they do here?

Well, think about. Yeah, Amen. Thank you. We can clap for them. I love them.

So here’s what I’d say. So when I think about how much Christ has provided for the church, how much he cares for the church, well, here’s what he’s done. He has gifted people and placed them in his church. That’s what this text teaches us. Look at his provision.

He’s given the right people to his church so that the church might fulfill its mission. And so look at what this text says. This text tells us that in the church, if you look at verse 11, God through Christ has given us apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. Those are gifts from Christ himself. So look at that list.

Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, scholars in the modern era studying this text have tried to determine, what does this mean when you see the word apostle? Is that only the 12 apostles? And why would Paul put it in this letter as these folks are gifts and included in the list of people that we know continue to be a part of the church today. And so there are some who have said, well, I’m not sure that all of these people are still supposed to be active in our churches. I would disagree with that.

These are people that are given by Christ to the church. So let’s talk about them. Apostles. What does that word mean? Apostle means someone who’s sent.

Typically speaking, people who are apostolic. They’re pioneers. They are the sent ones. They extend and expand the church. A lot of them do serve as missionaries or church planters, but we have them in our churches.

They are people who will challenge you to think beyond the status quo. We have some apostles here in our church. They have that apostolic calling. They tend to push you a little bit beyond where you’ve been. They’re pioneering in Their faith.

And we need them because they bring something to the body. Now, in the New Testament, you have people that are actually called apostles. Of course, you have the 12 apostles, you have Paul. But read Romans 16. You have Andronicus, and you have Junia.

That’s the name of that network, Junia. And Paul says about her, she is standing out among the apostles. So Paul refers to Junia, a woman, as an apostle in the first century. Are y’ all still with me? Okay, so we’re not just making this stuff up.

You know, we’re just reading our Bibles. That’s really all we’re doing, which I highly, highly recommend. Prophets. What about prophets? Well, there was a role that prophets played in the Old Testament.

They were forthtellers. They were foretellers. Usually we. When we talk about those prophets, we use a capital P. Their material is contained in the Scripture. But there are prophets in the New Testament.

These are people who speak on God’s behalf. They’re guardians of God’s truth. They speak prophetic voices. They challenge us to be faithful to God. They often live in conversations about social justice and the holiness of God.

And we need those prophetic voices in the church to remind us of our calling. And then evangelists, well, those are the announcers of good news. Those are the people who are just uniquely gifted by God to share the content of the good news in relevant ways. They can draw a net. Y’ all are familiar with people who are evangelists.

We all have the responsibility in evangelism. But there are some people, I believe, that are gifts to the church that are so effective in communicating the gospel in various settings. We have some evangelists in our church, as every church should. And then we have shepherds. Paul says pastors in this text.

That word refers to the leaders who guide and care for the flock. They build community in the body of Christ. They lead people towards spiritual maturity. That’s one of my. My sense of.

One of the primary callings of my life is to be a shepherd. To guide people in their journey in the Lord, to lead them towards spiritual maturity, to encourage people to. To learn how to love Jesus and. And follow the Jesus way. And there are teachers.

Teachers are the folks who can discern the scripture. They offer guidance. They impart truth. They exhort the people of God. They are faithful to the word of God.

They explain. They challenge. They develop believers. Well, I believe those are five people that are given to the church. Does that make sense?

I don’t know that every single one of us has all of that inside of us, I think Paul is talking about. I have vacillated through the years because there’s one view that everybody is supposed to be one of those or have that primary in their life, or these are actually people that are given to the church. Do y’ all see the difference, in other words, that every single one of you has to be an apostle, a shepherd, a teacher, or an evangelist or a prophet? I don’t know that I agree with that. I don’t think there’s a problem with that.

I tend to lean more toward. These are people God gives to the church, church, if you will. And they play a unique role in leading and guiding the church and advancing its effort forward. There’s a lot of research that’s being done today about those various roles in the life of a church. I do believe that a healthy church should have people who are these individuals in the church.

So we need to pray that God will continue to bring to our church apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastors and shepherds and teachers, because we need all of them to guide our church forward. Now, with that said, why would God bring those people to the church? Why is it that they’re a part of the church family? Well, this in here, let me read you. Constantine Campbell’s written a commentary on Ephesians.

Here’s what. Here’s what he says. This individualized dispensation of grace, he says, refers to Christ’s gifts to the church through the spiritual equipping of individuals who will in turn, prepare all members of the church for the building up of the body. So in other words, let me put it to you like this. There’s grace for everyone.

Okay? Everyone is gifted. Everyone has a unique role in place, both in and beyond the church. The gifts are both for the good of the church as well as for the good of each person. So on the one hand, you have these five people who have these particular gifts.

But I want you to look at verse seven. To each one of us, grace gifts have been given. And so how does God use those particular five people who play those roles in the church? Well, I want you to notice what he says he does. Look at verse 12 to equip everybody to play their role.

You see those five uniquely gifted folks, their job is to equip everybody else, not to do it themselves, but to equip everybody else so that every one of us plays our role. So everybody that I’m looking at right now, that’s a Christian, God has uniquely gifted you to serve him in his kingdom’s interest both in the church and beyond the church. Every one of y’, all, you’ve been uniquely designed and think about. The gifts are delineated in First Corinthians 12, Romans 12 here in Ephesians. But I believe the gifts are even beyond that.

I think that God gives the gifts that we need for the season the church is in. So we all have personality types. We’ve got proclivities, we’ve got needs in the church. Here’s the beautiful thing. As God gifts you to play your role and you get equipped in your church, God then uses every single one of us to do the work of the ministry.

So all of us are called to it. Everybody’s hands are supposed to be on it. And guess what it does. It blesses the church. When you’re engaged in the place where you can serve and you’re passionate and your gifts are being utilized, it blesses the whole church.

The church is healthier because you’re playing your role. Think about all the things that happen in a church like ours, all the needs that we have, and how so many of you are involved in all of it. And you have all different kinds of needs and responsibilities in the life of a church. And so when we’re trying to organize ourselves for ministry, think about everything. So you got to have people that can think strategically.

You have people who get bored to death in a strategy meeting. They’re implementers. They want to get their hands dirty. Well, you got to have the people that are willing to do that in order to implement. And so we all get sent, if you will, in the ministry.

And that means you’ve got to find your way in. And here’s the second beautiful thing about it. It doesn’t just bless the church. It blesses you. Because when God’s using you, you get the blessing.

You get the blessing of knowing that God has used you in this particular thing. And when you exercise the gifts that he’s given to you, and those gifts can change over different seasons in your life, you can find yourself in different places in life when the church needs maybe something different. And all of a sudden, God places that inside of you. And you can play that role in the life of your church, and it blesses you tremendously. And it’s a beautiful thing.

And it’s how God does this. And the beautiful thing about it is it’s spiritual. It’s not just our abilities. It’s not just our proclivities. It’s God supernaturally intersecting that in our lives with his Holy Spirit.

Shaping us so that we can be blessed, so the church can be blessed, so that we can actually make disciples of all the nations. Does that make sense? You know, years ago, I heard this preacher tell this story, and I can’t remember who he was, but he told this story about he was in Chicago, and he said there was an orchestra that was there to play in some symphony. And there was a call from the chaplain at the hospital who called this pastor and said, could you come to the hospital? Because the chaplain was a member of their church.

So the pastor goes to the hospital. There was a guy there in the hospital. He had been mugged on the street of Chicago. He had had a bump on his head, and he had temporary amnesia. He wasn’t sure who he was.

All of his everything was taken from him. This was way before cell phones and all that. So he didn’t have a wallet, didn’t have any identification, didn’t know who he was, couldn’t remember who he was. Pastor prayed with him, not sure what to do. Well, come to find out, the orchestra that was in town, he was a violinist in the orchestra.

And the orchestra leaders were now panicking, trying to find this man. Finally, somehow or another, through the connections, the pastor gets connected to them. They get to the hospital, and sure enough, that’s him. And when he sees the people that he knows, all of a sudden his memory starts coming back to him. Does that make sense?

In other words, he didn’t know anybody earlier? Well, all of a sudden, the people who knew him show up, and he kind of starts getting everything back. Well, the next thing you know, by the end of the week, he was back in the orchestra. This pastor said this. He said that to me is a picture of my world.

Everybody on this earth has had a bump in the head, and they are completely lost, and they don’t know who they are. And when you meet Jesus, all of a sudden you get healed and you get forgiven. And then all of a sudden, you take your place in the orchestra and everything is more beautiful. I love that. So my question to you is, have you found your place in the orchestra?

Because I don’t know anything about the orchestra. Let’s be honest, okay? But I think they’re all playing their own stuff. Am I right about that, Aaron? They’re all playing their own, right?

I think y’ all are all playing your own thing, but somehow or another, y’ all put it together where it all sounds beautiful, right? Even if you’re playing your own instrument, your own piece, somebody smart enough to weave it all together to where even somebody like me can sit there and say, man, that was really good. Well, how good you think God is at that? How good do you think God is at matching you to what needs to be done in his church? How important do you think it is to God?

Well, I’m going to tell you how important it is. Jesus himself is gifting you so you can play your role. That’s how important it is. And that’s what this text says. So if you’re still the person that’s got amnesia with a bump in the head, you just need to meet Jesus.

Okay? So let’s get that first. But once you do that, come join our orchestra, find your place here and let’s make beautiful music together because our world needs to hear it. And it’s going to take all of us, not just the five that are mentioned in this text. But the text says everybody.

So let’s you and I, let’s find our way. Let’s figure out what instrument we’re supposed to play and let’s join our brothers and sisters for the glory of God and the sake of the gospel. May it be so. Let me pray for us.

Well, Father, we thank you for the gift of your spirit. On the one hand, it’s a little mysterious to us how this all works, that when we become believers, all of a sudden the presence of the Holy Spirit is with us. But it also seems very practical to me that we need you. We need the guidance of your spirit, we need the giftedness of your spirit, we need the wisdom of your spirit, we need the power of your spirit if we’re going to accomplish this task that’s beyond us all. And so I pray for our children church that we will find our way in ministry, all of us, that we’ll acknowledge our giftedness and that we will allow you to shape us to be used by you.

And I just pray for church with a big C. That the church Lord would acknowledge its need for you. And I ask through your spirit that you would guide the church to take this gospel to the world and make disciples of all the nations. That’s our prayer. In Jesus name, amen.