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 January 10th 

Read: Ephesians 4  

Big Idea:   For a local church to grow up in the Lord (to become a mature congregation who collectively walks in truth), it is “all-hands-on-deck.” God has made the Christian life to be a construction project with many subcontractors assigned to specific tasks. Church leaders have one over-arching goal: “equipping the saints for the work of the ministry.” Let’s not get it backwards, as is so common in our religious culture. We must not make the mistake that the ministry is for the “paid professionals.” The full-time ministers serve the Lord by getting the saints ready to do the everyday ministry among the other saints. We all labor in Christ for His bride to be built up and unified in the power of the Holy Spirit.  

Key Verse(s):  

Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,

Ephesians 4:12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,

Ephesians 4:13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ