Wrapping up Ephesians — Ephesians 4-5

0:00 That would be me. I drew the short straw here. So, let's pray. Father, we're so thankful that you brought us here together today. Lord, we pray that that which you've laid on Andy and I's heart might come through, that which you haven't won't.

0:26 Lord, we we do, appreciate who you are, what you've done, and that, that you have this local body, each one of us in your mind. It's in your son's precious name that we pray. Amen. Okay. So, we will be sharing the microphone.

0:43 Give us a second to change. We're going to share a clicker or share the podium. We're going to share the time but Andy can't have my water. So, he got his own. So yeah, I don't know if you all noticed it, but when we started singing, Andy got up and left and it just gives you a different feeling when he walks out and right before we're supposed to speak.

1:05 So anyway, it's almost as bad as when your wife gets up in the middle of the message and just leaves and you think, oh, no, what did I say? So that's a different story. So here we go. This is we're to call this a wrap up. All right.

1:20 I'm going to give a little bit of introduction. Andy's going to come up and he's got a summary to give. I want to talk a little bit after that and then Andy will finish it up. That's our plan. We're going to do our best to get it this way.

1:33 When we started the book of Ephesians, we we announced that and Here we go. It's always something. Right? Excuse me just a second here while I try and fix this. Alright.

2:02 One more time. From the beginning. There we go. So the... Your prayers have been answered.

2:12 So, at any rate, announced this, we said we're going to start in the book of Ephesians. We'd been doing sort of a hopscotch and as the person was led, that's where we were going. Then we went and said we're going to teach our way through the book of Ephesians and the question came up, a very viable question, why? Why are we gonna go to Ephesians? I mean, what's the purpose?

2:36 And we kind of stumbled our way through, but I guess I'd have to say we answered the question this way, Well, because. No, we said it's because we've been led that way, and several of us had been praying and trying to figure out where should we go next. Teaching through a book, it gets us through step by step through scripture, not a bad process. We wanted to do that. We hadn't been in Ephesians.

2:58 We just felt like we were led there. It's a foundational book that we all can learn from. But now I think we can look back at it and we can be on backside of it and say this is what we have learned. This is why the Lord has brought us there. Okay?

3:11 Now we're not gonna go through everything today, but we wanna sort of cap it off with some things today. So this is how it might look today. If the book of Ephesians was written today, it might look something like to the church at Ephesus, and Paul would have that as like a common place to send an email or something like that. It would be in his list of context, if you will. And it was from the Apostle Paul, but it was inspired by the Holy Spirit.

3:39 He might have that as a byline. It was intended to go not just to the book or to the Ephesians but we know that the letter to Galatians was written as you know, something that could be shared because it was written to the churches in Galatia and we know that these letters were widely circulated, but this is the part that we don't know if they knew, right? What about the blind carbon copy up there? Did they know they were writing it to us? I don't know, but they have.

4:09 And we need to think about it in that way. So let's not ruin the context by saying it was just to them. Let's make sure that we all bring it together and say, it's to you and I, and more importantly for today, to us as a local body. Okay? So if we were to start historically, okay, you can't get away with me speaking without having a little bit of history here, right?

4:31 If we start with the crucifixion, resurrection, ascension of Christ, that couple months worth of activity, right? As a marker, when Paul finally shows up or the first recording we have of Paul being in Ephesus and evangelizing there is in Acts chapter 18. He has a very brief visit, He teaches in the synagogue and he ends up leaving Aquila and Priscilla there and appears that they do some evangelizing there because he shows up in the next... That period of time is about fifteen years. Don't hold me to it, Don could give you down to the day how long it was, but I'm gonna just for argument's purposes call it about approximately fifteen years from that time to the when he shows up.

5:17 He shows up again, you know, months later or some months, let's call it twelve, twenty four, somewhere in there, a year or two later. He has a second visit, he ends up staying there for two years, okay. When he gets there, it says he found about 12 men that were believers. So maybe 12 men and their families and those part. But you know, he starts at the basic.

5:41 Have you heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit? And moves on from there. So you can imagine this growth of body, growth of belief, growth of growth of understanding as Paul is teaching at a private school there. Okay? A church is established though.

6:10 So we know that there's a church there, there's elders present in and amongst the church. He asks them, please come to Miletus. Now I don't know how he did that, he might have sent a messenger, a smoke signal, something happened, he sent it on his ship. But they came and he gave instructions to them there in Acts chapter 20. Very important, okay?

6:29 Later he finishes his journey past Miletus, he ends up in Jerusalem, gets arrested, ends up in a Roman jail through you know, a very circuitous route and he writes the letter to the Ephesians, okay. This is a deep letter, Okay. It's to saints. It's to those that are already saved. It's to those who had been practicing that he had taught for a period of years.

6:53 Those that had been a church, a gathering, a local body for a period of time. This letter is what he writes to them. We could break it down into a first half and a second half. We've talked a lot about that. I'm not going to do that again, but essentially what's your position in Christ, and then what is our practice in Christ might be one way of doing that.

7:13 Okay? And he's gonna talk a little bit more about the letter itself. But this is a letter in and amongst a context. Okay? We heard a couple weeks ago from Devon, context is king.

7:23 It's important to understand the context. Okay? And finally, believe it or not, first Timothy was written quote unquote to the Ephesians as well. Because Timothy was in Ephesus when Paul said, he said, I left you in Ephesus. Okay.

7:39 So Timothy got the personal letter, but then it's likely, I have to believe, he shared them, shared that letter with the Ephesians. Okay. The church there, the saints in Ephesus, okay. And here there's instructions here for choosing elders and deacons. Now it's interesting to remember this and look at the thing we have here, know, we know that he taught for two years and he apparently talked to about, chose elders or had come up with elders, right?

8:12 Because the Ephesian elders came to him later at Miletus, right? But now here we are years later and he's instructing Timothy how that should be done. So there's like a process that has been placed. It's going on and now we're doing it again. But we're thinking about others.

8:30 Okay? And deacons and those kind of things. So here we're in context again. Alright? So that whole process takes, let's say another fifteen years plus or minus.

8:41 From AD, let's call it forty eight to AD sixty three, early 60s. And then with the thirty year gap here, oops I'm sorry, what he writes to Timothy is this note, These things I write to you that you may know how to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of truth. Okay? These things were written for that purpose. Cap it all off with that concept.

9:15 It was written. He was there. He taught so that this could happen. Alright. Sorry, got a little ahead of myself there.

9:23 And then finally, Don talked to us a little bit about Revelation chapter two, the letter to the church in Ephesus. Okay? And we can see for this period of thirty years what had happened. A little bit of a drift, little bit of a concern, a warning that had to come out from John. Right?

9:41 That said, hey, you've abandoned your first love. Be careful or I will remove your candlestick or your lampstand or however we interpret that. Be careful, okay? So there it is, that's a very interesting context to put things in, right? And we know that it was written, Luke recorded some things in the book of Acts.

10:05 Paul wrote Ephesians and first Timothy. He was an actor in the book of Acts as well. And then finally John. So it's a broad cross section of what's written And this is probably the most comprehensive view of a local assembly that we have in the scriptures. So it's very important to learn from this.

10:22 So let's answer one question, why? Because this is a good view for us as a local assembly to understand what the teachings were at that time, if you will, at first century Christianity. This was important. Now it also does indicate that this is sort of a life cycle, if you will. A life cycle of a church.

10:44 Where it started, what was taught, where it needed to be reinforced and built up and then maybe where it was starting to drift. Okay? So that's the context that we're in and this big chunk in the middle is the letter to the book of Ephesians or the letter to the to the Church of Ephesus. So I'm gonna turn it over to Andy there at that point.

11:48 Perhaps those of you that are fans have seen it multiple times and who like the movie. You may recall this one scene where there's you remember it's a musical and so there's a place in there where the nuns are singing and there this that little question is asked, what do you do with the problem like Maria? Right? Remember that that. Hey, look.

12:14 I'll give a I'll give more of a concert a little bit later but the the the what's happening there is some of the ladies like Maria and like her saying, oh, these are all the good things I like about em and then other people are complaining about Maria and the head mistress is there and she asked that question, what do you do with the problem like Maria and as you follow it through, they all come to this conclusion that Maria is not really a problem at all. She's quite a joy to be around. In fact, one of the lines in that song, it says, It's like trying to hold a moonbeam in your hand and it keeps shining out. Well, I'd like to pose that question to us this morning. What do you do with a problem like Ephesians?

13:02 Well, and perhaps, you know, some of us will say that I like this about it and but I don't like this about it and but we might all come to that same conclusion that Ephesians is not a problem at all. In fact, it's like trying to hold a moonbeam in our hand that God's given us this incredible amount of doctrine and wisdom and and that we might know how to conduct ourselves in the house of god and it that when I read that little statement, it even reminds me back when the lord Jesus himself stood in Caesarea, Philippi and said, upon this rock will I build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. He was going to give us the keys to the kingdom. He was going to tell us how to live and conduct ourselves. And so as we trace through the New Testament writings, as we trace through the epistles and we get to this book, it's very much revealed to us how to live.

14:01 Now take your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter five. Says, this is my water? Oh, okay. Ephesians chapter five and I've selected these couple of verses here to to perhaps give us a little bit of a framework for for a summary. Now let me remind everybody too that we're on our new schedule, right?

14:28 So we go to 12:15 in case anybody was thinking we're done at twelve. But we won't even matter with that. Just a little reminder but chapter five verse 14. Excuse me. Wherefore, he says, awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give you light.

14:53 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore, be you not unwise but understanding what the will of the lord is and be not drunk with wine wherein is excess but be filled with the spirit speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody in your hearts unto the lord giving thanks always for all things unto god and the father in the name of our lord Jesus Christ submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of god And so what we'd like to do is take that little portion of scripture and make ourselves this summary outline for the book. Wake, Walk, and Will. You'll see those three things occur in this little portion but we would expand it to see it across the whole book. You see, go back to verse 14.

15:52 Verse 14, we we we read this. He's he's makes this statement, awake out of sleep and I'm going to I'm going to say this, it's a wake up call. This is just like the the book of Ephesians is is very much of a wake up call. Is that he wants us to remember the things that we have. Notice how the book starts.

17:00 By grace are you saved and has raised us up together and made us to sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So we're grabbing hold of these things that should get our attention. How could we pass them by? Look later in chapter two. But now...

17:20 Notice the word but. But now refer to the old. The old was dead. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who are sometimes afar off are made made near by the blood of Christ. Redemption's plan being revealed.

17:35 Wake up. What's going on? Now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners. It's a reference to the past. But now you're fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.

17:45 You are built up upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building thus the church fitly framed together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. And one more thing that gets our... Well two more things to get our attention. One is the fact that the mystery of the church is being revealed. This was big news.

18:08 This was like put it on the billboard sign, flashing lights. Guess what? In the New Testament, there's no longer the Jew and the Gentile to be separated. No longer are the Jews just God's special chosen people. It's for the salvation is for all, Jew and Gentile, to exist in one body, the Church, the Bride of Christ.

18:27 Wake up. Here it comes. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend. Now notice this, we're comprehending, we're awake, we're alert, we're comprehending with all saints what is the breadth, the length, the depth, the height and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that he might be filled with all the fullness of God. Wake up.

18:58 You know we read all along in this little portion that we pointed out in chapter five and it comes to us and it says that if you'll wake up Christ shall give you light. Christ will give you instruction. And then verse 15 says, See that you walk circumspectly. See that you walk circumspectly. So, the the next thing we see is the book of Ephesians is a walk tutorial.

19:27 Have You ever thought about it that way? The whole book talks about walk. In fact, there's there's seven seven mentions of the word walk and one mention in addition, we have walked e d, walked, a reference to the past and let's let's look at that. Let's look at these couple of times that walk is mentioned. You walked according to the course of the world.

19:47 This is before Christ. You had a different path. You were following a different drummer so to speak. You were walking... You were following your father, the father of lies, the devil.

19:58 But now now you're in Christ. You follow a different master. You follow a different a different drum. You respond differently. You walk.

20:07 Now, well, let's look what it says. Walk in Christ doing good works. Chapter two verse 10 would tell us that we've been created a new creation, that we would no longer carry on in what we've done before, but now we're saved unto good works. Not by works are we saved, but we do good works as a result of salvation. What's another thing we see about walk?

20:31 Well, one of chapter four. I love this. Walk worthy. Walk worthy. What a motto.

20:40 What a what a... Walk worthy of what? Walk worthy of being called a Christian. Walk worthy of God Himself. Walk worthy.

20:48 We as a church have to walk worthy. Well, it goes on in in the later part of chapter four to say, walk not as the Gentiles but walk putting off the old man and being continually renewed in the spirit of your mind. He tells us what not to do but then tells us what to do, right? Don't walk like the Gentiles walk. Well, was according to the course of this world.

21:19 That's how they walk. They walked thinking pride. They walked in pursuit of material things. They walked after the nature of the flesh. Well now, don't walk as the Gentiles but put off the old man.

21:34 Put off those things. Greed. We can think of it in a contrast. They walked... What's the opposite of love?

21:42 Would be hate. What's the opposite of pride? Would be humility. The Gentiles walked according to pride. Christ followers would walk according to humility.

21:54 And how do we do this? Well, put off the old man. We put off the flesh. But we're continually renewed in the spirit of our mind. Romans chapter 12 and verse two gives us that, But don't be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.

22:32 Then right into chapter five it says, and walk in love even as Christ. How did Christ love? Christ loved and gave Himself for us. And so this is our walk. We're to walk in love.

22:45 Walking loving one another. We walk again, walk as children of the light. We don't have to wonder. We don't have to question. Guess what?

22:54 God didn't hide the His He hid things in the scripture that He didn't want us to be revealed until a future time, but He didn't hide His will for us. He didn't hide the light. He didn't hide the path. He's given us the light to show a path. Walk as children of light.

23:13 Walk circumspectly. That means to pay attention, to be aware of what's going on. Walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.

23:25 Our walk.

23:29 You see, when we have these instructions about how we'll walk, have you ever thought about the fact that if we'll follow God's path, it'll walk us right through and help us navigate through hard things in life? You know, He tells us to be in the world but not of the world. But if we walk circumspectly, God's given us the place to step to navigate right through difficult situation. In your job situation, walk. You apply these as a Christian.

24:00 Walk circumspectly, not as full. Be aware of what's around. Be aware of what's going to trip you up but but follow the light. Then the third thing, we we continue reading in in our little passage and it says, that we would walk circumspectly. Look at verse 16, redeem the time.

24:20 This means we walk with intentionality. We walk with a purpose in mind. We walk bearing fruit, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. Understand what the will of the Lord is.

24:39 The next thing we want to look at is the book of Ephesians reveals God's will. It reveals God's will. Look at... We'll just... We'll we'll confine ourselves to these couple of verses that we've just read, but look at what will of God is revealed even in these couple of verses.

24:58 God desires that you would understand His will. That's the reason He put it in black and white for us. He put right there in front of us. God desires for us to be filled with the Spirit. And He gives us this illustration about the fact that don't be drunk with wine or don't be under the influence of alcohol, but rather be under the influence of the Spirit.

25:23 Let everything you do be dictated by the Spirit. Would we be willing to do that? Would you be willing to yield yourself so much so that you say, God, I'm willing for you to be in control. I want to be Spirit led. The book of Ephesians talks about grieving the Spirit.

25:42 Oh, grieving the Spirit would be doing something that the Spirit has not led us to do. It would be... If you walk as the Gentiles walk, if you walk according to the course of this world, you're going to grieve the Spirit. You're not going to move. In fact, you're taking steps backwards spiritually.

25:58 But we're to understand what the will of the Lord is. We have this opportunity to be filled with the Spirit and be controlled by the Spirit, be led by the Spirit. This is what he's telling the church to do in Ephesians. Hey, as you conduct yourselves, as you're meeting together, it is God's will because of the interaction with each other that you would have melody in your hearts as unto the Lord. Wait a minute.

26:26 You mean, when I get together with a bunch of other Christians and we're interacting and we're talking together, I'm supposed to be happy? As a result of this, I'm going to enjoy this? This is God's will that because of the interaction with each other it says to be singing singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in our heart. We enjoy the fellowship we have with the common bond in Christ. You've got problems.

26:59 I've problems. I bear your burdens. You bear my burdens. I pray for you. You pray for me.

27:05 I've got a gimp foot. You give me compassion. I appreciate the compassion and encouragement. And you know it's just a mutual benefit. It's God's design being in fellowship together, being in community together.

27:21 This is His will. It's His will that we would give thanks in all things. That we would give thanks in all things. We just put this in perspective. Again, we're turning ourselves over to the Lord and we're trusting Him with whatever is our circumstance.

27:38 It is God's will that we submit ourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord. Can I say this to you? Hey, there's no hierarchy in Ephesians. There's no hierarchy here among us. We are all sinners saved by grace.

27:55 We go back to that slide where Denzel started off the fact that God sent His Son to die on the cross, was buried in the tomb and raised again and those of us who accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, that's what we are. We're sinners saved by grace. It's God's will that we would submit to one another, that we would interact with one another. And all these things would be true of our dealings with each other. Notice what it says.

28:22 There's understanding. We're controlled by the Spirit of God, not by the spirit of the flesh. We're happy. We enjoy each other. We give thanks for these things and we submit to one another in the fear of God.

28:39 So you'll notice that the book of Ephesians we see the wake up all throughout the book. We see the walk explained. I've called it a walk tutorial. And we see God's will being revealed. We'll talk a little bit more about that.

29:24 Okay? And that and that is this idea. At least it might not be a mystery in the scriptures. It might not have been a mystery to the Ephesians, but somehow, in Westlake, it seems to be a mystery. Okay?

29:35 Where do we fit in this whole thing? What is the role of an elder? Okay? And I don't wanna be preachy on this. What more or less, I wanna kinda sorta as, oops.

29:46 Good. I'm having all the tech problems today. So I don't wanna be preachy on this and tell you what you didn't know. What I wanna do is sort of take my jacket off, take my, you know, bear where I'm at, where where we are at as elders. Annie finished it perfectly to say there's no hierarchy here.

30:06 We're we're not intended to be a hierarchy, but the role of an elders is explained a large part to the Ephesian church in Acts chapter 20. We talked a little bit about that. First Timothy chapter three. You could add in there Titus chapter one as well. What is the role?

30:22 Okay? Let's talk first about that one letter there. Elders, s, that letter s. It's plural. Never in the scriptures does it say one elder carries the authority.

30:33 Okay? Nowhere in the scripture does it say that there should not be a plurality of elders. That's something that's important to get started with. Just because there's qualifications in the scriptures, it doesn't give one person like divine possibilities. It's the authority is granted in the group of elders.

30:56 Okay? That's the point I wanna make about that s. Okay? Now we can talk a little bit about this. We go through Acts chapter 20, first Timothy three, and Titus one.

31:07 You can tease these things out. Now you might be able to find a few more. You might be able to add or subtract to this, but let's just take this, and I'm gonna run through these pretty quickly for the sake of time, take heed to yourselves and the flock. That's responsibility, elders. Take heed one to another between us and to the flock among which he's made you overseers.

31:27 To shepherd the church as a shepherd cares for the sheep. To lead them, to water, to feed. Okay? Protect from savage wolves. Those that would come outside intending to do harm to the sheep.

31:41 Protect the sheep. Also from those, and these are strong words, insubordinate, contradicting deceivers inside the church. Now, let's hope, you know, we don't have to talk too hard about it, but that's what it says. Those are the things that we need to be protected from. Responsibility is to watch and remember.

32:01 Paul said, watch, look around, remember how I acted. It says to rule well. Okay? Now, I want to pause there because this is one... I could have found a different word for rule.

32:14 But I want to pause there and remind you of the analogy that is given. Rule your... As if a person should be able to rule their own household well. Now when you rule a household, there's a wide range of folk in the household, particularly when you look over time. Right?

32:31 I mean, when my household began, I had my wife there. Now, if if you're not a husband, you wouldn't understand this. But ruling a wife in that sense doesn't work. Okay? I'm just giving you all fair warning.

32:45 Okay? Ruling doesn't work. Okay. Well, it hasn't worked in my own. Amen.

32:49 I got an amen from the corner over here, from the sister from the sister on the left. So... And and and if Andy's wife was here, I'm sure she would have been amen in that as well. I think I heard her so it doesn't... Now now you also...

33:06 The next person to show up in a household is a little baby. You don't rule a little baby by saying get up and you know know care for yourself. Right? We we rule this way. We we we rule with our arms around them.

33:19 And then when they become you know a little bit bigger, now it is time for you to pick up your clothes. Right? And eventually it's time for you to obey. Okay? In spite of the fact that you think you know better than me.

33:31 Okay? And eventually it comes to the point where it's time for you to go. You know? You need to go out and rule on your own or give it a try for yourself. Okay?

33:41 But that's a wide range. Okay? So not everybody is ruled in the same way. Not everybody is cared for in the same way. Maintain a good testimony.

33:53 Be hospitable. Teach, exhort, convict. Also very strong, clear words. Alright? And finally, rebuke sharply if needed, as necessary where responsible.

34:08 Okay? Now, that's a big list you could add to or you could do it, but this is the responsibility in large part of the elders of the local assembly. Now, you look at those, there's some here that have this idea of shepherding, protecting, teaching, rebuking. It's an idea of teaching. That's the way you protect is you teach.

34:36 I ran out of words here, okay? But you got the teaching side of it, the shepherding or protection, and then feedback or discernment. It implies a relationship. It implies that one is known, Okay? So, if you look at this, we could compare this to Acts chapter six.

34:56 Remember? The apostle said, it's not good for us to do that because we need to work on the ministry of the word, or concert on the ministry of word and prayer. So there's feedback between the saints and the elders. Between the elders and the Lord. Between the saints holy, through the Holy Spirit, to the Lord.

35:18 So there's this constant, it's this idea of being amongst the flock. Okay? So you can think about this as two circles. Right? We've made the list.

35:27 We separated them out in terms of themes. Right? This idea of teaching or shepherding. The idea of feedback or discernment of knowing what's going on. Okay?

35:37 And these are two, imagine it as if there's two circles. But that's the responsibility of the elders. Now, let's look at this. How does that fit into what we would say is make disciples is like our overall goal, right? And in Matthew it says, go into the world making disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, teaching them, right?

36:00 And so that's the overall goal. How does this fit? Well, that's sort of a ministry circle, if you will. Right? What's responsibility elders?

36:09 And then there's this ministry, but how do they fit together? Well, the elders are sort of right in the middle of this. This a way of trying to picture it, trying to help explain. Okay? Right in the middle there.

36:19 And we know that teaching causes growth, edifying, and love, and that feedback from the Holy Spirit and your ministry is good to lead, follow. But there might be some ministries that you're involved in. Right? Maybe it's a ladies missionary group. We heard about that earlier.

36:38 Or you're involved in evangelism. You reach out to widows. You might coach somewhere at CCS or and participate in Hopper Ranch, right? We do Lilo Lites. So there's many different ministries out there that individuals are led to do.

36:56 One of which might be something where we're all led to do. Okay? So many people participate in Vacation Bible School. That's why it's real important to us in many ways because the whole body comes together. But not always is that the case.

37:12 So the rule of the elders here, it's important to say, is it's really this section up here. Right? It's not to identify exactly where you should be ministering. It's not really to identify this is the ministry that you need to be involved in. The spirit leads you in that way.

37:30 Now, sometimes it might lead one person to gather many around and we all get together and that's what we do. But not necessarily to do that. The focus has to be up here. It has to be on prayer and fasting. It has to be, you know, led by the Holy Spirit.

37:46 We get feedback from our spouses when we're fellowshipping. We get feedback from everybody else. It's really to know the condition of the flock. To understand and get that discerning of what's going on. Okay?

37:59 We get feedback from the group of seven that we're still meeting occasionally, and that's just very good feedback. Okay? We meet with some folks that don't think like us. Okay? And that helps.

38:10 Okay? For us to understand where we're at. You might want to say that teaching is involved with doctrine and the Sunday School or gifts. We talk about theology and that kind of stuff. But teaching, knowing, knowing and then teaching, teaching and seeing the reaction, this teach and feedback loop.

38:31 That's the responsibility of the elders. Now, we all participate, Annie and I participate in many other things, but it's not just Eldering. We do other things, but the importance and our ministry is here at the local assembly. Okay? This is our ministry.

38:51 This is who the Lord, or what the Lord had asked us to do. Okay? And we don't do it alone, as I've said before. We have a team of folks we're trying to take feedback from. What should we teach?

39:02 Well, how are we teaching? Where do we need to go from here? Okay? So, wanted to lay that out in a picture format. I know there's probably...

39:10 There's not a 100%... You'll probably have a question about this. So you may not understand it. Or you may frill your brow and say, you know what? I don't know.

39:19 I have a question. Happy to hear that. But we're trying to understand and make sure we explain to you what we're thinking.

40:19 Not that we're trying to be business like whatsoever. We're not trying to do that. But we are trying to have some type of way to communicate where and what are people's roles. How would this look if we put it on a piece of paper to try to talk about it? So that's all this is, is an attempt to put some of these things on paper.

40:42 Now, this is special bonus credit. I I shared with you three W words before. Can anybody give me the first one of those? Philip, you got it? Say again?

40:57 Wake. That's right. Wake. Okay. Second one.

41:03 Walk. Walk. Now, third one. Will. That's right.

41:08 So, here we go. Would you notice this? Oh, wait a minute. Let's see. We got...

41:14 We...

41:17 We've got in in our... In these circles, one of the overlaps is we we we want to identify here the three meetings, the church gathering. We have a we have a breaking of bread meeting every week. We have a a teaching meeting every week. We have a we have a prayer meeting every week.

41:37 And this is just a suggestion. Okay? This is how... As I evaluate Ephesians, one of the things that stood out for me, I think it's true that the wake up, the walk of of us as believers, and God's will are seen in the context of all three of these meetings. Particularly, I would highlight the wake up part here in remembering the Lord.

42:03 Well, it says to wake, to to be aware and wake up. And so, like, we got to be aware of all of what Christ has done for us. He died on the cross for our sins. Now, think about this, when we come to the lord's supper, we are a... It says to examine ourselves.

42:20 Examine ourselves. So, if I'm if I'm got... I'm keeping short accounts with God. If I've got sin in my life, if I'm going a wrong direction, this weekly remembrance helps me stay on track. Don gave us an excellent teaching last week about the fact that the break attending the breaking of bread helps keep our love fresh for the lord and so, wake up.

42:43 Hey, wake up. Am I in sin? Confess it and then eat. Wake up. How am I doing with the lord?

42:51 Am I appreciating the salvation that I have? Wake up. Am I am am I in love with the lord like I once was? And so, there we have this wake. Now, the walk is in there too and the will of god.

43:09 I mean, it says, the lord Jesus says, do this in remembrance of me. It's his will that he that we do this. So, Ephesians is reinforcing and supporting the the breaking of bread and now, let me let me make a qualifying statement here, okay? The way WBF does things is not the way. It's a way, Okay?

43:33 This is a way of gathering. We don't have the corner on the market. We don't have the best communion service worldwide. We don't have the the the solution but look, we're trying to do it a way And so we would encourage all of us to say, Let's embrace a way. Let's embrace the same way.

43:54 If we want to make tweaks and changes, let's hear them. Let's evaluate them. We've got freedom and liberty to do that. That's part of the twenty sixth meeting that we're... That's coming up.

44:04 But listen, we have a breaking of bread meeting. Let's see the value of that. The next meeting is the teaching meeting. Now I'm going to highlight the word walk in this. The walk tutorial.

44:20 The teaching time. We need to be taught how to walk in this world. And so now we've got the way... You might need a wake up call. It's relevant there.

44:29 We might need to know God's will. We do need to know God's will. And... But we need... In order to walk in a certain way, we need to be taught that way to walk.

44:36 Alright? In order to know God's will, we've got to be taught God's will. So... And then the prayer time. The prayer meeting.

44:44 I see that as as the the primary emphasis I would highlight there would be God's will. Because you know what? When we go to pray on things that are yet future, we don't know what God's will is going to be. We've got a chance to influence. Come boldly before the throne of grace.

45:04 Make your requests made known unto God. Take your cares and roll them on Him. He's saying bring your requests before me, pray about them, put it out there, make your request. You want things to happen a particular way, make your request and ultimately what's happening is that we're bringing ourselves in line with God and His will. So, we have this opportunity to pray.

45:52 But listen, heart is that we're... We we want to see the saints want. We we desire that that you as a participant in Westlake Bible Fellowship, you want to come to the breaking of bread. It's just your desire. You want to do this in remembrance of me.

46:14 You want to sit under the teaching of the word. You want to come and take advantage of the thing. You want to experience what it's like to make melody as a result of interaction. You want to you want god's wake up. You want to walk soberly.

46:32 You want god's knowledge of the next step. You want, you want his will. Now, I can't shovel up a bunch of want to and just put her stoke it in the furnace, you know? But that's that's where you have the opportunity. What do I want?

46:52 What do I want? Again, it doesn't have to be the way, it's a way. A way is to participate along with us in Westlake Bible Fellowship. What do you do with a problem like Wesley? I wonder if we could evaluate and say I want to wake up.

47:19 I want to walk. I want to do god's will. I want to be motivated by want to, not a have to, not a guilt. I want to be involved. I want to reach a hold of a church experience and it's like holding a moon beam in my hand and it just the benefits from that shine all out.

47:40 I can't contain it. It's all around me. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father we pray these things. Father we present what you've laid on our heart.

47:52 We ask for wisdom and going forward and we pray all these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.