Growing The Church (Ephesians 4:16)

Introduction

2018 is upon us. And whenever a new year comes, a lot of churches start talking about vision, about growth, and about filling pews. If you were here last Sunday, there were no pews left to fill, and very few spots even today. But this is a focus of a lot of churches beginning a new year. Hey, it’s a time of resolution. So if we could just get churches to have resolutions about their future, perhaps we could grow the church. And thus a very recent Babylon B article. Eight Practical Ways to Grow Your Church. Now, some of you have read this. Thus the Snickers. This is religious humor. If you want to be amused on a quite regular basis, read Babylon B. And because growth is difficult in our times, this article suggested, we need to get creative in order to grow our church.

Point number one.

Sometimes you need to ask them point blank how is it that we can compromise? So that you’ll keep attending. Pander. The second observation was study what the Bible says about the local church so you know what not to do. People don’t want this stuff, they say. You’re too cutting edge for it, anyways. So don’t do what the Bible says. Now, everything on this slide. Now I’m just gonna, just so we’re abundantly clear. I know the young people are writing all this down. This is satire. Okay, this is not what we’re going to do here. This is just the recommendations of Babylon be to make your church grow. Point number three in this article was two words. Surprise baptisms. Super soaker people. And make them church members.

I’ve said something about surprise baptisms before. You know, force people into the baptistry at gunpoint. You know, make them become members. And then it says at the conclusion of this point, two more words. Dancing bears. Just trust us here. Not sure where that goes. Lower the bar for membership. This has always been very popular with folks. It says, every local church should be easier to join than the Burger King Kids Club. They come to church once per year, no problem. They’re living an unrepentant, egregiously sinful lifestyle. Hey, who are you to judge? They can’t even articulate the gospel. Bring them in. You’re not going to grow this thing by turning people away. Extra tip, even let unregenerate people fill the leadership roles. Now, design your church like a shopping mall.

And the key to this point is you can grow your church if people don’t know it’s really a church. And that’s one of the things that’s been working in the religious world today is they keep it a secret for years. That people don’t really know they’re in church. Don’t ask people to serve is another key ingredient to growing your church. That should go without saying, they say. Remember that it’s all about making people feel comfortable rather than offering a place where they can be part of something bigger than themselves. Say it with us. The customer is always right. There was also a point about vision casting, but as even the article said, we’re not really sure what that is. But all the trendy churches do it, so therefore, how could it possibly be wrong?

And then finally, whatever else you do, don’t preach the gospel. It’s the golden rule of church growth. And what amazingly, that some churches are still ignoring, which we are. Teaching that people are naturally dead in their sins and need a savior is very bad for business. It’s like an encouragement to tell people to go elsewhere to preach such a message. Now, let’s be abundantly clear. This strategy for church growth is not what we’re into in this wish. We’ve somehow managed to fill many of the pews anyway, in spite of not adopting any of these unbiblical strategies. And so I want to talk to you for a few minutes this morning about Jesus growing his church. You see, that’s just the thing about growing your church.

It puts you too much at the center of church growth. That’s one of the things I’ve noticed in that whole concept and expression that I’m hearing all the time about growing your church. It’s not my church. It’s Jesus’ church. And if you want to talk about growing a church, we need to talk about Jesus who gives the increase growing his church. And so I want to read seriously. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 18 through 23. And may we echo Paul’s prayer.

So that you may know what is the hope of his calling. What are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? And what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe? These are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavens. Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, that’s how high. Not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

When I was thinking of a text that would so clearly and succinctly emphasize what it means to be the church of Jesus Christ, I thought of Ephesians chapter one. We could actually look throughout the entire epistle, and maybe you need to do that this week to better understand the role the church plays in history, in God’s scheme of redemption, and what he intended for this to be all about and why it’s so important. The fullness of him who fills all in all. Jesus is and the authority that he wields and the grand and matchless promises that he gives to us. What an amazing text. And so I want to talk for just a few minutes about growing the church. The King’s way. I tried to put this into three simple points.

1. Real Growth Is Not Apart From Truth

But it didn’t work for me this week. And so I’m just going to piece together some ideas and thoughts and let you run with it. Take these thoughts with you and think about them. Some of the thoughts I had came from a sermon that I preached several years ago about growing a church. And from the things that we looked at in the introduction about pander, and whatever you do, don’t preach the gospel. Make it more like a shopping mall and all the other things that attract people, is that just because you get a large following and get a lot of people in the seats, doesn’t mean that you’re growing his church. A lot of things that grow aren’t good. And certainly when compromise is at the heart of it, that is not a good kind of growth.

Let’s talk about real growth. And as Paul would go on to say in Ephesians, that this isn’t going to happen apart from truth. The truth that is in Jesus in Ephesians chapter 4. It’s not real growth if it is somehow separated from truth. We may feel absolutely wonderful about it. We may love the people that are sitting next to us. There may be a lot of things that we like about it. But if somehow truth is ignored, the truth that sets free, according to John chapter 8 and verse 32, that’s not a good kind of growth. It’s not real growth. It’s not growth that helps you or honors our Lord or gets you to heaven. And so that should be important to us. Is it about consumerism?

Is it about our entertainment? Is it about our ability to endure something that we’d really rather not be doing? Because our hearts are really elsewhere. Or is it really about knowing the most important person who has ever lived. And truly seeing.

Truly seeing what he did and what his life meant. And knowing where he now is.

2. This Is About Whom Jesus Has Added

Everything that regards itself as something or has a name. What does that leave out? Absolutely nothing. Anything that claims to be something or has something or has achieved something, Jesus exceeds it all. And live all with a name that is above all names. He would say in Philippians chapter 2, and I pray that your mind is enlightened enough to see that. Because your growth and the growth of a healthy church. It’s only healthy if God needs the help. It’s dependent upon that which you see that is real. And him who is real. It’s not about numbers per se. Unless the numbers involve those that Jesus has added to his church. I may feel, again, absolutely wonderful about this body to whom I’m attached. And it provides me some sense of peace and comfort and assurance because I’m numbered among religious people who claim to love Jesus.

But here’s the thing. We’re not added to the church by our own doing. Or some pastors doing, or some church leadership’s doing, or some roster somewhere in church members. That’s not what determines who the saved are. This is about whom Jesus has added. According to Acts chapter 2 and verse 47. The Lord was adding to the church daily those who are being saved, those who have submitted to his will in obedience to the saving of their souls, who have appealed to his name for salvation. That is, they have submitted to his will and his requirements to be added. And I’ll tell you what, not only is it involved his adding, but his knowing. The Lord knows those that are his. And again, we can claim to be religious all day long and claim to be the Lord’s people.

We see that in the Sermon on the Mount, right? People who called him Lord. And then he wants to say in Luke 6 and verse 46, why do you call me Lord? And do not do the things that I say. Jesus as, Jesus knows, and he is going to judge the world. Every creature. Every person in righteousness, on the basis of what is right. You want to know what the judgment’s going to be about when your life is over and this world is over, and we all stand before the final judgment seat of Christ, and the verdict is rendered on all of humanity. What’s that going to be about? It’s going to be about the things that are right and how you measured up. He will judge the world in righteousness.

3. This Boils Down to You and to Me

And I’ll tell you why we know that day is going to happen. Because he rose from the dead. That’s why. That’s what Paul said in Athens in Acts 17 and verse 31. And so we talk about real growth and numerical growth. Yes, the Lord wants folks to be saved as many as possible, but that’s on the basis of the people that he has, and he knows, and he will be the judge. Now I’ll tell you where this boils down. And that is to you and to me. Because you see, I can teach, I can admonish, I can persuade you in regard to the terror of the Lord that is very real. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. And that follows in 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 11 a statement about that we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive the things done in our body, whether those things be good or bad.

Again, a standard of righteousness will be employed. And knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, he says. And so I can do all of that. I can tell you look, here are the X’s and O’s. This is what you must do to become a Christian. This is how Jesus expects you to live. These are the kinds of things He wants you to pursue. And yes, sometimes it’s going to be a few steps forward and a step back. And you’re going to have to make more corrections and more determination. And you’re going to have to have resolve. And it’s going to involve a lifelong pursuit. And I can tell you all of that. I can outline it as clearly as I try to do. As extensively as I can.

I mean, it involves the entire message of God’s Word. And so we’re studying it, we’re pouring over it, we’re looking at what does it say? What does it mean in our lives and our behavior? And we’re talking about that all the time. And we’re trying to encourage each other to do it. But in the final analysis, I can’t control you. And my wife says, I’m a control freak. I haven’t heard that in a while, thank you. Okay. So I like, in fact, I don’t like things I can’t control. It’s frustrating. But as you get older, you realize, you know, there’s a lot of things you can’t control. I would like to be able to control people who drive on our highways. Give me some control there, please.

And those who design road construction, they have no idea what they’re doing. It’s like, here, have you ever thought about the people who might be trying to use these roads at all? I can’t stand the lack of control in a lot. I know I’m a preacher and that requires a lot of effort, but I need to be a civil engineer or something. To help people do road construction around here, down to one lane, seriously? Nobody can use this road. Aren’t roads meant to be okay. Okay, I’m done with that. Roads are meant to be used, people. Okay.

But I can’t control as much as I want to say, no, you’re going to do this. I’m going to super soaker your baptism. You’re going to force people. You’re going to force. You can’t do that. That’s not the way it works. So any kind of program we talk about in relation to growth. It’s going to be about you. And what you decide to do. And even if we talk about putting more people in these pews, it’s still going to come down to you.

4. Exude More Passion

It’s about your relationship with the Lord and his truth. I saw something this week. Ten church growth strategies that cost zero dollars. And I’m all about things that cost zero dollars. Ten church growth. Now, I’m not going to talk just tonight about some things that might require a few dollars. But this was about ten church growth strategies that cost zero dollars. So I was really interested in that. And here, I’m going to give you some of the things that I thought were really practical in this list. I’m not going to give you all of them. Smile. Look at that. I see some of you doing it actually. I mean, seriously. Are you enjoying being a servant of the Lord or not? You know, if everybody has a frown on their face, boy, what’s wrong with those people?

They are puckered up seriously. Smile, number two. This is really creative, too. Doesn’t cost any money. Stop fighting. You know, if you come into a war zone, that’s that’s not a great advertisement either. Number three, pay attention, pay better attention to first-time visitors. I highly recommend that. Show some interest in people who might be interested in what you’re doing. I like number four. Treat your volunteers better. You lousy deacons. You know, if you’re counting, if you’re calling them lousy deacons, one of our deacons tried to double pay the preacher. I’m not going to get on him for that, but I had to give some of the money back. You know, it’s so, Jay, you’re not a lousy deacon. I don’t want you to get discouraged. Okay, but if we if all we do is criticize those who are volunteering, that’s not.

And then there’s one more thing that before I got to the one thing I really wanted to talk about, but I sort of like this. Cut the weird. Now, I don’t know. I don’t know what that involves, but if you’re doing anything that would be classified as weird, just stop doing that, and it might help grow your church. It doesn’t cost any money to cut the weird. But the one thing, the one thing in this list that I think was more important than all of them. Even cut the weird. The one thing that I saw, and I thought I had a slide for this. Oh, yeah, I do. Exude more passion. Along with the smile, the way we treat visitors, the way we treat our volunteers, interest in outsiders, all of that.

5. Right Through Obedience

Be excited about what we’re doing. Invest something. Exude some passion and the way that you worship, and that’ll be evidenced in the amens that our elders want. And in the way that we contribute, exude some passion. Some of the thoughts from that sermon years ago that no one remembers. Health and success. Some of you weren’t even here. Health and success are determined from God’s perspective. It’s not, we can put a label on it, say, this is great, this is wonderful, we love this. But this is about what God sees. And I got this from a mission statement from another organization. It might even have been the Olin Mills portrait studio. I know I used this at some point in the past, but growth without compromising your mission and message.

But again, it’s not my mission here, it’s the Lord’s mission. And I said in that sermon years ago, and I thought, boy, these are six little brief things that I wanted to share again. Warmer through fellowship, deeper through discipleship. I’ve changed a little bit of this. Godlier through worship, stronger through serving, ministry, larger through evangelism, as we’re talking about. But all of that is predicated upon being right through obedience. Compromise.

He is the head of the body. He’s going to judge us on the basis of righteousness. And we need to care about living right and doing right in our lives, and that’s going to affect the way we dress ourselves, the way we speak, and the things that we refuse to say, the things that we watch, the things that we won’t watch, that we actually have some standards in regard to holiness. And that we give some thought to it. Why am I doing this? Is this contributing to my spiritual well-being, or is it hurting me? Is the Lord grieved by this? Am I giving the effort to be a light in our world? And may I suggest that the accomplishment of this will be assisted by investment in communication with our God?

6. Grow in Grace: Every Joint Supplies

And this leads me to the thought that I wanted to talk about and remind you of last week a sermon that you might want to go listen to if you haven’t heard, if you weren’t here, although we had a big crowd last Sunday, and that is being oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, in order that he might be glorified. So I want to conclude with this as I weave all of these thoughts together. Remember Kyle talked to us about this when he was here in November. What does it mean to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ? That’s a conclusion statement to some warnings that he’s just given in 2 Peter chapter 3. Please look at the context of that as he talks about the end of the world, that the world is going to be set on fire, and what manner of persons ought you to be, and that there’s some who will compromise the message of the gospel.

Yes, Paul wrote some difficult things to understand, but they’re not unable to be understood. He says, because some people twist and distort those to their own destruction. He says, You grow in the favor of God as the people of God. Again, grace is not someone else’s term in the religious world. We surrender grace. Everybody else talks about grace, and they have all these misconceptions. They’re not talking about right through obedience, even though they talk about grace. The two go hand in hand. So let’s not talk about grace. Well, I think there’s misconceptions about grace, absolutely. But what is it? It’s simply the favor of God that has been bestowed upon us that we would be called the children of God, that we would be Christians, that we would enjoy basking in the forgiveness of our sins and having the hope of heaven.

We have received God’s favor, his grace. And to grow in it simply means to persist in these things.

And don’t get deviated from the right course. Be persistent and don’t give up. And sets your heart to the task, grow in grace. Because we have been lavished upon. Earlier in Ephesians chapter 1, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 8. And then I saw this later in Ephesians. That certainly fits this idea in Ephesians chapter 4. And we talk about it all the time because we realize it’s a challenge. Verse 16. From whom, Ephesians 4 16, from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies. Every joint. You’re a part of this. If you’re a member of his church and a member of this local church, then you have a joint to supply in this effort.

Are you considering your role, your involvement, your investment, your enthusiasm? Exude more passion in these things. Which every joint supplies according to the proper working. Emphasis on proper, that word appears again. Not the same Greek word, but in the English, pretty similar idea. The proper working. What’s appropriate is the idea. What should be expected? The proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for building it up of itself in love. We want this church to grow in a way that honors God. What’s that going to look like in terms of number? I don’t know. But if we want this church to grow in a way that honors the Lord, whose church this is, then you supply your part, I supply my part, we all supply our part.

And the growth that will result will be what God wants. There is your recipe, your blueprint for church growth. That word proper appears again in chapter 5 and verse 3. And I want to, what is the proper working of each individual part? Well, there’s some things that are not proper that you need to avoid, but do not let immorality or any impurity or greed even be named among you as is proper among saints. We need to give attention, right through obedience, things that are proper conduct for those who have been set apart as saints. That’s the idea of saints. Been set apart for such a high calling. Let us be oaks of righteousness. The planting of the Lord.

Conclusion

Are you convinced that’s where you are? Are you sure? That you are saved in him. A planting of the Lord. Why should I choose that? Because by so choosing, I bring glory to the one who has all power and is above all rule and all authority. And every name that is named in the earth, everything that thinks it is something, he is above it. He has earned the spot by his humiliation. His death upon Calvary as a man. And that humiliation led to his exaltation. And so he is worthy and deserving of your planting that he may be glorified. One final question. Are you saved in him? And if not, what on earth are you waiting for? And that’s just the thing. If you know these things and you’re still waiting, there is something on earth that holds you.

That has you spellbound, that has you entrenched, that is keeping your affections from being placed where they should be above everything else. What on earth are you waiting for? Because whatever that thing is, it’s going to let you down hard one day. And when you’re standing in line, if there is a line at the day of judgment, I don’t know how that’s going to look. But when it comes your turn to stand before God’s throne, that thing, whatever it is, whatever it was, whatever you were holding on to, it will do nothing for you then. You will regard it as meaningless and worthless. Nothing. We have so little time. We may not know how little time we have. Be saved in heaven. Let’s stand and say.