The Church's Mandate to Multitask

Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 14, and we'll read through the end of the chapter.!

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever.

Amen. The Lord Jesus said, I will build my church. And everything in his being stands behind that promise, his love, his faithfulness, his power.

That's what brought him out of heaven. Again, he had work to do to build a church. It's why he took on our humanity.

It's why he lived a perfect life that we couldn't and why he died on the cross suffering the punishment sinners deserve. Because he's going to build his church and he's going to build it out of sinners.

Sinners who are dead toward God, don't care about God, ignoring God, going their own way. And they're going to need a righteousness to cover them. And so he perfectly obeys.

And they're going to need blood and punishment paid in full. And so he dies for them. And then in their own personal lifetime, he by his spirit comes to them and brings them to himself so that they trust in him, turning from their old way and trusting in him and join to him the living stone.

They become living stones and he places them into his temple that he's building, his church, a place where he dwells on earth in the midst of his people.

And so the most significant thing that Jesus is doing today on earth is building his church. You see, his plan was not just to save people and to leave them on their own out there fending for themselves in this world.

But his plan was to save them and then gather them together into local assemblies. God's plan, Christ's plan is that Christians should be joined to local churches.

They should be baptized and then taught in that local church to obey everything that Jesus has commanded us. So the context for Christians' growth and witness is the local church.

He wants us in this context as a local church to live and learn, to worship and to witness, to give and to forgive, to learn grace, to grow up in Christ.

It's in the context of the church. And this is at the very heart and center of what Jesus Christ is doing in this present age. And when he's done, that means when the very last sinner has been saved and added to the church, Jesus is coming back for his bride.

That will be the end. He'll judge all men and he'll welcome his bride into the new heavens and new earth where forever we will be with the Lord.

Jesus loves the church and so should you. And we've come to our last message in this mini-series on the church and we have been asking the question, what is the purpose of the church?

Why? Why has Jesus got a church on earth? What is his purpose for us? Why is Grace Fellowship here? What are we to be doing? And we've seen that the purpose laid out in Scripture is threefold.

The church exists to glorify God in three basic ways. First of all, to minister to God in public worship. Second, to minister to one another in the body of Christ.

And third, to minister to the world in evangelism. And we saw that the directional arrows help us remember we're to look up in worship. We're to turn inward and minister to one another in the body.

And then we're to turn outward in meeting the needs, the gospel needs and other needs of a lost and dying world. So those three things then are the marks of a healthy church.

How can you know a healthy church? Well, they'll have these three things about them. Worship, body life, ministry to each other, and evangelism in the world. I want us to consider these, the church's need to meet those three areas of our purpose under four headings.

And the first three all begin with an M. And so the first word we're looking at is multitasking is required. Now you know what multitasking is.

It's that ability to do more than one thing at the same time. And there's something of a renewed debate about whether men or women are better at it. And I don't know about the rest of you men, but I find it challenging to chew gum and walk at the same time.

And I find others of the opposite gender who seem very equipped, I think, especially of mothers, with a baby on one hip and a hoover on the other hand, and dinners on the stove, and kids at her feet that she's sorting out and talking to somebody on the phone, all at the same time.

That's multitasking. One morning this week I saw a lady driving, presumably to work, and she was turning the corner, and as she was, she was putting her lipstick on in the mirror.

Probably had a bowl of cereal on her lap. And she's multitasking. And whatever you think about who's best at multitasking, this much is true.

Multitasking is something all healthy churches do well. All healthy churches, multitask. Worship and body life and evangelism are not three items on a menu for us to pick and choose from.

They're all important parts of our calling as a church of Jesus Christ. None are to be neglected. Now, churches like people tend to have personalities, characteristic marks that stand out, maybe strong in one area and weak in others.

And so in some churches you go and you find we're all about worship. And that's the focus of the church and the distinctive strength of that church.

But maybe they're weak in evangelism. Or another church says we're all about body life and community. Community is the buzzword. We do a lot of things in community.

We stress close relationships and one anothering. But maybe other areas are weak. Or another church, we're all about evangelism here.

This is what we're here for, is to bring others to Christ. We're missional. We're missional. Lots of outreach. But maybe weak in other areas.

Well, here's the point I'm making. We don't have the prerogative to pick and choose which of these three we would like to be as a church. The head of the church wants us to multitask and to do all three well at the same time.

All three are essential to the health of the church. Children, when I grew up, we were taught in school that there are basically three essential elements to good health. There's diet, exercise, and rest.

What would you think if a guy said, well, I like exercise. I don't mind a mile walk every night with my wife.

And I love to sleep. I like to get my eight hours every night and my power nap at ten and two. But I sure don't like diet.

I've got to have my donuts in the morning, my pie at noon, and my ice cream at night. Is he ready for good health? Is he a candidate? You say no. Two out of three, we wouldn't say two out of three isn't bad.

We would say no. You've got to have all three. And so one without the others leaves us weak. And we need all three. It's the same thing with the church.

We can be real strong in one area, but we can another. Real strong in two areas. No, no. The head of the church says you need to do all three at the same time and do them well.

Well, so worship, body, life, evangelism must be front and center at Grace Fellowship at all times.

And that requires all hands on deck. It requires all members active. All the spiritual gifts that God has put into his church exercised.

There's much to do if all three purposes are to be done well at the same time. It's not easy. I don't think we have hit our stride at Grace Fellowship over the last 30 years.

But we're not content to rest where we are. Churches go through phases. And we need to press after these three things constantly.

That's one of the reasons we have a series like this. Just to remind ourselves, what does Jesus want us to be as a church? That we might address where we're weak and shore up those areas.

You remember how Jesus shows his concern for every local church in Revelation 1, 2, and 3, where he sends letters to local churches, just like Grace Fellowship. Seven churches in Asia Minor.

And he sent them a letter. And he praised them for what they were doing well. And he rebuked them and called them to repent for where they were weak. That's the interest that Jesus has in his churches.

He's building them. He's correcting them. He's purifying them. He's making them what he wants them to be. And we, too, must heed his word and see what it is.

Where are we weak? Where do we need to grow? And the beauty is that Jesus is for his churches. He is washing us with his word and getting out our spots and wrinkles.

So rise up, O church of God. And let's give ourselves to what he's calling us to be. All of it. All three. Not just one or two.

Multitasking is required. Second M is mutually symbiotic relationship. Now, those are just some big words to point out something that's happening all the time around us, children.

Mutually symbiotic relationship is where two living things have a relationship that benefits both of them. Mutual benefit comes to both in the relationship.

One of the examples of such a relationship is a bee, the bees and the flower, the flowers. The bees benefit from the flowers, don't they?

They go and they get nectar out of the flower and turn it into honey, food for them to eat. But the flower is not just on the giving end.

It too is receiving something from the bees, isn't it? Because as the bee moves from flower to flower, all over its hairy legs and body, it's getting pollen on it. And it moves into the next flower and it pollinates that flower, enabling it to reproduce.

And so the bee gets food and the flowers get pollination, able to multiply themselves. It's a mutually symbiotic relationship.

We have the same thing with the oxpecker and the rhinoceros. We don't have either one in Bremen, do we? But if you were in Africa, you might see a rhinoceros. And right on the back of him would be this bird, an oxpecker.

And he's pecking on the backside, the top of this rhinoceros. And what's he doing? Well, he's eating ticks and parasites that live on the back of the skin of the rhinoceros.

And so the oxpecker gets free food and the rhino gets pest control. It's a mutually helpful, beneficial relationship.

And we could go on and on. God has filled his earth with this. Plants and people, plants giving off oxygen. And we're inhaling oxygen and exhaling carbon dioxide that the plant needs to live to create oxygen.

And we both benefit from being around on the same planet. And God has built that into his physical world. He's built it into marriage. A relationship that is mutually satisfying and beneficial to husband and wife.

To parents and children. Into all that God has done, you see. Now sin gets in and seeks to destroy. But God's glory is seen in these mutually symbiotic relationships.

Mutually beneficial. And so it is with the three purposes of the church. Worship, body life, and evangelism do not compete with each other.

They don't just take from the other and give nothing back. They don't harm each other. Rather, they have a mutually beneficial relationship.

Where each benefits from the others. And gives something back to them. And so I just want to demonstrate that this morning.

How do these three elements of the church life help forward the others? How do they work in harmony and strengthen each other?

Because that's what we're after. We're not just wanting to emphasize one to the neglect of the other. We want to see them all receiving their proper place. And what we find is God has made them to work together.

And to help one and each other. Let's look first at worship. And there's this passage in 1 Corinthians 14, 24, and 25. Where we see the benefits of worship upon evangelism.

So we're called to worship God. That doesn't mean that evangelism needs to suffer. In fact, what we find here in 1 Corinthians 14 is that an unbeliever comes into a worship service.

An unbeliever comes into the church at worship. And God's word is here being proclaimed. And it says, He will be convinced by all that he's a sinner.

And will be judged by all. And the secrets of his heart will be laid bare. So he will fall down and worship God. Exclaiming, God is really among you.

So he came into the church and found them gathered and worshiping. He came in an unbeliever. But from observing the church at worship, he became a believer.

A worshiper. And said, God is truly among you. What happened in worship that was so evangelistic? Well, true worship lifts up God, doesn't it?

It holds God up. Look at God. That's what worship says. Look how great he is. Look how good he is. Look how faithful he is. Look how loving he is.

That's no small part of evangelism. Telling others about our great God, isn't it? And if it's true worship, then in the singing and the praying, and especially in the preaching of his word, unbelievers learn a lot about God, about Christ, about sin, about the cross, about repentance and faith, about salvation.

And it's no little thing for them to see believers worshiping their God, a God who is present with them, to walk in on a group of people who are singing to their God, praying to their God, talking to him, listening to him, and to see this happening and hearing what they're saying about this God, preaching about him, receiving his word from him.

The Bible says that God's word under the power of God's spirit can convince him of his sins. Even the secrets of his heart were laid bare. You know, we've had strangers come among us and they've sat under the ministry of the word of God and they've said, I felt like the preacher knew everything about me and I felt he was talking only to me.

Now obviously, we have no such knowledge of people but God does, doesn't he? He knows the hearts of everyone. He knows the secrets of the heart. And it's in the ministry of the worshiping people of God as the word of God is proclaimed that the secrets of man's heart are laid bare and they feel known by God and this living God who comes to be with his people searches them out and some of them become worshipers of him too.

So you see that worship does not take away from evangelism but actually a worship service can be a very evangelistic thing in and of itself.

Pointing people to our great God and Savior, there's something powerfully evangelistic evangelistic that takes place where God is worshipped in spirit and in truth.

Worship directly benefits evangelism but it also indirectly benefits evangelism. It's in worship you see how wonderful God is. It's in worship you see that he deserves to be known in worship by all men that he's created.

And in worship we get a sense of the wrongness of people not knowing our God.

It's not right. People are living without glorifying this God and we want to go to people and tell them how great our God is, what he's done to save people from eternal hell.

And where did we get that? We got it in worship as God was lifted up before us and we want him glorified and he's not being worshipped and it moves us to go and to tell others about him.

In worship we meet Jesus Christ and we appreciate how he perfectly meets all of my needs as a sinner and I want other sinners to know how he could be their Savior too.

In worship he commands us to be his witnesses and to be the lights in the world and so in gratitude we want to go and tell others and in fear for their everlasting destiny we want to persuade men.

Worship prepares you for evangelism. It focuses your eyes on the Lord who gives you hope and your hope in the midst of your trials is that which the world should see and want to know the reason for the hope that you have and you have the opportunity to tell them you know why I have hope in my family problems my health problems my financial problems it's because Jesus Christ has met my biggest problems and has solved my biggest problem met my greatest need and he's with me and we can share with him what Jesus has done for us.

So worship you see is indirectly helping our evangelism. worship holds before you God's great power that can make hearts of stone begin to beat with faith and repentance and love and you're going to need that view of God that you see in worship that powerful God when you go out and you meet people and they don't they don't want to hear what you've got to say and they just nobody's interested and so you need this God that you saw in worship to encourage you he's the almighty he's mighty to save you remember that believer Asaph in Psalm 73 he's greatly afflicted he's going through deep trials himself and as he looks around he sees proud unbelievers and they're not sick they're at ease they're wealthy they've got life by the tail but look at me and I'm serving God and he starts to envy them and he's on the verge of abandoning the faith and joining them he says his feet were slipping he was almost gone what saved him?

worship worship verse 17 is the hinge on which the chapter turns and it was the hinge on which Asaph was recovered till I entered that's the way it was I saw them the wicked were prospering and I as a Christian as a believer wasn't and I was ready to quit the whole thing and join the world until I entered the sanctuary of God that's worship and then I understood their final destiny and that changed everything for him I saw that what's important about that rich arrogant wicked man is not how much money and what kind of a smile he's got on his face and what car he's driving but where he will be the moment after he dies forever and ever and ever and in the worship in the sanctuary I saw where he's going to be in worship we see God seated on his throne as the king the law giver and the judge and in worship we hear him say in his word depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels in worship we see that no one's getting away with anything ever the sinners outside of Christ will be paid back in full forever and the Lord's people will be graciously rewarded with eternal life and so Asaph goes from envying the wicked to pitying them where did he get a pitying heart for sinners in the sanctuary in the worship do you ever need a heart full of pity and compassion for lost people it's in the worship of God we see their final destiny and we want to go to them with pity not envy worship serves the purposes of evangelism in worship we get our hearts and minds and priorities regularly sorted out and put right and it moves us with the gospel of Christ to those living and dying without him around us and around the globe so you see how the relationship of worship and evangelism works worship promotes evangelism in a similar way worship benefits our body life our ministry to one another because in worship our hearts are knit together we come together to worship this God we join our hearts and mouths in singing praises to the same Lord and in worship we're as close as we can be to that level ground at Calvary where no one's better than another we're sinners who have received grace from the same

Savior and so we come and in worship we love each other we don't look down upon others because we've just needed grace ourselves and in worship we we see the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who though he was rich yet for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich and we see Christ being condemned in my place for my sins and so then I can turn to my brother and be gracious to him you see in worship I see that I've been forgiven the mountain of sin my sin against God and so I'm able to turn to my brother who has sinned against me and forgive remember Matthew 18 forgiven the greater debt

I've been forgiven so does my brother owe me has he mistreated me has he sinned against that's a small debt and so body life happens when we enter into the glory of God's forgiveness of us we forgive each other we love each other we get an interest in one another in worship it's the family coming together to adore our same father who chose and adopted us into his family we're brothers and sisters here as for the saints who are in the earth they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight Psalm 16 3 we worship the same savior who purchased us for God and made us the people of God once we were not a people we had nothing to pull us together and to make us a people but now we are the people of God and it's our savior that's made us such and we have interest in each other and we come from the same womb of the Holy Spirit who gives new birth to us and so we're brothers and sisters in the Lord there's a camaraderie that comes from just cheering for the same sports team isn't there you see it you meet somebody with a Cubs shirt on and if you're a Cubs fan you immediately have a bond with them this is somebody special that would cheer on such a team and that's it strikes that there's something here a connection folks if that happens in cheering on a sports team what is it that we together celebrate our God

Father, Son and Holy Spirit who's brought us together into this great family we're drawn out in love to one another something far deeper when we rejoice in the Lord together and join our hearts in singing his praises this God is our God we possess him together as a body a tight bond that comes from worshiping God together and I can say that I have a special bond with the men that gather together and pray on Wednesday night and all I can say is that we gather together and we pray and we join arms as it were in hearts and we come to the throne of grace together for each other for the cause of Christ's kingdom and it does something to our hearts it knits us together worshiping together in prayer fosters body life and we pray for each other and so worship doesn't mean oh okay so if we're going to have worship that means body life has to suffer not at all it can foster and benefit it so worship we've seen its benefits to evangelism its benefits to body life but it works the other way around it's a mutually beneficial relationship and so let's look at body life when we serve one another that benefits our worship as well when your brother and sister ministers grace to you they go out of their way and minister to you they do something that you're encouraged you're built up in your faith what do you do you may say thank you brother but you also go home and say

God thank you for her thank you for my sister because I realize you sent grace to her that you meant for me thank you Lord that you are that interested in me that you've made her what she is to be a blessing to me and so body life sends us back to worshiping God and when we gather and sing his praises oh we give thanks to God then do we sing with joy the 133rd Psalm how good and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity oh we worship God for the unity and love that we have fostered you see by the one another in the body life good body life is so important to good worship that Jesus says in the sermon on the mount he preaches on this and he says in Matthew 5 23 and 24 if you're offering your gift at the altar that's old covenant worship that's the person coming and bringing his gift to the altar if you're offering your gift at the altar you're worshiping and there you remember that your brother has something against you

Jesus doesn't say just go on worshiping it doesn't matter what your brother thinks he says call a time out leave your gift at the altar unfinished and go to your brother and seek to be reconciled to your brother then come back and offer your gift what's Jesus saying he is saying body life is important listen to me when you come and worship me I do not want it to be with bickering among the body of Christ parents you know this you know the joy you have when you sit down at a meal and the kids aren't cutting and carping on one another they're helping each other and loving each other do you think the heavenly father is any different that as we gather together as a family and we come into his presence to worship he's not just looking to see what comes out of our mouths he's looking at our hearts and our relationships with our brothers and sisters and if that's a mess he says stop the worship call a time out first go to your brother get right with each other so that together you can come with hearts joined and worship me it's the same thing in the Corinthian church the divisions in the Corinthian church were spoiling their worship spoiling their

Lord's Supper celebration making their worship gatherings to do more harm than good 1 Corinthians 11 oh but when the body is united it's a joy to share together the one loaf of the Lord's Supper so you know we all feed off of the same Savior I love the Savior and I love his body I love my brothers and sisters here and we see how body life enhances our worship body life also benefits our evangelism you can see this in Jesus' prayer on the night of his arrest he prays for his people that all of them may be one Father just as you are in me and I am in you may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me Jesus is concerned that the world believes that the Father in Heaven really sent him and he says that will be communicated to the world when the world sees the unity of my people

John 17 there's something about the unity of Christ's church that makes the gospel believable when the body of Christ is loving one another caring for each other serving one another esteeming each other unified together it gives credibility to our witness what are we saying to the world in our evangelism we're saying Jesus Christ saves us from our sins and what is the greatest sin it's that self love is it not Jesus we're saying Jesus will save you from that preoccupation you have with yourself and if our relationships in the body of Christ is all about me and you're all about you and so we keep clashing what's that witness going to affect oh yeah I think those people really got something going there there's something supernatural there's something no they'll say I don't see anything different from the world oh but when they see people who are different there's nothing to bring us together other than

Jesus Christ and and and he's teaching us to to bear and forbear to give and to forgive and and we love each other and we're united yes we offend each other but we go and we make it right and and we give the world a reason to believe that the father really did send the son there's something supernatural here they're not just a bunch of phony quacks something supernatural God has taken self-centered people and made them other-centered and Jesus says so that the world might believe that the father that you father have sent me you see how body life promotes evangelism he says to his people love one another as I have loved you so you must love one another by this will all men know that you are my disciples if you love one another there's the huge badge how the lost world will know who are the people of Jesus who are the true disciples of Jesus well look for the people that are loving one another because that's the mark look what Jesus does look what his love does isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful it turns self-centered people into other centered people well but we see that the flowers also profit from the bees and so we want to look at evangelism and see how evangelism benefits the body life and as we go out into the world with the gospel and find that they don't want our gospel they're not interested in listening to us talk about Jesus Christ they have no heart for our savior or his word then what happens when we get back together with the people of God we want to hug them we want to say you love the same savior you love the same bible we sense our community with each other we don't find that out there it's a hostile world out there perhaps and so it makes us appreciate the body what does our evangelism out in the world brings us back and we appreciate what we find in the body of Christ we come to treasure it it's an oasis in this world and we say these are my people this is where I belong they love my savior and we have so much in common and we're ready to share with each other and value each other and we seek prayers from each other we're out there in the world and we're evangelizing and we're seeing the hardness of heart and we come back and we say pray for me brother pray for me

I've got an appointment out here with a guy pray that God would open his heart you see evangelism promoting praying for one another in the body developing our body life evangelism is shared work of the body of Christ and we encourage each other and we spur each other on to this good deed evangelism promotes body life but it also evangelism also benefits worship when we go out into the world with the gospel and we see how resistant people are to our message and how bored they are with our gospel and how few come to church at our invitation and how few actually read the literature or listen to the CDs that we give we come back to worship God and we sing with adoring wonder the fact that we're Christians why was I made to hear your voice and enter while there's room when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come

I mean that's what we find they just they keep making the wretched choice we offer them our savior the feast of the gospel and they would rather starve than come and we come back and we worship and we sing this song to God why was I made to hear your voice and enter when every when so many thousands make the wretched choice and rather starve than come t'was the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew us in else we had still refused to taste and perish perished in our sin and so evangelism enhances our worship we say it's an amazing thing I can't explain how but I believe that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin it's an amazing thing I can't explain how it happened but I believe that he is eternal God at the same time he is a man and I can't explain it but when he died on the cross there was enough virtue in his death to cover all my sins and I believe that

I believe that three days after being dead in the grave he came alive and I believe he's in heaven today and I believe he's he saved me I'm trusting in him to save me from my sin why do I believe when so many don't and we worship don't we doesn't it enhance our worship when we live in the world and we seek to bring the gospel we see their unbelief we come back and we say thank you father thank you for faith to believe thank you for the gift of repentance to turn from my life and so we come and we worship well that's the second M and we've got to be very quick on the third M we see the mutually beneficial relationship between the three then each of them strengthens the others but thirdly there is my involvement then in these three aspects of a healthy church consider this this church's health is no better than the sum total of all of its parts so we've got to get down to me and to my we can't just say

I'm along for the ride and I this this seems to be a good church but no we've got to ask what is my involvement because the health of the church is only as strong as the sum total of all its parts God has equipped all of his people for all the work that needs to be done so I want to ask you to go home today and this week and just to prayerfully examine yourself on each of the three purposes of the church worship body life and evangelism prayerfully ask the Lord is there something more that I could contribute to the greater health of the church in each one of these three areas and very briefly I just want to be suggestive first of all under the area of worship are you here when the church gathers for worship or have you become slack in attendance put a fence around the times when God's people gather to worship

God guard it from all the encroachments of the world that would steal the glory God deserves from his worshiping church are you all here and at your very best in worship are you still sleepy and sluggish you know preparing to give your all to God and worship begins on Saturday night and getting enough sleep and getting to bed early enough that could be the most spiritual decision you make today just going to bed earlier next Saturday so that you can be all here and give God the glory let all that is within me praise his holy name are you preparing to give your best to God in worship are you actively involved in worship actively involved in worship not just a spectator but a participant and so actively dealing with God in everything when a brother leads us you're praying with him when we sing you're singing to the

Lord when the words preached you're listening for the voice of the shepherd who speaks in his word actively involved in worship well what can I do to make this area of Grace Fellowship Church more healthy what about the body life the ministry to each other in this church who is there in this body that I am presently seeking to encourage and trying to come alongside of and just spur on to life and godliness to love and good deeds who can I get beside and share what God has taught me in his word maybe just share a verse and don't just look for people your own age younger talk to somebody older once in a while older person talk to one of the young people share something encouraging body life you see is to be happening are you praying for one another we do that on

Wednesday night pray through the church directory do you leave the gatherings of the church with any prayer requests that you gleaned from your brothers and sisters I've already got two or three things that I need to pray about this week just from talking to you before Sunday school and between the services do you take anything from the needs of your brothers and sisters home and pray for building the body you see who will you have into your home to get to know better who can you meet for lunch and seek to draw nearer to body life what can we do in evangelism who is there in your family your neighborhood your school your job or here at church that needs to hear more directly from you about Christ who are you planning to speak about the Lord Jesus to who are you praying for to be saved who are you planning to invite to church or give a CD to what if each of us had one or two people targeted to seek to bring the gospel to and we shared that with each other and prayed for each other's witness in the world is there a lost person you can reach out to with deeds of love and kindness and in that way show the light of

Christ what if we all went home and sought the Lord to help us to plan to do something more in each of these three areas of the purposes of the church worship body life and evangelism well we'd be a healthier church to the glory of God the last point is God's own glory is seen in his church and this is where we end the whole series and it's why these three things are important God's own glory is at stake you see after praying for the church at Ephesus Paul concludes with this benediction we had it read for us in Ephesians 3 now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever amen here's the highest motivation for us to be concerned about a healthy church at

Grace Fellowship here's the highest motivation to show up for worship and be all here and worship with all your heart to be ministering to each other and going into the world because God seeks glory in his church you see that in that benediction to him be glory where in the church the church reveals the glory of God in a way no other place does the church at worship glorifies God because it it lifts up God doesn't it the church in their body life glorifies God because who has made this church love each other none but God the church at evangelism what is it it's the task of declaring his glory to the nations his marvelous deeds among all peoples you see these three things promote the glory of God it's the way we glorify God it's the way he gets glory in his church and so as we go we don't go on our own abilities and strength but this same benediction reminds us that God himself promises to equip us he's the one seeking glory in his church he is the one who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine he is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us moving us to worship body life and evangelism let's cry out to him in our closing hymn for this power and let's expect it power to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine because it's his promise number 278 in our hymnal

Jesus with thy church abide let's make this our closing prayer as we sing it to our Lord Jesus himself let's stand and sing 278