Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey, podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress.

And right now, your generous gift will have twice the impact, thanks to the Salt and Light Matching Challenge, active now through July 6th. To give a special matching challenge gift, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's word with every day on this Bible teaching program.

Speaker 3

On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, what is the goal of the spiritual gift? Look at Ephesians 4:12. For the equipping of the saints for the work of service.

Here it is. To the building up of the body of Christ. That's what spiritual gifts are meant to do: to increase the spiritual strength of the church.

Well, how do we do that? How do we build up the body of Christ?

Speaker 1

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, the church is a living, breathing body with Christ as the head and each believer playing a vital role.

Yet many Christians fail to recognize their unique purpose. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains that God has equipped each of us with spiritual gifts to strengthen his church and to advance his kingdom.

Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message. Dr. Jeffress.

Speaker 2

Thanks, David. And welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Every single day on Pathway to Victory, we open our Bibles to learn more about God.

Speaker 3

But let me be clear.

Speaker 2

Head knowledge must become heart knowledge. And that happens when God's spirit flows into our hearts and radically transforms our lives. Well, gratefully we hear from listeners every day who tell us how their lives have been transformed as a result of something they've heard on Pathway to Victory. The stories are remarkable, and nothing makes me smile any bigger because that's exactly why this ministry exists. Our sole purpose is to see God change lives as we bring his light into the dark places of this world.

To accelerate this mission, a number of families banded together to establish a staggering matching challenge in the amount of $1 million. As a result, Pathway to Victory has the opportunity to realize a total of $2 million salt and light matching challenge. Simply put, every dollar you give between now and July 6th will be automatically matched and therefore doubled in size. Whether you give $50, $100, $500, or $5,000, your investment will have twice the impact. Our plan is to use these funds to bring transformation, moral clarity, and the light of God's word to your community, nation, and world.

And we'll accomplish this plan as on television, radio, and the many other places Pathway to Victory can be accessed. So get ready to jot down our contact information at the close of today's study. But right now, let's continue a study from Ephesians 4 that began yesterday on Pathway to Victory. I titled my message Bodybuilding.

Speaker 3

A spiritual gift is the unique desire and the power God gives you to share his message with other people. If you look in the Scripture, there are three separate lists of spiritual gifts. Some include things that the other lists include, while some are omitted. Why do we have three lists of gifts? I believe the reason is that there are three categories of spiritual gifts. We refer to all of them as gifts, but there are really three categories of gifts. This is actually given to us by the Apostle Paul in 1st Corinthians 12:4-6. Paul said, "There are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are a variety of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are a variety of effects or manifestations, but the same Spirit."

But there's another list that we're finding in our passage today, Ephesians 4. Those are ministries, Paul says, opportunities to use our gift. We each have a basic gift. There are a variety of ministries that we'll look at in a moment that we can serve in. And then finally, there are effects found in 1 Corinthians 12. Those are the results in other people's lives when we use our gift. Now that's the reality of spiritual gifts. Let's look at the disbursement of spiritual gifts. He's saying we have all received the gift. Now let's look at a description of the gifts beginning in verse 11. Remember, these are ministries that God may open the door of opportunity for you to use your gift. It's not an exhaustive list of ministries; it's just some of the offices in the church.

And he gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and others as evangelists, and some as pastor-teachers. Let's unpack those just for a moment. Apostles: in a literal sense, there were only 12 apostles. You remember one of them flamed out, and so they were replaced. Judas was replaced in Acts 1 with Matthias, and he was the 12th apostle. Then God added a 13th apostle, named the Apostle Paul. To be an apostle, you had to have been chosen by Jesus Christ and had to have seen Jesus in his resurrected body. All of those qualified to be an apostle. Now, I believe there are no more apostles today. They were temporary. They were here to serve as a building block for the Christian faith to receive divine instruction. So in the strictest sense, there are no more apostles. The faith has been once forever delivered to the saints, as Jude tells us.

But I think you can, in a broader sense, say that missionaries are a kind of apostles, taking the gospel to where it's never been before. And so if you want to expand it to that, that's fine, but just don't call yourself an apostle. Secondly, he gave some as prophets. Now, again, this was in the time before the Scriptures were complete. Being a prophet in the Old Testament was not so much about foretelling the future; it was forthtelling God's truth. It was speaking God's truth. God would have a special message for a group of people, and he would raise up a prophet to give that message. Think of Elijah or think about Isaiah. They were prophets.

Now, I don't believe the office exists today in a technical sense, but there's a general sense in which some people have a gift of prophecy. Again, not foretelling the future, but speaking God's truth in such a way that it brings conviction to people. It leads unbelievers to turn to Christ and leads believers to turn to a more godly life. And so I think you can say that people today with a spiritual gift of prophecy have the gift to produce or to proclaim God's word in such a way that it brings conviction to the hearts of people. That would be a prophet. An evangelist is one who bears the good news in a sense. 2 Timothy 4:5 tells us we're all called to share the gospel of Christ with people, but there are some who are especially gifted at doing that.

Think of our most famous member of First Baptist Dallas in 156 years. Our most famous member was Billy Graham, who was here for 54 years. Next to the Apostle Paul, he was the greatest evangelist the world had ever known, winning millions of people to faith in Christ. But that's not the only thing an evangelist does. He trains other people to know how to share their faith. When I think about that, I think about the late Dr. D. James Kennedy, the pastor of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. Many don't know his story. Before he was saved, he was a dance instructor in the Arthur Murray Dance School. One night, he came home after a night of partying, passed out, and the next morning was awakened to hear the voice of a preacher booming out this question: "If you were to stand before God and he were to ask you, 'Why should I let you into my heaven?' what would you say?" At that moment, D. James Kennedy gave his life to Christ.

He was fascinated with that question and used it to develop Evangelism Explosion, a program for sharing faith that has been embraced by tens of thousands of churches. That's the gift of an evangelist. He was in the role of a pastor-teacher, but his heart was that of an evangelist. And that leads to the fourth office Paul gives: Pastor. I think you can make it one word: Pastor-teacher. There's a grammatical reason for believing that's one word. A pastor-teacher. That's the primary role of the pastor, to be a teacher of God's Word. In fact, in 1 Timothy 3, of all of the qualities you have to have in a pastor, there's only one skill that's mentioned: he is able to teach.

Now, since we started the discussion last week, you know who can serve in these offices. As you know, there are a variety of ministries that men and women alike can have. They can be missionaries. Men and women both can be missionaries. They can be speakers of God's word, prophets in the sense of teaching God's word in such a way to bring conviction to people. Just think about the long history of great teachers, men and women who have been in the halls of First Baptist Church, Dallas. There are evangelists; men and women can be evangelists. It's not men only who share the gospel. 2 Timothy 4:5 says we're all called to share the Gospel. The first two bearers of good news in the Bible were women: Mary Magdalene and Mary. Remember, they went to the empty tomb, and the angel said, "He's not here. Go and tell. Go and share with your brothers, the apostles, the good news." Jesus later appeared to those two women and said, "Go tell the men what has happened."

But there is one office that's reserved for men in the church, at least one, and that is the role of pastor-teacher. The pastor is to be a man. There's a lot of confusion about that today. Our deacons studied this in depth. We had a three-hour deacon meeting Tuesday night to discuss a resolution that would firmly affirm that the role of pastor is for men, but also affirm that women can be called to other ministries. I'm happy to report that our deacons unanimously adopted that resolution. From this point forward, that will be the public recognition. We ordain men to be pastors, but we're going to commission women for whatever ministry God has led them to outside the role of pastor.

But the point is there are many different ways for Christians to use their spiritual gifts. Now, what is the goal of the spiritual gift? We've talked about the reality. Look at Ephesians 4:12: "For the equipping of the saints for the work of service." The reason he gave pastors, evangelists, prophets, and teachers was to equip the saints for the work of service. Here it is: "to the building up of the body of Christ." That's the ultimate aim of spiritual gifts—to build up. Oikotome in Greek refers to the building of a house. We are to build up the spiritual house of the Lord. What does that mean, to build it up? Well, he's talking about, first of all, growing larger. Did you know in 1 Peter, Chapter 2, Peter describes Christians as building a holy temple to God? How is it built? A spiritual temple is not built by bricks or stones, but by individual lives. God wants this temple, this spiritual temple, to get larger. He wants more people to be a part of this spiritual temple. God is interested in numbers—the numbers of true converts who come to know Christ.

That's why we're having this emphasis on one life: to go out and reach somebody, invite them to become a part of the body of Christ. So he's certainly about growing, talking about growing larger, but he's also referring to growing stronger. He wants to build up, to strengthen this body. To have a strong building, you have to have the right foundation. At First Baptist Dallas, the foundation is the living Word of God, Jesus Christ, and the written Word of God, the Bible. He wants to make sure that the pieces of this temple, the stones, the bricks, are connected together through the right mortar. We've got to be connected. We're not 16,000 individual people at First Baptist Church; we are connected. We are cemented together. That's what spiritual gifts are meant to do: to increase the size of the church and increase the spiritual strength of the church.

Well, how do we do that? How do we build up the body of Christ? Well, you know what some churches do? They say, "Well, we'll go out and hire the best staff, the best pastor we can, and we'll pay them to do the work of ministry." I'm reminded of Bud Wilkinson, who for years served as the chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness. He was a well-known professional football player before Kennedy appointed him. A reporter asked him one day, "Mr. Wilkinson, what contribution has professional football made to the health of the American people?" And Wilkinson said, "Absolutely none. No help whatsoever." Just think about it, he said. In a football game, you've got 22 men on the field desperately in need of rest, being cheered on by 50,000 spectators in those stands desperately in need of exercise.

You know, that's a great picture of many churches. Too many churches hire a pastor and a staff, and they're out there on the field with a few dedicated laymen. If the team's doing well, if the church is succeeding, the team people, the spectators in the crowd yell, "Go, team, go! Keep on going. We're for you. We're behind you." But if the church isn't doing so well, they yell out, "Call in the second string." Now, that may make for exciting football, but that's a lousy way to run a church. God never meant for the paid professionals to do it and to say, "Those who are apostles and prophets and music ministers and evangelists and whatever else in the church." Our job is to do what? To equip the saints. That would be you for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ.

That word "katartizo" refers to the equipping, the loading up of a ship with supplies before it goes out on a long journey. Did you know that's the reason we come together once a week? Besides worship, we come to get equipped to go out and do the work of ministry. You know, occasionally, and thankfully, we have people who are saved in our service. But you'll never have that many people saved in a service. You know why? It's real simple: unbelievers, by and large, don't come to church. A lot of believers don't come to church, but a lot of unbelievers don't come to church. If you're going to reach them, it's not going to be in the pew of a church. You reach them out there where they are, and that's why we have you here—to give you the tools you need to go out and share the good news of Jesus Christ, equipping the saints for the work of service.

And by the way, when everybody's on the field and playing the game, when everybody's out blocking and tackling and sharing the gospel, it creates a much healthier attitude in the church. My old mentor, Howard Hendricks, had a dad who was in the military and was unsaved for most of his life. Dr. Hendricks says one day his dad said to him, "Son, remember this: you can always tell where your troops are by what they're complaining about. If they're complaining about warm beer, you'll know they're nowhere near the front lines. But if they're complaining about a lack of ammunition, then you know they're right in the heat of battle."

What are you complaining about? Hopefully not warm beer, but something maybe just as ludicrous. "I don't like the sound. I don't like the music. I don't like the ties the pastor wears. I don't like the way my Sunday school teacher teaches. I don't like the temperature of the auditorium." You know, when people start complaining about that, you know they are nowhere near the front lines of spiritual battle. But when they're complaining about, so to speak, "Man, I need more meat. I need more food. I need more business cards to pass out to invite people to come," you know they're right in the heat of spiritual battle.

God's plan for the church is to equip the saints. That is to equip you for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. We talked about the reality of spiritual gifts, the goal of spiritual gifts—building up the body. What's the measurement of spiritual gifts? How do we know if we're succeeding? I'm going to do this very quickly. One word is maturity. Look at verse 13: "Until we all attain to the unity of faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." You know, everybody loves a baby. Babies are cute and cuddly when they're about five or six months old. But there's nothing cute about a 40 or 50-year-old who acts like a six-month-old. In fact, when we see that happen, we think it's tragic. We call such a person mentally challenged.

It's the same way in the body of Christ. We enter as babies, spiritual babies. But God doesn't intend for us to stay that way. He wants us to grow up in all aspects. The measure of our spiritual maturity is the fullness of Christ. The second word is stability. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried away by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. You know what characterizes a child? They're highly volatile in their emotions, up and down. They're extremely self-centered. They've got to have it their way, and they're easily led astray, which is why we tell them to beware of strangers.

The same way with spiritual babies. One way you know that somebody is immature spiritually is they're always giving into their emotions. Their emotions rule their life, and they're easily carried away by false doctrine that makes promises they can never fulfill. Don't be that way. He said when we're mature in Christ, there is stability. And finally, there's activity. One way you know if your body of believers, your church, is healthy is there's activity. Look at verse 16: "From whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies." The church is the body of Christ. It means every part, every joint has to be supplying what it's supposed to supply.

Remember I said if a cell in your body starts taking nourishment from other cells but never gives anything in return, it causes cancer. It's the same way in the body of Christ. When you have members taking and taking and taking and not giving, the result is cancer—spiritual cancer. Now, what does he mean? What is it that everybody, every part of the body supplies? You know, if I wanted to, I could make a shameless stewardship appeal right now. "You need to supply. Reach into your pockets, give your money." That's what the body needs—your supplies. Now, I could do that, but I'm not going to do that because that really wouldn't be faithful to the text. Yes, we're to give of our financial resources, but he tells us what he means by supplies. He says, "according to the proper working, the working of each individual part."

You know how you can know if your body is healthy? Every body part is present, and each one is functioning as it's supposed to. It's the same way in this body of believers, First Baptist Dallas. How many of you have ever done a jigsaw puzzle before? If you have, you know the frustration of getting toward the completion of the project and realizing one or two pieces are missing. What a bummer! I mean, the funny thing is you can have all the pieces put together and be missing one, two, or three. Where does your attention go? To the missing part. It's the same way in the church. God created First Baptist Dallas to be a picture, a portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every part is essential, and every part has to be correctly connected to the other parts. If it is, and if they are, then a beautiful picture of Jesus emerges for the world to see. That's God's way. That's God's method for building a strong body.

Speaker 2

Friend, you're an essential part of God's.

Speaker 3

Plan for his church.

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Simply stated, the body of Christ is incomplete without you. And I hope today's pathway to victory has inspired you to invest your personal time and resources in a local church where God's word is held high.

As I mentioned earlier, we're in a critical period of time right now, counting the hours until the deadline of midnight July 6th. I'm referring to the Salt and Light Matching Challenge in which a $1 million gift was given to Pathway to Victory as a means to gain another match million. These are dark times in our nation. Activists are working overtime to undermine Christian values. Even with visionary leadership in the White House, liberal elites are trying to silence Christians, persecute Jews, and all those who love Israel. Many governors are attempting to sabotage peace officers who try to protect our citizens.

For these reasons, the $1 million Salt and Light Matching Challenge is intentionally designed to give us an arsenal to push back the forces of evil in our country. We know that the hope of our nation relies not on political influence, but on the person of Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

Because of this Salt and Light Matching Challenge, every dollar that's given will be automatically doubled in size until the deadline of July 6th. We are asking God to stir in the hearts of friends like you so that we can reach a combined total of $2 million.

Thanks for stepping up to give today. I'm confident God will use whatever amount you choose to give to pierce the darkness with the light of His word.

Speaker 3

David thanks Dr. Jeffress.

Speaker 1

Today when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request a copy of the brand new book by Dr. Jeffress, *Shine the Light*. To request this resource, call 866-999-2965 or visit our website at ptv.org. Now, when you give $100 or more, we'll also send you the complete collection of audio and video discs for the *Shine the Light* Teaching series. And don't forget, because of our Salt and Light Matching Series Challenge, your gift to Pathway to Victory will be matched and therefore doubled in impact. So be sure to get in touch with us today. One more time, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. You could also send your donation by mail. Write to PO Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's PO Box 223609, Dallas, TX.

I'm David J. Mullins. Will Christians in America face persecution? Dr. Jeffress addresses this relevant subject next time. It's a message he calls *Christians in the Crosshairs*, here at Wednesday on Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generous support of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible.

Right now, your ministry gift will be matched and therefore doubled in impact thanks to the Salt and Light Matching Challenge. Take advantage of this opportunity to double your impact before the deadline on July 6th. To give toward the matching challenge, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.