Written by Pastor Mark Driskill
October 28, 2011

Read Ephesians 4:11-14

“until we all attain….”

Well there you are sitting all alone in your house every Sunday. You love to pray and read your Bible and listen to your worship music. You have notebooks filled with your own personal revelations and spiritual wisdom. You have experienced the power of God in some pretty intense ways; visions, dreams, maybe even heard God speak audibly a time or two. You are gifted in the Spirit and consider yourself a passionate lover of God. Some people admire you while others think you’re a little strange but that’s okay because you are so in love with Jesus that you don’t worry about what others think. In fact you are so content with just you and Jesus that you don’t even need to fellowship with other believers. It’s just you and Jesus all alone in your little shrine.

You consider yourself a little more mature than those people in the pews. Maybe you ventured into a church a time or two, but can’t seem to find one that is quite spiritual enough for you. The preacher isn’t open enough to the Spirit to suit you I suppose. So you just stay at home basking in the glow of your spirituality giving no thought to anyone around you. Sounds like a perfect life. No conflicts. No divisions. Just sweet spiritual bliss. There’s only one problem with your little arrangement: The Bible.

In our passage today we read that the gifts are given so that we may equip one another and “all attain unity…and maturity.” Get it? “We all attain…” Not just you. Has it ever occurred to you that the Lord may have gifted you so that you can be a blessing to the church rather than a rival? Pulling away from the church is not a sign of commitment to God or of maturity, but quite the opposite. Notice the wording of verse 13, “Until we all attain …unity…to mature manhood.”

Unity is a prerequisite of maturity. Anyone can feel unified and joyful all alone. But the truly mature know how to live with fellow saints even though that often means working through conflicts and problems. Listen, the church needs you and believe it or not, you need the church. We are all in this together. It’s great to have such a strong sense of who you are in Christ but its wrong for you to keep all that spiritual stuff to yourself. Get in the church and bless somebody. Yes you will face hardship and conflict, which happens in any family. But if you will stick it out and learn how to deal with those of us who aren’t quite where you are we will both be blessed. Get up off your easy chair and get into the game with the rest of us. Then we will all reach maturity together. Be a blessing today.

Pastor Mark Driskill
Web Minister of Begotten By the Word web ministry
See our website at http://ourchurch.com/member/b/bbtw
and
www.facebook.com (to group “begotten by the word”)
Begotten By the Word is a ministry of Helping Hands Christian resources-Evangelism Outreach
www.hhcr05.org
(Feel free to copy in any way that will bring glory to God and further his kingdom.)