Author: Pastor J.O. Lawal

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By: Johnson O. Lawal
Date: September 28, 2025
Series: Fruit bearing

We are still dealing with ‘Fruit bearing’. And if you have not forgotten, we have placed our fingers on two things that we must be doing in order to draw from the fullness of Christ for our fruitfulness. First, we are to be meditating on His word. Second, we are to be devoted to prayer. How many of you still remember that? Jesus clearly tells us that apart from Him we can do nothing. That means we have to rely on Him solely for our fruitfulness. It is not for the believer to struggle to be fruitful. What the believer needs to do is to abide in his source, and his source is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our source. He is the source of everything we need to be fruitful and productive. And if we are going to be fruitful and productive, we must abide in him.

But we need to know how to abide in Him. Otherwise, we will continue to struggle to be fruitful. And that’s why we have been looking at a number of things that Scriptures say about abiding in him. So, we talked about giving ourselves to His word, meditating on it. We also talked about praying as a means of drawing from Him, drawing the things that He has provided for our fruitfulness from Him, and, of course, as a way of expressing our dependence on Him.

Then we are looking at drawing from other believers. And that’s because we are members of the same body. As I told you, when we are talking about Christ, we are not talking about one person; we are talking about a body of people. And Paul shows us or illustrates what Christ represents for us using the human body. From what we see in the human body, every part of that body is dependent on the other parts of the body for functioning. There is no part of the body that is useless in its making or that is irrelevant in its making. A part of the body at some point can become useless, of course. But God did not make any part of the body to be useless. He made every part of the body to have something to contribute to the growth, development and welfare of the entire body. And all the other parts of the body must be drawing from each part for their functioning. Otherwise, they will be limited in one way or the other.

In the same way, we all as members of the body of Christ have one thing or the other to contribute to the overall growth, development and welfare of the entire body. And each of us must be devoted to contributing his own quota. The body of Christ, as we see in Scriptures, grows as each part does its work. So, every part of the body of Christ must be doing its own work. It must recognize the work or the works that the Lord will have it to do, and it must be devoted to doing it. Otherwise, the growth of the entire body of Christ will be limited.

So, if you are not functioning as you are meant to be functioning in the body of Christ, you are limiting all of us. That’s the truth. It may not look like you are limiting us. But the fact is that you are limiting us. None of us can grow to be all that God wants him to be without the proper functioning of every member of the body of Christ. Scriptures are very clear about that. And as I said before, even the one that may appear to be quite mature among us spiritually cannot attain the height of maturity that he can attain if other members of the body of Christ are not doing all that they are meant to be doing. So, don’t limit the body of Christ by making yourself irresponsible. God did not make you to be irresponsible. God did not make you to be useless. But you can make yourself useless to the body of Christ by not taking your place. I want to keep that in mind.

You may not understand the extent to which you are affecting the entire body of Christ if you are not doing what you are meant to be doing. But a day is coming when it will become clear to you that, all along, you have limited the body of Christ in its functioning, that you have limited the usefulness of the body of Christ through your own slothfulness, lukewarmness, or waywardness. You must keep that in mind.

Well then, It is one thing for all the other members of the body of Christ to be doing all that they are meant to do; it is another thing for each of us to learn to draw from them whatever it is that they have to offer us, so that we can be as fruitful as God wants us to be. Remember, there is a demand on every one of us to be fruitful and productive. And before we close this series, we will look at the dangers of not being fruitful. That is because there are dangers mentioned in Scriptures for not being fruitful and productive as God will have us be.

So, this is not something you should run away from. Of course, you may choose to run away from it. But you can’t choose to run away from it without dealing with the consequences as well. Anybody can choose to ignore the word of God. But you cannot choose not to embrace the consequences of ignoring His word. The moment you choose to ignore his word, you will have to deal with the consequences. You can’t run away from the consequences. God is not going to force you to act on His word. God is not going to force you to take Him seriously. You can choose any time not to take God seriously. But once you choose not to take Him seriously, the consequences will naturally follow. You won’t be able to run away from them.

In any case, there is a demand on us to be fruitful and productive. The things that are referred to in Scriptures as ‘The fruit of the Spirit’, we have a demand to exhibit these things in our lives. And as I pointed out to you in an earlier teaching, the demand is not on the leaders of the church alone; the demand is on all the children of God because all of us are members of the body of Christ. It’s not only our leaders in the church that are members of the body of Christ. All of us are members of the body of Christ. All of us are partakers of His divine nature. All of us have been anointed by Him. And you must keep that in mind.

Again, every child of God is anointed, anointed by the Spirit of God. We may have different roles in the body. And we do have different roles in the body. Our roles may not make our ministries obvious. It doesn’t mean that we are not anointed. It doesn’t mean that one of us is less anointed than the other. Each of us is anointed. Some people may be popular among us because of certain responsibilities God has given to them or because of certain gifts of the Spirit that God has given to them. They may be known better than others. It doesn’t mean that they are more anointed than others. All of us are anointed because the one who anoints people is the Spirit of God. And he has come to live in each of us by the same measure.

So, there is none of us that has more of the Spirit of God in him than the other. Are you following me? There is nobody that can claim to have more of the Spirit of God in him than another believer. Because the Spirit of God is not a thing. The Spirit of God is a person. The Spirit of God is not some fluid, such that when you fill a cup, you can fill it halfway, or you can fill it three quarters, or you can fill it to the full. The Spirit of God is a person. And He’s either living in you or He’s not living in you. If He’s living in you, then, He has come to live in you in all His fullness. If He’s not living in you, then, He is not living in you. But He’s fully present in everyone that is a believer. He is not more present in a believer than in another believer.

However, the Spirit of God may be more in control in a believer’s life than in another believer’s life. It depends on how yielded each believer is to Him. What I am saying is that what will make the presence of the Spirit of God more obvious in one believer than in another believer is their how yielded they are to Him. If this person is more yielded than that person, then, the presence of the Spirit of God will be more obvious in his life than in the other person’s life. So, you may think that this person has more of the Spirit of God than the other person. No! The Spirit of God is a person. And He lives in each of us by the same measure. But the more we yield ourselves to Him, the more He manifests Himself in us. Can you relate to that?

Well, we are saying that even though each of us has something to contribute to the overall welfare of the body of Christ, to the fruitfulness of every member of the body of Christ, all of us must learn to draw from one another so that we can be as fruitful as God wants us to be. How then do we do that? We already know that all of us are members of the same body and that there is none of us that is irrelevant, there is none of us that is not significant to the growth of the entire body. But if we don’t learn how to draw from each other, what each of us has to offer us will not automatically work for our good.

I am saying that the gifts of other believers will not automatically work for your good, if you don’t learn to draw from them. Their service in the kingdom will not automatically work for your good, if you don’t learn to draw from them. Whatever it is that God has blessed them with for your own fruitfulness will not automatically work for your fruitfulness, if you don’t learn to draw from them. So, we must learn to draw from one another.

One of the things we need to educate God’s people in, especially when they just become Christians, is the need to be drawing from other believers, not assuming that they can make it on their own. But how do we do that? We do so by fellowshipping with one another. And of course, that’s a word that we use all the time. But the problem is that most people don’t even know what it means. And because they don’t know what it means, they don’t know how to apply it in their own work. So, I will endeavor to break it down so that we all can get it.

See, it is easy for me to say you need to take fellowship with other believers seriously. But if I don’t break that down, you may not understand what I’m talking about or how to take that fellowship seriously. Or you may not even understand the dimensions of Christian fellowship. And you need to understand these things so that you can begin to take advantage of them for your own edification.

So, to begin with, you must take Christian meetings or congregational meetings very seriously. It is one of the ways you draw from other believers. And we’ve seen in Scriptures that believers of old took congregational meetings very seriously. In fact, we see in Scriptures that believers of old, in the early days of the church, met every day (Acts 2:46-47).

Now I’m not saying we have to meet every day for congregational meetings. But if we’re meeting every day for congregational meetings, nothing will be wrong with it. It depends on what we are doing in those meetings. I mean that if we have a system of meeting for congregational meetings every day, it is good.

Sadly, we’re in an age or a time in which people get bored easily. People don’t want to stay on anything they need to do for long. It’s hard to get people’s attention for long today. It’s a terrible thing. So, to make people listen to you share the word of God with them for 30 minutes is a hard thing today. Because we constantly want to be on the move. And that’s why we are crazy about comedy today. We just want something to make us laugh.
So, to get people’s attention for long on something that will edify them is a hard thing. And that’s why today, if we want to hold church meetings every day, people may not show up if they don’t have problems. If they don’t have problems driving them from pillar to post, they naturally wouldn’t want to show up in church meetings. Actually, if they can do without church meetings, they would do without them. And it’s a terrible thing.

But I’m saying that back in bible days, they took congregational meetings very seriously because they understood the relevance of doing so. They understood it to be one of the ways we draw from one another for our fruitfulness. Before I proceed on that, let me quickly give you a familiar Scripture. It is in Hebrews chapter 10, from verse 24, which says:

“And let us consider how we may spur one another toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25NIV)

We have instructions here about encouraging one another to be devoted to walking in love and doing good things. Then we are told not to give up meeting together, as some people are in the habit of doing. So, it’s not a new thing for people not to take church meetings seriously. Even in bible days, there were people that were in the habit of staying away from church meetings. It was a culture for them.

Now for one reason or the other, you may miss a church meeting. And you will not be happy to do so, if you understand the relevance of church meetings. You will wish you were in every meeting, if you understand the relevance of church meetings. But then, for one reason or the other, you may miss a meeting. And where you have to do that, you will do well to communicate those that should know.

But that’s not what we are dealing with here. What we are dealing with is a culture, a habit of staying away from church meetings. In other words, we will be able to quickly place our fingers on the number of times you show up in church meetings in a year. That is because you show up only when you like. Any day you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, you don’t show up. If, for one reason or the other, you just get moody about the time you’re supposed to go for a church meeting, you may not go. If a friend comes visiting about the time you’re supposed to go for a church meeting, you may not go. If there is just any reason for you not to show up in a church meeting, you will not show up. And that’s because you don’t understand what you stand to gain by attending church meetings.

Church meetings are not meetings you should be forced or pressured to attend. In fact, the fact that you are being forced or pressured to attend shows that you are not growing at all. It shows that something is wrong with your understanding of Christianity. What do you gain from church meetings? First, you gain spiritual knowledge.

Now there are things you may never know on your own, even if you are reading the bible every day for the next 100 years. But in church meetings, you can get to know those things. That is because there are people that are gifted by God to impart spiritual knowledge to others. And you can gain adequate knowledge of the will of God for yourself by attending church meetings and listening to such people.

Again, that is not automatic. And I need to say this in advance: It’s not every church meeting that you attend that will provide you the opportunity to gain spiritual knowledge or to increase in your knowledge of the will of God for yourself or in your knowledge of God. It depends also on what the meeting is set up to accomplish.

See, it is not every church meeting that is organized for edification. I will attempt not to rush this because I want all of us to gain a fair understanding of what I’m talking about. So, I’m going to say that again. It is not every church meeting that is organized for edification. As we see in scriptures, every church meeting is meant to be organized for edification. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 26, Paul says this to us:

”What then shall we say, brothers and sisters? When you come together, each of you has a hymn or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Everything must be done so that the church may be built up.” (NIV)

Is that in your Bible? What must be done in church meetings so that the church may be built up? Everything! It means that whatever is done in the church meeting must be geared towards edification. It also means that we don’t introduce into our meetings anything that will not build us up. If it is not going to build us up, it has no business showing up in our meetings.

You see why it is a problem to have comedians in church meetings? I think the tempo has gone down now. But there was a time, some years ago, that almost every mega church brought in comedians into their meetings. For what? To excite the brethren! The brethren were not excited. The brethren were bored. The meetings were boring to them. And they were looking for a way to excite them, since the Spirit of God could not excite them. So, they began bringing comedians to lighten up the mood.

Sadly, we still have people who are looking for excitement in the church today. I’m not saying people shouldn’t get excited in the church. Of course, people should get exalted in the church. If there is any place to get excited, it should be a church meeting, right? But what is that thing that will excite you? That’s the issue. What is the thing that will excite you in the church meeting?

Prayer ought to excite you. The word of God ought to excite you. Singing helps to excite you. But will those things excite you? That man of God said, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” Why was he glad? It was because he knew that he was not going there in vain. He knew the relevance of going there. He knew that going there would transform his life, things would happen to him. So, he said, “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’” (Cf. Psalm 122:1)

How many people are glad to come to church meetings today? How many are excited to come? Are you happy to come? Is your coming around is not just to fulfill all righteousness? See, it can be to fulfill all righteousness. It can be just something you do religiously. Yes, you should do it religiously, but it should be more than religion to you.

Well, what I’m saying is it’s not every church meeting that is organized for edification. But every church meeting is meant to be organized for edification. We are told in that text that we read that everything that is done in our church meetings must be for edification; every aspect of the meeting must be for edification. Otherwise, it is useless.

There are church meetings today that are organized for fundraising. I was listening to a man of God talk about a meeting that he was to attend. He eventually attended it, anyway. And he said that before he came in for the meeting, he had been told that he would raise money for them and that whatever amount of money that was raised would be shared at a ratio of 30 to 70. That’s 3 to 7. They had already told him how they would share the money. And he told them, “I don’t do such things.” But they were expecting him to do that for them, to raise money for them. How do you get people edified in such meetings? Such meetings are not organized for edification. They are organized to raise money for certain individuals.

In most of our churches today, we turn every meeting to a fundraising meeting. Even when there is a funeral, we still find a way to raise money. We will use people’s misery to raise money. Think about that. If you choose to celebrate your birthday with the brethren in some places today, it will be an opportunity for the church to raise money. It should not be a bad thing to celebrate your birthday with members of your Christian assembly. I mean, who should you celebrate your birthday with, if not members of your Christian assembly? But if that is going to become an occasion for fundraising, is that not a problem? Even when we are going to have a naming, preachers will still find a way to raise money for themselves. That’s a problem. And it’s clear that such meetings are not organized for edification.

There are equally meetings organized for storytelling and meetings organized to attack others, to attack other Christian assemblies, to attack politicians. I listen to some ministers and ask myself, “How do people get edified in these meetings?” That is because most of the sermons are focused on attacking somebody, abusing somebody. Yes, you may think you’re stirring up people’s souls, you’re stirring up their spirits to know what is going on around the world. But people can learn what is going on around the world just by sitting down and watching Channels Television or TVC or by going online to read news, right? Church meetings should not be places where we are commenting on news. We are not social commentators. And such church meetings are not organized for edification.

In any case. I’m saying that even though church meetings are meant to result in the edification of all those who attend, they will not automatically result in their edification. It depends on the focus of those who are organizing those meetings. So, before you start attending church meetings, you need to be certain that the meetings you’re attending are for edification.

Now you can attend church meetings for sentiments. And many believers are in the assemblies in which they have to take for sentimental reasons. They know they are not being edified. And I’m not saying those assemblies are the reason they are not being edified. There may be other reasons they are not being edified. But you have no business being in a place where you are not being edified. For any reason whatsoever, especially sentimental reasons, you have no business being in an assembly where you are not being edified.

So, in making a choice of what church meetings you attend, your focus must be on your own spiritual edification. Is this a meeting in which I will be edified? Is this meeting one in which I will gain spiritual knowledge? Because you’re supposed to draw God’s provision for you, for your growth, for your fruitfulness, for your increased usefulness through church meetings. And if a church meeting does not afford you the opportunity to do that, then, you need to stay away from it and find somewhere else to be.

When we started church meetings, I used to announce this while preaching: ”If you are not being edified through these meetings, stop coming to them.” And I’m still saying it today: If you have not been edified in these meetings, stop coming. It’s not by force. You see, it’s not by force. Your edification should be important to you. Your spiritual growth should be important to you. If it is not important to other people, it should be important to you. What becomes of your life ultimately should be important to you. The direction that your life is going should be important to you. And if you can see that by your association with certain individuals, your life is not going in the direction that it should be going, stop associating with them. You did not come into this world together. It’s here that you met them, right…

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By: Johnson O. Lawal

Date: September 14, 2025

Series: Fruit Bearing

This morning, we want to continue looking at ‘Fruit bearing’. And I want to further show us how to draw from the fullness of Christ, so that we may be able to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit as God expects us to do. We have already looked at the need for us to give ourselves to meditating on the Word of God as a way of drawing from the fullness of Christ and actually abiding in Him. We also looked at the role or the roles that prayer has to play in abiding in Christ, so that we may draw from Him everything that we need to bring forth fruit as He wants us to bring forth fruit.

Then I began to say that we also must take Christian fellowship seriously, if we’ll be able to fully take advantage of God’s provisions for us to bring forth fruit as He wants. Why is that important? It is important because we all are members of the same body. That being the case, we all are members of one another. That means each of us has something to contribute to the overall growth, development and welfare of other members of the body of Christ. In other words, you cannot become all that God wants you to be, if you will not take adequate advantage of what other members of the body of Christ have to supply for your growth, development and welfare in your walk with God. It is not hard; it is impossible. It is impossible because the word of God makes it abundantly clear that every member of the body of Christ has something unique to contribute to the overall growth of the entire body.

I may dwell a little on this part because it is one of the things that many of us who are believers don’t take seriously. We don’t take Christian fellowship as seriously as we should. We may think that we are taking it as seriously as we should. But the truth of the matter is that we don’t take it as seriously as we should. If we consider all that is said in Scriptures about what our attitude ought to be towards Christian fellowship, we will agree that most of us are not taking adequate advantage of it. We are not taking adequate advantage of it because we are not taking it seriously, as seriously as we ought to take it.

Let me just read something to you very quickly from 1 Corinthians 12. We are reading from this passage last week, but we really couldn’t get into some parts of the passage. So, I will read to you again from verse 12 straight into the part that I want you to pay attention to. It says:

“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.” (1Corinthians 12:12-20NIV)

What is Paul describing here for us? The body of Christ! And we are the body of Christ, as we have seen in Scriptures. All of us, all of us who have been born again, all of us who have been recreated by the Spirit of God, form the body of Christ. As I told you last week, Jesus is not the only one that we can properly refer to as Christ. Because Christ is not one person. Christ is a body of people. Christ is a body of persons. That’s what we are told in scriptures. Jesus is the head of that body. And all of us who have come to be in Him are members of that body. So then, none of us should underestimate the roles that he can play in the overall growth, development and welfare of the entire body of Christ.

Now, regardless of how unknown you may be in the church, as far as God is concerned, if you are one of His children, you are not irrelevant. You are not insignificant. Don’t miss my point. The fact that each member of the body of Christ is unique and is relevant to the overall growth, welfare and development of the body does not mean that at the moment each member of the body of Christ is actually contributing as much as he can be contributing to the growth, development and welfare of the body. In the eye of God, you are relevant. In the eye of God, you are important. And there are things that He has deposited in you for the body. He has deposited those things in you so that as you use them or utilize them to contribute to the fruitfulness and usefulness of the other members of the body of Christ.

And of course, as you take the doing of that seriously, God will continue to give you more and more abilities so that you too can increase in usefulness in the body of Christ. But you may not be doing that. In fact, instead of contributing to the growth of other members of the body of Christ, you may be hurting them. You may be limiting them. You may be hindering them. You may be making yourself useless, useless to God and useless to the body of Christ. That’s not how it is meant to be. But it can be like that.

So, here Paul is telling us that you cannot say because you are not a pastor you are useless or that you are unimportant. You cannot say that because you are not an evangelist or because you don’t have certain spiritual gifts you are unimportant to the body of Christ. You are not unimportant. You are important. God has made you what you are. Paul talks about it. He says God has arranged the members of the body of Christ and put everyone where He wants him to be, just as He has done to our body.

I am sure you know that the one who arranged all the parts of our body was God. It was He that put the eyes where they are. It was God that put the ears where they are and so forth. In like manner, in the body of Christ, each of us has been placed where he should be. And what is important is for you to recognize where God has placed you and function right there. You don’t try to do what God has not made you fit to do. You don’t try to occupy a position that He has not placed you. Your fruitfulness will come from remaining where He has placed you.

Well, we are saying that each of us is important; each of us has something to contribute to the fruitfulness of all the other members of the body of Christ. And we may not be able to tell to what extent we are doing this. But each of us is important in the sight of God and can contribute immensely to the overall fruitfulness of all the members of the body of Christ all around the world.

So, don’t underestimate your relevance. Don’t underestimate your impact, whether positively or negatively. What you are doing, good or bad, is impacting on the entire body of Christ all over the world. You may not know that. But it is the truth. What you are doing in your little corner is affecting the entire body of Christ all over this town, all over this state, all over this country and all over the world.

How people view you as a member of the body of Christ will determine how they are going to view other believers. If they see you as saucy or as irresponsible, they will unconsciously view other believers in the same manner. If you are wicked and cruel to them, maybe in your workplace or in your neighborhood, if another believer moves into that neighborhood, they will first of all be careful of how they relate to that person. That is because you have shown them something negative about Christianity.

So, don’t think that you are not affecting anybody. I’m telling you, you are more influential than you think you are. You are affecting more people than you think you are. As unknown as you may be in this world, you are more influential than you think you are. And a day is coming when God is going to make that clear to you. God will show you the kind of impact you have made on your world, positively or negatively. You need to keep that in mind.

Then, from verse 21, 1 Corinthians 12, Paul says,

“The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1Corinthians 12:21-27NIV)

Now let me take you back to where I started. Paul says no part of the body can say to the other part of the body, “I don’t need you.” Of course, again, we need to deal with this in a balanced way. A part of the body may be doing more harm to the body than good. A part of the body may not be playing the roles that it is meant to be playing in the body. And that will be because it is diseased, alright? And if it cannot be cured, at a point, the entire body may cooperate to have it removed. Do you understand?

But on a good day, there is no part of the body that can say or that will want to say, “I don’t need another part of the body.” The eyes cannot say, “I do not need the hands.” The legs cannot say, “I do not need a hands,” or “I do not need the ears.” The legs may be fast. But the legs still need the ears. Because if the ears are not good, the legs cannot make a good athlete. If the ears are not good, even though the legs are fast, the body will still underperform. When they say, “On your mark,” and the man doesn’t hear it, he is in trouble already. What do you think? Or when they say, “Go,” and he is still waiting, will he not lose? Yes, his legs are fast, but he may lose because his ears are bad.

So, on a good day, there is no part of the body that will say to the other part of the body, “I don’t need you.” Because they all need one another. And Paul is saying this so that we will begin to labor to maintain the unity that is already in the body of Christ. Now what I am dealing with, of course, this morning is not the unity in the body of Christ or the need for us to maintain the unity in the body of Christ. What I am dealing with is the need for us to learn to draw from other believers what God has given to them for our fruitfulness. And when we do not do that consciously, if we do not appreciate the fact that we all are members of the same body and that all these other members of the body of Christ with us have something to contribute to our increase in fruitfulness on a daily basis, we will not be as fruitful as we can be.

I cannot say, then, “I don’t need you, get out.” No! I need you. However, I can’t force you to stay. Do you understand? Even though I need you, I cannot force you to contribute to my growth. If I observe that instead of contributing to my growth, you are weakening me in the spirit or trying to pollute me, what will I do? I will stay away from you.

Now I am not staying away from you because I think I do not need you. I am staying away from you because you are diseased, because you are sick and I don’t want to contact the sickness in your life. But while away from you, it will be my duty to be praying for you that you will be well spiritually. That is because I still need you. Can you relate to what I am talking about?

Well, Paul has painted this graphically for us using the body, the human body. Every one of us is important. Every one of us has something to contribute to the overall growth and development of the other members of the body of Christ. And God wants each of us to have equal concern for the others. As I’m concerned about your growth and development, you ought to be concerned about my growth and development. As I’m concerned about your welfare, you ought to be concerned about my welfare.

Now Paul is telling us this so that we don’t think that the growth of the body of Christ is hinged on the activities of our spiritual leaders alone. And I believe that’s one of the things that has been limiting us in the church all over the world. We think, we erroneously think that our growth, that our development, that our welfare, that our usefulness is hinged only on the activities of our spiritual leaders. They are the ones that need to be on top of their games. They are the ones that need to be spiritual. They are the ones that need to be living holy lives. They are the ones that need to be living righteous lives. We think we have no business living right, bearing fruit. But that’s wrong thinking. And that’s why we have remained in spiritual infancy for centuries.

What the Word of God teaches us is that each member should have equal concern for the others. What the Word of God teaches us is that each member has something to contribute to the overall growth, development, and welfare of the others. But I think that those of us who are church leaders also have not done well enough in emphasizing this for the brethren. So, they erroneously think that we are the ones that should be living right. They don’t need to live right. Is that what we are told in scriptures? No!

Everybody should be walking in love. Every one of us should be patient, humble, gentle, self-controlled and generous. But what we see, on the contrary, is that when a demand is made on the believer to be humble or gentle, his response may be, “Am I a pastor?” Or when a demand is made on him to be regular in church meetings, his response may be, “Am I a church leader?” Or when he’s told you ought to be living a holy life, he may say, “Why do I have to be living a holy life? Am I a pastor? Am I an evangelist?”

But the Word of God says, “Be holy, just as I’m holy.” Who does He say that to? Every one of us! When He speaks about bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit, who is He talking to? Every one of us! But many of us see ourselves as not important enough in the body. But that’s not how God views us. And we need to begin to see ourselves as God sees us. So that we can begin to function as He wants us to function.

Let me give you a similar passage from Ephesians chapter 4. From verse 11, Paul says,

“So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:11-16NIV)

I’m going to summarize this. Here, Paul shows us the reasons, the main reasons God has given us leadership in the church. And the first is that all of us may be equipped for works of service. In other words, all of us have things to do in the body of Christ. There is none of us that does not have things to do in the body of Christ. There are works that God wants each of us to be doing. You may not be doing them. And if you are not doing them, you are limiting us. It’s as simple as that. And it’s not just this assembly that you are limiting; you are limiting all the people of God all around the world. So, in a sense, you have become a problem to our group. You may not understand that. But that is the truth.

In the same book, Ephesians, Paul says we all are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do those good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do. There are good works that God has prepared in advance for every one of us to do. And you know, from time to time, I pray that God will open my eyes to see those good works that He wants me to do, so that I can give myself to doing them. And you know why that is important? It is important because when God is going to judge me, He is going to judge me on the basis of what He wants me to do, not on the basis of what the things that I am doing.

Just think about it. If you are answering questions not meant for you in the examination, is that not a terrible business? It does not matter how much time you spend answering questions that are not meant for you in an examination setting, even if you get everything right, what will you get at the end of the day? Zero! You are going to get zero at the end of the day because you have answered the wrong questions. One or two of my kids experienced this on some occasions. They answered wrong homework questions. And though they got the questions right, they still go zero. Why? They answered the wrong questions.

Well, I was talking about the fact that there are works for all of us, children of God. There are things God wants each of us to be doing. And we must emphasize this enough to all the children of God, so that they will stop wasting their lives, so that they will stop wasting the grace of God that is available to them. We have been taught not to take the grace of God in vain. But many of us are taking the grace of God in vain because we are not doing the things expected of us. And one of the jobs of our church leaders is to bring us to that point where we recognize the works that God wants us to be doing and then give ourselves to doing them.

The second reason we have leaders appointed over us in the church is to lead us to maturity in Christ, to bring us to that point where we are like Christ in every way. In other words, they are to lead us to that point where we are bringing forth all the fruit that Christ Jesus bore when He was here on earth. God wants to see in manifestation in our lives too the things that made Jesus’ life adorable. He wants to see in manifestation in our own lives too the things that made people want to be around Him. And He refers to these things as the fruit of the Spirit.

Now we have church leaders given to help us so that all of us can come to that point where we are bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit in abundance. That’s when we can say that we are mature in Christ. Christian maturity has to do with bringing forth in abundance, the fruit of the Spirit. It has nothing to do with how long you have been in the church. It has nothing to do with how long you have been born again. It has to do with how much of the fruit of the Spirit is evident in your life. If the fruit of the Spirit is not evident in your life, then you are not growing. It’s as simple as that. You are immature.

You may have gifts of the Spirit. The Bible makes these distinctions clear. There are gifts of the Spirit. You must not misrepresent them for the fruit of the Spirit. Gifts are gifts. They are given to us freely. And they have their own roles in Christian development. But they are gifts. We don’t do anything to have them. They are just given to us. But we can have them and still be spiritually redundant. We can have them and still be spiritually immature.

Paul gives us an example in the Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians 1, he says to the Corinthians, “There is no gift of the Spirit that is lacking among you.” That means all the gifts of the Spirit that you can possibly place your fingers on are in expression in that church, the Corinthian church. Then, in chapter 3, he says, “I cannot refer to you as spiritual, but as mere babes in Christ.” Yet they have all the gifts of the Spirit.

What’s the problem? Well, Paul says, “There is envy among you. There is jealousy among you. There is division among you. There is bitterness among you. There are lawsuits among you. There is sexual immorality among you. How can I refer to you as spiritual? How can I refer to you as mature?” Now he is not saying they are not children of God. No! They are children of God, but they are not mature. They speak in tongues. In fact, tongues at some point became a problem among them. Tongue talking became a problem in the church of the Corinthians. That was because there were people who were preaching in tongues among them. So, it became a problem. Why did it become a problem? It became a problem because they were immature.

There are many assemblies today in which spiritual gifts have become a problem. One of the reasons some churches are divided is the operation of spiritual gifts. They have so many who are spiritually gifted and they don’t know how to manage themselves. So, they are divided. Nobody is listening to nobody. Everybody is doing as he pleases because all of them are gifted. And everyone is boasting about his own gift. What is that telling you? They are immature. They are babies in Christ. That’s the point. They may not want to hear it, but that is the truth.

If you’re growing, if you’re maturing, you’re going to be bringing forth the fruit of love, of gentleness, of patience, of self-control, of humility, of brotherly kindness. And no wonder Paul says you must prioritize love over every other gift. You have to take it more seriously than your possession of any other gift of the Spirit. Because without your possession of it, or your expression of it, you’re going to make a waste of the gift of the Spirit that you have. Your gift of the Spirit will not bless the church. On the contrary, it will be hurting the church.

Well, in the passage I just read to you from Ephesians 4, Paul is showing us that the leaders given to us have been given to us to lead us to that point where all of us recognize our works, the works God wants us to be doing and give ourselves to doing them, and also to where all of us are bringing forth the fruit of the Spirit in abundance so that we all can be like Christ in every way. And lastly, in verse 16, he says:

“From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.” (Ephesians 4:16NIV)

Already, in this same passage, he refers to Jesus as the head of the body of Christ. And now he tells us that from Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows. So, all of us draw from Him to grow. Can you relate to that?

Then he says the body is building itself up in love. How? As each part does its work! So, we can only grow and develop to the point or to the degree to which each member of the body of Christ is doing what God wants him to do. That’s the point he’s making. The body of Christ will only mature to the degree that each member of that body is doing what it is meant to be doing. That means if each member of the body of Christ is not doing what it is meant to be doing, the overall growth of the body of Christ will be affected.

That’s why I say you may think of yourself as unimportant. But the day is coming when you will know how important you are. When God places before you all the things that He expects you to do for His body, for the growth of His body, when He lays these things before you and you begin to see them, you’re going to be asking, ”And you expect me to do all this?” And he’s going to say, “Yes! But instead of doing all this, look at all that you were doing. Instead of blessing the body, you were hurting the body.”

So, whether you are neglecting your work or ignoring your work, you are hurting the body, you are limiting the body. That is because the church of God cannot grow as it should grow until you begin to do what you’re meant to be doing. I cannot know all that I’m supposed to know or be all that I’m supposed to be, even as a pastor, until each of you is doing what he is meant to be doing in the body of Christ. And the question for you this morning is, “Are you contributing to the growth, welfare, usefulness and increase in fruitfulness of the body of Christ? Or are you limiting the body?”

Let us pray.

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