What Is the Purpose of the Church? | Ephesians 4:13

We are in Ephesians 4 still, and we're still reading about this body of Christ and this ministry that God has given to his church. And today we're just going to rest on verse 13 of this chapter as we continue to hear about the ministry that God has given his church. But what we're going to do, we're going to read verse 12 together with verse 13 just for context. So let's just read that together from verse 12 of Ephesians, chapter 4. It says to equip his people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach the unity, or 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. Hallelujah. That's our passage. And I think today that this passage is going to answer a few questions that you might be having today. A few questions that might be going through your mind. Maybe not right now, but I'm sure some of these questions would have occurred to you at some time in your Christian walk. And we're going to get to those. But before we do, I wonder, right now we've got that in the NIV. I wonder if you can bring up verse 12 and 13 in the ESV if you've got it there. I don't want to challenge our team too much, but I want to read it in the ESV because it's really important to understanding today's passage, chapter 12 and 13 in the ESV. And he's talking, remember about the apostles and prophets and pastors, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. And in verse 12 in the ESV, it says to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. You see that? To equip. And then in verse 13 where it says until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. And then it says to mature manhood. And then it says, to the measure of the stature of Christ. That's so close to the original language. It means more or less the same thing as it does in English, unto or to. And then I want you to look at one more word. And this one more word is verse 13, verse 13. The very first word is until. Until. So we've got to this and to this and to this. And he says until. And those are all words that tell us about movement and direction, that the church is going somewhere, that the church is not just static, it's not just a Static thing, you know, we feel so. I think sometimes we think of church as something that's kind of fixed and static because we all know on Sunday I'm going to go to church and the building's going to be there. I'm not going to come and find the building's been moved five miles up the road. It's here. It's where it is. And so we think of church that way, like the building, something that is settled and permanent. But actually, as we've been saying, the church is. Is the people of God, those that believe in Jesus. And the church is something. It's a vehicle. It's not a building, it's a vehicle. If anything, it's the best metaphor for the church. It's a vehicle, like a bus that is carrying us all. Somewhere there is travel, there is direction, and there is a destination. The church has a destination where we are all going together on one bus called the church, to one destination. And, you know, sometimes people ask questions, and I think this answers some of the questions that people have. The first question is this. You must have heard this, or maybe you've even asked this yourself at one time or another. Have you ever asked yourself, why am I disappointed with church? Ever ask yourself that? It's one of the top questions that if you go on Google and YouTube and other places, it's one of the questions people are really asking, is, why am I disappointed in church? Maybe you've never asked the question. Maybe you've just made the statement, I'm so disappointed with church right now. Maybe you've said, church has really let me down now. Why is it that people get disappointed with church? I think one of the reasons is that we've got the wrong destination in mind. Let me tell you something. The destination matters. Yesterday we traveled down to London for my dad's 80th party and 80th birthday party. And we decided that rather than drive, we would take the train. So we went on the train and then we got on the underground, and we got to one of those maps where we're saying, no, you have to go here and you have to change there. And getting to the destination was quite a job. But we eventually worked it out and we got where we needed to be because our goal was the destination. And understanding the destination determines your experience of the journey. Many years ago, I got an invitation to minister in Kampala in Uganda. And at the time I got the invitation, I was visiting Mombasa. It was a time when I, as many of you know, I lived there. For many years. But this was before I lived there. I was doing ministry in Mombasa in Kenya. And I got an invitation to, to go to Kampala in Uganda. And so we decided we're gonna travel all the way to Kampala in Uganda, from Mombasa in Kenya by coach. We decided that it would be cheaper, it would be fun. At the time I thought it would be fun. But we traveled by coach to Uganda. And so I spoke to my friend who was a pastor in Mombasa. I said, will you come with me to Uganda? He said, I'll come with you to Uganda. I said, we need to book a coach, Mombasa to Kampala, Uganda. He said, I'm gonna have a look. And he came back and he said, I found the coach. There's a really good coach that's going to. And this, by the way, was about 20 odd years ago. So things were a bit different. He said, I found a coach to go from Mombasa to Kampala. It's a good one. And in fact, they say if we pay a bit extra we can go royal class. I said, my, my, my. We're going to go royal class to Uganda. I was very excited about this. And so the day came for travel and we got our bags and we got on, we got on the coach ready for a journey that was going to last 24 hours. And so we sat on the coach and as my, as my posterior touched the chair that we were to sit on to go to Kampala in Uganda, I realized something. This didn't feel like royal class. This felt something different. But nevertheless, I was excited. We were going all the way to Uganda by road and we passed through many places. And for the first part of the journey I was quite excited. I was looking out of the windows, there was all sorts of things to see. It was quite a journey, quite an adventure. And so we traveled. Then there came a time when I began to lose feeling. There was a time when I began to become much more aware of the suspension of the vehicle. There was a time when the road was quite windy and this had a very springy suspension. And we seemed to be going like this. And the experience stopped being an adventure. It stopped being exciting. And it wasn't a very pleasant experience. And I was quite exhausted at the other end. I wonder whether some of us are like that in our Christian life. When you first came into the church, you know, some of us in the room grew up in church, but some came to faith later. But maybe the beginning of your Christian life, you know, you felt like, this is an adventure. This is amazing. You know, this is so exciting. And you're looking around and, you know, you're seeing the things that are happening in the church and you're excited, but somewhere along the line, you began to go numb. Somewhere along the line, the adventure became less an adventure and more of a hard slog. And you began to say, I think I'm very disappointed with church. And you know what kept me going on the way to Kampala? The thing that kept me going on the way to Kampala was this. I knew why I was going and I knew the destination because the destination matters more than the quality of the journey. Amen. You see, you can have a fantastic journey, but if the destination is no good, then the journey then becomes irrelevant. You know, someone was telling me the other day they went on holiday. Actually it was their honeymoon. My sister went on a honeymoon. And was it my sister who told us that it rained the whole time or something, wasn't it? Yes. So they had a fantastic holiday booked. They got on, I'm sure, a very nice flight with all the bells and whistles and things that get added to such a trip on your honeymoon. It was beautiful, but there was a problem with the destination. And that's really what we're learning here, is that church is about a destination. It's not just about where you are, it's about where you're going. And a vision of eternity is so important, a vision of the future is so important to carry us on the journey as we go on this journey with God, to understand what the plan of God is for our lives as individuals and our lives together as a church. You know, as we go on this journey together with God, I'm reminded of the ministry of Jesus. You see Jesus when he was walking this earth. You see a lot of good things he did, didn't he, on his journey? Did you see that? You see how it says in Acts 10? He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil. What amazing things he did for. For people. What amazing things. What an amazing thing for that widow who was carrying her son to be buried. And Jesus raised him from the dead. As a pastor, those are the kind of funerals I want to be a part of. I want to be part of those funerals where we never make it to the. Where we never make it to the graveside where we say, okay, he's been raised, we better turn back. That's the kind of funeral I want to be a part of. Look at Lazarus and how he raised him. Look at all the people that were healed. Look at the encouragement that Jesus gave people when he said, you know, whatsoever you see in heaven, you'll see on earth. When he said to people, you know, if you speak believing that what you say will come to pass. What amazing being at the wedding in Cana and Galilee where Jesus broke all the Pentecostal rules and turned 300 gallons of water into wine. What an amazing thing to see. What an amazing thing to see Jesus healing people, doing miracles. What an amazing thing to see. What an amazing thing to see the feeding of the 5,000. There's so many good things that Jesus did, and we can stay there. But Jesus is also the Jesus that said, take up your cross and follow me. Jesus is also the Jesus that not only celebrated that wedding, but also set his face like flint for Jerusalem because he knew that he had to go somewhere. He knew that the journey wasn't the only thing. He knew that he had a mission, and that mission had to meet with the cross. That's a really good illustration of the Christian life. There are times when Jesus is going to bless your socks off. I pray that the time when Jesus blesses your socks off might be this week. I pray that this week you see Jesus bless your socks off. But let me tell you, there is that time when you go numb. There is that time when the suspension seems to be rocking you a bit too much, where the road is a little rough, where the potholes are a little too deep, where there's no air conditioning on the bus, where you're suffering a little. And those are the times when you have to remember that there is a destination where you are going. And it's not only about the journey. Because a lot of times what we hear in churches is preaching about the journey only how God is going to get you out of this problem and that problem. And if you'll just believe in Jesus, there'll be no potholes, there'll be no windy roads. There'll be no rough times. And yet Jesus said, in this world, you will have trouble. So as believers, we need to understand the destination so that we will understand that there has to be a balance. There has to be something that we're looking towards that is higher than where we are right now. And that's all about the destination. And I thank God that Paul here, in his wisdom gives us the destination. He tells us about the destination of the church. And so, as we say, you have to know the destination. You might be asking the question, what is the destination, or if I can reframe it another way, what is the purpose of the church? Because the destination of the church and the purpose of the church go together. Because if we misunderstand the destination, we will misunderstand the purpose. And we will be those people who say, church didn't bless me today. Or we will be those people who say, the worship didn't bless me today, not understanding that the purpose of worship is not to bless me, but to bless God. They will misunderstand and they will say, you know what? The sermon wasn't as exciting today. Now, I know that's hard to believe. I know that you will never leave church and say, you know, pastor's sermon was boring today. But, you know, there are some pastors, you know, who a little more, no, but, but you might possibly leave one Sunday saying, you know, I don't know what Pastor Sean had for breakfast, but you know, today it just. It just wasn't given. And, you know, but anyway, there's always next Sunday. You might think that. But when you understand the destination, you'll realize the purpose of church is not just for the pastor to stir me up, but it's for me to listen and take the word that is given and apply it to my life. It can't all be hallelujah and amen and jump and shout and you've got the victory. It's got to be more than that. It's got to be something that propels us towards our destination. And that means that sometimes you're going to pass through beautiful countryside and you're going to look out through and you're going to see wild gazelles and zebra and, you know, the sun setting over beautiful scenery and it's going to be amazing. And at other times, you'll look outside and it'll just be, you know, some horrible urban environment. And, you know, they'll just be. You'll have the smell of rubbish coming through the windows and, you know, it just won't be a nice place. But it's okay because you understand, this is a necessary thing that you have to go to to reach your destination. And what is the destination? What is the purpose of the church? Well, first of all, Paul tells us that the purpose of the church and we can go back to where we've looked at before. One of the purposes of the church, of course, is to be an example. Paul describes the church as being something that is giving a picture of the kingdom of God. It's something that shows the powers in the heavenly places, the glory of God. And it's something that is a demonstration to the world around us of what the kingdom of God is like. The church is there to show something, to be something in the midst of a fallen world, in the full view of spiritual authorities that want to destroy humanity but have been defeated by the cross. The church is there to show the kingdom of God, the goodness of God, the provision of God, the kindness of God, the salvation of God. The church is there as a demonstration. But here, as he moves out of those previous chapters where he was talking about the church as that witness to the heavenly places, he now comes to this place in chapter four where he's been telling us about apostles and prophets and pastors and so on that are equipping his church. And here, of course, he says in verse 13, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So this is all about the purpose of the church being fully realized. And our destination is unity in the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. So each one of us, individually, corporately, we understand the same way. Our understanding of the faith comes to the same place. We begin to understand Jesus in the same way. Because right now you'll find that there's lots of churches and lots of opinions and the aim of God, the purpose of the church is to bring us all up together to that level where we all know fully about Jesus and we all know about the faith fully. There is that knowledge and that understanding. That's the first thing. We're to come to a place of knowledge and understanding about the Son of God. And you know, often we can be resistant to that because, you know, you say the word teaching and someone will say, I'll come back when the preaching's on, you know, because teaching has become a synonym for dry and boring in the church for some reason. But, you know, there's knowledge. Our knowledge of God, our understanding of God, both intellectually and experientially, is supposed to come up to us certain level. And we're all being brought up to that level. That's one purpose that God has for his church. But then he says also about maturity. He says, to mature manhood. Next we're going to read about leaving behind childishness, becoming spiritual adults. He says, to maturity. The idea is to become spiritually mature. And you know, if you have an infant, you know that when you have an infant, they are utterly dependent on you as a parent. Now we're all supposed to depend on God for as long as we live. But there's a kind of dependency that is childish. Paul talks about it in Hebrews 12. You are still on milk, but by now you want to be on solid food. If you're nursing an infant, your hope is that at some point they're going to stop drinking milk. That at some point they're going to hold their own food, they're going to eat their own food, they're going to grow strong, they're going to learn to walk, they're going to become an adult. That's your desire for your child. It's the same in the spiritual realm. Paul says the journey that the church is on is a journey towards maturity. Maturity. It's so important that we are on that journey. Are you on that journey this morning? I'm not talking about are you a churchgoer? I'm not talking about how you're trusting God for your breakthrough. But right now what I'm asking you is, are you on the journey towards maturity? And then finally he says, to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In other words, you know, when I look around at some of you with your young boys or your young girls, I look at your young boy and I look at you and I'll say, goodness, this young boy is going to be tall like you, isn't he? Yeah, he's going to look just like you. He's going to be tall like you. One day he will measure up to the stature of you. In fact, he's definitely going to be taller than you. Because as we get older, we shrink, don't we? So one day he will measure up to the full stature of your manhood or your womanhood. And that stature is because he carries your DNA. Well, we are supposed to carry the DNA of Christ. And we are on a journey that we might grow to the full stature of Christ. That's the purpose of the church. That's the journey that the church is on. That's the destination of the people of God, the church. Now, it doesn't mean that we don't have good things along the way. Jesus did all those amazing things. He cared for their joy. I think Jesus just looked around sometimes and he was so broken. In fact, it says he looked around and he saw they were like sheep without a shepherd. His heart went out to them. At Lazarus grave, he was so moved by the death of Lazarus that he wept. The only time, it says in the Bible, Jesus wept. I'm rather the Shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept and he raised Lazarus. He cares for our joy in the moment, but he also has a bigger picture and a destination. Do you know that he has a bigger picture? If you are parents, you know what the bigger picture is. You know, some of you have had parties for your children here. They're turning two, they're turning three, they're whatever. You bring a cake, you have a party, you celebrate, you give them their cake. There's times when you buy them a toy or a gift or you give them something nice and they enjoy it in the moment. But one thing you don't do is feed them chocolate every day. One thing you don't do is give them whatever they want every day. Why? Because you don't care for their joy? Because you hate them? No, because you understand you have a bigger picture. And that bigger picture is healthy. That bigger picture is growth. That picture is longevity. That picture is going to school, that picture is going to university. And by the way, you know, they won't always appreciate it, right? When I first went to school, my mom had me in one hand and my sister was in a buggy. And so as she pushed me towards the school, and this was because I'm very old, this was before the days of these. You've got all these amazing buggies now that float on air and do all sorts of things. But this was. These things, they weighed as much as a car in those days. They were heavy things to push along. And so she pushed her along. My sister in the. I think it was a pram, actually pushed my sister along in the pram to the school gates. And I was watching very carefully and I saw my opportunity and I legged it. And so I ran. I'm like, school's not for me. School is not for me. I think I'd already done one or two days in school before that, and I'd come up with my assessment of school and I'd given it one star. I was done. And so as soon as I got there, I ran. They won't appreciate him, but you do, because you have the bigger picture. You understand that even though given the choice between sweetie and vegetable, your child will always, almost 100% of the time, choose sweetie. If you let them, you don't hate them, you have a bigger picture. And sometimes I think, as we are spiritual babies and we lack the discernment and the ability to see the bigger picture, what is becoming like Jesus going to do for me? What is it going to do except take me to a cross? What Is it going to do except have people reject me? What's in it for me? But we understand that there is greater joy. And you understand for your child that there is greater joy to come. You understand that if they will learn delayed gratification, if they will learn that one day there is something bigger, something better, they will learn to appreciate that. Sometimes you will bless them in the now, but you will always have the bigger picture in mind. God always has the bigger picture in mind. And it is that as part of the church, we are going somewhere. And look at what he says. He says until we all reach. Do you see that? Until we all. In other words, we have not reached our destination. Until we are all there. There's no choice. If you're in the church, truly in the church, then you have to be on this day. You cannot get on this plane, and the person sitting next to you ends up in Singapore and you end up in New York. It can't happen if you're on the same bus, the same plane, the same whatever, you are going to reach the same destination. So if your destination is somewhere else, you're on the wrong bus. You can be in the church, but not in the church. You're on the wrong bus. Or rather, you can be in the church building, but not in the church. And so Paul tells us there is this destination. So what is the purpose of the church? It's a place of joy. Yes. It's often a place of blessing. It's often a place of healing. It's often a place of fun. It's often a place of high emotions and friendship and so many other things. Things. But at the end of the day, the purpose of the church is to take us all together to one place. And that one place is for us to be to the stature of Christ, the maturity of a spiritual Christian. Walking the walk, talking the talk, living the life and giving a demonstration of what the kingdom of God is like. So the heavenly powers will see and hang their heads in shame and so the world will see and come to hear Jesus when we're not mature. That doesn't happen. You see, it says we all. Why we all? Because it's not enough for me to be spiritually mature. Because if I'm spiritually mature, when I go out there and I speak to somebody and I'm trying to tell them about Jesus and I'm saying, you need Jesus. Come to Jesus. Come to Jesus. Get saved. Start a new life. I'm telling them, and they're telling me about all the people that they have met who claim to be Christians, who are spiritual babies even though they've been in the church for 25 years and they are giving them an example that is making them reject the gospel. The church can only be fully functional when every member is growing and maturing and becoming more like Jesus. It cannot be that they look at the church like a good luck charm. We used to sing a song, it used to go like this. You'll be blessed because you came. You're not just blessed because you crossed the threshold of the church, the church building, but because you are in the body of Christ and you are maturing and growing and becoming like Jesus. There is a destination, Paul says, for the church. Are we growing? And if we're growing, how can we know that we're growing? Someone might ask the question, how do I know that I'm growing spiritually? How do I know that I'm growing spiritually? Well, if you're asking the question, then it's probably the case that you're a little concerned about it yourself. If someone is asking the question, am I growing spiritually? It's probably the case that you're a little concerned about it yourself. So how can we know if we are growing spiritually? Well, Paul gives the answer here to that as well. He says, until verse 13. Still he says, until we all reach unity in the faith, in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ, coming up to his stature and his measure. And so one way that you can know if you are maturing spiritually is to begin. And if you're maturing spiritually, you're doing this anyway, by the way. But to begin to look at Jesus, because he is the measure. He is the measure. When you've seen Jesus, you've seen God himself, but also when you've seen Jesus, because the Bible tells us that he is the second Adam. You have seen a true man as God intended. You have seen the template. You have seen the example. Why do I say, don't we know that already? Well, here's the thing that I've seen. Many of us, when we want to know where we are, we look at our neighbor. Is that not true? We look at our neighbor. We don't look at our super spiritual neighbor who's raising the dead. We don't do that. We look at that one who's not doing so well and we say, well, at least I'm here and we feel better about ourselves, right? So most of us are measuring ourselves against Other people. And the problem with measuring yourself against other people is all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Oh, when I used to, back in the 90s, we didn't have Spotify, we didn't have Apple Music, we didn't even have CDs back then. What we had was cassette tapes. Actually, it was even earlier than that. It was early 80s. And so we used to make mixtapes and we used to tune in. Capital FM was the one we used to listen to back in those days in London. And we put the tape in and you'd have to wait and press record just as the DJ finished talking. And then you had to try and stop record before he came in at the end. And that's how you made a mixtape. But we swapped those mixtapes. You swap them around and you'd make a copy. And sometimes you get to the place where you make a copy of a copy of a copy and it doesn't sound so good because with every copy it just degrades, it just gets worse. It's the same if you start looking to other people as your template. The only time you can look to other people as your template is not to see the bad in them so you look good, but to see the Jesus in them so you can learn. That's the only way. If you look at someone who's doing worse than you, don't tell yourself, wow, I'm doing so much better. No, look at them and say, what are they doing? What is Jesus doing in them that I can learn from? Because you might feel you're doing better, but maybe Jesus is doing something in them that you can learn from, but Jesus is the measure. And where do we find Jesus? We find Jesus in the word of God. Learn something new about Jesus every day and then say, God, search my heart, search my heart, search my heart. That's what David said. Search my heart, search my heart. As I look unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of my faith, it says in Hebrews that he is the exact imprint of God's nature. You look at him and you see not just the nature of God, you see there's this. Jesus is perfectly God and perfectly man. And so we get this. We can see God, but we can also see the man as God intended man to be. He is our template. So we look at him and we say, God, search my heart, search my heart. Help me to see in Jesus as I read about him, as I study him. That's how we can know. And we can measure our progress by keeping Track of where we were and where we are now. Maybe you'll see about the generosity of Jesus or the love of Jesus, or the boldness of Jesus or whatever it is that you see in Jesus. His willingness to sacrifice his love for others, his willingness to proclaim the gospel in the face of persecution. Whatever it is you see, you can look back and you can ask, do I see growth? Am I growing? Is Jesus becoming more and more evident in my life? That's one way that we can measure our growth. We can also measure our growth against some of the things that we have already said. We can ask ourselves, am I on the bus? Am I on this journey? Did I sign up for the right destination? Did I buy the right ticket? Because, you see, everyone's selling a ticket on the Jesus bus nowadays. Do you know that? You know everyone's selling a ticket on the Jesus bus. And all their tickets, look, some of their tickets are fake. And where their tickets are taking you is hot weather, Trust me. And not the kind of hot weather you want to see. Everyone's selling a ticket. Are you on the right bus? And the only way you're on the right bus is if you know the destination. Because you can speak to the driver. You can take a good look at it and say, are we really going in the direction we're supposed to be going? Have you ever got on a taxi somewhere? And you get on the taxi and the taxi takes you somewhere and you're, hang on, this is not the way. And you start to get worried. I've had some friends. You land in South Africa. If that happens to you in South Africa, time to worry now, right? Hang on, this is not the road. But you see, if you are spiritually ignorant, if you are not really growing in maturity and in the knowledge of the Son of God. In other words, if you haven't read the map, you might not know that the bus you're on is the wrong bus. Check whether you're on the journey. We've given you the destination. The destination is not everything you ever dreamed of. You know what they say about the Pharisees? It says that the Pharisees, I'm paraphrasing what the New Testament said, but it said that the Pharisees were people who judged their spirituality by their wealth, by how blessed they appeared to be. Jesus was despised and rejected by those same health, wealth and prosperity preachers of the first century. Rejected by them, despised and rejected, looked down upon, ultimately crucified because he didn't fit their picture. Paul was rejected by the Corinthians because he didn't fit their picture. Know what the real destination is. It doesn't mean God can't bless you on the way. It doesn't mean you can't have days of joy and days of blessing. If you don't have any days of joy and any days of blessing, then we need to ask what's going on. Because Jesus loves you more than that. But don't think that's the destination. That's not the destination. The destination is that you become mature in Christ. Are you willing to become mature in Christ? Because it's a decision some will refuse to mature in Christ. Always want to be dependent. Always want to just have somebody solve their problems instead of having a direct relationship with God themselves. Now, if you come and you say, pastor, pray for me, I'm going to pray for you. If you say, pastor, I'm going through this. I want you to pray with me 100%. I'm going to pray with you. You should ask, we want to pray with you. We should all be praying with each other, right? But if that's your only support, if that's your only connection, if you are not learning more and more to depend directly on God and get into your prayer closet and say, God, I bring this before you. That's the aim. It's maturity in Christ. If you're just complaining all the time about the workplace, about how people are treating you and this and that and the other. No, we need to mature up in Christ. Who said, love your enemies. Christ, who endured the cross for the joy that was set before him. The aim of God is that you mature up and you grow. Not because he doesn't care about your joy now, but because he's also got a bigger picture for your life. And if we can't see the vision of eternity, of maturity, imagine when everyone around you is like Jesus. Imagine that. That boss, that boss, or that frenemy from work or whoever it is all know what a frenemy is. That person that just bugs you. And one second after Jesus returns, you turn around and you're saying, is this the same guy? I'm just seeing Jesus all over this guy, and I just want to be around him. Oh, and you're great as well. You're like Jesus. I want to know you too, where you just want everyone to be your best friend because they're all like Jesus. He's wanting to bring us to that place where we're all like Jesus. Are you willing to sacrifice a few sweeties for some spiritual vegetables? Are you willing to exchange smooth roads for a few potholes and bumps? Are you willing to let Jesus do what he needs to do to form your spiritual character, to make you ready for eternity? If you are, stand up on your feet. I'm going to pray for you. Hallelujah. Father, we thank you, God, you are so good. And you love us too much just to give us spiritual sugar every single day and every single time. Father, you love us so much that you want us to mature, you want us to grow, you want us to become more like Jesus. Because you know, whatever you give to us right now, however much happiness it gives us, however much joy it gives us, whatever you give to us right now cannot even compare to the joy of the things of eternity. And so, Father, I pray that each one of us will get a hold of this journey that we're on, where there are many blessings, but there are also a few bumps in the road, a free trial, some challenges, all the things that God is doing, not because he doesn't love us, but because he's forming us and preparing us, as Paul puts it, for a greater weight of glory. He said, the trials I'm going through now compare do not compare to the weight of glory that is going to be upon me in eternity. Oh, Father, we want to know that weight of glory. We want to know what it is to be overwhelmed by the presence of God and the power of God, to be filled with joy. That as the song says, even in chaos to find joy, even in chaos, to find hope, even in the middle of despair and challenges, even when we're perplexed because we have seen the destination and it's glorious. Father, we want to be those that go into eternity. We want to be heavenly people who take people with us into heaven. So, Father, in Jesus name help us, we pray, strengthen us, we pray as we go and walk this out. In Jesus mighty name we pray, we believe and we say Amen.