R U Connected? • Nearly everyone here understands what it means to

connect to the internet. • Once you get online you can:

– Visit a chat room– Send & receive e-mail– Use a browser

• The internet has created an information revolution.• It can only be compared to the invention of

Gutenberg printing press in the 1400’s.

• The Internet Age has also created a whole group of new words never heard of just 20 years ago.

• Recently I found a list of the Top 10 Sayings for the Internet Age:

10. A journey of a 1000 sites begins with a single click.9. Don’t byte off more than you can view.8. Home is where you hang your @.7. Speak softly and carry a cellular phone.6. The geek shall inherit the earth.

5. There’s no place like www.home.com. 4. Too many clicks spoil the browse.3. What boots up must come down.2. You can’t teach a new mouse old clicks.1. Give a man a fish & you feed him for a day; teach

him to use the Net & he won’t bother you for weeks.

• The point is that we all have a need to connect somewhere.

• Last week we began by asking the questions:– R U Mature?– Are you adding years to your life?– Are you adding life to your years?

• This morning I want to continue with the question:– R U Connected?

• Reason: Your maturity is tied to your connection.• Finding your place in the Body of Christ and

plugging into it is key to your personal maturity.

Ephesians 4:11 – Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. • Paul begins to label some of the body parts:

– Apostle – Prophet – Evangelist – Pastor – Teacher

• This is what we call the 5-fold ministry gifts. • Then he tells us what their responsibility is:

12 Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ. • They are to equip the people of God to do the work

of the ministry. • Equip = resetting a broken bone• My job is help you find the place you were created

to fit into. • Many are like a broken bone that needs to be set in

order to start functioning properly.

13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. • Mature is the key word in this passage. • The equipping process will continue until we are all

mature and no longer childish. • Our goal is to become productive adults spiritually.

14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won't be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.• Then, Paul begins to give signs of spiritual maturity:1. Emotional Security (last week)• Paul uses the analogy of a wave to describe

emotional insecurity or immaturity. • In contrast, mature believers are stable and secure

emotionally.

• They are not tossed back and forth like a wave at sea.

• Their faith in Jesus is rock solid. • When bad news comes, they are secure because

their life is anchored in the unshakable—Jesus!• Then, he gives us another sign of spiritual maturity:15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of His body, the church.

2. Loving Speech• A mature believer speaks the truth in love. • Have you ever heard someone say something like, I

know this will hurt but . . .? • There are a lot of people who are long on truth but

short on love. • 3 words:

– brutality – hypocrisy – maturity

Brutality is speaking the truth without love. • Truth without love is brutal. • Children are not only emotionally unstable, but they

are brutal with their words. Have you ever noticed they just speak what they’re thinking? • They don’t care if they hurt your feelings. • If you have a 3 year old in the nursery . . . • They tell everything that happens at home!• That reminds me of the little boy standing in

check out line with his dad . . .

Hypocrisy is love without the truth. • Telling someone that you love them, but you are

not willing to be truthful with them. • Honesty and truth-telling are important

foundational blocks of a good relationship. • You have to be able to trust each other.Maturity is speaking the truth in love and at the right time. • Timing is another important factor in this. • Knowing what to say is usually not the issue. • Knowing when to say it is. • That’s called wisdom, and it comes with maturity.

• There are many adults who say whatever pops in their head.

• It’s never filtered through Christian maturity. • True Christian maturity means you speak the truth,

but it is tempered with love.How do you know the difference? • If you’re saying something to hurt the other person,

then it’s not in love. • Or, if you are saying it to make yourself look better

at their expense, it’s not in love.

• But, if you genuinely care for them and want to help them, that’s speaking the truth in love.

What is your motivation for telling them the bit of information you possess? 3rd Sign of Spiritual Maturity . . . 3. Rightly Connected16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.

4 reasons to be connected to your church:1. There’s Strength in NumbersWhat word do these 3 verses have in common?Matthew 18:20 – For where two or three gather together as My followers, I am there among them.Acts 2:44 – And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.Ephesians 4:16 – He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.• TOGETHER!!!

• Togetherness or fellowship is more than cookies and Kool-Aid the Church Fellowship Hall.

• It’s when followers of Jesus gather together in His name and experience something called koinonia.

• Koinonia = to share a common cause • In the Bible, there is no such thing as a Closet

Christian or a Lone Ranger Believer. • Through Jesus you are already connected to the

other members of the body.

• For someone to try to live a solo Christian life would be as crazy as my hand leaving my body & trying to function by itself.

• Yet many try to do just that. • There is strength in numbers!• Jesus, the Master Teacher, would often use things

from nature to illustrate His point. • He would say:

– Consider the lilies – Look at the grass – Look at the birds of the air

• In our neighborhood there is a pond where a family of 7 geese calls home . . .

Have you ever noticed that geese never fly solo? • They fly in a V-formation. • The V-formation provides extra lift for them. • They’re able to fly 71% further than they can alone. How did they figure that out? Did one goose go to MIT and get a degree in aeronautical engineering? • No, God made them that way! • And, God made us to have relationships

with one another. • He made us to connect.

• You can be more and do more when you join together than you can flying solo.

• Geese fly together because it makes the journey easier and probably much more enjoyable.

• The same is true for us. • Life has its bumps, and we need each other. • We give each other the lift we need to fly further.

2nd reason to connect . . . 2. There’s a place for everyone!16b – As each part does its own special work . . .

• You have a special part in this body. • Until you discover what it is, you will never find true

spiritual fulfillment. • It’s what you were created to do!

• It’s like Ezekiel’s Valley of Dry Bones. • Before him was a valley of dry, dead bones; none

were connected. • The Lord told him to prophesy over the bones. • As he did, they began to connect to one another

until there was a large army of skeletons standing. • Then God put flesh on them and breathed His Spirit

on them, and they came to life! • They were a bunch of dead bones, but with the

Spirit of God, they become a great army.

• This is a lesson for the church too. • You may be an old ankle bone lying there all alone. • God wants to unite you to the leg bone and to the

knee bone and etc. • Then, He will pour His Spirit out on us in a

significant way! • Watch out when that happens! • United, healthy and full of the Spirit!

• Let’s look at the geese again and learn from them. • The lead goose does not get the benefit of the

updraft of the goose in front of it. • Eventually it tires and fades back and a new goose

takes over the lead. • They share the load.• Don’t think for a moment I want to lead all the time. • I get tired flapping my wings!

• That’s why we are a team, and why I am equipping you to do the work of the ministry.

• There’s no way I can be involved in everything that is going on in the church.

• Studies have shown that 20% of the people do 80% of the work in a church.

• And, 20% give 80% of the offerings in a church. Where would you be if only 20% of your body were functioning? • In ICU on life support! • Let’s connect!

3. The Church is a place for EncouragementHebrews 10:25 – Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging and helping each other, not avoiding worshipping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching. (MSG)

• We used to live in OK, and I know what spurs are—an NBA team in San Antonio.

• Actually, cowboys had spurs on their boots to make their horses go faster and to keep going.

• Church is the place to receive an encouraging word to keep going when we feel like giving up.

What about the geese? • If you ever see geese flying overhead in formation,

you will also hear a whole lot of honking going on. • The experts believe the honking is a form of audible

encouragement they give each other. • The Christian walk is a long journey, and it’s hard to

make it without others encouraging us. • It doesn’t matter how fast you start. • It only matters how strong you finish. • We need each other in order to finish strong.• Let’s decide to stop quacking criticism and

to start honking encouragement!

4. Church is a place for Genuine Love• From time to time everyone needs comfort,

compassion and love.• The human body demonstrates this. If you hit your thumb with a hammer, what happens? • The whole body attempts to help it.

– the other hand – the vocal chords– The legs start jumping

• Every part of the body attempts to aid in healing.

• That’s the church when one member is hurting. • All the other members rush to their aid. • That’s the Body of Christ in action.The Geese? • When one goose gets sick or injured and drops out,

2 others go with him. • They stay with him until he can fly again or dies. • Then they join up with a new formation and fly to

their destination. • In the same way, the church is where we are

to bear one another’s burdens and thus fulfill the law of Christ.

ConclusionR U Mature?R U Connected?• It’s time to get plugged in!Did you hear about the business meeting the tools held in the toolbox?

– Mr. Hammer– Mr. Saw– Mr. Plane– Mr. Ruler– Mr. Sandpaper

• When those tools found out what they could become in the hands of the Master Carpenter . . .

• They decided to quit fighting, and just surrender to the use of the Master.

• That’s what you and I need to do. • We need to get plugged in!

Connect Serve Grow