Main Idea || In light of God’s story, we now effort to maintain our unity, contribute our ministry and grow in our maturity. How do churches grow healthy? Lead a life of your calling. Ephesians 4:1 (NLT) 1 Therefore, I beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Keep yourselves . Ephesians 4:3-4 (NLT) 3 Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace. 4 For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. 5 There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all. Contribute your . Ephesians 4:7-12 (NLT) 7 However, he has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. 8 That is why the Scriptures say, “When he ascended to the heights, he led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people. …10 And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. Grow in . Ephesians 4:13-16 (NLT) 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. 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. 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. 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. CONTINUING THE CONVERSATION: 1. In v2, Paul describes a life worthy of our calling as one of humility, gentleness, patience, and lovingkindness. a. Why do you think these attitudes are sometimes hard to maintain within the church, of all places? b. Why might you personally need Paul’s reminder? 2. Jesus’s purpose for gifting some believers to be church leaders is to equip the church members for working, building and maturing. a. How is this purpose different from other purposes of leadership you have encountered outside the church? b. In your opinion, why should leading Jesus’s church be marked by a different kind of leadership? 3. Paul teaches us that the difference between a believer who is like a child (v. 14) and one who is growing up (v. 15) is discernment and Christlikeness. a. Is there anything you’ve found that’s helped you grow in those two areas? 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. 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.