December 10 2025

Please note that because of the winter weather in Roanoke today, the memorial service at Rainbow Forest Baptist Church for Nancy Young has been moved to Tuesday at 1pm.

Wednesday December 10

“To a Perfect Man”

Ephesians 4:11-16

11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ-- 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

First, I want to thank so many of you for your prayers as we traveled up to Roanoke this past couple days. God gave us traveling mercy through the bad winter weather. We also had a wonderful service for our dear friend Nancy Young as we celebrated her life. It was a very interesting and encouraging service to hear the stories of Nancy’s life especially as she surrendered her will to the Lord and experienced God working in her and through her. In my message, I used this passage in Ephesians chapter 4, to talk about how Nancy was a mature, “perfect” person in Christ, willing to do the will of God. If you would have been there and heard her entire testimony, it would inspire you to listen even more carefully to this passage of Scripture that we are looking at here in Ephesians 4:11-16.

But first before I get into these verses, let me just mention that I'll be going to India from January the 15th through the 25^th 2026, with a team from Global Partners in Peace and Development. First, I'm asking for your prayers for our team and myself as we go on this trip to India. We're going to be able to do so many different things such as meet and speak to pastors, participate in dedicating a number of freshwater wells, and distribute gifts given through the GPPD gift catalog to the widows and Indian children. Also we'll be providing animals for different folks to help provide food for them. We will be able to impact and bless many precious Indian people and influence them for Christ. So please pray, pray, for safety and strength for this trip.

Also secondly, if you would like to financially help me cover the expenses for the trip and with taking some gifts and money to give to pastors, simply donate it to “Mission Travel Support” through the PayPal donate button on our website: https://www.pmiministries.org/  Or you can send a gift to the address listed on our website where I have my office. Thank you in advance for your prayers and support. We're so blessed to have friends like you who've supported us over the years and have helped us continue to do this wonderful ministry.

Now, back to Ephesians 4:11-16. I want to share something that I noticed yesterday in my devotional time, that I believe will speak to your heart, too.  Remember the Apostle Paul in this chapter has already talked about the grace of unity, the ground of unity, and the gifts of unity, in verses 1-11. Now he's talking about the growth of unity (vv. 11-16).  When we have true spiritual growth in our personal and individual lives, we will also experience growth in our churches. Paul tells us that the offices and gifts of the apostles, prophets, evangelist, pastors, and the teachers are given to the church for the perfecting of the saint for the saint to grow to spiritual maturity. He describes this as, “To a perfect man”, (or “woman”).

Yesterday in my devotion time, while reading a devotion by Oswald Chambers, he spoke of what it means to “be perfect”.  Thinking about it, I remembered back in Matthew 5:48, Jesus had said in His Sermon on the Mount, "Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." Then in Matthew 19, a rich young ruler came to Jesus asking, "What can I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered and told him, "If you would be perfect…." Now, what does it mean to be perfect?

Oswald Chambers tells us, "Beware of mental quibbling over the word ‘perfect’. Perfection does not mean the full maturity and consummation of a man's power. But perfect fitness for doing the will of God (Philippians 3:12-15). Supposing Jesus Christ can perfectly adjust me to God, to put me so perfectly right that I shall be on the footing where I can do the will of God, do I really want Him to do it? Do I want God at all cost to make me perfect?” (From his book, “It Thou Wilt be Perfect”, page 116)

The question for you and me today is, do I really want to be the person that's spiritually mature to the place where I will be willing to yield my life so fully to God so that I’m always “about my Father’s business”. Am I doing the will of God right now? The first characteristic of spiritual maturity is “Christlikeness”.

God bless!