Which workman are you? What "job description" did God give you when He invited you to come to the construction site of His church?

1. v.6 if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith;
2. v.7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering;
3. he who teaches, in teaching;
4. v.8 he who exhorts, in exhortation;
5. he who gives, with liberality;
6. he who leads, with diligence;
7. he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

These are the tools that we use to mend and build up, to equip and edify. This equipping (mending lives) and edifying (building up lives) is all part of fulfilling our calling in the Great Commission. Christ's final words to us after His earthly ministry were that we invest our lives "making disciples". The seven types of gifted people within the church deal with this entire process of discipleship as they mend and build up each other.

A discipling mender first helps a fellow believer get back in step with the Lord with a clean heart and a clear mind so that worship will flow. Then that discipling edifier will help them see how to be built up into a fully functioning worshiper of God.

If you look closely at the list of gifts and their application, there is so much more than just the content of true doctrine and salvation that must be carefully watched over in the church.
• First, two gifts focus on the ministry of true doctrine (#1 "prophecy" & 3 "teaches");
• Then three gifts focus on meeting physical needs (# 2 "ministry",5 "gives", & 6 "leads").
• Finally, there are two gifts that God uses to minister to the emotional needs of a believer (#4 "exhorts" & 7 "mercy").

God has deployed us as skilled workers. Some of us are going all over this house of worship with the gifts that lead to training and teaching everyone in the Word of God's Truth. Others are going about ministering to physical needs, and still others are gifted to work with the emotional needs of believers. All of us have needs and all of us are to minister our gifts.

Now back to Ephesians 4 where we launched last week into this look at edification.

Let's get a hold on these twin truths of Ephesians 4:12.Remember the words God chose to use to describe our purpose? All of us have a two part calling directly from the Lord Himself. What a thrill it is to know what we were created to do for God-and to do it!

Ephesians 4:12 "...for the equipping (Gk. # 2677, n. from v. #2675 lit. "mending"; KJV 'perfecting') of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying (lit. "building up") of the body of Christ..." NKJV