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This is The Oaks Equipped, a podcast from The Oaks Church in Liberty Hill, TX where Pastor Josh Mings talks through the stuff he didn’t have time to say on Sunday, answers the questions people are actually asking, and keeps things way more real than polished. Expect biblical truth, practical takeaways, and just enough humor to keep you guessing whether he meant it.
If you want to follow Jesus with clarity (and laugh at least once), you’re in the right place.
Welcome to The Oaks Equipped, a podcast designed to help you grow deeper in your faith. Each week we unpack sermon insights, explore what didn't fit on Sunday, and answer real questions, even the skeptical ones. Let's get equipped.
Speaker 2:Okay. This week, Josh, we started you started yours you're teaching your sermon with a little bit of history from the Mings family, going back to family rules and an incident where maybe those rules were not followed, but there was some blame assigned to another sibling. Maybe you wanna cover that one a little bit to kinda set up the whole idea of house rules.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Everybody has house rules. In my home, we have a set of rules. You don't do this. You don't do that.
Speaker 3:And that's very normal. Now the alleged story in question is yes. When I was a child, there was a house rule that we didn't throw balls in the house. And, you know, I I'm guilty of doing that. But the idea of house rules is a normal thing, and I think what the scriptures are leading us to show is that even God's house has a set of rules.
Speaker 3:And Ephesians four, as the kind of the feel and theme of the book, it begins to show us those house rules as theology in chapters one, two, and three are shown to us. Chapters four, five, and six show us then how we apply those rules, and the book gets extremely practical. And so just as your house and my house has rules, God's house has rules. And first and foremost, at least in the mind of Paul in the book of Ephesians, unity of the church is paramount and it's a house rule.
Speaker 2:Yes. So when we start off chapter four, we have the word therefore in there. Right? As a reader and I see the word therefore, like in Romans 12 and Ephesians four. As a reader, what should I how should I pause and really look at that as a transition?
Speaker 2:Like, mentioned from the first three chapters now to the last three chapters in Ephesians.
Speaker 3:I remember my old hermeneutics or bible study professor saying, anytime you see a therefore, ask what it's there for. Yep. So so it's a good it's a good indicator. Okay. I need to understand that there was something beforehand that's been communicated.
Speaker 3:And now it's leading me to a rational landing spot. And so to that point, Ephesians one, chapter one, chapter two, chapter three are a clear picture of theology. And so as we start chapter four, the therefore is answering the question, okay, what do I do in light of this great theology that was shown to me in chapters one, two, and three? And that's what that's why we call them house rules. Now we live out the application of that.
Speaker 3:So chapters one, two, and three, clear picture of what the gospel is salvation by faith alone through Christ alone. We're not able to brag or boast about this because it's God's work. Chapter four is, okay, what do I do now in light of that reality that I am saved because of Christ alone? And and the first thing is unity.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Which is probably, if you're gonna start off somewhere, probably one of the hardest places start with. Right? We talk about unity in The United States or even in our in our culture. We have a lot of disunity, and church is no different.
Speaker 2:It's hard to be united. It's hard to stay on the same page. You you've made that emphasis early on that we need to keep on mission. We need to stay focused on what we're here to do, but stay unified in that process. Yes.
Speaker 3:Being unified doesn't mean uniformity. I think that that's we need to become uncomfortable a little bit because every everything is like trying to be orderly and unified, and and those are good causes. But what this what Paul is not getting at is a form of uniformity to the sense that we all have to talk and think. And what I hope I accomplished in that message was to convey that we can celebrate the differences in the church as long as as long as everyone is unified under the clear theology in chapters one, two, and three, that there's different expressions of of the church. There's different priorities in the church.
Speaker 3:There's there's different things that the Oaks can do that like our our brothers in Christ at The Grove, they're doing a little bit different. And we can be unified in that without being uniformed and doing everything exactly the same way. And so we don't wanna throw stones at our brothers and sisters who do things a little bit differently than we do.
Speaker 2:We're doing a little different, but ultimately, the church should be walking in the same direction.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:You said focus on unity as believers. Can you recap how that unity comes about? You mentioned one gospel, one baptism, one truth.
Speaker 3:Yeah so what I love what Paul does is he starts with the triune god there is no disunity in god the father the son are all locked into the same mission and agenda and then out of that flows you know one gospel one baptism we see we see how what God does in the world is is collectively unified and then there's this one part of the church in his in his world where there's the possibility that we won't be unified. So I think it's cool how Paul appeals to the harmony and unity that exists within God himself and how that then flows out to the gospel, baptism, theology, all these things that you there's no debate in heaven about modes of baptism, there's no debate in heaven about the things that we all squabble about. And so Paul is appealing to that. Let's the church get in line with what God is already doing and be unified just as he is in the world. And and I mean, we all see it.
Speaker 3:You you rightfully pointed out the level of division that exists politically and all these other things. The church is also divided in so many ways and squabbling and fighting and and and and hurting the mission of the church because we're not unified and we need to come together under just like the spirit is unified with the father and the son, we need to do the same thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And that unity of spirit where we see the gospel being presented to us, the spirit transforms our hearts. He helps us identify with Christ through baptism and through the scriptures. He's written the scriptures, and he reveals that scripture to us. That should transform the way we live our lives, like you're talking about through Ephesians four, five, and six.
Speaker 2:When we when we think about that, the spirit is trying to bring us closer to Christ, to to the image of Christ, and to love Christ, and to Yeah. Find him lovely and and and all that, if you will. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. The the hope of this is, you know, in our own relationships as we get closer together, as we build harmony, you know, there there is an affection that's grown. And so the more unified we are with the body of Christ, with each other, in part, the more unified we become with our god. I'll use a just thinking this through recently, my grandfather passed away. And I was I was just in that grieving process.
Speaker 3:I was trying to think through, oh, man. I I I don't have my grandfather anymore. But then, you know, the the word that I gave and the the eulogy that I gave for him at the funeral, I conveyed this truth. My grandfather put his faith in Christ. I've put my faith in Christ.
Speaker 3:And so as much as I'm connected to Christ, I'm connected to my grandfather. So in the same way as the unity of the church exists and we remain connected to each other, we serve each other, we love each other, we are in a roundabout way remaining connected to Christ. As we grow in love with each other, we're growing in love with Christ. And so that brings this whole unity in the same way that you and I are connected as brothers in Christ and we love and we serve each other, we're we're all growing closer to Christ in in the same way. So it's a it's a really beautiful picture that that Paul is calling us to as as the first house rule.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Very beautiful picture, but sometimes church community can be like living with the family on a vacation in a in a very small hotel room. Right? It could be kinda tight. We get a little bit annoyed with one another.
Speaker 2:But you had some suggestions, really, just focusing on character, what the spirit can do through us, humility, patience, and gentleness. Can you expand a little bit on that? And how do we how do we apply those? How do we live those things out so that we can maintain the unity and not get frustrated with one another and say, well, they're not up to speed or whatever.
Speaker 3:Yes. That's a perfect illustration. A bunch of family crammed into either a car or hotel room on vacation. Things can go wrong.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah. Takes about, what, four days? And you're ready to go home.
Speaker 3:In humility and patience these are not virtues that are usually celebrated in our culture but they are they are the virtues that are celebrated in the kingdom of god and so how do you take you know humility is the antithesis of pride, you know, how do we grow in these things? It's it's a really hard thing to do because, you know, bragging about how humble I am is never effective or a true virtue.
Speaker 2:Or your good looks.
Speaker 3:Yes. Exactly. Exactly. So so to grow in these things, I think we need to understand what they are first. Humility is not thinking less of ourselves, but it's thinking of ourselves less.
Speaker 3:Humility, what I always say is a is a true strength. It's an others focused confidence. So if you truly understand Ephesians one, two, and three, that this is God's work and not ours, it should lead you to be very humble.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I can be humble and lose because I've already won in Christ. And so I don't think humility is achieved by making the the intentional mindset of, okay. Well, I'm just gonna think of others first. I think humility is achieved by rightly understanding what we deserve and what we've received and then living out of that. And, you know, a humble person I read this a humble person is like a deep river.
Speaker 3:They're quiet on the surface but powerful. So humility is not a weakness. In our culture it's viewed as a weakness. But Christ was first and foremost the most humble and no one no one in their right mind would call him weak. He he was he was like that analogy.
Speaker 3:He was a deep river, quiet on the surface but powerful underneath. Then gentleness is is what the scripture commands us to be. That's strength under control. Gentleness isn't weakness. It's it's power harnessed by love.
Speaker 3:And so think about the times that you're the most frustrated or something has been done to you. To respond with gentleness is actually harnessing that power and control and directing it towards love. And then patience, which is the hardest probably for me in all of these. It's giving grace the same way that God has given it to you. So from a practical standpoint, the more we can continue to remind ourselves that we are a work in progress, that God is being patient with, and then we can be a recipient am I saying that right?
Speaker 3:We could facilitate and reciprocate that back to others. We're gonna the more we're in relationship with each other, the more offense, the more we're gonna let each other down, and the more we're patient with each other, we're then reflecting the very patience that God has given to us because we are all working progresses.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's a good picture. We just gotta, like you said, hold up the mirror before we start looking at through the binoculars.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's good. One last this is a bit maybe a little bit more of a challenging question. We wanna hold up unity, but at the same time, we wanna make sure we hold each other accountable be walking in the faith.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:Paul says in the beginning of that passage, you know, be sure to be worthy of your calling. When we see brothers and sisters that are not walking worthy of their calling, And we have to be careful not to become legalists in this, but how do we how do we hold people accountable yet maintain unity? Because sometimes if you point something out, that may create disunity.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. For the sake of unity, we will divide. And I think the Bible actually gives us the the best example of this. Look at look at how Paul and Barnabas divided regarding John Mark. So they they disagreed on certain things.
Speaker 3:Now in this case, I don't think that it was necessarily a theological. There wasn't, like, a compromise in what the true gospel is, but they for the sake of unity, they disagreed, they they went different ways. So so I think that that's always a reasonable action. Now, John Mark, you know, he still made the team. He wrote he got a book in the Bible.
Speaker 3:So he's he's a good example. But for the sake of unity, when it comes to a perversion of the gospel, we will divide and we will fight and we will stand because the New Testament Jesus explicitly and also the apostles they tell us that there will be wolves that rise up and they will come and they will teach false things which will cause disunity And for the sake of unity, we will we will call those out. But we'll do it in the spirit of what we've been talking about, which is, humility, gentleness, and patience. So the way I'd like to say this is when error comes, humility says, I'm not above you, so I'm going to I'm gonna humbly call this sin or this error out. Gentleness says, I won't crush you in doing that.
Speaker 3:And then patience says, I will walk alongside you. Now, you don't always have the opportunity to get to all three levels of this. Right. But the book of Galatians gives us a clear warning that when we correct, we need to do it in the right spirit. So so often so many people are right in their correction, but wrong in the way that they do it.
Speaker 3:And so Galatians Paul tells us in the book of Galatians to watch close watch of ourselves as we do this so that we too don't sin. And so how often has disunity happened because a sin brought about a correction that was done in a sinful way, and then that brought about another sin. Yeah. It just continues to multiply in a in a in a way. So we have to do correction for the sake of unity must be done with humility, gentleness, and patience.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And maybe another way to look at it too is or another way to prepare for this is part of the DMG, the the whole discipleship process. That's a great opportunity where you see a weaker brother or sister
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:To invite them into Yes. One of those groups and allow them to grow with you and be able to teach and disciple along the way.
Speaker 3:That was a perfect that was a perfect commercial. Yes. That's that is the point. Yeah. Because because humility says I'm not above you, gentleness says that I won't crush you, and patience says I'll walk with you.
Speaker 3:Everyone is at a different place in their spiritual development and journey and it requires all of us for the sake of unity to come together and help our brothers and sisters grow into what Christ is calling us to.
Speaker 2:Okay. In our Be Ready segment, we had Reformation Day and Halloween this past weekend.
Speaker 3:Happy Reformation Day.
Speaker 2:Yes. And I know that you and Abby and and family went about, did a reverse Halloween day. You can tell us about that. But we also have other holidays coming up, Thanksgiving, where it's a great opportunity to invite people to to join us, and Christmas. What are some things we should be thinking about in terms of being missional, taking advantage of these holidays, and even even holidays that we don't celebrate, like Ramadan and other religions?
Speaker 2:How can we make the most of these opportunities?
Speaker 3:Well, I'll share this story in hopes that it maybe leads to some inspiration. I'm not making a law or a rule. This is just my personal conviction. We don't we don't really celebrate Halloween, so you're not gonna see me dressed up as anything, you know, so sorry to let you down. But we recognize because we have been called to be a light in a dark place that the entire the entire group of people that I'm called to love show up at my door one night, and so we wanted to receive them.
Speaker 3:So this was actually Abby's idea so give her full credit and it was genius. We she she invented this or don't know she invented it but she came up with this idea to reverse trick or treat. So she made a list of all the people. I believe it was 12 to 15 houses down each street. Nice.
Speaker 3:And she made a little basket, little bag that had goodies and a note and just said, hey. We're the Mings. We're your neighbor. We'd love to get to know you. So we went to each one of those doors and you you ring the doorbell, they open it and you're supposed to say trick or treat.
Speaker 3:But what we said is we have a treat for you. Okay. And so we gave that to him. It led to wonderful conversations and our hope is, is that it's just a little it's a little something where a relationship can be built. Right.
Speaker 3:So, you know, we we now know their names. We've add them to our blessed list. We're praying, asking God that this will turn into something meaningful.
Speaker 2:Did you get a response you weren't expected through all that?
Speaker 3:Most of yes. All of them were positive, number And and it was just a friendly gesture. Mhmm. In hopes in hopes that look. We didn't we didn't lay the plan of salvation out day one.
Speaker 3:Right. Right. It was, we're just normal people who wanna be friendly. And what we found to be true is even those who are a different culture than us were so receptive and warm. It was a huge success.
Speaker 3:Now that's not our whole neighborhood. So what we did is we set up a little table and set in our driveway.
Speaker 2:That's
Speaker 3:right. And we made ourselves available to the kids that were coming. And, you know we put out a few things that made it clear that we are followers of Christ and you know we'll see what happens. But the point in the spirit of this idea to answer your question is when these holidays come there is there is a goodwill and an openness that people have that just a normal day of the week would not present. So with Thanksgiving coming, ways to express your gratitude and thankfulness for your neighbors and it's just people are more receptive.
Speaker 3:So the principle here is to be intentional and to do what's natural to you and can really just be a blessing to those around you. So take every opportunity to shine your light and to show that Christ is your treasure and then just trust the Lord with it.
Speaker 2:And may I start with a question? What do you do to celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And a lot of times you get back a response. It's very interesting. Right? Yeah. Very insightful, and sometimes it it explains some hurt or sometimes some joy of family traditions, right?
Speaker 3:So
Speaker 2:it again gives you an opportunity to get to know the people you're trying to reach.
Speaker 3:It's amazing how just being a decent human being usually opens doors.
Speaker 2:It does. It does. Well, that's a wrap. Anything you wanna give us a quick update on for events or things that we should be thinking about in the upcoming weeks?
Speaker 3:Yes. Speaking of Christmas, we're excited. Advent is in front of us, and so we will be pausing the book of Ephesians once we get to the December and we will we will have some really insightful and helpful practical messages that really turn our hearts toward the idea that God came to be with us.
Speaker 2:Fantastic. Alright. Thank you, Josh.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Thanks for listening to The Oaks Equipped. If you want to learn more about following Jesus or get connected here at The Oaks Church, we'd love to hear from you. You can visit us online at exploretheoaks.org or email us anytime at hello@exploretheoaks.org. Stay rooted and stay encouraged. Until next time.