How to Change the World #1 - Part One (Dr. Kurt Bjorklund)

In "How to Change the World," Dr. Kurt Bjorklund explores Ephesians 4:13-16 to reveal God's transformative plan: changed hearts lead to changed lives, and changed lives change the world. Discover how individual alignment with Christ and corporate engagement through the church create lasting impact in our communities and beyond.

Message Summary & Transcript - https://www.orchardhillchurch.com/blog-post/2025/11/17/how-to-change-the-world-1-part-one

Subscribe to Orchard Hill Plus! - https://orchardhillplus.buzzsprout.com/share

Connect with Orchard Hill Church
Website | https://www.orchardhillchurch.com
Mobile App | https://https://www.orchardhillchurch.com/app
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/channel/OrchardHillChurchPA
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/orchardhillchurch/
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/orchardhillchurch/
Twitter | https://twitter.com/orchard_hill

Transcript

Let's pray together. God, as we're gathered this week, we ask that you would speak into each of our hearts, and that my words would reflect your word in content and in tone and in emphasis. And we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.

Let me ask you a question: Do you think that the world that we live in is getting better or is it getting worse?

What's your answer to that? My guess is that there are different answers, but more of us probably trend on the "worse" side in terms of how we answer that. Certainly there are things that we can look at and say, these are improvements in our world. There's actually less hunger in the world than there used to be. There's better education. There are some economic improvements that you can see. But many of us would say, but in spite of all that, what I feel, what I sense is that the world is getting worse.

If you just think about the last year, there have been some pretty traumatic events. You had that flood, flash flood in Texas last summer, where the girls' camp that was set on the banks of the river at Camp Mystic overflowed its banks and many of them died. And to kind of complicate the story, the director of the camp who was there rushed into the waters to try to save some of the girls, and now his family is being sued because some of the families whose kids died said, "You didn't do enough." And so now you have double tragedy in terms of people who've died. And however you land on the litigation of that, it's just a tragedy that you say, this is not how the world should be that we live in.

And certainly if you look at events in the Middle East, even after a peace deal was announced, Hamas goes out the next week, the next day, and starts executing people. And you say, I thought we just took a step toward peace. And then there's this horrific violence. Or if you think about what's taking place in the Russia-Ukraine war, it doesn't seem any closer to resolving itself.

And certainly in our political environment, people who are on the more progressive, liberal side think that what's wrong with our nation is MAGA. And people who are on the more conservative side say, if liberals are left to be in charge, we won't have a country soon. And so you get this kind of doomsday feeling—it's getting worse. The divide is getting worse.

You could talk about what's happening in Sudan, where people are being displaced by the millions right now. And then in September, there was an event that kind of shook our nation, where Charlie Kirk was assassinated as he talked about his views, his beliefs, his convictions. And for many, it was just a shocking moment to say, this world that we live in doesn't seem like it's getting better. It seems like things are getting more intense.

Is the World Getting Better or Worse?

And I don't know how you answer the question: Is it getting better or worse? If you answer it purely via observation, where you say, "Well, it feels this way," or "I look at data," or if you answer it more theologically—because there's a theology that says the world is getting better and better because the kingdom of God is expanding and will one day be the reigning dominant influence in our world. And there's others who theologically say, "Well, the kingdom of God is expanding, but there's coming a great period of tribulation and difficulty. And so any gains we make are at best temporary."

And whether you answer this theologically or through observation, here's one thing that I think we could probably agree about, and that is: the world that we live in could be and should be better, and we yearn for the world to be better.

And so it raises the question: What will give us a better world?

What Will Give Us a Better World?

And for some people, the answer has always been along the lines of some kind of a social improvement program. It's, "Well, what if we can improve education? What if we can do better with our economic development? Or is there a political solution?"

And I'm not suggesting that there isn't a political solution or an economic solution or an educational solution. Those are good things. And I think that it's wise to engage in all of those things. But you've probably heard this said, and that is that politics is downstream of culture. And all that means, very simply, is that if we think we can legislate our way to a better world, we're deceiving ourselves. Because if hearts aren't changed, then sooner or later the laws and the policies will follow the hearts of people.

Now, again, that doesn't mean that we don't try to have the best laws possible or the best policies possible. And that's led some people to say, "Well, maybe the answer is individual change, and we just need to try to have better people in the world." And the problem, at least in part with that, is who defines what's better? How do we go about bringing that about?

And certainly in the realm of Christianity and the realm of the church, there's an answer to this question. And the answer is that as God changes hearts, those hearts change lives, and changed lives change the world. And that's what we're going to spend some time looking at in these days.

The Great Commission and God's Kingdom

And here's what we see about the idea of how Christians or how Christianity changes the world. In Matthew 28, which is known as the Great Commission, Jesus commissions his disciples who were standing there with him, but also all of his followers for all time with this simple charge. He says:

"All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I've commanded you. And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age."

And so Jesus says, part of what I want you to do is I want you to make disciples. I want you to try to get as many people as you can to heaven. But that isn't the only thing that Jesus taught.

In the Sermon on the Mount, where he teaches his followers how to pray, in Matthew 6, he says, "This is how you should pray: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy kingdom come." He doesn't just say, "I want you to try to get as many people as you can to heaven," but "I want you to try to bring heaven or the kingdom to bear where you live." That is part of the mission that God has for his church, and it's part of the way that the world will change.

Context from Ephesians

As you heard, we're going to jump into Ephesians 4 for a few weeks here. And it's always dangerous when you jump into the middle of a book and say, "We're just going to take this little section of the Bible," because you're not actually getting the context of what's before and what's after. And so because of that, I want to provide a little context to where we are in Ephesians 4 before we look specifically at a section of Ephesians 4 that I think speaks to this very clearly.

And here's what I want to do: just make a few statements that give us the scope of what's being taught here and then jump specifically into this passage.

1. The Church Is the Custodian of the Gospel

And the first statement is this: The church is the custodian of the gospel.

Now, the word "gospel" is a word that feels churchy, and rightly so, because it's not a word that we use liberally in our culture. But I use the word not because it's churchy, but because it is a biblical word. It's a word that shows up over and over in our Bible. And it simply means good news—the announcement of good news. What the gospel is is not some kind of obscure idea. It's the announcement of victory. It's the announcement of good news.

And so when I say the church is the custodian of the gospel, what I'm referring to is what Ephesians talks about with this idea of how God approaches people. And in approaching people, he announces good news and calls them to himself.

So many times the way that people understand church or understand spirituality is that it's about improving ourselves. And if we improve ourselves enough, then somehow God will like us and maybe we can earn our way to heaven. But the message of Christianity is actually radically the opposite. It is: you and I need something done for us. And it's the announcement of good news of what Jesus Christ has done that we gather to celebrate and that we have to share with the entire world.

Here's Ephesians chapter 1, where you've had this statement, this long statement about God choosing people, drawing people. And it says this in verse 22:

"And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be the head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way."

And so what he says here is, he articulates the church. He says, Christ is the head of the church. And all of this—and this is why I say the context here is the church—the church is the custodian of the gospel. The church is what God has chosen to be his instrument to take his message of the announcement of good news forward into the world.

In chapter 2, verse 13, we see this where he's talking about reconciling two groups that are at odds together. He says:

"But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

And so he's talking here about what Jesus Christ has done, and he's saying in the church, this is the message that you have.

Chapter 4, verses 4, 5, and 6 says this:

"There is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."

Which is high-sounding language. But it's his way of saying the call here, and what he's going to write about in Ephesians 4, is he's saying all of this idea of faith and the church and the gospel call is so that you will say, if you are a follower of Jesus, that you see yourself as saying, "I'm part of the mission of God through the church."

So the church is the custodian of the gospel.

2. The Gospel Changes Lives

And then we see in Ephesians that the gospel changes lives. Ephesians chapter 2 states this very clearly. In verses 1 through 7 of chapter 2, he has this whole idea of juxtaposing that you were dead and now you've been made alive. You once were basically far from God and now God's done something in you.

Verses 8 and 9, which is often quoted and probably many of us know, in the context here is his statement about what God is doing for people. He says:

"For it's by grace you've been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves. It's a gift of God, not by works, so no one can boast."

And we often read those verses and say, "Yes, this is all God's work." But notice what comes next. Verse 10 he says:

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works which he prepared in advance for us to do."

Part and parcel of God working and drawing us to himself, drawing you to himself, making you a part of a church, if that's where you are, is saying, "I have also created you in my image and made you my handiwork so that you will do good works which I've prepared from the beginning of time. I want you to be part of how God is changing the world by changing lives and then calling you into something."

3. God Uses Changed Lives to Change the World

And so we have in Ephesians the idea that the church is the custodian of the gospel, the gospel changes lives, and then God uses changed lives to change the world. And this is what we see in chapter 4, verses 13 through 16, that you heard read.

And here he says, "until"—which I'm jumping in right to the middle of a sentence. But if you go back, verse 11 says, "So Christ himself gave," and then he talks about some gifts, and verse 12, "to equip for the work of ministry." Verse 13:

"Until we all reach the unity in faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining the whole measure of fullness in Christ."

And so what he's doing here is he's talking about how your life will be changed. And then verse 16:

"From him, the whole body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament, and it grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work."

So as people join together, he says, this is how I'm going to change the world.

Now, I don't know how this strikes you. My guess is that for many of us, we hear this and we say, "Well, okay, is the church actually making a difference in the world? Is the church having an impact? If this is God's A plan, does he have a B plan? Maybe he should have a B plan."

But what we need to see is that God has said through all time, "What I want is I want there to be a group of people—that is, the church—who come together, who are influencing the world in such a way that the world is fundamentally changed."

Two Ways God Changes the World

So how does God do that? Well, in verses 13 through 16 of Ephesians 4, we see at least two ways that this happens.

Individual Alignment with Christ

The first is through individual alignment with Christ. Verse 13 again says:

"Until we all reach the whole measure of fullness in Christ."

Verse 14 says:

"Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and the cunning and craftiness of people and their deceitful schemes."

And so he has these images here that he invokes. He says, "I want to see individual change, individual alignment with Christ."

Verse 13, he's talking about a maturity. He's talking about a growth that happens. He's using the image of an infant and somebody who's mature. And then he uses the image of somebody at sea being tossed back and forth by all the different waves and things that are going on.

And here's what you kind of see in these images. The image of the waves and the truth is talking about the importance of truth in our lives. And what happens when we have individual alignment with Christ is we begin to align our lives with the truth of God rather than the suggestions or the ideas that are so prominent in our culture.

And if you don't know this, what culture says and what the Bible says are often opposite. Not always, but often. Meaning our culture will tell us one thing and the Bible will tell us the other.

But here's the problem for most of us: Most of us think that we're so good at discerning truth that we don't need anything higher than our own ability to figure it out. Meaning we think that we can look at something and say, "Well, I'm smart enough, I'll understand this." And what we actually need is to have the word of God working on us in such a way, so consistently, that we're not being tossed to and fro by the waves.

And it talks about the teaching and the craftiness of people. Meaning there will be people in your lives who will say things to you, speak things to you, that are not the ideals of God. And you will have to basically say, "No, I'm choosing God's way rather than the way of the world," if we're going to be part of what God is doing.

And then it talks about the schemes of these people. This word, by the way, is only used one other time in the New Testament. It's used in Ephesians 6, where we're told about Satan's schemes. And certainly the people's schemes here are probably intended to be where people say, "Well, we want you to be like us, not like whatever this Christian thing is you're doing. And so this is what we're trying to get you to live like, because it makes us feel better about ourselves, maybe."

But the other way that schemes show up, if it's Satan's schemes, especially in the context here of church, is that Satan loves to get people to get disenfranchised with church, with people at church, with the procedures of church, and step back from church because they don't like how church is being done, or they don't like some of the attitudes or decisions of other people at church. And therefore they withdraw from church and they withdraw from the mission of what goes on.

Now, I have said this before, but it may surprise you: I don't love everything about this church. I mean, I know I'm in a place of a fair amount of influence over the church, but I don't have total influence. And there are plenty of things that I walk around and go, "Who decided that? And why are we doing it that way? That's not how I would do it."

But like, that is not unique to any of you to have that experience. Everybody has that experience. But it reminds me of a story about D.L. Moody, who's a famous evangelist years and years ago, and he had a woman come up to him at one of his crusades and said, "I don't think the way you're doing evangelism is the best way. I think you do it very poorly."

To which evidently he said, "I don't much like the way I do it either." And then he said, "How do you do it?" And she said, "Well, I don't." And supposedly what he said back to her is, "Well, I like the way I'm doing it better than the way you're not."

Now, my point is just to say it's easy to sit on the outside and feel disenfranchised. But if this is true, that there's one body, one faith, one baptism, the idea is not "there's the church, them"—it's "the church, us." You are part of the church. Your alignment with Christ matters. Don't let the schemes of Satan to get you disconnected from the body cause you to say, "I'm stepping out."

The Process of Growth

Alignment with Christ is indeed taking steps toward Christ. In fact, this image of the infant and the adult is really prominent in this little section. And what he's really doing is he's juxtaposing what is true for an infant and what's true for somebody who's mature. And you see this because a couple times in here he has this idea of somebody who's maturing.

But here's what we really see. Verse 12: When somebody's a newborn, they're pretty self-focused—and rightly so, by the way. But at some point he calls them to be equipped for the work of service, the work of ministry. So we move from being immature, being selfish, to serving.

Then in verse 13 he says:

"It's until we all reach the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God who became mature, attaining the whole measure of the fullness of Christ."

When somebody's young, they're gullible. They believe anything. As they mature, they get studied and mature in such a way that they're able to see error.

And then in verse 14 it talks about how you're tossed around by the waves and the teaching of everybody else. You're unstable when you're young, but when you become mature, you have support from others and you become somebody who is stable along the way.

Now, having said that, it'd be easy right here just to say, "How are you doing? How am I doing on individual alignment with Christ?" and assume that alignment means a continual progression forward and that we need to redouble our efforts to be more mature, more something.

But here's what I see in this analogy of the infant and the mature: It's unnatural to expect somebody who's newborn to act like a full-grown person. And sometimes in church what happens is churches want everyone to be wherever they are. So they get irritated with people who are less mature and they say they ought to be more mature by now. And there's this push to say we need to do discipleship, we need to disciple everybody.

And certainly a system of discipleship is good. We have one here. I'm not saying that that's not a good thing. But what I'm saying is sometimes it almost comes with "everyone should be where I am," rather than understanding that this happens as a process that is somewhat natural and cannot be rushed.

But here's the other thing about it: It is inevitable if you are somebody who is a child of God. You see, the image in Ephesians is you were dead and now you've been born. And when an infant starts to grow, they will grow into some form of a mature person. It may not look like you, but they will grow into some form of a mature person. It is an inevitable outcome of growing.

So if somebody doesn't grow over time, the question is: Have I actually come to understand who Jesus is and receive him as my Savior? But we can't force growth. But growth is inevitable all at the same time. And part of aligning with Christ is coming to understand that our journey is a journey that God is working in and he's the one who's moving us forward.

Corporate Engagement for Christ

So there's individual alignment. And then I'm just going to say that there's a sense that the world has changed through lives that change through corporate engagement for Christ.

And we see this in verses 15 and 16, these analogies about the body. He speaks first about "instead speaking the truth in love," which is about relationships inside a community of faith. And some of us are really good at speaking truth and not very good at doing it lovingly. And some of us are really good at loving but don't speak a lot of truth.

And the point here isn't that you just go right down the middle. It's that you learn how to be somebody who's radical in telling truth to people around you, but doing it in such a loving way that they hear it. Some of us are really good at speaking truth, but we say it in such a way that we irritate and alienate people around us. Some of us are so good at loving people and accepting people where they are that we never challenge.

And the idea here is to say part of community, part of corporate engagement—how individual alignment happens is when we're in community enough that we have a sense of being aligned through Christ, with Christ, through our engagement with others.

And then we see this idea of kind of an outward mission. And here, verse 16:

"From him the whole body is joined and held together by every supporting ligament, and it grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work."

And so here he's saying, if in the body one part says, "Well, because I'm not that part, or I don't get this role, therefore I'm unhappy, I'm not going to do it," then the work doesn't get done, is what he's saying.

Now, that's the body analogy that's just in this text. And sometimes, you know how this is—if part of you is hurt, how it compromises the rest of you. If one part of your body doesn't function, all of a sudden, it's hard to do it. And so he's saying every part needs to be engaged for the church to be what it is.

The Pan Jenga Illustration

And sometimes I try to think about another way to explain an analogy, because sometimes it's just helpful to have something more common. So this is a picture of one of our cabinets at home where our pots and pans go. There's nothing extraordinary about this other than the fact—and I think I have a little better shot on the next picture—that if things aren't in this cabinet exactly where they belong, in exactly the right order, they do not fit back in the cabinet. I call it Pan Jenga.

And here's why I call it Pan Jenga: My wife knows exactly where every pan's supposed to go, the angle of each handle, where each lid needs to go to absolutely maximize and get every pan in this cabinet that can possibly fit in the cabinet. And I'm really pretty good—as long as only one of them is out at a time, I can kind of spy up its spot and put it back in. But when we have a day where there's several pans out of the thing and it's time to put them all back in, I have no idea, because it's Pan Jenga.

Now, here's my point: When one pan is missing, it makes the whole thing not fit together the way that it is intended to fit together. You may think what I bring is small, it's insignificant, it doesn't matter. But every part is needed in order for the church to do what God has called the church to do, which is to help bring people to heaven, but bring heaven to earth. And without that, then the church gets weaker.

Now, I know that some of us may say, "Well, you know, the church doesn't do stuff. You know, the church could be so much more." And I get that it could be. But the truth of the matter is the church is exactly what those of us who are part of it, globally, locally, make it to be. And so if we are engaged, then the church becomes engaged. If we're not engaged, then the church is not engaged.

Within My Power

There's something that a man named Forrest Witcraft wrote about the Boy Scouts years ago. It was called "Within My Power." Here's what he said (this is about the Boy Scouts, which is an important context to understanding what he's about to say—otherwise, it'll sound weird):

He says, "I'm not a very important man, as importance is commonly rated. I don't have great wealth, control a big business, or occupy a position of great honor or authority. Yet someday I may mold destiny, for it is within my power to become the most important man in the whole world in the life of a boy. And every boy is a potential atom bomb in human history."

And he goes on, he writes some more, and then he says this at the end:

"100 years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, what sort of house I lived in, or what kind of car I drove, but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a boy."

In other words, just simply saying "I'm going to be a part" is how God works.

Now, I know some people will say, "Well, the church needs to do more." And again, I would say it can, as people do more. But sometimes we don't give the church credit for being where the church is.

Somebody sent me an article recently, or it was an appeal from somebody for funding to fight a certain social cause. And it was an important social cause. It was right. And the person kind of sent it with a little bit of an outcry: "What can the church do? Why aren't we doing something?"

And I understood exactly the sentiment, and I just simply wrote back and just said, "Actually, the church is doing something." You see, the person who's asking for money to go do this is a Christian who's saying, "I want to do something." And the people who are giving to this are actually doing something, and the church is doing something.

And so sometimes we don't give credit to the church because it isn't under the name of the church, but the church is the people doing the work of God in the world and bringing the reality of the kingdom to the world.

What Does This Mean?

So what does all of this mean? Well, it means that the way the world changes is through the people of God being the people of God in community and living in such a way that they're about helping to change the world.

Now, let me just make one other statement here about this. Have you ever been in a church where when you're leaving, sometimes it's on the door above the wall where you walk out, sometimes it's on a sign where you're pulling out of the parking lot, and it says, "You are now entering your mission field"? Ever seen this? It exists in some churches.

I get the sentiment saying, "Hey, the mission field isn't foreign. It's right here. Go and live as a missionary in your culture."

But I don't like the sign. Can I tell you why I don't like the sign? Do you know what I think it communicates? "We're the good people who have it figured out, and now we go to the bad people who are out in our community."

Do you know what is the reality if we want to change the world? The place for the sign is above the mirror where we get ready every day: "You are now entering your mission field." Change yourself to alignment with Christ, corporate engagement with others, and that will change the world.

And the invitation isn't to say to the world, "Come in here to those of us who have it figured out." The invitation is to say, "Come and join those of us who know we haven't figured it out, but we know one who is full of grace and love and hope to whom we give our worship and our allegiance. And although we do it imperfectly, he is the one who we have trust and faith in—that the world will one day be made right and we want to be a part of it rather than opposed to it." That is the invitation for the church.

Closing Application

Now, you may be here today saying, "Well, you know, I've always thought that church was a place where I just kind of went to try to get my stuff together." And it is a good place to come to try to get your stuff together. But that's not actually the point. It's a place where you come to celebrate the one who's done it for you—Jesus Christ, the gospel, the good news, the announcement of victory.

Or maybe you're here and you're saying, "You know, I've been a part of church for a long time and, you know, sometimes I feel passionate, sometimes I don't." I get that. But the question is: Will you just simply say, "I will be a part of what God is doing by attending and inviting and praying and resourcing so that the church can be what God has called it to be in the broader community?"

This last week we've had some party gatherings at our different campuses. And one of the joys for me has been being at the different campuses and being able to hear stories of how God has changed lives and to be able to tell some stories about how God is working in and through the church to change lives.

But one of the things I shared was that just the statistics about Pittsburgh—if you look at the metro area as it's defined by Gemini, it's about 2.4 million people. But only about 100,000 people, maybe 140,000 people go to church on any given weekend, which means there's 2.2, 2.3 million people that live in a footprint just around us that are thoroughly unchurched.

And that number may seem big, but if you think about it, what that means is about 1 in 10, 1 in 20 people don't go to church on any given weekend. And the way that life has changed is not by legislating something for them, getting them better educated, helping their economic situations get better, but by saying, "As more people come to believe in and find and follow Jesus Christ, it changes hearts. And that's what changes the world. And that's what we want to be a part of here at Orchard Hill."

Let's pray together.

God, as we're gathered here today and around Pittsburgh at our different campuses, we ask that you would help us to crystallize our hope and our vision for what can be through your church. And God, for any of us who are gathered here today saying, "I thought church was an improvement place for me," I pray that you would open our eyes to be able to embrace that it's a place to celebrate and savor what Jesus Christ has done, and then to extend that to the world around us. And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Thanks for being here. Have a great week.

Disclaimer: This transcript has been edited for readability and clarity using AI assistance. While every effort has been made to preserve the speaker's original intent and message, minor adjustments to grammar, sentence structure, and formatting have been applied.