2, 4, 6, 8 Who should you appreciate

A little different approach for the next two or three days, instead of one or two verses each day I think I will do a set of verses over two or three days. I just could not break Ephesians 4:11-16 up and do it justice. They all needed to stay in context.
Today let’s look at the beginning of these verses. The gifts Christ gave to the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. When it comes to the evangelists, pastors, and teachers, the real ones, the good ones, realize what a tremendous responsibility they have and they take it prayerfully and seriously. If you don’t have a good pastor or teacher, find one. If you do have a good pastor or teacher make sure you thank them. They do need encouragement, Satan works against them too telling them no one cares, no one listens, so don’t care so much, so try so hard. Your encouragement will mean the world to them.  I myself have a couple of folks I need to thank, perhaps you do to.
Ephesians 4:11-16

 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. 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.