Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right. Well, good morning. I am excited to see you. I want to take a few moments to kind of make you aware of something that's coming up. And then also, let's pray together first thing.
[00:00:10] I can't even speak. September 14th, we are starting re engage again if you're here. And no matter what grade you would give your marriage from 0 to 10, it's one of these things that God can use to benefit and grow your marriage. And not just you, but help you, you know, develop a platform in your marriage for the sake of other people. It's basically discipleship with marriage as a topic, and you get to study the word, know the word, and so it's exciting. So I want to encourage you to look forward to that and just pray about that over the next few weeks. As we open registration for that. I want to take a moment and we want to pray for heavy hearts locally. We lost a young man recently and super hard. Many of you knew him.
[00:00:56] And so we want to pray for you and his family. Also yesterday with the shootings in n out in Idaho, really hard.
[00:01:07] So we want to just take a moment and just pray that God in his grace would surround these families with people that know and love him, that they would be just instruments of kindness and mercy to these people. So if you would, let's pray together as brothers and sisters.
[00:01:22] Father, there's a lot we do not understand.
[00:01:29] There's a lot that troubles us, worries us when we have loss, especially unexpected loss.
[00:01:36] Lord God, it's hard to frame our hearts and minds around it.
[00:01:41] We don't know.
[00:01:43] Lord God, thankfully your word tells us what we do know, that we can go to you with these burdens, go to you for comfort and for peace.
[00:01:51] Lord, we just ask that you would provide people, people that know and love you, that would surround these families and just be present to be examples of grace and kindness to them.
[00:02:06] And Lord, as we look at your word today, I pray that you would just soften our hearts and help us prepare to respond in faith to these things together.
[00:02:14] Lord, we love you and we thank you so much for what you're going to do through your word. As we obey the spirit of God for the glory of God, we thank you for this. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:02:27] So we got this new graphic on the screen. And today, actually the next few weeks, we're going to be like preparing for that series.
[00:02:36] It's called Mine. And then you see it ripped out in between. Actually, everything is God's. And so today, next week and the following week we're going to talk about what it means to be part of the body of Christ. We're to going to be looking at His Word, understanding our part in it, each of our part. When I say our, I mean all of us. And so I want to make sure that's clear. And so we're going to talk about that in a moment. And so bear in mind. And then we're going to talk about what it means to live like this, where everything is God's. But we want to prepare our hearts over the next few weeks for that.
[00:03:09] So let me start with a strange fact about the world we live in. We've never in any part in history, been more connected than we are now.
[00:03:18] Like, think about that.
[00:03:21] We're more connected. That's crazy. But we're also more alone, feel more alone, more isolated than we ever have. We carry the whole world in our pockets. We have hundreds of friends we've actually never eaten a meal with.
[00:03:34] We could talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime. And we've never felt more unseen.
[00:03:41] We have followers. Not family contact, but not community.
[00:03:45] A lot of Christians are trying to follow Jesus this same way, alone.
[00:03:50] But in Christ, you joined a body.
[00:03:55] You. You need to hear this, please.
[00:03:57] You belong.
[00:04:00] You belong in the world's economy.
[00:04:03] I've shared this before, but I want to frame it for all of us.
[00:04:07] You behave a certain way, then you're valued, and then you belong. Let me explain.
[00:04:12] If you perform, if you look right, act right, produce right, you fit in and you'll be valued. And once you're valued, you're given a place among everybody else.
[00:04:23] It runs in every human system. It seems like, you know, important ones, like the lunchroom, your team, your workplace.
[00:04:33] Belonging, here's the problem is conditional.
[00:04:37] You can earn it, but it is revocable in the world's economy, in the audition for belonging, it never, ever ends. In fact, if you've done it, you know it's exhausting.
[00:04:52] But in God's economy, with the gospel in view, it starts off with you belonging first, and then you sense your value, and then you behave in line with that.
[00:05:04] So in Christ, you belong first. Why? Because it's on his merit, his performance, not yours. And because you belong, you're declared valued as adopted children of God, as robed in his righteousness, as seated with Him.
[00:05:25] And because you're valued, you behave. Let me clear this up. You behave not to earn a seat, but. But to reflect the family that you're already in.
[00:05:35] Behavior shifts from fear to fruit, from audition to gratitude. You don't belong because you're impressive. You belong because Christ was broken for you.
[00:05:47] That's why you belong.
[00:05:50] So Paul is writing to a church in Corinth that is gifted. They're growing, and yet they're fractured.
[00:05:57] They're fractured over leaders, over lawsuits, over the Lord's Supper. And now in this section that we're going to focus on today, they're fractured over the gifts of the Spirit.
[00:06:09] Some in the church feel superior, some feel invisible. And I don't know about you, but that sounds a little familiar.
[00:06:19] And into that mess, Paul gives them one picture body.
[00:06:26] So if you have your Bibles, let's look at this together, starting in First Corinthians, chapter 12, we're going to begin in verse 12.
[00:06:40] Notice.
[00:06:41] For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.
[00:06:53] For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, immersed. It says, Jews and Greeks, slaves are free. And all were made to drink of one spirit, internally saturated into the body.
[00:07:11] For the body does not consist of one member, but of many.
[00:07:16] And here's the beauty. The church doesn't just merely resemble a body. The church is the body of Christ on earth. Not many bodies loosely affiliated. One body, not uniformity.
[00:07:33] Diversity by design.
[00:07:36] And notice who made it that way. Look at verse 13.
[00:07:39] In one spirit, we were all baptized into one body.
[00:07:45] You didn't join the body. The Spirit of God placed you in it. You didn't earn your membership. Grace assigned it to you.
[00:07:55] You didn't choose your brothers and sisters. That'd be an option. God did.
[00:08:02] The word Paul uses is to be immersed, to be plunged in when you trust Christ, when you trusted Christ, the Holy Spirit plunged you into a people.
[00:08:14] The church is not a voluntary association of religious individuals. It is a spirit created organism.
[00:08:21] You didn't join the body the way you join a gym that you may never go to.
[00:08:28] The spirit join you the way the surgeon grafts a limb. Salvation is personal, but it has never once been private.
[00:08:39] Look also at the way that the wall for truth flattens these markers, these bridges that could be built if we would just try. Jews are Greek, slaves are free. In the first century, Corinth, those were the deepest dividing lines a person could draw. Ethnicity and economics and the work of the Spirit of God crushes both of them.
[00:09:05] Paul says that the Spirit drowned those lines in the same water he immersed you in.
[00:09:11] This is what Jesus prayed for in John 17, that we would be one, so the world would believe he was from God. Ephesians 2 says, the cross accomplished this gift that one man made in place of two.
[00:09:28] And so that you understand, and you've heard me say it before, and it's one of my favorite things that my kids learned early on is the church is not this building that you enter enter.
[00:09:37] It's the body, the people that you belong to.
[00:09:41] You need to know that.
[00:09:43] So one of our vocabulary ways of saying it, we're like, hey, where are you at? And the kids know, Dad's at the church building.
[00:09:54] It's key that we understand that this is a building.
[00:09:57] Wherever you are is where the church is.
[00:10:00] And that's key to know that we are the body of Christ representing him. Wherever we are are.
[00:10:07] Then in verse 15 and following it says this. If the foot should say, because I'm not the hand, not a hand, I don't belong to the body, that's law number one.
[00:10:19] That would not make it any less part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, that would not make any less make it any less part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, and this is Paul being silly, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, and here's underline this in your Bibles, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose.
[00:10:55] If all were a single member, where would the body be?
[00:11:02] As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. And here's that sense of comparison, you know, in verse 15 and 16, it sounds like this with us today. Well, I can't teach, so there's nothing I can do to contribute in the church.
[00:11:18] I can't teach, or I'm not up front. So if I don't show up, no one would miss me. Or maybe you have your version of these, I'm too old to do that, or I'm too young to do that, or I'm too new, I haven't been there long enough to do that. Or I'm too broken.
[00:11:37] Paul answers with the most playful logic is what he said, what if the whole body were an eye?
[00:11:42] Like, what if it were an ear? Where would the other senses be?
[00:11:46] Then comes verse 18. And again, underline it. These three words, they matter. God arranged as he chose. Look at this God. Your place in the body wasn't an accident of geography.
[00:11:59] It wasn't some serendipitous event.
[00:12:02] It was Design.
[00:12:05] It was a decision that God made. It wasn't a decision your parents made. God put you here.
[00:12:15] Arrange. This word means to set. To place. Deliberately, not accidental, the way a craftsman sets a stone. Your placement in this body is not an accident. And it's an arrangement.
[00:12:29] It's beautiful.
[00:12:32] As he chose. I love this.
[00:12:34] Your wiring, your story, your scars. Your season of life.
[00:12:42] Chosen.
[00:12:43] Chosen by God on purpose. For this body.
[00:12:49] Think about this. This past week, I shared with you a few weeks ago that I lost my big brother. He passed away. And so this past week, I went back to South Carolina and had the opportunity to celebrate his life and the church I grew up in. And what was awesome, which did not surprise me, is just how gracious that body was to me and my sisters. They were incredibly kind, like, feeding us, making sure we have everything we needed, all these things. And let me just tell you one aspect of beauty that most people that showed up that day did not see. That I got to witness.
[00:13:25] The doors of the sanctuary were open, welcoming people in on a Wednesday afternoon.
[00:13:31] And this homeless guy just rolls right in like everybody else did, and he goes and lays on the back pew.
[00:13:39] Wasn't asked to leave.
[00:13:41] We just made sure that he was comfortable. And that church made such a space for this young man to be seen and known. And guess where he went after the funeral?
[00:13:52] He went and had a meal with my family because that church made it possible.
[00:14:00] God, in his grace, does things by design.
[00:14:06] My brother's funeral made it possible for this guy to be fed.
[00:14:11] What about you?
[00:14:14] Here?
[00:14:18] Forgive me.
[00:14:19] So let me say it.
[00:14:21] I know that there's some people in this room that have been sitting there for years telling themselves the lie of the foot, right?
[00:14:27] They don't need me.
[00:14:29] I'm not gifted like them. I don't belong.
[00:14:33] You're not. And I need you to hear this. You're not a spare part.
[00:14:37] There are no spare parts in the body of Christ. If you are in Christ, hear it again.
[00:14:43] You belong.
[00:14:46] Not because you feel it, but because God arranged it.
[00:14:52] That changes things for me. Feelings tell you where you fit in. But scripture, God's word, tells you where you're placed.
[00:15:00] And let's pick up in verse 21, this is going to be the second lie we're going to hear.
[00:15:06] The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.
[00:15:10] Nor, again, the head to the feet, I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.
[00:15:21] And on those parts of the body, that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor.
[00:15:26] And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our.
[00:15:35] Excuse me. Which our more presentable parts do not require. But God, here it is again.
[00:15:40] Has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it. That there may be. Here's the purpose. No division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, we all suffer.
[00:15:58] If one member is honored, all rejoice together.
[00:16:03] The first lie that was mentioned was spoken from insecurity. The second lie is spoken from pride. And. And both are wrong. They're lies.
[00:16:13] And notice the word that Paul says here cannot. It's a statement of reality, not just morality. Picture a hand.
[00:16:21] It has everything a hand needs. Bones, tendons, nerves, skin.
[00:16:27] But detached from the body, it can only do one thing.
[00:16:31] Die.
[00:16:33] The less honorable parts get greater honor. The Greek word here means, God has so composed the body, blended it together, giving greater honor to the parts that lack it. God mixed us the way he did, on purpose.
[00:16:49] Every church is full of hidden vital organs. Okay?
[00:16:56] The saint.
[00:16:58] You need to know that there are people that you may never meet on this side of eternity who have prayed for you being in this room, and you've never even shaken their hands.
[00:17:08] Those people exist in our body.
[00:17:11] We have people who come early, who brew coffee so that you can stay awake during this time.
[00:17:20] We have nursery volunteers who have rocked babies, 20 years worth of babies so that 20 years worth of parents could hear the gospel and let me just drop a name every Sunday morning when she's not sick or on vacation, which isn't often.
[00:17:39] Ms. Lynn Ford is rolling up in this place twice.
[00:17:44] Like she rolls in to go sit with the babies. Many of your babies have been rocked by this woman. And she goes right back to her car, drops some stuff off, comes right back in with her Bible every Sunday, not asking for any acknowledgement. She's just one example of the body of Christ being the body of Christ.
[00:18:06] Nobody claps for the liver, but the body lives because of it.
[00:18:11] So why did God design it this way?
[00:18:14] That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
[00:18:23] God deliberately distributed strength so that no one could be separated. He built the body for mutual dependence. Because dependence is where love grows. And this is what's phenomenal to me.
[00:18:37] There are people who knew about Wednesday from this church, okay, that sent me texts and said, hey, I'm praying for you today. I know it's Hard.
[00:18:49] Like, how cool was it for me to roll up and someone to grab me and say, hey, those flowers are from your church in Texas.
[00:18:57] The exact flowers that my unbelieving sister was hoping that she would get but didn't have the time.
[00:19:03] Same time.
[00:19:05] Body of Christ ministry, happening in ways that we would never design.
[00:19:10] God is gracious in verse 26. Another reason why God designed it this way. So that if one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Here's the key. The church.
[00:19:27] This aspect is not a program.
[00:19:30] It's the nervous system.
[00:19:32] When you smash your thumb with a hammer, your whole body knows it in an instant. How many can testify?
[00:19:38] And your vocabulary seems to be limited in those moments, for some reason, only to four letters.
[00:19:45] Golf, right?
[00:19:47] Okay, you know what I'm talking about.
[00:19:50] A body feels together. A crowd, though, just sits together.
[00:19:56] Which one are we?
[00:20:01] The foot says I don't belong. The eye says I don't need you. Both are lies, and both produce the same result.
[00:20:07] A separated body.
[00:20:11] So don't miss the word that changes everything. And here it is, verse 27. Now, you who are, listen to this. You are the body of Christ, and individually, members of it.
[00:20:27] This is not our body, it's his. And notice the verb not. You should be. No, you are.
[00:20:37] Your identity comes before your activity because there is one bread. We see this in chapter 10 of First Corinthians. One bread.
[00:20:47] We who are many are one body.
[00:20:49] One love, one body. So this is like something that's repeated multiple times.
[00:20:54] Chapter 11, what Blake Read for us earlier on the night when he was betrayed, Jesus took bread and broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. And then we get to chapter 12, the next chapter. And now we see that we are the body of Christ.
[00:21:11] Follow the beauty of it. His body was broken so yours could be healed.
[00:21:16] His body was pierced so that you could be placed. His body was laid in a tomb so that you would never have to be alone again.
[00:21:27] Again.
[00:21:28] You don't belong because you're impressive.
[00:21:31] You belong because Jesus was broken. For you.
[00:21:35] That's the gospel.
[00:21:37] And it's the only foundation strong enough to build a church.
[00:21:42] This truth.
[00:21:44] So what do we do?
[00:21:46] Like, how do we apply this? Louis, thanks for all that information. That was a great information overload. What do we do?
[00:21:54] Some of us need a mind shift.
[00:21:58] And that mind shift needs to alter our schedule, our priorities. It needs to change the way that we see what we do here on the Sunday morning to shift from attendance to Understanding that you belong, attendance. Ask the question, what do I get from this?
[00:22:15] Where belonging says, how can I give to this?
[00:22:19] So there's some groups in here, a couple of them.
[00:22:24] If you're one of these people and you show up and you're kind, and I hope you feel welcome when you do. If you're exploring the faith and you're just like, I just want to see what this is about.
[00:22:34] You may have walked in lonely, or maybe you've been burned by the church before.
[00:22:39] I want you to know, though, that that ache to belong that you feel isn't weakness.
[00:22:46] It's God's design.
[00:22:48] Because we're not meant to be alone.
[00:22:51] Christianity offers a family to be grafted into, not just ideas to weigh all by yourself.
[00:23:00] The door in. And this is what I want you to understand. The door in to being part of this body is a person.
[00:23:07] It's not performance.
[00:23:09] Jesus body was broken to bring you home.
[00:23:14] Now, because I'm one of these, I could speak to us.
[00:23:18] If you're a parent, I want you to hear this because this is so important.
[00:23:23] If you're a parent, your kids learn about church by watching you, but not just your actions.
[00:23:31] They watch your priorities, your calendar.
[00:23:37] They watch where you spend your money. They watch how you talk about people.
[00:23:41] They watch.
[00:23:43] If the church is just another consumer option in your life, then guess what? It's going to be in their life, another option.
[00:23:52] They'll consume their way out of it.
[00:23:55] Let them see you serve other people, and let them see other people serve you.
[00:24:06] Ask maybe at dinner this week with your kids, ask them, what part of the body do you think God made you to be?
[00:24:14] How will God use you?
[00:24:18] And then maybe as a family, you write a note to somebody like Lynn Ford telling them, thank you so much with a kid, thank you so much for the way that you serve the body of Christ.
[00:24:30] Stamp, envelope, address, mail it. Flag up just in case you forget, because it's been a while.
[00:24:40] Again, you're not a customer of this church.
[00:24:44] You're a member.
[00:24:46] You're part of this body.
[00:24:48] You're not a spectator of Christ's work. You're part of his body.
[00:24:54] Again, if you haven't heard me say it once, here it is.
[00:24:58] You belong.
[00:25:08] Your belonging rests on Christ's righteousness and his behavior and his alone.
[00:25:16] One body, one spirit, one Savior whose body was broken so that this body could live.
[00:25:23] You were never meant to follow Jesus alone.
[00:25:26] And in Christ you never will.
[00:25:29] Let's pray.
[00:25:35] Father, in Jesus name, we thank you so much for your Word, the value and weight of this text.
[00:25:43] Lord, we pray that, Lord God, if there's a gap that we notice in the body of Christ, Lord God, that you would give us the burden to fill it.
[00:25:59] Lord God, our tendency is to complain about it, but what if we had the heart just to lean in and serve?
[00:26:07] Lord, I pray that your spirit would be with my brothers and sisters this week as they understand that they're not alone, that they belong.
[00:26:14] Lord, I pray that your power and presence would rest on us as we live this life as the body of Christ.
[00:26:22] Lord, we thank you for this. We place our trust in you. We pray these things in Jesus name, Amen.
