1 Corinthians 12:12-31 Don't Be Dismembered

Welcome to Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan, where we are growing in faith, community, and service. You are listening to a message by Pastor Don Filsek from a passage in 1

Corinthians in a series entitled, One. If you'd like more information about Recast Church, check us out at recastchurch .com,

or you can find us on Facebook. Here's Pastor Don. Well, good morning.

Welcome to Recast Church. We're going to go ahead and get started here, so if you can find your seats, that would be great. Always good to hear the conversations going on and stuff.

I'm Don Filsek. I'm the lead pastor here, and I just want to say thank you for gathering together to worship our great

God and grow in faith this morning. Be sure to fill out the connection card you received when you walked in. You can turn that in in the black box back here.

And that connection card, if you're willing to share your email address, we do send out a weekly email just to kind of keep you up to date on different activities and events.

You can unsubscribe yourself from that any time. I know that your inbox can get busy, but it is a primary way to connect with the activities that are going on at the church.

If it's your first time filling out one of those connection cards, then we ask that you also do us a favor and please take a free coffee mug back there sitting on the desk, just our way of saying thanks for joining us this morning.

And then also remember, any offerings you would choose to give go in the same black box back there. We don't pass an offering plate, but we want your giving to be between you and God, and so that's available.

If you're not going to use that offering envelope that you received this morning, though, there is a place to recycle that right next to it just so that we can reuse those again next week.

And remember that anything that's marked expansion fund is going to go towards our goal of eventually building a building on the property that we have.

Last week there was a big announcement, and we basically said that there's the need for us to raise $325 -ish thousand dollars towards basically the down payment for a building.

And so before we even decide to break ground, we need to have that much in the bank. And I want to point out that it's not like we're going to put up a slide every week on how to get the unicorn to happy land or how to get the thermometer.

Or maybe.

So you know that the project is $1 .7 million, and we need to raise $300 of it in order to get there, but as much as we can raise before we break ground.

I think that this kind of thing becomes a lot of white noise, and obviously Kyle, we put it up there jokingly, but I think that putting things up there like that can be helpful.

We will be giving you a report regularly, but not in a gimmicky fashion, because I think that the thing is we want to put the word out to you that there's a need.

And let the word of God work in your heart and in your life about what he desires for you to do in that regard.

I know that we could enter into a big capital campaign where we're selling bricks and selling chairs, and we could make it gimmicky so that it's fun to give.

Or we could just make it really about the spirit of God moving and working in your life to do what you can, because we are the church.

And I say that, I'm not asking you to give money to me, I'm not asking you to give money to the elders,

I'm not asking you to give money to a building. I am asking you to pray about what God would say to you, your part is in this building project, and think that through.

And so to pray and talk with God about that is the most that I can ask from you.

With the conviction that 2014 is going to be a year of transition for Recast Church.

We've got a campaign after the service to talk about moving to the schools and all that kind of stuff that's coming down the pipe.

And we talked about that last week, and plans are starting to get more firm in that direction. I thought it might be a good year for us to kick off this 2014 on the right foot by considering what defines us as a church.

I believe that the average person on the street has a pretty skewed view of what church means. And maybe even some of us here, just to be honest, we have a little bit of a skewed view too.

Because in English, the semantic range for the word church includes a building, and also includes a gathering of people.

And so I would suggest to you that if we were to pull people out on the street or at our workplace that are not believers, and ask them, what is a church?

That the majority of the definitions would include the word building in there somewhere. Architecture, a type of building, or something to that effect.

Well, those of you that have been around the church for a while, have been a member of a church or a part of a church.

You might be able to explain that the church is not, from a biblical standpoint, a building. But it is the people, a gathering of people.

But even as we say that, I think we need to figure out what does that mean? And are we actually operating and living our lives according to the idea that we are the church versus we come to church?

And there's a difference. Do you hear the difference in that? Being the church versus just attending a church?

And so there's some things that we're going to look at in our text this morning that are going to guide us into that, you know, really answering these questions.

As the church moves to the next stage, it's important for us to keep focused on what it means to be a church.

To be quite honest, Recast has been relatively loose in its structure since we started. We have not pressed for membership.

And that has been intentional, but maybe not particularly helpful. So what I mean by that is it's possible for us, for the sake of not offending or pressuring people, to undersell what is a strongly biblical concept.

That we would actually be connected in an integral way with each other and with a body, a local body of believers.

We're going to look at a passage that speaks about membership in the church. And I would have said even five years ago, around the time that we were starting

Recast, I would have said, You know what? Membership in a local church is not a biblical...

I mean, you can't point to chapter and verse and see membership mentioned in Scripture, right?

I mean, can you point to chapter and verse that says, Thou shalt be a member of a local church? And I think we live in a culture in a day and an age where commitment is kind of like on the low, right?

And so it's very easy for us to kind of sell to the culture and just, you know, bow to the culture and basically say,

You know what? We're just going to kind of keep the bar low here and not encourage biblical membership.

And yet, here I am convicted this week as I'm studying this text, kind of saying, Membership is a biblical concept.

The commitment to one another, the connection to one another, the needing each other, and the offering what we have to offer to others is vital.

So Paul in our text is going to talk about membership, and he's going to use the word member in the

New Testament. It's there. But the way that Paul addresses membership is not like Sam's Club.

It's not like your Panera membership where you get your 10th whatever free.

But it's more the way... Everybody look at your arm. Look at your arm. It's the way your arm is a member of your body.

I want you to raise your arm up high if you're glad your arm is a member of your body. Are you glad it's connected?

All right. You guys responded. I had like three people in the first service raise their hand. I was like, the rest of you don't like your arm?

Like, what's going on with that? So let's open our Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12. And we're going to be looking at 1

Corinthians 12, 12 through 31. And that's found on page 821 in the

Bible in the seat back in front of you. So you open that Bible up, 821. Boom. You're there. And we can read this together.

And if you don't own a Bible, please take that one with you. We do want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God that they can have on their nightstand and pick up and read on their own.

Follow along. 1 Corinthians 12, 12 through 31. 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.

For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

Though the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I am not a hand,

I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye,

I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as He chose.

If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, 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, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require.

But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.

Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing?

Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way.

Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, I rejoice for this body that you have brought together.

Jesus Christ is our head, and each one of us members of him, and members of one another, united in suffering when others suffer, and rejoicing when others rejoice, and connected.

And Father, I pray for a deeper connection here. As we go through this year of transition, Father, I pray that you would hold us together in this awesome sense of unity you have provided for us, at the same time maintaining the diversity of different gifts and talents and abilities that you have brought together here.

Father, even as we have an opportunity to sing before you, I pray that you would be high and exalted here in this next year, that you would be the one who would be lifted up.

And even as we sing these songs, that this would not be an exercise of singing words on a screen, that it would not be an exercise of our vocal cords, that it would not be about the instruments, it would not be about the musicians, it would not be even about the style of worship, but ultimately it would be about coming before your throne and speaking what is true of you, and being changed and transformed in our hearts through worshiping you and through coming in contact with your word today.

I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. I really appreciate you guys leading us, all the work that you guys put in.

It's awesome. I encourage you to get comfortable as we take in this next section of worship in hearing from the word.

Have your Bibles open in front of you, 1 Corinthians 12, verses 12 -31. That's my outline, and so it's beneficial for you to have that open, on page 821 if you lost your place.

I encourage you to get comfortable. Restrooms are back here. Coffee, donuts, juice. Restrooms are back there.

Coffee, donuts, juice. Restrooms are back there. Wherever that cycle goes. You just got it.

You just got it. That's good. One of us. And it wasn't that funny, really.

We're looking at a letter from the Apostle Paul. I don't preach topically very often, but when

I do preach topically, it's going to be still focused on a text. It's not going to be a topic here and there and all over and turning your

Bible. So we're going to just camp right here and walk through this text thinking about what is a church and membership in the church.

But I feel like if we're going to jump into 1 Corinthians 12, then there needs to be some context.

I need to explain to you what's going on. What is this Corinthian thing going on, and what's all that about, and get our minds thinking through what's going on here in this text of Scripture.

We're looking at a letter from the Apostle Paul that was written to a real city in what is modern -day

Greece, just south of Athens, a city called Corinth. It was at that time of his writing, occupied by the

Romans, so it was a Roman area. And he is writing to a church that he helped to found there.

He helped to get it established. He wrote two different letters, at least two letters to them. We have them recorded, 1

Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, and they're there for us to check out. But one thing that we can see, have any of you read 1 and 2

Corinthians? Some of you probably go through a Bible in a year or something like that. You've read some of it. One of the things that just stands out, if you read it for an understanding of what kind of church this is, just by the things that Paul addresses to them shows that this is a jacked -up church, okay?

There is no holds barred. This is messy, okay? This is real life. What's going on in Corinth is it's whack, okay?

There's sexual immorality going on. There's divisions. There's class warfare, all this within the church.

False teachers, you name it, Corinth was facing it, and Paul addresses this kind of stuff in his letter to them, talking about a church that he started.

He helped to get it founded, and now it's kind of gone off into some crazy stuff.

In our section of text, chapter 12, where we're at, it's found right in the middle of a larger argument that Paul is giving regarding unity in the body of Christ.

He's talking about all this disunity has been happening, and so he's been covering unity and some specific things that were going on there.

He scolded them earlier in chapter 11 for having what I would call segregated potlucks, okay?

They weren't quite potlucks. I don't even know what I mean when I say potluck. You bring a dish to pass, whatever. No, this was a little bit different.

They're having a picnic there. They're brown -bagging it. Everybody brings their own food to this event, and they're bringing their own from home, and some open up the brown bag, and there's caviar and escargot.

Some were literally filet mignon, yes, and they're probably tailgating. They're bringing their own barbecue with them, and this is going on in the church parking lot or wherever, and it actually goes so far as to say

Paul addresses, some of them were, are you ready for this? They were getting drunk at the church picnic, okay? That's what's going on.

I mean, that's how bad things were, and at the same time, some were kind of on the fringes and on the outskirts.

They open up their brown paper bag, and there's nothing there. This is what Paul says there. Some of you are going without food while others of you are getting drunk and eating caviar.

Anybody see a problem in a church that that's the way that the church picnic goes? Okay, and so there's an issue of unity that's going on here.

By the way, at the end of that church picnic, do you know what they all do together? They all take communion together. Take communion.

We're all united here, right, as some of them are kind of a little tipsy, and others have gone without, and they're hungry.

Is this a messed up church? There's some problems in here, and now he takes a step further in chapter 12.

He launches into another discussion of something else that's going on at the church. There's this disunity over the wealthy versus the poor, and that's one of the problems that's going on there, but then also some are saying, my gifts, my talents, my abilities make me better than you because of the calling that God has placed on my life because he saved me, and I'm super awesome, and look at you.

What are you doing? And that was going on in this church. These people in Corinth are acting like spoiled brats.

The wealthy are ignoring the poor. Everyone's arguing that they're more important, that their skills are more necessary to the church, and if we just take just a second to think, it could sound kind of familiar, couldn't it?

Sounds to me like the church in Corinth was full of real, living, breathing human beings because I think we can all recognize seeds of arrogance and pride in our own hearts.

Well, yeah, maybe I am a little bit better than some people, right, and we can kind of begin to see how some of those things could be real and true of us.

And so in verse 12, we're gonna pick up Paul's line of argument. What's he gonna share with us about the unity that a church is supposed to experience?

What is a church, and how does it function, and what does it look like? And so he's gonna define that for us by an extended metaphor.

He's gonna talk to us about the human body, and that's where he starts here in verse 12 of chapter 12.

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.

So he is likening Jesus Christ to a human body. Now, we know that Jesus Christ is called the head.

He is the guide, he is the leader, but he has willingly incorporated members as his hands and feet.

Now, if you think in terms of what does your head accomplish, I mean, even in those ancient times, they had a pretty good understanding, a pretty good notion of what, the different parts of the body, and different things like that, and organs internally, and all that.

But I mean, just, couldn't you just from observing how a human body works, that the head is pretty important?

Would you kind of come to that conclusion just by watching and observing? Yeah, this is a pretty important part of my body, and Christ is the head of the church.

He's the one setting the direction, the goals. He's the one that's giving the commands, if you will, the one who is driving this towards purpose and keeping everything together, unified, moving in a common direction.

So he is the head, the leader, but he incorporates us like members, like organs, like hands and feet, and eyes and ears, and he brings us all together.

The use of the word members throughout this text has an almost medical notion to it. Like, when you see members there, you can think appendage, and that would be an accurate translation of that word, member or appendage.

And yet, I don't think it's a stretch for us to consider that what Paul is speaking about is membership in a local body, a local church.

Now, some have gotten a little carried away by making this too generic and too general, so they've said, you know, what

Paul is talking about is how those of you who have been baptized in Christ, who have accepted him as Savior, you're just united across the board, across the world with everybody.

Now, is there some truth to that? Is there some reality in which we are united in Christ with believers in Japan?

Are we united with believers in South Africa? Are we united with believers in Saudi Arabia? Yes, through the blood of Christ, we are.

How many of you are excited that we're a part of something that's bigger than us? Is that an exciting thing?

It's a glorious, amazing truth. But then I would challenge you to try to practice the things that Paul was going to talk about about unity and connectedness with your brothers and sisters in South Africa this morning.

All of a sudden, it becomes harder. The chances that I'm gonna run into somebody in my life from South Africa that needs to forgive me and I need to forgive, not pretty likely that that's going to happen, but the chances that you're gonna rub me the wrong way or I'm gonna rub you the wrong way and there's gonna need to be forgiveness and connectedness and relationship in this ongoing give and take between you and me, yes, that's going to happen, isn't it?

There's a sense in which it's obvious that he's talking about a local, he wants us to apply this in a local church because he's writing it to a local church.

He's writing to the church in Corinth. And so, who does he want this to apply to? I have a hard time applying these things that Paul is calling us to to my brothers and sisters in South Africa.

As much as we are indeed in a genuine sense in Christ united with them, he's gonna say we need something different here locally.

In our local body, we need to be connected like an arm is connected to the torso.

We need a connection here that is very important. In the same way that your arm and your foot are both a part of one body,

Paul says that believers are to indeed be united together. And the basis of that unity in any real sense is our common experience of the

Holy Spirit. You look at that in verse 13. For in one spirit we were all baptized. Whenever you see the word baptized, a simple way to, we didn't translate that into English because King James had an issue with it and then we ended up creating a word for the

King James Bible in English. That's a Greek word, baptizo. We just take it from Greek, put it in English because there's a lot of conflict about that word.

It means to immerse. So if you translate that, any time that you see the word baptism or baptize, it means immersed or immersing or whatever.

So it means to basically put into or under. And so when you talk about immersion or baptism in the

Spirit, this is Paul's way of saying is as a church, together we have been surrounded, we've been drowned, if you will, in the

Holy Spirit. We've all been submerged, immersed into the Spirit of God.

The Spirit above us, the Spirit beneath us, the Spirit beside us, the Spirit inside of us. We've even drank of this

Spirit, Paul says. How well through salvation in Jesus Christ. That's the place where we are indeed immersed in the

Spirit. And it is He, the Holy Spirit, who is the stitches that hold this body together.

He is the one who holds it together like the sutures of a body holding the appendages on.

In this sense, the body of Christ is like a beautiful Frankenstein with Christ as our head.

Now I don't say Frankenstein because we're some gross, macabre monster that roams the countryside looking to stir up the locals and pitchforks and all that jazz.

But it's a picture of that which is disparate. We're all different parts brought together and sewn together and given new life in Christ for one common purpose and we work together in unity.

So, as grotesque as that might be, it actually seems to be a pretty good illustration of what the church is.

And the idea of us being dead and made alive together is a beautiful picture that I think is exactly what

Paul wants to drive for in this text. Obviously, taking the analogy too far,

Frankenstein gets a little carried away. Who are the electrodes on the side of the neck and all that stuff.

But Paul's primary point is going to be unity. Unity together with diversity of function in the members.

We're different than one another, are we not? We have different backgrounds, different histories, different gifts, different talents.

But he has brought us together in unity together. So, church, if you're writing a definition down, write this.

So a church is a diversity of people from a variety of backgrounds brought together by the

Spirit of God. That is the definition of church. Let me read that again in case you're taking notes.

A church is a diversity of people from a variety of backgrounds brought together by the Spirit of God and not brought together by common style of music.

We all like the same kind of music, so I guess I'll hang out here. Not brought together by cheering for the same football team.

Obviously, we've got Nebraska fans, Ohio State fans. For real, I know, right? So, I mean, obviously, that's not what it's about.

There's all different kinds of things that you could assume is what creates our unity that are not the

Spirit, and it is the Spirit that creates the unity here. As silly as it seems,

Paul identifies that some in the body may decide to forego unity and maybe try to jump ship because they decide they don't belong because they're jealous of another person's gifts or abilities.

I want to be a hand. How come he always gets to be the hand? I want to be a hand. I'm leaving.

Imagine they could get even more whiny than that. Now, this doesn't usually happen as directly as that.

How often does somebody stand up and challenge somebody in leadership and blah, blah, blah? But can you imagine a situation in which a person working behind the scenes doesn't get much recognition and throws in the towel and decides to quit because they don't get as much attention as somebody who's in an upfront role?

Can you picture that happening according to human nature? I can imagine that happening. A foot that wants to be a hand.

Does that sound a little bit silly? An ear that wants to be an eye. Obviously, it's meant to be a silly illustration, but it still gets the point across, right?

The notion that they would want to do the other's role. Eyes, ears are not good at seeing, right?

Hands are not very good for walking. I've seen some people able to walk pretty good without their hands, but not for permanent.

I think it's kind of strange. Jealousy over roles is like that silliness.

According to Paul, the body needs the foot and the ear just as much as we need the hand and the eye. An interesting observation came to me while I was studying this section this week, this part of the text, and I was kind of poring over it and thinking through what are the implications, what are the assumptions that Paul has here?

I noticed that Paul immediately jumps to the assumption that membership in the local body of the church is centered around purpose and function.

That's immediately where he goes. He talks about membership. He begins to talk about what does an arm do?

He starts to talk about the function and doing what an arm is supposed to do within the body. He takes that for granted.

Like every member of the body has a role to play, and every member of the church has a role to play as well.

Membership in a body is not in terms of what we stand to gain, which is often our mind in America shifts towards, well, what's in it for me?

Isn't that kind of the way we roll? Somebody asks you, you're at the checkout line, and somebody asks you to sign up for a membership.

What does it look like? Well, why? Why would I do this? Sell me your, give me your spiel or, no, no thanks, not right now.

That's probably more often the case in our culture and society. Membership is not in terms of what we have to gain as if the foot would come to the hand and say, what's in this for me?

How about a massage? How often are you going to clip these toenails? What is your plan for protecting me from athlete's foot?

Do you have any experience dealing with warts? It's like, yeah, gross, right?

I hate feet. Oh, if you're the foot, I'm sorry. I didn't mean that that way.

Just kidding. Paul takes for granted that a believer will be a member of a church like an arm needs to be a member of the body.

How much does an arm need a body? Think in these terms. I'm going to ask you a series of questions. Can an arm be detached from a body?

Yeah. Yes, it can. Yikes. Can it do what an arm is designed to do without a body?

Nope, it can't. Can a believer be detached from a local body?

Yes. Can he or she do what they were intended to do without a body?

No, we are dependent on one another. We need one another like an arm needs a body.

Now, the interesting thing is, I mean, I send out my message in draft form to a handful of people.

They read it, give me some feedback, their first thoughts or whatever. Kyle's mention was at this point in the text, he was kind of like, what about missionaries?

What about those that we send out from the body? Now, they're not vitally connected. And I would challenge that in a sense of saying they should be vitally connected.

As God raises up people from within our congregation to send them out, they are no less a part of this body than if they're living here and attending here.

And that's the way we ought to roll with missionaries. We ought to make sure that they're vitally connected and being fed and nourished.

And if that means sending them the podcasts and making sure that they have a connected group that's asking them for prayer requests on a regular basis, as much as possible, making them feel like they are still a part of this body and still connected because they still have a role to play, even in encouraging us towards evangelism and what

God is doing out in the world. But I can tell you that as a former missionary myself, Lynn and I being a missionary in England for a few years, that that experience highlighted to us the necessity of a local body.

It's not that that's the exception to the rule, like, okay, well, God calls out some arms to go out and function without a body, and then that's good.

And that's an evidence that obviously an arm can survive without a body. It's actually, our experience was that it's hard.

It's difficult. It's lonely. It can be just very, very difficult being a missionary because you are removed at distance from your local church, from those that you love and care for and those that care for you.

Are you getting what I'm saying? It's actually an evidence that we need one another just even in that. In verse 17,

Paul speaks to the fact that we need diversity as well. We need a variety of different roles in the church.

If the whole body were an eye, well, then we'd be Sauron, right? I see you.

Some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. And that would be just creepy, okay, if the whole body were an eye, just trying to see stuff, the big, lidless, wreathed in flame eye between the two towers and all that.

And I like what Paul points out as well, just kind of being just a matter of fact, if the whole body were an eye, how would we smell?

I mean, come on. You wouldn't even be able to smell anything. So I'm like, okay, thanks, Paul. But in the same way that God has arranged the human body, okay, he has arranged this body the same way he has arranged the body of Christ, us.

He's brought us together. He decided on the whole two ears and one mouth thing.

Have you ever thought about this design as God's creation? That your body is an evidence of God's orderly work and his handiwork and just the awesomeness of his power and glory and authority?

You know, the opposable thumb, his idea. There's so many cool things about the human body.

And I took an anatomy and physiology class from Cornerstone when I was in college, and I love that kind of stuff.

It's really an amazing and a glorious study. And while I was there, we had a chance to go on a field trip.

They didn't have their own cadaver lab at Cornerstone, but we went to Grand Valley State University and we went to their cadaver lab there and we got what was called a spiritual tour of the human body.

And it was genuinely a spiritual experience. Now, some of you are kind of like, you know,

I hate that word, and that's like gross. It was an awe -inspiring thing to have a

Christian professor walk you through the intricate details of the body, just highlighting some things here and there that are just glorious and majestic in their creation and the way that they're designed.

The cauda equina, the place where the spinal cord in the bottom begins to braid and comes out of its braid, and just the intricate details of that or the way that the tendons in the hand come down, split, and make an insertion point so that the next tendon can go through that channel and split, so the next tendon can go through and connect to the tip of your finger.

All that's required so that you can just move your fingers. Okay, and I never thought about how they have to split.

Each tendon has to split at its insertion point in order for the next tendon to go through so that you can pull your fingers down straight.

Okay, without that, your fingers go all meh. So, design.

The creativity of God in the way that he has designed this thing called the human body, and that's the illustration that he has chosen for his church.

The diversity of parts and functions and roles all in a united purpose of working together.

God who designed the complex system of organs and appendages is the same God who has brought us together at Recast to function in a similar unity.

Verse 18 says that God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

He has brought us together. We may very well think that it was an invitation from a neighbor that brought us to Recast.

We may think that it was a postcard sent in the mail or a web search that we made one day just kind of looking for churches in the area.

But regardless of how we see this from a human perspective, the eyes of faith will look back and see the sovereign hand of God bringing us together.

He has chosen us to be together. If we depend on ourselves to hold this thing together,

I would suggest to you we're going to fall into one of two opposite problems. We're either going to hold on too tightly and it's going to implode on itself, or if we hold on too loosely, it's going to explode outward and all of us end up someplace else.

But there's power in realizing that it is God who has brought us together. And trusting that God brought us together gives me personally the commitment to work through the difficulties that we face together.

That this is his work and not mine. It's him bringing us together in unity.

If the whole church was just a single member, Paul says, where would the body be? The church cannot ever be defined by a single person.

We live in a day and an age of rock star preachers. Some of you listen to some of those rock star preachers,

I do, I benefit greatly from the teaching of some of these men. When I'm running, I listen to podcasts and it refreshes me and it's cool.

I would encourage you to surround yourself with good Bible teachers, people who are going to dig into this and bring it out alive to you.

But often churches become defined by their leaders. Recast Church is not me.

Recast Church is not the elders here. Recast Church is not a vocal minority. We, together, comprise

Recast Church. We. There are many parts, but one body.

And I am just a part, just like you. And from verses 21 through 25,

Paul highlights our need for each other. We cannot say we have no need of each other. This corrects a super common problem in our individualistic society, where we are proud of our independence.

If you notice in the graphic, does anybody know what e pluribus unum means? Out of many?

Out of many, one. Okay, that's on our money. That's one of our national sayings, right?

E pluribus unum, out of many, one. And I would suggest to you that probably a more accurate saying in America is

I don't need anyone. I could do it myself, thank you very much.

Would you say that that's more accurate than out of many, one? Out of one, one.

That's the mindset of America. Each person, a nation unto themselves.

Each one doing what pleases them the most. And each one forging our own destiny.

And weakness is shown by needing others, right? Isn't that how we define weakness?

If you need somebody, then you're weak. No, that's the opposite of what Scripture wants to say.

The Bible says we cannot say I have no need of you. We cannot say that.

You see, a humility is necessary in the life of the body. Paul doesn't deny that there will be weaker parts of the body.

There will be less honorable and unpresentable parts. I find it ironic that he points this out and yet the moment we begin to consider who are the less honorable or who are the unpresentable parts, then at that point we go against what

Paul is trying to accomplish here. The bottom line is he wants us all to walk away from this text with the notion, the firm conviction that we need us.

We all need us. Even our unpresentable parts, Paul says, require more clothing and receive honor through modesty.

Yeah, he goes there. In verse 24, there's an indication that God is the one who rewards those who lack honor for their role in the church.

In other words, another way of kind of thinking of verse 24 is that those who work behind the scenes receive their reward, will one day receive their reward from God.

And those who work in a more upfront role will often receive their reward from the people around them.

A reward straight from God, reward from others. One of those sound better to you?

The result of all of this should be a mutual care for one another. All of this is driving towards a lack of division.

We all have dignity and worth regarding our callings. I mean, regardless of our callings.

Our dignity and worth isn't in relationship directly to the prominence of our role.

Recognizing that we are vitally connected in need to one another ought to cause us to work together without divisions in this body.

The body of Christ is to care for one another. When one of us suffers, we suffer together. And I mention this often regarding small group ministry and our commitment to growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service.

That growing in community component is that we desire that nobody in our church suffer alone.

That nobody in our church equally rejoice alone. I think sometimes rejoicing alone is more miserable than suffering alone.

Would you agree with me on that? Sometimes when you have good news and you've got nobody to share it with, that's like the pit, right?

Nobody celebrates with me when there's a, what? That we have connection in relationship and primarily that happens, the goal of small groups is that that happens in that context where there is a sharing of life together and when one is down, we suffer together and we work together to overcome.

And when somebody is honored, we rejoice together in that honor. Think about how convoluted things get when somebody is honored and we get jealous.

Isn't that backwards in the church when one of our members is honored and it's like, well, why did he get honored and I didn't?

How does that crop up in our heart? You see, just like when a ball was flying at my head, I mean, if there's a ball flying, the whole body responds when a ball flies at me, right?

That worked a lot better than, and I'm glad I caught it because that one was coming. First service, it was low and outside.

Ball flying at my head, right? My whole body reacts. My feet react. Now, what's that got to do with my head?

Because my whole body is interconnected, right? And if you notice, I mean, my hands will immediately fly up.

Now, I don't know if my hands are going to protect my head or if they're going to catch whatever's coming at me, but I guarantee that if that was a piece of aluminum metal flying at me, my hands would still go up.

They'd take the hit, wouldn't they? Naturally, a sympathetic response, it's called, in the body where the different body parts react together for the preservation of the person.

Do we have that sense of connection here in this church where we rally around one another and we care for one another when they're hurting or when they're in jeopardy or when they're in danger?

Getting what I'm saying? That kind of connection and relationship with one another. We need, you know, without hands, it's hard to stop that ball coming in, right?

We need one another. Verses, get caught up here.

Together, recast, we are the body of Christ. And individually, the text says, we are members of it.

In other words, when you think about your role here, when you think about what is church and how do

I factor into that, think of yourself like a hand. Think of yourself like a part of the body, a body part.

Not a single one of us has what it takes to get by. And when you think of yourself as a hand, well, hands are pretty handy, right?

It's good. Yeah, thanks. But without a body, is a hand a useful thing?

I guess some of you are thinking, well, is it the fingerprint I'm looking for? Okay, that's enough.

A hand is not very handy without connection to the body.

They're not very helpful. And listen to me carefully. I cannot overstate how utterly incomplete you are by yourself.

I cannot overstate how incomplete you are spiritually alone. You do not have what it takes by yourself.

I cannot overstate how much the New Testament writers expected you to be a part of a local body, connected, sewn in, and doing what

God has created you to do in your local church. I don't believe I can overstate that. I realize that if I preach this as strongly as Paul goes for it here,

I could be considered guilty of pressuring you into taking home a membership application today. And I have one right here, just as a sample, just as an example.

And there's more of those on the other side of the wall. If anybody wants one, let me know. It's really not about pressuring you.

I recognize that we live in a day and an age of options. How many of you, just being honest, you passed another church on the way here this morning?

A lot of us did. I didn't because I live right back here. So my hand is down. Close, I mean really.

There's churches in this community. There's churches around the neighborhoods and stuff. With all these options available to us, it's very possible for you to sit as an eyelid or a neck or whatever part you are.

Try to figure that out. Some of you might get lost in the metaphor. Don't get lost in the metaphor trying to figure out if you're a neck or a foot.

That's not the point. The point is we need each other. But you can sit there like a neck or an eyelid and just be a visitor for a couple of years.

Maybe some of us have gone through stages or phases or maybe you're in it right now where you're just, I'm a visitor and I'm still a visitor.

Been here three years, visiting. Just checking it out. Want to keep my options open.

You guys get what I'm saying. I think it's reasonable because discernment would say check and I would encourage you to check and make sure it's a healthy body.

Before you sew in, make sure it's healthy. Some of you in reality, you've been burned in the past.

You ended up joining a body where there was poison in the veins and you're kind of like, I'm not going to go do that again.

And so you want to be careful and there's discernment involved in this. But the fact of the matter is just because you've been burned in the past, and by the way, if you're in that situation, come and talk with me.

Come and talk with Kyle. We would love to sit down and chat with you about your past experiences that are holding you back from full connection and full engagement with the body.

And we've had some of those conversations. I'm guessing there's more to be had here. But I think it's a healthy thing to kind of work through that.

I recognize that many of you have been burned in the past. But the fact of the matter is you need a body to be a member of, and hear me carefully, there's a body that needs you.

It's not just that you need a body, but there's a body that is not reaching its potential because you're not there engaged and doing your function and what you were made to do.

With all humility, I suggest to you to contemplate the fact that God has brought you here this morning. He's brought you here.

I'm not saying that because you're here you must become a member today, take home an application, or anything like that. But I am suggesting that you ought to be in the process of making up your mind.

All of us should be in that process of making up our mind. As soon as you realize, if you come to the conclusion that Recast is not the kind of place you want to be a member, if you kind of say,

I don't want to sew in here, I would recommend that you find someplace else to be vitally connected to.

And as bold as that sounds, please take it as love for you and love for whatever body you are supposed to be a part of.

I'd love to sit down with anybody and recommend other churches if Recast is not a good fit for you. I've had some really good, awesome,

I know that for some of you, you kind of go, now that's whack, that's crazy to sit down with your pastor and talk through other options.

I would love that and I've actually had those conversations with people in the past and they've been very beneficial. And people that have come through here and it's been obvious to them that this is not a good fit for them for whatever reason and we've sat down and we've talked and they're plugged in in another church and vitally connected and engaged and energized.

And I know a lot of other pastors. As a pastor, I get to know other pastors, I get to know other churches. I can steer you in a good direction if that's what needs to happen.

But equally, as soon as you come to the conclusion that Recast is the place for you, get sutured in and start doing your thing.

And for some of us, honestly, I just said that and you're like, what is my thing? What do I do? And that's a great question to have on your mind this morning and to go into a meeting with Kyle or me or Zach or Rob or your small group leader and say, what do you see?

I'm new at this whole thing. Some of you are new believers and you're kind of like, I haven't really been challenged to take a step of engagement in serving others and I'm not quite sure what

I'm designed to do. Well, wouldn't it be a good idea to find out? Wouldn't that be exciting to find out what you were designed to do and then get at that?

I mean, obviously, a hand that doesn't clench, a hand that doesn't move is not very helpful to the body.

An eye that doesn't see and isn't in the process of providing vision for the body, is that helpful to the body?

It's not doing what it's intended to do. And obviously, that needs to be a step for each of us to consider.

And then the reality is, some of you, I mean, I didn't even say this first service, but the reality is that some of us might be an ear that's trying to see.

Okay? You get what I'm saying? Or a hand that's trying to walk. And that doesn't work too well either.

And some of you, maybe you're up against it. You're involved in ministry. You're engaged here in ministry and you're kind of going, this is like hitting my head against a brick wall.

This isn't fun. I didn't sign up for this. And it's tough. And you got to measure, you know, is this just the reality of there's parts of every ministry that are going to be tough, right?

Those of you that have been involved in ministry, raise your hand if you know that there's parts of every ministry that are not fun. There's the paperwork for me.

Now, some of you are like, paperwork? Bring it on! I'm like, come on. Ugh. And poor

Zach has to get my expense account reports and he's like, I always get this turned in and I'm like, paperwork?

For real? So there's parts of every ministry that you're not going to enjoy.

And you have to measure that out and say, am I doing what God has designed me to do? And figure that out.

That's not to say that there's not just a time for us to step up and accomplish things together, but man, I mean, getting engaged and involved in what you are created to do is an awesome thing.

God has given us to each other. And he's given to the church, apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, helping, administrating, various kinds of languages.

I'm not getting, this isn't the time or the place to get into the details and in -depth of what each one of those gifts looks like and all that.

But the fact of the matter is Paul is saying he's gifted the church with a variety of different members, a variety of different gifts, a variety of different abilities.

And not everyone has every gift. And there is not one gift that everyone possesses, despite the direct disagreement of our

Pentecostal brothers and sisters. Not everyone speaks in tongues. The indication is that at the end of this text, every single one of these questions is intended to be answered, no, are all apostles, no, are all prophets, no, are all teachers, and on down to, do all speak with tongues, no, do all interpret, no.

But then he throws this thing in there. Well, let me state this first.

God has given us to each other. And what defines us as a church is that we are a body of organs, a body of muscles, nerves, bones, teachers, administrators, prophets, musicians, all a diversity of members brought together by the sovereignty of God, guided by our head,

Jesus Christ. And in an ironic twist, Paul concludes his thought and leads into his next thought by commanding us to earnestly desire, what does it say?

Earnestly desire the higher gifts. Paul, wait a minute.

Didn't we just get done, isn't the purpose of your entire monologue here, isn't the purpose of the section of your letter to say, stop being arrogant about these gifts and start, you know, balancing this a little bit and making sure that everybody feels welcome, and now all of a sudden we're calling something higher gifts?

What is he getting at here? Well, then he goes on and he's going to go on to chapter 13, which we're going to cut off and not get into, but he says,

I will show you still a more excellent way. And then he's going to expound on those higher things that he's talking about, namely faith, hope, and love, the fuel for the application of our gifts, the way that we roll in our service to one another is faith, hope, and love.

If we do our duty and we do what a hand does and we're called to be a hand but we don't have love in it, then he says we're a clanging gong and just like cymbals just going off with no point or no rhyme or reason to it.

Love has to be the way, the higher way in all of this.

He's going to say to them there's a higher way and that higher way goes far beyond all the bickering that was going on in the church in Corinth.

There are many applications to this and I prayed this week that the spirit would deal with each one of us on this, that he would smack us over the forehead, that I wouldn't smack you over the forehead, that the spirit would, that each one of us has a specific application for us that comes out of this text as we go through it.

But the first thing I would suggest to you that all of us should consider is whether or not we are being called to take the step to become a member of a church.

That may be your next step, to become a member of a church. And I would love it if Recast could be that place for you, a place for you to apply your ministry and to grow up in faith and grow in community and grow in service.

As a body here at Recast we are growing in faith by recognizing Jesus Christ as our head and following him.

As a body here at Recast Church we are growing in community by recognizing the mutual interdependence of the members of the body.

We need each other. As a body here at Recast we grow in service by functioning as the member that God has made us to be, doing the things that he has made us and designed us for.

Hopefully you hear in this that membership is so much more than the right to vote on stuff or so much more than an in and out club where we all get matching members only jackets and the 10th cup of coffee is free.

In case you didn't notice the coffee's already free to begin with. Membership is a step of humility.

Hear me carefully as I land this. Membership is a step of humility saying I need.

That's where it starts. I need you. And then it goes on as a step of responsibility saying

I will give to others what I have to offer. I will not hold these gifts to myself but I will share them in the body that needs me.

I need you and you need me. And that's reality in the church.

Another potential application has to do with satisfaction about what God has called us to do or he's made us to be.

We are to allow no room for jealousy over the gifts that God has bestowed on others and we ought to be satisfied with the gifts that God has given to us.

Be satisfied with the calling that he's placed on us and get busy honing those skills and being the best at whatever he's designed you to be.

Lastly, some of us have been sitting on the sidelines. The reality is we've been sitting here for a while now watching and we need to start serving.

We need to stop being the eye that doesn't see. Stop being the ear that doesn't hear. Stop being the hand that doesn't clench or move and start using the gifts that he has given to us.

Each one of us should consider what God is calling us to this morning. Take seriously his desire to knit you together with others.

As I said already, it requires humility to say I need you but it also requires commitment to serve others in the way that God has designed us.

And this morning we come to communion to remember the sacrifice that has brought us together with the head Jesus Christ.

I would not likely know any of you here were it not for Jesus Christ. Think about that. I don't know if I would live in this community were it not for Jesus Christ and his calling on my life.

As a young child, God grabbed my life and I came to realize his sacrifice for me that he died on the cross for me and my feet were placed on a trajectory that has collided with yours.

And each one of us has a story about how God has brought us into this room together today. It's a beautiful mosaic, a patchwork quilt, a body of members that God has brought from a variety of different backgrounds and he's brought us in a collision together in this beautiful thing called his body, his church.

Called to love one another, to serve one another, to suffer with one another, to rejoice with one another.

And we remember communion every week. Communion is a rejoicing, three R's, rejoicing, remembering, and a weekly reunion of his body.

If there's ever a time that we are to be united in remembering the body of Christ brought together and that which has brought us together, that sacrifice, it's during communion.

He shed his blood and he was crushed in his flesh for us. And the symbols of his death are juiced to represent his blood and crackers that represent his body broken for us.

If you've asked Jesus to save you, then feel free to remember his sacrifice that has given us this reunion together today.

If you're here and you've never asked Jesus Christ to save you, please know that you can be brought into the family of Jesus Christ.

You can be brought into this body by faith. Come and see me after the service if you would like to start a new life through Jesus Christ based on forgiveness and based on his work on the cross.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for bringing us all together in this room.

And I recognize that there are some visitors here. There are some people who maybe this is their first or second time. And then there's others that have been here multiple times.

And there are some who are members and actually have formally sutured into this church. And then there are others who are trying to figure that out and is this the right place for them.

Father, I pray that you would light a fire in each one of us for unity and connectedness. And Father, in humility that we would genuinely say we need each other.

That we would not go it alone. This is a lonely place and America is a lonely culture and it's very easy for us in the midst of all of our quote unquote friends to have nothing.

Father, here I sense unity. Here I sense a purpose and a genuine connectedness. Father, I rejoice in your church.

I thank you for creating Recast. It's been your work from beginning to end. And Father, even as we take these next steps out into 2014 and all the uncertainty of transitioning to the schools and even the

Q &A coming up. Father, provide us unity, a sense of focus, a sense of purpose and allow your body to continue to expand that as others out there need to come in and connect.

Father, that we would have a welcoming atmosphere. Father, that we would have a connection here that demonstrates your love to us through your sacrifice.

Thank you for sending your son to die on the cross for us. Thank you for your spirit that binds us together in Jesus' name.