Good morning. It's good to be together again. This is on. Is it OK? I've titled my sermon this morning. Many members, many gifts, one body. When you go to museums, visit old houses and old neighborhoods, you can tell a lot how those people thought and what their view of community was back then by just studying how they lived. For instance, you go down an Old Street and I've done this in Windsor, and you just look at the houses, big front porches, these pillars.
It's a big wide front porch. And I, I don't go into the back there, but I can see how the front looks and you can tell there was an emphasis placed on front porch connections. In other words, people would walk down the streets in 100 years ago, they'd walk down the streets and they would chat with the neighbors as they'd walk down the street. They did after work. So it was a connecting point. Then you drive down a new subdivision, there's nothing in
the front, absolutely nothing. But there's nice backyards fenced in, high fences you can't see over because it's all about privacy, individualism, the connection people had about 100 years ago to today. I'm not saying it's all bad, OK? I'm not saying it's all bad. But there's a difference between how people connected back then and how people connect today.
You see, we have come to a time in our lives where we don't want to need each other and we don't want to connect with each other, and we're isolating ourselves increasingly. And I this is not a generalized statement, but this is what the world is coming to. Our whole world is orienting itself towards individualism. What's so scary about it is this isolation thing. It's working terrifyingly well.
And even though people may realize, it feels good to not have to connect with the neighbor and not have to chat with this guy, and it's not going down the right path. Folks, I want to suggest to you this morning, the path humanity's on right now is not sustainable. Not only is it not sustainable, if we as a society don't change, it will lead to a collapse. This is where the church comes in, and now there's a lot more we can say about that, but I'll
start there. We need to work, so we need to live so that we intentionally need each other. Let that soak in that we intentionally need one another. There's blind spots in our culture, and our government seems to not be helping, or they have wonderful programs and those kinds of things, but the community aspect of society is not being fostered. We've created a culture where temporal, physical, tangible things have been elevated at the
expense of relationship. I'm not saying this in judgment of people where both parents work. I understand the dilemma. And Anna, Anna, I've been there too. And I'm not pointing this out to indicate, but I'm pointing this out to indicate where our culture is at this point. Our society is working relentlessly toward a phase where we're all not in need of anything. I remember the day when and the technology is partly to blame for it.
But for instance, I remember the day when we didn't have these in a family of 10 people. They shared 11 phone. And it's not wrong. I mean, somebody still do that. But now we each have our own phone and nobody knows what the other's phone is doing. We need to need each other. We need to be in a place where we give and received from each other. The problem is the way things are now is we think we'll be satisfied if we're independent
and self-sufficient. But what it does creates a long like drinking salt water in the sea. I want to challenge us this morning with this thought. What if God never intended us to be independent? What if God never intended us to be independent? What if we were? If we came to a point where we understand and accept that dependence is God ordained, we are created to need each other. Folks think of little babies. They're born completely dependent, 100%.
They die within a very short while if they're not completely taken care of. They're designed that way from the very outset. Was God's idea all along that we would need one another and we always will need one another even if we achieve the the status where the phase of life where we kind of all you know, I'm independent now what makes it more disturbing in the West even the church folks is buying into this Even the church is buying into this and that
concerns me to a certain degree. The church has now adopted the mindset, I'm not saying every church and here we're working against that. We're trying to do different things. But I remember well as a young boy, mom and dad would go to church and I would go along. It didn't matter what we did. We did it as a church. All of it was family oriented, family focused, family based. But now the churches in general, especially large churches, OK, I
want to be careful. I'm stepping on thin ice here. I know this, but especially large churches, it's so easy to become divided, separated, segregated, isolated, compartmentalized. Everything we do, age appropriate, phase of life appropriate and we become silos. And then the other thing in a large church is very easy to hide because you know what? I can sit and nobody will notice I'm here and I can leave and nobody will notice I'm here. And a small church is very hard to hide.
And that's why group ministry is so important in a large church. If there's anyone listening online here, please hear me. I'm not saying large churches are bad. This is a huge opportunity or a huge risk that we just kind of people fall by the cracks, through the cracks. We are created by design. Dependent. We need each other, but we don't want to be dependent. The young need the old, the old need the young, the strong need the weak, the weak need the strong.
The rich need the poor, the poor need the rich. The skilled and talented people need those who have different skills and talents. We all need one another and we will never really successfully live together until we appreciate, embrace and conform to this reality in our lives. And it's God's design that the Church of Jesus Christ models this. And nowhere do we find this more emphasized than in the book of what we call the Bible.
A relationship is not really a God designed relationship when 1 does not need the other. When Jesus came to this world, he connected with humanity. He literally made himself dependent on all kinds of people as a baby, dependent on Mary and Joseph, as a young boy on Mary and Joseph. Then when he started his ministry, he didn't even have a job. So there were some women who went with him and the apostles were with him, but they took
care of each other. And so as far as we know, some women supported him through their means. The Apostle Paul had a very good grasp of this when he served as an apostle, and he started a lot of churches. He was very much focused on helping the churches. See, look, guys, we're not independent. We need each other, this one church especially. We're going through the book of First Corinthians and we'll talk about that in a minute here. Paul saw this need these guys,
They need each other. I'd better tell them that they need each other. I don't know what society they lived in, in that respect. We do know that was a very corrupt society, but they needed one another. Paul pointed out to him the last Sunday Pastor Joe mentioned in the sermon on the gifts that God has given the church through the Spirit, through 1 Spirit, he says Paul says 1 Spirit.
Joe mentioned that everything about us as God's children, everything about us, our relationship with God, our gifts that God has given us, all of it's interconnected at all levels. No one has a gift that God gave to a person for just that person. All of our gifts that God has blessed us with as individuals are all intended for the greater good. There are many people, different gifts, but there's only one church. There's only one body.
I want us this morning to read First Corinthians chapter 12 verse 13 to 31. Turn in your Bibles for First Corinthians 12 verse 13 to the end of the chapter Paul writes. For just as the body is 1 and as 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 are free, and all were made to drink of 1 spirit. But the body does not consist of
one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I'm 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? Where would be the body as it is? There are many parts, yet one body, the I 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 in those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we bestow greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which are more presentable. Parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it. There may be 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's honor, all rejoice together.
Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it, And God has appointed in the church first apostles, 2nd prophets. There are 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 possessed gifts of healing? Do all speaking tongues? Do all interpret, but earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you still a more
excellent way. Did you catch how many times the Apostle Paul used the word one in this passage in the ESV?
It's 11 times that I counted 11 times this this chapter, this portion is focusing on Paul's teaching in the church that the gifts of ministry are for one purpose, glorifying, helping, building the body of Christ. This morning we will not be able to go into all the intricate details of the workings of the different gifts and so on, but we will go into the the part about that being one body, many parts, many gifts.
Last Sunday we heard in verse 7. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good doesn't say the individual good. Paul explains the various kinds of gifts the Spirit gives, but what is so striking is that the gifts are not given for selfish use for the person to whom they're given. Paul mentions a variety of gifts that stand out to each one as the Spirit decides. Then he goes on to explain the importance of all all the how
this all works. The illustration that Paul uses to describe the importance is simply amazing. The illustration of the body, the Church of Christ is made-up of individuals. These individuals make one body. The fact that it's a body means that the body has members. Paul goes into quite a bit of detail explaining there's one body, but that one body has many members. We must realize and recognize there's only one body, as He says in verse 12 and 13. You see, that really narrows
things down. By the way, just keep your Bibles and your device open to that chapter. I won't put the verses on PowerPoint this time. You see, it really narrows it down, doesn't it? Of all the gifts that may be available, the place we're there to function and do the work is as one in conjunction with the others. Not 2 bodies, not 3, not 4, just one. He makes it clear there's no distinction between people as to their value and Jesus. We're all one. We're all tied into the same
source. We're all part of the same. We could say vine. Jesus talked about that in John chapter 15 verse one to 10. He said he's the vine, we're the branches. We're all nurtured by the same source. We all have our security, our foundation in the same source. And then next Paul goes on to explain how all of this is in a way like the human body. Note the descriptive language Paul uses in chapter 12 to describe the function of the various parts.
This flies in the face out of our modern individualistic culture. It's a foreign idea. Paul makes it a special point to mention that no one individual has all the gifts. No one individual can live alone, work alone, and believe they're better off alone. The idea that some people have as Christians, I have nothing to offer. My gift is not very important. I don't have a gift. That's simply not true.
Paul writes in Philippians chapter 2 how Jesus emptied himself of his power, made himself dependent on human beings. He doesn't use those words, but that's the implication there. Jesus demonstrated his life by coming as a human being and then serving us and then dying for us. You see this love that flows out of Jesus. He wants that to flow between the members of the body. As a man, Jesus connected with friends. He got tired. He needed food and he needed stuff.
And and yeah, he could turn water into wine. He could have been the most individualistic, independent man who ever lived. And yet he chose dependents. And I will say something here and those who are listening online, I don't mean this to be harsh. What does this say about online church? Hear me carefully. We stream our sermons online intentionally, so there's a place in time for some people may not be well, they're elderly, frail and may be sick
and cannot come to church. OK, that's great. Let them listen and watch online. That's great. But it's not good. If someone says, and I've heard it said, you know, I just love to sit in my bed in my pajamas and just drink coffee and watch church online, that is wrong. What if everybody did that? Some people are so self focused they don't care about what their presence means for the other person.
See, the body is one, but the members are many, he says in verse 14. The members are many, many members and the foot can't say to the I to the hand, I don't need you. The I can't say I don't I'm because of an I'm not don't belong. We all need each other, the ears, the eyes, the hands, the feet. This is called to community. Even though there's just one body, the number of parts are as vast as the number of people that make up the church.
Community means togetherness and togetherness means there'll be ways to connect. And all the ways to connect is when one person gives to another and the other receives in return. It means 1 member connects to another. In the world today, there are people and even Christians who say, well, I want the member benefits without the connection. I want member benefits with disconnect. Convenience.
That is not good. It's convenient if there's no one who has access to you and you keep yourself distant from others. But then to expect the others to cut, to rally around when you need them, that is not fair. God has retained the body so that the body needs the members. These members are all interdependent. Interdependent, he says in verse 19. If all were a single member, where would the body be? Verse 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body I can't
say. To the head I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you. We know that it makes no sense to think of a human body where individual limbs would not work as a one unit. But you know what does happen in a physical body where a limb here or there does not work anymore? Somebody gets paralyzed, the hand just hangs and the arm just dangles there. The the arm won't work anymore. What's the other arm have just to compensate?
What if you woke up on a weekday morning, wanted to get to work and then you want to reach for the alarm to shut it off and your hand wouldn't work. Now you reach with the left hand. What's wrong with my right hand? And maybe your hand could talk, say I did all my work yesterday. I'm taking today off. Or maybe you want to get up out of bed and your feet would say again, do we have to walk today again? We want to stay in bed for a day. Take it easy.
We did more than our share of walking yesterday. Maybe you want to make a phone call and the ear would say, I have to listen again. I did more than enough listening yesterday. I'm I'm, I'm not going to do any listening today to make matters worse. And your eyes would say, oh, oh, we're not reading today. We're going to we're thinking on sightseeing today, but reading. No, we're not reading today. Just imagine the aggravation that you would go through if your body parts were independent
of you as a person. The idea I don't need anyone. I want to be independent. I'm by myself. That's a lie. All the members need all the members. Nobody don't have the same function. True. And there's a reason for that. But the functions are all important. Let's say you are a construction worker. You go to in the morning to construction. Your feet carry your body, your hands handle the wood do the cutting, your eyes do the
looking and the the measuring. Your ears do the listening to the instructions and communication, your tongue does the speaking and all that. Every member is involved. They're all there, they're all present, all contributing, all benefiting and so on. If you've ever watched a person who's lost a limb or two and see how they work, you can very quickly tell how vital it is that they have body parts. Maybe somebody's arm is missing. The other arm can compensate,
but it's that much harder. Someone's leg is missing, they maybe have a prosthetic leg or whatever. They can still work fine, but it's not the same. But then, as I said, what if, what if the limbs are paralyzed? They're there, but it's not working. Man has two legs, just can't walk and a wheelchair. A man has an arm that's paralyzed. Well, it's just in the way. There's one body, many members, and you and I are members of that one body. The body is 1. The members are many.
They're all interdependent and they all suffer. Live and suffer and work together in unity. OK, if it's convenient, if it's easy, if it's suitable, then I might join. But if there's any suffering involved, count me out. No, no, Paul says they all suffer. They all suffer together, live together, and if one is honored, they all rejoice together. Suffering is not optional, it's a part of life.
Jesus said that. Paul wrote about that to Timothy. We will suffer, but sometimes you try to avoid it at all costs. And worse, in our world, there's this mindset. Survivor, the fittest. What happens when some members of the body decide to become independent, self focused as an I don't need you kind of mentality or worse. You owe me and I'll take what I can get.
What happens then is tragic. The very members of the body that should be supporting one another start working independently for themselves at the expense of one another. It's a disaster. I'm reminded of 2 short stories and I was reminded of these when I prepared the sermon. I want to share them this morning out of a book called In the Likeness of God written by Paul Brand and Philip Yancey.
It's an older book. Paul Brand was a Christian Doctor Who for many years lived in poor countries, working among the lowest of the low in the third world countries. And two stories that he mentioned, the book he has many stories came to my mind and they fit this sermon here this morning. He was in India one day in a railroad station. He saw this bigger woman in a very pitiful situation. Like many Indian beggars, she was emaciated, sunken cheeks, hollow eyes, Bony limbs.
But paradoxically, strangely enough, there's a huge mass of plump skin on the side of her body. She was laying there on the ground and was round and sleek like a large sausage. It was growing from her side and she had exposed it so people would have pity on her, like a large formless baby connected to her by a bridge of skin. Doctor Bran mentally says although he only saw her briefly, he felt sure the growth was a lipoma, a tumor, fat of
cells. It was a part of her, yet not as if some surgeon had carved a hunk of fat out of a very large person, wrapped it in live skin and death be sold and onto her body. She was starving. She held out a feeble, spindly hand for a handout. Even though she was starving, the the tumor was thriving, nearly equaling the equaling the weight, the weight of the rest of her body. It gleamed in the sun, exuding health, sucking the life from her.
It was a matter of the fat cells handgun rogue sucking the life that this woman needed so badly to survive. Something had gone wrong. And then he used that story to explain how the purpose of fat cells in the body is to store energy. They have a purpose. They store energy that the storehouse the body needs for when the energy cells like the muscle cells when they need energy. And so the fat cells had just kept storing and they went rogue.
They just stored and stored and stored and would never give anything to the muscles. So the muscles were trying to do the work but had no energy to do the work. And he talks about, he talked about that we are all cells in the body of Christ. We all have a job to do. You know, when a person develops a tumor of whatever kind of tumor that is, that tumor has in itself the death sentence written on it right from the get go.
Because the tumor will either be removed and die, or it will kill the person who has the tumor, and then when the person dies, the tumor dies too. It's unsustainable to live that way. It brings death. A tumor won't give up by itself. It just keeps going and going into the either kills the body and then dies, or it's removed and then dies. Sin in the body of Christ never ends well. If it's not removed, it's
allowed to continue. In the end, it kills its host only as we're willing to surrender to Christ, willing to give our lives to Him in grace and humility. Embrace the cross and serve each other to what God has blessed us, what He's blessed us with. Only then can we be the body, strong and healthy. Paul Brand in his book draws attention that in all aspects of life we're sharing with her neighbors, with one another at our expense for their good and they at their expense for our good.
We are dependent. Every member has a gift. He says God has appointed in the church for his apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating in various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles, Are all prophets, Are all teachers, doll work, miracles? Don't have gifts of healing to all speak in tongues, but earnestly desire the greater gifts. These are gifts of the Spirit that God has created each person to possess in one shape or form
or another. All of us have something. Some people have multiple gifts, some have only one. But the list of gifts Paul mentions here are not the only gifts that we find in the Bible. For instance, go to Romans chapter 12-1 to 8. We won't read that this morning, but there's other gifts. There's a wide variety of gifts mentioned, and God never will ask anyone to do anything for which He will not equip that person.
I won't take time this morning to go into detail to elaborate on all the different gifts, but I want to go back to chapter 12, verse 7. Paul writes to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. All of us are in this. None of us is exempt. I'll close with one more story to illustrate how critical, how vital and how important this is from the same book. And this story includes Dr. Brand's wife, Margaret.
She was an eye surgeon. They served for many years in 3rd world countries, as I mentioned before, and one of the things they did was treat leprosy patients. He worked in a leprosurium, a third world country, and he was very good at doing surgery for leprosy patients and trying to help them make use of their limbs that were not functioning well. Leprosy patients don't have feeling in their extremities. They can't feel their fingers,
their hands. And so when the leprosy patient smashes their finger in a door, oh, my fingers flat or they touch something, oh, my hand is smoking, they cut. Oh, I'm bleeding, they have a cut in their hand. Leprosy patients can't feel. They can't feel. And Paul Brand goes on to tell the story of a man in a hospital that he was treating, that he and his wife were treating, named Jose. They moved back to the US and there they dealt with some of these issues.
In one hospital, there's a man named Jose who had leprosy, severe case of leprosy. He had lost so much of A sense of touch that he could not feel anything. Somebody would blindfold him and lead, lead somebody into the room to shake his hand. He couldn't even feel that. There's no feeling in his, in his hand, since he could not feel. He had lots of scars and ulcers in his hands and face and feet and indicating the injuries he'd received, in part because he could not feel pain.
His hands were just his fingers were just stubs where the fingers had been. Because he couldn't feel. He couldn't feel his eyes either. They dried out from not blinking when they should. That together with other problems and cataracts, glaucoma, he became blind. Now he could not see and not feel. Think about that for a second. Paul's wife Margaret was an eye doctor, as I mentioned, and she wanted to find a way to help Jose get his sight back.
But she couldn't operate on him because the inflammation was so, so bad. And she also needed a consent form to be signed, which he couldn't sign. Anyway, the doctors tried treating him with medication, but it was a new drug and he had an allergic reaction. Now he lost his hearing. Think about that. No hearing, no sight, no feeling. No hearing, sight, sound, feeling, nothing. Here he was, 40 year old Jose, cut off from the world, could
not see, not feel, not hear. The people in that hospital noticed on him, on his bed. He was just curling up, day by day, tighter into a fetal position, just lying there, just laying there. Days went by and he just coiled it tighter and tighter on the bed. They'd walk by his room, shake their heads. What could anyone do? Margaret, Dr. Brand's wife wouldn't give up. She wanted to operate on this man hoping to get his sight back, but she needed this
consent form. And finally she was able to track down a relative in Puerto Rico where he come from and and got hold of the authorities there. And they brought a form to this illiterate relative, his sister. She put an X where the name is supposed to be and that was sent back. And now she had the the final, she had the consent to go ahead and do some surgery. Of course Jose couldn't feel, but he knew something was happening to him as he was being moved onto a stretcher and
wheeled away. When Margaret did the surgery it took a couple of hours and then she banded him up and then moved him to recovery and now the waiting began. Few days later she removed the bandages and she had an experience she would never forget. Although Jose sensed some gross movement and reason someone was trying to help and nothing had prepared him for it actually did happen. He got the use of one eye back
and he could see again. His eye struggled against the light and slowly focused on the medical people around him and the bed around the bed and he. He had not smiled in months and now he his face cracked into a toothless grin. Contact had been restored, he could see, Paul Brand writes. During that time of long isolation, Hose's brain floated intact in his skull, complete with memory, emotions, instructions for directing his body, but stayed useless because
the whey was blocked. Then Paul goes on to explain It makes the connection between Jesus and the head as the head and the body and we are the members. He needed his physical abilities for his brain to do what his brain needed to do. He had lost all of it for a time. It's I think it's safe to say Jesus Christ could not think of a greater way to communicate his desire for fellowship and relations with His creation, His image bearers. That's us.
Then by coming the way He did and showing us the path he did and so many are just trying to get out of it. What's the application? Jesus opened himself up for so much to us. He gave everything as a human being. We find that again in Philippians chapter 2 and many other passages. When we shut ourselves out from each other, we lose our sense of touch, our sense of listening, and we don't see anymore Jesus, still the head of the church. We're his body.
How's it going if there are those here this morning who feel isolated, alone and empty? Jesus wants to heal that through you maybe, or someone else. Maybe you're a person in the room Jesus wants to use as his hands, his feet, his eyes, his ears to minister to a lonely, isolated, struggling person. The world tells you, oh, just don't get involved. That poor guy. Don't get involved, that's just a problem. Don't get involved.
No, he involved himself with us. It's true the pain and suffering is hard, but not to feel is worse. Not to feel leads to death. Jesus has given us himself and His resources, His Spirit, His gifts that we need to use for the blessing of one another. It's to God's glory that we use our gifts to show love to each other with the gifts we've been given. I don't know what kind of gift God has given you. Some I could say, but it's not for me to say. Whatever gift that may be, start
simply by this love one another. Start there and in that context it will become evident what areas God has gifted you and his guiding and directing you. It will be revealed. And if you're a follower of Jesus, you have a gift and you're responsible for it. And there may be some here this morning to whom all this sounds new and strange. And what's he talking about? Maybe you're not a follower of Jesus at this point, maybe never have been.
I want to encourage you to look to Jesus and realize that He has made you for glory, to worship Him and that's your greatest purpose in life, to receive the blessings of other and give the blessings to others and to all who surrender to Jesus, who repent of their sin, who receive Jesus as part of their receive Jesus as salvation. God will reveal himself and He
will bless you. May God continue to draw us as a church, as one body with many members working through 1 Spirit blessing one another and we receive the blessings from each other. Let us pray. Lord, we are your children. We're part of your body. We do not exist for ourselves. We exist for you and one another. And we live out that gift by serving one another with the gifts you've blessed us with. Lord, we ask that you help us to do this faithfully.
There may be people here who've never considered how important their participation, their involvement and contribution is to the body. Maybe some are paralyzed with fear. They've been taught that they have nothing to offer. Lord, I pray that you'll heal those hearts and souls and help them to see that You've blessed each one of us. Lord, you know the hearts of everyone who's not yet surrendered to you.
May they accept the invitation that you're offering and help them to see the blessing of surrendering their lives and repenting of their sins and self focused lives. Lord, may it never be said of us that we refuse to use our gift for the purpose of benefiting and blessing your body. We give ourselves to you. Lord, we ask that You use us as a church for your glory in Jesus name, Amen.