Stronger Together (The Body) Manuscript

Introduction

Good morning, I’m glad to see everyone in here today, I want to start today with a brief story on one the passions that I had growing up.

When I was young I absolutely loved playing Baseball! I’m told from the time that I could walk I had started playing with the ball.

I played on countless teams and made countless memories on the baseball diamond.

I was a great fielder growing up, but I lacked in one very, very important area of the sport.

I could not bat for the life of me. I would go up to the plate, swing and often miss, but even when I did make contact, my ball wouldn’t be headed toward the fences, but instead resemble more of the distance of a bunt.

As I got older and entered into middle and high school ball, my coaches began to point out the error in my stance and my swing.

See, the proper way that they were teaching to hit the ball, was all centered on explosiveness. It was centered on getting energy transferred through your legs into your core and allowing that to propel you toward a powerful swing.

They taught to transfer the weight to your back hip by loading up, and then releasing all that force with a step and twist of your back foot.

My issue at that time was I didn’t understand the importance of the body in my swing. I thought if I chopped my arms as hard as I could at the ball I would be swinging for the fences, but without using the body, I found that I was wasting my opportunities at the plate.

The reason I tell you that story isn’t to point out my passion of baseball, but instead to point out the importance of the Body.

The Body is stronger when it works together than when each part tries to do it on their own.

The thing that breaks my heart the most in the church today, and by the church I don’t mean exclusively Agra FBC, but the global church is that we got a lot of arms that try to do it on their own, we got a lot of people who underestimate the power of Christian community and their role in it.

Picture with me a fireplace that is burning on a cold winter day, its burning hot and keeping everything in it warm, now say a piece of coal falls out of that fire, it may hold heat for a little while, but without the flames around it it will eventually grow cold and weak.

Today as we look into the scriptures together, I want to try to show you the reason that the body of Christ, which is the local church and the global church of all believers exists and maybe give you some clarity on your role within it.

I want to show you, what the bible teaches us about the strength that lies within the Body of Christ and the church, and show you the source of that strength which comes directly from the head of the body, which is Jesus!

Read with me today

The Power In Diversity

1 Corinthians 12:12–20 CSB

12 For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. 14 Indeed, the body is not one part but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. 19 And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

I want you to know this about the body of Christ, Our greatest strength is our diversity.

If we were a room full of feet, but didn’t have the rest of our body, we couldn’t be productive, we would just stink.

But, I’ll say it again, our greatest differences are our greatest strengths as a church.

We have so many tremendous people here at Agra FBC who spend time cooking, teaching, giving, serving, praying, you fill in the blank.. and the reason the body can function here so well, is because people through time have uncovered their God given gifts and started to use them for his glory.

They started being a functioning part of the body.

What part of the body are you? How has God gifted you, specifically to serve the local church and his Kingdom?

You may be gifted in your skills outside of these church walls, now you may never feel led to cook, or preach, or lead a Sunday school class, but God has gifted so many with different skills and opportunities to love people beyond these walls.

When you leave church today, maybe as soon as you pull into your house, if your anything like me the first thing your gonna be thinking is what’s for lunch, but right after that your gonna be thinking, what ways has God gifted me? How am I being part of the body?

I want you to know this, that you have a purpose in God’s kingdom, you may just need to spend a little time with him to figure out what that is.

For those of you who didn’t know yet, I’m a current student at Midwestern Seminary. The slogan that my seminary is famous for in the Southern Baptist world , is the short phrase “For The Church”

That everything we do as students, is ultimately for the church, that as Christians we are called to glorify God and magnify his kingdom.

But I’d add a slogan to that, and that’s “For His Glory”, when you go home today and think about how you are serving God’s kingdom, think of ways in your everyday life that you can live “For his Glory”

Maybe that’s helping out someone who you know can’t help themselves

or maybe that’s sharing the gospel with that person you know no one else will share it with.

That’s the great commission that God calls his people to, To know God and to make him known.

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

That’s how we live “For His Glory”, Find that today, look for how you can serve his kingdom.

Our greatest differences are our greatest strengths because of Jesus.

We Need Each Other To Function

1 Corinthians 12:21–26 CSB

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. 23 And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, 24 which our respectable parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, 25 so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. 26 So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Talk about spartan battle stance, how the shield would cover the person to their left or to their right. That way they were protected in their line. If one fell they would all fail, if one succeeded they would succeed.

We need each other to function. That’s church. We can know exactly how we are called to serve in God’s kingdom and without the body around us, we are just a stinky foot in a closet.

We take hope because we know that we have brothers and sisters in Christ around us, who know the same loving God that we do.

We pick each other up.

We stand together when the world ridicules us.

We don’t ask to be served, but we serve.

This is the church, the hands and feet of Jesus who God commissioned into the world with the gospel.

Now, this is reality, so I’ll bring it back for a second and point out the reality, there are humans in the church, so the church is going to have it’s issues, the problem sets in when we allow those earthly issues to hinder our view of church.

It becomes even worse when we allow those earthly issues to hinder what God’s trying to do in the local church.

When I wasn’t yet married and still lived at my parents house, we would make orders online on Amazon and we would have trouble getting our deliveries.

We would see that it read delivered, but look outside, walk down the driveway, check the mailbox, even check behind the gate, but we wouldn’t see anything.

Little did we know, for whatever reason, the amazon driver would toss the packages in our trashcan, and it wasn’t until someone was taking trash to the can, that we found out.

That frustrated us, that made us frustrated with the driver, and even more frustrated with Amazon for hiring someone like that,

but we still love to use Amazon and make orders on there often to this day.

Amazon has people, people make dumb decisions! It all started with the Fall of Adam and Eve back In Genesis Chapter 3

People in the church are going to make dumb decisions! It’s the reality we inherited when we rebelled from God.

but hear me, the reason that we keep pressing on, the reason that we keep reaching out toward our goal, is this.

read with me

Ephesians 2:13–18 CSB

13 But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility. In his flesh, 15 he made of no effect the law consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace. 16 He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross by which he put the hostility to death. 17 He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

we keep pressing on because of Jesus and what he did for us on the cross. We realize we are a broken people, but we serve a complete savior in Him.

Conclusion

Now, maybe you don’t know Jesus as your savior today and you’ve been so weighed down by the world and it’s problems and even your own pride that you haven’t been able to discover how you can live for his glory.

Let today be the day, that you make Jesus the head of your life, and fully put your faith in him.

When you put your faith fully into Christ and ask him how you can serve him. I fully believe in one way or another he will show you exactly how to live “For His Glory”

We need each other, that’s what the body is all about. How are you being part of it right now?