2024 Business Meeting

This evening we have a short business meeting where we will approve our church budget

Before we do that I want to make good use of your time and so we try and have some short devotionals

This evening our devotional centers around the passage from

1 Corinthians 12:12–19 NASB95

12 For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body is not one member, but many. 15 If the foot says, “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear says, “Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body,” it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be?

This is the description of the church

Paul explains it in a way we can surely understand

Paul says that the church

That we are just like a body

We all have a body

And we all know that the body our bodies are made up of many different parts

And those parts have to work together to make things go

The Body is not the one member but it is made up of different members

You need your lungs

You need your heart

Not everything can be made up of lungs

You need the stomach, the blood vessels and veins

It is nice to have ears, and eyes and feet

The body of Christ is the church and it is made up of a number of different parts that must work together

The Body of Christ at Maranatha is made up of many different parts

Lydia leads the worship team, Eric Stanley leads the sound booth, Joy leads Children’s Church, Gayle leads the nursery, Ashley cleans the church, Angie leads the cafe and Chloe leads women’s Bible Study

Church that is just to name a few, believe you me I know there are many many more people who do many different things that help make this church work and go

We have many different parts and pieces

And we know that for the church to work properly, to go, to grow, to be obedient it requires the different parts to work properly and work together

The different parts have to do their part and in doing their part they work together with the other parts

Paul shares this with the church at Philippi

Philippians 2:2 NASB95

2 make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

For us to do this church we need to be praying for each other

This is an encouragement and a reminder that we must work together even though we are different parts