How to Change the World — 1 Corinthians 12:14-27

Introduction

A while back, I was walking the halls of our church with one of our young leaders. He started to talk about how God was maturing him and deepening his faith. He said, “I used to want to change the world, but now I just want to be like them.” And, he pointed to Tony Snider’s classroom where some of our most long established members have their Connection Group. He said, “Every Sunday, I walk by their classroom and hear them laugh, and I realize how many stories that they have together and how they raised their kids together and how they’ve been there for one another. And, that’s what I want. I want to be a part of one church all of my life to have connections like that.”

As I thought about how beautiful that was, I realized that his statement was ironic. That is actually how you change the world because that’s how my world was changed, and that’s how the world’s of the people in that room was changed. Last spring, I was teaching a seminar at a disciple-making conference, when I looked back and saw Donald Edwards sitting on the back row. No one else there even knew him, but I immediately felt embarrassed that I was expected to teach him. Donald Edwards is as unassuming a man as you will ever meet, and he was the youth minister here at Iron City back in the early 80’s. And, many of the people in Tony Snider’s Connection group were mentored and discipled by him. They will tell you he changed their lives. Then, the people he discipled became the very people who would mentor and disciple me and change my life. And, God had allowed me the great honor of being the mentor for this young man.

God’s Word

World change doesn’t happen most often in dramatic moments. God is more sovereign and subtle than that. World change happens most often through unassuming people in long forgotten place who do the small things with all of their hearts. The Church at Corinth was enamored by the spectacular, making them prize certain spiritual gifts above others. So, Paul is calling them back in chapter 12 to God’s plan of How to Change the World: (Headline)

“Offer” what you “have.”

1 Corinthians 12:15–17 “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?”

One of the prominent issues that was present in Corinth was that people would underestimate the particular gifts that God had given them. They would think, “I don’t prophesy or speak in tongues or preach” like the Apostles, so what do I have to offer. And, Paul wants them to realize that their underestimation of their gifts was actually undermining the very way that God had designed and organized his Kingdom. Every church is like a body, Paul says, and it takes every member working in sync to be able to flourish in the way it’s intended. Can you imagine if the foot said, “I tend to stink and be dirty. I can’t grab a hammer or express friendship like the hand. So, I’m just going to quit.” Don’t you think the body would miss the foot? The body would be severely handicapped without it. Or what if your ear said, “I kind of stick out and look weird. I don’t express happiness or come in different colors like the eye. So, I’m going to plant myself in the living room and not move.” Don’t you think the body would miss the ear?

There’s a sense in which the foot and the ear fail to appreciate how important they are to the body because they just feel so ordinary and unimpressive. You see, we don’t just underestimate our gifts, wanting different gifts or more gifts or better gifts, we overestimate what God seeks. God is so great that He doesn’t need your greatness. He just wants you to offer what you have.

Now, it will feel upside-down. Our upside-down crown is meant to remind us: Changing the world doesn’t usually feel like changing the world. It usually feels like changing a diaper or cooking a meal. And, the temptation can be that God’s work feels so ordinary that we really begin to wonder if we’re that big of a loss if we don’t step up. Paul is reminding us: “Feet” and “ears” aren’t our most attractive or flashy features, but take one away, and you’ll immediately learn how important it was.

Lives are changed and the world is changed by ordinary faithfulness. Our ministry assistant, Emily, told me that when she and Jared first visited she was very pregnant. Vivian was serving as a hostess that day, and they didn’t think much of her kindness because they figured it was just what she was supposed to do. But then, they had Oakley and weren’t able to attend again for months. But, when they did, Vivian walked right back up to them and called them by their names. Immediately, they knew this is where God would have them, and over time, God would make Emily an integral part of our ministry staff and has done more things than you could imagine to help people and improve our ministry. Sometimes, changing the world feels like saying “Hello” and caring for people.

Let me personalize this a bit. When I was going into the seventh grade, I wanted to remain in the children’s ministry with my cousin who was a year younger. But, Bird Dog and Brenda Burgess hosted a cookout at their house where upcoming students could meet the youth pastor and try to acclimate. I was so nervous when I went, but y’all it was a seminal moment in my life. I immediately connected with the youth pastor and it would be through that connection that our family would become completely involved at ICBC, I would be saved, called to the ministry, and eventually return to pastor the church. That cookout, without exaggeration, is one of the most important moments of my life. And, it required Bird Dog and Brenda Burgess to clean their house on a random Saturday, probably with Bird Dog wishing the whole time his wife didn’t sign him up for things. Y’all, it changed my life, and it’s a part of everything God allows me to do. And, everyone wants that story to tell, but no one wants to mop the floors. But, that’s what it feels like to change the world. It feels like mopping a floor and giving up a Saturday. It feels like being a “foot” or an “ear.”

“Discover” where you “fit.”

1 Corinthians 12:18–20 “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.”

A significant point that Paul is making is that there is a purposeful diversity in the body of Christ that is like the diversity that you have in the human body. You aren’t a collection of ONLY “eyes” or ONLY “hands.” You are a collection of varied members that each have their own purpose so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. “There are many parts, yet one body.”

The church is meant to be united, but not uniform. This is often missed. We think that we’re supposed to be in lock step on every, single issue and on every, single interpretation and every, single issue of the conscience and every, single philosophy of ministry. But, that’s a cult. That’s our current political environment. That’s not the design of the church. The design of the church is for a group of diverse people, some young and some old, some wealthy and some struggling, some healthy and some sick, some with speaking gifts and some with serving gifts, some with blue collar experience and some with white collar experience, some from healthy families and some from broken families, and to bring it together to show that our unity is not in our experiences or our nuanced beliefs but in our head, Christ Jesus. Now, that certainly means there are the big things in which we have to agree. We’re allowed to disagree with one another, but we can’t disagree with Jesus. But, it’s actually in that diverse unity that the true strength and beauty of the church is revealed. We should not be able to be united, but we are! It seems upside-down to everyone else that we could love one another so much, and that actually serves to hold up the incomprehensible beauty of the Church. So, the goal isn’t uniformity, but unity.

That is, “God arranged the members (of this) body…as He chose” and our responsibility is to discover how we fit in God’s arrangement. (draw funnel) The mechanism that we’ve come up with to equip you to make that discovery is what we call the Funnel. The funnel is our way of saying that we don’t expect you to immediately jump in the deep end and teach a class or lead a ministry. That’s overwhelming. What we want to do is to create a series of levels that slowly help you ease your way in to find a place that sticks. And, it’ll likely be trial and error if you’re unsure of how God has wired you. Maybe last year you signed up for a ministry and it just wasn’t a good fit. That’s why it’s just a one year commitment. Find a new ministry this year. But, maybe you found a great fit. Now, it’s time to level up. Go a little deeper.

It reminds me of what I’ve seen in Rob William’s life. Rob came to Iron City 6.5 years ago and was dealing with some deep church hurt. We told he and Melinda that their first step was to just heal. That was really the first level for them. After a short time of rest, Andrew discovered that Rob had a passion and gifting for running sound, and Rob began doing that once a month or so. He was so faithful to run sound. And, we just saw their level of service slowly increasing. Remember movement through a funnel is much more subtle than a step. And, people began telling us they could see Rob serving as a deacon. Rob immediately said to both Andrew and I: “I’m not a deacon. I wouldn’t even accept.” But, slowly, God changed his heart, and he became a deacon. He and Melinda thrived in their widow ministry and they became really passionate about it. With his deacon and sound duties, Rob is the most common person in our church to be the first one here and the last one to leave. And, the other deacons noticed. So, today, Rob is the chairmen of our deacons. Now, five years ago, he would’ve told you that was impossible, but he started where he was and God did the rest.

Rob’s story is still being written and so is yours. Now, that may sound more scary to you than exciting. But, that’s why it’s a small start. Start small, and trust the Lord to take you where you need to go.

“Honor” who you “serve.”

1 Corinthians 12:21–26 “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.”

Our gifts aren’t meant to impress one another. Our gifts are meant to serve one another. And, by serving one another, they’re meant to build up the church and change lives. That’s Paul’s point here. In fact, Paul reads our mail a little bit. After saying, some will see their gifts as so meaningless that they have no need to serve, he says some will see their gifts as so great and others as so weak that they’ll be tempted to dismiss them. They’ll be tempted to believe that those they measure as weak have nothing to offer them.

That is, they’ll dishonor members they deem as weaker by not recognizing how “indispensible” they are to the body of Christ. After all, the last on earth are first in the kingdom. The weakest are the most “honored” by Jesus. You see, the strong need the weak just as much as the weak need the strong. Take the infants and preschoolers out of the church, and you’ll quickly realize how much weaker the church appears, how much less life is there. Take the widows out of the church, and you lose your prayer warriors and your heritage. You’ll quickly realize how much weaker the church is. We learn perseverance by watching the suffering suffer well. We have our passion rekindled for Jesus by watching teenagers discover him for the first time. Our faith is deepened as we help younger Christians discover new depth in Christ.

You’ll notice that it says in verse 24 “God has so composed the body.” The word “composed” carries with it the meaning of mixing ingredients together in a way that forms something wonderful and in a way in which they can’t be separated again. This is the church. All of us have been mixed together by the sovereign hand of God. If you take away one ingredient, you sabotage the whole recipe. No matter how subtle the ingredient may seem, it’s invaluable to the whole.

In other words, we (v.26) “together” are the church, and we “together” are responsible for the church. This is OUR church. Whether you’ve been here decades or months, whether you’re young or old, whether you’re “strong” or “weak.” This is OUR church together, and we come together to make sure its healthy. We come “together” to “suffer together” and to “rejoice together” because, though we are different and diverse, we are united in Christ.

As I meditated on verse 26 and thought about our vision for Iron City, my mind went to a scene from three years ago. Ralph Vaughn had succumbed to his Parkinson’s after a valiant battle, and we were gathered in he and Mary’s home that night. And, while I was there in a crowded house trying to minister to the family, I noticed Sandra Turner there just quietly working the kitchen. She was cleaning dishes and preparing food and just making sure Mary had nothing to think about. I thought about how many decades they had worshipped Jesus together at church, how they had raised their kids together, served in the Angel ministry together, prepared meals for the church together, even disagreed with one another. But then, it was time to “suffer together.” It seems so ordinary, doesn’t it? But, that’s the kind of vision that changes the world. In a church-hopping, surface-level, Christian consumer culture, that’s upside-down. And, it’s far more beautiful. Let’s aim at that. That’s what today is all about.