One Body, many Members

Puzzles

Don’t you just love puzzles?

Paul has been revealing a theme throughout First Corinthians

That being the need for UNITY

the need to work together as a BODY of BELIEVERS

We are all individual pieces in a HUGE Puzzle

In a puzzle each piece is unique

it piece has a place in the larger picture

and if you think about it

Each piece helps You to find the next piece

When Cheri and I get the chance to do a puzzle,

we look at the BIG PICTURE

Then we build the frame

locating all the flat edge pieces —- the ones more defined as a corner or outside piece

then we group like or similar colors together and place those in the quadrant that they will likely go.

Some times it seems like a like a work until we get to build.....

Stop a second.

Isn’t this our Christian life.....

Doing all for the Glory of God

Being imitators of God

Communing with God

Using your Gifts for God

and now the CALL to be ONE

little hint ———- next week is the GLUE to HOLD it all together

Unity and Diversity

1 Corinthians 12:12–13 ESV

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. 13 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.

It is fairly easy to understand that we are all different

Yet it is difficult to understand that

in the thousands of years of human kind

there has never been another YOU

in God’s complex design the variable are so many that even identical twins are not 100% the same.

God made you UNIQUE

Just look around here

you can say.… yay.. Pastor Tom looks alot like Brad Pitt but

ummm not exactly

but like the puzzle we are not to be the same

Do you realize that two exact complex things cannot fit together?

Yet exact opposites fit together perfectly

we are designed to be ONE

ONE

Unique for Sure

but God also made you a perfect piece

to the ultimate puzzle to be placed in the grand picture

at the perfect time.

One for all and ALL for ONE

When we all do our part the beauty of UNITY IS REVEALED

We all have a design and a purpose

no one is useless in God’s Plan

1 Corinthians 12:14–20 ESV

14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 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. 16 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. 17 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? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

We are HIS Body of Believers

We use our gifts for his Work

I had some challenges this week with TIRES

i had a flat on one truck

i had a man miss a day of scheduled work because of a Tire

and then I had employee driving on bald tires and needed help

Frankly it was a TIRING WEEK _______________________________

but what i see now that i didn’t see then is

a group of people coming together to fix the issue

one guy worked on the tire

another one located missing equipment

another one helped and trained

another one lend a connection at a local shop to get a discount

another went and drove to get it fixed

THERE WAS NEVER A TIME FOR A SINGLE PERSON TO GO IT ALONE

There were Others to Help

That is the point

We must all work together

Change your perspective

What can you do?

it is never a matter of ranking

or some work is better than others

it is fully about being who GOD MADE YOU

Doing your piece of the work.

Seeing the Finished Work

Oh how we should yearn for the perfect picture

We need to set the BOX of God’s puzzle right in front of US

as we do His Work

We need to struggle to find the piece

so that we can celebrate the joy of finding it

This church

is made up of pieces

heads, eyes, hands, feet, ears

Some to admin

some to teach

some to build

some to run errands

some to manage our books

some to listen for opportunities

some to invite

but all TO SERVE

no one less, no one more

We are all pieces of a puzzle

God put that box on the shelve

the founding members of this church

purchased the puzzle on God’s command

and all of us are daily working

to put it together

All for ONE, One for ALL

1 Corinthians 12:24–27 ESV

24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. 27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

You are all members of THis BODY

and ALL who call Him LORD

are part of the ETERNAL BODY

Lets pray——

1 Corinthians 12:31 “31 But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.”

Father show is the MORE EXCELLENT WAY

GUIDE US ON THAT PATH

May you help us to HELP YOU

to do OUR part

TO BE OUR PIECE

and to see that WE ALL MATTER TO YOU

We are you workmanship

and planned for SUCH A TIME AS THIS