The Body Part 2

I’d like to begin by giving a brief history of toys

In this room, we have people from different ages, with different backgrounds.

So allow me to try and connect with each of you about toys.

This is difficult because there are so many years between us.

I’ve got a concept I want to get across, and in order to do that, I’m going to have to introduce you to some toys.

1993 Power Rangers was released (Put image on screen).

It featured 5 teenagers who each were given a giant robot, that was shaped like a different animal.

Each robot had it’s own powers and abilities.

But then, they could combine their robots into a Megazord.

When that happened, their animal robots could then form together into one giant sword wielding robot, that could stop the forces of evil.

This also makes for really great merchandizing.

You’ve got 5 teenagers in the show who each need their own action figure.

If you want to make the Megazord you’ve got to buy 5 robots.

If they are all $20 a piece, you’re looking at $200 just to have the action figures and the robots.

Those of you 30 and under you might remember this.

In 1984 there was a Japanese cartoon released called Voltron (Put image on screen).

Voltron is similar to Power Rangers.

Actually Voltron came first, so Power Rangers is like Voltron.

Voltron featured 5 teenagers that each were given a Robot Lion.

Each of them had their own characteristics and personality.

But when the bad guys rose up, these teenagers could take their 5 lion robots and combine them into Voltron.

And like Power Rangers, a great opportunity to spend money on toys.

This was my favorite.

Let me go one step further, somewhere between 1916-1917, Lincoln Logs were invented.

These were little pieces of wood that were different lengths.

But when the forces of evil arose, you could combine your Lincoln Logs and make … A Log Cabin.

They could also be chewed on by toddlers and dogs.

And surprisingly before Lincoln Logs were Erector Sets.

These were invented in 1913.

The original Legos.

They featured lots of machine punched metal sheets, that could be combined to make a working machine, gizmos or structures.

You could build cool machines and buildings with these.

And before any of these toys there was … The Stack of Rocks.

Good idea, but not much for merchandise since you could go into your back yard and find them.

Each of these toys take the concept of there being individual units, that were each gifted in their own way, and then combine them to make a larger, cohesive unit.

Each of these toys are built on a team.

Each of these toys are about individuals becoming a body.

And that was something that Paul was trying to do in Corinth when he wrote I Corinthians.

The Corinthians was not a unified body.

They were no Voltron.

In the previous chapter, Paul says of them, “But in the following instructions I do not commend you, because when you come together it is not for the better but for the worse. For, in the first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you. And I believe it in part,” -

He says, “You are no Voltron, you’re a mess.”

He says, “you aren’t the better, but the worse.”

Last week we learned that God has gifted the church.

Now we learn that God is gifting us so that we can be a body.

Let’s look at .

Read I Corinthians 12:12-27.

One Body

Context

Paul is calling for us to be the ultimate Voltron.

God is making one member out of many.

Many times people talk about unity of the church but they forget this one great important truth.

You know what the first key to church unity is? You must be born again.

You’re not a part of the church or this body just because you came on a Sunday, or were raised in the church.

Something needs to happen to you first.

Verse 13 says, “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body ...”

The phrase baptism of the Holy Spirit is one of those phrases that is frequently abused.

Some people use it to mean speaking in tongues.

Sometimes people confuse it with being filled with the Spirit.

Sometimes people talk about being baptized in the Spirit, and they say:

“Last Sunday was great, I was baptized in the Spirit.”

“I’ve been baptized in the Spirit 12 times.”

Sometimes people pray for church and they say, “Lord would you baptize us in your Spirit?”

Baptism in the Spirit isn’t any of these things.

Baptism in the Spirit is quite simple … it’s conversion.

When a person is converted, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to permanently indwell in the believer.

This is a ministry of Christ that John the Baptist mentioned.

In , he said, “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me -” that is Jesus, “ - is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

Baptism of the Spirit is something that happens once, and never happens again, because the Holy Spirit will permanently be in the Christian.

says, “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

When you become a Christian, you are baptized with the Holy Spirit.

He comes upon you once, and remains.

He stays in you as a guarantee until you are found in glory.

When the Spirit comes upon you, you become a brand new person.

A person receives a new heart.

Meaning that the old heart which refused to believe truth, now acknowledges truth and has faith.

The old heart which loved sin, now repents of it, and pursues what is good.

Jesus calls the conversion experience being born again.

It’s as if you are a whole new person.

You are not who you used to be.

It’s not just beliefs, passions and desires that are new, but your identity is new.

How you identify yourself should change?

Look at the second half of verse 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.”

Formerly, we would identify ourselves by our race -

Jews

Or Greeks

Some people would identify themselves by class -

Slave

Or free.

And what does Paul say?

We are now one body.

As humans, we like to divide.

People divide by:

What sport they like.

What team they like.

What music style they like.

What clothing style they like.

But resist such things, especially in the church.

Because those things do come up.

Became a part of the Body at Conversion

When I was in high school, the most important question you could ask a person was what kind of music you listen to.

If you said country, forget it, you’d always be an outcast.

In high school there were cool brands of clothes, of which I never had.

I was so excited when my friend Nathan would outgrow his clothes.

Because they were the cool brands.

And I would get his old clothes.

But don’t churches have fights about these same things?

The music:

It’s too loud.

It’s too fast.

It has instruments.

It doesn’t have instruments.

Is that an electric guitar? That’s a devil instrument.

I don’t like that style.

Do we have this fights about clothing?

You’re too casual.

Is he wearing sandals?

Why’s he wearing a hat?

Why isn’t he wearing a tie?

There is one standard, and that is Christ Jesus.

He is the cornerstone, and all who are in Christ are being built on Him.

Resist bringing those old childish divisions into the church.

says, “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.”

He goes on to rebuke his listeners for dividing on class, by giving rich people more prominent positions.

In , Paul tells the Romans to avoid people who like to create divisions.

says if there is a person who stirs up division, warn him twice, then have nothing to do with him.

We are a new body, and we are not to identify the way we used.

So how are we to identify with each other?

We identify with Christ Jesus.

says, “And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”

The new way that you identify yourself isn’t the color of your skin, or even who your ancestors were, what your social status is, or how much money you make, but who it is that saved you, and the Spirit that lives in you.

Christ isn’t making a Black church, and a white church, and a Mexican church, and an Arab church.

He isn’t making a rich church and a poor church.

Abandoned by his family.

He’s making one body.

says, “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”

Some have used that passage to say that when we get to heaven, we will still have be identified by the color of our skin, or the language that we speak.

But that’s not it at all.

That is a victory song, that Christ has made one body, from many different nations and people.

The world wants racial harmony.

You know where true racial harmony is found?

It’s found in the church, where we look at our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Who though formerly, we were segregated and divided by the color of our skin, and now are adopted into one family.

Now equally we serve one another.

Building one another up.

The world around us often talks this way.

The difference here is that you must be in Christ.

The world wants unity but not in Christ.

Unity without Christ is the Tower of Babel.

And that tells me nothing’s really changed from the days of Babel, when men came together not to worship God, but to make a name for themselves alone.

The unity I am talking about here is one body, is unity … in Christ.

Yet while one body, there many parts to the body.

The Megazord, that’s the Power Ranger giant robot, is 5 individual pieces that come together.

Voltron is 5 individual lions that come together.

The Log cabin … is a lot of individual logs that come together.

And the pile of rocks … is one pile … made up of many rocks.

And it’s the same in the church.

We aren’t all to be the exact same.

Just like how a body is one body with different parts to it, that’s what we are.

Some of you are:

Feet.

Others are the eyes.

Some are hands.

Some are brains.

Some are heart.

Each part of the human body has a different function.

And each of you have a different function.

You are different people with different gifts.

Verse 13 says that we are one body, no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free.

But that doesn’t mean you stop working.

“I’m a Christian, I work for no man.” - It doesn’t mean that.

says that there is no longer male or female - that doesn’t mean you stop identifying as a man or a woman.

Instead, we don’t let these distinctions interfere with building up the body and pursuing a healthy church.

I hope you don’t see a contradiction to the previous point that we are one body and no longer are to identify by the color of our skin or our ethnicity.

No part in the human body is the same.

An arm isn’t a leg.

Have you ever seen a video of someone who doesn’t have arms do something with his feet that normally requires hands?

I watched a video recently of a man with no arms driving a race car, but drifting in it.

Basically, he’s peeling out on every turn.

He used a normal steering wheel at a normal height, but used his feet to steer the car.

He shifted gears by nodding his head.

There was a button that he would hit with his head to shift the gears.

Incredible.

He was a better driver than I am.

But he’d probably rather have two arms than have to use his feet.

Because arms are better at driving then feet.

Have you ever seen a video of someone who doesn’t have arms feed himself with a spoon or a fork?

It’s incredible.

Somehow he grasps the fork with his toes, then brings his toes to his mouth.

That requires serious flexibility.

But that person would rather have two arms then have to feed himself with his feet.

Because arms are better at that then feet.

An elbow isn’t a hand.

Imagine if you had to pick everything up like this?

You’d never be able to feed yourself with just your elbows.

You need hands.

And in the same way, each of us bring a certain bit of uniqueness to the church.

We come from different cultures.

Some of us are older then others, and have experienced different things.

And these differences help us to better understand and serve people.

When we go out and do Gospel to the Valley, we are very aware of how we need diversity in the groups.

We can’t have all of the same type of person.

We don’t want to send two men, with black pants, and a white collared shirt, with a bicycle to a front door.

They’re gonna think we are Mormons.

We try and dress casual.

We aren’t Mormons.

We aren’t Jehovah’s Witnesses.

We try and have a man and a woman and a child if possible.

We don’t want to look threatening.

Therefore, when we split up the groups, we are trying to maximize our individual differences to better serve God.

Verses 18-19 say, “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?”

This means, in the body, though we are one body, there is diversity, we are not all gifted the same.

So let’s start with you, be who God made you to be in the body.

If you’re a helper … then help.

Be comfortable in how God has gifted you.

Don’t desire to be something you’re not.

Find worth, in how God has gifted you.

Remember, we are really good at dividing and then assigning worth to each other on those divisions.

In this nation, black people were counted as three-fifths of a person.

Baptized by the Spirit

Treated like animals.

Bred to be sold, and put to labor.

That’s tragic.

May we never do that in the church.

May we never hint at that in the church.

And not just on a racial level, but on a gifting level.

Never assign worth to someone based on his gifting.

God has saved you and God has gifted you for a reason.

He may have made you the pancreas of the body.

A 15 centimeter organ, gland.

Seems insignificant.

But if the pancreas doesn’t function - you have diabetes.

You have diabetes, you can’t eat twinkies … the body suffers.

The body needs twinkies.

Be who God has made you to be, and let others be who God has made them to be.

This is why it’s so important for us to find out our gifts.

There’s lots of people who serve in churches, and they’re miserable.

That’s because, they’re in a place where they shouldn’t be.

They’re functioning as a part of the body, that God hasn’t gifted them to be.

They’re that guy feeding himself with a fork, using his feet.

I heard someone once say that the tongue is pound for pound (that’s a weird statement), is the strongest muscle in the body.

But the tongue won’t function as a thigh.

The tongue may be strong, but it won’t win you the hundred yard dash, it’s not what its for.

So find out where God has gifted you.

And it’s not just you be who God made you, but allow others to be who God made them.

Don’t think that those who are more visible are more important than those who work behind the scenes.

Here’s a real life example.

You’d be surprised how often I get a call from someone, or someone leaves the church, and they say no one said hi to them, or they felt ignored.

Meanwhile, you’re gifted with hospitality or encouragement.

Here I am asking you to find out your gift and to serve the Lord.

Then I ask you, how you can use your gift to serve within the church.

And you sit there, bashful, blushing, and you say, “Ah shucks, I don’t think I can serve in the church” or “I don’t know how to use my gift.”

Meanwhile, we have people who feel ignored and don’t feel noticed.

You think your gift of encouragement or hospitality is insignificant, and yet, there are people who feel hurt and ignored.

Are you seeing a connection here.

Your “small gift” is necessary for a healthy church.

I will never look down on someone because they are just a greeter.

I will never look down on someone because they are just an encourager.

I will never look down on someone because they are just a helper.

Because when we don’t have those people, then I get calls from people who say no one greeted them, no one welcomed them, no one loved them.

I can’t minister to every person.

You can’t minister to every person.

So we need to use our gifts.

We need to become a Megazord, Voltron, a Lincoln Log Cabin.

And that means, each of us must own who we are, and what God has made us.

And lastly, when you use your gifts, we are a healthy body.

You ever seen two people dress up like a horse.

It’s two people, with basically a blanket on top of them.

One of them has a horse head, and is the front half.

The other has a long tale and is the back half.

It’s a silly thing to watch, because they don’t look like a horse.

They don’t move in unison.

They both are trying to be one body … but pretty ineffectively.

Then have you ever seen people dress up like a Chinese dragon? I think it’s called the Dragon Dance.

That’s cool.

A dozen people, working together.

It slithers like a snake, but flies through the air as the people dance underneath it.

Every person knows what they’re doing.

Not comical, but actually kind of creepy and scary.

Verses 25-26 say, “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.”

The Corinthians church was so fragmented, that they didn’t care about each other.

They’d step over each other and not care about the damage.

Paul’s trying to fix this.

The church is a body.

We have gifts.

Use your gifts.

You can tell we are a healthy body when we feel pain for one another.

Church pain is okay.

If one member suffers, we all suffer.

Church pain is okay.

I know we try and avoid pain.

I don’t particularly like pain.

I don’t seek it out.

But when I have pain, that means my body is working.

The nerves in my body are sending messages to my brain that say something is wrong here, fix it.

And when those messages aren’t being sent … it’s dangerous.

There’s a rare disease called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain, or CIP.

These people don’t feel pain.

At first, you think, that would make the dentist so much better.

Drilling doesn’t bother me.

Novacain shots won’t hurt, I won’t even need them.

But do you know what the signs of CIP are?

First you look at their teeth.

Often they have cavities and gum damage, because they never felt the pain.

You ever bit a Dorito chip wrong, and it stabbed the roof of your mouth?

Imagine not knowing about the stabbing and biting down repeatedly.

Often times, there is damage to the tongue, or parts of it are missing because it’s been bit off and the person never knew.

Then you look at the eye.

There’s often damage to the eye, because things got in it … and the person didn’t know.

That’s because the body isn’t feeling pain right.

A healthy body feels pain.

There are times in the church that are painful.

Could be a death.

We come together and we mourn the loss of a friend.

But a lot of times its from people.

Someone calls you out on a sin.

One Body in Christ

Someone gives you some blunt advice.

No racism

Someone asks a personal question.

This is a painful reminder that the church is not a single person, but it’s many people.

We have relationships with one another.

And when we have relationships, sometimes there’s pain in them.

Sometimes the pain is in watching others suffer.

In America we have the Starbucks affect within the church.

Here’s what I mean, you go to one Starbucks and someone offends you -

They spell your name wrong on your cup.

Use whole milk.

They forget to put whip cream on your mocha.

You’re furious.

Thankfully, there’s a Starbucks literally across the street. So you go there.

And sometimes that mentality works it’s way into the church.

You feel pain.

You get uncomfortable.

And you leave and go to the church that’s literally across the street.

But that’s not healthy, nor is that how you build a church.

Corinth had one church.

Paul’s advice wasn’t:

“Ok, the good Christians leave and start a new church”.

Or, “I think it’s time you think about moving to Thessalonica.”

He wrote the Corinthians church to correct them.

He told them to use their gifts.

To be a body.

And to suffer together.

As a church, when we feel pain, then this allows others in the church to step up.

Those who are encouraging - can encourage.

Those with wisdom - can apply God’s Word.

Those with helps - can help out and share the burden.

Those with teaching and preaching - can open up the Word of God and exhort you.

A healthy church, suffers together, and heals together.

The last sign of a healthy church is when we rejoice together.

He says if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

This is a love for one another that celebrates one another.

It celebrates one another.

There’s no jealousy in this.

What I mean is we like to see each other prosper.

We like to see each other happy.

An unhealthy church bickers when someone is honored.

“Why’s do good things only happen to him?”

“I wish I was lucky like that guy.”

“Why is he gifted in that way?”

In a healthy church there’s no jealousy like this.

What I mean is we like to see each other prosper.

We like to see each other happy.

We brag about each other.

And when we get better at knowing each other’s gifts, this becomes even easier.

Because then we can say, “Praise God that so and so could do that. God’s really gifted him that way.”

What’s even better about bragging about each other, is thanking God for each other.

Identify by Christ

Reflecting upon the providence of God.

Different Members

Collectively, we not only cheer each other on, but we rejoice in God’s providence, saying, “Yup, this is how He is.”

Not all the same looking.

Last Thursday, I was at a coffee shop, and I was talking to someone who is looking to find a home for their family.

They currently rent a condo.

It has become clear that they can’t really afford a house.

I gave my two cents and then started to feel a little guilty, about owning a home.

God has given me a great home.

Amanda’s decorated it so nicely.

Yea, I felt a little guilty talking to her and trying to encourage her.

Maybe she heard it in my voice, I’m not sure, but she said, “Praise God that He gave you such a wonderful home.”

That’s rejoicing together.

So maybe you’re not the one who has directly benefited from the kindness of God, or the providence of God … you praise God for how He has provided for others.

A great way to start rejoicing with each other is by praying for each other.

When God provides for a person that I’ve been feverishly praying for, then I genuinely rejoice with that person, because my joy is centered on God and how He has poured out grace upon my friend.

You want to rejoice with others … then start by praying for others.

You will celebrate with that person, but even better, you’ll celebrate God working in their lives.

Church you ever go to the doctor for the physical and he says your healthy, but if you don’t start exercising you won’t be for long.

I’d say we are healthy

Not all the same culture.

I think we are a healthy church.

Not all gifted the same.

We aren’t malnourished.

Same mission

We aren’t overweight.

Appendix

That doesn’t mean theres not room to improve.

Suffer together

Let’s be that Megazord, or Voltron, or a Lincoln Log Cabin, and that is by:

Honored together

Rejoice together

Being one body.

Be who God made you to be

Born again, baptized in the Spirit, filled with the Spirit, and functioning as one team.

Let others be who God made them to be

Recognize your sin and cry out to Christ to save you.

Yet, also knowing our individuality and how the Spirit has gifted us.

He says you must be baptized by the Spirit.

Application: We need to be a Voltron, A Power Ranger, A Transformer, THE CHURCH

And then using those gifts to function as a healthy body.

Has this happened to you?

One body.

Jesus said

Different members

Pray

Doing what God intends for them to be.