What Part are You?

Introduction: Tonight we are going to talk about the Body of Christ. My daughter August has an affection for asking weird questions. She will ask questions like who did the first hair cut? Where did tea leaves come from and who thought to make tea out of them. One day she said have you ever thought of what it would be like if you stomach wasn’t where your stomach was like if your head was in the middle and your stomach was on the top and maybe your legs on top and your arms on bottom.

But have you every actually thought about how your actual body works a lot of things we take for granted until it doesn’t work.

We get up every morning we open our eyes take a deep breath and move forward with our lives and our day and we don’t think about our heart not pumping our blood or our legs not moving unless their is a pain.

1 Corinthians 12:12–18 NKJV

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

1. You have a place.

This whole verse is talking about being authentically you.

I have to be authentically me up here. God is using me as a vessel but even though God is pouring his word into me to be poured out to you he is still using my personality, gifts and natural talents that he gave me to do so. You cannot separate any of those things I can try and be a copy cat but i won’t be effective that way.

I always wanted to have some more experience preaching but i never in a million years thought i would be getting my preaching experience like this. In fact, the responsibility of this assignment has been the first time in my life i have ever been scared to let God use me. I was never one of those people called to preach that was scared because i knew i could do it apart of my autism that is a blessing an a curse at times is that i think highly about what i can actually do and i don’t regret. I have preached sermons where i think after that i wish i had of said something i forgot but i don’t usually regret anything i do. And i am a gap filler been doing that my whole career at this church because i catch on fast and i can usually do a pretty decent job on most things i put my mind to. But this time i was so scared, every time i get up here i’m so nervous because i cannot even explain to you the responsibility to feed the flock of God for the man who without whom i would not even be standing here. It is a great honor to be used of God to feed you spiritual food and I wanted to say thank you for being so supportive and standing as the church in this season it means a lot to God. I know it does. He pis so pleased with your perseverance and strength church on the rock.

But being a gap filler i was just that. When you are holding a place for the person that is supposed to be there your getting the job done but your not giving it the same care they would have for the place being filled.

An Ear that is holding the place of an Eye does not have the hardware to use anything that will actually help the body to see clearly.

The ear is only holding the spot till and eye can be in place to be used for the body.

If your supposed to be an Eye you can’t be an Ear. It was hard at first when i came back to church on the Rock and i picked back up with my pursuit of becoming a preacher. It took a long time for me to struggle with all the information that Bishop was giving me about how much harder it would be for me being a woman preacher. Notice i said preacher yes i’m a pastor but all i wanted to do was preach. And even in this church it was sometimes he was the only one in my corner. Even today i don’t know many women who function as a Pastor the way that i do much less an associate Pastor because its not a calling that is common. There were so many i nights i cried and asked God why did he make me a woman instead of a man and call me to this. And then when i found out i was Autistic with Asperger Syndrome i went through it all again. God why did you make me this way. The truth is he made me a woman so i could minister to women in a way a man could not and he created me with neurological disorder with my brain wired differently because i serve people who are different.

Different not less that is the Autism motto. Autism is also have puzzle pieces as their symbol because each piece is different but somehow they all fit together that is exactly this church. Each one of you is a piece of the puzzle. And if we have all the pieces we will have a complete picture of the body of Christ he wants us to be.

You are so important to God everything in the beginning god made from speaking it into existence. God made man and formed him from the dirt of the ground with his hands just like the potter in Jeremiah we studied last week.

2. You are unique.

Romans 12:4–5 NKJV

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another.

This verse in Romans clearly states that we do not all have the same function and that we are individuals.

We need differences in the body of Christ

we need different cultures, races, gifts, abilities, disorders......i mean as we all know our Bishop’s cerebral palsy is really a gift i don’t know about you guys but i don’t think i could of gone through my experiences with being a woman preacher or autism without someone like him. the things that he does despite his mobility issues. Cerebral Palsy does not have him he has cerebral palsy. We need different personalities: We need personalities that have extreme amounts of patience and love. We need people that don’t have problems directing others. And people who don’t have problems being directed. We need people who are free thinkers, People who love to cook and People who build things. People who are artists and mechanics. Gods house has room for a whole range of crafts and skillful people. Some people are good at computers and some people are good at music. Every little thing is valuable. Its not the teachers and pastors its not just the church staff people, we need non church people too.

The Levitt es in the tabernacle had a whole range of things they did in the house of God. They took care of everything needed inside the tabernacle and for the people. They served the people of God and they served themselves. Today we are all the levites we are all the servants to the house of God.

God did not make two people alike even our finger prints are all different.

1 Corinthians 12:19–22 NKJV

And if they were all one member, where would the body be? But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And 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.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

3. You are needed

It doesn’t matter at what level in your walk with Jesus Christ you are at. You are needed.

We can find you a place. It might be folding a bulletin. Filing some music. Making some copies. But the little things matter. Littlest seed in the world makes a huge tree. A mustard seed. God looks at the little things done in the kingdom of heaven just as important as the big things that we do for God. In fact humanity is the ones that determine degrees of importance in this world. Things of importance in Gods kingdom are not judged by human eyes. You might be one of the main worship leaders in the church. There are somethings that go unseen. There are people on my praise team that i literally could not be functioning in this season without and one of them is Michael Wilks he is working to play guitar for every one of the singers so they can lead worship so i can preach. And he is humble and has never once complained and is happy to serve God He is not doing it for me he does it for Jesus. He has taken his place in the body and he has become a close brother and friend.

Our service and gifts are not just for us.

4. Be Peace makers of the Body.

When we server together we grown closer with each other and of course sometimes we have issues as well.

I mean it’s natural for people with varying personalities to have issues. We don’t all communicate the same. We all come from different back grounds. Even the words we say might have different meanings. Each culture has different language even different age groups have different language.

My grandmother you to say instead of uh huh sure nuff, the young people today have a language all their own. Cool is still pretty universal but no one says Totally,

People even say things crazy like Sick was a good thing. I was joking the other day on a face book post and said lets just start a new trend and say that’s so Broke lets get Broke with it. I mean literally language changes its fluid. Pastor Deadra what’s the point. I’m so glad you asked.

The point is.....If you don’t know the person, if you don’t spend time with them you cannot understand them you cannot communicate. How much time does that take Pastor Deadra? To be honest with you I don’t know. It takes what it takes.

So maybe if we in our busy life styles and crazy life's are serving with other members of the Body of Christ maybe just maybe we should be peace makers. Christ says blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called sons of God. We should be sons and daughters of God we should make God’s house a home for all his children.

One of my biggest rules at home is I want peace in my house. I don’t want fighting and arguing. I mean it happens and if its productive i’m all for it.

Don’t cut your brother off from the body we need them, don’t hurt them we need them, don’t be rude we need them, don’t be judgmental we need them, don’t run them off we need them,

If God doesn’t want them here he will take care of them and he will place them somewhere else don’t let you be the one that cut off the arm we needed.

5. You are under the Head which is Christ.

The visionary of our house is Bishop. Bishop is under Christ. I am under Bishop there is a hierarchy of authority. There is only one head. A thing without a head is dead and a thing with two heads is a freak.

But the point i want to make here very quickly is this.....

Our responsibility as the body is to be in line with the head which is Christ and our Bishop who carries the mantel and responsibility of shepherding this flock.

I don’t always agree with Bishop. Contrary to what some may believe I am consulted on things at the church but when it comes down to the final say Bishop is responsible the best thing about being a woman in Ministry is i’m not at the top of the food chain and he is ultimately responsible to God because he is the father of our Church.

If my Bishop wants to do something we do it despite my reservations. I may or may not get to express my reservations or opinions but even if i don’t i have to follow and i have to execute what God has told him to do he is the visionary he is directly under the head of the body.

It’s not our job as the body to make decision of what to do, it’s the heads job to tell us what to do. The ear doesn’t tell the eye to do anything it has not funciton to give commands. The head tells the eye to open and see. The ear to hear. The legs to walk. The legs know how to walk they know how to do their job they are good at their gift and function but the head tells them when to preform that function. Same with the eyes they have everything in them to see and everything they need to send messages to the brain but the brain interprets those messages and how he wants the rest of the body to respond. Same with the head of the Church who is directly under Christ.

Ephesians 1:15–23 NKJV

Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.