Lego blocks – Who either had a set or bought a set for your kids?

Non descript pieces of plastic

But you put them together to create things

Things like this:

My model.

Or things like this

· Simple wall

· A car

· Buy a kit for $99 with 7,750 pieces and build a castle

In fact, you can create things that are only limited by your imagination.

· Mona Lego MosaicMona Lego Mosaic, created with 30,000+ bricks. It’s 45+ pounds and 6 feet by 8 feet

· LEGO Harry S. Truman is over 16 feet long and nearly 4 feet tall. Built from over 200,000 LEGO bricks, it weights over 350 pounds). Includes a hangar deck with several aircraft.

· And a lifesized church building made from legoblocks

All from just a bunch of common nodescript pieces of plastic

If people can put these things together with inanimate pieces of plastic, imagine what God can do if He were to build a building with people that He had created and crafted individually. He could build an unimaginable creation – a body – the church

And what He can be built with the individual pieces of handiwork when He puts them together supernaturally is only limited by God’s plans and our willingness to connect together.

1 Corinthians 12:4-30 The church connected together

An amazing body

I. Connected Together – Diverse usefulness / one purpose

A. Variety of gifts / one purpose

(ESV) 1 Corinthians 12 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit… 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1. Able to do different things well

2. Lead / model / encourage others / impact with these results

3. Ex: Evangelism – all are called to evangelize / some have supernatural empowerment – They model / teach / encourage others to do it too

B. Variety of ministries / one purpose

(ESV) 1 Corinthians 12 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; … 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1. Ministry / different focus on different needs

a. Youth / children / adults – kitchen / facilities / stewardship / deacons

C. Variety of activities / one purpose

(ESV) 1 Corinthians 12 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1. Works – things done / things to do (whether gifted or called specifically to do them)

a. Fish fry / Christmas banq / summer camp /

D. One purpose

(ESV) 1 Corinthians 12 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1. A big picture view – serve others on behalf of the Spirit of God

2. Display God/Christ/ Spirit in a real way --- this is the way people see God / This is the way people experience God in a tangible way / this is the way God accomplishes His purposes

3. All gifts / ministry / activities should be for the sake of the whole --- not given for self consumption --- not what I get out of it or about me in any way

4. Measure of effectiveness – how does impact the overall body

a. Is it creating a healthy body in Christ? Or is it disrupting the body? Is it about a person or persons

II. Connected together: Different parts / One body

A. Every part Different

(ESV) 1 Corinthians 12 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.

1. (types of people) backgrounds / religious past / social positions

B. Every part essential to the whole

(ESV) 1 Corinthians 12 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?

1. Every body part has a role

2. Every body part has a purpose

C. Every part as God intends

(ESV) 1 Corinthians 12 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

1. God appoints

2. God intends each part to play a role

D. Every part needs every part

(ESV) 1 Corinthians 12 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 21 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.”

22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 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, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. …

1. No unimportant part

2. The less visible may be more important

3. Stomach / heart --- not seen but essential

E. Every part impacted by every other part

(ESV) 1 Corinthians 12 24 … 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.

1. Health of one effects all the others – poison the body

2. Hurt together – stub your toe – can think of nothing else

3. Prosper together – no competition

III. Connected together: Examples - Diversity in unity

A. Example: Different persons / One God

(ESV) 1 Corinthians 12 4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

1. Different roles – one mind – one purpose – all working together – interoperating – dependent on each other – never let each other down – hard to tell sometimes who is at work because of the way they work together

2. Different parts of the hierarchy – Father’s will / Son obeys / Spirit enables

B. Example: Different ways to speak / One Word of God in the early church

(ESV) 1 Corinthians 12 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 For to one is given through the Spirit the xxx

utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

11 All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

1. One purpose / Common good

2. Manifestation of the Spirit

3. Empowerment originating from the Spirit

4. Given as decided by the Spirit

5. Purpose in this case to communicate the words of God / authenticate that it is true (replaced by written Word which has each of these elements within it)

C. Example: Different Roles / One purpose - equip the early church

27 Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 28 And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues.

29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

1. Different roles – Apostles laid the groundwork / prophets directly communicated the Word of God – teachers helped people understand and obey - authenticators (healers/tongue speakers) reinforced the truth of the message / admin kept things going

2. Did everyone have any one of these – NO – given as decided by God

3. All the different roles with the same purpose – minister/equip the church

To be the body the Lord desires, each one, as He has been shaped contributes to the entire body. Together the church ministers to one another and to the world. This is God’s plan for the age.

Every person here is a part of the body. One of the Lego blocks. Are you playing the role that God has given you? Are being used to profit the body? Is it about Him and His body?