All Hands On Deck: You Need Us & We Need You

All Hands On Deck  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
0 ratings
· 22 views
Notes
Transcript
Anybody ever heard of Rosie the Riveter? If you don’t know the name, you almost certainly have seen her poster. It said “We Can Do It!” in large, prominent letters.
Rosie the Riveter was what you would call a cultural icon. She wasn’t a real person. She was a fictional character created in order to bring American women into the workforce.
During World War 2, most men in America who were healthy and young enough to fight had already been drafted into the military. A lot of men also had enlisted, that is they had signed on voluntarily. They wanted to be part of the war effort. The Allied Powers were in the right, and they knew it, and they wanted to be involved. We were going to win, and they wanted to have a hand in it.
But all those men who joined the military left behind jobs. Factories and businesses had lost most of their employees. And this was at a time when they needed those employees. World War II was a tremendous boost to our economy. The government infused manufacturers with lots and lots of cash in order to build things like ammunition, airplanes, ships, tanks, trucks — you name it. They had the cash, they just needed the workers. Women would fill those roles.
Well, there’s where Rosie the Riveter comes in. Rosie the Riveter was an image of a strong woman who was just as comfortable operating a drill as she was an electric mixer. In fact, one ad campaign actually used those exact words. A picture of an electric mixer and the words, “Can you use an electric mixer? Then you can operate a drill!” The image of Rosie the Riveter convinced scores of women that not only did they have a patriotic duty to enter the workforce; she also convinced women that they were competent to enter the workforce and that they were needed to enter the workforce.
Some women found their way into what had been more traditional roles, like sewing upholstery for airplanes or painting radium on tiny measurements to help pilots see their instruments in the dark. Others did everything from designing planes in the engineering department to building planes on the production line.
Why did they do this? Because world war two was what historians call a total war. A total war is, among other things, a war that involves everything and everyone.
World War 2 was a total war. The dangers of Japanese imperialism and German expansionism had to be stamped out, and this would not be easy. It would not be something the Allied Powers could do without involving everyone. Everyone’s labor is needed. Everyone’s talents are needed. Everyone’s support is needed. Everyone has to be on board. All hands on deck.
If you were here last Sunday, you know where I’m going with this. We need you at Buffalo. We need those of you who are here this morning in this room. We need those of you who are watching online. We need those who are in neither place. We don’t need some more than others. We don’t need others more than some. And, if I may say, you need us.
Last Sunday the two points were this, for a reminder or if you weren’t here:
Last Sunday:
You are gifted to serve, so you CAN do it
You are necessary for the well-being of this church, so we NEED you
Simple sermon again today, just two points.
You are a vital part of this church, whether you feel vital or not
You need the people in this room and those who are not here, whether you realize it or not
This is a sermon about serving and being involved and being engaged. But as you’ll see, it’s actually more a sermon about the church and our role in it.

#1: You are a vital part of this church, whether you feel vital or not

Vital vs. important

Now you’ll notice the word “vital”. I wrestled with that word. I had started to go with “important”. You are an “important” part of this church. But I chose “vital”. Why? Because “vital” means “essential”. Why do they check your vital signs every time you go to the doctor? Your pulse, your oxygen, your temperature. Those are vital signs because they are signs of life, they’re signs of health. If those vital signs are off, if something’s not right, whatever you came to the doctor for is suddenly less important. If you’re oxygen is low, or if you’re BP is dangerously high or dangerously low, or you’ve got a fever of 105, your doctor will likely call an ambulance for you.
Oxygen and pulse and body temperature - those are life and death things. You need them to be correct and within normal range for your survival.
And in the same way, every church member is vital — every church member is a vital part of this church. Now, as always, we want to make sure that what I’m saying is supported by the Bible. I think it is. Look with me at verses 14-16. Let’s use the NIV this time.

14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body

Now Paul uses the image of a body. Your translation might use the word “members” in place of “body parts”. That’s okay as long as you know what he’s talking about. And the picture he paints of one body part declaring itself not part o the body is meant to be funny. This is humor. Can you imagine if you’re hand grew a pair of lips and said to you in a disrespectful tone, I am no longer going to be part of your body; I’ve had it up to here with that elbow, and that shoulder of yours can’t get his act together, and he’s making my life hard; I’m out of here. I quit!”
And of course it’s like, “Um…are you going to go somewhere? You’re kind of attached to my arm. I’m not particularly excited about having you amputated, you know. You can say you’re out of here but you’re still very much a part of my body.” It’s ridiculous to think of your hand declaring its independence from you, right? What difference would it make? The hand is still attached to the arm.
Now everything I said just now was ridiculous, I know. The hand declaring independence from the rest of your body? You might even have to have a certain humor type to even think what I just said was funny. It’s absurd, and that’s the point.
Paul is saying that it is just as ridiculous for us to declare our independence from our church family. The picture he’s drawing for us though is this: church member A looks at church member B and says, “Wow he’s so gifted; he can sing and he can teach Sunday School and he painted the sanctuary like nobody’s business. I’m not as good of him. I’m not needed here.”
Now, let’s be honest. Has anybody in the room ever felt that way at some point in your lifetime? I can’t serve as a deacon or I’m never asked to chair a committee or I wish I could arrange flowers like she does. I’m just useless. What’s the point in being here? They don’t need me.” Ever felt like that?
But notice Paul’s larger point. The picture is of church member A comparing himself to church member B, finding himself lacking, and then bowing out. But notice what he says: “Because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body, it would not for this reason stop being part of the body.” He repeats himself in verse 16: “And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, it would not for that reason stop being part of the body.” You can declare your independence from our church by dropping out or not coming as much or visiting somewhere else. But doing those things doesn’t put an end to the fact that you’re still a member of this church. You’re still needed.
Some of you know about when I dislocated my knee. I use it as an illustration alot, I know, but that’s because I find it to be illustrative of so many different things. In this case, it shows how much my heart needs my knee.
Here’s what I mean. So I had to be transported by ambulance to the hospital. The reason for this is that my knee was out of place, and I couldn’t walk on it to get to my car or someone else’s. I couldn’t bend it to sit in my car or someone else’s. The only way to the hospital was if I remained horizontal and my leg straight out.
In the ambulance, they put the blood pressure cuff on me. It was some ridiculous number like 180 over 120 or 130. I’d never seen it that high before. The paramedic though said it was normal. Extreme pain causes your heart to go into overdrive. Once I got to the hospital and got my knee un-dislocated and got the pain under control, it came down.
Now you could easily draw the conclusion that the knee is not essential. And of course you can live without a knee. But this does show the interdependence of the parts of the body: Turns out that my heart needed my knee to function properly so it could function properly. An essential organ needed a so-called unessential organ to function the right way.
You may feel unessential here at Buffalo. And this is where the second part of the point comes in.
You are a vital part of this church, whether you feel vital or not.
Feelings can helpful. Feelings can tell us when we’re sad, when we’re angry, when we need rest. Our feelings speak the truth to us. But very often our feelings lie to us too, don’t they? A man may feel like he doesn’t have any friends, but an objective observer who sees how much people light up when he walks into the room, that person can say to him “your feelings are lying to you.” You might feel un-essential, unimportant. But those feelings are lying to you. You are vital.
Why? Why can I say confidently to you that you are a vital part of this church? Why can I be so certain when I tell you that your feelings are lying to you when they tell you that you are not a vital part of this church? Why can I say that? I can say that because the Bible says that.
Look with me up a few verses to verse 7. We saw this last week.

But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Everyone is gifted spiritually. When you placed faith in Jesus Christ and committed yourself to Him, several things happened immediately:
You were justified (made right w/ God)
You were born again (made new)
You were set apart for God
You were indwelt and gifted by the Spirit

11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.

Raise your hand if you would agree with that. You are spiritually gifted, and God gifted you with this church, these people, this building, this community in mind. Right?
Now, if you know that, and if you believe that, then you have to also admit that this is true: we need you, and we are at a disadvantage if you could be here and are not here. Would you agree? If God gave you spiritual gifts to address the problems and needs here at this church, and you are absent, then there is a hole where you could be. There is some ministry in this church that we can’t have without you. There is some need in this community and in this city that can’t be addressed, in part, without you.
If you are spiritually gifted…then
a) we need you here, and...
b) we are disadvantaged without you
So how do you live this out? Well, it starts with just being present.
Where do you start?
Be present as often as you can
Speak to one person you don’t know well every Sunday
Pray about where to serve
Then get involved! d
“But I don’t feel like a vital part of this church.” No no — we’re not doing that, remember? You are a vital part of this church, whether you feel vital or not.

#2: You need the people in this room and those who are not here, whether you realize it or not

Now this one’s a little bit harder. Those of you who liked hearing “You’re a vital part of this church” might hear me say “You need us” and stiffen in your seat a little bit. We don’t like to see ourselves as dependent. We want to be independent.
Well, don’t take my word for it. Again, check for yourselves. Is what I’m saying coming directly from God’s word?

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment

Remember the idea of the church as a body? If your head were to say to you, “Let’s get rid of your feet. They’re smelly. They’re ugly. Who needs them?”, you’d be like “Um, I need them. And you’re not going to accomplish a whole lot without them.”
What about your eye saying to you, “Look, let’s ditch those things, okay? I mean, really? Look at the callouses on those things. And when’s the last time those fingernails got trimmed?”, again you’d say to your eye, “I rather like my hand, okay, Mr. Eye? And look, how are you going to reach for things that you see without the hands? We’re keeping them.”
Now again, some of you think that’s funny and you’re laughing. Some of you are stone-faced, though, because you know what I’m saying is ridiculous. It’s absurd. Again, that’s the point. It’s supposed to seem ridiculous for one body part to shun another body part because it thinks it doesn’t need that body part. We know it’s ridiculous.
And Paul is saying that it is just as ridiculous for one church member to say to another, or about another, to their face or behind closed doors, “Look, we don’t need him. He’s dragging us down. He’s a burden. Or, she’s annoying, she tries to talk to you for hours at a time.”
Tony Evans tells this story: “Many people shirk church membership.” [Have you been attending and not joining our church? Just saying. Listen up.] “Many people church membership, using the excuse that they just don’t like people. But just let things get bad enough in their lives. When they get sick they like people — such as doctors. When they are jobless they like people — employers. The truth is, they only like people when those people are doing something for them.” [Evans p60]
The problem is that we have a bad habit of looking at people in terms of what we can get from them. I’ve heard some pastors talk about their church members. Sometimes they describe some of their members as valuable members. This couple, man, they’re really an asset to our church. They’re really valuable members. By which they sometimes mean: They’re wealthy and so they can give alot; they’re gifted and so they can do alot; they’re easy in that they don’t cause a lot of trouble.
And I understand the logic there. But if you call some church members valuable, you’re saying that there are alot of church members who are worthless. And if you call some church members assets, there must be some who are liabilities to the church. Let’s just let the word of God speak to that.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body

The weaker ones are not less valuable; they are actually indispensable, the Bible says. The less honorable ones are not liabilities to the church; no, the word of God says they should be treated with special honor.
You need your fellow church members.
Here’s why. This illustration I’ve heard elsewhere so I can’t claim credit for it.
Let’s say tonight that I get a huge plate of hot dogs loaded down with slaw and mustard and ketchup and chili and all that. Like four hot dogs. Craig sees me and he says, “Dustin, that’s too much. You’re going to drop it.” I know he’s right, but I try anyway. And I’m walking back to my table and I just dump my plate all over Chris.
And let’s say that immediately a whole bunch of people come over to help. Some very quickly grap a mop and some towels and they’re cleaning the floor. Someone else comes over and they start explaining to me why I spilled it then and how I can avoid doing it again in the future. Let’s say a third person comes over and sits down beside me and they want to make sure I’m okay. You know, a pastor spills his food all over one of the deacons — that’s not my best moment, right? And someone else is making sure there’s still some food left because from the looks of mine it appears I might’ve eaten it all.
What just happened there? We saw people who were gifted in all kinds of different ways, and they sprang into action according to their gift. That shows how much we need others. We need people who will teach the Bible. We need people who warn us about the path we’re on. We need people who console the hurting. We need people to serve those who aren’t able to do things for themselves.
No one has all the gifts
We need all the gifts
Thus, we need each other
No one has all those gifts. And yet we need all those gifts. And because we need them, and become no one person has all of them, that means we need our fellow church members. All of them. You are a vital part of this church, whether you feel like it or not. And you need your fellow church members, whether you realize it or not. That’s the point Paul is making in these verses. But again, don’t take my word for it. Check the source. What does the word say?

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

I’m not saying you should be a needy person. Here’s what I’m saying. I’m saying no one is really independent. You need food. If you can’t cook, you need someone to make it for you. You need sleep. If you can’t sleep, you can’t function (well, some of you can). Doctors tell us we need to exercise. We know they’re right. Our bodies need activity. We need companionship. No one is independent — not completely. And just in the same way that we need exercise, and just in the same way that we need food, we need church.
Now, you say “Pastor Dustin, wouldn’t you say that we need Jesus?” Absolutely we need Jesus. We need a close relationship with Jesus. But guess what?

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

The Bible calls the church “the body of Christ”. If the church is the body of Christ, then I can’t separate my church membership from my relationship with Jesus. The only way you can be connected to the head is through being part of the body. I’m not saying you can’t come to Christ except through the church. We don’t believe that. What I am saying is that Jesus has designed this whole Christianity thing so that we are following Him together, connected with each other because we’re connected with Him. So if you want to follow Jesus, you really can’t do it apart from the people in this room.
So, you had to know we would do this. Turn to someone beside you and say, “I need you.” And then when someone says it to you, you say back to them, “And I need you.” Ready, go.
But you don’t just need the people here. You need something else. You need the word of God. The preached word of God. And you need it over a long span of time — over a lifetime.
There was a pastor who finished his sermon and then stood at the door shaking hands as his people left. The pastor was pleased with himself after the sermon that day. “That was one of my best sermons.”
One lady did the customary “Good message, pastor.” He smiled and straightened up. “People noticed it was a good sermon,” he thought. He couldn’t contain himself. As she walked toward the door, he said “I plan to have it published posthumously.” She turned around and smiled at him, and then under her breath as she hurried out the door she said to her friend “I hope he hurries.” [Morgan p124]
On a more serious note:
Many years ago a magazine called the British Weekly published an editorial about sermons. This is what it said, in typical British fashion:
“Dear Sir: It seems ministers feel their sermons are very important and spend a great deal of time preparing them. I have been attending church quite regularly for thirty years, and I have probably heard 3,000 of them. To my consternation, I discovered I cannot remember a single sermon. I wonder if a minister’s time might be more profitably spent on something else?”
Alot of people wrote in responding to it, but the British Weekly singled out this response and printed it:
“Dear Sir:
I have been married for thirty years. During that time I have eaten 32,850 meals — mostly my wife’s cooking. Suddenly I have discovered I cannot remember a single meal. And yet…I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to death a long time ago.” [Larson p421]
You may not be able to remember a single sermon or one thing that was said, and that’s ok. In fact, that may not even be the point of preaching. The purpose of cooking is not that you might remember 10, 15 fifteen incredible meals. The purpose of cooking is being simply being fed.
And here’s the thing: if you’re sitting under the preaching of the word Sunday after Sunday, and if you’re doing your best to be engaged and to hear what God is saying to you through it, you can expect to grow. You won’t notice growth every week. But that doesn’t mean you’re not growing. We don’t see our kids growing minute by minute, but one day they walk into the room and suddenly it seems they’ve grown two inches.
If you’re going to serve, you cannot separate yourself from the ministry of the word and corporate worship. You need it, not because I’m the one who’s preaching, but because it’s the Word of God.
We’ve all heard stories about Christians during world war two who hid Jews in their homes from the Nazis. One such place where this happened was Le Chambon, France. After the war, an author heard about the courage of these people in this little French village, and he went there to interview them and hear their stories. He expected to find extraordinary people who had done such an extraordinary thing.
Instead, he was surprised by how ordinary the people were. One woman who was sheltering Jews in her house even faked a heart attack in order to throw off the Nazis at her front door. When the author asked the woman how she summoned the courage to do such a thing, this is what she said: “Pastor always taught us that there comes a time in every life when a person is asked to do something for Jesus. When our time came, we knew what to do.” [Larson p229]
It wasn’t just one Sunday that had changed the lives of the people in this village. It was a lifetime of worshiping with the people of God and sitting under the word of God. Long habits of church attendance formed convictions that led to habits of ordinary believers doing courageous things.
Of course, to grow in your faith like that requires that you be present. We know that church attendance is declining. What might surprise you is how quickly it’s declining. Do you know what the fastest growing segment of church life is today? The fastest-growing subgroup of church members today is the subgroup of church members that attends once a month. How different things are today from how they were just a few decades ago:
Vance Havner, an evangelist from NC, wrote this: “My father was faithful to the house of God. When he felt like it and when he didn’t; when the preaching was good and when it wasn’t; my father was there.” Then he wrote this: “Whether the weather be good, or whether the weather be hot, whether the weather be cold or whether the weather be not, whatever the weather he weathered the weather, whether he liked it or not.” [Morgan]
Now we can dismiss the previous generation for being legalistic. But this much we can’t deny: Our parents and grandparents went to church every Sunday, whether they wanted to or not, whether they felt like it or not.

Conclusion and call for response

So let’s say you want to do things differently from now. Where do you start?
Confess it to God
Receive His forgiveness!
Pray about where God would have you serve
Come to business meetings
Speak to one person you don’t know well every Sunday
Confess it to God: God does want you to grow and be more committed, but He loves you right where you are. If God already sees the worst of you, already knows it, and still loves you, even likes you, then you and I can face the worst of ourselves too. You don’t have to paint yourselves as being better than you are. Who are you fooling?
Receive His forgiveness: We find mercy and grace from God when we confess our sins to Him — always. We don’t find him reluctantly forgiving us. We find Him joyfully forgiving us. We don’t encounter a God who shames us, but a Father who loves us now and who will help us get to where He wants us to be.
Pray about where God would have you serve: there are some things you don’t need to pray about. You don’t need to pray about whether God would have you serve. You already know that He would have you serve. The question, then, is where and how.
Come to business meetings: they might seem like no big deal, but it’s a chance for you take responsibility in the direction of the church. If you don’t like what’s happening, come and voice your opinion. If you have an idea for how something could be done differently, come and say it out loud. Don’t be an armchair critic. Come and take your place as a member of this church. Business meetings are the third Wednesday of the month.
Lastly, speak to one person you don’t know every Sunday. Maybe you’re shy. That’s okay. Just say “Hey, Joe. Good to see you.” Maybe next Sunday ask them something about their life — where they work or how many grandchildren they have. Church is all about relationships. It’s about the people. We need them and they need us. What better way to start living that out than to pause, acknowledge them and take an interest in them.
If through the cross God has forgiven you of all sin, past and present and future, if every morning is a brand new start, then not only can we admit that we’ve been focused on our own kingdoms rather than God’s. We can be different. We can make different choices with how we spend our time. If we’re going to be what Christ calls us to be, we need all hands on deck.
Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more
Copyright 2024 Logos Bible SoftwareFeatures|Pricing|Privacy|Terms of Use|Support