Healthy Community - Are We Together?

Alright, we are going to spend this second week of January, of this near year, in our / / Vision for Tomorrow series.

Last week we looked at our Personal Health. What we need to focus on to be healthy personally.

We aren’t necessarily looking at how to cast vision, or create goals, but we are looking at what kind of foundation do we need to lay in order to be able to build upon and have vision & goals that we can shoot towards.

/ / Spiritual Health, Physical Health, Mental & Emotional Health, Relational Health. Those are all deeply personal things.

And I’m not telling you about how to build your business. How to find your next or better job. How to find your soulmate or how to invest in the stock market.

First of all, I am no pro at those things so it wouldn’t serve you well for me to talk about those things. But most importantly, I believe wholeheartedly that these things we are focusing on are the foundation that the rest of it is built on.

First things First, your Spiritual Health is of the absolute utmost value in your life. Without that nothing else matters. Doesn’t matter how strong, fit, healthy, rich, or awesome you are, if you don’t have Jesus, you don’t have life.

We read it last week, but let’s read it again because it’s so valuable. Jesus said in Mark 8:36-37, / / “And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?”

Jesus isn’t saying gaining the whole world is wrong. He’s not saying don’t be rich, or don’t be successful in this life by the standard of what this world would say is successful. He’s not saying don’t go after the perfect job, or the nice home etc… He’s saying what is the point if all it is is stuff? What’s the point if your bank account is full, but you haven’t found life? Because it’s only in the life of Jesus Christ that we truly find life.

See, if we truly followed Christ, we wouldn’t question if we come into better jobs or more money or when we get all the things, because that’s not what we were striving for, we were simply following God.

Listen, Proverbs 3:5-6, which is one of my favorite scriptures says, / / Trust in the Lord with all your heart, do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

If we are seeking God, asking for his guidance, giving up our desire and will to pursue HIS desire and will, when we come into what we would perceive as blessing, or abundance, we won’t have to argue with ourselves or anyone else about whether or not we’re meant to be there. AND if we continue, in that moment and in the future to do the same thing, seek God, not depending on our own understanding, but trusting God, seeking His will and giving up our own, if we lose it all we will still feel secure, if he tells us to give it all away, we will be secure, if we live the rest of our lives and leave an inheritance for our children, we will feel secure and at peace, because it wasn’t every about the stuff in the first place, it was about following after Jesus.

And I believe God calls each of us with differing talents and different abilities and with different paths to walk. And God does not make one rich so he can provide for the poor and one poor so he can rely on the rich, he calls both to rely on Him and calls HIMSELF our provider.

When Jesus said don’t worry about what you are going to eat or drink or wear, but seek first the kingdom of God, it doesn’t matter what that eat, drink or wear means. Anxiety and worry don’t care how rich you are.

For some it might be, “Am I going to eat mac’n’cheese or hotdogs tonight?” and for others it might be, “Am I going to eat lobster or caviar?”… Don’t worry about either. Seek first the Kingdom of God. I’ve met rich people who are just worried about losing their money and I’ve met poor people who are just worried they’ll never have enough. / / Contentment is not finally having what we consider to be enough, true contentment is peace and reassurance regardless of current situation.

The absolute best thing we can do in our lives is to focus on following after Christ, working at and learning what it means to lay down our own way and give up our own understanding, TRUSTING in God and seeking first His Kingdom and His desire. And I promise you, I guarantee you, He will lead you. He will Guide you. He will be your provision and your hope.

So, spiritual health is by far the most important thing. As Paul said in 1 Timothy 4:7-9, / / …train yourself to be godly. “Physical training is good, BUT training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”

But the bible doesn’t deny the need to focus on our physical bodies either, did he?

3 John 1:2 says, / / Dear friend, I hope all is well with you and that you are as healthy in body as you are strong in spirit.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, / / Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

That actually points to both. If we recognize that the Holy Spirit is right here with us, then that becomes a great inspiration to focus on Him, doesn’t it? He’s right here with me.

But also, honor God with your body. Wow, you choose to be with me, in me.. how can I honor you with my body? What does that look like?

There’s been an underlying theme happening over the last few months, if you’ve noticed this, that God has a standard of living for you. It’s personal to you, it’s something He has for you, but he’s called you to it, and the purpose of it is for your benefit. / / Jesus doesn’t need you healthy for him, he wants you healthy for you!

I think we consistently miss the point of God’s instructions that we read in the word of God. We look at them and think it’s a rule book of things we need to get right for His blessing or salvation, BUT, it’s actually an instruction manual on how to find life.

So, then of course the most important thing we can do is to find this instruction, find this standard that Jesus is setting for us, right? If we can find His standard for our lives, then we can truly walk in freedom, in wholeness, and find a place of true contentment!

Last week was really about personal decisions for a personal transformation. Making the right choices for me and my life. Remember this, / / If I’m not good for me, I will have a very difficult time being good for anyone else.

There’s a saying, / / “Hurt people, hurt people...” Meaning, when we live our lives with hurt that we are unwilling to resolve, that hurt usually manifests itself in ways that hurt those around us - whether we want it to or not. So it’s really important to focus on us. And sometimes it’s good to take some time to just ask the question, “Do I need to change anything? Are there areas of my life I need to focus on?” Because the reverse is true as well, / / “Healed people heal people...” When we are free we can help lead others to freedom!

Well, this week we are going to look at what a thriving and healthy community looks like. We are going to look at 3 areas of community life that I believe will help bring health. But these aren’t things that just happen on their own, and although they are about community, they all start with a personal decision. And so they all have this same thing in common - the only way a healthy community happens is through intentional effort.

/ / Intentionality - deciding you will show up. Deciding you are in it. This is why we asked last week, “Am I all in?”. And when it comes to community, it’s no different than what it takes to develop a healthy personal life. You have to be intentional. You have to have a goal and something to maintain your focus. The reality is, if you do not have a destination, you will ultimately end up going nowhere.

Now, we don’t need to make that bigger than it has to be. Or scarier than it is. It’s actually not that scary at all. Remember, Proverbs 29 said that it is when people do not accept / / divine guidance...

Divine means of, from or like God. So / / divine guidance is instruction from God. What do we say over and over again that the Bible is? It’s God’s instruction, it’s his standard for our lives. If we determine to live our lives by God’s standard and guidance, and we do so by reading His word to find out what that is, we’ll be well on our way!

So, intentionality, choosing to show up, and the second thing I mentioned, / / intentional EFFORT.

Effort - a vigorous or determined attempt.

We’ve ready James 1:22 a few times recently, but it’s absolutely brilliant, / / But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise you are only fooling yourselves.

You can know what the standard of God is, you can learn how He is guiding you, but you ultimately have to match that information with the effort.

How often do we hear people say, “Ya, I should be doing that...”

I bet, if we just simply took our should be’s and made them consistencies, our lives would dramatically change.

I was watching a video this week from Dave Ramsey on personal finance goals for 2022 and he said, / / “People are successful by small increments, not big splashes, and people fail by small increments as well.

He went on to say: It is very seldom that someone is taken down by one big thing. Whether that is in finance, relationship, personal life, whatever it is, it’s by the small decisions and choices we make on a day to day basis that produce the big results in the end. That “one moment” of success or failure, is simply the icing on the cake of small decisions we’ve made along the way.”

Alright, intentional effort is the goal. Now, I was having a conversation this week and I realized one of the struggles I was facing is that the more change I want, the more overwhelming it can become. What if 2 or 3 or more areas of my life need adjusting, how can I handle all that change? How can I keep my head above water?

A friend once told me I don’t need 100% of your time, I don’t need you to show up every time, I just need a 100% when you do show up. if you can only give 20% of your time, then give 100% in that moment.

Let’s think of that in a different way:

Let’s say you want to start a side job, an at home business. And you’re overwhelmed because you know that if you really want to succeed you would have to put 20, 30, or even 40 hours a week into this thing like those super successful people. But, of course, that can become very overwhelming very quickly, so instead, how about you start with 1 hour a day, or maybe 2 hours every other day, and instead of getting to that 1 or 2 hours and spending that time worrying and being anxious about what you can’t get done, show up. Show up 100% to that limited time you have and do your absolute best. Put your absolute best effort in to the time you DO have. Then, if you need to walk away until tomorrow, or whenever, ok.

And I say all of that before hand this morning because I believe we have to be very smart with how we talk about this idea and this concept of community. One of the most tragic things I have seen in the church is when people get burned out, overtaxed, overworked, and walk away because of too much pressure, or feeling like too much is asked of them. Or they simply don’t get involved because they don’t think they have what it takes or have enough to give… or whatever the case may be.

On that same note, the reality of a pastor and leader in the church is that we don’t function without investment. And when we talk about community we are ultimately talking about investment. It takes the involvement, the investment, the generosity of people to make it work. Without the body involved the body won’t thrive. Plain and simple. So, as we talk through these things today I want you to keep 3 important things in mind.

/ / You are VALUED

You are a valued part of community regardless of your investment and involvement. Your value will never be determined by what you can do. It is determined by the simple and beautiful fact that God created you in His image and you are beautifully and wonderfully made.

/ / We WANT you.

Kelley and I have had some pretty cool opportunities to work in some great place with a large number of people. We had a worship team in one church of around 40 people that we had on rotation. And our standard was always the same, regardless of how many people were involved. As much as we need you, it pales in comparison to how much we WANT you.

Yes, God has called us all to give and serve and be involved, but if you can’t do it, or if you shouldn’t be doing it, we’ll make it without you. So the pressure isn’t on you to make it happen. This also helps keep pride in check when people feel like you just can’t do it without them.

But the other side is also true and even more relevant. You ARE wanted. We want you to be involved because when the body of Christ comes together and serves together, worships together and gives together, great things happen. Not just for the community, but for the individual.

/ / This has MUTUAL BENEFIT

When you make the decision to make intentional effort in communti it benefits both the community AND you.

Each of the 3 areas we’re going to look at today have both corporate, or community level implications, but also personal ones. When we invest in community, we reap a harvest in community AND in our own lives.

So, let’s get into it. As always there are most definitely a whole tonne of areas we could focus on and I am not limiting what is true to these three things we are looking at today, I am simply choosing these three things as a focus because I believe, that in 2022 we have the opportunity to make intentional effort to see something happen. Both individually, as we talked about last week - I can’t express to you how important those things are in your life, Spiritual Health, Physical Health, Mental & Emotional Health and Relational Health. If you make those things a priority and you put some intentional effort into them, you will experience life in 2022. But also Corporately, or in Community, if we make some intentional effort together we can see great things happen, and I believe this enough to challenge each of us this week on these areas.

/ / 1. Giving Financially

First things first, this is as much about you as it is about the community. God uses our generosity to bless others, and also as an avenue to bring blessing to us. And personally, I think this is all about having a right perspective.

Do we truly believe we have what we have because of God? Or, do we believe it’s our own efforts and all on us to provide for ourselves?

If I believe that God is truly my provider, He is my source, then when I give I am giving out of gratitude and honor with something that is mine only because of His involvement in the first place.

But, when I think I have what I have because of me, because I’m a self-made man or self-made woman, then giving feels like a sacrifice, it feels like, “How am I going to get by without this amount?” And often times, what I’ve seen is that the mentality that goes along with that is not one of honoring God, but one of feeling like I’m being made to do something I don’t really want to. And that’s definitely not the point.

So, I think the first thing we need to truly understand when it comes to giving financially is that what we have ultimately comes from God.

/ / I. God owns it ALL

Psalm 24:1 says, / / The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him. For he laid the earth’s foundation on the seas and built it on the ocean depths.

If we believe that God is the creator of the universe. If we believe that God is the creator of mankind. Then it is only logical to believe that everything is His.

In the book of Exodus, about 2 months after Israel has been released from Egypt, they are walking through the wilderness, out in the middle of nowhere. This is where God gives them the initial instructions for living, this is where God lays out his standard for living. But it’s also where he says, If you live by this standard you will be incredibly blessed. So, in Exodus 19:5 it says that God tells Moses this, to then tell the people of Israel, / / “Now if you will obey me and keep my covenant, you will be my own special treasure from among all the peoples on earth; FOR ALL THE EARTH BELONGS TO ME.”

We’re just laying some groundwork here, right?

Psalm 50:10-12, / / For all the animals of the forest are mine, and I own the cattle on a thousand hills… all the animals of the field are mine…all the world is mine and everything in it.

Haggai 2:8, the Lord, again, speaking through the prophet Haggai, says, / / “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine...”

We could go on and on, but I think we get the point, and I think we understand it, what someone creates is theirs. If I make something, and someone comes along and says, “oh, thanks, I’ve been looking for that. It’s mine..” I would look at them and say, “umm… how can it be yours? I just made this...”

And let’s just take it one step further...

Psalm 139:13-14 - / / You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous...

What are you? A masterpiece! Made, created, beautifully and wonderfully by the power and love of God himself!

Genesis 1:27, / / So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he crated them.

You are created by God, along with everything else you can see around you. It’s all His. And

/ / II. God provides to US

Listen, if we believe the first part, that God created all things, including us, and therefore is owner of all things, and we believe what Jesus says that He is the way to our Father, and He is a good father, then we must believe that as our Father, God will provide for us.

Jesus said in Matthew 6:8, / / …your Father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him!

James 1:17-18 has this beautiful passage here, / / Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

I love those verses, it speaks about all of it. God creates us, God views us as His own, He considers us a prized possession, we are his masterpiece, AND he gives us good and even perfect gifts to look after us.

Philippians 4:19 says, / / And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.

Now, here’s how this connects to giving, God doesn’t provide to us JUST for us.

2 Corinthians 9, which is my favorite passage of scripture in the bible about giving, because I think it sets the right perspectives and the right expectations, says in vs 10, / / For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat…

First of all, he’s not talking about farming here, he’s talking about giving financially. And look at what he says there, God provides the seed, AND the harvest. The seed is what we take and put into the ground, the harvest is the wheat that grows from the seed which we use to make the bread.

And in this scripture, the seed is the financial giving. God provides for us so that we can be generous. That is one of the purposes of his provision, of course that we would have bread to eat so that we will be sustained, but also to be a part of His plan for provision in other peoples lives.

2 Corinthians 9 continues to say, / / In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous.

Out of God’s abundance He provides to us so that we can give without the expectation and demand of trying to do it ourselves. And when we recognize that it is all His in the first place, our hold on what we have lessens. We see this most prominently in kids around the holidays. Kelley and I needed new headphones for when we are up here singing, and so as just a fun little thing I wrapped them and put them under the tree, but then decided to also ask Kaylee if she wanted them to come from her.

Multiple times since that point she’s mentioned about these headphones that came from her. Did she pay for them? no. Does that even matter? No, of course not. Out of my abundance I provided for her a gift to be generous, I mean, it would take way more than she has available to her out of her own money that we give her as an allowance, but, she owned it. She wants to give us gifts, and she doesn’t look at that and say, “Well, it’s already yours so what’s the point?” No way, she looks at it and says, “You gave me this, it’s mine, now I’m giving it to you like you never owned it...”

And just like that, in that same exact way God honors us for our giving even though it came from him in the first place. God provides the seed, he provides the conditions for the harvest, he provides the bread we eat from that harvest, and out of that he enriches our lives to the point where WE can be generous, like somehow it was ours to give.

In Leviticus in the Old Testament where God is giving his instructions, his standard for living, he told Israel to follow what is called the tithe, it was 10% of all of their increase. He provides the seed, he provides the harvest, they honored God by taking 10% of that and bringing it to the temple so that the purposes of God could be fulfilled.

And he says this in Leviticus 27:30,32 / / One tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain from the fields or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord and must be set apart to him as holy… Count off every tenth animal from your flocks and set them apart for the Lord as holy.

I like this because he says, “ok, I’m so fully giving you what I’m giving you that I’m not even going to lord it over you that 100% of it is mine. I’m just going to say, 10% out of all I give you will be considered holy and must be set apart.

Now, there are all kinds of arguments about whether or not the tithe of the Old Testament and the temple system translates over to the New Testament, or to how we run and function as a church today.

And I will say this very briefly about that.

Our goal at Cutler Bay Worship Center is to honor God with the finances WE receive as a ministry. In fact, we take 10% of what we receive as donations and send it out to further God’s kingdom work in the earth as an honor to Him. That is our endeavour.

Our goal as a church is to use wisely and be financially responsible with all we have. We work to make well thought out, smart decisions that will ensure the proper function and continued work of this ministry for the Glory of God.

Our goal as a ministry is to serve our community, both internally, you, and externally, our city, and we are able to do so because of the harvest of generosity in the hearts of God’s people.

We want to be as open and honest, and as humble and responsible as we possibly can.

We also walk by faith. Our God is a God of faith. We believe in things we can not see. We believe in things we can not always comprehend, in fact, the bible says that God’s ways will ALWAYS be higher than our ways. Proverbs 3 tells us NOT to lean on our OWN understanding, but to Trust in the Lord with all our hearts. It’s a tightrope we walk on, doing our best in this life in the natural with what we believe God has entrusted to us through people, and we trust He is leading us in our decisions.

Is what we do now different than the temple structure and the law of the Old Testament, absolutely, without a doubt in my mind, this looks and is very different. But the heart and purpose are the same. The temple was meant to be a place to honor and worship God while being a place to lift up and encourage the people of God. Nothing has changed.

I also believe that the instruction of God still leads to life. That will never change. Do what God says and you will find life and blessing, because he is a good Father leading us into good things. It is no different with money.

Malachi 3 talks about what we can expect when we decide to honor God with our finances through what he called the Tithe. Starting in vs 10, / / “Bring all the tithes into the storehouse so there will be enough food in my Temple. If you do,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “I will open the windows of heaven for you. I will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! Try it! Put me to the test!”

That is a promise that I believe still stands true today. James 1:17 said that He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. So why wouldn’t the promise be true. And I have seen in my own life that as I honor God with this simple thing, 10% of what He has blessed me with, I prosper.

/ / III. Giving is about the HEART

Ultimately giving is about the heart. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, / / You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”

And then it goes on to describe how God is the one who provides.

If you can’t give cheerfully, if you feel like God or man are twisting your arm to give, then don’t do it. If you are reluctant to give, pray about it. Ask God WHY. Don’t just settle for, “Ya, I am reluctant to let go of my money...” of course we are, most people when given an opportunity to watch their money leave their hands will be reluctant. So Ask God why. Because there is blessing on the other side of giving, and if you don’t want to give, then it’s holding you back from receiving a blessing!

I want to challenge you in this year to take a step of faith. Yes, this requires faith. It requires believing in something you cannot see because maybe you haven’t done this before. If you have never done this, taking 10% of your income and honoring God with it, it’s going to feel hard. I get that.

And I’m not promising you anything that God didn’t already promise. And here’s the great thing about giving. It truly is about the heart.

When YOU are generous, God sees YOUR generosity. Which means your harvest comes out of your sowing, not out of the ground you plant into. I mean, I hope you receive from this church in relational, emotional, spiritual ways, in community and love and health and overall sense of contentment and comfort. But there’s a good chance you aren’t going to find financial return from this place, yet, God says, if you bring the tithe to the temple, HE will pour out a blessing so great you won’t have enough room to take it in! and he says / / Try it! Put ME to the test… not put the temple to the test, not put your church to the test, but put GOD to the test. You are honoring God! That’s what this is about, a heart towards God!

/ / 2. YOU Hold the Invitation

Second thing that will see community succeed is when we recognize that we, individually, you and I each hold the invitation.

Two very important things here.

First, and this is so important and so valuable and I need you to hear this because like EVERYTHING in the Christian life there is no condemnation, and you are only responsible for what God has given you, you are not responsible for doing what only God can do.

Acts 2:47, this is when the church officially starts in the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit falls on the 120 in the upper room and all of heaven breaks loose in Jerusalem and everyone is coming to check it out and thousands are turning to believe in Jesus. But listen to how Luke writes this, / / And each day the LORD added to their fellowship those who were being saved.

Who? The Lord… they recognized that ultimately they were responsible for their part, living a life of humility before God, following His standard, and being the invitation, but that it was NEVER about them saving anyone. That is a pressure too much to bare and only Jesus can shoulder that one, and he did, on the cross!

In Mathew 16 Jesus is with his disciples and they are talking about Him being the Messiah and what that means for the future of Israel, and their future and Jesus says to Peter, who had just said that they believe he IS the Messiah, / / “Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”

Now, you can read that as a really heavy task Peter was just given, OR, you can read it and see that Jesus doesn’t tell Peter his job is going to build his church, it’s going to be Jesus who builds Jesus’ church and Peter gets to be involved!

After Jesus is crucified and raised back to life he meets with Peter and asks him, “Do you love me?” and Peter says, “of course I do, you know I do” And Jesus responds with, “So feed MY sheep.”

Defining a couple things, we as followers of Jesus are able to and even tasked with leading people to a place of nourishment, but that they will forever and always be JESUS’ sheep, and HE is the one who provides the food.

You get to be an invitation to the greatest introduction ever, Jesus in the life of someone who needs Him.

Jesus said in John 12 that when he would be crucified HE would draw all people to himself.

I want to challenge you today in this way, / / Be the invitation. But not in a way that you feel this undue pressure to start going out and evangelizing all over town - if God leads you to do that, go for it. But I am talking about asking God to show you and lead you to the right people at the right time that need the thing you have that allows you to point them to Jesus.

And I think most importantly, let God work in your life so that when people see you they think, “Wow, I want what he has...”

Jesus said in Matthew 15, / / You are the light of the world…so…let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

The more God’s light and freedom fill your life, the more your actions display His saving power and grace! Let God transform you so that when people talk to you they recognize, “This girl knows something I don’t...”

I don’t think people aren’t coming to church because they don’t want God, I think people have stopped coming to church because they don’t always see God in it. It’s not God who has offended people. And it’s not your job to fix what’s wrong with the church except that you actually ARE the fix to what is wrong with the church.

See, a healthy community is not inviting someone to church because we have it all right and that person needs it. Like we are perfect and they need to come in to see our perfection and turn from their evil ways. A healthy community is one where we all recognize that we ALL fall short of God’s glorious standard and that in that He loves us anyways. Remember, it’s our need for grace that makes us all the same! So, it’s an invitation to receive the love of God, a God who would give it all to see us find life!

We are also learning what this means to build a great community. This is not it. Sunday Morning service is not the extent of community, it is a central and invaluable part of it, but it’s not the be all and end all of community. It’s the rallying point, it’s a focus point, and by that I mean it’s where we get and put our focus together to worship and grow and learn, but it’s just a step, and throughout this year we are going to be looking at what that means, and what it takes to be community together.

Jesus said be a disciple and make disciples, meaning, learn and help others learn. We all have a part to play in that process.

And this is not for the purpose of our church growth, although maybe that’s just inevitable, but this is about being an invitation to meeting Jesus, and then if that person wants to be a part of this community, awesome. I’m not so particular about what church people go to, I’m just convinced everyone needs the church, and the point of many churches is that hopefully everyone can find a place where they feel like they belong, they fit and they can grow together.

So, our challenge this year is to be an invitation.

/ / 3. What Part do You Play?

The last area we’re looking at this morning as a challenge to see growth and health within our community is to ask the very important question, what part do you play?

Part is a bit of a play on words here:

First, / / what body part are you? We did a series last June called Everyone Loves a Gift, where we looked at some of the gifts of the Spirit, but more importantly that the bible says that we are the body of Christ, each with our own part to play. The eye can’t get mad at the ear because it can’t see, the hand can’t say it can live without the eye because the eye can’t pick stuff up. No, we are all given gifts by the power of the Holy Spirit to serve and grow together.

Without getting too much into this, and if you want, you can go to our website and go through that series again where we talk about these things, but 1 Corinthians 12:7 says, / / A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.

So, my question to you is, what part are you? What’s the gift you carry that we need?

And the other side of the word part is a piece or segment of something, it’s the place that we fulfill, the slot the gift you have fits into. So, the other question is / / What PLACE do you fit in?

This is another area as a church we are growing in, identifying how we can utilize and best grow together with the gifts each of us carry. But, that takes two things, first, it takes a willingness to share your gift, and then second it takes a place for that gift to be plugged in.

It also takes patience. As you identify in yourself these gifts, as we grow and learn together and identify in each other our abilities and talents, our desires to serve and our desires to grow, let’s have patience together and for one another as we learn what it looks like to serve and help each other in these things. Listen, if you are great at something, or have a desire to do something, or want to be involved, and Kelley or I haven’t made it to you yet to ask you about it, please don’t be offended by that! Please don’t be hurt by that.

I’ve been in church leadership for a lot of years and one of the things that can get frustrating for people in the church, and also for people in leadership is this question, / / “Why aren’t we doing more?”

This question is asked by everyone at some point.

As people we want to know if there’s room for us. Room for our gift. Room for our ideas.

As leaders we believe we have a vision from God that of course we can’t and aren’t supposed to fulfill ourselves, so we need the various parts identified to fill the spots needed to see things come together.

This is why so often Kelley and I say we are so grateful for all of you who give of your time, especially with things like food distributions, because it fulfills what we believe God has put in front of us to do.

Again, this involves patience. They say Rome wasn’t built in a day. Very true.

This is all about intentional effort and incremental change. The statement I made earlier by Dave Ramsey that it’s not one big thing that makes or ruins people, but it’s a series of small and incremental changes that lead to success.

This is it. I believe these are the things that are going to be game changes for 2022 both in our personal lives and in our community. And when we look at all of these things, they all come down to a decision.

Will we decide to jump in? Last week, did we decide we are all in, for our relationship with God, for our health, for our earthly relationships? This week, are we committed to seeing all the parts that need to come together come together for the growth and health of the community we all want to see?

I truly believe we are all looking for community. It’s why people get so passionate about their kids sports, about dance, about whatever it is they are involved in, the PTA etc… the bar scene the dance club scene... Because we are looking for a place to fit in, and to feel connected, and even to express our talents.

I will be 100% honest with you. We are growing. And I hope will always be the case, that we are growing and learning and adapting to what it means to be a great community.

Our foundation is ultimately Jesus Christ. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 3:11, / / For no one can lay any foundation other than the one we already have - Jesus Christ. And what we are building on this foundation is His body that we want to be healthy, whole and with relationships we are committed to.

Paul continues to say, / / “Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you?”

So, the bible says YOU are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and that we all together are also the temple and the body of Christ. Let’s be committed to the growth and health of both of these, our personal temple, and our corporate temple!