Life in the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-27)

good morning good morning like Gavin tell my name's Jacob and I'm super excited to be sharing with you guys this morning we're gonna be in the section of Scripture that was read earlier first Corinthians twelve verses 12 to 27 so go ahead and turn in your Bibles to first Corinthians 12 and as you do that I want you to think about the best concert you've ever been to maybe for some of you that concert was the Coldplay concert that happened here in Omaha last August I was not in town but I saw videos and and a bunch of stuff and I've heard from both family and friends that this was by far the best concert they'd ever been to so I began to ask what made the concert so special and I found out that Coldplay did what Coldplay does they showed up and they gave a great show Chris Martin their lead singer rocked to the house just like he always does will champion their drummer laid down some good beats and look just like Joe Julian the band did its thing the people that are seen the people that are famous all over the world were seen just like they always are and it's super important that Coldplay came and and showed up because it'd be pretty awkward if you went to a Coldplay concert paid all that money and then Coldplay wasn't there right we needed the band but the band also needed their entire support staff to make the concert what it was one thing that made the concert so memorable were the special effects and the lighting game was incredible and I know this because I was jealous looking through your Instagram pages watching the concert from Instagram but when everyone came in they received a wristband that lit up during the show and because of these wristbands the the show did not stop where the stage ended instead it filled the entire auditorium when the the band played yellow the entire CenturyLink Center turned the color of the Sun and it provided a layer to the song that the band could not provide itself with just music what I'm wanting you to realize is this the show was amazing it was unforgettable and what made it so special was the band but also their entire support staff if the lighting guy wasn't at the CenturyLink Center that night well the show would not have been what it was if Chris Martin decided to just stay in the tour bus and not sing then Coldplay would not have sounded like Coldplay see for the show to work they needed Chris will and countless others whose names we probably will never know and city let us shared that story to to say this as a church we are not here on earth to put on an incredible concert or to make the name of a band great instead we are here on earth to make the name of Jesus great but just like Coldplay needed countless people with different roles to fulfill their mission so also we as the church need countless people with different roles to fulfill the mission that God has given us the church staff is not more important than a Jesus honoring business person the children's ministry servants are not more important than elementary school teachers who love Jesus see each of us have a role to play in this mission we need each other and we're not doing it so that city light can be famous so that our pastors can have private jets instead I mean it wouldn't be terrible instead we're doing this so that as the body of Christ we can make Jesus famous make his name known in Omaha and to the rest of the watching world and when we understand our our mission our role on earth there's no room for our pride we're not gonna get to heaven and have God congratulate us on the number of Instagram followers we had or and how many likes our family Christmas photo received on Facebook instead if our faith is in Jesus we're gonna get to heaven by God's grace and His grace alone and then we're gonna give an account to God for what we did with what we were given by him did we use the gifts God gave us to promote ourselves did we let fear or insecurity quiet the giftings that God gave us did we invest all of our money into earthly treasures that will fade away or did we use what God gave us to glorify Him to point people to him did we invest our finances into things that last into eternity did we spend our lives making disciples of Jesus so the question is did we use our every effort on this earth that we spend our every effort glorifying the kingdom of me or glorifying the kingdom of God and this is a real question that I have to ask myself as a young man because I live in a culture that likes to promote itself and I like to promote myself even my best efforts can be tainted with this desire to be seen or to be known to be thought highly of but Jesus died for that pride and his Holy Spirit is continually changing me more and more into the image of Jesus who did not count equality with God something to be grasped he humbled himself to the point of death death on a cross and that's the image that God wants to to transform each and every one of us into see God is pleased with us not because of what we do but because when he looks at us he sees Jesus and he's always pleased with his son and this message it matters for us this morning because there's only one Kingdom worth investing in - there's only one Kingdom that is going to endure past our final breath here on earth and that is the kingdom of God there's only one name that lasts for all eternity that will never be forgotten and that is the name of Jesus and I don't know about you but I want to spend my life doing something that goes further than myself investing my life into something greater than me something that lasts for all of eternity and that is what God invites us into now we cannot get this mission accomplished on our own but we don't have to see God's given us his spirit he's unified everyone who trusts in Jesus he's made us part of one body and here's our key sentence for the day I want you guys to remember this if you remember nothing else it's in the body of Christ I have a role and so do you why don't you turn to your neighbor tell them in the body of Christ I have a role and so do you when you're eating lunch you guys can can tell everyone what's church about oh that in the body of Christ I have a role and so do you then they'll just stop asking questions probably so let's get into our text and first we're going to find out what it means to be a part of the body of Christ first Corinthians 12 verses 12 and 13 say this 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 for in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body Jews or Greeks slaves are free and all were made to drink of one spirit our first point this morning is this we are the body of Christ we are the body of Christ Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthian church knowing that Corinth was an influential City there were people from all over the world that would pass through Corinth each and every day and so knowing their diversity Paul reminds them of the gospel they believed and this is the gospel that makes each of us part of the body of Christ in this gospel is that Jesus came for all people in verse 13 Paul is reminding these people that Jesus did not just come for the Jews he did not just come for the Greeks he did not just come for the slaves and he did not just come for the free Jesus came for all people when Jesus died he died for all people when Jesus rose he rose for all people why because all people have sinned and fall short of the glory of God see we all need to have the sins that have made us guilty in God's sight forgiven we all need to have the honor that we exchanged for shame in the Garden of Eden restored in only Jesus can do that work so what Paul says in verse 13 is that everyone who trusts in Jesus regardless of their ethnic or socio-economic or religious past is made one by the Spirit of God we have the same spirit of God living in us this means that that Christians in China and North Korea in Brazil in Guatemala in Mexico all have the same spirit of God living in them as we do in us they may look different than some of us they may gather as a church in a way that is different from our way of gathering in a church and yet we're unified the truth is this in the body of Christ there is diversity and unity I'm different than you are you're different than the person sitting next to you and yet if we trust in Jesus that faith in Jesus unifies each and every one of us were made one by the Spirit of God I saw this played out a few weeks ago I was in Mexico to visit a family and to go to a good friend's wedding there and as I was there my friend Paola asked me to go with her to a quinceanera it was a 15 year old birthday party and I lived in Guatemala understand kind of how big of a deal one of these parties is and so I was a little bit nervous going into it but we go we got there at 9 o'clock at night and I started to look around and I was like I don't know anybody here except this girl that I came with and she's cool but I don't really want to spend my whole night talking to her and her friends about girl things and so I was like you know starting to look around and I spotted a guy that looked like he was about my age which is good when you're at a party with a lot of 15 year-olds and so I go up to him introduced myself and found out that his name is Oscar and he's a a drummer for a Christian screamo band in Mexico and we started talking I asked him his story of how he followed Jesus how he started to drum how he became a part of this band what it was like to drum in a screamo band and long story short we had a great conversation that lasted until 2:00 a.m. and for those of you who know me you know that Spanish is not my first language you know that I don't like to stay up past 10 o'clock at night or 9 o'clock somedays and you know that on my list of like musical preferences screamo is at the very bottom see we had everything about us was was different and yet we had great spiritual unity because we found out that we had the same spirit of God living in each of us and the spiritual unity allowed us to talk for five hours about a whole slew of things just because we loved the same Jesus completely different and yet experienced great unity and this type of unity brings such glory to God I mean how much better can we represent a God who loves all people than by standing side-by-side with people who we have nothing in common with except a love for the same Jesus City like what would it look like if in 2018 you decided to move toward one person that does not look like you that does not have the same background you have or the same interest that you have but who loves the same Jesus you love see one of our greatest witnesses to the watching world is the unifying power of the gospel of Jesus we are the body of Christ now Paul's going to go on and he's going to show us that this idea of unity and diversity is not limited to a race or to our language or to our religious past instead there's also meant to be diversity and unity in our giftings and the roles that we play in the body of Christ check it out in verses 14 to 20 it says for the body does not consist of one member but of many if the foot should say because I'm not a hand I do not belong to the body that would not make it any less a part of the body and if the ear should say because I'm not an eye I do not belong to the body that would not make it any less a part of the body 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 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 as it is there are many parts yet one body our second point this morning is this we have a god-given role we have a god-given role as we talk about playing our role in the body of Christ there's two ways that we can err on one side we can err by thinking that the part that we play is not valuable because maybe it's not noticed or maybe people don't don't think highly of that spot or we can err on the other side by thinking that we're so gifted and so valuable that that we don't need anybody else and both of these airs are rooted in our pride because they're both focused onself in verses 14 to 20 Paul addresses the first person he addresses the person that would say the role I have doesn't matter I just wish I was someone else using the illustration of body parts Paul says that that that way of thinking is wrong in verse 15 we see if the foot should say because I'm not a hand I do not belong to the body and that would not make it any less a part of the body I don't know about you but I'm pretty good at playing what I call the comparison game and this is a game that is not fun but it's a game where you look at other people and you begin to compare yourself to them for example I look at Chris and how he interacts with people and I think I don't love people as well as Chris loves people and so I can begin to feel inadequate but then I remember I have hair on my head and it makes me feel a little bit better or I look at other people in the city let you staff teaming and I think about how I'm not as high-energy as they are so I feel like I can't relate to students as well as they can and so then I think oh I don't matter but the comparison game when it's played in that manner is sin why because I'm looking at what God designed when he designs me and I'm essentially telling him that he made a mistake when he made me how he made me because he didn't make me like somebody else and if you're like me struggling in that area this morning thinking that that the role you have maybe doesn't matter then we have good news there's a truth that we must believe it's found in verse 18 it says God arranged the members in the body each one of them as he chose what this means is that God put you in the role he wanted you to be in that that he made you exactly how he wanted to make you and as a result you have a role to play and that role is so important because that role was given to you by God Himself many of you are sent into the the corporate business world each day and your role looks like representing Jesus well to people who may never dream of entering a church building your role matters some of you come in here during the week and you you clean the floors you vacuumed the children's ministry area you scrub toilets and a lot of us don't know your name but your role matters some of you are teachers who love students that maybe don't receive love from anyone else in their life your role matters some of you are mothers who constantly care for your children and are consistently showing them the sacrificial love of God and your role matters but maybe you're sitting here and thinking I don't know what role I play well my encouragement to you would be this just start by serving somewhere and eventually you're going to find out what God created you to do a few years ago I was asked to tear wallpaper out of a small like six by six foot bathroom in a church building area and I was given a steam machine and I was given what they told me were the right tools and I thought the shop can't be that difficult right you know it was that difficult it took me three days to get the wallpaper off these walls and the walls still have like scars from my work so they did not ask me to tear wallpaper out of any other places which I'm happy about and I learned from that experience that I'm not gifted as a handyman but that is okay on the other hand I used to be completely terrified to speak in front of people but I had pastors who would continually tell me that they saw some some sort of gifting and me and so I began to pray about it and God began to say the same thing and so I started to say yes to opportunities that that he gave me and God's done some really really cool things see God showed me my gifting through others in the body of Christ through saying yes to opportunities that he gave me and I believe he can do the same for each of us and as a young person I want to ask something of those of you who are older in the faith those of you who already know what your gifting and your calling is you're operating in the role that God has placed you in would you begin to pour in to us as younger people would you take someone under your wing that maybe you see similar giftings in and would you start to coach them and help train them in the giftings that God has given you and has given that person would you help us develop those giftings that he's given us so that we can continue to to make the name of jesus known both now and in the years to come and would you encourage us with your words I can't tell you how much it's meant to me to to have people come in and share that God spoke to them a certain thing through a message I've shared instead of puffing me up those types of encouragement remind me of a vitally important truth that I need to remember and it's that God is speaking to his people through his word and by his Spirit and if he's choosing to use my mouth then that's great and that means that I want to continue to use my mouth to speak his words because I believe that he wants to continue to speak to more people and for us younger people would we be humble learners would we realize that there are people who have walked with Jesus in many cases longer than we've been alive and would we ask to come under their leadership to come under their coaching to ask them questions about how they grew in their giftings to realize that we have so much to learn from them if we'll take the posture of a humble learner remember in the body of Christ I have a role and so do you and each of our roles are important let's look now it and how we're to live as members of the body of Christ in regard to our fellow members and we're gonna do this by looking at verses 21 to 26 it says 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 on the contrary the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable 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 which are more presentable parts do not require but God has so composed the body giving greater honor to the part that lacked it 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 this is where we find our third point this morning and it's this our god-given roles work together our god-given roles work together in these verses Paul is addressing those people who err by thinking that they're so great and so valuable that they don't need the rest of the body of Christ he says that no part of the body can tell another part that they're not needed why because the body works best when all of its parts are working together so if you think that you're so gifted and so called by God and so anointed that you don't need community or you don't need coaching or anybody else in the body of Christ can I kindly and yet clearly tell you that you're wrong so you may be an incredible mouth but imagine what your whole bought if your whole body were a mouth imagine what you would look like trying to shovel the snow outside it just wouldn't work it's a funny picture you should think about it maybe that's an extreme example but I believe that to what Paul is communicating here that that regardless of how great you think you are you need the rest of the body and what about the parts of the body that are hidden well maybe they're behind the scenes for a reason but they also need the rest of the body they're also valuable see a liver is hidden from sight and yet it is so important but just like a mouth a liver also needs the rest of the body can you imagine if the liver had to try to walk across the street by itself they wouldn't work either would it see the liver needs the rest of the body just like the mouth does because we need each member because each member matters it also matters how we treat other members in the body of Christ so how should we treat other members in this body verse 25 tells us that we should have the same care for one another because verse 26 if one member suffers all suffer together if one member is honored all rejoice together Church regardless of our specific gifting this is a role that all of us play city light we should be a church that is known as a people who care for one another because we are all part of the same body and I want to close by sharing two practical ways that we can do this that we can care for one another in the body of Christ the first is that we can suffer together and we can rejoice together just like we see in verse 26 a few weeks ago Cameron one of our pastors I could tell that he was visibly suffering that something was was going on in his life and and what I found out was that this visible suffering on his face was because he had found out earlier that morning that one of his friends had passed away he had what seemed to be a routine surgery came home and a few days later passed out and just never woke back up and he had he had died of a blood clot in an unexpected shocking way see Cameron was suffering because not because something had happened directly to him but because he was suffering with with this man's wife of just six months who had lost her husband just before Christmas see one member in the body was suffering he was suffering alongside of them and that's healthy and that's biblical and on the other hand were to rejoice together a few weeks ago at City let you our College ministry my friend Skylar walks to do that doubt that door and nudge the guy that he came in with he's like dude you gotta tell him the news and this college freshman named Alex shared with me that he was reading the Word of God that morning he was reading the story of Saul's conversion and he realized that he didn't have to do anything before he gave his life to Jesus so Alex goes yeah I gave my life to the Lord this morning and Alex is like a super chill dude so he kind of had his hands crossed he's like you probably can't tell but I'm really excited and so I got to give him a hug and to rejoice with him to rejoice with Skylar and to rejoice with heaven that we have a new member in the body of Christ see rejoicing together that's healthy and that's biblical suffering with those who suffer rejoicing with those who rejoice and finally the most important thing we can do to care for one another in the body of Christ is to encourage one another to stay connected to the head Ephesians 5 and Colossians 1 both tell us that Jesus is the head of the church which is his body so I have a question what can the rest of the body do when there's no head it can do nothing in fact the only thing the human body can do apart from its head is die and so church what can we do apart from Jesus we can do nothing we are dead and we are hopeless without Jesus see if we're concerned about playing our parts about fulfilling our roles to make our name great then we have it all wrong see the only reason we have roles to begin with is so that we can make the name of Jesus great and this means that the purpose of our roles no matter what they are is to bring glory to the head to bring glory to Jesus and point people to him and him alone and this is great news for us this morning because this is the whole reason we were placed here on earth to bring glory to God and can I tell you that there's no greater joy than being able to use the gifts that God has given us to bring glory to his name and as you know we're about to open another location out in West Omaha and we're believing that many people are going to come and place their faith in Jesus there we're believing that both here at Midtown and in West Omaha hundreds of people in this next year are gonna turn from their sins and trust in Jesus but that's not gonna happen just because we have more parking spots here or because we have a new building in West Omaha see we are not a crowd we are not a building we are a people and we're not a healthy people unless we are all using what God has given us to play our role in the body of Christ and thankfully if you call city light home we're about to double the number of serving opportunities that we have in this church so there's plenty of space for you to jump on a serving team to find out how God's gifted you and to be able to use those gifts to further his name in this city and beyond church verse 27 it says now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it see it's both corporate and personal in the body of Christ I have a role and so do you let's pray father we thank you for your word and we thank you that you've given us roles to play in your body God you've you've saved us in you've called us here on the earth to be your ambassadors so I pray that we would represent you well God that we would use the giftings you've placed in each of us not to bring glory to ourselves not to make a name for ourselves but to make your name known in this earth father we thank you for letting us be a part of your mission and we pray that your mission would be furthered through this church family in this next year in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Citylight Omaha

Views: 4,449

Rating: 4.826087 out of 5

Keywords: citylight church, gospel, omaha, nebraska, christian, missionary alliance

Id: AhYJuVPVLeE

Length: 27min 21sec (1641 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 31 2017