Sunday Worship, September 26, 2021

[Music] [Music] good morning eastside and welcome welcome welcome those that are visiting us here in the building here at the body of christ we thank you for tuning in with us those that are working in with us on youtube we uh welcome you to the lord's worship service this day we praise god that you will be with us and we will may god guide us through this experience way of reminding of of those that are members of the eastside church's prize that we in the years pass and sometimes get done to the the pledging for the helping out on the uh homecoming which will be coming up very soon and we're asking for the sisters for twenty-five dollars in the brother's 50 dollars to help accommodate the homeowners that's something he was asked to ask and so if those that can please who participated very good thank you so much our most honored and ever to be endured heavenly father we come graciously unto you and our has bowed toward this mother thank you god for another opportunity that you have presented to us to come unto you father and lay it on the line down to you that is to place all our burdens of our lord's spirit we ask god this day you may be a blessing to all that on the side of our weak voices we come for them to praise you in the hearts of men they may bless this opportunity father that we hear for no other purpose but to worship you father spirit and in truth and you may guide us through this service part of it that the giving may be given me freely that the singing may be me loveliest unto you father now voices and making the praise unto you father we thank you for your preached word father that you may bless our beloved ministers and come before us to bring unto us the bread of life that we may hear or understand nobody that where was everlasting too late father we ask that you may bless us as we remember your daughter's son who gave his life on helpless cross that we may live through communion father may commune the sweetest name ever mention no praise god praise jesus for giving his life on camera's cross we ask god we may be only actually worshipped father we may do them follow thy minds totally the purpose of you that you may give us strength for others we continue to worship you for the spirit of the truth we ask god that you may guide us as we continue to go through the pandemic and we will continue to do the things that we can't do on ourselves but that is to be made where we might watch washington with our hands and wearing masks and being safely distanced we ask god to those that are taking the vaccine and those don't have the fight enough courage to take it this time they may pray for it it may uh help give us serious heeds but you wouldn't allow those things to be made if it wasn't for us and we asked god to bless the ones who have taken the vaccine that may continue to wash over since we continue to do things according to our work we know this is about you and and not about us and we ask god that you step in at the right time in your time whether you may bring this pandemic to the end there have been many families and many declaves in the past of of history and we know those things are done for a reason and you god knows the reason and we'll learn about that after a while we ask god that you may be with us as we go through the fuzz of this service that you may guide guard and protect us we ask that you may be a blessing to those that are yet grieving the pastor of loved ones we have many families here within this congregation to have lost uh been in this you know this time and grieving for the passion of the loved one touch them all for as long as you can we ask all that you may be with the johnston family the ones at the forefront of my thought at this time that you may bless the family of sister betty johnson who laid their their mother to rest on yesterday we asked daughters give them strength give them hope that they continue to look to you for all our help for all i have to comfort you for and we ask you may be a blessing for all those families but this is a path that we all have to take and we ask god that you may give us strength as we continue to work through all right we ask god that you may be with us guys so we go through this worship service that we may render to you lord the best that we have it's in jesus name you have rendered your best and we will give you ours in jesus name amen [Applause] good morning [Music] for our first we're going to say he's my king and we'll prosecute first second third verse let's all get ready to sing in the presence of the lord all day long and jesus i am [Music] [Applause] [Music] everything to me he is [Music] he's my savior he's my from [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] is [Music] [Music] glory to sing and tell a me [Applause] [Music] is [Music] king [Music] next selection we're going to sing i keep falling in love with him we're saying [Music] oh [Music] over and over again [Music] falling in love [Music] over and over again over and over [Music] oh [Applause] over and over [Music] [Music] [Music] oh my over and over and over again [Music] the bible says in 2nd corinthians 9 and seven every man for his purposes in his heart so let's give not rustling or of necessity to god nothing a cheerful gift let us pray heavenly father we're just so thankful that you blessed us to give back of course to what we have uh you have blessed us with we just pray and we do it with smiles on our face happy and blessed to even give back and we just thank you for all the blessings jesus christ amen and i like to say that we have uh even though we had the pandemic going on eastside at this time we have the uh community and the bible says in first corinthians 11 verses 23-30 for i have received of the lord that which also i delivered unto you that the lord jesus is the same night in which he was betrayed to breathe and when he had given thanks he broke it and said take me this is my body which is broken for you this dude remembers to me after the same matter also he took the cup and he suffers from him this cup is a new testament in my blood this dude is as often as you drink and looks for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup ye do show the lord's definitely calm work for whosoever shall eat this break and break this cup of the lord unworthily shall be guilty of the bible but let a man examine himself and so let him that prayer and drink that cup for he didn't even drink it unworthy he didn't drink damnation to himself not discerning the lord's body for this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many minister let us pray heavenly father we're so thankful for this opportunity to take the communion here just pray to you as we take it we reflect back on our lord and savior jesus christ hanging on the cross all that he had to go through that we may be saying and father we thank you for this communion and we ask you to uh continue to bless us jesus christ name amen he's [Music] anger [Applause] is [Applause] amen and the church said amen again and it is good once again to be in the house of the lord that we might worship him in spirit and in truth the apostle paul spoke to the inspiration of the holy spirit he said but god did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our lord jesus christ that's why we're here today because of jesus the salvation we have in jesus name let us meditate on the goodness grace and mercy of god as we go to our heavenly father all right just follow us again we'll approach your throne and grace and mercy always always been mindful of heavenly father to give you the praise and glory love what all belongs to you in europe but we recognize your jehovah god beside you there is no other and we thank you father for bringing us to this place that we might worship you in spirit and in truth it wasn't because anything we have done said or thought we thank you for everything that we have experienced thus far in this worship experience and heavenly father we ask that we all but just be might love the fact that we are here to lift up your name because there are so many today heavenly father that knew not you from the pardon of their sins and heavenly father we recognize that there are some that have obeyed the gospel but have bachelorette but heavenly father you have said in your holy word in time past and it applies today you said if my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray we must pray but we got to hold myself and turn away from our wicked weeds then you will hear from heaven you will forgive us of our sins and you will heal the land and heavenly father at this time the land needs some healing heavenly father and we know heavenly father that if it's according to your will let your will be done by heavenly father our responsibility is to spread the good news the salvation of our lord and savior jesus christ which was once and for all delivered unto me but heavenly father jesus said i'm at the door and those that are listening whether through technology or here today jesus had to do just letting me let him in in the song we saw earlier how sweet things would be think about the peace that jesus would give you that's a passing all understanding when you go through trials and tribulations when you have lost a loved one when we see the chaos and confusion that's going on jesus said i'll give you peace that is the world given peace jesus said my peace of passing we thank you heavenly father for being that provider we thank you for making our way out of nowhere we thank you heavenly father for what dying being but most of all heavenly father we just can't thank you enough for our lord and savior jesus christ jesus who came to love the heal and to forgive him and all spiritual blessings are in christ jesus the redemption from sin the forgiveness of sin the remission but his blood continues to cleanse you cleanse us all consistently but it's only for those who have received the salvation through jesus christ our lord and savior oh heavenly father we just pray for those who stand a gift in the distance because of whatever going on through this life heavenly father right now they're just only for a season but it's not the longevity like it's the part of the life we live in christ jesus and heavenly father we just pray earnestly perfectly for those who know not you because in the end there's only two places that have been prepared one butter righteous one for the unrighteous but heavenly father we know we all got a choice and we pray heavenly father that will be about your business spreading the gospel to all those who know not you heavenly father we ask that you'll put a word on our lips let us feast be seasoned with salt that we might minister grace into the years and those that know not you they will see the hope that is here because of what they see in us that we are professing the name of jesus but jesus is the reason we live in the movement have our very being holy spirit we ask you that when that grafted word is preached by the love brother and one heart that somebody somebody will be sick and tired of being sick and tired they'll be ready to turn over everything to you jesus but you said left side all the things that's so easy to miss at you and we just pray we just pray that they'll be ready to accept the gospel call give brother and tomorrow read a recollection of the thing which he has studied that he might impart your truths and your truths only that someone would want to walk worthy of the vocation where we all have become allow jesus to order your steps but you have said the steps of a good man all about the lord need the light in his way don't he fall he is not cast down for the lord and the lord heavenly father we need to be lifting up this morning but we know and we recognize heavenly father that we have sinned either by word thought or deed and because of that heavenly father we ask for forgiveness of our sin according to your loving kindness according to your tender mercy according to the multitude of your loving kindness and tender mercy for when we say in heavenly father we recognize we say it against you and against you on it and for that reason we're sorry throw our sins and until forgiveness and remember it no more heavenly father we just come thank you for the elders who are shelters of this congregation continue to strengthen those men's heavenly father continue to get a wisdom to lead this plot through the things we are going through on this time side of life heavenly father we recognize that there are some we have lost loved ones recently those are still lamenting the loss of loved ones in the past and heavenly father you have asked us to comfort them that need comfort just as you comfort us and we pray heavenly father that we will give them the things they need whether it was by word or by deed we come now heavenly father asking that your holy spirit will keep us near the cross help us on our journey help us in our way help us to keep our minds stating jesus who is the author and finisher of our faith for us in the mighty name of jesus that all the believers together said amen and amen good morning i'm afraid this time to read the scripture that will serve as the basis for the sermon this morning and that scripture scriptural passage is taken from first corinthians chapter 12 verses 14 through 31. first corinthians chapter 12 verses 14 through 31 and it reads as follows for the body is not one member but many if the foot shall say because i am not the hand i am not of the body it is therefore not of the body and if the ear shall say there because i am not the i i am not of the body is it therefore not of the body if the whole body were an eye where were the hearing and if the whole were hearing where were the smelling but now that god set the members every one of them in the body as it has pleased him and if they were all one member where or the body but now are they many members yet but one body and the eye cannot slide into the hand i have no need of thee nor again the head to the feet i have no need of you now much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable upon these who bestow more abundant honor and our uncommonly parts have more abundant calmness for our comedy parts have no need but god has tempered the body together having given more abundant honor to that part with lack that there should be no schism in the bible but that the members should have the same care one for another and whether one member suffers all the members suffer with it and one member be honored all the members rejoice with it now you are the body of christ and members in particular and god has set some in the church first apostles secondarily prophets thirdly teachers after that miracles then gifts of healings helps governments diversities of tongues are all apostles are all prophets are all teachers are all workers americans have all the gifts of healing you all speak with tongues to all interpret but covet honest earnestly the best gifts and yet show i unto you a more excellent way i read for you first corinthians chapter 12 verses 14 through 31. there is beyond [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Applause] was a long long time ago he is [Applause] he is from [Applause] is [Applause] was good [Music] [Applause] [Music] uh and he is [Applause] god [Applause] yes [Music] [Applause] one more time [Applause] if [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] let the church say amen let the church say amen again truly it is a blessing to be in the house of the lord again we want to thank all of those brothers that officiated over the services uh this morning to brother woods and also for that wonderful prayer and also to my brother brother dick such wonderful prayer aka one most scripture that's brother that's why i like to call one more scripture and also to those that led over the tables for brother o'barra did an outstanding job and then to my brother roy foster jr for some diligently reading the scripture we just like to thank all of those brothers again thank the leadership for giving me the opportunity to stand before you with a very delicate task to teach and preach the word of god we're just so thankful for their confidence in me and i'm just also thankful for them and also obviously the lord for blessing me to be able to be here and to be able to present to you the word of god as always my family that is always here and supportive of me i see my mother that is right here always encouraged to see her come in the door and so i'm just so thankful and she always supports uh whether she's here physically or virtually uh her as well as all of my family my brothers and sisters who also tuned in virtual as well they always give me great feedback and encouragement and of my friends that are watching as well as brothers and sisters in christ i already received a text from one of my friends and brothers that he's watching and he's complimented me on my suit but i think he's being funny y'all know he grew up here at the east side by the name of brother carrick bradford so anyway you know just know that i received that he likes to be funny but i appreciate the friendships and the brotherhood in which god has blessed us with and last but not least my beautiful family that sees me on the net on an everyday basis like i said some of y'all don't know who i really am but they they know who i really am i can't fake them out i can't smile my way out of them they see me for who i am and i see them for who they are and i tell you god could bless me with a better family uh on an everyday basis you got a lot of work to do you know we continuously stay under construction but i just pray that you guys are praying for us as we always continue to pray for you as well to my children who god has blessed us with the opportunity to be able to have some responsibility they didn't create any great handbooks about parenting but you know me and jay we work together to do the best we can and we just pray and leave everything that we can't control up to the lord that they turn out uh to be the the type of people and christians that he would have them to be yeah and also for my beautiful wife who was always by my side and she's my number one supporter promoter i mean i just can't say much i can't say enough about her and just you know like i say every time i look at her i just know and reminded every day of how god can bless even those that are unworthy and so i like to always thank her i think that's enough for the preliminaries don't that's not my time so uh you got to start the time when i when i began preaching timekeepers in the church i know we have a lot of time keep us there so that that doesn't count but if you would please turn with me to first corinthians chapter 12 and we will take our text from verses 14 uh and i'm just going to read the 26th but we'll take the text throughout the you know the rest of the remaining of that particular chapter but i'm going to for time purposes i'm just going to read 14 to 26 and the bible reads for in fact the body is not one but many members if the foot shall say because i am not a hand i am not of the body is it therefore not of the body and if the ear should say because i am not an eye i am not of the body is it therefore not of the body if the whole body were an eye what would the hearing if the whole were hearing what would be the smelling but now god has set the members each one of them in the body just as he pleased and if they were all one member where would the body be but now indeed there are many members yet one body and i cannot say to the hand i have no need of you nor again the head to the feet i have no need of you no but rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable on these we bestow greater honor and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty but our presentable parts have no need but god composed the body having given greater honor to the part which lacks it that there should be no schism in the body but that the members should have the same care for one another and if one member suffers all the members suffer with it or if one member is honored all the members rejoice with it now you are the body of christ and members individually and god has appointed these in the church first apostles second prophets third teachers after that miracles then gifts of healing health administrations verities of tongues are all apostles or all prophets are all teachers are all workers of miracles do all have gifts of healing do all speak with tongues do all interpret but earnestly desire the best gifts and yet i show you a more excellent way if i had to put a title with this passage of scripture and the message i plan to bring to you today i will use as a title nobody is a nobody in crisis body let me say that here nobody is a nobody in christ's body you see as i uh i don't know about you guys but i'm very excited about our gospel meeting that's coming up i can't wait to hear uh brother joe daryl gibbs and i have the opportunity to be able to uh present to you a sermon and i want to uh wet your appetite i want this to be a appetizer i want you to get prepared for that gospel meeting and i couldn't think of a more relevant topic but to plead with us to have unity in the bible you see let me say that again i want to please with you to have unity in the body of unity in the church of christ you see as we look at this particular text and we look at paul as he's laying it out for the church in corinth he's talking to a group of gentiles and i can just see that those group of gentiles must have had some division amongst him why do you say that brother hogs because he fears an entire book addressing things uh about division as a matter of fact he begins in first corinthians chapter one and in verse number 10 saying now i beseech you brother or i beg you brother that by the name of our lord jesus christ that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you you see if i have to tell you to speak the same thing it must means that somebody must have been speaking some different things if i have to tell you let there be no divisions upon you somebody must be getting out of the line when it comes to unity in the church so paul is talking to him he says that you all speak the same thing and there's gonna be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment you see right there that verse that call for unity is all begins to set up the rest of the letter is very important and it's very important even in the church of christ you see we live in a world that uh have all kinds of divisive uh nature things that looks to divide that looks to how speaking different things that look to how us uh forming sex in the church uh and when i said it's s-e-c-t-s that's uh just different divisions amongst the church of clicks as you would call it in the church but paul says let there be no divisions among you but that you all be perfectly joined together uh in a unified format you see that's what i want to bring to us that's what i want to appeal to us today is that we be unified in our efforts because when we're unified in our efforts i know that god's business can move like he wanted to be moved so we move into our test when we get to first corinthians chapter 12. and we're looking at this design that we want to put together and my first point to you in my urgency of unity is that we embrace the gifts that god has given us let me say that again let us embrace the gifts that god has given us you see no matter what your gift is uh i want everybody to understand that god has blessed everyone with a gift let me say that again god has blessed everyone with the gift but and no matter what that gift is god expects you to use that gift in a productive manner let me say that one more time no matter what gift you receive god expects you to use that gift in a productive manner what are you talking about brother let us turn to matthew chapter 25 and if i could get a reader let's look at matthew 25 and let's start at verse number 14 and i know that you guys know this already and i know that many of you can quote this uh but we want to look at it and drive the point that god wants us to use our talents and to use our abilities in the church for a productive cause what does the bible say in verse number 14 of matthew chapter 25 but the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling a hurry into a far country who called his own servant and delivered unto them is good and unto one okay now watch this so now he is distributing the tablets now i'm relating this to how god distributes abilities now i may try to make a connection here in a little while but right now until one he gave five counters reed to another two into another one watch this to every man according to his what his several ability you see the first thing that we have to understand is that god has given us gifts god has given us abilities god has given us talents according to our ability and straight away took his turn then he that have received the five talents went and traded with the same uh-huh and made them other five talents the one that he gave five talents was productive with what god had given read let's go and likewise uh-huh either have received two uh-huh he also gained other two the one that had two he didn't have as many as as the first man see he only had two but yeah he was productive with what god had blessed him with really but he didn't have received one uh-huh when it did to the earth and here it is after a long [Music] [Music] so now he's coming to settle the accounts and he sees that the one that he gave five had was productive with his five three his lord said unto him uh-huh well done well done faithful now good and faithful servant thousand faithful over a few things uh-huh i will make thee rule over many three enter thou into the joy of thy lord i read he also had received two talents came and said uh lords are delivered unto me two talents yes behold i have gained two other talents beside me he was productive with what god has blessed him with read his lord said unto him uh-huh well done good and faithful servant has been faithful over a few things i will make you rule over many things the one that didn't receive what we would say he didn't receive as much as the other two was not productive with what he was given now he's making excuses now he's he's he's diverting it away from him not being productive to now i'm shifting the problem to somebody else and many times we get like that where i'm not productive with what god has given me i haven't done anything with what god has given me instead of getting ownership of those i want to put the problem back on god you see god uh i might have given a little bit more if you made me a millionaire i might ever i might have just given you five dollars but what have you done with your five dollars that i've given you it's because we don't want to lose fat of the sight that he gave to those according to their abilities you see god knows us better than we know ourselves god knows what we can handle god knows what we can bear and so we gave it that one talent not as much as another man and many of us in this world especially in this time would say oh god it's not being fair we begin to try to play god as if we know more than god as if our brains is smarter than god and uh we decide what's fair and what's not and what was fair is that you got that one talent what's fair is that you have the ability that god has given you god expects for no matter what you think about the ability for that ability for you to use to be productive we see as we go on you know the rest of this story that one talent individual uh well did not do right by the servant when it was time to settle the accounts you see the problem is church is that as human beings we have a natural urge to compare the problem is is that human beings we have the natural urge to place our own importance on things without consulting with god let me say that again we have a natural urge to compare talents and abilities we have the natural urge to place our own importance of gifts uh that god has distributed to many people we have this natural nurse men to rank this is more important oh yeah that brother there is more talented oh look at that sister over there she's more talented and the problem with that thinking is that it goes against what god stands for what are you talking about brother hobbs uh if i were to ask the church today uh what is the most important gift in the church yeah i don't want you to ask i want you to think about that what is the most important gift that we can have in the church what is the most important ministry that we need to be doing when it comes to the church what is the most important role that we have in the church is the most important function that we have in the church you see i stopped by here to tell you that there is no one gift there is no one function there is no one role of importance why brother how because everything that god has given every ability that god has given is important in the outside of god and if it's important enough in the eyesight of god to distribute that ability and all to be imported in our eyesight as well as god's children you see what he's trying to to to get across brother hobbs i hear you talking about these abilities i hear you talking about how all the abilities are important i'm saying that because sometimes we uh we put rank on abilities now i'm not telling every let me establish this point every ability is important including the preaching of god's word the leadership is important that ability to lead is very important i'm not trying to down that so i want to get that disclaimer but you see sometimes uh if someone don't have the ability to pray or or as we would say pray in the manner that we judge how about that if someone don't have the ability to preach or the ability to sing to the point where they can't come up before everybody sometimes uh we look at that or they look at themselves as if i have no abilities you see we uh look at those things and have many members in the church feeling like they are less gifted we have members in the church that are feeling like they are less able because of the importance that society and even some of us have been guilty of placing on our gifts and abilities in the congregation we have people feeling less capable we got people feeling less worthy we got people feeling insignificant in god's kingdom we got people feeling as if they're unimportant in the church we got people feeling inadequate in the church we got people feeling as if they are ungifted and so when they come in to the church we sit back and we do nothing and we watch those before we perceive that god has given the gifts and we totally look over the whole whole gifts that god has given us and we don't use them in a manner that god would help us to you see i'm not here to tell you that that mindset churches is crippling the body it's crippling it's making the church handicapped as a whole and i stop out here to tell you in an effort to see unity that we have to embrace what god has given us what are you saying brother hobbs i'm saying that no matter how down you get on yourself no matter how unimportant you feel like you are or your gift is i'm telling you that the gift that god has given you has made you gifted the gift that god has given you has made you able the gift that god has given you has made you capable the gift that god has given you has made you worthy it's made you significant it's made you important it's made you adequate and it's made you gifted i don't think i don't care if you think that it's a small gift you see uh i was talking to my daughter the other day and she didn't know what she was saying but she was very frustrated because you know you know how how how girls are you know she didn't want to get a hair comb and her mama had to come with her and then she wasn't too happy about that so the boys you know is quick you know we brush our hair and we get on in the car we're waiting on the girls and so she gets in the car before her i wish i was a mom and i said nah you stopped right there now i understood why she was saying it but i wanted her to understand this is a teachable moment you are a girl because god made you that way you see um i'm a man i'm a boy because god made me that way and because god made me a boy that means that's important because god made you a girl that means that that's what god wants you that's the best course for your life that is important when it comes to the functioning of god's body you see we got to stop trying to be things that god didn't make us to be uh i had to tell myself that in an early age and i know that y'all can uh uh y'all can testify with me but i will race as african americans is not the most desirable race in the world as a matter of fact there is a lot of people that desire not to even come in contact with us and so sometimes it can have you feeling less worthy it can have you feeling unimportant it can have you feeling inadequate it must be the right thing for the planet [Applause] therefore i enjoy being black i wouldn't have it any other way i'm not gonna try to lighten my skin because god didn't want my skin light [Music] that's how god made me and i'm gonna be appreciative i may not be the most handsome man in the world according to the world standards i realize that i might be a little vertically childish but i don't want to be six foot eight because god wanted me to be five foot seven i don't have to be on the magazine showing all of my beauty because god didn't want it that way and he has a purpose and i have to get my mindset into god what are you talking about brother how i'm talking about we have to embrace what god has given us [Applause] let's look at first corinthians chapter 12 let's travel through 14 and 20 because paul is making this point i'm trying to to to help you with the point that paul is making and he's pretty much have made the same point he's basically saying look there is beauty in being different there's beauty and having many gifts there's beauty in in just in just embracing what god has called you to be it may not be to your liking it may not appear in man's eyes as the most desirable position but we want you to know that it's a very important position for god and if we are going to be christians we have to embrace that what does the bible say in first corinthians chapter 12 and verse number 14. what does it say well the body is not one member but men the body is not one member but men if the foot shall say if the foot shall say because i am not the hand i am not of the body see that's what we have in the church sometimes you see uh yeah here i am god has made the foot for a purpose god has given the foot actually a lot of talents you see if it wasn't for that foot you see my whole balance and my equilibrium would be off i couldn't move the way i want to move i would have the mobility if it wasn't for my feet plan it that you see we don't understand sometimes the importance of those little things until god takes them away and i have to function without my foot and i see that i'm not the full person that i could be because now i don't have a foot but yet here the foot is totally ignoring god's importance that god has given the foot and it's spending more time looking at the hand he sees the hand getting embraced how you doing rather than how you doing look at the hand the hand is really high look there you go hey peace you know what it says you know look at i'm just always on the floor i'm getting dirty all the time i just have this just the worst job in the world you know why would god make me a foot as a matter of fact since i'm not hey in the head everybody wash their hands for some of y'all you know everybody wash their hands you know when the last time i get some curd done the ladies do a good job but me and i know y'all ain't really getting it to the foot like that and so the foot is saying you know not the hand i'm not the one that's embracing i'm not the one that's moving around and just you know having signs a hand can do so much i don't feel like i'm a part of this body is therefore it's not the body in other words no matter how you feel you're still a very important piece of this body and if the ear shall say uh-huh here we go with the ear what they are saying because i am not the eye i'm not the i am hearing is very important you see here hearing is the mechanism where we can hear sounds that are being made which is very important because we can receive communication we can understand things through the avenues of the ear as a pattern that's the first part of salvation for faith coming by hearing how god wants that body to operate that it gets so caught up on the eyes so look at what the eyes see my eyes have all kind of i'm just sitting here just just blind listening to everything that i don't get to see nothing and here the eyes are they get to see everything they get to see the beautiful man and they get to see the beautiful woman the eyes get to see that good looking food you can imagine look at the eyes you know what since i'm not the eye i don't even feel like i'm a part of this body hmm well you see we got to watch that church making ourselves feel inferior really is it therefore another body get the whole body for an eye uh-huh where were the hearing now watch this now here's the you see we think that jobs are glorious until they're functioning alone yeah what are you saying uh brotherhood you see and i'm just using these as examples because i know that sometimes in our carnal minds we look at preachers up here and the preachers get the glory and uh sometimes song leaders get the glory the leadership get the glory and all of these things but look if if the church was just preachers who we preaching to if the church was just leaders who were you leaving you see if the church was just soul leaders who are we singing everybody nobody is a nobody in crisis body you see you might be a nobody at your job because the world has deemed you that way but soon as you get into the church you're headed to the church i want you to understand that no matter what god has given you you are a very important entity in christ's bible you see the whole uh body was an eye that would be crazy you wouldn't want that read get the whole we're hearing uh-huh where were the smells how are we gonna smell read but now that god said the members of every one of them in the body as that pleased him see that's what i was looking for you see but now god has set the members each one of them you see it wasn't by accident he said each one of them why in the body just as what it is please please you may not be pleased but he's pleased you see we can't rank our gifts you see there might be somebody that all you can do is pray i mean i have the ability to get up before everybody and i may not have the ability to preach i may not have the ability to sing i may not have the ability to lead anybody i don't have that ability where can you pray because the last time i checked it here at the east side church of christ we have those that are losing love once and somebody may not ever see you but to know that there is somebody that's a prayer warrior in the church that is simply [Music] you got a very important role in the church and not just pray before the people but prayer in your closet you have a very important room you see god has distributed us all kinds of abilities and many times we use those abilities for our secular job when it comes to the church we suppress our abilities we we have all kinds of talent here right here at east side i don't have to go to another congregation but god has placed these things here and god has placed them here for us to use those things even talking to our leaders sometimes that uh we have to be careful not to suppress some of those gifts and abilities that god has given someone you see times are changing the world is changing we have to be able to think outside of the box but still stay inside of the bible and so when we're talking about what are you saying brother hobbes you see these days we might have some kids that are really good at social media and marketing you see let's take that ability and let's use it for god you see get with the uh let's create a social media platform or social media ministry and have things shooting out from a marketing standpoint from the east side church of christ just posting this as much as you post on your page let's post something for each side if it's nothing but a scripture every now and again that a a huge thing these days but yet we have plenty of people right here i see your folks on facebook i see your post on twitter but we're not using it for the lord you see i don't want to go into all of the abilities but that's what i'm talking about is let's find out how we can take a gift that god has given us and use it for the lord is that all right you see we got to embrace those gifts we embrace our gifts and we have to understand number one that the church can only operate if members are functioning as god has gifted them you see we can't continue to be on the move if we are not using our gifts in the bible number two the church becomes handicapped if people are not functioning according to their gifts you see let's go back to the body example if the foot is not functioning uh i'm now handicapped it's hard for me to walk it's hard for me to move in my head it's not functioning as god has given us the ability it limits me and i'm asking you don't limit the church use your abilities point number two uh see me on one end of the spectrum and i'm gonna make this very quick cause i see my time is getting away from me uh don't get too high on your gifts that god has given you you see on one spectrum we have people not using their gifts because they feel like their gifts are inadequate but sometimes we have people that get too high on the gifts that god has given you unfortunately we have to travel to that other end of the spectrum because members we have some members that embrace their gifts a little too much see there are some that feel that they are more important than others in the church you see there are those that feel like their gifts and contributions are more significant but i stop by here to tell you that no gift is greater than the other one let's look at first corinthians 12 in our text so let's talk about verses 21 and through 24. and i cannot say unto the hands uh-huh i have no need of me you see watch this see the eye has gotten beside themselves they think they yeah yeah i can see that look hey you see the eyes are thinking too much of itself yes function is very important but it's not that important to where you dishonor another member of the body in which god has created breathe nor get in the head to the we don't need defeat another function thinking too highly of yourself right name much more of those members of the body which seem to be more feeble or necessary watch this now let's go slow here uh much watch this much more of those members of the body which seem to be more feeble you see some translate that as weak you see the what we consider feeble what we consider weak and even if you look at the greek word it also takes like a connotation of sickly it says they seem to be more feeble but watch this they are what this is necessary those members of the body which we think to be less honorable that we think that are less honorable watch this upon these i stole more abundant honor we would restore more abundant ought to reign in our uncommonly all right now look okay so i hope you guys get my drift on explaining this right here because i'm not trying to get x-rated at anything but i want you to understand uh basically we're saying that look at here uh we all wear clothes right yeah when we go outside and the reason that we are wearing clothes is uh we we are covering up a less desirable parts yeah you see see we don't some of us have problems wearing masks because we don't want to cover up our face because many of us feel that our face is very desirable before we don't cover up our face or our hair and all of those things hands and whatnot but but you see some parts we cover up because it is less desirable or we have something uh you know you're using the word calmly commonly means attractive uncommon it means it's unattractive and so we use those things now watch this so the honor just think about the order that we indirectly or subconsciously put on those parts that we think that are uncommonly we cover them up some of y'all spent hours trying to see what dress i'm gonna put on what shirt i'm gonna put on what suit what tie am i gonna use to cover up in my uncommonly parts but it says they they seem to be less honorable but we're actually uh restoring more of our own because we have those in our conscience to make sure that they're being covered up because those things watch this those things that cannot be seen yeah of value all right very important uh uh some of those things that uh we cover up are so important that oh watch this now i'm trying to make a point without getting too integrated here but i hope y'all get my drill but some of those parts that we cover up is so valuable that without it we can't reproduce [Applause] you see those that's not my face my face don't reproduce the parts that you see they don't reproduce you see but the parts you cannot see those are the ones that are productive those are the ones that reproduce what are you talking about brother we might have somebody in the church that's never up here in the forefront but it's uh behind the closed doors been reproducing yeah yes talking about uh making other christians talking about teaching bible studies talking about uh doing ministry work doing good to those uh out in the world and causing by their lifestyle for people to come to christ but you'll never see them yeah you see let's keep reading y'all to get that part right now i'm [Music] [Music] it gets no glory i promise you this you don't even know what it is you got things in your body right now and you have no clue as to the name of it you have no clue what it does you are just functioning and god is such a great god that because you don't know the name it didn't make it less important because you don't know how it functions and then make it less important because you don't know what to do with it doesn't make it less important watch this it's somewhere that can't even be seen and god has put the honor on the things that don't get the natural honor y'all understand what i'm saying you see man uh they think this is beautiful how paul used this analogy of the body because what i look at now my body and caused me to think in a different manner everything on the external are the things that are not really failed you see everything in the internal yeah are the things in which god has wrapped my flesh around or in order to protect why because it's honorable why because it's important it is important for the life you see you can't see my heart yeah but see god has perfectly wrapped me together no matter what you think about me god has perfectly wrapped me together to where my heart is protected my lungs are protected my kidneys somebody already know what a kidney is but it's protected there's a lot of things that are happening that sustain in your life right now but god has protected it don't get a lot of honor but it's honorable because god had made it those things that lack honor to man's eyes god has put honor and bestowed that on her own don't think too highly than you ought to think romans chapter 12 verse number three let's look at romans chapter 12 verse number three we're going to bring this to close romans chapter 12 and verse number three and we gotta bring it to a close for i say uh-huh through the grace given unto me uh-huh and every man that is among you not to think of himself more highly you think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but what but you think sober now watch this like you know it's like a temperature like don't don't we don't want you to belittle yourself right to the point where you think that you're not important but but don't think too highly of yourself about thinking that you are more important think of yourself soberly understand that you are important [Music] not more important not less important you're just important don't put it until something it says don't think too much of yourself right uh then you all think but think socially according to what as god has dealt with everything god has dealt the measure of faith don't think too highly of yourself and as we come down to a close again i say unify unify unify now as we look at these last parts let me just have them a read and i'll break down a couple of things and then uh your lesson will be yours let's go back to our text in first corinthians chapter 12. and we're going to go ahead and close it up uh let's start at verse 24 or 25 and let's keep reading that there should be no schism in the body now here's the deal unity you see when we look at ourselves and look at the church it's the body of christ and and we're looking at this human body to make this example of the roles and the functions that god has has given and and has distributed to each and every one of us to establish the fact that that no matter what you are who you are that you are important and don't think that you one part is more important that's what we've established but right here verse number 25 we get the the unity message it says that there be no one [Music] in the body now what that means is that there'll be no division of separation you see many times when i look at the problems that we are having in our churches we can we have to understand that usually the division happens when we start thinking that one member is more important than the other let me say that again y'all get quiet on that usually when we have problems in god's church it stems back to one member feeling like they are more important than another and not accepting the role in which god has given them and acting in that function not trying to be an ear to see not trying to be as not trying to be a foot that's waving like a hand you see that's the problem is we're getting out of our roles and we're trying to do something else and whenever you get out of that role we begin to have some schisms or some divisions in the body you say i'm a football coach and you know that's the biggest thing that we try to get our athletes to understand you see by the line everybody has a role i continue to talk to my quarterback on a daily basis you know he got plays he won't suggest i'm the play caller you the quarterback job is to throw yeah my job is to call the place you might be a better play caller than me but that ain't your job so until you are uh god uh puts you in a position of a play caller throw the ball because the last time i checked the play didn't work cause you didn't get it you didn't throw the ball because [Music] so we can correct the mistake now we got two mistakes that we got to correct because you want to be superman do your job do your role and we have a problem with that sometimes in the church we have problems with that in our embrace it [Music] it prevents us from being unified schism that there'll be no schism in the body but that you that each member should have the word same care for one another you see the thing that i like about our bodies is that if something happens if i take a a brick right now and smash it on my foot there's gonna be some members in my body that's working number one get a quick fast uh instance uh they're gonna send a signal to my brain but if i smash something on my foot there's a signal that's going to be set up to my brain and my brain is going to say oh something is hurting there is something that needs to be comfort and most of the time there is a response to it i might take my hand and put it on my foot so that one member of the body can conflict another member of the body because i'm trying to make my whole body feel good my brain got to work at this time oh oh oh you take the long right foot i can't put too much pressure on the left foot right now it's hurting right side down i gotta put my weight on the right side because the left side can't handle it right now and so i'm willing to take a little bit more of the loan because i care about my other member of my body hey i need my body to work i need to sit down right oh i gotta get my sweat off the ground i gotta put my foot up i got a brain let me come let me get some medicine so that i can get this pain off of my foot let me take your tongue come out i need my uh my esophagus to swallow it when it goes down i need to stop it to do some work i need the blood to absorb it so that it can get down to my other member of my body because i have concern [Applause] [Applause] again i appreciate all the members of the body having concern for the other members of the body when thinking about yourself he was doing your function you was doing what god has given you the ability to do and it made the body heal that's the unity that i want to encourage you to have we're going to skip down to verse number 31 because my question today is if we're going to covet a gift it shouldn't be the gift of preaching if we're going to covet a gift it shouldn't be song leading if it's we're going to cover the guilt it shouldn't be eldership than leadership if we're going to covet a gift brother hobbes if i really want to i want this gift so bad you see i'll go back to 30 and we're going to lead into 31 right here verse number 30. what does the bible say have all the gifts of healing uh-huh do you all speak with tongues uh-huh uh-huh verse number 31 but covered earnestly the best gifts yes covet earnestly the best gifts and then what did he say and yet your eye unto you a more excellent way now watch this power ended it was like i can picture it like a movie you know how the movie get real good and then they end it before what you really want to see but see if we know the bible the next chapter is chapter 13 yeah and what paul is trying to say is if you want to covet any gift if you really want to covet a gift this is the one i want you to cover the best gift because this is going to bring unity in the body this gives brings unity it prevents the schism from coming it prevents the jealousy it prevents the envious it prevents all of these this gift in chapter 13. let's start chapter 13 and we're going to close chapter 13. do i speak with the tongues of men uh-huh uh-huh and if not cherries uh-huh i have become a sounding brag uh-huh or tickling uh-huh and though i have [Music] love you see at the end of chapter 12 he's setting you up for the best gift that you need to covet you wanna you wanna cover the gift that's the gift covenant love because love is how we stay unified a multitude of things oh man well i tell you love is great and that's how we keep that unity if we're exemplifying that the body is going to be all right because we don't have that care for one another when one member is suffering if we got love that we'll remember is gonna do anything that we can to make sure that that one member is protected we're gonna do whatever we can to make sure that that one member is healed so that the body can be healed and keep functioning the way that the body is built to function as god has purposed it you see if you want to be a part of that body you come by hearing the word romans 10 17 for faith coming by hearing hearing by the word of god believing mark 16 16 he didn't believe it and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be down repented of your sins luke 13 3 and 5. i tell you nathan except you repent you shall all likewise perish confess christ matthew 10 32 whosoever therefore shall confess me before me and him also will i confess but for my father which is in heaven and being baptized galatians 3 27 for as many of you as i've been baptized into christ and put on christ so that baptism puts us in his body once we're in his body covet that gift of love and when we come in with love we begin to function as god has given us the ability i'm not looking at another person's ability i'm thankful for that person's ability because he that person he or she keeps the church moving based on their function so i got to figure out what is my function because my function is important too i don't care what the world say i don't care what any church member says that have not accurately studied the bible i know that whatever it is that god has given me and bless me to be able to do it's if it's cook some cookies that's my function and i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna make a ministry out of that within myself because that's my function if i break some cookies and give it to those that are hurting and it makes them just feel a little bit better man i've done my part with the little bit of ability that god has given me the lesson is yours thank you guys so much for listening if you want to come down to the other stand as we sing the song get right church and let's go home in the morning tonight i need to yes [Applause] such an outstanding job this morning and we thank god for blessing him with the talent and the ability to do so at this time we want to give way to those who are going to be asking for prayer they filled out response cards and i'll be reading them at this time when your name is called if you don't mind please raise your hand so that we can recognize those who need prayer first we have sister cherylin nelson and she comes at this time asking prayers for strength job overall and relative asking special prayers for alonzo dugan and wife erica and she says prayers for my son and his wife we have sister batista butler and she comes at this time asking for prayers for traveling grace to houston to take her sister for treatment at the md anderson cancer center she leaves wednesday and returns friday thank you and next we have prayer requests on behalf of gene barnes and clara washington sister gene boris and claire washington are out of town in gladewater on behalf of a funeral last week asking for traveling grace on their return and prayers for the thompson turner and hayes families next we have brother stephen richardson and he comes at this time confessing sins asking prayers for strength and health and he says i sin and repented and asking prayers of the church and next we have mrs charlotte howell and she comes at this time asking prayers for strength health overall and also prayers for the andrew charlotte howe family and next we have sister lola jackson and she comes at this time confessing sins asking prayers for strength health overall and relative and she comes requesting special prayers for the jackson brown daniels and davis and leonard families do we have any other prayer requests at this time if not let us pray dear heavenly father we want to come to you dear lord humbly thank you so much for your many wonderful blessings we thank you so much for allowing us to be here this morning and to hear a powerful message dear lord by brother antoine hobbs we just thank you dear lord for for blessing him to be able to do so we just pray that we can take heed to that messenger lord replied they will inaudible we come at this time praying for all of those who have asked for prayers dear lord we have many who are going through various things we pray for those dearly who confess sins please strengthen them their lord build them up where they may be torn down help them do it to make better decisions in the future than they've made in the past and to allow them to be able to resist any temptation to send their lord that they may continue to do your will we come at this time praying for those who ask prayers of our strength and are feeling weak free strengthen them dear lord and help them to overcome whatever challenges they may be facing in their lives we have loved ones dear lord who have family members that are sick and receiving treatment they're loyal we pray for their treatments dear lord and the success of those treatments that they can get better we pray for those who are going to be traveling dear lord we ask that you please guide them safely to their destinations without hurt harm or danger and dear lord we want to pray for those who ask prayers for over all dear lord and for relatives and for job dear lord you know all the specifics and details of these situations dear lord we just pray that everybody can look to you for the answers look to you for guidance there will be youthful wisdom and we pray that you can provide all of these things dear lord that that be thy will dear lord we just thank you so much and we ask that you just continue to be with us bless us and guide us in jesus name we do pray amen now at this time we would like to welcome our our visitors that we have with us here today i did receive one visitor's car of and this is for myron wilson who was a guest of calvin butler it's my room wilson oh yes right here thank you so much for being here with us today are there any other visitors that we've overlooked all right well once again we thank you myron wilson and please be with us again just a few announcements for your hearing of course we have our upcoming 66th annual homecoming and gospel meeting here at the eastside church of christ that kicks off next sunday october the 3rd we'll be having a wonderful speaker lined up services begin at 10 a.m there will be a to-go meal provided at noon and then an afternoon service after that at 2 30. the gospel meeting will kick off that week starting monday and it will run through thursday and it's nightly at 7 00 pm now these services can be uh will be uh streamed and broadcast on youtube so you will be able to check that out there so we ask that everybody please invite those who are going to be able to come family members co-workers neighbors anybody you know who needs to hear this message and there are door slips that are available for those who pass out both in english and in spanish and now for birthdays and anniversaries on monday september the 27th the anniversary of quanisha and deshawn parker on tuesday the 28th the birthday of anita woods on the 29th wednesday of sabrina pikmin and on 30th on the 30th on thursday james perry ii will be having a birthday and then also on october the 2nd saturday beverly woodard will be having a birthday so we wish you all one birthday uh anniversary for those who are having anniversaries and these are all of my announcements thank you okay i wonder that we receive our calls for unity today if we didn't it wasn't the preacher's fault thank you very [Applause] uh much um our speaker today for doing an outstanding job you know uh that uh 12th chapter it takes some skill to do what he did today and recommend it very highly and uh i hope that if you receive uh 50 of the message it would help us to be a stronger church amen unity is needed here and something in the message for all of us to unlock here at eastside church so thank you once again for a fine message and i want to do something today as a follower from the funeral on yesterday and that is i challenged the family members of sister betty johnson and some and consented that they were going to be up there i want you to stand if you're here represent the family anybody all right okay well hey that speaks for itself but in this meantime we know that sister rita is here and so on and there she represents her family and and helping to keep the family together so keep praying for her and even out there at formersville yesterday on the ground [Music] showing me how that sister better johnson was placed right beside her two sons and so on and how that the family really pulled together and i appreciate that very very much we've had two or three funerals out there now performance field matter of fact uh the fourth one my wife and i've been out there at farmersville twice in the last 10 days so people are dying we've had five funerals in 10 days here and if that should give a message it should be a resounding message that get our houses in order amen ten five funerals in ten days the last one being existed aj's family we appreciate being there as well i want to make mention at this point uh i appreciate how the assistant ministers associate ministers are working together and observing that and it's complementary you know reading behind each other and taking care of each other you have to be ready for those contingencies if something happens to one of you the other would have the others back and if something would happen to the senior minister then both of you should have a amen and that's what we call that unity that we were talking about today uh i want to point out also concerning and commending the illness and particularly uh in this case brother woods and brother roy foster senior for uh joining in with me of course and how we're pulling all of the preparations that necessary for these funerals a lot of work has gone into that and i think yesterday was done decently in and over and we had one for those of you who attended can attest to that fact we had a wonderful wonderful service on yesterday and also out on the grounds in former speed i want to commend also sister batista but now i know a lot of people would say kind of like the message indicated you know that she's involved in so many things but she has to use the gift she has and she's doing a good job in that and did a good job with the reading yesterday of the acknowledgement on behalf of the church and we were quite pleased and just did a good job let's give her also we are anticipating a great meeting i think my assistant ministers are doing a good job along with this servant in getting the ground prepared emotionally and so on for the preacher to walk in here and when he walks in it makes me feel good he's not going to be walking into a cold bulb everything is hot i remember years ago i was doing a meeting for figaro in los angeles and brother hogan was living there one of the greatest preachers ever lived and i had to go back to longview to do a funeral for one of our eldest wives and my wife and i traveled all day to get back it was a two weeks meeting and brother hogan they were singing songs because we were late trying to get in that night after flying from shreveport to to dallas and then to los angeles as soon as he saw me walking he said here comes that young little snapper come on [Applause] and it gives me great joy but we just have to keep on keeping on amen keep on keeping on so when he walks in here he and i've been talking almost on a daily basis and i love him and his family you know it's uh it's a great uh family of preachers that gives us and it goes all the way back not just to shelton gibbs uh the third but his father who was a preaching machine uh brother gibbs jr and then his father and four preachers all there's a dynasty of preachers and so all of them can preach and even down to gibbs the fourth who was very very close to my son they were like brothers and and so you know once he comes in here we want him to feel the atmosphere and this is a church that loves good preaching and we're going to ask the members to prepare to bring somebody in here i want him to be preaching to the walls and electrolytes but we wanted to have some visitors to preach to as well as preaching to us and so we want to show him a great job he and his wife taryn and we knew them years ago when they were at school with us at southwestern of course and uh he's looking forward to coming in to preach the word so we want to do our part can you say amen to that and we believe that with the grace of god he will certainly do his part so i want to commend these hand meals as well before closing and sister batista butler done a great job with them it's in hispanic spanish language and also english doorknobs you can get them and have them and we're so proud of them and i immediately got a number of them and sent brother gibbs his package about five six of them he was bragging about him and so on and so we just commend her for another job well done closing the day brother butler there he is back there he always presses nice and did a good job on the scene [Applause] so we're getting ready to close now my wife and i can kind of catch our breasts a little bit now and we've been ripping and running but we're not complaining that's what we do and we've had five funerals we've been to farmersville twice been over to allen and uh been over to here in heavenly gate and then over to east dallas five films we've been on the run and people calling us day and night but it's all a part of the ministry when i see brother hogs there and his son coming home you know i want to keep it in his mother and family i know it gives him great encouragement but uh i'm not a prophet but i can't predict if you can keep that sign close to you and it reminds me when ben joni was coming on and uh i had to move with southwestern and in the practical ministry and he got up and and i had him write a paper uh they're called preach and he got up and told him said i always wanted to preach i always it was just brought up in it you know i always wanted to preach it was just a part of me so it's something about the spiritual dna amen i might not be around to see again i'm no prophet that i can't predict that you could have a preacher in the making god bless everybody [Applause] uh very quickly i do have announcements to make it preach me a great joy to announce that after a year and a half our live and personal bible classes are coming back and so we're planning to begin our bible classes on sunday morning october the 10th that is a sunday following homecoming for sunday morning we'll have live in person bible class starting on october the 10th at nine o'clock am from nine to nine fifty preceding our normal worship services that we are currently having uh so we're gonna have a meeting today at three o'clock virtually just go to the website and there will be a link there for you to join the meeting for all invested parties whether you teach or just interested to learn how we're going to make this way forward but bible class on sunday morning live and in person is back october the 10th thank you that's great i'm eternal heavenly father we come to you thanking you again it was all to send ourselves together this morning to worship you in spirit and in truth probably pray for each and every member that are present in the building this morning bless us all keep us all safe in your care i pray for the ones that are online bless them speak that they continue to listen in and worship you in the spirit and the truth pray for our menstrual heart this morning he's still only preaching your word and tends to bless he and his wife and family young where you see they standing near contingent strength in him that he continues to preach your word and contention will lost souls unto you through the preaching of your word for the rest you continue to blessed churches hold us down by them and help them in every way we can father we pray that you continue to bless our medicine brother being falsely content to keep him safe as he preached and teach your word bless he and his wife and family and the where you see they standing there bless the leadership of the church our elders as they all intend to work with preachers and with the church and they all we all continue to work together let us all continuously stand strong in faith looking to thee from which coming to our health and when they even go out a different way you ask you to contingency bless us all keep us all safe you know very long thing to come up on any other and we to the next point in time we actually bless us all he was all safe in jesus name we pray amen you

Channel: Eastside Church of Christ Garland, TX

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Length: 117min 22sec (7042 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021