Many Gifts, Many Members, One Body (Jake Enns)

Good morning. It's good to be together again.

This is on. Is it OK?

I've titled my sermon this morning.

Many members, many gifts, one body.

When you go to museums, visit old houses and old

neighborhoods, you can tell a lot how those people thought and

what their view of community was back then by just studying how

they lived. For instance, you go down an Old

Street and I've done this in Windsor, and you just look at

the houses, big front porches, these pillars.

It's a big wide front porch. And I, I don't go into the back

there, but I can see how the front looks and you can tell

there was an emphasis placed on front porch connections.

In other words, people would walk down the streets in 100

years ago, they'd walk down the streets and they would chat with

the neighbors as they'd walk down the street.

They did after work. So it was a connecting point.

Then you drive down a new subdivision, there's nothing in

the front, absolutely nothing. But there's nice backyards

fenced in, high fences you can't see over because it's all about

privacy, individualism, the connection people had about 100

years ago to today. I'm not saying it's all bad, OK?

I'm not saying it's all bad. But there's a difference between

how people connected back then and how people connect today.

You see, we have come to a time in our lives where we don't want

to need each other and we don't want to connect with each other,

and we're isolating ourselves increasingly.

And I this is not a generalized statement, but this is what the

world is coming to. Our whole world is orienting

itself towards individualism. What's so scary about it is this

isolation thing. It's working terrifyingly well.

And even though people may realize, it feels good to not

have to connect with the neighbor and not have to chat

with this guy, and it's not going down the right path.

Folks, I want to suggest to you this morning, the path

humanity's on right now is not sustainable.

Not only is it not sustainable, if we as a society don't change,

it will lead to a collapse. This is where the church comes

in, and now there's a lot more we can say about that, but I'll

start there. We need to work, so we need to

live so that we intentionally need each other.

Let that soak in that we intentionally need one another.

There's blind spots in our culture, and our government

seems to not be helping, or they have wonderful programs and

those kinds of things, but the community aspect of society is

not being fostered. We've created a culture where

temporal, physical, tangible things have been elevated at the

expense of relationship. I'm not saying this in judgment

of people where both parents work.

I understand the dilemma. And Anna, Anna, I've been there

too. And I'm not pointing this out to

indicate, but I'm pointing this out to indicate where our

culture is at this point. Our society is working

relentlessly toward a phase where we're all not in need of

anything. I remember the day when and the

technology is partly to blame for it.

But for instance, I remember the day when we didn't have these in

a family of 10 people. They shared 11 phone.

And it's not wrong. I mean, somebody still do that.

But now we each have our own phone and nobody knows what the

other's phone is doing. We need to need each other.

We need to be in a place where we give and received from each

other. The problem is the way things

are now is we think we'll be satisfied if we're independent

and self-sufficient. But what it does creates a long

like drinking salt water in the sea.

I want to challenge us this morning with this thought.

What if God never intended us to be independent?

What if God never intended us to be independent?

What if we were? If we came to a point where we

understand and accept that dependence is God ordained, we

are created to need each other. Folks think of little babies.

They're born completely dependent, 100%.

They die within a very short while if they're not completely

taken care of. They're designed that way from

the very outset. Was God's idea all along that we

would need one another and we always will need one another

even if we achieve the the status where the phase of life

where we kind of all you know, I'm independent now what makes

it more disturbing in the West even the church folks is buying

into this Even the church is buying into this and that

concerns me to a certain degree. The church has now adopted the

mindset, I'm not saying every church and here we're working

against that. We're trying to do different

things. But I remember well as a young

boy, mom and dad would go to church and I would go along.

It didn't matter what we did. We did it as a church.

All of it was family oriented, family focused, family based.

But now the churches in general, especially large churches, OK, I

want to be careful. I'm stepping on thin ice here.

I know this, but especially large churches, it's so easy to

become divided, separated, segregated, isolated,

compartmentalized. Everything we do, age

appropriate, phase of life appropriate and we become silos.

And then the other thing in a large church is very easy to

hide because you know what? I can sit and nobody will notice

I'm here and I can leave and nobody will notice I'm here.

And a small church is very hard to hide.

And that's why group ministry is so important in a large church.

If there's anyone listening online here, please hear me.

I'm not saying large churches are bad.

This is a huge opportunity or a huge risk that we just kind of

people fall by the cracks, through the cracks.

We are created by design. Dependent.

We need each other, but we don't want to be dependent.

The young need the old, the old need the young, the strong need

the weak, the weak need the strong.

The rich need the poor, the poor need the rich.

The skilled and talented people need those who have different

skills and talents. We all need one another and we

will never really successfully live together until we

appreciate, embrace and conform to this reality in our lives.

And it's God's design that the Church of Jesus Christ models

this. And nowhere do we find this more

emphasized than in the book of what we call the Bible.

A relationship is not really a God designed relationship when 1

does not need the other. When Jesus came to this world,

he connected with humanity. He literally made himself

dependent on all kinds of people as a baby, dependent on Mary and

Joseph, as a young boy on Mary and Joseph.

Then when he started his ministry, he didn't even have a

job. So there were some women who

went with him and the apostles were with him, but they took

care of each other. And so as far as we know, some

women supported him through their means.

The Apostle Paul had a very good grasp of this when he served as

an apostle, and he started a lot of churches.

He was very much focused on helping the churches.

See, look, guys, we're not independent.

We need each other, this one church especially.

We're going through the book of First Corinthians and we'll talk

about that in a minute here. Paul saw this need these guys,

They need each other. I'd better tell them that they

need each other. I don't know what society they

lived in, in that respect. We do know that was a very

corrupt society, but they needed one another.

Paul pointed out to him the last Sunday Pastor Joe mentioned in

the sermon on the gifts that God has given the church through the

Spirit, through 1 Spirit, he says Paul says 1 Spirit.

Joe mentioned that everything about us as God's children,

everything about us, our relationship with God, our gifts

that God has given us, all of it's interconnected at all

levels. No one has a gift that God gave

to a person for just that person.

All of our gifts that God has blessed us with as individuals

are all intended for the greater good.

There are many people, different gifts, but there's only one

church. There's only one body.

I want us this morning to read First Corinthians chapter 12

1 Corinthians 12:13–31

verse 13 to 31. Turn in your Bibles for First

1 Corinthians 12:13

Corinthians 12 verse 13 to the end of the chapter Paul writes.

For just as the body is 1 and as 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 1

spirit. But the body does not consist of

one member, but of many. If the foot should say, because

I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, that would not make

it any less 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? Where would be the body as it

is? There are many parts, yet one

body, the 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. On the contrary, the parts of

the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.

And in those parts of the body that we think less honorable, we

bestow 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.

There may be 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's honor, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it,

And God has appointed in the church first apostles, 2nd

prophets. There are teachers, then

miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and

various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles, are all

prophets, are all teachers. Do all work miracles?

Do all possessed gifts of healing?

Do all speaking tongues? Do all interpret, but earnestly

desire the higher gifts. And I will show you still a more

excellent way. Did you catch how many times the

Apostle Paul used the word one in this passage in the ESV?

It's 11 times that I counted 11 times this this chapter, this

portion is focusing on Paul's teaching in the church that the

gifts of ministry are for one purpose, glorifying, helping,

building the body of Christ. This morning we will not be able

to go into all the intricate details of the workings of the

different gifts and so on, but we will go into the the part

about that being one body, many parts, many gifts.

Last Sunday we heard in verse 7. To each is given the

manifestation of the Spirit for the common good doesn't say the

individual good. Paul explains the various kinds

of gifts the Spirit gives, but what is so striking is that the

gifts are not given for selfish use for the person to whom

they're given. Paul mentions a variety of gifts

that stand out to each one as the Spirit decides.

Then he goes on to explain the importance of all all the how

this all works. The illustration that Paul uses

to describe the importance is simply amazing.

The illustration of the body, the Church of Christ is made-up

of individuals. These individuals make one body.

The fact that it's a body means that the body has members.

Paul goes into quite a bit of detail explaining there's one

body, but that one body has many members.

We must realize and recognize there's only one body, as He

says in verse 12 and 13. You see, that really narrows

things down. By the way, just keep your

Bibles and your device open to that chapter.

I won't put the verses on PowerPoint this time.

You see, it really narrows it down, doesn't it?

Of all the gifts that may be available, the place we're there

to function and do the work is as one in conjunction with the

others. Not 2 bodies, not 3, not 4, just

one. He makes it clear there's no

distinction between people as to their value and Jesus.

We're all one. We're all tied into the same

source. We're all part of the same.

We could say vine. Jesus talked about that in John

John 15 · chapter mention

chapter 15 verse one to 10. He said he's the vine, we're the

branches. We're all nurtured by the same

source. We all have our security, our

foundation in the same source. And then next Paul goes on to

explain how all of this is in a way like the human body.

Note the descriptive language Paul uses in chapter 12 to

describe the function of the various parts.

This flies in the face out of our modern individualistic

culture. It's a foreign idea.

Paul makes it a special point to mention that no one individual

has all the gifts. No one individual can live

alone, work alone, and believe they're better off alone.

The idea that some people have as Christians, I have nothing to

offer. My gift is not very important.

I don't have a gift. That's simply not true.

Paul writes in Philippians chapter 2 how Jesus emptied

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

himself of his power, made himself dependent on human

beings. He doesn't use those words, but

that's the implication there. Jesus demonstrated his life by

coming as a human being and then serving us and then dying for

us. You see this love that flows out

of Jesus. He wants that to flow between

the members of the body. As a man, Jesus connected with

friends. He got tired.

He needed food and he needed stuff.

And and yeah, he could turn water into wine.

He could have been the most individualistic, independent man

who ever lived. And yet he chose dependents.

And I will say something here and those who are listening

online, I don't mean this to be harsh.

What does this say about online church?

Hear me carefully. We stream our sermons online

intentionally, so there's a place in time for some people

may not be well, they're elderly, frail and may be sick

and cannot come to church. OK, that's great.

Let them listen and watch online.

That's great. But it's not good.

If someone says, and I've heard it said, you know, I just love

to sit in my bed in my pajamas and just drink coffee and watch

church online, that is wrong. What if everybody did that?

Some people are so self focused they don't care about what their

presence means for the other person.

See, the body is one, but the members are many, he says in

verse 14. The members are many, many

members and the foot can't say to the I to the hand, I don't

need you. The I can't say I don't I'm

because of an I'm not don't belong.

We all need each other, the ears, the eyes, the hands, the

feet. This is called to community.

Even though there's just one body, the number of parts are as

vast as the number of people that make up the church.

Community means togetherness and togetherness means there'll be

ways to connect. And all the ways to connect is

when one person gives to another and the other receives in

return. It means 1 member connects to

another. In the world today, there are

people and even Christians who say, well, I want the member

benefits without the connection. I want member benefits with

disconnect. Convenience.

That is not good. It's convenient if there's no

one who has access to you and you keep yourself distant from

others. But then to expect the others to

cut, to rally around when you need them, that is not fair.

God has retained the body so that the body needs the members.

These members are all interdependent.

Interdependent, he says in verse 19.

If all were a single member, where would the body be?

Verse 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body I can't

say. To the head I have no need of

you, nor again the head to the feet I have no need of you.

We know that it makes no sense to think of a human body where

individual limbs would not work as a one unit.

But you know what does happen in a physical body where a limb

here or there does not work anymore?

Somebody gets paralyzed, the hand just hangs and the arm just

dangles there. The the arm won't work anymore.

What's the other arm have just to compensate?

What if you woke up on a weekday morning, wanted to get to work

and then you want to reach for the alarm to shut it off and

your hand wouldn't work. Now you reach with the left

hand. What's wrong with my right hand?

And maybe your hand could talk, say I did all my work yesterday.

I'm taking today off. Or maybe you want to get up out

of bed and your feet would say again, do we have to walk today

again? We want to stay in bed for a

day. Take it easy.

We did more than our share of walking yesterday.

Maybe you want to make a phone call and the ear would say, I

have to listen again. I did more than enough listening

yesterday. I'm I'm, I'm not going to do any

listening today to make matters worse.

And your eyes would say, oh, oh, we're not reading today.

We're going to we're thinking on sightseeing today, but reading.

No, we're not reading today. Just imagine the aggravation

that you would go through if your body parts were independent

of you as a person. The idea I don't need anyone.

I want to be independent. I'm by myself.

That's a lie. All the members need all the

members. Nobody don't have the same

function. True.

And there's a reason for that. But the functions are all

important. Let's say you are a construction

worker. You go to in the morning to

construction. Your feet carry your body, your

hands handle the wood do the cutting, your eyes do the

looking and the the measuring. Your ears do the listening to

the instructions and communication, your tongue does

the speaking and all that. Every member is involved.

They're all there, they're all present, all contributing, all

benefiting and so on. If you've ever watched a person

who's lost a limb or two and see how they work, you can very

quickly tell how vital it is that they have body parts.

Maybe somebody's arm is missing. The other arm can compensate,

but it's that much harder. Someone's leg is missing, they

maybe have a prosthetic leg or whatever.

They can still work fine, but it's not the same.

But then, as I said, what if, what if the limbs are paralyzed?

They're there, but it's not working.

Man has two legs, just can't walk and a wheelchair.

A man has an arm that's paralyzed.

Well, it's just in the way. There's one body, many members,

and you and I are members of that one body.

The body is 1. The members are many.

They're all interdependent and they all suffer.

Live and suffer and work together in unity.

OK, if it's convenient, if it's easy, if it's suitable, then I

might join. But if there's any suffering

involved, count me out. No, no, Paul says they all

suffer. They all suffer together, live

together, and if one is honored, they all rejoice together.

Suffering is not optional, it's a part of life.

Jesus said that. Paul wrote about that to

Timothy. We will suffer, but sometimes

you try to avoid it at all costs.

And worse, in our world, there's this mindset.

Survivor, the fittest. What happens when some members

of the body decide to become independent, self focused as an

I don't need you kind of mentality or worse.

You owe me and I'll take what I can get.

What happens then is tragic. The very members of the body

that should be supporting one another start working

independently for themselves at the expense of one another.

It's a disaster. I'm reminded of 2 short stories

and I was reminded of these when I prepared the sermon.

I want to share them this morning out of a book called In

the Likeness of God written by Paul Brand and Philip Yancey.

It's an older book. Paul Brand was a Christian

Doctor Who for many years lived in poor countries, working among

the lowest of the low in the third world countries.

And two stories that he mentioned, the book he has many

stories came to my mind and they fit this sermon here this

morning. He was in India one day in a

railroad station. He saw this bigger woman in a

very pitiful situation. Like many Indian beggars, she

was emaciated, sunken cheeks, hollow eyes, Bony limbs.

But paradoxically, strangely enough, there's a huge mass of

plump skin on the side of her body.

She was laying there on the ground and was round and sleek

like a large sausage. It was growing from her side and

she had exposed it so people would have pity on her, like a

large formless baby connected to her by a bridge of skin.

Doctor Bran mentally says although he only saw her

briefly, he felt sure the growth was a lipoma, a tumor, fat of

cells. It was a part of her, yet not as

if some surgeon had carved a hunk of fat out of a very large

person, wrapped it in live skin and death be sold and onto her

body. She was starving.

She held out a feeble, spindly hand for a handout.

Even though she was starving, the the tumor was thriving,

nearly equaling the equaling the weight, the weight of the rest

of her body. It gleamed in the sun, exuding

health, sucking the life from her.

It was a matter of the fat cells handgun rogue sucking the life

that this woman needed so badly to survive.

Something had gone wrong. And then he used that story to

explain how the purpose of fat cells in the body is to store

energy. They have a purpose.

They store energy that the storehouse the body needs for

when the energy cells like the muscle cells when they need

energy. And so the fat cells had just

kept storing and they went rogue.

They just stored and stored and stored and would never give

anything to the muscles. So the muscles were trying to do

the work but had no energy to do the work.

And he talks about, he talked about that we are all cells in

the body of Christ. We all have a job to do.

You know, when a person develops a tumor of whatever kind of

tumor that is, that tumor has in itself the death sentence

written on it right from the get go.

Because the tumor will either be removed and die, or it will kill

the person who has the tumor, and then when the person dies,

the tumor dies too. It's unsustainable to live that

way. It brings death.

A tumor won't give up by itself. It just keeps going and going

into the either kills the body and then dies, or it's removed

and then dies. Sin in the body of Christ never

ends well. If it's not removed, it's

allowed to continue. In the end, it kills its host

only as we're willing to surrender to Christ, willing to

give our lives to Him in grace and humility.

Embrace the cross and serve each other to what God has blessed

us, what He's blessed us with. Only then can we be the body,

strong and healthy. Paul Brand in his book draws

attention that in all aspects of life we're sharing with her

neighbors, with one another at our expense for their good and

they at their expense for our good.

We are dependent. Every member has a gift.

He says God has appointed in the church for his apostles, second

prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing,

helping, administrating in various kinds of tongues.

Are all apostles, Are all prophets, Are all teachers, doll

work, miracles? Don't have gifts of healing to

all speak in tongues, but earnestly desire the greater

gifts. These are gifts of the Spirit

that God has created each person to possess in one shape or form

or another. All of us have something.

Some people have multiple gifts, some have only one.

But the list of gifts Paul mentions here are not the only

gifts that we find in the Bible. For instance, go to Romans

Romans 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12-1 to 8. We won't read that this morning,

but there's other gifts. There's a wide variety of gifts

mentioned, and God never will ask anyone to do anything for

which He will not equip that person.

I won't take time this morning to go into detail to elaborate

on all the different gifts, but I want to go back to chapter 12,

verse 7. Paul writes to each is given the

manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

All of us are in this. None of us is exempt.

I'll close with one more story to illustrate how critical, how

vital and how important this is from the same book.

And this story includes Dr. Brand's wife, Margaret.

She was an eye surgeon. They served for many years in

3rd world countries, as I mentioned before, and one of the

things they did was treat leprosy patients.

He worked in a leprosurium, a third world country, and he was

very good at doing surgery for leprosy patients and trying to

help them make use of their limbs that were not functioning

well. Leprosy patients don't have

feeling in their extremities. They can't feel their fingers,

their hands. And so when the leprosy patient

smashes their finger in a door, oh, my fingers flat or they

touch something, oh, my hand is smoking, they cut.

Oh, I'm bleeding, they have a cut in their hand.

Leprosy patients can't feel. They can't feel.

And Paul Brand goes on to tell the story of a man in a hospital

that he was treating, that he and his wife were treating,

named Jose. They moved back to the US and

there they dealt with some of these issues.

In one hospital, there's a man named Jose who had leprosy,

severe case of leprosy. He had lost so much of A sense

of touch that he could not feel anything.

Somebody would blindfold him and lead, lead somebody into the

room to shake his hand. He couldn't even feel that.

There's no feeling in his, in his hand, since he could not

feel. He had lots of scars and ulcers

in his hands and face and feet and indicating the injuries he'd

received, in part because he could not feel pain.

His hands were just his fingers were just stubs where the

fingers had been. Because he couldn't feel.

He couldn't feel his eyes either.

They dried out from not blinking when they should.

That together with other problems and cataracts,

glaucoma, he became blind. Now he could not see and not

feel. Think about that for a second.

Paul's wife Margaret was an eye doctor, as I mentioned, and she

wanted to find a way to help Jose get his sight back.

But she couldn't operate on him because the inflammation was so,

so bad. And she also needed a consent

form to be signed, which he couldn't sign.

Anyway, the doctors tried treating him with medication,

but it was a new drug and he had an allergic reaction.

Now he lost his hearing. Think about that.

No hearing, no sight, no feeling.

No hearing, sight, sound, feeling, nothing.

Here he was, 40 year old Jose, cut off from the world, could

not see, not feel, not hear. The people in that hospital

noticed on him, on his bed. He was just curling up, day by

day, tighter into a fetal position, just lying there, just

laying there. Days went by and he just coiled

it tighter and tighter on the bed.

They'd walk by his room, shake their heads.

What could anyone do? Margaret, Dr. Brand's wife

wouldn't give up. She wanted to operate on this

man hoping to get his sight back, but she needed this

consent form. And finally she was able to

track down a relative in Puerto Rico where he come from and and

got hold of the authorities there.

And they brought a form to this illiterate relative, his sister.

She put an X where the name is supposed to be and that was sent

back. And now she had the the final,

she had the consent to go ahead and do some surgery.

Of course Jose couldn't feel, but he knew something was

happening to him as he was being moved onto a stretcher and

wheeled away. When Margaret did the surgery it

took a couple of hours and then she banded him up and then moved

him to recovery and now the waiting began.

Few days later she removed the bandages and she had an

experience she would never forget.

Although Jose sensed some gross movement and reason someone was

trying to help and nothing had prepared him for it actually did

happen. He got the use of one eye back

and he could see again. His eye struggled against the

light and slowly focused on the medical people around him and

the bed around the bed and he. He had not smiled in months and

now he his face cracked into a toothless grin.

Contact had been restored, he could see, Paul Brand writes.

During that time of long isolation, Hose's brain floated

intact in his skull, complete with memory, emotions,

instructions for directing his body, but stayed useless because

the whey was blocked. Then Paul goes on to explain It

makes the connection between Jesus and the head as the head

and the body and we are the members.

He needed his physical abilities for his brain to do what his

brain needed to do. He had lost all of it for a

time. It's I think it's safe to say

Jesus Christ could not think of a greater way to communicate his

desire for fellowship and relations with His creation, His

image bearers. That's us.

Then by coming the way He did and showing us the path he did

and so many are just trying to get out of it.

What's the application? Jesus opened himself up for so

much to us. He gave everything as a human

being. We find that again in

Philippians chapter 2 and many other passages.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

When we shut ourselves out from each other, we lose our sense of

touch, our sense of listening, and we don't see anymore Jesus,

still the head of the church. We're his body.

How's it going if there are those here this morning who feel

isolated, alone and empty? Jesus wants to heal that through

you maybe, or someone else. Maybe you're a person in the

room Jesus wants to use as his hands, his feet, his eyes, his

ears to minister to a lonely, isolated, struggling person.

The world tells you, oh, just don't get involved.

That poor guy. Don't get involved, that's just

a problem. Don't get involved.

No, he involved himself with us. It's true the pain and suffering

is hard, but not to feel is worse.

Not to feel leads to death. Jesus has given us himself and

His resources, His Spirit, His gifts that we need to use for

the blessing of one another. It's to God's glory that we use

our gifts to show love to each other with the gifts we've been

given. I don't know what kind of gift

God has given you. Some I could say, but it's not

for me to say. Whatever gift that may be, start

simply by this love one another. Start there and in that context

it will become evident what areas God has gifted you and his

guiding and directing you. It will be revealed.

And if you're a follower of Jesus, you have a gift and

you're responsible for it. And there may be some here this

morning to whom all this sounds new and strange.

And what's he talking about? Maybe you're not a follower of

Jesus at this point, maybe never have been.

I want to encourage you to look to Jesus and realize that He has

made you for glory, to worship Him and that's your greatest

purpose in life, to receive the blessings of other and give the

blessings to others and to all who surrender to Jesus, who

repent of their sin, who receive Jesus as part of their receive

Jesus as salvation. God will reveal himself and He

will bless you. May God continue to draw us as a

church, as one body with many members working through 1 Spirit

blessing one another and we receive the blessings from each

other. Let us pray.

Lord, we are your children. We're part of your body.

We do not exist for ourselves. We exist for you and one

another. And we live out that gift by

serving one another with the gifts you've blessed us with.

Lord, we ask that you help us to do this faithfully.

There may be people here who've never considered how important

their participation, their involvement and contribution is

to the body. Maybe some are paralyzed with

fear. They've been taught that they

have nothing to offer. Lord, I pray that you'll heal

those hearts and souls and help them to see that You've blessed

each one of us. Lord, you know the hearts of

everyone who's not yet surrendered to you.

May they accept the invitation that you're offering and help

them to see the blessing of surrendering their lives and

repenting of their sins and self focused lives.

Lord, may it never be said of us that we refuse to use our gift

for the purpose of benefiting and blessing your body.

We give ourselves to you. Lord, we ask that You use us as

a church for your glory in Jesus name, Amen.