Biblical Anatomy

Good morning. All right, thanks man. Yeah, well hello, okay

you guys. Maybe it's the coffee, maybe it's the time, but we're

already off to a much better start than first service. I don't want to

pit people against each other, but you guys are doing great. Thank you,

and I'm going to need the energy today. If you guys would be

so kind as to grab your bibles, the ushers are coming forward. If

you don't have a Bible, a Bible bulletin pen or a little special handout

ooh, a special handout, Oh yes, yes, pulling out all the

tricks today. If you don't have anything, raise your hand and these fine

ushers will come and do a great job ushing. We're gonna be in one

Corinthians twelve today versus twelve to twenty seven. I just wanted to introduce myself.

If you don't know who I am, my name is Cobb. No

stop, no, I reject that. My name is Richard Cobb, and

I work here at Crossway. I'm the Minister of Connections, which means that

if you're new or someone newer here, we're going to be seeing a lot

of each other. I'm the guy who helps kind of usher you into the

life of the body, and honestly, I love it. It's so great,

it's so wonderful, and it is a privilege every time I get to

open up God's Word with you on a Sunday morning. It is honestly one

of the greatest privileges of my life. So thank you guys so much.

There are a few things that I love more than being part of this body.

And that's that's actually what we're going to talk about today for Strinthians twelve

twelve to twenty seven. We're going to talk about a little biblical anatomy.

What does it mean to be part of the body? I'll go ahead and

invite with my sister, we usually go passage by passage through a book of

the Bible. Right, we've been going through Romans. But we're sometime we

got to give Josh a week off, okay, And so what happens is

we get a little bit of a vitamin. Right. You don't want to

live on vitamins, but vitamins are good for you, right, just take

every once in a while. So that's what this is. And again we're

kind of these Sundays are always difficult because you're dropping into a particular passage in

a particular context, and so I just want to say there are other things

before and after it that are wonderful things, And maybe one day I'll preach

on but we're just focusing on these fifteen sixteen verses right now, which will

be read by my sister Whitney. Ones. Come on, come on down

first Corinthians twelve twelve through twenty seven. For just as the body is one

and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many,

are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit

we were all baptized into one body. Jews are Greeks, slaves are free,

and all were made to drink of one's spirit. For the body does

not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot should say,

because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,

that would not make it any less a part of the body. And

if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do

not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of

the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the

sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be

the sense of smell? But as it is God arranged the members in the

body, each one of them as he chose. If all were a single

member, where would the body be as it is? There are many parts

yet one body that 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 on those parts of the body that we

think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor. And our unpresentable parts are

treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not record. But

God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked

it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the

members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers,

all suffer together. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now

you are the Body of Christ, and individually members of it. This is

the word of God. Amen, Thank you, thank you so much.

All right, now we all have a body. Correct, All right?

I got a nameen. If you guys don't know this, we're gonna have

a really difficult time this morning. You know, we have a body,

right, Okay, all right, I really appreciate that God did a really

incredible job in putting our bodies together. There are systems that are developed in

the womb and then carry us on for the next seventy eighty ninety years,

all the way through adulthood. And it's staggering, honestly. Your heart always

pumping right, lungs doing their thing. My appendix, Sorry, Nate,

but my appendix is working just fine. Liver and kidneys all functioning very properly.

And as far as learning how the body works, my parents they taught

me some of how to use my body, but like my eyes, I

didn't have to learn how to use my eyes. They just worked. They

did help me learn how to grasp things with my hands, and there was

you know, that's a big deal when you take your first steps. But

look at me now I'm walking. I am just blown away by the intricate

care of how our bodies work. And that even means after Genesis three.

Right, so our bodies, even after the fall, are still working so

very well. Right when we have an infection, our bodies actively fight those

things. When one part of our body is injured, then the rest of

the body helps compensate for that injured part. In fact, our bodies are

so amazing that most of the time we don't even think about them. In

fact, it's not until something goes wrong that we're like, oh wow,

that hurts, Like I don't know what happened, but I'm not feeling this

is not usually there having a problem. Well, God designed our bodies to

care for itself. Right the hand puts on glasses so that we can see

better. If we have a problem with our ears, our feet take us

there. We're not just one part or many parts working together. Maybe scars

remain, but over the course of our lifetime, we go through thousands of

bumps, bruises, infections, and our body fights them all. God designed

our bodies to work together to take care of itself, and so that's what

we're going to talk about. The Body of Christ functions in much the same

way the Body of Christ is meant to be united, and how it handles

caring for other parts of the body. One part gets injured, gets sick,

the rest of the body works hard to help shure up that part of

the body that is injured or that is broken, and understanding the local church

body that's actually what Paul is doing here. In one Corinthians twelve, the

church in corinth had a whole lot of symptoms, and one of the symptoms

was a division over how gifts were handled between the different members. And these

gifts are all given by the Holy Spirit, but some of the members were

using these gifts to make themselves look great. Some of these views were some

of these sorry, some of these parts of the body were using their gifts

to make themselves a good and to serve themselves, not to serve others that

were dividing the body. And Paul lays out in a very visual way that

this is not how it's supposed to work. If I were going to say

this sermon in one sentence, I would say this it's written in but I

just want to make sure we get it. God's design for church unity is

a God arranged view of self and others. Again, God's design for church

unity is a God arranged view of self and others. And while there are

applications that can be made to the church universal, how we live this out

practically in the day to day happens here in the local church. So we're

going to start at the beginning of the passage of verses twelve to fourteen.

We are the body, and the emphasis there is on the we. Paul's

just finished in the previous passage talking about how the Spirit is there giving these

gifts, these different gifts to different parts of the body, and then Paul

uses this analogy for the body to talk about what these gifts are to be

used for. He also does this in Ephesians four, in Romans twelve,

among other places. But we get him saying something like this in verse twelve,

Paul saying, you know how your body is made up of different parts,

different forms, different functions, and yet they all work together to help

you. Well, the Body of Christ is built in much the same way.

That is what it's like within the local church. We're all different,

we have different functions, but we all unite in one body to serve a

common purpose. Paul will go back and forth between the importance of the individual

parts and the importance of the corporate whole. But he's not just starving something

to them. What he's doing is hoping that it will make changes in their

hearts, but it will change how they live their lives towards unity and interdependence.

Christ's body here at Crossway isn't made up of just a couple leaders,

right, Christ's body is not just the elders or just the staff. No,

the body here at crossway is every single member who has committed to every

other. Remember in this body? Amen? Amen? All right, we

go. And though we are individual, different members with different gifts and different

talents, when all put together we form one body in which we are united

at a fundamental level. And verse thirteen, Paul drives us home even more

by showing that it's not that our unity is built around these smaller things,

right, these things like socioeconomic status or this, or how the body had

been dividing itself, which is by ethnicity. That's because we're united to Christ.

So our relationship to Christ gives us a new family that we didn't have

before, a new set of body parts we didn't have before. And it's

no coincidence that another one of Paul's favorite analogies for the local church is the

family. I just I want to give you a very quick glimpse into my

history. A great great grandfather, yeah, okay, great great grandfather.

His name was Lewis Ward Cobb, and he was a circuit rider, which

means he used to go around Oklahoma and preach to the Indian tribes, and

so that is where he met my great grandfather KB, who is full blood

Choctaw Indian. And KB had lost his parents to smallpox, so KB was

an orphan. He was then adopted by Lewis and was given a new family.

And so suddenly KB had this family that he didn't have before. He

had these relationships that he didn't have before. Suddenly there were people who were

his parents where he didn't have parents before, the rants and uncles that he

had that he didn't have before. And that's what it's like in the body

of Christ. He got a new identity on that day. And that's what

it's like for us. We have different identifying markers that we all have,

accent, skin color, ethnicity, where you were born, on and on

they go. But all those things they don't become untrue when you become saved.

They just take a back seat because the most important thing is that you

are a child of God. The most important thing is your relationship to Christ.

So your new family may or may not actually look anything like you.

Your new family may or may not have any of the same shared interests but

we are united by the strongest thing in the universe, and that is the

cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. And this is one place where the Gospels shine

so clearly. I like, like Pastor Josh said a couple weeks ago,

we don't have one baptismal tank for sinners and then one for the really bad

sinners, right, Or to put this in the First Corinthians language, we

don't have one for Jews and one for gentiles. Now, that's not how

it works. We've seen this all over the first four chapters of Romans that

we've been studying together. What does this passage say? It says we have

one Holy Spirit. We were baptized into one body, both Jews and Greeks.

In other words, that's everyone Jews or Gentiles, mix up the entire

world, slave or free. Again, this would encapsulate everyone, and in

fourteen the body is not one part, but many different parts. There's not

one church for Jews and one for gentiles. No, read the Book of

Acts. There's one united church, just like there's not a church for blue

collar workers and then a church for executive level white collar workers. Now there's

one unified church. The amazing thing about God's power to save in the Gospel

is that it's powerful enough to both save and unite all different kinds of people.

So share the gospel far and wide. There's no type of person that

is outside of that reach of the unity in the gospel. We need to

be faithful to share this message. God will be faithful to build his church.

So we saw all that was God's plan for unity within the body.

But what does this look like for you individually? Point number two, The

body needs you. Point number two, the body needs you. I'm talking

to you. I'm talking to you. I'm talking to you. There's a

whole lot of news that the body needs. Paul is trying to encourage some

parts of the body that were feeling disconnected from the other parts. Right,

parts that had they had more attention and they had more acclaim. This scene

is so vivid. You can see it right, You can see the like

sad Charlie Brown walk. I'm foot. I can't do any of the cool

things that hand can do. I just walk around kicking rocks. That's all

I'm good for. Just because you're not contributing in the same way, it

doesn't mean that you don't have something to contribute. And I'm not making fun

of the situation. I think this actually still happens here today. They're parts

of the body that are super visible and always out front, and God is

working through them and they're contributing to the life of the body. That's great.

But what does that mean for you if you're not out front? Well,

the body still needs you. Let me get a little more specific to

our context. Right. Every church has different requirements for membership, and we

have a few ourselves. I don't know if you saw that. You were

given a sheet of paper as you walked in. This is the four membership

commitments that every single member made when they joined Crossway. So if you're a

member of Crossway, whether that was nine years ago when we started or just

a couple of weeks ago, these are the membership commitments you made to the

body. Number One, I had by faith become a follower of Jesus Christ,

and I've been baptized as a visible way of demonstrating that commitment. Number

Two, because the disciple worships Christ, I will attend and fully participate in

weekend worship services at Crossway. Number Three, because the Disciple walks with Christ,

I will seek to maintain consistent disciplines of Bible study, prayer, and

personal witness. I will walk in fellowship with other believers Acrossway by participating in

small group to maintain unity and fellowship. I will either criticize nor listen to

criticism concerning any member of this body, and will, when personally offended,

speak directly and lovingly with those involved. Number four, Because the Disciple works

for Christ, will see take a place to serve with Crossway that corresponds with

my spiritual gifts and the churches needs. I will financially support the ministries of

Crossway by faithfully giving back to the Lord a biblical portion of my increase.

Now, whether you think these seem like big commitments to you or not,

there's one thing that's for sure. There is no one who can do these

things for you. These are things that you have to do yourself. And

I'm going to give you three things that your body needs you to do based

on these commitments and based on our passage. Number one, the body needs

you. That's how they're all going to start. Number one, the body

needs you to invest in your relationship, your personal relationship with Christ. We're

talking about worshiping God. We're talking about treasuring God. This is sometime,

This is something that only you can do, and yet it will affect the

health of the whole body. The rest of the body doesn't just need nameless

people to walk faithfully with God. No, the body needs each individual member

to do this and to take this seriously. You may not think that it

will impact someone else, but you remember the body analogy. What happens if

one part of the body gets an infection spreads. What happens when one part

of the body gets injured. The rest of the body helps, It compensates.

Your personal life is your personal relationship with God very personal, but it's

not private. It's something that we do within the context of the body.

It affects the rest of the body. Your friends care about how you're doing.

Your small group leader probably knows a little bit more than is than they

are letting on, but they care about you. They want to be there

for you. It's probably discouraging them that you're not sharing these things. And

I think that's the worst part. If on the outside you look like everything's

okay and you're not actually sharing that internally you're struggling, right, That's not

what the body is for in that third membership commitment, you committed to personal

spiritual disciplines, and if you don't hold yourself to it, it's easy to

think that, oh, it's not going to affect anyone else, but that's

not true. The fight for your affections are happening all around you. And

if you're not refreshing yourself and your relationship with God, how will that affect

you as a functioning part of the body. There are things that you can

do that no one else can do. And so we as a body need

every part, every member to invest in their relationship with God. This isn't

like an abstract I need people to invest, No, we need each other

to invest in your relationship with God. When I was a kid, I

went to a wedding. And when I was a kid, and there were

no smartphones in the pockets, no YouTube to look anything up. That'll come

in context later. But I went to this wedding. Everything was great,

it was beautiful, and the bride and groom went to go drive off leave

the honeymoon. Right the getaway car. Well, the grooms men thought it

would be funny if they were to unplug the spark plugs. Okay, I

just got to say a word be kind to people on their wedding day.

They got a lot going on. So anyway, they unplugged the spark plugs

and then they're like, ah, so they get in the car. Oh,

I'm not working groomsmen. Okay, okay, well it was a big

joke. We're all good. Hey guys nowhere, ha ha ha huh.

That's a good one. Okay, plug the spark plugs back in. I

didn't know and neither did they, that it actually matters what order. Yeah,

you plug the spark plugs back in. Apparently one might cause a misfire

and two will just stop the engine. Right there, we go. Well,

they didn't know that either, and so the bride is in tears,

and for about thirty minutes, we're all just standing there watching them try to

get it plugged in in the buying right order. Eventually they did, and

the couple drove off and everything was fine. The car was in good shape.

Right. It wasn't a problem with the car. There was plenty of

gas in the car. It had an oil change. All the components individually

worked, but there was just one part of the body, one part of

the car that wasn't working and that affected the whole car. It's that same

way with us. We need every member of Crossway to be invested in your

relationship with God. I was number one. Number two. The body needs

you to invest in your relationship within the body. The body needs you to

invest in your relationships within the body. Look at that second member should commitment

fully participating in weekend worship services. Right, it seems pretty innocuous showing up.

That's a great first step, but that's still only the first step.

What are you doing to engage others while you're there? This really clicked for

me this week. When we walk through the doors of the church or when

we walk into a small group home, We've got three options, and I'm

going to I'm going to challenge you to level up. Right, be like

Mario. You're a little Mario. You pick up that mushroom and you eat

it for the sake of the body. The first level that I want to

challenge you to move up from is called active avoidance. Active avoidance. This

is some people. You are here, you are present, and yet you

really try to not make eye contact with anyone while you're here. You kind

of keep your head down and try to hope that no one asks you any

questions. I'm gonna say, I'm gonna give you the benefit of the doubt.

Right, Maybe make people make you feel uncomfortable. It might be that

you're newer and maybe you're having a hard time connecting. It may be that

you feel the weight of a particular sin that you've been committing and yet have

haven't been sharing with others. Whatever the reason for it, hear me say

this. God made you unique, and there are things that you contribute.

There are conversations you have that are important to the health of the rest of

the body. There are things that you bring to the table that no one

else does. Verse seventeen says, if the whole body we're an eye,

where would be the sense of hearing? The whole body we're in ear where

would be the sense of smell? The whole body is made up of different

parts with different gifts. So when you show up but you are actively avoiding

other people, you're not contributing to the body. You're not helping the body

engage and grow. Now, if you're at that level again, I'm going

to challenge you to level up to what I call passive engagement again. This

still isn't like great, but hey, you started out and actively not engaging.

So this is passive engagement. This means that you keep your eyes up

and you smile at folks, and should someone say something to you, respond

engage. They're engaging you. I'm going to challenge you to engage them back.

I'm a small group leader. If a small group leader asks the question

to the group and there's no one responding, my challenge to you is to

respond back. If someone's sitting next to you here on a Sunday morning and

they're asking for prayer, don't just turn and walk away. Stop, be

there, pray with them, try to help them actively. What is Paul

saying in verse twenty that it takes so many parts to make up the whole.

So understand that you have a part to play, and play it now.

If you're already at that passive engagement level, hold under your hats because

I'm going to ask you to level up one more time. Active pursuit.

Active pursuit, And I think you know what this one is. This is

when you are actively looking for people to talk to, and it's really easy

to look for your friend. It's really easy to look for the people you

already know, I'm challenging you. I'm trying to help us, the whole

body grow, And so the better thing in that moment here you go to

someone you don't know, Maybe go to someone who's by themselves, ask them

a question, get some answers, like what's fire and why does it burn?

Again? This may be stretching for you, but what's everything all about?

Right? We are here as a church body to make and to mature

disciples, and so if you're here, that should be your aim as well.

That is the mission for the whole church. So wherever you are on

this continuum, I'm going to say, level up. The body needs it.

That was the second one. The third one, the body needs you

to see your ministries more like a runway than a checklist. Again, the

body needs you to see your ministries more like a run way than a checklist.

In our membership commitments, participating in a small group and serving on a

ministry team are commitments. And even more than that, being in a small

group and serving are actually reserved for our members. We don't just let anyone

do it. And this isn't the case at every church. So while it's

possible for you to see your official ministry designations ie your a small group and

your ministry team as a checklist task as in my attendant small group twice this

month and I served once on the asher team. I'm good. Well.

Instead of that, we want it to be so much more. There's a

great book called The Trellis and the Vine, and I want to read a

quote to you from it. The goal of Christian ministry is quite simple.

Are we making and nurturing genuine disciples of Christ? If the real work of

God is people work, the prayerful speaking of His word by one person to

another, then the jobs are never all taken. The opportunities for Christians to

minister personally to others are limitless. Every single person out there has one more

opportunity. And this is where we need to view our ministries more like a

runway than a task list. The whole body is served better if you don't

just check those boxes off and then put it on the shelf, but instead

if you see it as a runway into more ministry among and around the body.

Right, small group and ministry teams, that's like the starting line,

right, that's just the very beginning of serving the body of Christ. It's

the very beginning of prayerfully speaking God's word from one person to another. That

is by no means the borders of the body care that you can do at

this church. I'm about to say something that's very strange coming from the guy

who's in charge of ministry teams. Your ministry is not defined by the ministry

team you serve on. Your contribution in serving the Body of Christ goes so

far beyond that. Informal ministry is equally as important as serving the body on

a Sunday morning. Now, there are some people who know this and are

killing it right. They're doing a great job with personal ministry. So I

would say keep going, excel still more. But there may be some of

you who are feeling overwhelmed and maybe like you need to be reminded that there

are different seasons in life. Maybe you just had a baby and you're trying

to figure out how to keep this new human being alive. That's a big

job. Or maybe your work is heavily weighted in different seasons right tax season,

insurance season, or you have a job that has shift work. Right

you're a nurse, or pilot or a firefighter. Please hear me say that

we want to make serving the body on a Sunday morning a priority, but

it's not the only priority. If you are if you are in an exceptional

situation, we want to help you figure something out for this exceptional time.

If you're less involved with a ministry team for a time, with good communication

with your coordinator, then look for opportunities to serve the body informally for personal

ministry. But once that exceptional time is over, we want to get you

plugged back into rotating serving the body. Right. It's good for us all

to remember that the body needs us and we have a role to play.

I know that those sub sub points were hard to keep track of, but

thank you for letting me go there. I think that those were important.

Let's move on to verse seventeen. The whole body where an eye? Where

would be the sense of smell? But as God arrange the members of the

body, each one of them as he chose, fall we're a single member,

where would the body be as it is? There are many parts,

yet one body. Brothers and sisters. God is so good with our different

gifts and ministries, and even with all our sin and pride, that he

put us together so fearfully and wonderfully for His glory and for our good,

and to know that we each have a role to play in this body,

a role that we have been equipped for and that God has chosen for us.

But that's only half the vision. The other part of the vision is

zero point three. You need the body. It's not just that the body

needs you. But in verses twenty one to twenty seven, we'll see you

need the body God's designed for church unity includes a God arranged view of others.

And as it is, we are both and this is going to be

it's a little bit controversial. As a part of the body. You are

both needed and you're needy. And when you hear the word needy, you

think, oh this is bad. But no, to be needy within the

body just means that you're just like everybody else. Right, you are not

sufficient for the tasks that you've been given, right God, God has given

the body to you, not just you to the body. You can't handle

everything on your own. The word I want you to think of the word

interdependent. These the relationships within the body go both ways. Right, you

need the body and the body needs you. There are things that you can

provide for the body. There are things that you can't and you need the

body to provide for you. A book that we want to recommend is a

book called Side by Side. It's a wonderful book. Let me just read

one quick excerpt from the introduction. The basic for the book is that those

who help the best are the ones who both need help and give help.

A healthy community is dependent on all of us being both. So this book

is divided into two parts. The first part guides you into sharing your burdens.

The second part guides you in bearing the burdens of others. This book

is on our QR code scan to buy area over by the coffee. But

because we do love resourcing people, if you are someone who will prioritize both

the reading and applying of this book, I want to put it in your

hands today. So if you would raise your hand, if you will prioritize

the reading and applying of this book, I see you back there, I

see you there. I will leave these right here for you. All right,

as we go through this last point, I think we need to be

guided by verse twenty four b and twenty five, where it says, but

God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked

it. And then he tells us why that there may be no division within

the body, but that the members may have the same care from one another.

Right. What was happening in Corinth and what we don't want to happen

here at Crossway is that there was division among the body. What was happening

is that the wealthy and powerful, we're using their gifts to serve themselves,

not to serve others, and to elevate themselves. And Paul was having none

of it. So he's calling them out and he wants to show them that

their economy is all wrong. It's about unity within the body. It's about

caring for the parts of the body that need extra care. It's not about

you. And I've got two elementary school age daughters and they are wonderful girls.

I love them so much. They are so good, and so frequently

we tell them something like, hey, you're doing a great job with this,

or oh when you shared that, I was so proud of you.

But they're both used to receiving these compliments, these like commendations of their character,

and so sometimes we'll only say that to one daughter and then the other

daughter. We'll just kind of be standing there waiting for her turn, big

old puppy dog eyes. I'll hear this question, what about me? And

with all the love of a parent and all the care for her soul,

I look her in her eyes, I say, honey, not everything's about

you. And I genuinely want her to see that just because we're giving special

care and recognition to one daughter, that doesn't denigrate, that doesn't devalue our

other daughter any less or what she's accomplished. We're just taking a moment to

recognize and giving special care to one part of the body. And I want

both of my daughters to learn to be able to celebrate and love every part

of the body that's being celebrated, even if it's not her right. It's

not always a bound you. You need the rest of the body. And

as we look back to the passage, we get these awful words, I

have no need of you. I would be shocked to hear those words uttered

around this church. I don't think I've ever heard those words spoken, and

I hope I never do. But when you don't show up for a small

group, it's now call no show. Do you think your actions are communicating.

I have no need of you. When you're scheduled to serve on a

ministry team, there are other people counting on you, and you just don't

show up. Do you think your actions are conveying I have no need of

you when other people are trying to engage you, when they're trying to get

to know you better, and you just walk away. Do you think your

actions are communicating I have no need of you. Is this the body moving

towards care? Is this the body moving towards unity? If that was a

peaking to your heart, I beg you to repent and keep listening. This

passage isn't done. As we move down. Verses twenty two to twenty four

are hard versus right. They're difficult, but again we need to see them

in the context of unity and care within the body. These verses are meant

to humble the proud and to elevate the parts of the body that we don't

always see as needing to be elevated, Those parts of the body that are

feeling dismembered by the parts of the body that should be caring for them.

We see how God, God is going to cover and honor those parts of

the body verse twenty two. On the contrary, the parts of the body

that seem to be weaker are indispensable. The parts that we think less honorable

we bestow greater honor. Our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which

our presentable parts do not require. Again, why that there may be no

division within the body, but that the members have the same care for one

another. This reminds me of another passage in the first book of the Bible,

Genesis nine, verses twenty to twenty three, after Noah and his family

have gotten off the ark and God has made a covenant to never destroy the

earth like that. Again, just a few verses after that, verse twenty

we see the story of how we are maybe prone to react to the weaker,

less honorable, unpresentable parts of the body. Stay with me twenty and

Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard.

He drank of the wine and became drunk, and he lay uncovered in

his tent. And Ham, one of Noah's sons, the father of Canaan,

saw the nakedness of his father, and he told his two brothers outside.

So again, one of Noah's sons tries to expose his father and dishonor

him by pointing out his unpresentable parts Verse twenty three. Then Shem and jay

Fith, Noah's other two sons, took a garment, laid it, laid

it both on their shoulders, and walked backward and covered the nakedness of their

father. Their faces were turned backward and they did not see their father's nakedness.

Noah's two other sons had tried to act in a way that would cover

their father and show him honor. Like everybody the church, body here has

parts that are weaker and less presentable, and sorry, less honorable and unpresentable.

God wants every part of this body to know that there is no shame,

no dishonoring, no improper exposing of those parts of his body. Instead,

there will be a covering that will bring honor. Right. Look at

Paul's talking about honor in God's economy. Right weaker, no, Paul says,

indispensable, right cannot function without them, less honorable, and we will

give them special honor. Unpresentable, then we will treat them with special modesty.

Why why do all this that there may be no division? In the

body, and that all the members may have the same care for one another.

For the whole body of Christ to function properly, we need every part

functioning properly, and that includes parts that we may not see the value in

or that we are a little embarrassed of that need extra care. And for

most of us, the special care will be for another part of the body.

But at some point, that weaker part of the body that's going to

be you. We don't get to choose when we are the weaker, less

honorable, or unpresentable part. God does. But praise God that his covering

still applies. We need to care for others within the body as if they

were our dearest loved ones, because in Christ they are our dearest loved ones

Verse twenty six. If one part suffers, all suffer together. If one

part is honored, all rejoice together. There's no individual suffering and honoring within

the body. We all get on this together. That's how God set this

up. I have a permission to share what I'm about to share, but

you should go to the source. I promise I won't do it justice.

This week, in preparing for the sermon, Whitney Warren shared with the team

about how at this time last year they were in the process she found out

of miscarriage and, as anyone would be in the situation, so vulnerable in

that moment of need. She had no immediate family to turn to to call

upon right from her side here in town. She had their other boys that

needed to be taken care of. She need to get to the hospital.

She needed a thousand other things that moms are always thinking about and that dads

have no idea what is even going on in the midst of this great pain

and great loss. As she was recounting the story, her face lit up

about the absolute love and care that was shown from her in that moment,

from this body, in addition to the fact that she had received Crossway members

for some of those items to help. The first nine people that she saw

after she miscarried were Crossway members, part of her immediate family, part of

her church family that showed up and wanted to be there for her and encourage

her and support her and just be there for her. Some of them even

snuck into that room on the hospital wing. They weren't allowed to be there,

and yet they made their way in to be there for her because they

cared and even though those were individuals, I want you to know she gives

credit to the whole body. She doesn't just say, oh, it's these

nine people that are great and everyone else's garbage. She's like, no,

this is the whole body. I was cared for by the whole body at

Crossway and she will never forget that care. And that's what these moments are

for. There for those moments where there are some people pay. But she

didn't just call out to a group of strangers. She called out to the

body of Christ, a body that had committed to her, and she had

committed to them. She had already done the work, the hard work of

actually investing in those relationships. She'd done that on Sunday morning conversations. She'd

done that on a Tuesday night small group. She'd done that in praying for

others between services. She had done that in a way that we all need

to do it. When we are honest with other people and we stop and

we say I need help. Everybody already knows you need help. So it's

just being honest, right, you need the rest of the body. I

want to invite the musicians to come up and the ushers can go collect the

elements for communion, another thing we get to do to together as a body

today. But if you are here today and you aren't a Christian, this

was probably a little bit of a weird conversation to have about the Body of

Christ here. But I think every human belongs for community. Tim Keller,

who was a pastor in New York City, said this, to be loved

and not known is comforting, but superficial. To be known and not loved

is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is well

a lot like being loved by God. It's what we need more than anything

else, that liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self righteousness,

and fortifies us for any difficulty that life can throw at us. End

quote. This church is full of people who have been fully known and truly

loved, yes by each other, but also by the God of the universe.

We have become a family, a body who gathers together. We submit

to God as our king, and we live our lives out of that response

that He showed us. He showed us great love, and we live out

of that response. Our community is not based on a shared hobby, shared

hobbies are fine, but once that hobby is over, what do you have

left. We want to invite you into the life of this community. If

you have questions, don't leave here without getting your questions answered. Someone brought

you, someone who's maybe next to you, smiling. They want to talk

to you about the hope found in Christ alone. The end of the passage

ends with this, now you. This is the plural you. Now you

all are the body of Christ and visually members of it again, lots of

parts, one body united in Christ, indispensable before Him, and interdependent on

each other. This is God's designed for church unity, a God arranged view

of self and others.