Valuing All the Members

Good morning, everybody.

Great to be with you.

Alright, so my name is Luke, and you guys might know me.

Um if you don't know me, uh I serve here in a couple different ways.

Uh been at Missio for a long time, and I serve here as a uh one of the directors in the kids' ministry, as well as uh a community leader with my wife Melissa over in the Landon Deerfield area, kind of on the eastern side of Mason.

Um I just want to first welcome everybody to the live stream.

Uh, this is a little bit different for me.

Uh it's great though to be able to be here.

Um great to be able to have the technology to do this.

So I am super thankful for the opportunity and super excited to get into our passage and our and continue into our sermon series this morning called For the Church, where we will be continuing to look at the gifts of the Spirit in First Corinthians.

So we are going to be in 1 Corinthians 12 this morning.

If you want to be turning there, if you want to uh get there in your app or in the Bible, uh we will be specifically starting in verse 21.

Uh, I wanted to first just give a quick shout out.

I've never been on TV like this before.

This isn't really TV, right?

But uh wanted to say hey to Melissa and Samuel Solomon and Elise, uh, my family at home.

So, hey guys, and everybody else watching.

You guys are equally important.

Uh but we're gonna get into First Corinthians here.

So if you want to again turn there, uh we're gonna first read our passage in First Corinthians twelve, starting in verse twenty one, and this is how the Word of God reads The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the body, or 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 require.

But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

If one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

This is the word of the Lord.

May God bless the reading and proclamation of his truths.

Let me pray for us real quick and we'll get started.

Father, thank you for this morning.

I just praise you, God, for this modern age that we live in where we can get together virtually, uh, that we can have this technology to um just stream services to connect and stay connected, Lord, even in uh unusual circumstances, Lord, where we're not able to get together in person as a large group.

So I praise you for that, God.

I pray that all of those connected this morning would just feel connected, uh, that they would feel connected most of all to you, um, to your word, to your truths.

I pray, Lord, as we dig in uh to this passage, that you would continue to just bless us by it.

And Holy Spirit, I pray that you would just encourage us, that you would just enlighten these words, speak truth to us, and that we would just be able to grow in knowledge of you and who you are and what you're doing in us.

Thankful for all the people um that are here that are able to help out with having this live stream be um a possibility.

And just so grateful uh most of all for your gospel.

We pray that we make much of that this morning.

Ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

All right.

So, one call out I wanted to uh just let you guys know.

So we are going to, as always, have the sermon notes in the app.

So if you don't have the Missio Day app, uh feel free to download that from either App Store on your iPhone or your Android device.

That will have fill-in notes that will allow you to track along with us this morning as we as we get through our uh our passage here.

Um you will also see those notes on the screen in the live stream.

So if you can um just follow along there, feel free to do that.

And those notes, like I said, are on the screen and then the app as well.

So what I want to do first as we dig back into uh 1 Corinthians, we've been spending some time in 1 Corinthians um over the last few weeks for our passage or as our as our sermon series for um specifically for uh the gifts of the spirit.

And as I said, the title of the passage being for the church.

Um just want to give a little bit of background on that.

Uh a little I know uh most of us have probably heard uh most of what's going on um with uh the passage and in the series so far, but I want to give a little background in case this is your first time joining us or you haven't been a part of the series so far.

Uh I want to make sure everyone is kind of on the same page of what 1 Corinthians is about and what we've been covering thus far.

So the author is Paul, like a lot of us probably know.

Uh he's writing to the church in Corinth.

So the city of Corinth, if you don't know this background, I know a lot of we've already covered a lot of this already, but for those of you that maybe haven't um been tracking with us or or just as a refresher, uh it was a large Corinth was a large city, a large diverse city uh with a lot of different people.

And um people were probably uh from a wide range of backgrounds and cultures.

And so Paul is probably um he's writing to a diverse group of people in Corinth.

And uh I think the other thing to realize is that in this letter in 1 Corinthians that Paul's writing to Corinth, that the people he's writing to, he's actually pretty familiar with.

So he has a background with these people.

He's been to Corinth before.

We know that from Acts.

Um, and in the latter part of Acts, we see uh Paul talking about the Church of Corinth and a record of him visiting there.

So he has some relationship, and and it's I think it's a safe assumption to say that from spending time there, he knows the people he's writing to.

So we continue to see him.

One of the biggest themes we see of what Paul is uh addressing here and throughout 1 Corinthians, and specifically in chapter 12, um, is we do see a common theme of uh him addressing the the issue of division in the church and making a call for unity.

So we'll continue to see that this morning.

Uh and also um he continues as he as he uses uh he starts to use this analogy all throughout the passage.

And if you uh were with us last week or saw the sermon from Tim, um we can he covered it covered this well and talked a lot about this analogy of the body and its parts and all the different ways uh that the body um and each part plays a role uh to make up the body and plays an important role.

And we see that analogy, and we see uh Paul talking about that in representing the body of Christ and specifically the spiritual gifts of the body of Christ and how they all need to be in unity together.

So we're gonna be talking a lot about that this morning.

Uh, and so I want to talk, I just want to work through the passage first to kind of set the stage of where we're going to go and what we're going to discuss in uh in light of uh what Paul is talking about with the body, uh, the analogy of the body, the um body of Christ, and how all the parts work together, and specifically how the Holy Spirit gifts those parts.

So again, we are we are in chapter 12, verse 21 through 26.

And so we see right at the beginning in verse 21, if you want to track along with me here in your Bible or in your Bible lap, that he says, the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

So we see again this analogy of the body.

We see um from this and and what Paul is saying here that the parts of the body need one another, that there's dependency, that each part needs each other, and can't claim that they don't need one another.

So again, going back to uh what we had talked about of that need for one another.

If we jump to the next couple verses, 22 to 22 through 24, we see that not only do they need one another, but Paul talks about how all parts of the body are important and how God made them that way.

So 22 through 24, 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 require.

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

So weaker parts are indispensable.

So if you are familiar with the word indispensable, which you probably are, um, we know that that mean that what that word means and what it's defined as is that there is that it the parts that he's calling indispensable means they are absolutely necessary.

So we can't can't go on without them.

And then we see a call out to the weaker parts and how they're treated with modesty, meaning that oftentimes the weaker parts of the body are hidden or treated with modesty or kind of kept from view.

So we see Paul referring to them that way.

And then we see him get into talking about how God gives greater honor to the part that lacked it.

So specifically, when he talks about the part that lacked it, he's still referring to those weaker parts that maybe lack what we think are the strength or the might or the gifting, um, that those parts are actually given greater honor by God.

And specifically, um where he calls that out, the thing that really reminded me or jumped out to me is if you think about uh Jesus' teaching and throughout the gospels, and specifically uh there are two parts, uh one in Matthew and one in Luke, um, that we think about that that that really parallels Jesus' teaching on humility and on uh just his people and how people um should function.

And he specifically says in Matthew 23, whoever exalts himself will be humbled, whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

So we continue to see this theme of these what may be deemed a weaker part or the lesser part, um same as Jesus is saying with people that less is more, that we it is a good thing, uh that humility, and that not only is less is more, but there's uh an exaltation that happens, or as we see in this passage, a greater honor given to those lesser parts.

So we see that in um, I believe in verse 24.

And as we round out the passage in verse 25 and 26, I'll go ahead and read that again, 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.

So we continue to see, as I said earlier, when I kind of introduced our passage and our time this morning, that Paul is continuing to make a call for unity in the church.

He sees that in the church of Corinth there was division.

If you read earlier in the chapter, and earlier in his letter, you see that there are there are examples of the church kind of dividing into different groups, dividing into separate groups to do their own thing because of disagreements and because of things that they're not quite on the same page about.

And so we see in verse 25 and 26 that Paul said that there should be no division, but unity, and not only unity, but in that unity, that we are called as the body of Christ, as the people of the church, to care for one another in that unity.

And those the Corinthians, the people in this church and in Corinth, are being called truly to be one body.

And so as we go through that passage, as we work through verse, all those verses, uh, I think that can really lead us here to our main idea for this morning, which is where I want us to really focus.

And our main idea is this all members of the body of Christ are valuable and gifted because the Holy Spirit dwells in them.

So I'll say that one more time.

All members of the body of Christ are valuable and gifted because the Holy Spirit dwells in them.

So my charge for us is do we really believe this?

I think most of us would say, if we are in Christ, if we have had faith in Christ and put our faith in Christ as our Savior, that we would say that the Holy Spirit dwells in us.

And a few weeks ago, Pastor Justin talked about this as he talked about uh how the Spirit enters in at conversion, how when we come to Christ and we we admit that we are sinners and we are in need of a savior, and that the Jesus' perfect life and his death on the cross and his resurrection is enough to save us, as we accept that, uh, and we know Christ is our Savior, Savior, that the Holy Spirit enters in.

So I think most of us would be the first to say uh that we we believe that.

We believe the Holy Spirit is real, we believe the Holy Spirit dwells in us.

But no doubt, I think when we see that, we might say that about ourselves, that we don't always see the gifting of that spirit, recognize the gifting of that spirit, and especially don't recognize, always recognize what we might see as uh kind of a lesser gifting or we might label as that either in ourselves or other people.

And specifically the other members of the church and the body of Christ.

And so if we do think that, most of us might think that, um, especially if we see, and so I I don't want to say that we don't at all, but we're gonna talk a lot this morning about our story and what we're doing.

But what I want to say first is just we specifically talk about um we might see in our role, so there might be things after your conversion when you come to Christ that maybe you weren't good at before, maybe you didn't have a heart for before.

Uh, and we see that in that role that we possibly see uh in a specific role, maybe not in a specific role.

Maybe after conversion, after Christ saves you and you come to Jesus, you see that you just think of things a different way.

Uh, or maybe you have an inclination or a skill that wasn't present before you put your faith in Christ.

But I do think oftentimes we express our unbelief in what Paul is saying, either explicitly or implicitly, and we don't even sometimes realize we're doing it, or really notice that we're doing it.

And so I want to work through some ways that we express our our unbelief.

And this is our story.

So this is how we kind of express our unbelief and kind of don't align with our main idea this morning of how we are all of us in the body of Christ are valuable and gifted because the Holy Spirit dwells in us.

So the first way that I think we express this unbelief is that we see the sin and not the spirit.

So what I mean by that is that we undervalue each other's gifts because all we focus on are each other's weaknesses.

And maybe we aren't hyper-focused on those weaknesses, but I do think oftentimes it's easy for us in the church, in our culture, in our relationships, in our families, with our friends, to focus so much on the weaknesses and on the shortcomings of the people around us.

And when we do that in the church, we overlook the spirit.

I honestly think a big part of this is just our sin nature and our human nature.

So this is not a church example, but the first example that popped in my mind when I was preparing for this is traffic and driving.

So every day, um, so I I work downtown, uh, I work for Kroger Digital, and uh we have an office downtown.

I live up here, obviously, in Mason.

So I'm driving every morning about 45 minutes downtown and about 45 minutes back at the end of the day.

And I can tell you right now, the number one thing I notice the most about the people around me, the community around me as I drive, is the weaknesses of their ability to drive and their shortcomings as drivers.

And of course, I don't look at myself very often as, oh man, I just cut that guy off.

I probably shouldn't do that.

Now, every once in a while, there's some blatant moves that I make that undoubtedly uh I probably notice.

I'm like, ooh, that was bad.

I give the friendly I'm sorry wave.

Uh but more often than not, the the things that I hold other people accountable for and labeling as their weaknesses or labeling as uh their shortcomings as a driver, I do not put that on myself.

So I do think it's in our nature to do that.

Um I think it's our nature just to find weaknesses in the people around us.

And no doubt we do that in the church.

And we have to be careful in that the church.

Really, we should be seeing the spirit in every brother and sister around us, but we don't.

We so often focus on the flawed nature of each other.

Now, I don't think that we just do this with each other.

I don't think that we only look at the people around us and do this.

I also think that we do this with ourselves.

So there can be sometimes a propensity as people in the church to get really hung up on the mistakes we make, to get really hung up on the shame of the sin that we're stuck in, or the shame of the sin that we've committed in the past.

And we focus so much on falling short that we do really sell the Spirit short in what he's doing in us and his ability to empower and gift us to not only overcome those, but serve the overcome those things, but serve the church.

And church, if God does not take a sin-first view of us because of our identity in Christ, so if you're in Christ, God sees you as a new creation, as a child of God.

If he does not see us in a sin-first lens, then we shouldn't be seeing ourselves in that sin first lens either.

But I think we have a tendency to do that, and we can get so hung up on that that it inhibits our ability to really recognize the spirit and the gifting of the spirit.

So the next uh way I think we express some belief in this, and uh in the main idea this morning, is that I think we only value the visible.

So we only value the visible.

So, what I mean by this is that we put a lot of value on specific giftings and specific ways that people in the church and parts of the body uh serve the church are gifted to um do things in the church.

So, some things that pop in mind uh for me are preaching, for example.

A lot of the roles uh are teaching or or leading worship or uh even teaching in other bigger ministries like the kids' ministry or leading and in a role like uh hospitality or the kids' ministry, those leaders oftentimes are put on display.

And as we see in the passage here, as Paul is talking about how um the greater parts we don't oftentimes feel like we have to uh treat modestly.

Um, I think there are certain roles and certain giftings in the church that we recognize as more important.

And so we only they're they're visible, they're in front of us.

It's natural for us to say, hey, that brother or sister really is gifted, for example, in uh playing guitar or singing or uh teaching kids or uh leading a community group.

Maybe that's in the context of a community group, people think that way.

Um, and that's not bad.

Those gifts are absolutely valuable, they're absolutely important and critical to the body.

Uh, but I think that we oftentimes write off the lesser gifts as either not being gifts or we just don't consider them all that valuable.

Whether that's explicitly that we say that, I think more oftentimes it's not explicit that we state that.

It's more implicit in that we just imply by our actions and by the way we look at things and the way we treat one another, that those lesser gifts uh are not really spiritual gifts.

They're not really um something we consider valuable in the body of Christ.

Think of it.

When was the last time you thought of something?

I don't know, and and this is and my apologies if you're an accountant, uh, but think something like church bookkeeping, keeping the finances of the church.

Like I'm not good at accounting mostly because I really disliked it.

I I uh had a business that come.

My background is uh in school business where I went to my undergrad.

Um it's a technology degree, but I just I remember being in those classes and just really disliking them.

But how often do you think of things like bookkeeping as a spiritual gift?

Or things like maintenance of the church, things that happen during the week that are absolutely critical to make sure this space is as open and ready and hospitable for people, that it's good to go, that walls are painted and plumbing is working correctly and electrical stuff is right.

Uh, those are examples to me of there are people in our church in the body of Christ that are invaluable assets to the body that don't get recognized and don't get seen because of what we might see as a lesser gift.

And it might not even be that you don't that you label them as a lesser gift as much as you just don't recognize them or really even see them.

And so maybe and maybe some of us do.

Um, I don't want to sell everyone short.

I think there are undoubtedly times that those things get valued, especially if you're close to them.

And if that happens, great.

But I do think the more visible parts of the body are the ones that we oftentimes place the most value on.

The last way, and our third point this morning in our story of how we express some belief and what Paul is saying here in our main idea is that we both both suffer and rejoice in isolation.

So we see at the end of his passage, uh he calls out suffering together and rejoicing together.

I don't think we do that well.

I think a lot of times we fall short here.

And I think it's again, a lot of times just our nature to uh isolate when we're suffering.

And I think whether that's emotional suffering, mental suffering, physical suffering, um, whatever kind of suffering it might be, I think it's really easy for us, and and I can have a tendency to do this, that when I'm struggling with something, I either don't want to be a burden to the people around me.

Uh, so I kind of shut myself off from benefiting from other people's goodwill or their gifts towards me and the church, the members of the church.

And um, that's when we need them most.

I think sometimes we also isolate ourselves under the guise of uh thinking that we are trying to get closer to God one-on-one.

And that's not a bad thing.

We should have individual time with the Lord.

We should be pursuing him.

Um and absolutely when you're in suffering, you should be pursuing him.

Um, but we really, uh, and we'll get into this more in our in our later as we talk about how we can work uh towards this and getting better in this.

Um but I just think we have to be careful not to isolate in a way that we don't surround ourselves with God's people and we miss out on the good gifts that God has given those people to love on us, to minister us, to care for us in our suffering.

Now, I don't think suffering is the only place that we do this.

I think we also do this in how we rejoice and how we offer praise.

Now, I think a lot of this has to do uh with we don't want to bother people with our praises.

And I know that might sound counterintuitive a bit, uh, but really uh what I'm what I mean by that is mostly the smaller praises.

So the bigger praises, I think we oftentimes want to share those.

So, for example, in a community group, maybe someone has lost their job and they've been looking for a job for a long time, and uh an opportunity comes up, they interview, they do a great job at it, and they get the job.

That's a bigger praise.

Uh, oftentimes I think we share that.

And I think community groups are a great place to share that.

But I I think oftentimes the smaller praises, the day-to-day things, um, we might think they don't really mean anything to the people around us.

So even little things like uh getting home from work safe.

Uh, the maybe it's it's something in your spiritual disciplines.

Maybe you feel like you're really growing in the word, or that the Lord has been really good to you lately, that you really feel like you're connecting with the spirit, that you're working through things in your spiritual life uh where you're seeing significant gains or even small gains day to day that are so beneficial and so praiseworthy to you, uh, but you either don't think about sharing them with the people around you, or you just don't feel like it's enough to uh to share it because it's something that is maybe just small and individual to you.

Or maybe it's just answers to small prayers.

Maybe we're praying for for little things.

Um for example, uh, we've been praying uh like little things for our kids all the time.

So uh Samuel, our our oldest, he's six, he started kindergarten this year, and we pray for him a lot.

Uh we pray for him a lot for the smallest of things, for for his bus ride to go well, um, for his uh time in class to go well, for him to have a good attitude about going to school.

And when we see those things answered, if if we even recognize that they're answered, we oftentimes don't rejoice in that with people around us.

Uh and I think honestly, we a lot of that is we just aren't in enough of a community mindset.

And we're so used to doing our lives with our people and our families day to day that we just aren't in enough of a community mindset to really think that we should include others in that rejoicing.

But sharing God's goodness in the smallest of things can really help to build up one another and can be a gift of it in and of itself.

So we need to suffer and rejoice, not in isolation, but together.

And so the good news of this is that it all comes back to the gospel.

It all comes back to Jesus and who he is.

So, as I said in the main point, as we talked about in our main idea this morning about how the body of Christ and all the members of the body of Christ are valuable and gifted because the Holy Spirit dwells in them.

There's a reason for that, and that leads us to our gospel conviction.

And like I said, it all comes back to the gospel, and this is where we root ourselves in the gospel.

And that our gospel, our gospel conviction this morning is this faith in Jesus and his gospel gives us a new identity in him.

We're empowered by the Holy Spirit, and as members of his body, all play a valuable role in the growth of his kingdom.

So when we so for us to really understand our value and to understand the value of the people around us and the gifts that they are given, we need to really embrace our identity in Christ and the power of the spirit that comes in when we find our new identity in Christ when we come to Him.

And we can't neglect and sell that spirit short.

And Jesus' work on the cross and what he did for us, his perfect sinless life that he lived, the sacrifice he made on the cross for our sins, atones our sins in a way and takes care of our sins in a way that we don't have to get caught up in that anymore.

And we are identified now as new creatures and become members of his body, as I said.

And we have to remember that with that comes the spirit and comes power.

So this leads me to us talking about how do we how do we play how does this play out?

How do we put this into practice in our lives?

How do we use these gospel truths and and really have a vision for where we're gonna go?

So this is our gospel vision.

The first way I think that we can do this and we can start to value the gifts of the body and start seeing our new identity in Christ is to first recognize, encourage, and affirm each other's gifts.

So recognize, encourage, and affirm each other's gifts.

I'll be the first to admit, historically I've been really bad at this.

Uh, and it's something the Lord has has really helped me with over the over the years.

Um it wasn't until people started noticing things in me and telling me, uh, or honestly, maybe not even telling me about my gifting, but giving me an opportunity to really see um where my gifting was and how it could be used, uh, that I really started to understand the joy and the good that comes with this.

So uh one example of that is when I first came to Missio, when my wife first and I came to Missio um back in 2000, it was about 2012, I believe, beginning of 2012.

Um after being there for about a year, a little under a year, we got approached a very uh unusually uh it was unusual to us um that we got approached about an opportunity.

And it was interesting because at the time uh Pastor Jordan, who's one of our pastors here, uh came to us and had said, Hey, Pastor Kurt wants to talk to you guys.

After being in the church roller, we're like, what's it about in typical uh Jordan communication fashion.

I love you, buddy.

Um he it was like, I don't know, they just want to talk to you.

Uh so long story short, um what that led to was us being given an opportunity to lead the kids' ministry.

And Melissa and I had no, we had experience, had some experience with this in the past.

I'd led some student ministry, uh, but it was such an encouragement to our soul to be in this church for not that long and to see Pastor Kurt and his wife Shannon uh just identify us as people that they thought were gifted enough to serve in that capacity.

And so as we do that, as we recognize, encourage, and affirm each other's gifts, it builds one another up.

And listen, nothing quite snuffs out the flame of spiritual gifts or gifts of the spirit and the power of the spirit, like feeling your gifts, like your gifts aren't noticed, and feeling like maybe you don't have anything to offer to the church.

And I see this happens in ministry all the time.

I see people coming to the kids' ministry all the time that maybe don't feel like they're equipped to do what they need to do or feel a little bit lost.

And now I I'm a parent of three.

I've been a parent uh for six years now, and I can tell you that's not an abnormal thing with kids.

Um, you're gonna feel lost pretty often with kids.

But I say all that to say um there are people in our church right now who are undervaluing their gifts and they need encouragement.

They need recognition of what those gifts are, and they need to be told that their gift is valuable, their gift has power, and that the Holy Spirit Himself is empowering those gifts and giving those gifts so that they might be valuable members of the body.

And so those gifts that will might never be put into use if we don't encourage and recognize people that those gifts and affirm those in people, because people might just feel like they're not good enough.

That maybe their ability to, their their hard work ethic, for example, that they have, um maybe that's the what they think is the only real gift they have, and they don't know how to put that into work because they don't have any specialized gifts.

But if one of us can can encourage those people and encourage each other in those giftings, then they will be encouraged and feel the joy and this the good that can come from that encouragement to start serving the church.

And I think hospitality, for example, is another example uh where we see, and I and hospitality and hospitality in the morning uh here I think is pretty obvious as if people welcome in.

But it's it was an example I thought of as we thought, as I was thinking through this of like how to recognize and affirm even hospitality in each other's homes, individual hospitality, as something that really plays a big role.

Think about it.

If I don't know that oftentimes we view hospitality as on a one-on-one basis as a one of those greater spiritual gifts and how it contributes to the church.

But one of the things we continue to hear at Myssio North is we continue to hear from people that come and stay that they felt like home.

And so every time somebody comes into the church or comes into your home or comes into your neighborhood, the hospitality is a valuable gift to allow people to feel good in relationship, feel comfortable with you, and in that to start encouraging people in God's truths and the truth of the gospel and to do real kingdom work with that gift.

So that's just one example.

So of when you see it, uh, we need to identify it, we need to recognize it, encourage those around us, and affirm that their gifts are valuable and contribute to the body of Christ.

The next way that I think we can uh put this into practice is to share our gifts.

So, what I mean by that is gifts that aren't shared don't really add value.

If you are someone that maybe, as I said a minute ago, um maybe you're one of those people that it's not been encouraged in you or you think your gift is lesser, uh, I would challenge all of us to think about how we're gifted and how we can serve.

And I would encourage us all to really look into sharing that.

The church, the kingdom of God, and more importantly, all the people around us that are in desperate need of the gospel and Jesus' truth need our gifts.

They need your gifts, they need you to put them into play, they need you to share them.

And this isn't just in the church, it's the people around us in our neighborhoods, and specifically, your gifting may be just what your brother or sister in Christ or the church ministry of your neighborhood or anyone else around you in your workplace or wherever it might be needs.

So don't undervalue something that the Spirit deems valuable.

Don't undervalue gifts that are in you and think that they shouldn't be shared.

And we should be putting those gifts to use and be serving with them.

In 1 Peter 4.10, specifically, this is called out.

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace.

So the gift of the Holy Spirit Himself by faith in Christ is grace.

That is God's grace to us.

And we should value that and we should put that gift into play and use it to serve one another, as Peter calls out right here.

So don't be afraid to share it.

The last way that I think we can put this into action and really uh go after um uh growing the kingdom with our gifts is to unify in our suffering and rejoicing.

So going back to verse 25 and 26, we see 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.

God does not intend for the body of Christ to operate as isolated individual members.

A body's not a body if it's one part.

And I think Paul does a great job of painting that picture here.

What makes a body a body is that it's made up of many parts.

And they all have to work together to reach its full potential.

So I'm a I'm a runner.

I've been, it's a hobby of mine, it's it's something I've always enjoyed uh since I was a teenager.

Um thanks to my dad, who's probably watching this, uh, for instilling that in me.

He he ran track in high school, and in high school I was really interested in it, so I got into to running, and it's stuck with me uh to this day.

But I was thinking about this, and this might seem like a silly example, but I think it's something everyone can relate to.

Because even if you're not a runner, you have the ability to run.

That's an annoying thing runners say.

Um, or the ability to walk, hopefully.

And just imagine trying to walk a long distance or trying to run a long distance without any use of your arms.

Now, I think most of us, the first thing we wouldn't say is the most important to running is our arms.

We would probably say it's our legs and our heart and our lungs and our ability to stay upright while we do it.

But if you've ever tried to do that without your arms, you'll notice real quickly that the arms, which might be deemed a lesser part in the act of running, actually play a vital role in your momentum and carrying you forward.

And so the gift, the gifts we see in the body, so I say all that to make the point that the body is not one part.

The body has to work together.

And for it to work together, we have to have unity.

And that can start in how we suffer and rejoice together.

And so we see, and especially right now in our communities, we're in weird times right now.

Strange things are happening uh in around the world with the coronavirus.

Uh, I think it's put everybody a little bit at, uh have given everybody a little bit of uneasiness about how it's going.

But right now, more than ever, even if it's not in large groups of people, because we're not supposed to be doing that, um, we need to pull together and use our gifts to unify.

And if a brother or sister around us is suffering, if a neighbor is suffering, see how we can help.

And see how we can help support one another.

A great place to start with this is in Mysieo community.

So if you haven't joined a missial community, or if you don't know what a missial community is, uh it's small groups of people all around the city who come together in pursuit of the gospel and studying God's word.

And that's a great place to plug in and see others around you that maybe are are suffering and need support.

And there's such a need there in our in our communities that that community can serve the others around them as well, too.

And in the case of what I said earlier about isolating to seek God, um that can be good.

Uh, but I would encourage us to not seek to grow closer to God absent of community, because community plays a vital role.

And the same should be true for celebration and rejoicing.

As I said earlier, if you have a praise, if something is good, if something is going well, no matter how small or large it is, share it with the community around you.

That in and of itself could be a gift that encourages and builds up the church and unifies God's people.

Unity is great, but we have to remember that it needs to be rooted in the gospel of Jesus and what he did for us.

And so I just quote JC Ryle, he was a 19th-century uh evangelical Anglican bishop.

That's a hefty title.

Um, sounds really important.

Dude probably had some spiritual gifts there.

Uh he was from England.

He has this to say about unity.

Unity without the gospel is a worthless unity.

It's the very unity of hell.

Now, this may sound harsh, but we have to remember that the gospel is the reason we're gifted, it's the reason that we have the spirit, and it's the reason that we are able to serve as members of the body and really add value in the first place.

So, as I conclude here, uh there's so much to be gained from one another's gifts, but we have to recognize those gifts, we have to share those gifts, and we have to not think that each other's gifts and our own gifts are not valuable.

If you have the Spirit of God in you, if you are in Christ, your gifts are valuable, all our gifts are valuable, and they play a vital role in the church, and we should unify in that gifting.

Think how much we could accomplish in the kingdom if we truly truly valued one another's gifts and our own gifts and pulled together to use them together.

Because of Christ, we're all members of his body, and that alone should be enough to call us to unity.

That identity should call us to unity.

And allow us to do an amazing amount of good for the kingdom, for the joy of his people, through the spirit that dwells in us.

So as we conclude, and before I pray, I just want to leave us with this passage from Psalm 133.

It's verse 1 in Psalm 133.

Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity.

Let me pray for us.

Father, thank you again for this opportunity.

I pray, Lord, that everyone is encouraged today.

I pray that my words uh were for your glory and give you honor.

Pray, Lord, as we get into a time of reflection here, that we can just remember, Holy Spirit, that you are present in us if we have faith in Jesus.

That there is power, there is value in every single person in which the Holy Spirit dwells.

Help us to remember that as we go forth this week as we serve our communities, as we serve the people around us, as we cling to your truth and your peace in this time of challenge, Lord.

I pray that you would just give us the courage and the boldness to share your truths, that other might others might come to you, benefit from the Spirit, be gifted, and serve and grow the kingdom.

We just love you, ask it all in Christ's name.