Care for One Another | The One Another Way - 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 | Tony Walliser

Well, good morning.

It is so good to see all of you here worshiping with us today.

I'd like to welcome all of you here at this campus at Bonnie Oaks, but I'd like to welcome all of you to all of our campuses and all of our venues and those of you that are worshiping with us online.

If I haven't had a chance to meet you personally, I'm Tony Walliser, one of the pastors here at Silverdale, and I have the privilege today to share with you God's word.

So this one encourage you to do.

Go and take your Bibles, open up in the New Testament to the book of Corinthians.

Um, 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

You can turn in your Bibles there.

Got a smartphone, Bible app, you can open that.

Um we also have a Silverdale app where you can follow along as well.

And then do this.

Take out these Bible study outlines that we provide for you.

We give these outlines so you can follow along and take notes as we study God's Word together.

We're in a series called the One Another Way.

And what we're doing is we're looking at these one another principles found in the New Testament, and these are all relationship principles.

And if you will apply these one another principles to your life, it will revolutionize, it will transform your relationships.

So far, we've looked at, you know, how we are to love one another, and then last week we were to encourage each other.

Today we're gonna talk about how we can care for one another.

And the fact is, is that we will see, our homes will become stronger, our friendships will become deeper, our church will become healthier when we learn to live the one another way.

Now, today's passage that we're gonna study is actually one of my favorite passages in the New Testament.

The Apostle Paul is writing in a very creative way to help us understand how we're supposed to relate to one another and care for one another.

And what he does is he uses a physical body analogy to teach a spiritual truth.

Um, about this time last year, my wife and I, Susan, we got an urgent call from Texas.

Her mom was nearing death, and so we immediately, you know, packed up our bags, got in our vehicle, started heading to Texas.

It was about three o'clock in the morning before we were able to get on the road.

And so we're driving, you know, straight through, and about 10 hours into the trip, we're in about Tex Arcana at the time, and I've been driving the whole time and I was tired, but we had to get gas.

And so I stopped there, and you know how you can just take the hose from the pump and you put it in the tank and you're filling it up.

And so I had to check out something inside the um the vehicle, and so I thought, what I'm going to do is I'm just gonna hop over the hose.

And um, you know what?

In my brain, I'm like, I can hop over this hose, but this body that had been driving for 10 hours was like, you ain't hopping over that hose.

So anyway, so I tried to hop over the hose, and my foot got caught on the hose.

And so I am crashing face first for the concrete.

Just in the last minute, I was able to catch myself with my right arm, and um I'm bam, I slam real quick, full weight.

And immediately pride kicks in.

I hope nobody saw that.

And so I stand up real quick, and but the lady in the car next to me goes, uh, oh my goodness, are you okay?

And I go, uh, uh, I'm fine, and I'm grimacing, but I was not fine.

I thought I had snapped my wrist, I had literally jammed my arm into my elbow, black and blue, couldn't move my arm for a couple of weeks.

Thankfully, me, thankfully, my daughter-in-law is a nurse practitioner.

She called me some pain meds and you know other stuff for me in Texas.

But something happened that I noticed that whenever you have an injured member of your body, the rest of your body goes into overtime protecting that injured member.

And so anytime somebody would come near me, the rest of my body's like, you ain't getting near to this injured part over here.

And then whenever you're trying to sleep, right, you know what?

You know, it gets the prime spot, you know, so you know, so that you can get some rest.

And, you know, I discovered something that when one member of your body is awake, the rest of your body decides to keep it company, right?

And so you're not sleeping because you're all just taking care of this one injured part of the body.

Well, that is the analogy the Apostle Paul is going to use today.

He's gonna say, hey, just like the physical body functions that way, that's the way the body of Jesus Christ should function as well.

Now, we know the Bible says that we are physically, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and we are.

I mean, we got had over 200 bones in our body, 650 skeletal muscles, we got 210 different types of cells in our body, we have 7,500 different parts of our body.

We are fearfully and wonderfully made, and all those parts work perfectly together to form the body that we just really take for granted.

Well, what we have in 1 Corinthians is a church, but it's divided.

And that church is divided with a lot of stuff, they're divided over personalities, divided over spiritual gifts, or divided over, you know, religious background, you know.

You you got slave, and I mean, um, Jew or Gentile, you had socioeconomic background, slave or free.

I mean, they had all these different kinds of you know, divisions in their body.

And Paul's saying, no, you're not operating the right way.

You're supposed to be caring for one another just like your physical body.

And so what I want to do is we're studying this passage today.

We're gonna learn why we should care for one another, and then we're gonna learn how we're gonna care for one another.

There's three principles I want you to jot on your outlines today.

The first principle is this jot this down.

First, you must choose to belong.

You must choose to belong.

The Christian life isn't just a matter of believing, the Christian life is a matter of belonging, right?

You have chosen to identify with Christ.

Now you choose to identify with his church.

Now, I hear people all the time go, well, I'm a Christian, but I'm not gonna be a part of any church.

You know?

And you understand how illogical that is.

That's like saying, okay, well, I'm a football player, but I'm not a part of any team.

It doesn't make sense.

You can't do that.

If you're a football player, you gotta be a part of a team.

If you're a Christian, you gotta be a part of the church.

And so Paul tells us how that happens and what it's supposed to look like.

Look at it in verse 12.

He says this for just as the body, he's talking about our physical body, is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.

And so Paul says, hey, take a look at your physical body.

It's made up of all these individual parts, all these individual members, right?

I mean, you got your head and your eyes and your ears and your mouth and your neck and your shoulders and your arms and your hands and your knees and feet, right?

Like that old kid's song, head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes, right?

Well, that's the idea.

Paul says, take a look at all the parts, and yet they make up one body.

And you go, okay, I get that physically.

How do we become one body spiritually?

Well, he tells us, look at the next verse, verse 13.

For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jew or Greek, slave or free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

You go, what's what's he talking about?

He's talking about the moment that you have a spiritual birth.

For me, you know, I was almost 20 years old when I repented and believed in Christ in that moment.

The Holy Spirit came to live inside of me.

There was a transformation happening here, right?

But there was also a spiritual transformation happening in the heavenly realm.

The Bible says you not only receive the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit baptizes you into Christ.

So you are now spiritually connected to Christ, and we're spiritually connected to each other.

And it doesn't matter what your religious background is, you could be, you know, Jew or Gentile.

We're now one in Christ.

Okay, it doesn't matter what your socioeconomic background is.

He says, slave or free.

You could be a millionaire here today or be on welfare, but guess what?

We're all equal at the foot of the cross.

And so here is Paul saying, okay, God has put us all together.

Now, here's the problem, though.

We're all together, but we start comparing ourselves with other people.

And we start thinking, well, they're sort of superior.

I'm sort of, I'm sort of inferior, right?

And so here's the principle.

I want you to jot this on your outline.

It's this though we feel inferior, we are still important.

Though you may feel inferior, like you don't have any special gifts or abilities to contribute to the body of Christ, Paul's saying, no, you are still, you know, important.

And so what the apostle Paul does next, and I love this, he he um writes in a really humorous way.

He basically says, let's pretend.

Let's pretend that the members of our physical body could actually talk to us, what would they say?

Well, check it out.

Look at it, verse 15.

He goes, If the foot should say, Because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body, Paul writes, that would not make it any less a part of the body.

Now we can just imagine sort of how a foot would feel that way, right?

A foot, you know, is stuck in a sock all day long, or it's in a shoe and it's all laced up tight, or I'm wearing boots, it's stuck in a boot, and then you know, the foot's thinking, it stinks down here.

I'm getting walked on all the time, nobody appreciates me at all, right?

And then the foot says, you know, and compared to the hand, oh my goodness, the hand is out there and it's free and it's amazing.

You haven't been in any meeting where anybody has ever said, all those in favor, raise your feet.

No, they always say raise your hand, right?

And when you greet one another, we don't greet each other with our feet, we shake hands, right?

And the foot is saying, because I'm not a hand, I'm not a very important part of the body.

And Paul says, hey, just because you feel that way doesn't make it true, right?

And then he says, okay, heard from the foot, let's hear from the ear, right?

Check it out.

Verse 16.

And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, Paul adds, that would not make it any less part of the body.

And we can imagine, again, how an ear may feel that way.

What is an ear?

An ear is just this, you know, this clump of gristle on the outside of your head, and it sort of sticks out.

And a lot of us don't really like our ears very much.

I remember as a teenager, I grew my hair over my ears because I didn't like the way it stuck out so much.

And, you know, some people will put a lot of, you know, um, earrings in to decorate them, you know.

And and the and the ear saying, oh my goodness, in comparison to the eye, the eye has depth and color, and you can look into the person's eyes and see their soul.

And I mean, nobody's ever said, Oh, you got beautiful ears, but everybody goes, Oh, you got beautiful eyes, right?

And the and the ear is saying, Man, I just don't feel like I'm that important to the body.

Now, if you lost your feet, would you have a hard time walking?

Yeah.

Right?

You just we got some folks in our church that don't have feet.

They can tell you.

If we lost our hearing, um, would you have a hard time?

Yeah, we can ask our deaf community, they can tell you how hard it is, right?

And so those parts that we think, okay, they're not that essential.

Paul says, no, they are very essential.

You are very essential.

And because we are all different, different backgrounds, different personalities, different gifts, different talents, it's beautiful that God brings us all together, right?

I mean, think about Christmas.

Why do kids love Christmas?

Because they get gifts, right?

Well, what if every Christmas gift was the identical gift?

Well, here's another shirt, it's the same shirt, there's another shirt, it's the same shirt, right?

You go, where's the thrill of that?

There is something beautiful about diversity, and God has brought us all together.

And you may feel like you're not important, but I want you to know something.

God sees things differently than we do.

The Bible says this.

Jesus says, the greatest among us is the servant of all.

I may be the guy that's up front with a microphone, but the fact is, is that when we get to heaven, God may say, Man, that widow that was praying, that's the greatest among us.

Or that faithful servant that was, you know what, you know, in the kids area, discipling kids for generations, or that that person greeting at the door, welcoming in strangers every week.

You know what I'm saying?

God says every one of us is essential in the body of Christ.

And so, if you truly are a Christian, you belong.

You need to belong, choose to belong.

There's a second choice you gotta make, and it's this.

Shut this down.

You gotta also choose to connect.

You gotta choose to connect.

Because it's not just enough to say, okay, I belong to the church.

No, you need to connect with other believers in the church.

That's why we talk about small groups so much.

That's why we talk about, you know, serving in ministry with others.

Why?

Because you're connecting with other believers.

Now, here's our problem.

We all have self-defense mechanisms, right?

We all have things where we, you know, have a veneer front and we keep people at arm's length, and you go, I'm fine, you're fine, we're all fine, right?

And so what happens though is that we've got to go beyond the crowd.

We've got to enter into community with other Christians, with other believers.

The problem is we live in a culture, it's sort of a suburban culture, right?

That's us.

And so you live in a neighborhood, but what do we do?

You drive into your neighborhood, you open the garage door, you drive into your garage, you lower the garage door, and you never even see your neighbors.

I mean, I hear people say, Yeah, I've lived in my neighborhood for five years, I don't even know my next door neighbor's name.

That's a problem, right?

But that's our culture.

Well, that's it can be a problem at church as well.

That we can come, but we don't actually connect with anyone.

And so Paul says, if we operate that way, we're no longer operating the way the body is designed to operate.

Notice how Paul says this, verse 17.

He says, if the whole body were an eye, if we're all just one, where would the sense of hearing be?

I mean, think about it.

Can you imagine if our body was just a big eye?

You know, sort of like Mike on Monster's Inc., right?

You know, you get this big eye, and you go, that looks like we look like a monster.

Yeah, absolutely we would look like a monster.

Yeah.

And Paul says, if that's the case, where would the sense of hearing be?

Or then he continues, he says, okay, look at the rest of verse 17.

And if the hole were an ear, where would your sense of smell be?

Can you imagine if our body was primarily just a big ear, right?

Sort of like this picture, you know?

I mean, you know, we would sort of look grotesque.

You're like, oh my goodness, that let's let's look sort of a monster right there, right?

I uh thank God that God made us look differently than that.

Notice how Paul says it, verse 18.

But as it is, God arranged the members of the body, each one of them as he chose.

What does that mean?

That's you.

God has you here.

God chose you.

God's given you gifts and abilities to use in the body of Christ.

He didn't do that just for yourself, he did it so you could connect with other people.

And then Paul concludes this idea, verse 19 if all were a single member, where would the body be?

Folks, there would be no body if we were all just one member.

We would look like a grotesque monster.

And so here's the principle, and here's the principle I want us to draw from those verses.

Jot it on your outline.

Independence leads to weakness.

Independence leads to weakness.

You come to church and you go, I don't need anybody else.

I don't need church, I don't need small groups, I don't need to serve.

You know what says that?

It's pride.

The Bible says God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

And so what Paul does is he transitions now.

He says, Okay, we just heard from the members of the body that may feel ins, you know, inferior.

Now let's listen to some members of the body that may think of themselves as superior.

I'm God's gift to the church, look at me.

So look at how Paul says this.

Look what he says, verse 21.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you.

Right?

Think of it.

Can your eyes say to your hand, we don't need you anymore?

Of course not.

Why?

Because the eye can see, okay, I need to pick that up, but it's dependent upon the hand to pick it up.

See, our body, the way God's created us, it is very interdependent.

We need each other.

That means what?

That means you're needed.

That means we can't say to one another, well, I don't need this person in my life.

No.

And so then Paul continues.

He says, Okay, let's um let's see who else thinks they're superior.

Verse 21.

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

I mean, think of it.

The head, with all its rational visual capability, can it say to the feet, take a hike, we don't need you anymore.

Right?

I've determined this is the direction we're to go.

But what happens?

The head is very dependent upon the feet to take it there.

And so, what does that mean?

That means we need each other.

I need you, you need me.

In fact, do this.

Turn to the person next to you and just say, I need you.

Do that.

I need you.

I need you, right?

Can I just tell you something?

I need you.

You go, but you're our pastor.

Yeah, and we just like anybody else is.

I mean, I look through the years.

I mean, I have a I have accountability partners and small group.

I need all those things just like you do.

I have areas of service just like you do.

Why?

Because I need that.

Through the years, many members have spoken into my life and helped me in our marriage or with parenting or with their kids.

I mean, people speak, I would not be half the Christian I am today if it wasn't for other people speaking into me.

I need you.

Pride is dangerous, insecurity is dangerous.

One puffs himself up and says, I don't need anybody else, I can do it myself, I'm the Lone Ranger Christian.

The other one says, I'm just I'm just inferior.

God can never use anybody like me.

So Paul makes this concluding thought.

He says, This, look at it, verse 22.

On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are what?

Indispensable.

I mean, think about it.

Think about your physical body.

What could you do without?

You go, well, I could probably cut off my big toe.

Well, you know what?

It's gonna be really hard to walk.

Your equilibrium, that gives you a lot of balance, right?

Or you may say, well, you know, I could probably get rid of some bones.

Really?

What about the smallest bones in your body are those little itty bitty bones inside your inner ear that give you the miracle of your hearing, right?

I mean, you we we could say, all right, I could cut off my hand and I could survive.

True.

But you know what?

You lose your liver, you're gonna die.

See, what's often the case is that there are these unseen members that are critical, right?

I mean, in our church, it is those people that serve without the applause, without the microphone, and they're serving, and you go, they are the vital function of our church.

That makes the church what it is.

And so every one of us, no whether you think you're superior or think that you're in you know insignificant, you are needed in the body of Jesus Christ.

Yeah, belong, connect.

I can remember years ago in our church, there was a man who came to me.

He had been um, you know, attending our church for about seven years, and um, but he never connected, never got any small group, never was involved in any service ministry.

I think I was the only person he knew in our huge church, right?

And so he has this massive heart attack.

He goes to the hospital.

We didn't know about it.

Two weeks later, he comes to church after being in the hospital, and he comes to me after the service, and he says, Pastor Tony, I'm gonna leave the church.

I go, Really?

What's going on?

And he goes, Well, I was in the hospital for two weeks and nobody visited me.

And I'm like, Man, I'm so sorry.

I don't think we knew.

I didn't know.

And I'm like, I'm I'm really sorry you had to walk through that on your own.

And he goes, I don't care, I'm out of here.

And so he leaves, right?

And as he left, there's a part of me that thought, it's your fault.

Now I know that may seem insensitive, but let's be honest.

He'd been here seven years, and I was the only person he knew.

He wasn't in any small groups, he wasn't in any ministry.

You know what?

He didn't visit anybody in the hospital, he didn't care for anybody else, he didn't connect with anybody else.

This is a spiritual family, and he didn't connect with anybody.

Imagine getting to heaven one day and go, yeah, I go to Silverdale.

Really?

I didn't know that.

Yeah, because you weren't connected with anybody.

It's it's sometimes it's our fault.

Pride says, I can do it on my own, and I don't need anybody else.

That is a lie.

Every person here is essential, and we need one another.

So the Bible's telling us okay, we belong, we have to be intentionally connecting with one another.

Why?

Because we're all gonna have those hard times in our life where we're gonna need the body around us.

But then there's a third principle that Paul gives us, and it's this jot this down.

You gotta choose to care.

You gotta choose to care.

See, real community is where real caring happens.

And can I just be honest with you?

Caring for one another does not happen in the crowd, it happens in community.

And that's why we beat the drum of small groups so much, because we all need community so desperately.

So notice how Paul describes this.

Look what he says, verse 24.

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

Why?

That there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same, look at it, care for one another.

That word care means genuine concern.

It's not just sympathy, it's actually active love.

I need a community around me that knows me enough that can walk with me and care for me in the seasons of life.

I need people to walk with me and work with me and watch out for me and weep with me.

So do you.

You need somebody that will walk with you through the ups and downs of life.

You need somebody who will work with you so that you can grow in your faith.

You need somebody who will watch out for you when you're facing trials and temptations.

You need somebody who will weep with you when you're grieving.

Do you have those kind of people in our church?

If you don't, get in a group and start having those kind of people.

It's critical.

We desperately need one another.

And so then Paul tells us what that looks like.

Paul says, okay, if we're really caring for one another like that, what does that look like?

Okay, he tells us, look at it, verse 26.

If one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Let me give you another body analogy.

Okay.

Imagine that you got a hammer and you're hammering a nail.

And then you hit the wrong nail.

You hit your thumbnail.

And what happens immediately after you hit your thumb with a hammer, what happens?

The whole body goes into action.

Immediately your thumb goes in your mouth.

Right?

You're trying to comfort that hurting member.

Your vocal cords go, oh, your feet start to dance, your tears, your eyes start to cry.

Your entire body is responding to that one hurt member, right?

Paul says when you're in community and you're connected, when one suffers, they all suffer.

When one rejoices, they all rejoice together.

We are to care for one another.

So you go, okay, how do you do that?

Let's get practical.

How do we care for one another?

What's a practical way to care for one another?

Well, I think the greatest example is Jesus, right?

I mean, think if we're the body of Christ, and Jesus is the head of the body of Christ.

So following Jesus' model and example is what we need to do.

And so what did Jesus do?

Jesus welcomed in the unnoticed.

Jesus honored the forgotten.

Jesus touched the lepers.

Jesus rebuked the proud.

Jesus spoke to the outcast.

He wept with grieving sisters.

He rejoiced with those who believed.

Jesus gave his body so that you could be made whole.

Jesus carried our burdens so that you could walk through this life.

He died so he could give you life.

Jesus is the perfect example of how to care for one another.

So using Jesus' examples, I want to give you two principles of how to care for one another.

Number one, jot this down.

First, care notices others.

If you care for others, then what does that mean?

That means you're going to notice people.

Remember Jesus?

Jesus says, notice Zacchaeus up in the tree.

Jesus notice the woman with a bent over in the synagogue.

Jesus noticed the widow giving her two mites.

Jesus notices, and Jesus expects us to notice as well.

That we are, you know, keeping our eyes open and watching over people.

Don't we do that, right?

Whenever you go out of town, what do you do?

You talk to your neighbor, hopefully you do know your neighbor, and you say, hey, we're going out of town for a few days.

Could you watch over our place?

Could you keep your eye on my stuff?

Would you notice for us?

Now, why do you need people noticing you?

Because the fact is, we all have blind spots, right?

I only know what I know.

I don't know what I don't know.

And it's the same way with you.

And there's times whenever things are going on and we need people to notice.

We may not even notice ourselves, right?

If if you got a friend and their zippers unzipped, what do you do?

You you hopefully your friend enough to say, hey, zip it up, right?

Can I just give you permission?

If I'm preaching and my zipper's unzipped, do not wait till the end of the sermon.

You stand up and say, Pastor Tony, zip it up, okay?

Right?

It's the same way.

You know, you're eating, you got, you know, lettuce hanging out, you know, tacos and tacos coming out.

And, you know, friends don't let friends have tacos in their teeth hanging out, right?

You notice and you say something.

So here's the question who's noticing you?

Who are you close enough with that notices?

And then, secondly, who are you noticing?

Who have you made a commitment to that, you know what, I'm gonna be the kind of Christian this person needs to be?

That you notice.

Maybe you're in a small group and you notice this person is quiet, or you can say, Man, they seem to be struggling.

You notice when things are off, right?

We need people in our lives that will notice.

Okay?

Caring notices.

Caring does a second thing.

Jot this down.

Caring shows up for others.

Caring shows up for others.

See, sometimes we notice, and I don't know about you, I'm so selfish, I will notice and I'll not do anything.

But caring will get outside of yourself and say, okay, I need to put this into action.

Okay, this person's struggling.

I need to text them, call them, encourage them, pray for them, right?

Come sit beside them, listen to them.

You go, but Pastor, I can't fix their problems.

Of course you can't.

You're not God.

You're not their savior.

They only have one savior, his name is Jesus, but we are the hands and feet of Jesus.

And so when we notice that somebody's struggling, we will then go to them and show up and care for them.

There's an often told story from World War I from the battlefield.

That there was a soldier whose best friend actually, after a charge to no man's land, was left there wounded.

And um he knew his best friend was out there wounded.

They had come back to the trenches, and he asked the commander, Can I go out there and get my friend?

And the commander said, Absolutely not.

He's probably dead by now, and I'm not going to risk losing another soldier for you to go out there.

So you can't go.

Well, the commander leaves and he gets out of the trench and he crawls to find his wounded friend.

And then, you know, moments later, he comes back.

He has then been shot and he's wounded, and his friend that he's dragging back had died.

And the commander looks at him and says, I told you not to go out there.

I mean, look at it.

Was it worth it?

He died.

And he goes, Um, it was worth it.

Because when I got to him, he was still alive.

And his final words were, I knew you'd come.

I knew you'd come, right?

Folks, we need to come.

Come to people that are hurting.

If somebody falls, we come to them.

If somebody's hurting, we notice.

If somebody's grieving, we sit with them.

If somebody's struggling, we pray with them.

If somebody's carrying a burden, we say, Let me help you carry that burden.

That's what caring does.

And if we really are part of the body of Christ, that's how we're supposed to care for one another.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Father, thank you so much for your word.

I thank you, Lord, for instructing us.

Lord, we confess our nature is selfish.

God, thank you that you came after us.

We were the wounded ones.

We were the ones who were dying in our sin.

And you came and you sacrificed it all to bring us back.

Lord Jesus, help us have that kind of sane concern and love and care for those around us.

Help us to do that.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.