Called To Community

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Good morning, CCW.

Why don't you take your Bibles and turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 12?

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

I hadn't preached in three weeks, so we are getting right to it.

Turn your Bibles, 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

We're starting the series on tribe.

And it's really a series about our need for community.

And it was sort of overwhelming this morning.

Um there were many, many new faces walking through our doors.

And as we think about community, it's so exciting.

And I have to give an omission and ask you something and ask your forgiveness out front.

If you have visited with us in the last two months, I would really like it, even counting today, if you would tell me in the lobby your name once again.

We have had so, so many visitors and guests, and it's exciting.

And I want to know you, and uh, but I would like it if you would do uh that favor to me, and I just want to get to know you.

We believe in shepherding our people, and uh, we don't want it just to be someone come in, come out, get greeted.

I want to know who you are, and I do apologize.

I'm working on it, I'm trying.

I'll take a picture and a selfie with you and put the name down to do better.

Um, but it's just been a lot and it's exciting.

That is a good thing.

So, as we jump into 1 Corinthians chapter 12, we're gonna be looking this morning at appointments.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

All of you have a lot of appointments in your life, your schedule gets full of appointments, and I was thinking about God's appointed times in my life, and it took me this week in study to an appointment with Tennessee Temple University, where I got my undergrad.

Uh we got some pics that are gonna come up that'll show you some of Tennessee Temple University.

But when I think about that time, God placed me in a brand new community.

I was fresh out of high school, and it happened through a divinely placed postcard.

That was one way.

And it was sitting on my dresser.

I came home from teen camp as a 17-year-old with a fresh surrender to God, and I did not know what the future was going to hold.

I had not think, I'm being honest, I hadn't thought an ounce about university.

Um, and God had that postcard sitting there waiting for me on my dresser when I got home from teen camp, and I looked over it and I began to pray over what God would have me to do now that I was surrendered to whatever it was.

I didn't know what it was, but I wanted to do what he wanted from my life, and I went to that university, and for the first time in my life, I began a quiet time that wasn't about a parent that was watching me or the Christian school that I went to, but it was about me and God.

For the first time in my life, I learned to like to learn.

That's a lot to say.

Some of y'all understand.

You've been to high school, went through, you made it through.

Anybody like that?

And then one day, did you learn to like to learn?

I learned to like to read at Tennessee Temple University.

And when I really think about God's divine appointments in my life, everything would be different had I not met my sophomore year, the most beautiful girl, on Tennessee Temple University's campus.

And there she was, and his sovereign hand got involved in our life.

And I and I'm uncertain about where the rest of my future would have gone if it were not for God placing a postcard on my dresser coming home from teen camp.

As sure as it is today, I don't know that I'd be in ministry.

I certainly don't know what my family would look like.

I don't know a lot of things, but God had an appointed thing for my life.

And many of you, if you look back and search back through his hand, you can see that and see appointed things that happened in your life.

Jeremiah 1.5 says this, before you were born, I sanctified you, I ordained you as a prophet to the nations.

The ESV version of that says, I appointed you a prophet.

Before you were ever born, he had a plan, Jeremiah, he said.

And there's an appointment for our life.

The Bible says, Hebrews 9.27, there's an appointment for our death.

It's appointed unto man once to death, die, once to die, and after this the judgment.

And so we have divine appointment in our life.

And so I want you to see this morning the first thing.

Point one, your appointment in community.

Let me pray.

Father, I'm so thankful for the opportunity we have today to hear from you.

And God, um Lord, without getting hyper-spiritual, this day was an appointment.

And God, we're not here by accident.

We're here divinely.

And God, everything that you've done has order and has meaning and purpose.

And so, God, I pray today that we wouldn't miss you in the midst of this service, God.

We're not here for a habit or a tradition.

We're here to meet with you.

So we ask for your Holy Spirit to fall on us in Jesus' name.

Amen.

First Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

Let's look at verses 3 through 7, your appointment in community.

And it says, Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed.

And no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

Listen to this.

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.

And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works in all.

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one.

Hear this, for the profit of all or everyone.

Letter A this morning is it's an up, it's a personal appointment.

Everything today is personal, right?

You've got your personal space.

If you ate something good, you said, she put a personal touch on that.

I want to talk to you on a personal level, right?

Personal opinion.

In verse 7, it says that the manifestation of the Spirit, that word in the Greek is phenaros, and that is to make oneself known.

God made himself known, and then it says, for everyone, for Simphara is the Greek word, to bring everyone together.

He personally made an appointment to come to you.

He made himself known to you for the benefit of the body, for everyone, for the community.

So we had the manifestation of God's Spirit individually, brings us together collectively.

The manifestation of the Spirit was personal.

You didn't come to know Christ in a group of people.

He didn't come to know all of you.

He came to know you personally.

Your relationship with Christ is personal, but he came to you and he puts you in a collective body.

It was personal.

Revelation 3.20 says that he says, Behold, I stand at the door and knock.

He's asking, there's someone here today who may not know Jesus as Savior, and he's asking privately, personally, would you open up that door of your heart?

Would you come and let me come inside and sup with you?

It's personal.

And for me, when I was nine years old at my mother's bedside, it was very personal.

It was a relationship that started between me and God, but at that moment it became collective.

I entered into a fellowship of a brotherhood, a community, phenaros for Simfero, manifestation individually to you, for the body, collectively, for everyone.

He showed himself so that we could join the body.

I'm getting somewhere.

It's a personal appointment, letter B, it's a permanent appointment.

I want you to look down at verse number 13 in 1 Corinthians 12.

It says this: For by one spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, and have been made to drink into one spirit.

We're all baptized by this one spirit.

The Holy Spirit is identification of believership.

You can't get into the club without it.

Everybody understand that.

Romans 8.16 says the Spirit bears witness that we are children of God.

This week, now I'm getting a new life adjustment to Alabama football.

Okay.

Two of my boys, we've been soccer people all the way up to this point.

Two of my boys are in football in the Chelsea system.

And I'm telling you, it has been an induction to say the least, okay?

It's been, we've been practicing since June for the fifth grader.

Y'all hearing me?

Conditioning since June.

It don't start till September.

Rec League for Soccer was twice a week starting the week that you start games, right?

We started in June.

I'm like, conditioning for fifth grade, right?

And Wyatt has never stopped all summer long.

I'm like, there's no break.

Okay, he's in ninth grade.

And so this week we were given some information.

This is how serious it is.

We got to have papers in so that Weston can play football.

Now, any other thing, you know, you pay the money, they're good.

Oh, you got money?

We'll get them in.

Alabama football says you got to have the original birth certificate of the child.

Like, we're trying to run some kind of scandal over here.

We're pulling in a 17-year-old that's four foot eight.

Like, what are we trying to do?

And so he had to get his real pay.

Well, we didn't have the we've you we have made it seven years in Alabama through the school system, through everything else that we've done with Weston without an original hospital certificate.

So now Heather's gone through all this stuff to find the original birth certificate so that we can go in to hear this away in.

A what?

Isn't that a professional boxing mat?

What are we talking about?

The kid had to go to the Hoover Met with hundreds of other football players, hundreds, lining up to go get weighed.

Why?

What are we talking about?

Never been weighed on another team in all his life.

He had to go get weighed, and I don't know, nobody ever told me really.

I come to understand you probably don't want a 200-pound fifth-grade running back running down the field and knocking kids.

That's what I guess.

But nobody has said it.

And so we go there, but that paper had to come in and we had to have it notarized.

Y'all listening to me?

Somebody had to sit next to my wife and me and make sure that our identity, saying we're his parents, was legitimate.

I'm like, well, welcome to Alabama football.

Here we go.

And I'm telling you, they are dead serious about it, too.

But listen, we've been to all that stuff.

We've done all those things.

This is what they needed.

They needed that stamp.

That notarized stamp told them that the identity of the people that are signing this is secure.

Hear me now.

The Bible says that you and I have an identity stamp.

And it's called the Holy Spirit of the Living God.

And if you don't have the Holy Spirit of the living God living within you, then you're not permanently stamped.

It's personal and it's permanent.

The Bible says Ephesians 1, 13, and 14, go there if you want.

The seal is a guarantee of the Holy Spirit until the day of glorification, the day that we one day are in heaven with a new body.

And so it's a guarantee, it's a marker that notarized stamp on us as a believer that sin has been forgiven, that we've been justified, and that we've been adopted into the family.

Bloodbought, children of a king.

You have to have that marker.

It's personal, but it's also permanent.

If you're God's child, aren't you thankful today that the Holy Spirit came in and he can't never be taken away?

It's permanently stamped upon us.

And so we had an appointment with God.

Listen, he had an appointment in your life and puts you where you are.

You're appointed to this community, to this place.

Secondly, this morning, I want you to see your arrangement in this community.

Your arrangement.

As a Christian, we believe there's no coincidences.

Genesis 50 even talked about Joseph's brothers, throwing them in the pit, and God's sovereignty involved in that.

It says that what his brothers meant for evil, God meant for good, and he even uses trial, struggle, storms in your life.

Romans 8.28, we heard about last week, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, who are called according to his purposes.

And so God arranges things in our life.

God is the great orchestrator of all things.

That's why the Big Bang would never work.

Y'all hearing me?

The Big Bang.

In just a minute, that's gonna turn into a watch.

In just a few minutes, a BMW.

Just wait.

God is an intelligent designer, He is the great orchestrator of all things.

Nothing is unplanned.

God has never been in heaven and went, Moses, did you see what just happened on earth?

I can't believe it.

It's never been a surprise to him.

He is the intelligence behind design.

And the Bible says, 1 Corinthians 14, 33, God is not the author of confusion.

It says all things are done decently in order.

And so, with that being said, you have to know that your story was arranged by God.

Look at verse 11 in 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

1 Corinthians 12 · chapter mention

But one and the same Spirit works all these things, works all these things out, distributing to each one individually as he wills.

God works as he wills in your story.

He gives gifts as he wills in your story.

And so that takes us to the first point under that, letter A.

It is diversified in activity.

So your arrangement in community is diversified in what we do.

Verse 14 talks about that.

Let's look at that.

For in the fact that the body is not one member, but many.

There's many in the body of Christ.

This illustration goes on to list five different parts.

It lists the hands, the feet, the ears, the eyes, and the nose.

God is a God of orchestrated order and has put many pieces and parts together to run something in unity.

Did you know that there are over 7,500 listed parts to the human body?

Talk about complex intelligent design.

Does that sound like here it comes?

Just wait.

642 skeletal muscles, 206 bones in your body, 11 organ systems, 78 organs, a trillion cells in a complex creation that is only possible because you are God breathed.

You understand the complexity of who you are?

Look at your neighbor and say, you're complex.

Look at your second choice and say, you're different.

You didn't have to say definitely different.

That wasn't nice.

It's a miracle.

It is a phenomenon that our human body can live and breathe and function because we have an intelligent designer.

Colossians 1:16 says, it's for by him and through him that all things in heaven and or and on earth have been made.

Colossians 1:16

We were made for him.

And God didn't make a gray world.

Man, he said variety.

Have you ever been to the paint store and asked for red?

Like candy apple red, Mustang red.

What red do you want, sir?

And they give you a swatch and there's 67 reds.

I'm like, ah, Heather said red.

I don't know.

I don't know what to do.

Gotta hit FaceTime because I don't know.

Look, I do that for macaroni.

She sends me out.

I'm like, there's 74 macaronis, babe.

Help me.

Because I'm gonna come home with the wrong one if I got the option.

There are one million species on planet Earth, 200 billion galaxies, eight billion people.

Are you getting the picture that we have a God of intelligent design?

Look at verse 18.

I know we're jumping around some.

But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.

God delights in diversity and he delights in the way that He has pleased to make you.

It's constantly on display.

The Bible says in another place that we would be without excuse even if we just looked at nature.

If you never heard the word of God, if you just looked, you'd have to say, something deep down within us goes, that had to be created.

Something intelligently designed.

They're all individual but yet diverse.

And I want you to hear this today because somebody you came in and you needed this.

God in the history of time has only ever made one you.

There's only one fingerprint that matches yours.

And it pleased God to make you.

God who delights in diversity of many things will only ever have one you.

He said, You're wonderfully made.

He loves you, he had a plan for you, and he has arranged you in this community for something.

It made me think of uh my sweet grandmother.

We call Mamma.

I got a picture of her, I want you to see.

Mum's in heaven, and uh mom would call, she's the one on the on my left on the picture, wearing the purple.

The other one was called Granny Goose.

That was her mother.

And Mum would call me, and I I got voice messages, and I still have one.

I'm I'm thankful for technology.

I listened to it this week, and she would call me, and this was her opening phrase every time she called anybody, she'd say, Hi, honey, it's just me.

It's just me.

And that just that line, when I opened up my phone this week and listened to it from a few years ago, it just brought emotion immediately.

It's just me.

And I got thinking about that, it's just me.

You know, my mom was the best.

She loved unconditionally.

And I saved that because sometimes I just need to hear that voice.

But she said, it's just me.

And I want you to know something today.

It's just you.

But you're the just you that God wanted you to be, and He is so pleased with His creation.

And I want to tell you, just her was enough.

I can't tell you what I'd give to hear it.

Life.

I don't have to think on, listen, I don't have to think on sad things, but if I do, this is what happens, okay?

Okay.

It's I'm glad she's in heaven.

I'm glad that she has, but sometimes it's just enough, it was just her.

And listen, what God intended with you, he says, it's just you.

But man, he loves just you.

And he wanted just you.

You're what he intended.

Satan will have you up at night, although, comparing to this person and that person, and what they have and what they have, and this person, and how their success is, and is evil and it's hurtful.

You are you.

You are not them.

You are set the way it says that God has pleased to set you.

Now, listen, you can certainly be the best version of you.

Teenagers hear me.

You can wear a deodorant, you can exercise, you can be the best version of you by hard work, but you are God's illustration of diversity to the world.

And he says, I'm pleased with that.

I'm pleased with you being you.

You don't have to be like everyone else.

Teenager, you hear me?

You don't have to be like everyone else.

When they set the dress code that everybody has to look like this, you know, you can just be you.

It's okay to be you.

God made one you, but he set you in this community, in this era of time, in this opportunity.

God who makes no mistakes wanted you to impact his planet for this time.

And the Bible says if you lived the 70, 80 years, you've lived a good long life.

He has this space for you, and there's only going to be one.

God who knows.

Never makes a mistake, has you in your family.

Hear me.

He has you in your school.

He has you in your church, in your community, God arranged.

Every adult here, God arranged for you to build this community.

Every teenager here, listen, God puts you in a church.

God doesn't expect that just the adults are going to work in their church.

Every kid that knows Jesus as Savior in that ministry over there, God plans for them to serve and be a part of their community.

We should all be serving in the body.

It's diversified in activity.

Letter be.

It's unified in aspiration.

Look down at verse 15.

Aspiration.

You could say the goal.

Verse 15.

And we're going to read through 21.

If the foot should say, Because I'm not a hand, I am not of the body.

Is it therefore not of the body?

And if the ear should say, Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body.

Is it therefore not of the body?

If the whole body were an eye, where would we be?

Where would be the hearing?

If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling?

But now God has set the members, each one of them in the body, as he pleased, and if they were all one member, where would the body be?

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body, and 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.

And so I want you to understand.

There's different pieces and parts, and he gives us illustration of the physical body.

And the physical body has one goal: to facilitate the body's energy pathway in order to maintain conditions necessary for your life.

Now hear me.

The body of Christ, like that, is to facilitate energy in order to maintain Christian life and allow us to accomplish the things which are important to God.

Our body wants to encompass us and facilitate our energy so that we do things important to our living.

The body of Christ is to do things that use our energy to facilitate the things that are important to God and Him being furthered.

And so we understand that that is the goal.

In John Maxwell's book, 17 Laws of Teamwork, goal number two says this, rule number two, the role or the goal is more important than the role.

I'm gonna say that again.

A lot of pieces and parts, but there's a goal.

At CCW, we aspire with this mission to share the good news of Jesus to all generations.

That is the mission of the church.

The vision is loving God and loving people, serving at home and abroad.

And so everything that we seek to do, our goal falls under that banner.

Lots of different ways to get there.

Hear me.

Lots of different ways.

There's ice cream truck ways, there's feeding football team ways, there's vacation Bible school ways, there's meeting on Wednesday ways, there's meeting throughout the, there's all kinds of ways to getting to the goal.

Lots of different ways.

Lots of pieces and parts, but there is one goal.

And it takes a unified body of people to be set there.

The Bible says, Psalms 133, verse 1, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity.

Psalms 133:1

God wants us with our different pieces and parts to accept the person across the aisle and who they are and see the good in them, and back and forth we go, and the body functions.

Well, let's look down at verse 22 and 23.

Unified in aspiration.

It says, No, much rather those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary, such as things you can't see, internal organs, vital things.

And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor, and our unprecedented parts have greater modesty.

So we see our assignment here that we look at.

Some gifted people feel they're unimportant compared to others.

Some gifted people feel they're more important than others.

And this idea is like your eye being jealous of your hand because your hand gets to hold things.

And they're like, there goes the hand again, just holding on.

I wish I could hold on to something.

Like the hand gets to hold, but I'm over here just blinking.

And it's like the heart going, I feel so insignificant because nobody can see what I can do.

And and and the foot being jealous of the lung saying it gets to breathe all the time, and I'm over here just everybody, I'm just stepping, stepping on things.

You would say of your body, all of those things are definitely important things, and I'm glad that I have them.

Church, hear me.

The Corinthians in this book, listen to me, they were becoming divided because they were arguing over the gifts of the body.

They were arguing over the giftedness that God and His Holy Spirit has pleased to set in you and me.

And they were arguing about which ones were better and which ones were worse, and they had a certain way they wanted things to go.

And Satan was working to divide them.

We want to make much of Jesus at the church at Chelsea Westover.

We want to make him know.

When I think about that, what is your big goal for being a body member?

What is your big goal for your family?

What is your big goal?

You see, the goal is bigger than the role.

Zig Ziegler said this.

I think we have the quote in a picture.

If you aim at nothing, you will hit the target every time.

So what is your big goal?

In Ephesians 4.13, it talks about the goals for his body, the Heavenly Father's goals is unity, maturity, and Christlieness.

So let's look at the third thing this morning.

Your assignment in community.

What does our assignment and community look like?

Verse 25 and 26.

It says that there should be, hold on to this word coming up, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another, and if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Letter A is this it's cooperative for synergy or unity.

It's cooperative for unity, synergy.

We need to unpack the reason for the letter, and we don't have time to go there, but 1 Corinthians chapter 1, it says that they were divided.

1 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

They were becoming factions of people, and they said, Oh, I came because of Paul, and I came because of Apollos, and they were deciding who they were going to follow.

And the writer, Paul says, Listen, we all came because of Christ.

It isn't a faction here or a group over here.

We're all here because of Christ, but they were dividing.

And 1 Corinthians 6, 7, 8 says they began to sue one another, and there was this schism.

Greek for schism is a violent term meaning rend or tearing like a garment ripped.

The church at Corinth was splitting into factions, vying for control, and the overwhelming argument that perpetuated was over the perception of how people wanted church done.

Two thousand years later, people still arguing over how they want it done.

And the whole reason for the gifts was to encourage the body and build the body up together.

It wasn't to single out somebody's gift over here or over here and say they're amazing.

It was so the whole body would be done together and they were becoming factioned over this.

Why?

Here's the good news.

If something good is happening, Satan sure hates it, because the devil delights in division.

Mark 3.25 says, A house divided against itself cannot stand.

And so they were beginning to get divided because Satan was trying to work against it.

If he can get in the church, listen to me, he will.

If he can get in your home, he will.

If he can get in your head, he will.

Why?

Because you cannot be unified and be divided.

You cannot do that.

And so this unity, this synergy is a part of the body working well.

Well, Corinth was divided on a couple of things.

They were divided on doctrines and they were divided on desires.

You could say this a different way.

They were divided on majors and minors.

Verse 3, Paul reminded them of what bonds them.

It was one spirit that brought us all together.

You can't accurse the name of Jesus and be of Jesus.

And so he says there's this one spirit that bonds us.

Don't you get it?

Spiritual people do spiritual things.

And so this division is not of God.

Let me talk to you about the majors.

For us at CCW, we have four pillars that we stand by.

Clear biblical teaching.

First pillar.

We believe in the word of God.

The second pillar is dynamic worship, intimate fellowship, and fulfilling service.

We believe in these pillars, getting us to the vision and goal that I talked about.

That we love God, love people, serving at home and abroad and sharing the good news of all generations.

This is how that we continue this.

At CCW believe that Jesus Christ was God.

That's a major hear me.

If you go to a church and they don't believe in Jesus Christ as God, get out.

Jesus Christ was a part of creation.

The Bible, Old and New Testament, is the whole council of the Word of God.

Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, died on a cross, shed his blood for our sins.

Those are majors.

Jesus Christ is God.

Mary is not God.

Muhammad is not God.

Joseph Smith is not God.

We believe that Jesus was God.

That's a major.

He was a major in three persons: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

If you disagree with these things, you shouldn't join this community, this body.

These are majors.

Minors are preferences, desires.

If you don't agree on the majors, you shouldn't join.

It's okay not to agree on the minors.

It's better if you do.

It's okay not to.

It's better.

Let me give you an illustration.

When I met Heather, Heather loved classic movies, musicals.

Doris Day.

I had never heard of Doris Day.

Her favorite movie was Gone with the Wind.

I had no experience with any of that.

I didn't dislike her because of it.

I didn't judge her.

I mean, well, a little.

I just had no frame of reference for that kind of stuff.

It looked slow and boring.

And, you know, a man liking a music just didn't seem that manly to me, okay?

I'm just gonna say it.

It didn't seem right to me.

Well, I took her on her first birthday date with me to see Singing in the Ring.

Live.

And I gotta tell you, it was pretty entertaining.

But they hooked me with seven desserts.

Seven desserts, and I love singing in the rain.

Okay?

It was awesome.

We went to that dinner third, I would go back.

She would have movies playing in the background.

Oh my gosh, come on.

Seven brides for seven brothers, and I start watching.

Man, this has an awesome fight scene.

Man, yeah, it's got fighting.

This is okay, right?

I'm still manly, even though they sing when they're not fighting.

Oklahoma, it was funny.

I have never seen White Christmas in my whole life.

And I married her, and look, White Christmas is not my favorite Christmas movie.

So what are you saying, Pastor?

That her beauty brainwashed you?

No, listen.

It was a minor.

And I had an open mind to minors, and I will say this: minors have the ability to change.

There are churches today, some are sanctuaries with steeples, some have pews, some are in a movie theater, some crazy, are in a gymnasium.

Minors.

Some sing music.

I love all kinds of Christian music.

I love I love what we sing.

I love hymns.

There's all kinds of, okay.

Some sing different things.

Those are minors.

We all have preferences, and a preference is a minor.

And listen to me, one thing that I hear as we've grown and continue is is CCW gonna be like this or like that?

I want you to hear me.

CCW is trying to be the best CCW it can be.

There are a lot of churches out here, and I listen, I love the church.

Big C church, we're a body, not just who's in this building.

And so some churches do some things that work, and guess what?

We might do what they do because it works.

If it's biblical and it works, we might do it.

And it's not because we're trying to be that church.

I hope some church gets an ice cream truck because it works and it's awesome like we do.

I hope they steal that idea because it's great.

They should do it.

We should have nights of worship like we do, and they should do it.

I'm not trying, as a visionary of this church, to be anything but CCW.

Solomon said there's nothing new under the sun.

Paul said, I have become all things to all men by all means that some might be saved.

And so, yes, it should look alike in some ways if they're doing things right.

We are a byproduct of you who is in here and the passions that God's given you.

I can't do everything that you can do, and you can't do what I can do, but together we can do some things.

I think that was Mother Teresa that said something like that.

We're a byproduct of your passion.

We just want to be CCW, the best that we can be for God.

If Satan can get in, though, to divide you over your favorite flavor, he'll divide you over a minor.

He will.

Satan will take a minor and whisper in your ear, your minor is the most important.

The minor that you're standing on, it's and hear me, it's an immensely prideful thing to be a part of dividing the body of Christ over something that's not a major.

I want to tell you, and as you get into 1 Corinthians 13, this is what's crazy.

It's a love chapter, it's quoted in weddings, but really it was a love rebuke.

He comes down after all this division, he said, No, listen to me, you can have all the gifts.

He said, You can do everything, you can die on the stake as a martyr, you can speak with tongues, you can prophesy great things, but if you don't have love, it's nothing.

It was a rebuke.

Next time you're at a wedding, you remember that.

It was a rebuke.

And I think about this church body, and as I was staying, I was thinking, you know, God, there's not another Larry Grimes who meets me at the door and says, I'm blessed.

There's not another Harry Durrow, there's not another Amanda Roper, there's not another Paul Greater or Stacey Morgan, there's not another one of you.

And God made you for this body to strengthen it all of us.

And your personality, he made you as he pleased.

For synergy, to make, again, manifestation of the spirit to Lee so that Lee makes all of us better.

So that the Spirit came to me so that we are all better.

Not for me and my favorite minor.

I don't have a problem with that.

Listen, we all have preferences.

But biblically, let's get the majors right and let's agree on what we can, and man, let's reach our community.

He said, I made you all different.

There's no robots.

So do your part and move us forward.

We all can't just be feet.

We all can't just be eyes.

We're all different.

Look at verse 26 again.

Second part of it, and I'm done.

He says, Why?

For the care of one another.

When somebody suffers, all the members suffer.

If somebody's honored, we're all honored.

It's to care for suffering.

To have the same care for one another.

If you suffer, we suffer.

If I suffer, we suffer.

I was thinking through this, and um God gave me, just reminded me of something that I'm not very proud of, but when I was 16, I was mean.

I have hope for teenagers because I was not a good one.

And I was thinking back about this idea of caring for others as the body of Christ.

I try to make myself look good.

I had a sharp tongue, and I could say things and get people behind me with my sharp tongue and wit, and on my soccer team, arrogantly, I believed, I believed that I was the strongest person on the team.

There was people much bigger and stronger, but I believed that.

And one day for no reason at all that I can recall, we all messed around on the bus on the way to the games, and we'd just be going back and forth, I mean, wrestling or whatever.

Anyway, I one day for a reason that I can't really remember, I took my fist and I knuckled out and I went across the aisle and I popped this kid, and we're gonna call his name Tom.

And I just bam thrust down into his head.

And listen, Tom, he was massive.

This was stupid.

Okay.

I looked at Tom, this big bull of a guy.

He turned his body sideways, could have probably just ripped into me.

I mean, I could have not played soccer the rest of that night, maybe season.

My teammate, my classmate, a youth group member of my church.

And Tom turned his body toward the window, and I watched tears coming down his cheek.

Because I chose to hurt somebody for no reason that I can even remember, other than this.

I just didn't care.

You got a body of people here, church, hear me.

And they need your care.

They don't need your indifference, they need your care.

They certainly don't need you being the person on the other side harming, whether it's with words or physical action, they don't need that.

It made me think of there was a guy named Leo.

He had contracted a really infectious skin problem.

He was itchy like skin sores, disfiguring parts of his skin.

And once it developed really quickly, it continued.

And instead of helping him, people looked at him and were disgusted.

Deep down he knew what it meant.

And every day, as it worsened, he had this sinking, depressing feeling.

It was heartbreaking.

One day he woke up to the news from his family that they felt it was in everyone's best interest because of the infection of the disease, that he would get out of the house.

There was a better place for him with people that were like him.

On top of the pain that Leo had felt, his community was disgusted and they feared the spread of his infection.

And they wanted to be separated.

A few years ago, they'd call it quarantined.

Why don't you look at Matthew chapter 8?

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

And we'll finish up.

See, I made up the name Leo.

Matthew chapter 8, when he had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him, and behold, a leper came and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if you're willing, you can make me clean.

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

Then Jesus put out his hand and he touched him, saying, I am willing be cleansed.

Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.

Listen to me.

Jesus touched him.

A whole community saw this infirmity and didn't want to help him.

They sent him out.

But Jesus, who, by the way, could have healed by the word of his tongue, he could have said heal.

He could have healed by a word.

He didn't need to listen, he didn't have to, but he reached out.

And instead of using a word, he touched the leper.

He embraced, he loved, he saw behind his physical need, and he touched the man's heart.

The old songwriter wrote it this way: it says, He touched me.

Oh, he touched me.

The joy that floods my soul.

Something happened, and now I know he touched me and he made me whole.

Listen to me, church, you have an opportunity.

I might say an obligation, an assignment to touch the hurting.

There are people in this church that are next to you that need someone who's going to care.

At your work, you might be the only person that's ever going to reach out to the person that needs the truth.

Teenagers at your school.

It's an epidemic this summer.

At your school, somebody needs cared for.

You're supposed to support your body.

It's not aside.

We're all together.

We're excited you've joined us for today's message.

Our heart is to connect with others in our community, to grow with one another, and build a bigger kingdom.

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Thank you again for joining us on the CCW podcast.

We hope you'll make plans to join us in person on Sundays.