The Beauty Of The Body

We have lived in a time and still do and didn't start in our generation, but we live in a time that it's easy to think Christianity is merely a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and the church is good but not necessary. I can be a part of the church if it's helpful, but I don't necessarily have to be a part of the church and think of church membership and church involvement and church activities as something just maybe extra, something helpful but not necessary. And I remember early on being in a Christian bookstore in Conway, probably 15 years ago or longer than that, going on maybe 20 years ago, and I remember a young man looking for a book. He says, "I'm into Christ. I like Christ, but I'm not into organized religion." And what he was saying is, "I'm not so sure about the church. I'm not a churchman, but I'm a Christian." And I thought to myself, "Does he even understand Christianity? Does he even know what Christianity is all about? How do you understand Christianity without understanding the church?" And, you know, what does the Bible say? We are to be members of a church. Well, it does say not to neglect the assembling of ourselves together, but really you can't understand what Christianity is outside of the local church because God's intertwined the one with the other. The very DNA of a Christian is being united to Christ. You know, that's the very nature of the relationship with Christ.

You can't be a Christian just in your mind. It's a spiritual thing. You have to know Christ. Christ knows you as a relationship at the heart of Christianity, the relationship. And that relationship, it's a spiritual union and fellowship, my faith. But being united to Christ brings us into union and fellowship and relationship with one another. Even our scripture reading this morning can't be understood without having a spiritual relationship with the body that we've been brought into the body. And we're all different members of the same body. And you can't, you're not designed, an ear is not designed to function independent of the body. And you may be an ear, you may be an eye, you may be a hand, you may be a foot. You're one of the parts, but you're not the whole body.

You're not made to function without being connected and united to and operating with the other parts of the body of Christ. And this is what Paul is going to do in this text. But he's in this text, as we're going to work our way through it, he's telling us the importance of the body and the beauty of the body is that we're interconnected and we're interdependent upon one another, that we need one another for our own spiritual well-being. For our own spiritual growth, we're going to have to be plugged in. In some sense, Jesus says, abide in me.

My words, abide in you. We have to abide in Christ. But part of abiding in the Christ is abiding in the body. And we'll see that, that you have to be connected and you are connected and you were connected not through church membership or through some pledge.

You were united by faith when you were united to Christ. And this is the essence of Christianity. You come to the church through Christ. You don't get to Christ through the church.

And once you believe, as we see in the book of Acts, what did they do? The five thousand that believed they joined themselves to the church and devoted themselves to the church. And so to be a devoted Christian is to be a devoted church member. And we all should seek to be a devoted Christian, but I think we all should seek to be a devoted churchman. I want to be a devoted, I don't want to just be a tender. I don't want to just just come to church and attend and set in a pew. And that's my role. I just sit there. I want to I want to contribute. I want to I want to be a vital part of the functioning and the health of the church. And I think the healthiness of a church is determined by the healthiness of its membership. And we all should see the beauty of this. But in this text, we see five truths, five truths about the interconnectivity or the interdependence of the parts to the whole. And we see that let's start with being verse 12. We'll see that there is one body for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ for in one spirit we were all baptized into one body.

Jews or Greek slaves are free. All were made to drink of one spirit for the body does not consist of one member, but many in this. We see the foundation of our unity. Our unity is not something we create. It's not something we manufacture. It's not based upon something other than our real experiential union with Jesus Christ. And I think the closer we are with the Lord Jesus Christ, the more love we're going to have for His body and the more service we're going to have to His people. And we're going to love Him who needs nothing. He doesn't need a cup of cold water, does he? But we're going to love Him and give Him cups of cold water when we serve and love His people, His body. And we'll see that here that there's five truths, five truths to show us the beauty of the interdependence of the church. The first one we see in verses 15 and 17 is the first truth that you need to understand is that the church needs you. The church needs you.

I mean, that seems man centered, but it's often we kind of forget that. We forget that point.

We'll see this in verses 15 through 17. Verses 15 and 17 is making the case that you are a vital part of the body of Christ. And there is various reasons that you may think you're not that important to the church. Well, I can skip. I can miss. I don't have to be active.

You know, that no one will know that I'm gone. You know, it'd get this kind of a thought that, hey, I'm not an important member, so I'm I can like live with me or live without me.

And sometimes that's how we feel. Sometimes we feel like, well, I'm not. I don't have any unique spiritual giftings that I'm required. I hear that. I've heard that a lot over 25 years of ministry. Ever heard people say that to me? It's like, well, I don't know what to do. I don't know how to plug in. I don't know what my spiritual giftings are. And I know I'm not a teacher. I'm not a musician. I don't know how to plug in. And so it's easy to think that we have not any special spiritual gifts to serve the church.

But in this case, you may be a foot and you may be jealous of the hand. It might be through jealousy. Well, I'm not a preacher or I'm not evangelist or I'm not this or that. And so it's kind of like you're you may be a foot, but you don't understand that. Hey, the church has all these wonderful hands, but look at verse 16 says, if the foot should say, and the foot represents you, if the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I do not belong to the body.

That would not make it any less part of the body. Now you may think that you don't belong to the body, but that doesn't mean you're not. And we're not even this. It has local church implications and the application of this should be felt in the local church. But even if you stay away from the local church and you stay at home and you're at home by yourself, isolated yourself, which is not a healthy thing to do, if that's what you're doing, it doesn't mean you're not a part of the body.

You are still a part of the body. If you're a Christian, you're united to Christ's spiritual body. And just because you say, I don't want to be a part of it or I'm not a I'm not a preacher or I'm not this or I'm not that I don't have these gifts. Does it make you any less a part of the body?

It may be that the gift of seeing, you may think to yourself, seeing is more important than the gift of hearing. Like, I wish I was eyes, but I'm not, I'm ears. But look at verse 16.

And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less part of the body. You see, Paul is addressing those who felt their inadequacies because they didn't have the gift of speaking in tongues or they didn't have prophecy or they didn't have the more notable showy gifts that everybody seemed to covet after and wanted.

And so there were a few that were demonstrating these amazing gifts that ever that were displayed for the whole church to see. And they said, well, I can't do that. I'm not doing that. I don't know how to do that. I've never spoken tongues my whole life. I've never given any prophecies. I have it.

I have it utilize any way to help the church. Therefore, I guess I don't have a role to play.

I don't have a function. I don't have a ministry in the church. So Paul's addressing that.

And I think this is one of the problems with attendance based churches, you know, where churches are just attendance based. It's there's not a membership. There's not a ministry of loving one another and fellowshipping with one another, serving one another. It's just like you don't even know church members. You just come and sit and leave. I think this is not necessarily a healthy pattern. According to God, though you may be a foot or you may be an ear, a foot and an ear is still needed for the body.

You've been gifted in some way. You have strengths. You also have weaknesses. We all do.

But we have strengths. We have spiritual insight. You have something to offer. You have something to give. If you read the Bible over the weekend, it's minister to you. You have resources to give out.

If you have something that means something to you, that's minister to you, then you have something to to share with others. You have something God is giving you much. He's given you the gospel. He's given you love. He's given you patience. He's given you forgiveness. He's given you a lot to treasure, a lot to think through. As you take what's been given to you, you have something to offer others. Don't think of just church as just what you do on Sunday. How do I serve the church? Don't just think Sunday morning. There may be limited roles to play on Sunday morning, even though I think we all sing together. I think we should sing out. We all do that. There may be limited roles in what we can do on a Sunday morning, but church is more than Sunday morning attendance. It's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. It's the one another's. It's calling and checking on one another's, loving one another. There's much to do. There's much work to be done. There's many needs. There's a lot of people in the hospital. There's people that are shut in. There's people in the nursing home. There's a lot of needs. Say, well, I don't know what to do. Well, I pray and look and then feel the need.

You know, it's easy to go. Well, why is the church not doing this? Well, if you see the need, plug it up, plug it up. And then not everybody has to do that need. If you're doing it, the church is doing a good job. And that's the beauty of the church. We don't all have to do the same thing. You can be the one that fills the holes. And if you see there's a hole, then that means maybe God wants you to do it. Maybe the rest of us are ears and we can hear things, but we just don't see. We don't see the holes, but you can because your eyes. You see, you're needed. That's the point. You're needed. Look at verse 17. "If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body was an ear, what would be the sense of smell?" Could you imagine a body full of eyes? I mean, just imagine it. I mean, that would be good for if you're an eye doctor.

But I mean, if you're all eyes, I mean, you can see everything from all angles.

Yeah, I saw that. Yeah, I'm seeing that too. But I mean, you could smell worth a lick and you couldn't hear anything. You would be dysfunctional. You'd have a great strength, but you would be unaware of all the weaknesses that you still possessed. Imagine a body full of ears. That would be even more ridiculous. But if you were all ears, how would you smell? You couldn't smell. I mean, the worst imagination is thinking of a body full of noses. I think the nose is probably the weirdest of all the body parts. But what would you do without a nose? How would you smell? See, the point that Paul is making is that you're needed because you have a unique particular gift. You have experiences that you've gone through. You have a perspective that allows you to see things and minister in a way that other people may not be able to minister. And I'm not trying to be Joel's ole scene up here.

You're special. You're special. You're great. But there's truth to that because God's made you unique. He's made you with a unique gifting and he didn't give that to you if it wasn't needed in the body. And as we'll see that your gifting is not made for yourself. Your strengths are made for your for your husband or for your wife or your children for for some help in some ways for the church at large. Your gift is for the betterment of the whole church. Romans 12 tells us in verse 4,"For we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function." We're not all eyes. We're not all ears. We're not all noses. So being many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Thus, you are needed and therefore you should seek, you know, one of the things you should seek in your service to Christ is really not what the church can do for you. I know that's a slogan from the military, something of that nature, but you should have that mentality when you come to church. It's like this is not necessarily just what the church can feed me and give me and serve me and minister to me. And you know, you can get really critical when that's the mentality. What's in it for me? Think about God has gifted me and how am I going to utilize that today? How am I going to minister to someone today? Come to church. I would just encourage you to do this. It's just some practical applications. Come to church with this mindset, Lord, direct me who I should speak to today. And when I get interrupted by someone else, when I wanted to talk to this person, help me know that this is a divine appointment from you and to give them my full attention and to love them and care for them.

Wouldn't that be amazing to look at? It's like I'm going to minister today.

I'm going to serve today. I'm going to go and encourage today. I'm going to go and befriend someone today. I'm going to pour out of myself that which has been poured into me by Christ.

First Peter, four verse nine says, as each one of you have received a gift and minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God, that is, you're called to steward the things that God has given you. Think about that. Your resources, your finances, your time, your affections, your knowledge. You have so much. We all do. We all have so much to give. We have so much. You say, well, I don't know what I'm. No, you have more than you're giving. I mean, that's true of all of us. We have actually more than what we're giving. And it's like, it's not like we need to be gifted more so we can serve more. No, we're not even probably stewarding the gifts that we already have. So think about that. I'm going to go to church and be a part of the church and I'm going to serve. I'm going to be a good churchman. I'm going to be the best churchman I can meet and serve the body of Christ as I'm serving Christ himself.

If we really are the body of Christ, I mean, I mean, if you, if my head was hurting and you had the cure to my hurting hand, or my stomach was ill and you gave me some medication, that's as, that's as much as you're serving the whole body. You're serving me. You're serving Jeff Johnson.

If you're serving this Saint or that Saint, you're serving Christ. Because that's his body.

And we should look at it that way that I'm going to serve Christ. I want to serve his, his body parts and he'll take it as serving him because it is him because we're united together.

But not only are we serving Christ, we're serving each other. You may be serving this person over here. I might be serving that person over there. We're unrelated in our service, but we're serving each other because this person's a member of me and that person's a member. We're all members of one another. And so you may be serving me and you're not even doing it directly. You're serving me by serving the other Saints. But that's beneficial to the whole body. We all can't serve.

I mean, there's 350 of us plus we can't all serve each other in the same intensity, in the same way.

We can't even know each other that all the well, the same way. We're going to have, you're not clicks. We shouldn't have clicks, but we're going to have a friendship that's smaller. So we can serve that friendship, but I don't think that's not serving the whole body. Because as we'll see, is one part is suffering the whole body is suffers. So that's the first point the church needs you.

The second truth we see in verses 18 and 20, the church needs all of its members. It's not just you.

It needs. There's not one member or one body part. They can say, hey, we don't need that one.

I know that one. Let that one go. I mean, let me get a pocket knife and cut something off of you, which what do you want to lose? It's like, no, I think I like my little finger. You know, I think I want that too. I want my little toll. Don't take that. I mean, I, every part when you think about it, he's like, you kind of glad you have it.

We see this in verse 18, 18 and two 20. You see, first of all, God is in charge of deciding our gifts, functions, roles and purposes within the body. Look at verse 18. But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them as he chose. We didn't choose.

We as a body, like, well, we choose our deacons and our elders. We made those choices.

Actually, the way the Bible describes the elders and the deacons is, is not that we chose them as much as we affirmed them. The Bible says, obey the elders that God is placed over you. It's like, well, I thought God did this. You know, it's like, we're affirming the gifting. We're affirming the calling. We're affirming. It's like, no, this is what God has raised up. God has raised up these men that these gifts and we're here as a church, just identifying affirming what God has done. And that's totally different than just us selecting who we want to be. I mean, we're not, it's not a popularity contest. Well, I want, I want this guy to be a pastor. Well, why does he have the gifts? Well, no, because I like him.

It's not about who we like or who we choose is who God raises up because it's God who gifts people.

And that's what we have to understand that not just he's gifting the pastors and the deacons.

He's gifting all the members. He's gifted you and you didn't get to choose. And I didn't get to choose our gifts. I didn't go. Hey, I want to, I already told you, I'd like to have the gift of singing. I just didn't have an option. And I didn't, God didn't ask me when he gave out those gifts. I wasn't there to be a part of the decision making process. And so I was skipped over on that one still bitter about it. I mean, I wish I could preach better. I honestly do. I wish I could be a better preacher and it's not that you can't hone in your gifts and tune them in and, and, and get better. But there's a cap to your skill level. All athletes understand that you can be the best athlete you can. But even then there's a cap to it. It's like, well, we all have our gifts and purposes and it's not us that decides what we do. It's like, well, one of the things, well, do we, how do we know our gifts? How do we know, figure out what we're doing? What, why has God gifted me with it? Sometimes few wonder with that. I think it's as simply as doing what you're good at and what you enjoy and what you notice, what you see. And it's like, it's not that complicated. You end up kind of finding it along the way. I've learned long ago. I wasn't gifted with the organization skills. It's just not a very, I'm not very organized person. I need other people around me who are organized. It's like, we kind of learn our strengths and weaknesses as we go on. And I say, it's like when you find that what you're good at, that's what you do because that's what's going to be enjoyable. That's what's going to be fulfilling. That's what's going to be satisfying. Then you take what you're good at, what you enjoy and use it to serve others with it. Don't do it for yourself.

How can I benefit others with what God has given me? You see, it is vital for the health and the growth of the church for all, for all its members to be functioning properly. Look at verse 19.

"If all were a single member would be the body, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts yet one body." This is back to the idea if the body was just nothing but eyes or a single eye.

If you have a single eye, you don't have a body. You have a body part. You see, we need all the parts brought together, united together for there to be a body. What is a body? A body is a collection of various organs, muscles, tissues, bones, ligaments brought together in the right way, united together. They function together. You know your foot can't function without the rest of the body. Cut the foot off and it's amputate the foot. Foot no longer works. It needs the rest of the body to function properly. In fact, you have one leg, you kind of need the other leg to walk.

Eyes need ears. We all need one another. And see, that's the beauty of this thing. God didn't make us all to be the same. And we're all often we think, well, everybody needs to be just like me. If they're not really seeing what I'm seeing or doing what I'm doing, that there's something's wrong with it. No, they're not my ministry. They're not. It's like, no, this is not the way it's designed to be.

You have that. You need to do that. Maybe there's others are inclined to have similar ministries as you do. That's wonderful. But not everybody needs to look like you. We don't need to pigeonhole each other into our spiritual giftings. We don't need to go. This is why Christianity looks. We're all uniquely different. And it's important that we're working together in love for the whole body to grow. If your body is going to grow, I mean, you watch little kids grow. It's like their legs and their arms kind of grow proportionately together. Well, at least you hope so.

You know, where they, you know, that everything looks proportionately, you know, when your babies are born, they got big heads. It's like, man, the whole thing growing to that. But what happens if one of your arms is growing much faster than the other arm? It's like, it's like it's going to dysfunction the whole body. So we're designed to kind of grow together.

And I believe that I think even GBC, we're kind of growing together as a body.

We're maturing together. And now we're not all at different paces and different spiritual maturity. Some of us old season say so as a brand new Christians, but collectively we grow together and God's designed it that way.

So we're not just to be a bunch of body parts lying next to one another.

We're to be united together and functioning together.

Closhest to 19 tests, it says holding fast to the head from whom the whole body is nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments grows with the increase that is from God.

The Bible talks about the body being united together and it says knitted together.

One version would say interwoven together like a basket being weaved together.

It's like we're, we're designed to be so intertwined that how does the eyes function without the brain and how does the brain function without the nervous system?

How do we function? How do you actually do your job and walk straight as a Christian without the rest of the body of Christ? It's like, Hey, I'm into Christ, but I'm not into organized religion. I'm into Christ, but I don't really care about the church.

You don't really understand that. That concept is completely missing the concept of Christianity.

See, we're made to be interdependent. We're members of one another, not just members of Christ.

That's what Romans 12 five says. Each one of you are members of one another. So you're my body part. I'm a part of your body and we're united together. The healthy, a healthy church makes healthy church members and healthy church members make a healthy church. People ask me about GBC and the thing I told them first day I tell them it's like, this is where I brag about our church.

I boast about GBC and I said, this is what the most amazing thing in my mind about GBC is we got some basing families. So these amazing, amazing brothers and sisters in the Lord.

They love the Lord. And it's true. That's, I'm not, it's not an exaggeration. I was like, these is, this is a strong body. This is a healthy church because of the, of the healthiness of your, your walks. But also means if, if the church is intertwined like this and our spiritual growth is meant to grow together, that you, we need each other. That means there's no unnecessary part.

There's not a member of the, you can say, I don't want that one. I believe in God brings everyone in here for a reason. So this is the second truth. The third truth is found in verse 21. You need the other members of the church. That is you need to think to yourself, not just the ones you're associated with and the ones you know, well, the ones that call you and you text and you have a friendship with, I know I need them. That's easy to think that way, but there are members here that you probably never talked to or don't know very well. And you, whatever the fact is, you need to think to yourself, I need that one too. I need everyone. Verse 21 says, the, I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. You could take that and say that I cannot say to any of the body parts.

I don't need you. So that means to apply that to your life. That means you cannot say and be honest with God or at least truthful. You cannot say, I don't need, I don't need this person.

If it's a Christian, you can't say that it's just not true. It's not true. You do need them.

It's we may not like someone. We may be aggravated with someone. We may be wishing that we didn't know that person. We may have something we need to forget that person, but you cannot say, I don't need that person. If you need them, you need to tend to that. You need to forgive them. You need to value them. Eyes need hands. Hands need eyes. Hands need feet and feet needs hands. It 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. This is the interdependence that we all have of one another. In one sense, you can say, all I need is Jesus. And that's true from one perspective. All I need is Jesus because he's everything. He is all in all. Our salvation is not in the church. Our salvation is not in our connection to GBC. You don't have to have GBC or you don't even have to have any Christian to be saved. You need Christ and Christ alone. That's the gospel and Christ is sufficient.

And so that's true in one sense, but there's another sense that God has made you as a Christian to be interconnected with all the other saints. So you're not independent. You're not alone. You're not made to be alone. In fact, you can't grow properly. Your own spiritual growth will be hindered without the body of Christ. Those who avoid church or miss a lot of church or don't make church a priority. And I'm not just talking about the church service, but yes, the church service Sunday morning worship, but just the fellowship of the saints and being interconnected in the body, serving the body. They're not growing at the same pace as those in the plugged in the body. The church functions as accountability. It's an inherent accountability system that God has designed. Also, the church functions because we're, we have our special gifting, which makes us strong and often our strength is our weakness. The church balances us out. It makes us more complete together than we would be alone. You see, God's made you where you and have all the spiritual gifts isolated. I said this last week that only Christ has all the spiritual gifts. He's the perfect man, but we're imperfect. We're imperfect Christians. So he, you know, you know, children need a husband. Children need a father and a mother. And sometimes God can give a single parent the extra grace needed. But ideally speaking, we would say it's best to have a father and mother that balance out the parenting and the mother adds element that the father doesn't have. And the father adds element that the mother doesn't have. Does that make sense? God's designed it that way.

The family works that way. God's designed the church that way. And you have a uniqueness about you, but you take yourself out of the church and put yourself all alone, put yourself on the island.

Your uniqueness will be so strong and you'll grow in that area. And, but you'll be so lopsided.

You can hear everything, but you can't see nothing. And in your street becomes so dominant, it is not ballast out. It becomes lopsided in you and you become, you know, super good in one area, but you're so deficient in so many other areas and God's designed it. And this is what happens. You know, this is how church accountability works. You go to church and you say something bizarre.

And it's not a firm belief, but it just kind of come through your head. And then someone else says, well, that was kind of crazy. And you think to yourself, yeah, now that's kind of crazy. And you kind of correct yourself and you don't really know it. You, you were hindered from believing a heresy through the just rubbing shoulders with the saints. You're costly being corrected and you're being shaped and you're like, maybe you're, you're, you're bold, but you don't, you're not kind, but the kindness of the rest of the body is putting the kindness in you. So you're not just so rough around the edges. So we're being shaped together. The Bible says it is not wise to isolate ourselves. Proverbs 18 was says, whoever isolates themselves seeks his own desires and he breaks out against all sound judgment. It's never good to say, I'm just going to leave the church.

I'm just going to do it alone. The fourth truth that we see this is first 22 through 24.

Is that we need each other. We need every single member members need us. But then we see we need each other versus 22 through 24 on the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker or indispensable and all those parts of the body that we think are less honorable. We bestow the greater honor and on our presentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which are more presentable parts do not require, but God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it. Now, everybody likes to display, you know, certain parts of the body. Women like to display their hair and strong men like to display their muscles, I suppose, you know, so there are some things we're kind of like, Hey, look at this.

But there are other things like your model organs. You say, Hey, don't look at that.

You know, there's some parts you want to keep covered up because they're not pleasant to look upon. And but think about it. God has designed it that the parts that you don't want to look at that are not the pleasant things, the things that you kind of hide and need to be hidden.

And I'm talking about just like the intestines. I mean, pull those out and study those. Oh, that was a beautiful. Wow. You got a beautiful intestines there, lady. I mean, it's just kind of like, no, you kind of don't want those exposed. And I'm being PG on that too.

But God has made sure that the intestines function in a lot of way.

You can live with more. I mean, we don't can't live without anybody part, but I would rather lose my little pinky than my intestines. You see, God is you may be a part of the body that doesn't get a lot of attention. People might not recognize you. You may not have a big, a big place or platform. You might not be a Deacon or elder. You may not play instrument.

You may not teach a class. You may not have the gifts that serve in that way.

And you think, well, what am I? Well, maybe you're in maybe one of those vital organs. Think about the heart, the stomach. Think about these things. We need these things. And God says, I, I have arranged it like some of these members that don't get a lot of attention that people may not even know about. They may be the lifeblood of the church. They may be what's keeping us all going. But nevertheless, we see the interdependence of each member is connected to the overall spiritual growth of the whole body. Ephesians 4, 12 tells us that he's given us gifts and Ephesians 4. This is God says, I've gone to heaven. I'm given out gifts to man.

And these gifts are for the service of the church. And the first of them was of apostles and prophets and pastors, evangelists and teachers and so forth. And it goes on to say, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies, according to the sexual working and the measure of every part, making increase the body unto the edifying of itself and love. In other words, this is how it functions. You're ministering to this Saint. This Saint is ministering to this Saint. This Saint is ministering to that Saint and that Saint is speaking into this Saint and this Saint is turning around and calling Pastor Jeff and saying, Hey, I just want to pray for you and encourage you. It's like, well, how many people minister to me?

Well, maybe just one, but maybe like 50. And I'm unaware of the chain. I'm unaware of all the interconnectivity of what brought that encouragement to me. And so maybe you're being encouraged by the whole body and you're not aware of it. Maybe you really do need everybody and you don't really see how the ankle bone is connected to the knee bone and the knee bone is connected to the heart and so forth. I should have thought that out a little better. The point is that we become disabled without each other. And this is my last point. This is true. What's the application of this is true?

We see verses 25 and 26. Here's Paul's application. We should care for one another. Look at verse 25.

That there may be no division in the body, but that their members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, that all suffers together. If one members is honored, all rejoices together. If this is the way we're made and my whole spiritual growth is tied up into this. And if I love myself, the Bible says, if husbands, if you love yourself, you love your wife.

No one's hated his own flesh. And in the same says, if you just love Christ and you want to grow in Christ, then you love the body. It's like, Oh, this is what I need. This is the method that God has chosen for my own spiritual sanctification. He wrote. Well, then we should care for one another as we care for ourselves. It says that there may not be any division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. That is when one member suffers, we should all suffer yesterday. I actually was Thursday. I went to see my brother in the ICU. My brother Jason has blood clots right now, and they have gone into his lungs. I've learned that they pass through the heart into the lungs and the pretty large clots. And they think that leftover from last year's clots that put them in the ICU and the clots are not dissolving. And I'm watching my brother, who's just a couple of years older than me, I'm watching him in the hospital bed because it's in his lungs. I can't he's having a hard time breathing. And every time he takes a deep breath, it hurts him. And so he's only shallow breath, so he doesn't breathe heart.

So he has to have pain medication and he has to have oxygen and they're monitoring him. And it's a scary thing. And while I was watching my brother suffer, I looked over and and try to talk to his wife. And I saw, I think she's suffering as much as he is.

I saw her worry, her concern. I know she was suffering because she wouldn't leave his bed.

She's staying the night on a chair. Why would you do that?

Why would you suffer with some? Well, that's your pain. It's not my pain. I'm going home to sleep.

And watching her suffer, watch my brother suffer, I started feeling a terrible. I mean, this is my brother. And I begin to, to some smaller degree, suffer alongside of them.

And this is the way the body should be. Because if someone's hurting, that's your pain.

It's like, well, it doesn't matter if this person's in sin. If you think, hey, if this person, if we do try to discipline on someone, he's like, well, that's the, um, that's that.

I'm thankful. It's not me. Do you not realize that has a negative effect upon the whole body?

I mean, do you want one of your body parts to be ill? If you get sick or you're hurting, you go tend to it. You tend to the whole body. Even if your feet hurt, you have to tend to your feet.

Even if you have a hangnail, that still can irritate you. You have to tend to even the smallest little inconveniences and hurts. And so when you think about the church, like if, if someone's hurting, if it's physical elements or if this spiritual sin or falling, like that's affecting the whole. And this is a so important for us to see. And I want us to see this because some of you, and I dare say this, but we need to say it. I probably need to say this probably ever three months, but if any of you men are looking at pornography, you think it's an isolated thing. You think it's just yourself. You think that no one's affected by that. It's a harmless innocent was not innocent, but you think, oh, this just affecting me and I feel bad and I feel guilty. Listen, do you realize that's hurting the whole church? How is it hurting the whole church? Because you're not at the spiritual level to invest into the church as you should be.

So you're, you're neglecting giving more than you should be, than what you are giving because you're distracted and you're falling in sin. And so you're hindering the spiritual growth of the whole body. So it's not just about you. It's not just about me. That's why we all listen. If we want to love the church, what's the best thing we can do for the church? I'm going to get to this at the conclusion. What's the best thing I can do for GBC? The best thing you can do for GBC is love Jesus Christ with all your heart, mind and soul. To have a growing love for the Lord Jesus Christ that who as Jimmy federally prayed, it starts oozing out of you. It comes out of you. That's the best thing you can give the church is not singing ability and not preaching ability and not physical gifts, not even money.

The best thing you can give the church is your love for the Lord, which will come out of your love for the saints.

But we suffer when others suffer and we rejoice when we rejoice last week. Was it last week?

Where's Trinity? Trinity come with me. He's like trying to get my attention.

Trinity Ashford. He's trying to get my attention last week. And he's two weeks ago.

I can't for God. He's trying to get my attention. He's like Jeff, Jeff, Jeff. And I was talking to someone Jeff Jeff Jeff. He's smiling. I already knew what he wanted to tell me, but that didn't spoil it. I'm engaged. And it's like the sea Abigail smile and hurt his smile. It's like that brought joy to my heart to see, you know, these babies being born, these engagements, people getting out of the hospital. This is, we should rejoice when others rejoice. We should sorrow when other people sorrow. Now, a couple closing applications. How can we care for such a large body? This is another question I always get. And you get this is like, there's just too many of us. I wish there was only like a handful. Don't realize God has given us all of us because we need all of us. But then again, how do we serve so many? Well, you can't serve everybody, but again, you serve five people and those five people are serving five people. It's your, your, your pouring into the body and the body is serving itself. The wave that Paul put it in Ephesians four. He said it this way. He gave apostles and prophets and evangelists and shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. I think about it as a shepherd of one of the shepherds. It's like, how do I handle this? You know, understand the weight of having a church and all the problems and all the needs and all the people. It's like, how do you handle all this? Well, you can't. The simple fact is you, one preacher, even six pastors can't, we can't do it, but we're not designed to do it all. We're not. We're designed to do a lot, but we're to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And it's like us working together that the body is ministered to. And so it's like, this is how the church functions. And this is another thing that he will talk about. We'll second grade. These talks about is like when you're suffering, you learn how to work through the suffering and you're comforted by someone else who went through assault and suffering similar to that. Then you have the comfort now in order to give it to someone else who may go and may go through a hardship. So God is equipping you through your sufferings and your trials and through the situations that you're in your life circumstances, the spiritual giftings and the knowledge that you have and the encouragement that you have.

You have something now to serve someone else and see the body is serving you.

Now you're serving the body and this by us loving one another and caring for one another, shepherding one another in the sense of overseeing one another and pouring out ourselves in one other and doing the one another's, encouraging one another. The body is ministered to. Here's my last question and application. How do we keep from burnout? How do we not burn ourselves out?

A lot of people skip out of church and said, I'm done or retire from ministry because they just burn themselves out. And burnout is like this. When you give more than you receive, there's only so much water in this cup and haven't been. Now there's a little less, but unless it's constantly being filled, I'm going to drink all of it eventually.

And then when you don't have anything else in the cup, you have nothing else to give.

Burnout is when you're serving and ministering and some of you are maybe facing a little bit of burnout. You're calling this person, you're inviting this person in hospitality ministries, and you're worried about this person. You're worried about that person. You got a lot of concerns and worry and the ever, but there's so many worries. You just don't have enough heart to face all the worries. You don't have enough in you to take another phone call, another hospital visit. He's like, I'm, I'm starting to burn out. And a lot of times burnout happens when you're getting criticized or you're not good enough. You know, it's like, man, I just, I'm out. I'm done. I'm done. And it's like, how do you keep from that happening? So here's the, here's the part part of our spiritual stream comes from one another because God's designed it that way that we're in the body and we're being ministered to one another. Hopefully even these sermons add some spiritual fluid into the body pumps you encourage you for the week. Hopefully, but what if you're giving more than the sermons are pouring into you and you're giving more than other saints are pouring into you and you're just serving your serving your serving and you don't have enough to give and there's not enough people giving back into you and you're pouring out more than you're pouring into you. That's when burnout happens. How do you prevent that from happening?

And here's the only, only way to do it. I say this for myself. I say this for you. I say is for the health of this church. The only way we can be really, really good at pouring ourselves out and serving the church is if we're setting at the feet of Jesus Christ. You're to get some growth and ministering to from Christ through one another. The fellowship of the saints is God is serving you through the method of His body, but you also have to remember there is a real personal relationship with Jesus and you have to have that. You have to be in the word. See, Jesus is the only one who. He's infinite and pouring out and he doesn't need to support into him. And he just keeps giving and giving and giving you pour into someone and they didn't call you back. It kind of like, well, I thought that I felt portrayed. I thought I was loving them and now they're upset with me.

Now they're upset. You know, how many times have you done that? You serve someone then two years later, they forget about it and then they're mad at you about something like what, what, what is what I can. Lord is constantly giving and giving and giving. And if you're not at the feet of Christ being ministered by Jesus Christ, you're going to be critical.

You're going to be upset. You're going to be unable to forgive someone. There's someone who's going to hurt your feelings because you're going to look for the church to satisfy only that which Christ can satisfy. And you can't, you can't keep your mother. You can't keep doing it for your children. Fathers, you can't keep doing it for your wives. You can't just keep pouring unless Christ Jesus himself is pouring into you. And this is what Jesus says. You abide in me, abide in me. And unless you abide in me and my words abide in you, you cannot do anything.

But you'll bear much fruit. You'll bear a lot of fruit. You'll be very productive in the church of the living God if you're abiding in Christ. So that's our number one responsibility for the good of the church. Set at the feet of Christ. We're interdependent. This is a beautiful day and God is done. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for the church. Thank you for Christ in your son's name.