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00:34 Amen. Thank you for joining me today. Here we are in the third part of a series on the body of Christ and our role in the body of Christ, what we can learn about the body of Christ, how that many members all work together for the good of the whole body.
00:53 Amen. And we know that the head is the one that runs the body and the head of the body of Christ is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. And here we are picking up in part three with the idea of teamwork in the body of Christ, working together for a common goal and how we all should do that.
01:10 And I’m so excited you’re listening today. We’re gonna pick right up here part three of this series on the body of Christ, picking up with the idea of teamwork. Think of an office.
01:21 You know, I think of an office. You think of a, say, a medium, a small or medium business. There’s an office and let’s say there’s 20, 30 people in that office and they love the owner, right? They love the business, right? They want the business to succeed.
01:34 They want to reach their goal, right? And they’re serious about it. They’re earnest about it. And then I’ve disqualified, I think, a lot of offices now explaining this type of example.
01:44 They’re serious. They’re earnest. They want to do a great job.
01:46 They love the owner, love the business, love their boss. They have different talents and skills, right? But they’re all working towards one goal. And I know that sounds so simple, but when you think about that, that’s like teamwork, is it not? And that’s kind of what the body is.
02:03 The body is working together as a team to gain a result that’s favorable to the head of the body, which we know as Christ. We see here also that in the Scriptures we learn how the body can be hurt if one member is not involved. Think of the necessary members, the feeble members.
02:24 Imagine if they just throw in the towel and say, well, this is not for me, amen. This is for somebody else. I don’t have any splashy testimony.
02:31 I don’t have any great skill that’s going to bring me a bunch of attention. I don’t know what to do. And they walk away.
02:38 You know, the example that came to me, and I don’t know if it’s a good example or not, but playing football in high school, a little bit in college, you see some very large individuals, very strong. The strongest people I’ve really encountered in life have been football players. One time I stayed at a hotel in Atlanta many years ago, and I saw, I think it was the 49ers, they were staying there and they were walking out of the hotel, and I was just stunned at how large these people are.
03:03 And yet, if they hurt their little toe, their pinky toe, if they hurt that toe, sometimes their whole career is over. So you have massive, 350, 400-pound men sometimes, oh, 375 now, something like that, that are huge and strong. They could lift up a car, amen, they’re strong.
03:22 And that little toe could end their whole career. It could end their whole career. And the idea is all the parts of the body work together.
03:36 And some of these little parts are so vital, we don’t know, we don’t realize how vital they are until they’re hurt. And then you start saying, I had no idea that this meant so much to the working of the body.
03:41 And God, I think, is telling us we need to come together, help one another, because you don’t realize how much that prayer warrior that’s just in their prayer closet, and again, no one sees them, no one knows, but they’re working for God day and night, bringing to Him the petitions, supplications, giving it to Him in earnest of the saints of God, of the church of God, of the goings-on that needs to be prayed about.
04:06 They are just working relentlessly. Oh, we can’t have them go away. And we realize that we need to support one another.
04:14 One thing that came to mind yesterday, we’d gone up to Forest City, my wife and I, to get groceries, and we were in Forest City, and it was very busy. And at the most busy intersection, there was one man with a sign and a verse from John on there. And he had a tie on, he had his Sunday best on.
04:28 And I got to think he was a preacher, he had a Bible in his hand, and he was standing there proclaiming the Word of God. One man, one man doing that. And it kind of convicted me a little bit, a lot, because I said, man, someone should be with this man.
04:43 And we honked, we waved at him, I gave him a thumbs up. Least I could do is try to encourage him. But really, that pales in comparison.
04:52 I mean, if he’s a preacher, where’s the church, Amen? And who’s going to come alongside Him? Because maybe a little bit of encouragement, maybe someone there to be out there to share the gospel, to share the Word in these last days, maybe that’ll keep them there a little bit longer, and then maybe someone will drive by and see that sign, and they’ll recognize their need, Amen.
05:09 Maybe the Lord has been working on somebody, and that man could win him to the Lord. The Lord could win that person to himself through that man, I should say. And yet, where’s the church body? We have to stand up for one another.
05:23 I thank God for the preachers that are willing to be bold in these last days. And I believe the Lord gave me a ministry, a small church and a radio ministry, because that’s maybe the skills that he gave me and all this so forth. And he gave that man the boldness to stand on the street corner.
05:41 And I just applaud him for doing that. And as part of the body of Christ, I know that maybe I’m not out there doing the same thing, but I need to support him, and we need to support him, amen? And we need to be out there, even if we’re just standing alongside them, even if we’re just patting them on the back, even if we’re just holding the sign. We did a ministry event recently, and the kids were holding signs up.
06:01 And the sign was telling people what was available at our church and so forth, but the kids were taking part. Even the kids can take part. The whole church body should be involved, working one and another together for the causes of Christ.
06:15 Romans 12:3-5, kind of sums this up as well. Romans 12:3-5 for I say, though the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one member one of another.
06:41 We are equally valued in the body. God is not a respecter of persons. The person in the body doing something small on the world site is just as valued as the person doing a more visible job.
06:53 We need to start thinking about how we can help and encourage others as they work to fulfill God’s purpose for their lives. We need to bear the burdens of those in the body like they were our own burdens. Bear the burdens like they are your own.
07:08 When someone in the body is hurting, we should all be hurting. With this war breaking out in Ukraine, I have been praying, not just for Ukraine, not just for peace, but I’m specifically praying for the Christians in Ukraine, because they are part of the body, and there’s a war on them, there’s a war on us, Amen, and we need to be there for them, at least in prayer, if not any other way that we can help them, Amen. When one part of the body hurts, the whole body hurts, Amen.
07:32 Now, I want you to think about this. We’re one body, we’re different members, and we are yet to think and act with one mind, and so you see both the unification and the diversity, and then again the unification.1 Corinthians 1:10, Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
08:00 So even though we’re different, we must think alike, and who do we think alike? What’s our guide for thinking alike? We think like Christ, right?
08:08 Christ’s thoughts, his mind, it’s shared throughout his word, so we can learn how, and I believe the Holy Spirit has a big role in this, but we learn how to think like Christ and think properly like the head of our body, the church body, when we get into His living word and we study the word and we seek the Lord.
08:28 we realize that the Holy Spirit’s working within us to mold us, to shape us, that’s that clay example, to put us through the fire and to mold us as the Father would have us to be, and to be more like Christ.
08:39 Our goal as Christians should be to be progressing in Christ each day, to be more like Christ each day, so we can align the body correctly. What does Christ like look like? Very hard to sum up in just a few bullet points, but it means obedience to God the Father, Amen. Christ, when you think of Christ, he was obedient, and that means doing God’s will before your own.
09:04 It is, Lord, thy will be done, rather than many people in this world saying, my will be done. Obedient to the Father, and I have many examples, but I’ll spare you of them. Understand obedience is Christ-like, loving in a sacrificial way.
09:17 Oh, how Christ gave and gave and gave. He gave everything, amen? In the Bible, you would see words or summaries like condescension, like condescending himself down, or humiliation, allowing himself to be humiliated. Oh, he was obedient and he gave, he loved sacrificially, He gave unto the death, Amen.
09:36 The Bible says that the greatest love is to give your life for a friend, and Christ showed us that great love on the cross, Amen. And we are to love in a sacrificial way.
09:45 If the only time that you give is when it benefits you, that’s not really giving, you know, it’s not really giving, amen? I would have people tell me, this is funny, they’d say, I volunteered today. I said, well, that’s great, you volunteered today. Yeah, I’m on the job, and they pay me to volunteer once a quarter.
10:01 Okay, well, if they pay you to volunteer, then you just went to work today, okay? Amen? When giving sacrificially means I kind of needed this, I kind of wanted this, but I gave it, or I really needed this, and I really wanted it, and I gave it.
10:13 And we see Christ mentioning that with the lady with two mites, giving out of her need, out of her necessity, make it pinch a little bit, Amen.
10:22 The Lord wants to see you have skin in the game. He wants to see you living for him, not just in the fat and happy times, but in the tough times, Amen.
10:29 Love in a sacrificial way, and that also deals with faith, knowing that God will provide.
10:36 Putting others’ needs before our own, that’s part of being in the body of Christ, putting others’ needs before our own. And dying to set the sinner free, Christ did that. He died to set the sinner free.
10:46 We must die to self, Amen. Every day, we must die to self. You’ll wake up with a set of ideas, or needs, or desires that are ungodly. You’re going to have to die to those, and you’re going to have to pick up your cross, Amen. And you’re going to say, what would God have me to do today?
10:59 How would God have me to live today, Amen. It’s not fun, it’s not pretty, it’s not popular, but it’s godly, Amen. And it works the right spirit in you of patience and faith, understanding that our reward is in heaven, and it is great for people that practice this.
11:15 And again, these traits, they bring the body together. If the whole church body is obedient to God the Father, loving in a sacrificial way, putting other needs before their own, dying to self, if the whole church is doing all these things, the church body is coming together. If we’re loving each other, if we’re caring for each other, if we’re doing our very best to live for the Lord and be witnesses for Him, the church body is going to grow, it is going to be nourished, it’s going to do what God wants it to do.
11:42 And by the way, everything I mentioned goes against the idea of having divisions. 1 Corinthians 1:10 plainly puts and that there be no divisions among you. How many divisions do you see today in the church?
11:57 How many denominations are there? How many different fights are there in churches over dumb stuff? How much gossip is there in the church? How much pettiness is there in the church? How much backbiting and attacking and games and all manner of wickedness has crept into the church?
12:18 There should be no divisions in the body of Christ.
12:22 If I want to be healthy, the last thing I would do is try to cut my arm off, right? But effectively, as Christians, we oftentimes seem to do that. How much more so does it grieve the Lord?
12:32 That Christians, these are, you know, if someone’s born again, they are a son and daughter of God, amen? People think everyone’s God’s children.
12:39 No, no, no.
12:39 Everyone’s God’s creation. God’s children are those that have been born those that have been saved, Amen. And when you are hurting each other, you are doing what? You are grieving the Lord because that is his son or daughter, Amen.
12:52 And then on top of it, you’re hurting the church body. And so when we see a desire or a lust to create division in the church, we must identify that that is from Satan and we must get that out and get rid of it and pray to God for it to cease, Amen.
13:08 That’s what Satan does not want you to do.
13:11 He does not want you to pray and be in the word. If you’re in the word and you’re praying, then he’s going to have to go, Amen.
13:15 Because the word is true and God’s word never returns void. And when you give it to the Lord in prayer and you ask Him to help you and rid you of that desire to create any kind of divisions in the body, Amen. Wish I had more time here.
13:29 I say that every message, Amen. But wish I had more time to dive into this today, but we’re going to pick up again very soon in part four of this series on the body of Christ.
13:38 And I want you to examine your heart today. Are you having impulses or feelings of sowing divisions in the church? Are you bringing people together or are you splitting them apart?
13:47 Only you know, but maybe the Lord’s been convicting you of something.
Maybe you’ve seen someone else do something. I pray that you encourage others, that you love others in the body of Christ. You wouldn’t want to cut your hand off and you wouldn’t want to hurt your hand.
14:01 So you don’t want to hurt a fellow member of the body of Christ. Keep that in mind today. Tune in very soon for our next episode.
14:08 Thank you so much for listening. Take care. God bless and Amen.