Belonging

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Transcript:

1 Corinthians chapter 12. I talked to you this morning in the second sermon that I gave you about one of what I see as the steps of discipleship. And I’ve got a graphic I designed years ago when I started thinking about this, where you could kind of see the projection I’m talking about where somebody goes from ignorance of God to spiritual maturity.

And I’m thinking I ought to print one of those off and put it on the bulletin board so you can kind of see, be reminded of the order all this goes in. What we talked about this morning was becoming, learning what it means to be and to become a follower of Jesus Christ, just taking those first baby steps as a new Christian. And what we’re going to talk about tonight is belonging, belonging to the local church.

And unlike the others, which so far have been, there’s this step and then this step and then this step, these two really go together because I think they happen best when they happen in connection with one another. A few years ago, I noticed something of a generation gap in the way we talk. I don’t believe there’s room in the body of Christ for a generation gap.

I honestly do not. But there’s something of a generation gap in the way we talk. I’ve noticed people my parents’ age and younger tend to say, I go to such and such church.

And I started to notice that people my grandparents’ age and older, and I don’t know where exactly the cutoff line is, But people my grandparents’ age and older will say, I belong to such and such church. And you know what? I think the older people have got it right.

If I can tell you a story before we get to the passage, I think the story illustrates what we’re going to talk about from the passage tonight. But I’ve told you all before, I was saved at an early age. I was raised in a Christian home.

I was raised by parents who loved the Lord. And we were at church all the time. My mother was the church secretary.

and my dad was one of the Sunday school teachers and a trustee. I don’t think we had deacons, but he was one of the leaders in the church, and we were there all the time. But through a series of circumstances, one church ended up disbanding, another one ended up splitting, and things happened.

And when I was a teenager, we found ourselves looking for a church. Now, I’d always been in church, But my first experience of getting to go to church out of choice was an incredible time for me. When I was 16 years old, I found and joined, and I’ve told you before, about Southgate Baptist Church there in Moore.

I found that church in 2002, and I’ve just let slip to you how old I am if you want to do the math. But I was 16 years old, and my family was still looking for a church, and I had fallen in love with this one, and they didn’t mind if I got involved there, and they ended up getting involved and are still there. But I joined that church, and it was to me an incredible thing.

I was a weird kid. I would have gone to church the whole time, even if they hadn’t made me. But when I got to make the choice about where to go and where I felt God was leading me, I found this church, and it was the most incredible thing to me.

Not that it was perfect. There’s no such thing as a perfect church. But what I saw was a group of believers who loved one another.

You know, there were disagreements in the eight or so years that we were there, but I never saw people really get cross with each other. Now, that came later when I was pastoring and there were fistfights in business meeting. Not here, by the way.

If you’re visiting with us here, the fistfights in business meeting were not here. Never really saw people get cross with one another. Just saw them love one another.

There were men who taught the Word of God and didn’t teach it as though it was an option, didn’t teach it as though here’s what might have happened, stood in the pulpit and said boldly, this is what the Lord says. This is what God’s Word says. I found there are men that I could look up to.

And if you’ve been around our work very long at all, you may recognize some of the names. But I got to, for several years, study at the feet of men like J. Harold Hodges and Doug Brewer and Gary Devine and some men who are tremendously respected among our missionary Baptist churches and got to look up to them and learn from their teaching but also watch their lives.

I found people, I found brothers and sisters in Christ who were in many cases closer to me than some members of my own extended family and remain so to this day. Found a place where they would actually, as a dumb 16-year-old kid, they would let me jump in and serve and minister in places. That was incredible to me, and I could go on and on.

But folks, it wasn’t just that church. I’ve told people many times that you get out of church what you put into it. And people go to church too often, I think, and say, I didn’t get anything out of it.

Well, what did you go in expecting? And there are a lot of things that I’ve gotten wrong throughout my life, but I think in my view of the church, I’ve gotten it right. And I think I had it right back then.

I was ready. I wanted to serve the Lord and I dove in with both feet to the church. And folks, that’s not unique to Southgate to find that kind of group of people.

I believe we have that here. I believe we have a loving group of people here. I believe we are a church that stands unapologetically on God’s word.

It’s not to say we’ve got everything right, but I think when we notice something we’ve got wrong, we fix it in accordance with God’s word. There are still men that I can look up to in this church, not only to learn from your wisdom, but to watch your lives. And I’m still amazed that you let a dumb 27-year-old kid, if you didn’t do the math already, that you let me minister with you and to you.

Folks, the local church is an incredible thing. I hear people say all the time at funerals and deaths of family members that they can’t imagine how people make it through the situations of life, that they can’t imagine how somebody makes it through something that difficult without a church family. I think there’s some truth in that, but I don’t see how anybody makes it through just the day-to-day part of life without the encouragement and the support and the challenge of other brothers and sisters in Christ. I think the local church is absolutely vital to us as Christians.

The local church is the most important group we will ever be part of. I hesitate even to call it an organization because it’s not an organization. It’s like all the old Baptist writers say, it’s an organism.

It’s a living thing. But folks, these are, and I don’t mean this in a cultic way when I say we belong to each other. But the bonds we have in the local church are and should be some of the most important in our lives because we’re the body of Christ. If you haven’t figured out so far, I have a high view of the local church and its role for the believer.

And I may tell you, you know, if you miss because you’re sick or you went on vacation or something or something came up, it’s not a big deal. Don’t worry about it. But you will never hear me treat participation in the local church as though it’s something to take or leave. If we treat something as though we can take it or leave it, most often we’ll leave it, kind of like me and exercise.

I like the idea of running and exercise, but I can kind of take it or leave it, and so that’s why I’ve run one time in the last three months, and that was only a mile and a half. But folks, the relationships of the local church and the attendance of the local church and participation in it and ministry in it are not something that we should be able to take or leave. As believers, it’s something that’s absolutely necessary if we want to do the Christian life the right way.

And even more essential for new believers as they’re just learning how to follow Jesus Christ. The local church was designed, among other things, to teach us and to train us how to follow Jesus Christ by watching each other and by learning from each other. In 1 Corinthians chapter 12, it says, for the body is one. And when he says the body, he’s speaking here both of the physical human body and of the church.

He uses the body as a metaphor for the church. For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.

And so what he basically tells us is just as the body is many members, and in my body I have ten fingers. I had to stop and think about that. I have ten fingers and ten toes, two feet, one brain, two eyes, and we could go down the whole list. It’s all part of the same body.

That’s the same for you. You have however many fingers you have, however many eyes, but it’s all part of the same body. And he says the body of Christ is the same way.

We ought not to assume that we’re all just free agents in the Christian life, running around, everybody acting for their own purpose. We were put together and designed to be part of the body of Christ. And that body also has many members, but is one body. Verse 15 says, if the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body?

And if the say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body? So he asks a couple of rhetorical questions here.

If the foot got envious and said, look at the hand, look at what it can do. Folks, the hand can do this with the opposable thumb and grasp things. The foot really can’t do that.

For most animals, their hands or paws or whatever can’t even do that. The hand is an incredible thing. And suppose the foot got jealous of the hand and its ability and said, I’m not as good as the hand.

I’m not an important part of this body. Is it any less part of the body just because it can’t do this? No, it’s an important part of the body as well.

Said, if the ear says, I’m not the eye, can’t see anything out of your ears, I can’t see. And the eye, folks, really is an incredible, an incredible thing. The intricacy of the eye and just looking that the eye leads me, as most things do, to wonder how can people reject the idea of a creator.

But the eye is an incredible piece of craftsmanship. And suppose the ear got jealous and said, because we’re not the eye, we’re not part of the body. We’re not important here.

Folks, that would be ridiculous because the ear is incredible in its own right. I don’t understand. I mean, from a physics standpoint, I understand how it all fits together, but it doesn’t seem like it should work.

That a hole in each side of your head connected with some bones and tissue lets me experience Mozart. That should not work, but it does. The ear is an incredible part of the body as well.

And the idea here is that if any of us were to say, well, I’m not Brother Ted. What do I matter to the body of Christ? I can’t be Brother Ted.

Folks, that’s crazy. Or I can’t be Miss June. What do I matter?

Folks, we’re all part of the body, and every member of the body plays an important role. If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?

So he says, if all of the body was an eye, how would we hear anything? If the whole body, if everything the body does was to hear, if the whole body was an ear, how would we smell anything? But now God, now hath God set members, every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him.

And if they were all one member, where were the body? Folks, if we were all the same, if we all for the exact same purpose. If God had called us to be exactly alike and God had called us to exactly the same ministry, what would the church look like?

Church would be very heavy on some things and very light on some others. And yet God has put all of us together for a purpose. God has put us together to learn from one another and to strengthen one another as we’re going to see in just a moment.

I’ve heard a friend of mine say many times as he’s preaching and he’s talking about marriage that in a marriage relationship, if you’re both exactly alike, one of you is unnecessary. Think about that. If you’re both exactly alike, one of you is unnecessary.

That’s why I’m glad I married Christian. We’re both very necessary. We’re both very necessary.

And even in our marriage, I’ve noticed, and raising kids, I’ve noticed that where I get frustrated, she has patience and vice versa in certain situations. And where she just doesn’t care, God has softened my heart and vice versa. And God put us together for that reason.

Folks, is it any less true in the body of Christ that God has put us together for a very specific purpose, and each of us with a very specific purpose in mind? God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where were the body?

So if the whole body was made of fingers, it wouldn’t be much of a body. If the whole body was made of eyes, we wouldn’t be able to move anywhere, hear anything, eat anything, no heartbeat. But now are they all many members yet, but one body.

See, we don’t think of our body as a collection of, you know, fingers and a collection of feet and muscles. We tend to think of our body as a whole. Folks, it’s the same way for the church.

We were never meant. I may be getting ahead of myself just a little bit here. But we were never meant.

We were never intended. We were never designed as Christians to say, well, I’m going to come in here and worship and be together with these people on Sunday, and then I’m going to go about my entire week, my life separate from them, no thought of them. Folks, we are supposed to be knit together in fellowship.

We’re supposed to do the Christian life as a body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of thee. That would be crazy if the eye said to the hand, we don’t need you.

There are two of us, and we can see all you can do is this. Get away. How would the body feed itself and get nourishment for the eyes?

What if the head said to the feet, we don’t need you anymore? You might have a very intelligent body that was just stuck sitting down and never able to do anything. I cannot say to the hand, verse 21, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon those we bestow more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. He says the weaker parts of the body, the more feeble parts of the body are necessary.

The eye is a very sensitive area, especially in contrast to the heel of the foot. You’ve got some of your thickest skin on the heel of the foot. The other day I had to, well, on a couple of days, I had to try to help Christian get a splinter out and took a needle and tweezers and alcohol and tried to dig the splinter out of her heel.

And you know, I got probably an eighth of an inch down into the skin before it really started to hurt. I guarantee if I had stuck that needle even a little bit into her eye, she would have screamed. The eye is not as tough as the foot.

And yet how important, how important is the eye? See, its weakness doesn’t mean it’s not necessary. Its weakness just means it’s there to be protected.

And those parts of the body which are less honorable, we bestow more abundant honor. Those parts of the body that we look at and say they’re not as important. Oh, that’s just the foot.

Is it easy to get by without a foot? No, ideally it’s easiest to get by with both of them, to get around with both of them. And our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.

The less lovely parts have more abundant loveliness. For our comely parts have no need, but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked. That there should be no schism in the body, that the members should have the same care one for another.

And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. For one member be honored, all the members rejoice in it or with it. And folks, I love verse 26 here.

And if 1 Corinthians 12, 26 does not describe a particular church, they’re not doing it right. Can I just say it that way? If 1 Corinthians 12, 26 does not describe our church, we are not doing this body thing right.

When one member suffers, we all suffer with it. And when one member is honored, all the members rejoice in it. Folks, so great should be our love for and care for one another.

that when one of us is in pain, we all weep together, and that when one of us rejoices, we all rejoice together. And in verse 27, he says, now you are the body of Christ and members in particular. He goes on in verse 28 to talk about some of those roles that he had put in the church, prophets and, I’m sorry, apostles and prophets and teachers and evangelists, and we could go on from there, but we’re going to leave off tonight with verse 27, because there are some things that outlined so far in the part we’ve looked at of chapter 12 that tell us why the local church is so important, why this body of Christ is so important, especially to new believers, but folks to all of us as believers.

First of all, the local church is needed for believers to grow together. We need the church to grow together. Now, can you grow on your own?

Sure you can. Sure you can. But I don’t think it’s normal. I don’t think it’s God’s intention.

And it’s not supposed to be the normal state of affairs that a Christian says, I’ve just been born again, now I’m ready to strike it out on my own, and I can feed myself from the Word, and I can pray on my own, and I can do all that. Folks, you can. And I know there have been people in communist countries and Muslim countries who’ve come to Christ, and there’s not another Christian around them for miles.

And yet the Lord builds them, and the Lord strengthens them. But folks, that’s not the normal state of affairs. The church was designed for us to be able to grow together.

He talks about all these parts of the body. And folks, the body grows and develops together. From the time of conception, the body grows and develops together.

Some of you have looked at the, some of you have noticed the pin on my jacket of the two little feet. It’s the size and shape of the feet of an unborn baby at 10 weeks of development. And with that, when that was given to me, it came with a little card that talked about all the weeks of gestation and the development that goes on.

And it’s incredible how all of these things work together and develop in concert with one another. And the eyelashes grow and the heartbeat and the toenails and the, oh my goodness, it’s incredible. It almost sounds like an understatement then to think that David would say, I’m fearfully and wonderfully made.

But all of these things develop in concert with one another. And they develop so that they can work together. And so when he talks about all these parts of the physical body that they develop together, ladies and gentlemen, the church body is supposed to develop together.

I believe we’re to help one another grow. That goes back to some of the things we talked about this morning with becoming. We’re supposed to take the weaker ones in the faith and teach them the Word.

Those who are stronger are supposed to encourage one another with the Word. We’re supposed to hold each other accountable to God’s Word. We’re supposed to encourage one another in spiritual things.

We’re supposed to grow together as we learn to serve Christ and learn to be more like Him. When I first came here, people who were not from this church would ask me where I went to Bible college. At that point, I had not gone to Bible college anywhere.

And they said, well, where did you study the Bible? As though I had to go pay tuition in order to study the Bible. I said, everything I know I’ve learned from the local church.

Now, that doesn’t just mean sitting in Sunday services. That means spending a lot of time outside of what we do during regular service time, studying God’s Word with other people in the church, and then going home and digging into it on my own. See, as a Christian, most of my growth has come as a result of the ministry of the local church.

Many of you, I think, could say the same thing. And the church was designed for us to grow together. Especially new believers need that as they’re taking the first steps and just beginning to grow as new babes in Christ. Second of all tonight, the local church is needed for believers to work together.

Needed for us to work together. And I may not need to belabor this point too much because we’ve already talked about the foolishness of the hand saying, I’m not the foot or vice versa, or the ear saying, I’m not the eye. Really?

They’re supposed to work together. They each have their own job. I don’t want to try to see things out of my ears and hear things through my eyes.

No, they each have a job and they work together. When I’m in the car and I’m driving and I hear that high-pitched whine, not of the police because I’ve never had a speeding ticket. But I hear that high-pitched whine of an ambulance.

My ears hear it. They do their job. And then I have to turn and look in my mirrors or sometimes turn around and look to see where the ambulance is coming and know where it is.

And then my hands have to do their job, if it’s on the same road I am, to pull over. Folks, the parts of the body work together. The members of the church work together, and we learn to work together by working together.

We learn how to serve God, I believe, by working together. What I know about preaching and teaching I learned in the local church as well. Not only by being trained by godly men, but by watching them as well and seeing what they did.

And folks, we work best when we work together. If you’re not part of a ministry outside of just what goes on here on Sunday mornings, you may not have ever seen this, but I look at some of the things we’ve done downstairs for the kids, just to give you an example. Vacation Bible school or the Easter egg hunt, some of the bigger things that we’ve pulled off.

And everybody that participates, everybody from the church, does a seemingly small job. Somebody will run some kind of three-legged race. I don’t know if we’ve had three-legged race, but somebody will run some kind of game out there for the kids.

And while the kids are out there playing a game, there will be ladies in here fixing food so they can give it to the parents and share with them. And there are others that are walking around talking to the families and making contact and talking about our church and talking about the Lord. And it’s incredible to see the things that are accomplished, even in something like that, seeing the things that are accomplished by people simply working together and doing the job that they’ve been given to do.

And none of us could do it on our own. Well, folks, it’s the same way in every aspect of the church. When it comes to disciple making, when it comes to evangelism, if all the ministry that ever gets done is what the pastor and the deacons do, who we look at and say, well, they’re the church leadership, it’s their job, I understand.

But if that’s all the ministry that ever gets done, there’s a lot of ministry that’s lacking. because each and every one of us are members of the body and play a part. The heart can pump all the blood it wants to, but if the feet don’t get out of bed that morning, there’s not a lot that’s accomplished.

And folks, we work best when we learn to work together the way God’s designed us to work. Third of all tonight, the local church is needed for believers to strengthen one another. And he talks about the more feeble parts being the more necessary.

Folks, sometimes the life and the vibrancy and the excitement in our fellowship comes with the people who are newest to the faith and still have that excitement before the time sets in. When I’ve told you, I’ve heard people say, oh, they got saved. They’re so excited.

Don’t worry. They’ll get over it. We all do.

I hate that. I don’t want to get over it. I feel sometimes like I have gotten over it, but I don’t want to get over it.

And people who are new believers sometimes are so excited and they bring life and they breathe vibrancy into the church. And yet they’re some of our weakest members and need to be protected. Need to be protected from false teachings.

Need to be protected from those who would take advantage of them in the name of religion. Need to be protected in all sorts of ways and kept on the right path. Folks, that doesn’t make them any less valuable.

That doesn’t make them any less necessary, any less needed to the church. If anything, it makes them more important. And it makes our role in strengthening them more important.

And folks, that’s also not just true of new believers. Sometimes there are mature, established believers who go through seasons and periods of life where life is just about to beat them down. I know that because I’ve talked to some of you, and I’ve been there myself.

And sometimes the only thing that keeps us going day to day is the local church and our brothers and sisters in that church praying for us, calling us, encouraging us, saying, press on, keep going. Folks, it’s the job of the local church to strengthen one another. And finally tonight, it’s the job of the local church to watch over one another.

Now this kind of goes hand in hand with strengthening one another. He tells us in verse 25 that we should all have this same care over one another, that where one member suffers, we all suffer, and where one member is honored, we all rejoice together. Folks, we have a responsibility to watch over and care for one another in the local church.

This world is a hostile place toward believers. Now, we live in a part of the world where we’re somewhat insulated from it, not only in the United States, but in the Bible Belt. And when I read that article to you this morning, several people asked me after church, how does something like that get published in the Bible Belt?

Folks, Satan knows not of the Bible Belt. And Bible Belt or not, this world is a hostile place toward the things of God. The world and the devil are waiting to eat God’s people alive every chance that they have.

And we are supposed to watch over one another. Folks, we can’t do that if the extent of our relationship is sitting in a pew together and saying, hi, how are you on Sunday morning, and then we go back to completely separate lives, and we have no idea who the person is, what their life is like, what they’re involved in. Folks, we have a responsibility to care for and watch over one another.

That doesn’t just mean offering encouragement. That’s involved in the strengthening one another. I think that’s part of it.

But it means sometimes we meet physical needs another. Sometimes when a brother is hungry, we need to be the ones who feed them. Let me rephrase that, not just sometimes.

When a brother is hungry, we need to be the ones to feed them. But we need to watch over them with spiritual care as well. When people are beginning to be susceptible to false ideas, not just things from the Joel Osteens of the world where they turn on the television and everything sounds wonderful and nice, but it’s very light on biblical content.

But also the thoughts that begin to creep in sometimes when, you know, I got saved a few months ago and everything’s been going well, but then things all of a sudden weren’t going so well and I just don’t feel saved. Did I lose it? And there are pitfalls involved for new believers.

And just like we wouldn’t let a baby, newly born, leave out of the hospital and go crawl down the highway by himself, that would be foolish. That would be insane. Folks, we shouldn’t let new believers wander.

Folks, I’m not talking about anything cultish where we need to read each other’s mail and hack into each other’s email and things like that and spy on each other. I’m just talking about being part of each other’s lives and caring for one another. It’s the job of the local church to watch over each other, to care for each other.

And in order to do that, we have to know each other and we have to have fellowship. As I told you at the beginning, I have a very high view of the local church. And membership in the local church is one of the things I cherish most that I have in this world.

It’s been absolutely essential to me as a Christian. And maybe if you’re thinking tonight, I don’t feel like I’m growing as a Christian, maybe it’s time to get more involved in the local church.