1 Corinthians 12:12-27 - We’re All In This Together

Main Idea: God placed you in His Body for your good and the good of others.

WE ARE ALL ONE BODY IN CHRIST

- The Holy Spirit put us together.

- We have the same mission that Jesus gave us.

- We need every part of the Body.

WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT PARTS OF CHRIST’S BODY

- We are different by God’s design.

- We each have good limitations given to us by God.

- We are different so that we can help each other.

WE ALL HAVE CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITIES TO EACH OTHER

- We have a responsibility to serve one another.

- We have a responsibility to be served by others.

- We have a responsibility to protect one another.

- We have a responsibility to honor & respect one another.

- We have a responsibility to care deeply for one another.

- We have a responsibility to empathize with others’ pain.

- We have a responsibility to rejoice with others’ joys.

Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by Apple Podcasts)

Let's do this, if you are in for Corinthians and chapter 12, we're going to read through our passage for today, and then we're going to dive into the message.

Scripture says this, For just as the body is one, and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many are one body, so also is Christ. Like, Bryon, I'm too tired. What in the world is that saying?

Is my finger part of my body? Yeah. Is my toe my finger?

No. Those are 2 different parts. Are they both part of the body?

One body, different parts. Says, this is the way that Jesus operates in and through his people, his body, the church.

Says, for we were all baptized by one spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all given one spirit to drink.

That is that living water that Jesus talked about in John 4 to the woman at the well, that he would give her living water as she asked. He says, indeed, the body is not one part, but men.

If the foot should say, because I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body, it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. I was reading through this passage with my son, a six-year-old the other day. He read this verse and laughed.

The whole time through the rest of this passage, it was just the funniest thing to him. Here, it is absurd, is what Paul is saying. The foot can't be like, oh, well, because I'm not a hand, I'm not actually a part of the body.

And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to that body, it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be?

If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? You guys are all adults, you get it. If you were just one giant eye, you would be a monstrosity or sauron from the Lord of the Rings.

But as it is verse 18, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. Now, to be very clear, he's going to talk a little bit more about this. The body here is the body of Christ, the church corporate.

And though our body, Tabernacle Baptist Church, is one expression of the body of Christ, we are not the sum totality of Christ's body. It's not that everyone that is in Jesus is in this room.

There's a whole bunch of people in Jesus all across our area and all across our world. We are one part of the whole. It says, And if they were all the same part, where would the body?

As it is, there are many parts, but one body. This is the next part that got me cackled. The eye cannot say to the hand, I don't need you.

Or again, the head can't say to the feet, I don't need you. On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. What's tough?

Is your skin tougher or your brain? Like if someone wax your skin, you might get a bruise, but you're more or less fine. If someone waxed your brain without the protection of your skull, you'd be in trouble.

There are weaker parts of you that are invaluable. My eye is not as tough as my skin, but you better believe that my eye is valuable to me.

Verse 23 says, In those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect.

Here, Paul, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, says, You guys recognize that there are parts of our bodies that we clothe, that we would say this isn't presentable out in public, like Myron's knees sometimes, the shorts that he had.

No, but here he's saying there are portions that even though we would say, this isn't as great as the rest of me, I always have my face out and shiny, but I don't know my shoulders, I'm a little ashamed, so I'm going to throw a shirt over that.

Paul says, those parts of the body that we would view as less presentable, these we clothe with greater respect, greater honor. He says, which are respectable parts do not need.

Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable. Paul says, this is a human illustration, but this is about the value that the people around you have. As you look around the room, we've got young and old.

We have people that have been here for 50 years and people that have been here for five weeks. As you look around this room, God does not place your value like the world places your value.

If you are able to make a lot of money, if you have a lot of stuff, if you have never had any problems in your life, the world would say, you are a success. You are worthy of the most honor that we can give you.

We'll slap you on the face of a magazine, and we'll be like, yeah, look at the good life that is offered if you were just like this person. God says it's totally different in my people.

With my people, those that would be looked down on, those struggling with addiction, those that maybe aren't able to do all of the things that others can, whether younger than everyone else or older than everyone else.

God says every person has value and purpose, and they are given honor when they are among the people of God. Or at least they ought to be.

But he says, God put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. Think about that.

God put the different parts in the body, so there would be no division. We're going to talk a little bit more about that. So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it.

If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ and individual members of it. It says, you guys, you are the body of Christ.

If you have come to know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you've turned the keys of your life over to him, you've repented of sin, believed in Jesus, you are a part of the body of Christ.

And so what we're going to see today is that we are all in this together. We're all a part of the body. Would you pray with me?

And we'll dive into the sermon portion of today. Dear Jesus, I ask for your help this morning, Lord. God, there is such a joy, such a goal to aim towards as a result of what we read in this passage.

But, Lord, we fall short, and I fall short. And God, may we choose to have a love for you that surpasses human love, that overflows into a love for others that is completely unlike human love.

Lord, I pray today that if there's anyone here that does not yet know you as their Savior, that today would be the day that they choose you because you are worthy of it all. We love you, God, and we pray all of this in the name of Jesus, amen.

7:21

Unity in Christ

What we're going to see today is that God placed you in His body for your good and the good of others. God placed you in His body for your good and for the good of others. First way that we see this today is that we are all one body in Christ.

This is the first thing that Paul highlights in these verses. He says, it's not multiple bodies. It's just one body.

There's many parts, but you are one body in Christ. And he says a couple of things about us. He says that we were baptized by one spirit into one body, and we were all given one spirit to drink.

You see, the Holy Spirit put us together as the body of Christ. If you are a believer in Jesus, and you have made Tabernacle your church home, in one sense, you didn't really put you here. God put you here.

Even as I think about our area, there are some wonderful gospel preaching churches all around our area, many of whom I'm friends with the pastors of. And I'm amazed that anyone would come to my church and not one of my friend's churches.

I'm like, wow, this is amazing. But it's because God placed each one of us here.

This is one of the essential things that we need to know as we consider all of the other aspects of what Paul has said is that God put me here and if God put me here, he put me here with a mission. And Paul highlights a couple of these things.

He says the Holy Spirit put us in one body, and he says that we are one in baptism. We were all baptized by one spirit into Christ's body. That for every follower of Jesus, the very first step in following Jesus is following him in baptism.

Or as Jesus says in the Great Commission, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit, and then teaching them to observe everything that I have commanded you.

What I love about baptism, and we got to do a couple of baptisms even two weeks ago, is that no one was baptized because they were perfect. No one was baptized because they did enough good works.

No one was baptized because they gave enough money, had a perfect enough attendance record. We were all baptized because of faith in Jesus Christ. And so we all share that together.

If you will, in the water, we're placed into Jesus. And then as we come out, we are part of this body of believers together. And so Paul says, the Holy Spirit is the one that has put you together.

Are you thankful that the Holy Spirit is the one that puts you in Jesus? If it was up to me to put me in Jesus, I think I'd fail. But the Holy Spirit of God, who has never failed, is the one that has made us one with Christ.

And if we're one with Christ, then we are one with the rest of Christ's people as well.

And he says that we were all given one spirit to drink, that we are one in Jesus, that we have all said via our words, our actions, our inner beliefs, that Jesus is our Lord and our Savior. And thereby, that makes us fellow citizens of his kingdom.

So if Jesus is my king, then I'm a citizen of what kingdom? Yeah. And if Laurie believes in Jesus as king, what citizen is she?

Yeah, you guys know it. So all of us together are fellow citizens of this wonderful kingdom of God. And as scripture tells us, we have all been adopted by the same father.

So my father-in-law is here right now. And since Chuck Buck is my dad, my father-in-law, that means that David Buck, his son, is my brother-in-law because we share, kind of, the same father through marriage. We share the same father.

And so it is with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and with God the Father, that we share common parentage. Therefore, we are siblings together.

So we're one in baptism, we're one in Jesus, we have the same kingdom, we have the same father, we have been made one in Jesus. But not only did the Holy Spirit put us together, but we have the same mission that Jesus gave us.

I already mentioned it, the great commission that together we're called to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that Jesus commanded us.

So if we all have the same identity, we've been baptized into the same Lord and Savior. If we have the same father, then we have been made one. Our role consistently wants to divide people.

Jesus is constantly seeking that we would be reunited through the Lord. That it's a unity that's not found just because you have common interests. As I look around the room, we have people that love decorating and doing flowers.

We have people that are more techie. We have people that love to hunt or fish. We have people that love to go on motorcycle rides.

All sorts of different hobbies. But what makes us one is not... Well, we all like the same genre of music.

And so, that's why we're at Tabernacle. Or we all like Bryon so much, and that's why we're at Tabernacle. No.

If this church is centered on me, if this church is centered on our preferences, then we are not being the church that God has called us to be. Instead, we are called to this same one mission that God gave us.

Even as you read through the passage, we're going to look at it at the very end of the sermon, all the ways in which we're called to interact with one another are the ways that Jesus interacted while he was here on earth.

So we have Jesus' mission, we have Jesus' Holy Spirit within us. But then lastly here, we need every part of the body.

So at the very end, I think it's verse number 27, Paul said, Now you are the body of Christ and individual members or parts of that body. If my body was missing a head, would that be a bad thing? Yes or no?

Yeah. Now, if my body was missing a lung, would that be a good thing or a bad thing? That'd be a bad thing.

There's no portion of our bodies that we're like, ah, I really just don't want you. Now some of you are like, listen, an appendix. But listen, unless you're claiming, oh yeah, I want to be the appendix in the body of Christ.

Don't try and poke holes in that particular one. But each of our body parts are important. I view it as important to me.

There are times even when people have to get things like thyroids removed or gallbladders removed and have to take medicine in order to fill in gaps for what their body was supposed to do and what the intent was there.

And so we need every single part of the body. I want you to know, as the pastor here, there is not a one of you that I'm like, oh, well, we could do without Fern. You know, we're fine.

No, every single one of you is important, and you're important because you belong to Jesus. And if you belong to Jesus and you're a part of his body, then that means that you bring something to our family of believers that no one else does.

So don't ever feel like you are unimportant, that you are not valued, that you are not being regularly prayed for. You are valuable to our Lord Jesus Christ. And so you are valuable to every person that knows and loves Jesus and is following him.

I also love in this as we recognize this body of believers is not all of the body of Christ, that we need each part of faith in the body of Jesus. Every church that preaches the gospel is a part of the body. We might differ from them on some things.

They might have a preacher in a robe. They might have a choir each Sunday. They might meet in a dirt hut in Africa.

But every single church and every single Christian that believes and declares the gospel of Jesus Christ, those are our brothers and sisters. And as Paul says, the eye can't say to the hand, I don't need you.

Or the head can't say to the foot, I don't need you. May we as believers in Jesus recognize every single church is important. Now, I know even as I think we have very few people in the room today for whom Tabernacle has been their only church home.

If that's true for any of you that Tabernacle is the only church that you've ever been to, can you raise your hand? Okay, yeah. Yeah, so a few of you that this is this is it.

And man, we are so thankful that you guys are here and we are incredibly grateful for you. I know Roger and Kathy, if they were able to be here health wise, would say the same. All of us have been at other churches.

We are not all at the churches that we once were. Satan would love for you to gain some animosity or anger or bitterness in your spirit to go, oh yeah, I really dislike this and this and that and that about the other church. Can I encourage you?

If they are part of the body of Christ, we are going to spend eternity with them. And so, may we even in our spirits, in our words, in our language, may we speak well of the body of Christ. You can think about it this way.

The church is called Jesus' bride, and just as you would not want someone insulting your spouse, I think sometimes we need to have a love for the bride of Christ.

She is imperfect at times, but may we treat her with love and patience and forgiveness, even as she sometimes fails, because we need every part of the body. Some of you may be that are a little bit older.

You've woken up sometimes, and your back has betrayed you, or your knees aren't feeling the way that they should.

But just because part of the body is letting you down or failing you in that moment, doesn't mean that it's not a part of your body, or that you should get rid of it. May we have a love for each part of the body of Christ.

17:54

Diverse Body Parts

But what we see secondly is that we are all different parts of Christ's body.

So, every person that has placed their faith in Jesus, repenting of sin, believing in his perfect sacrifice on the cross, that he rose from the dead, he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, those that place their faith in Christ are part of Christ's

body. So we're all one because of that. But as you look around the room today, you're going to see that every single one of us are different. We are different parts of the body of Christ.

And what we see from this passage is that we are different by God's design. We read together that the Spirit put us together as He wanted. Verse number 18, as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as He wanted.

Your personality, your background, your skill set, even the hardships or sins or failures that you have walked through, God has uniquely equipped you for the role that you are to play within the body of Christ. You are different by design.

People could say, well, I really wish that I could do everything. As I think even about things that our church family did this week.

I had some help from John Cooney even a little bit earlier today on an electrical issue that if Bryon was trying to fix the electrical issue, he would be singing in the heavenly choir this morning, and he would not be preaching.

God made John different than he made me. I think about those that made meals and went shopping.

I think about Lori and Ina and Teresa and all the lot of you that God has used you to make delicious food so that people can feel like they enjoy the fellowship of the church together. They're able to spend time over a meal.

Now, if I'm making the meal, some of you might be singing in the heavenly choir instead of sitting here this morning. God made us different by design. The differences that we have in design is to show the fullness of the Spirit's work.

So every person who has placed their faith in Jesus is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives us at least one gift that we are able to use in caring for the rest of the body.

Pastor Ron read through some of those various things even in his reading this morning. With the gifts that we are given, we do not have all of the gifts. Now, some people are very gifted, and they have a variety of things that they are good at.

That's awesome. We love that. But no one can and no one should do everything because no one is self-sufficient outside of God.

We all need one another. And so, in our differences by design, it means that I'm able to rely on other people so that I see the fullness of who the Spirit is. Think about it even with some of the gifts that are listed.

The gift of administration or organization, that the Holy Spirit is organized. Even look at the books of scripture, and you can see the incredible nature of the Holy Spirit. So, some people reflect that aspect of our wonderful God.

The Holy Spirit is merciful to us. That is a joy. And so, some people are particularly gifted in showing mercy in ways that other people would go, how in the world could you forgive that person?

Or how could you deal with them after they failed again and again? It's because God has especially equipped that person to be merciful, just like the Holy Spirit is merciful. The Holy Spirit is prophetic.

He tells people what they need to know based on the will and character of God.

And there are some people, like Pastor Ron and like others that you've met in your life, that when you talk with them, they're able to shoot really straight with you, and they're able to tell you, here's the sin, or here's the problem, or here's what

we need to be doing together as a body of believers, and this is the direction that we need to go. All of these are reflections of who our God is, and it is together as the body of Christ that we see the fullness of the Spirit's work, that through

our, through all of us together, we are able to see the various facets of our God's character. And it is so that we can love all of who God is as he's shown himself through his body. So, Dave, are you made in the image of God? Yes or no?

Yeah, amen. And Marla, are you made in the image of God? Yeah, absolutely.

None of us are identical. Well, I know we have some twins in here, but even you're not. Are you an identical twin?

Yeah, okay. None of us are identical in every single way, but all of us are made in the image of God. And so we were able to show together a wonderful picture of who God is.

Next, we can see that we each have good limitations given to us by God. Your limitations. So maybe you are scared of public speaking.

Maybe you can't do electrical work. Maybe you struggle sometimes with being in front of people. You thrive behind the scenes, but in person-to-person interaction, that's just not where your forte is.

Your limitations are good and given to you by God so that you can see where you are not God. I heard a pastor a couple months ago give this illustration.

I could be really upset that I'm not an octopus, and I could try my best to be an octopus and have the eight legs and swim in the ocean all of the time, but I would die trying to be an octopus because that's not who God made me.

For many of us, even in churches, we try to be the octopus. We try to be everything, and God says, no, no, you have limitations that are good.

Now, God does call us to serve, to work, to love one another, so you can stretch outside of your comfort zone sometimes, but I'll just shoot transparently with you guys.

I know Bryon, and I overextend myself sometimes because I want to serve, and I want to help, but I have to consistently go back to, I'm not God. I can't solve every problem. I can't do everything for everyone at every time.

And this is part of how God has made us different, is he put us all together so that we're a puzzle. None of us are the complete picture on our own. We need one another.

And the limitations that we have show us where we can rest in God's sovereignty and God's ability, not yours.

So I could either attempt to be an electrician and electrocute myself, or I can say, God, I believe that you will raise up a man among us who will be able to fix this receptacle.

And one of those ways has faith in what God is able to do and in his ability to problem solve. Versus relying simply on myself. Then lastly there, we are different so we can help each other.

You are different so that you can fill in gaps that other people have, whether in their abilities that you can do something that no one else can do, or you're able to help someone else to fill in gaps in their character.

That perhaps you're a kind person, you're around someone that struggles with kindness, and you are able, both through your example and your encouragement, through you sharpening other believers in Christ, you can help that other person to become a

kinder person. So God has made us different so that we can fill in gaps. Sometimes gaps in our church, like areas of need, areas of service, care for others. The gaps can be filled because we are different.

We are fixed and helped by the body corporately, like fingers applying a band-aid. I loved even over... There's countless examples over the past month that I could give.

One kind of joy that I have is yesterday, we were able to visit Gary Strieveck in the hospital, and several of the guys went over, and I was so glad that they were able to pray for him, to encourage him, to love him, so that when one part of the body

was hurting, another part of the body was there to help out. So, we're all one body in Christ. I think we get that. We are all different parts of Christ's body.

That's perhaps even easier to recognize.

26:52

Mutual Responsibilities

But the last part of what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12 is that we all have Christian responsibilities to each other. The first one of these, and we'll go pretty quickly through this to the end, so buckle in. We are called to serve one another.

This is listed again and again. We are to serve one another. You can think about this even with Jesus.

So we're the body of Christ. We do what Jesus has done. Jesus came, he said, not to be served, but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And so we are called to serve one another in the body of Christ. You don't belong to just you. So help out those around you.

Help the whole body. When you see that there's someone else that has a need that you are able to meet, take the initiative. Christ has equipped you with what he wants you to do in the situation.

So serve. Serve the other person. Serve the body as a whole with the gifts that God has given you.

This next point might seem then counterintuitive. You have a Christian responsibility to be served by others. You can think even in Jesus' ministry, he was served by Mary, who anointed his feet with oil.

He had times when others cared for him, Martha preparing meals for him. He was God incarnate. He could have just snapped his finger and had food anytime that he wanted.

But he chose to be served by others so that others could utilize their gifts in order to bless you. Don't think that you are doing anyone a favor by hiding your needs away. Don't steal others' blessing and purpose.

One thing I've been consistently encouraged by, even from some men in our churches, like, hey, make sure that you are letting us know about areas of need.

Because, like I told you guys, I'm very type A, I'm still pretty young, and so I always just want to do the things, because I have energy sometimes to do the things.

But when I do that, it might mean that someone else is not able to be a blessing in the way that God equipped them for. So it is in your life.

God might have someone else to be that help to you, that you can only experience that joy, that comfort, that help in your life, as you are honest. So don't pretend like you have it all together. We all know that none of us do.

And seek help from the body of Christ together. So we have a responsibility to serve one another, to be served by others, a responsibility to protect one another.

You can think of the story of the woman caught in adultery, and the protection there that Jesus offered her, times in which he protected the disciples. I love what Matthew Henry, a pastor from the 1700s said.

He said, So should the members of Christ's body behave toward their fellow members. Instead of despising them, or reproaching them for their infirmities, they should endeavor to cover and conceal them, and put the best face upon them that they can.

It can be way too easy, because of our human nature, when other people within the body fail us, that then we just want to go after them. And we want to be like, listen, Ms. Pat insulted my suit jacket, and I was just so hurtful that she did that.

So I don't know if I can ever wear a suit jacket. Just to be clear, Ms. Pat did not insult a suit jacket.

But I could be like, listen, Joe, do you recognize what Pat did? She's just a meanie. And so you shouldn't be around her.

And I can go around, and I can spread poison within the body, instead of going, okay, that hurt, that wasn't nice. Jesus would tell me, go to Pat and be like, hey, Pat, that really hurt when you did that. And I need you to be kinder.

Jesus was kind. And I know that jacket was bright fluorescent pink and had LED lights flashing on it. But maybe you could have said it nicer.

In the body, we are far too commonly attacking one another and not protecting one another. Protecting one another as the body is harder because it will open you up to hurt.

It will open you up to the possibility of not always experiencing comfort and gladness and a great time. But it's what Jesus went through for us. Jesus protected us eternally as he died in our place, he's taking our judgment.

And so may we have a heart to protect and love to care for one another. It doesn't mean we sweep evil under the rug, but it does mean that we care for one another even in our brokenness and our fallenness.

Next we have a responsibility to honor and to respect one another. Jesus did this constantly even with people that no one else would have respected, like the woman at the well in Samaria. He did it with a Roman centurion.

He called a tax collector to be one of his disciples, and he called a zealot to be one of his disciples. Jesus was constantly honoring and respecting others.

When we think about who most deserves our honor and respect, the Apostle Paul here says that it is those who would be otherwise despised in our world.

We're not being good Christians if we just love the people exactly like us, who are in our same economic status with our preferences, and who only commit our preferred sins that we also commit.

We show ourselves to be part of the body as we care for the unlovely and the unwanted. It's not supernatural for you to honor and respect those you naturally honor and respect.

It is supernatural when through the power of the Holy Spirit, you honor those that you would want to disrespect or to dishonor. Then we have a responsibility to care deeply for one another.

That the members would have the same care, the same concern for each other as we read in verse 25. Do you know others in the body? Do you love them?

Does hearing their stories move you to sorrow or to joy? Are you sharing an occasional meal or drink with them? Or are you pursuing how you can pray for others in the body?

We are part of the same body, and we should have a care for one another.

If I had some part of me that was bleeding, but both of my hands were like, no, we're not touching a band-aid, and we're not going to help out or fix with that, I'd be kind of mad at my hands for not taking care of the body.

But we are Christ's body, and so we have a responsibility to care for one another. And then these last two, we have a responsibility both to empathize with others' pain and to rejoice with others' joy.

Jesus wept with those who wept, wept at the tomb of Lazarus. He helped out a going-to-be-shamed bride and bridegroom at their wedding in Cana of Galilee. He helped those who were in need.

He became human so he could walk with us in our griefs and infirmities. Do we care about? Do we empathize with the pain of others?

And do we rejoice with others' joys? You can think about the fact that Jesus, he went to weddings, he gave to others, he even healed the ear of the high priest's servant after Peter cut it off as he was being arrested to be taken to his death.

If there was ever a time where he could not care about someone else, that would have been the time, but Jesus cared about others. Does the joy of others, their victories, their delights, cause joy or delight in you?

Often in churches, we've all heard about the people that blow a gasket when God begins moving and transforming a church to where there are perhaps more and more children or children that run and make loud sounds, and people are upset at something

that should bring joy, the transformation of the gospel. Are you happy when someone else gets the promotion or the house or a vacation?

This command to rejoice with those who rejoice is a command against envy, against hatred in your heart, that you cannot be happy unless it's all about you.

35:40

Living in the Body

Today, God says this. Every single one of us are part of Christ's body. We all belong, not because of our perfection, but because of the perfection of Jesus.

Each of us have a part to play in the whole, and that part is meant to be caring, loving, respecting, protecting one another, which means we have to be in contact, in conversation, in life with one another.

As we do this, the only way that it happens is through the power of the Holy Spirit. I'm not patient enough. I'm not kind enough.

I'm not smart enough. To always do these things that God has called me to. But the Holy Spirit is good enough.

And he is wise enough to lead us, so that we can experience the life that God made for us. Can I ask you, are you a part of the body of Christ? Have you placed your faith in Jesus?

If not, today is the day to do so. Just a moment, we're going to sing the song, I Surrender All. Myself and the other elders will be up at the front.

We would love to open the Word of God and show you how you can know that you have a relationship with Jesus, that you have been placed into his body. If you do know Jesus, make a commitment. God, I'm not going to live my life apart from the body.

I'm going to care. I'm going to love. I'm going to participate in what you are building.

And God, I'm going to respect these responsibilities that you have given to me.