I Am Willing To Serve Series

6 Qualities for Spiritual Health part 6

(6) I am willing to serve.

- Today is our last sermon of our 6 qualities for spiritual health.

- Today Let’s look at the importance of ourselves in the Body of Christ.

- It is easy to find ourselves feeling like the appendix in the body of Christ, but each

part has great value.

- Case in point. That appendix that you thought was useless is now thought to be

the safe house for good bacteria in our gut. Bacteria that helps us stay healthy.

- Each member is important.

- Let’s begin with 1 Corinthians 12:12-27.

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

12 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.

13 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.

14 For the body is not one member, but many.

15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?

17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?

18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.

19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?

20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.

21 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 you.

22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:

23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.

24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked.

25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.

26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

Q- Why should the body of Christ be so unified & diversified?

- Prayer

- Being a Christian centers around the theme of working together for the cause of

Christ.

- Sometimes this work can get a little dicey, & hard.

> Prospecting for the Lord (www.broadcaster.org.uk)

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, two young church members were going door to door to invite people to visit their services. When they knocked on one door, it was immediately clear the woman who answered was not happy to see them.

She told them in no uncertain terms that she did not want to hear their message, and before they could say anything more, she slammed the door in their faces.

To her surprise, however, the door did not close; in fact, it bounced back open. She tried again, really putting her back into it, and slammed it again with the same result - the door bounced back open.

Convinced these rude young people were sticking their foot in her door, she reared back to give it a slam that would teach them a lesson. Just then, one of them said quietly: "Ma'am, before you do that again, you really need to move your cat."

- I’m not so sure I could’ve kept a straight face at this woman’s repeated attempts.

- Then I think of how she probably loved her cat, & the trauma she’s going to go

through.

Q- Why is it so important that the church is so unified & diverse?

- Look at the complexity of our world!

- If we were all the same, only a fraction of the world would be reached.

Q- Have you ever heard the phrase, “I don’t know what it is, I just don’t like that person

or they just rub me the wrong way”?

- Sometimes our demeanor, or just simply the way we dress, the way we look turns

people away.

- We were all made different to do one amazing thing, serve others.

- After The Lord’s Supper, Jesus washed the feet of the disciples, & I want us to