Beef Stew: One With Many
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 12:4-30
Introduction
Last week I spoke to you about the divisions that exist within Christianity. I shared with you that I believe only the power of love will enable us to build bridges to close those divisions. I talked about the “Failure To Thrive” syndrome found in some babies that is proof that within us is a need for love, to receive it as well as to give it. At the conclusion of that message I asked each of you to make the decision to allow God’s love to heal your hurts and strengthen you. But my main request of you was to allow God’s love to flow through you. For you to turn on the faucet so His love could flow through you like water. I hope that you have had time to meditate on that message and begun the process of allowing God’s love to envelop you.
Last week’s message focused on you receiving, but this morning I want to focus on you giving. This is the last Sunday of 2004, next Sunday we will be in 2005 if God allows us to see it. We will have the opportunity to do things differently than we did in 2004, but it will take each of us making a decision to start letting the love of God flow through us. One of the ways in which we do that is by getting involved in His work and doing whatever we can on a daily basis to ensure that His work goes forward. Last week we witnessed a move of God in the Christmas program with the kids demonstrating their gifts and later in the service with the adult choir. All it took was a willing heart and people willing to say “I will”. In 2005 I pray that all of us, for whatever area we would like to serve, will truly say “I will” and then begin to do that. Everyone who is willing to serve is needed. There is something that you can give that will be unique to you that will be a blessing in this ministry or whatever ministry you are a part of. For those of you who are on our emailing list, wherever you are, I pray that you too will choose to get involved in the ministries of your home Church.
This past Monday night I had a dream about being in ministry. When I woke from the dream at 3:00 a.m. in the morning, I went downstairs and wrote it down so that I would not forget. In the dream I had to deliver a brief message to the people of the Church I was visiting. In the dream the message was that although we are the same, we are unique. To help you gain the understanding of this statement, I want to use a food analogy to help you visualize what I am going to share with you. The food I want you to think about is beef stew. For some reason as I lay in bed after having this dream, I thought of beef stew as a means of making the dream clear. Maybe I woke up hungry with beef stew on my mind, but hopefully it will make this clear for you. I will also take us to the words of Paul which will also clarify this for us. But first the beef stew.
I. Beef Stew – Different Ingredients to Make One Dish
I love beef stew, especially the way Nikki makes it. The chunks of tender beef, carrots, potatoes, onions and everything else that goes into it makes for a wonderful meal. To enjoy such a meal, you have to prepare the ingredients, put it all together, let it cook for a while and then, once it is ready, you can eat it. Now although the dish has several ingredients in it, it is known as beef stew. Now a stew is a meal that is cooked by boiling slowly (simmering) and usually has meat and vegetables. The point I want you to understand is that the stew is not know by the individual ingredients, but either by the primary ingredient (beef) or a summary of the main ingredients (vegetable). But I want you to think of beef stew.
There are several ingredients that you can use in beef stew such as beef, flour, salt, pepper, oil, beef bouillon, onions, celery, bay leaf, water, mushrooms, potatoes, and carrots. Now each ingredient serves a different purpose and must be used in the right amount in order to get it just right. When making the stew, the first thing you should do is prepare the meat by mixing it with the salt, flour and pepper and then browning it in a skillet. If you do not do this, the meat will not be ready when you need it and you will not have the meat broth for the vegetables. Now once the meat is brown, you add the bouillon, celery, bay leaf and water and simmer for 1-2 hours. When you have completed this, you remove the bay leaf; add the mushrooms, potatoes and carrots. (For the non-cooks out there, you do not eat bay leafs.) Continue to cook for 45 minutes until the vegetables are soft then add remaining flour and water. Cook until it thickens. Now if you do not follow this process, this recipe will not work.
With this picture of the beef stew in your mind, consider what would happen if you were making beef stew without the beef? It would not be beef stew. You could leave out one or two of the other ingredients, and still make it work, but some of the ingredients must be available. But to make it right, the best it could be, you must have everything that the recipe calls for. Before the stew is made, most of the ingredients could have been a meal all by themselves. You can have a meal of just carrots, or potatoes, or onions and definitely beef. But if you want good beef stew, you will need all of these ingredients. Each ingredient serves it purpose, not in competition with any of the other ingredients. I am sure the salt knows that it does not require as much of it as it does the meat or the potatoes. But if the salt began to compare how much of it was used compared to the other ingredients and requested that it should receive equal treatment, the stew would not taste very good. So, to make a good stew, you need the right ingredients with the right amount. Everything must be in balance.
So it is with a Church. You need the right people in the right position with the right gifts with the right amount of balance. All of this is simmered in the love of God. It is important to note that within the Church, just because a person may have a skill, it does not mean that they are right for a particular position. Also, there are people who have the skills and the desire but do not receive the opportunity. In 2005 we want to make opportunities available for service. I want us to make some serious stew in 2005 but it is going to require each of us simmering in the love of God.
II. The Same Yet Unique
I stated earlier that we are the same yet unique, so let me explain this because it does not seem possible. First, when you become a member of this Church or any other Church, you are identified with that Church. Whatever happens within that Church, good or bad, it is not the individual member that receives the praise or criticism, it is the whole Church. If someone visits here and our greeters make them feel extra special, the whole Church gets credit, not just the greeters. We are New Light Baptist Ministries and Church, each of us. We are one, yet within we are unique individual making up the one. To accomplish what we need to accomplish in 2005, we will need to take our uniqueness, combine it with everyone else and make a stew (simmering in God’s love until perfection is achieved). Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians about the members of the Church having unique gifts that have been given to them for the overall function of the ministry. Look at 1 Corinthians 12.
1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 11-12 “Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good…But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills. For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.
In this passage of scripture, Paul explains that the Church operates through the gifts that are given by the Spirit. These gifts are given to ensure that what the Church needs to have in order to fulfill its ministry is available. He starts off by explaining that there are different gifts but they are all given by the same Spirit. In order words, although your gift may be different from mine, we received them from the same Spirit with the expressed purpose of fulfilling a key role within the ministry. He goes on to say that all of the ministries are still serving one Lord although the ministries within themselves are different. His purpose in this message is to ensure that everyone understands that although gifts are different, they are given from above and are to be used for the common good of everyone.
Back to the beef stew. Remember when I mentioned the salt maybe wanting to be equal to every other ingredient as far as how much was measured and used. In the stew, not every ingredient is needed in the same amount. So it is with the Church ministries. The Singles’ Ministry does not focus on the issues of married couples because they have their own focus. The Singles’ ministry performs a very vital role in the health of the Church for those members who are single. There are many ministries that do not ever get in the spotlight, but they are very important to the health of the Church. We tend to judge ministries by how big they are or how many members are receiving something from them and that is a mistake. If the ministry is meeting the needs of just one person, it is playing a vital role in the Church.
Paul goes on to say that the Spirit gives to each person as He wills. This is a key point because what the Spirit has placed within us was not done because we were so deserving but simply because He willed to do so. Again, everything we receive from the Spirit is for the common good, not for our own edification. Finally Paul uses the analogy relating to the natural body. He states that the body is one, but yet it has many members who perform specific tasks. If you read the rest of the chapter, he makes it very clear that we are to perform our own assignment to ensure that the overall ministry is complete. Paul says that by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body. Being a part of this one body, I have a very specific role to play, one that was assigned to me. It is not my job to try and do something assigned to someone else, but to do my job as best as I can. In his message, Paul says the following:
1 Corinthians 12:15-18 “If the foot says, ‘Because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body,,’ it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear says, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the body, it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.”
Imagine if your body parts had the ability to change at will without your permission. One morning you would wake up and couldn’t see because the eyes decided to be ears that day. Or you would not be able to walk because the legs decided to be ears that day. Are you getting the picture? In the Church when we should be making beef stew, we are making something that cannot be eaten because all of the ingredients are trying to get equal time and attention. The Church has the right ingredients but do not have the right measurements to make it work. Some people are in positions where they should not be. We have some people not doing anything causing a vacancy within the ministry that could be flowing and helping someone. Paul said that God placed the members within the body. If God placed the members and the Spirit gave the gifts, I must believe that everything that God has called us to do we have or will be equipped to do it and if it is not done it is because of our disobedience. Remember, anytime God has given you something to do and you choose, for whatever reason, not to do it, it is disobedience.
Here is our challenge for 2005. In 2004, there were things that could have been done better. There were things that we did that maybe could have waited. There were people who looked around and said “Why do you not have….?” All around us we have people that God has placed within this body of believers whom the Spirit has equipped to do something. Our challenge for 2005 is knowing and understanding what the Spirit has equipped us individually to do and then start doing it. If you are sitting back wondering why a ministry is not in place, maybe it is not in place because you have not said yes to God. If there are needs going unmet within the ministry and this frustrates you, maybe you are the one who is supposed to be meeting the need. My desire for us in 2005 is to make beef stew. In order to do this we must have the right ingredients. God has supplied the ingredients, you, me and everyone else that chooses to unite with this Church. We also must have the right amount. The Spirit has supplies the right amount when He equipped each of us for service. We must be combined together to make the stew. Finally, we simmer in God’s love as we fulfill our role in the stew. To accomplish this each of us must understand what we are supposed to be doing and start doing it. It is not that difficult to start working. Maybe you will start off in an area and work your way into what you were sent here to do, the goal is to start somewhere. Are you ready to make stew in 2005?
For those of you who are reading this sermon and are not members of New Light Baptist Ministries and Church, I ask the same of you. Whatever Church you are attending, if you are a member, God has something He wants you to do while you are there. Whether it is big or small is not important to God, but your obedience is. Get involved in your Church and feel the freedom that comes with knowing that you are assisting God in ministering to those who He sends across your path. May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
