[Note: This sermon was given by both of our pastors]
Pat: I’m a Mac
Dana: I’m a PC
Pat: I’m from the Southwest
Dana: I’m from back East
Pat: I live in a one story house
Dana: I live in a two story house
Pat: I love synonyms
Dana: I loathe them
Pat: I try never to preach more than 35 minutes
Dana: I live in a two story house… I love to fly airplanes.
Pat: I know how to fly a kite.
Dana: I married a woman who is taller than me
Pat: I married a woman who is shorter than me
Dana: I like to preach from behind a pulpit
Pat: What’s a pulpit?
Dana: I have a full head of hair
Pat: I live in a one story house
Pat:
As you already knew before that introduction, Dana and I are as different as night and day in many respects. But in spite of that, God has called us both to serve together as partners in ministry right here at TFC for the common purpose of making disciples of Jesus. But the idea of partnership in ministry isn’t just our idea – it’s God’s idea. And that principle doesn’t just apply to the two of us, it is relevant to every one of us who are part of this local body.
This morning we’re going to look at a passage that is quite familiar to many of you. If you have your Bibles go ahead and open them up to 1 Corinthians 12 and follow along in your Bible as Dana and I read that passage out loud, beginning in verse 4:
Pat:
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
Dana:
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
Pat:
All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free - and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Dana:
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?
Pat:
But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don’t need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don’t need you!"
Dana:
On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
Pat:
If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
This is the third of four Sundays that we have devoted to examining how we as a church are to develop fully-devoted disciples of Jesus Christ who care for our community. We’ve already seen that we are to be like leaven, salt and light and permeate the world around us without being contaminated ourselves. We’ve also discovered that as we pray for the needs of others, God often calls us to participate in the answer to those prayers.
This passage from 1 Corinthians obviously contains far more that we can cover in detail this morning, but what Dana and I would like to do is to share four overall principles from this passage that address how all of us are to be partners in the process of caring for our community.
Dana:
1. God generates unity in the body through our diversity
One of the first things that we notice in this passage is the stark contrast that Paul draws in verses 4-6 between those things which are different and those things which are the same. Let’s look first at those things which are different:
• There are different kinds of gifts. The word translated “gifts” comes from the same Greek word from which we get our word “grace”. Perhaps a better translation would be “endowment” - a gift that is given in order to permanently support a particular objective. There are a wide variety of gifts described in the Scriptures. In addition to this passage, there are descriptions of these endowments in Romans, Ephesians and 1 Peter, and even then, I don’t believe that we have an exhaustive list of the variety of gifts that God gives to His people.
• There are different kinds of service. This refers to different ways in which the gifts are used. For instance, Rita Ponzo, Kristina Manning and I may all have the gift of teaching, but we all use that common gift in different ways – Rita in a class of special needs students, Kristina with the hearing impaired and me in the pulpit or a Bible class.
• There are different kinds of working. The word “working” comes from the word from which we get our English word “energy”. Here it is referring to the way that God energizes our individual ministries. And that is unique for each individual in each situation. God tailors his energizing to our specific needs.
At first, it might seem that all these differences would actually impede unity in the body, but under the guidance of the Holy Spirit they do exactly the opposite – they actually enhance it. Let me illustrate.
Let’s suppose that you’re a newspaper reporter and you’re interviewing Willie Tuitama right before a big game. And you ask him, “Is this team really united going into this game?” What if he turned to you and answered “You bet we are. In fact we’re all so united that we decided that everyone on the team is going to wear number 7 and play quarterback tomorrow night.” That would be pretty ludicrous wouldn’t it? You see, the team is not all united because they all have the same preparation, positions, and assignments; they’re united because they all have the same purpose – beating the opposing team.
In the local body, we’re also united, not by the diversity of our gifts, but by our common purpose. And that common purpose is derived from those things we have in common:
• We have the same Spirit, who endows us with His gifts.
• We have the same Lord, Jesus Christ, who is our example of how our gifts are to be used to serve others.
• We have the same God, who pours His power into our lives so that we can utilize the gifts for the common good of His body and for His glory.
Because it is God who both gives the gifts and empowers us to use them, He is able to actually use the great diversity of gifts to generate unity in the body, in much the same way that a successful coach blends together a team of players with unique skills and abilities so that they can all work toward a common goal.
Pat:
2. God gifts each believer according to His will
You’ll notice that Paul is very clear in verse 7 that every believer is gifted by God for the purpose of serving the overall good of the body:
Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.
Unfortunately, in spite of the abundant Biblical evidence to the contrary, there are far too many Christians who still believe that God only “calls” certain believers that we often refer to as clergy and that they are the only ones who are gifted by God for ministry. But the whole distinction between clergy and laity is not Biblical – that is a man-made division.
During our journey through Ephesians as well as the past two weeks, we’ve seen time and time again that every follower of Jesus is “called” and that every Christian is to be a minister. And this passage in 1 Corinthians leaves no doubt that every believer is gifted by God to enable him or her to accomplish whatever God desires.
Not only is it indisputable that God gifts every believer, it is also true that God is the one that decides which gifts to give to each of His children. Look at verse 11:
All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.
Since God is the one who created each of us as unique individuals and since He knows perfectly His plan for our lives and our ministries, and since all the gifts are his, it only make sense that He is the one who gets to determine who gets what gifts.
Perhaps we tend to view this too much like our own birthdays or Christmas where people ask us what we want for our gift, we give people a list and then they choose something off that list and buy it for us as a gift. Or, they just give us a gift card or cash and we get to go pick out our own gift.
And so what often occurs is that we begin to look around us and see others in the church who have certain gifts and we begin to covet those gifts for ourselves. Maybe we even pray and give God our wish list and ask Him to bestow a particular gift on us. But rather than desiring a gift that God may not have given to us in His wisdom and sovereignty, what we need to be doing is to seek to understand what gift or gifts that God has already given to us and to put those gifts to work ministering to others.
Dana:
3. Every believer has an indispensable role in the body
Perhaps one of the reasons that we often seek the gifts that God has given to others is the mistaken notion that some gifts are more valuable to the body, and to God, than others. There is no doubt that the operation of some of the gifts within the body has a tendency to be more visible and thus it is natural for us to begin to think that they are therefore more valuable. But Paul goes to great lengths in this passage to point out that every gift is equally important and that every believer has an indispensable role in the body.
Not only has God gifted each believer according to His will, he has even and arranged all those gifted believers within the body, just the way He wants them to be. Look at verse 18:
But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
That has some exciting ramifications for us here at TFC. What that means is that God has placed the exact people He wants with the gifts that He has given each one right here in this local body for the purpose of accomplishing exactly what he wants us to do as a church. That fact has a tremendous influence on how we minister as a church.
Instead of trying to dream up ministries and then trying to find people to plug into those ministries, we build our ministries around those that God has brought here and the gifts and abilities that God has given to them. Let me give you just a couple of examples.
We didn’t decide one day that we were going to develop a ministry to the hearing impaired. But God brought Marty and Kristina Manning into our body and Kristina had both the skills needed to do that and the willingness to allow God to use her in that way within our body.
Monty Kugler, Loren Hawthorne and Marc Withers, among others, have an interest and technical skills with computers. So they have developed a ministry to provide computer help to those in our community who need it free of charge here at the church on a regular basis.
If God has led you here to be part of this body, then no matter what gifts He has given to you, you are an important and indispensible part of this body. And when you don’t do your part and use those gifts, then the whole body suffers.
A football team that had only quarterbacks could never be successful. A successful football team needs offensive linemen, receivers, and running backs. It needs defensive linemen, linebackers and defensive backs. It needs punters and kickers. It needs coaches, trainers, managers and statisticians. Most of those people you will never notice. Many of them you’ll never even see. But without every single one of them doing their job, you’ll certainly see the results. And they won’t be good.
Pat:
4. In order to accomplish God’s purposes for our church we have to work together
That is really the bottom line of everything that Paul is writing about here in this passage. Paul very eloquently describes how that no part of our physical bodies can function alone. Each part of our body can only accomplish its purpose as it works together with the other parts of the body.
The same thing is true in the church. Nothing profitable that happens in this body can be done alone. I may get up here and preach a message each week. And I try to be very diligent in my study and preparation to make sure that I present a message that is true to God’s Word and relevant for our lives. But even though all many of you see is me getting up here before you each week to preach the message, even my preaching is a result of a team effort.
It begins on Tuesday morning with a group of men who gather here at the church at 6:30 in the morning to discuss the passage I’ll be preaching on. And as I proceed with my preparation I usually bounce some of my thoughts and ideas off of Pastor Dana. And then when I’m pretty well finished with the message, I share my notes with our teaching team so that they can begin to prepare their lessons for their classes on Sunday morning. And many times, they will share questions or thoughts about the message as they prepare. And then on Sunday mornings, before the worship service begins, a group of men gather to pray for the message and for the hearts of those who will here it. After the message, our “Connections” Bible study classes for every age group spend additional time discussing the message and the principles from the message so that we can all be better equipped to apply those principles in our lives. Although most of you may only see me up here on Sunday mornings, there are at least 20 people in this body that have partnered with me in that message.
One of the main reasons that we’ve been taking some time to share with you how the members of this body are involved in ministry is that nobody should have to minister on their own. We all need the support, encouragement and help of the other members of this body who have the gifts that are needed for our ministries that we might not have ourselves. But in order to do that we need to be aware of the ministries of others in this body, take the time to understand what resources that they might be lacking and then understand our own gifts and how God might use us to partner with them in their ministries.
Dana is going to take a few minutes to share some more information about the way that people in this body are caring for our community through their ministries.
