Let me begin he message this morning with a reading of God’s Holy Word as this is the very foundation of today’s message. Please stand with me.
1 Corinthians 12: 12-20 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. 13For 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.
14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If 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. 16And 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. 17If 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? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
As you have noticed our bulletins this morning are a little different. There are a few things missing in our bulletin. First of all there is an absence of color. Today they are plain ol’ Black and white nothing really flashy, no color, and no pretty picture on the front.
And as we take a closer look at our bulletin, we notice that there is more missing than just the color and a pretty picture. Notice that in each place within our bulletin where we read the word church that it is missing two vitally important letters and those letters are of course, UR.
Many of you may have seen this on church signs trying to get people in the doors of their church. This is not my intention this morning. Yes, I would love to get more people inside our church. I would love to see our sanctuary to full capacity. But this isn’t the message that God has placed on my heart for us today.
Illustration: Unamuno, the Spanish philosopher, tells about the Roman aqueduct at Segovia, in his native Spain. It was built in 109 A.D. For 1800 years, it carried cool water from the mountains to the hot and thirsty city. Nearly sixty generations drank from its flow. Then came another generation, a recent one, who said, “This aqueduct is so great a marvel that it ought to be preserved for our children, as a museum piece. So they decided to retire the aqueduct from service.
They hired contractors to lay modern iron pipes. They gave the ancient bricks and mortar a rest. And the aqueduct began to fall apart. The sun beating on the dry mortar caused it to crumble. The bricks and stone sagged and threatened to fall. What ages of service could not destroy - idleness disintegrated.
- All of us are familiar with those things that rob us of spiritual growth. Who would not recognize the power of apathy and neglect to our spiritual condition or the destruction caused by our lack of worship attendance and participation?
But there is an even greater enemy out there than all of these. In fact, it has done more to diminish and in some situations to destroy the life of many churches than any other trick of the enemy. It is called idleness.
We were created to serve, to be useful, and to contribute.
If you are a Christian this morning and not serving God through the gifts He has given you, you are an easy target for idleness – you are already in the sights of the enemy.
You want to find fulfillment as a Christian? Then serve! You want to keep your spiritual life growing and moving forward? Then find where God can use you in His church and serve! Serving is the greatest deterrent in becoming a dead church, because when we serve we take action and move forward.
We are at the end of our fiscal year here at LCC and with that comes new beginnings; new beginnings and new opportunities for each of us in the area of serving.
Today I want each of us to see our church body as a…….
I.Unified Body.
A.Let me first say that, no one here is more important than another. Our goal as a church is to not only connect our own lives to God’s Love and Forgiveness but to reach others and bring them alongside us as we do so. And we cannot do that by ourselves!
-My point here is that each person in our church is valuable to the end result!
1.You and I can certainly walk without a hand but you just try to carry something without one. Our legs may be in perfect condition in order to walk but have you noticed how difficult it is when one or both of your feet have fallen asleep to walk? The end result is that every member of our body contributes to the goal - to live life.
2.All of us are familiar with muscles that we do not use much. They scream at us after we have played a game of Racquetball at the Y for the first time in ten years or if we have decided to start jogging for the first time. There are muscles that though not used all of the time are still there and are important.
3.Take team sports for an example. Every person on a team is valuable for what he or she brings to the collective whole. In football it is difficult to make a touchdown if no one is blocking for you, In Baseball it is nearly impossible to get anyone out if there is no one to catch the ball. The same is true of the church.
4.Each one of us have special gifts and abilities that God has given us and if the church we attend is to be the church that God is pleased with, then we must be offering our gifts for the benefit of the team. There are no bench warmers in the church.
5.Someone on a team may be better at a certain aspect of the game than another but the team wins because everyone gives.
Illustration: When you go to the doctor you are attended to by several
nurses who prepare you for whatever procedure. They checked your
blood pressure, started an IV, etc. They are not the surgeon doing the
test, but their contribution is just as valuable. It is a team effort.
B.On any team, your team mates must have the same goals in mind and each person is counted on to do their part.
1.In the book of Amos we read a common sense question that I think applies to the church.
-Amos 3:3 Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?
2.Success in anything that we do as a church will only come to us once we are unified with not only our beliefs but in our actions as well. Each person is called on to do their part.
Illustration: The 2003 Disney Pixar movie, “Finding Nemo”, is a movie about a clown fish that is on a journey to find his son that has been separated from his father.
In this clip, Dori, a friend of Nemo’s father, has just been caught in a net along with several tuna. Nemo has learned that team work and working in unity can and does work. We see a great example of how working together in unity creates miracles. Watch as Nemo shares this fundamental lesson with Dori and these tuna.
VIDEO: Scene 28 of “Finding Nemo”, (Fishing Net)
3.If we want to break free from going nowhere in our church, we must begin to work together in unity. In unity is only when we will excel as a church.
4.It takes each one of us working together headed in the same direction. We each have a part to do here at our church and I believe the big question for the day is, “Have you found your part”?
5.We have various areas in which anyone of us can serve but yet getting anyone to volunteer is like pulling teeth.
6.Some of the areas that we need volunteers in are: Greeters, Nursery Workers, Sunday School Teachers, Audio and Visual tech, Help within the K.I.C.K. S. Youth Group, and you can even join the worship team.
7.The good news is we really do have a ministry for everyone to become involved with.
8.Within these ministries you receive not just the blessing of serving but with that comes..
II.Relationships.
A. When you get involved within the life of the church through serving in a ministry area you can’t help but to build relationships.
1.It is nearly impossible to make any friends in church without being involved. Sure, you may be here each week for our worship service but anything outside of that, forget it.
2.Even as I deliver this message to you this morning, you may be telling yourself that this isn’t for you. You say that you are here but are you really?
3.Perhaps people drive by our church on Sunday morning to see our parking lot full and think we have a good amount of people here. But maybe many of us are present but we’re really not here.
4.Have you ever heard the saying, the lights are on but no one is home? I am not saying any of us are dense. I am saying that many of us are on auto pilot. We show us each week to be here physically but for us to open up emotionally is another story. We just are going through the motions and building a relationship with anyone here just will not happen unless we get involved.
5.Doing anything outside of showing up is the furthest thing in your in mind. You may already feel that you are doing your part by blessing the church by at least showing up. You want to do your time and get out. Spending another minute here isn’t really an option.
6.The church has more to offer than just giving a message. I feel that we are a family and relationships in families only grow stronger when time is spent with one another.
Illustration: Many of you know that wrestling is a passion of mine and that I am the new head wrestling coach for Bluestem High School. Last week I had a great opportunity to not only share my passion with Kagen but to spend some time with him and build our relationship even stronger.
I was invited to help coach and lead devotions at a wrestling camp for ages 5-12 in Wichita at Asbury Church. Now, wrestling is one area that Kagen and I do see eye to eye with. I took Kagen with me and entered him in the camp. Kagen ended up winning the camp. He beat everyone there within his age group and outside! I was and am so proud of him!
B.Two things that I really want to share with you about this that really opened my eyes with my son.
1.Kagen wrestled when we lived in Iowa but he never really got it. He never really excelled. He just went through the motions. He didn’t excel with wrestling in Iowa.
2.Is this because Iowa wrestling is harder? No. It is because in Iowa Kagen’s wrestling practices were huge. Kagen got lost in the wrestling room. He wasn’t able to really excel and use the talent that God gave him.
3.Last week Kagen excelled as he was able to cultivate his gift. In a smaller group he was able to focus on his individuality and on what God has blessed him with in his abilities as a wrestler.
4.The same is true for use in church. Each week we gather as a whole in a large group, (worship service). We will never excel and use the gifts that God has given each of us unless we can break down into smaller groups such as a ministry team to truly be used and serve.
C.The next lesson and the biggest blessing I received from our time together at Wrestling camp was the blessing of time well spent.
1.Of course I see Kagen each day and spend time with him but it wasn’t until we broke away from the larger group, our family, when we were able to really build our relationship up.
2.I feel like we really made some great memories and I feel like I know Kagen better form just doing something with him outside of the larger group.
3.You see, there really isn’t anything better for a relationship than spending quality time together doing something with a common goal in mind.
4.As a church member you are part of the large group. You see each person in the church for the most part each week. But how well do you know them?
5.Volunteering your time to a smaller group, (a ministry) will not only enhance you spiritually speaking but will enhance your individual relationship as you break away from the larger group will a common goal in mind.
Conclusion: Looking at our church ask yourself today. What is missing? Could it possibly me YOU? Today can be your new start; this could be the end and beginning of your fiscal year at the church. Perhaps God is speaking to you, calling to you, asking you to do your part in the unification of our church body.
Perhaps it is today that you can commit yourself to a smaller group that will enhance your relationships within the church and become all that God wants you to be. You have a talent, a gift, can you, will you use it for His glorification in His church.
