You Belong.
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Introduction
Introduction
Last week, I mentioned that we might be taking a break from the book of Mark, and we are, beginning today.
We are at a unique moment in our church’s history, and we need to take some time to look at what God is up to.
With that in mind, go ahead and open your Bible up to .
This is a tremendously important passage for us to understand.
As you are turning over there, let me run over our plans for the next few weeks.
This week, we are looking at how God has chosen to assemble this group we call a church. It is going to be a different style of message, because not only are we going over the Scripture, I also want to share some of what we see God doing here and invite you to join in where he leads.
For the following two weeks, we will be looking at the responsibilities and qualifications the Bible outlines for men who hold a unique church office called, “deacon”.
As we will see next week, that word “deacon” means “servant,” so deacons are a unique group of men God has called to serve his church.
In October, we will be looking for nominations from the church body of men we feel God is calling and equipping to serve in this role.
Our hope, Lord-willing, is that we would have the deacons installed to their office by the end of this year.
Re-establishing deacons is a part of a plan to establish a healthy, God-honoring structure to support the ministry God is doing in and through this church, which we will talk about some this morning.
Have you made it to yet? If so, you see that it is talking about the “Body of Christ.”
Here’s what I want you to see today: You are a vital part of the body of Christ. We can shorten that down to the two words which serve as the title of our message this morning: You belong.
Main Idea: You belong—You are a vital part of the body of Christ.
I don’t care how young or how old you are, how long you’ve been saved, what you feel like you can or can’t do, the Bible teaches us that you are a vital part of the body of Christ.
As we read this section, you are going to notice two basic objections. They can be summed up with the phrases, “I don’t belong,” and, “You don’t belong.”
Let’s see these objections and their responses as we read God’s Word together...
12 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. 13 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. 14 Indeed, the body is not one part but many. 15 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. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 17 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? 18 But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. 19 And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 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!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. 23 And 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, 24 which our respectable parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, 25 so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. 26 So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.
Did you catch the two objections? Before we look at them closer, let’s set the stage.
Go back to verses 12-14.
There is a beautiful picture of the unity that should characterize this church.
Did you see how many times the word “one” is used in those verses? If you are here today and have a personal relationship with Christ, you are saved the same way, by the power of the same Holy Spirit, put into the same relationship with Christ as every believer throughout history.
Isn’t that incredible? We had all made selfish choices and turned away from God. We had all failed, and none of us could save ourselves. Yet God saved each one here who has called on Jesus by putting Jesus on the cross to die for our sins.
That should form a bond in us that is deeper than anything we could ever imagine. It should be bigger than a sports team, an office staff, or some fraternity or sorority or civic organization.
If you are here and saved today, you and I are connected at the very core of our being, and nothing can ever be closer than that.
However, as we see in this passage, our unity doesn’t mean we should all be exactly the same.
We are saved the same way, called into relationship with the same God, but how he chooses to use us is different from person to person.
God uses a picture of a body to describe the church here.
He doesn’t compare it to a government, a business, or any other human structure; he says it is like a body.
Think about your body right now. It isn’t all one part, is it? Of course not!
That’s what Paul points out in verse 14.
Different parts of your body have different strengths and weaknesses. You wouldn’t put your phone up to your foot to hear, and you wouldn’t walk on your ear!
Different parts of your body have different strengths and weaknesses. You wouldn’t put your phone up to your foot to hear, and you wouldn’t walk on your ear!
Yet, together, as different as they are, they make up one healthy, fully-functioning body.
That’s where our objections come in. We start looking around and fall into the comparison trap.
Different parts of your body have different strengths and weaknesses. You wouldn’t put your phone up to your foot to hear, and you wouldn’t walk on your ear!
Yet, together, as different as they are, they make up one healthy, fully-functioning body.
That’s where our objections come in. We start looking around and fall into the comparison trap.
We say, “This person doesn’t act like I do. They don’t think that things should go the same way I do. They don’t like the same things I do, so it is obvious that one of us doesn’t fit.”
However, that couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Think about your body right now. It isn’t all one part, is it? Of course not!
Different parts of your body have different strengths and weaknesses. You wouldn’t put your phone up to your foot to hear, and you wouldn’t walk on your ear!
Yet, together, as different as they are, they make up one healthy, fully-functioning body.
Let’s look at how we express that.
First, as we compare ourselves to others, we might be tempted to say,
1) I don’t belong.
1) I don’t belong.
This is found in verses 15-16.
The picture is kinda funny, isn’t it?
Imagine if one day, you woke up and were getting ready to put on your shoes to head out for the day, and all of a sudden, your foot just said, “You know what, I’m done. I am tired of getting stepped on, shoved into shoes, and getting generally mistreated. I never get to shake hands with anyone, don’t get to help with picking things up. In fact, most of the day, I’m hot and trapped in these smelly shoes. I’m out of here.”
Or what if you went to listen for something, and all of a sudden, your ear says, “I’m tired of not getting to see. Since I’m not an eye, I don’t even want to be here.”
Your body wouldn’t do that, right? Although you might have creaks and groans, your body doesn’t suddenly mutiny and say, “I don’t belong here because I can’t do ______”.
Unfortunately, though, we do this in church.
“It really doesn’t matter if I go. After all, I can’t sing like Karen or preach. I don’t teach a Sunday School class, and I can’t do this or that. I don’t belong there.”
You know, sometimes a church is really strong in one area, so you start feeling out of place because you aren’t gifted that way. If you have lots of teachers, you feel out of place if you aren’t one who does 5 hour long word studies in Greek. If you are someone who is tenderhearted, you may have a hard time when you are a part of a church that is really vocal about calling out sin.
It’s easy to say in that moment, “Well, I guess I don’t belong.”
In fact, though, nothing could be farther from the truth!
Go back to verses 17-20.
We need people with diverse gifts, needs, abilities, and interests to make a complete body!
Think of your body. If you pour water on your arm, does it like it? No; it’s just weird. What about if you take a big drink of water on a day when you are thirsty? Your mouth feels new and fresh.
Reverse that—try putting lotion on your tongue and see how that goes.
This isn’t an idea that a pastor came up with and put in a book somewhere; this is the picture God used to describe the church.
Not only that, but whose idea was it for you to be a part of this church? Look at verse 18 again. This might be the most critical verse in the entire passage.
God arranges each member as he sees fit.
If you are a member here, you are vital to this church because you are a part of the body God has created here as Christiansburg Baptist Church. You are not insignificant. You belong and you are vital to what God is doing here.
This is a dangerous statement for me to make, but I feel the need to. If you are a guest, and you are coming from another church, we recognize that God does move the members of a body to another body from time to time, but please make sure it is God doing it and not you.
Now, if you believe God is moving you here, why not officially join this church and move forward with filling your place here? If you are interested in joining, we will have an invitation time at the end. Come talk with me during that time, and we will be happy to work you through becoming a member and finding a place to serve.
Maybe you’re on the opposite side, which brings us to our second objection:
2) You don’t belong.
2) You don’t belong.
Most of us are way too polite to say this out loud, but that’s the attitude we carry.
Look back at verses 20-24.
Sometimes, we see how God is using us, and it causes us to look down on others.
“They don’t matter as much because they don’t serve like I do or give like I do or come to church as often as I do. In fact, I have never seen them do anything for us, so why should we try to minister to them?”
Let me ask you: How many of you have ever seen your pineal gland? <show picture> Have you even heard of it?
I hadn’t until this week. While studying for this message, I went down a rabbit hole looking up the answer to, “What is the smallest organ in the human body?”
The best answer I found was that it is the pineal gland, which is this tiny pine-cone shaped gland in your skull, pretty much in the middle of everything. It’s about 1/3 of an inch long. (http://www.innerbody.com/image_nerv02/nerv64-new.html)
This tiny gland seems to only have one purpose: to create melatonin.
Although scientists still have some question about what exactly melatonin does, we do know that it helps regulate your circadian rhythm, or your sleep cycles. It is what helps your brain feel sleepy.
There is some research that suggests that melatonin may help with cardiovascular health, mood disorders, and other issues.
All of this is connected to this tiny little gland buried deep in the brain, which most of us didn’t know existed!
Let’s apply that to the church, then. The people you may not think matter in this congregation may do things you never see or know.
There are some in this church who pray more fervently and incredibly than you will ever know. Some use their material resources in ways that most people will never see. Others serve to the best of the strength God is giving them, but may be fighting a battle you know nothing about.
Every single member of this church, every part of this body, is vitally important.
By the way, one more thing about the pineal gland. I looked into the process of how the pineal gland knows when to make melatonin. It is a long, interconnected chain that starts with the eyes and then bounces around in the hypothalmus, down into the spinal cord, back into your neck, and then finally sends a signal to the pineal gland to make melatonin. (http://www.healthline.com/health/pineal-gland-function)
Without any of those parts, it doesn’t work, and the entire body suffers.
That’s how God designed the church. Look back at verse 24-26.
Again, we see that God put the body together.
He balanced it out, putting some people in places where they get more honor and some places that seem less honorable.
Why? So that everyone would have the same concern for each other. Every member of the body matters to God, and therefore every member of the body should matter to us.
What does that look like? Check out verse 26. If someone is honored, we all get excited. If someone hurts, we all hurt.
Listen: you matter this morning. If God has called you to this body, then you have a vital role to play, and we won’t be healthy until you are doing it.
My job as a pastor is to help you learn how to follow God so he can use you, to help create those places for him to use his people, and to help you find where you fit in this plan.
Let’s spend some time this morning talking about what that looks like...
Deacons
Support Teams
Nominating, Leadership, Stewardship, Property
Service Teams
Kitchen, Nursery, Greeters, Ushers, Music, etc.
Special Events
love GOD - worship services
love OTHERS
family - Art of Marriage
church - Small group
community - Backpacks and Outreach
world - Zimbabwe