January 19, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God is Life"

1 Corinthians 12:4-31; Ephesians 4:7-16

A Low Body Count: the Real Tragedy

1. Introduction

1. Illustration – Watchman Nee wrote, The fellowship of the body is always two-way; receiving and giving. Wanting only to receive is not fellowship. We may not be preachers, but when we come to worship we nevertheless bring what we have. There must be help of the pulpit from the pew. Sitting and looking on will not do. We must give others to drink, not necessarily by speaking, but maybe by quiet prayer. ... Every member of the Body has a ministry, and every member is called to function in the place appointed by the Lord. It makes no difference who does the work if the glory is his (as cited on PreachingToday.com).
2. Context – This concept of the church as the body of Christ is what we’re looking at today. So I want you to just listen to what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12 so that we can learn together what God expects of us in this area.

1. Scripture Passage

1. 1 Corinthians 12:4-31 (from The Message) – God’s various gifts are handed out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various ministries are carried out everywhere; but they all originate in God’s Spirit. God’s various expressions of power are in action everywhere, but God himself is behind it all. Each person is given something to do that shows who God is: Everyone gets in on it, everyone benefits. All kinds of things are handed out by the Spirit, and to all kinds of people! The variety is wonderful: wise counsel, clear understanding, simple trust, healing the sick, miraculous acts, proclamation, distinguishing between spirits, tongues, interpretation of tongues. All these gifts have a common origin, but are handed out one by one by the one Spirit of God. He decides who gets what, and when. You can easily enough see how this kind of thing works by looking no further than your own body. Your body has many parts – limbs, organs, cells – but no matter how many parts you can name, you’re still one body. It’s exactly the same with Christ. By means of his one Spirit, we all said good-bye to our partial and piecemeal lives. We each used to independently call our own shots, but then we entered into a large and integrated life in which he has the final say in everything. (That is what we proclaimed in word and action when we were baptized.) Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain – his Spirit – where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves – labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free – are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive. I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, "I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body," would that make it so? If Ear said, "I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head," would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it. But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don’t need you"? Or, Head telling Foot, "You’re fired; your job has been phased out"? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way – the "lower" the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair? The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ’s body – that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your "part" mean anything. You’re familiar with some of the parts that God has formed in his church, which is his "body": apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, helpers, organizers, those who pray in tongues. But it’s obvious by now, isn’t it, that Christ’s church is a complete Body and not a gigantic, unidimensional Part? It’s not all Apostle, not all Prophet, not all Miracle Worker, not all Healer, not all Prayer in Tongues, not all Interpreter of Tongues. And yet some of you keep competing for so-called "important" parts. But now I want to lay out a far better way for you.

1. The Body Needs Every Part

1. Why did I read such a long passage of Scripture to you this morning? Because what Paul wrote tells it exactly like it is. Our church is a part of the body of Christ, but we are also a body of Christ. We fit into the overall world-wide body of Christ, but we also are His body here in our community. What do we need to learn from this passage?
2. First, God decides who gets which spiritual gift. It is extremely immature and ungodly to envy someone else’s gift. That’s the same thing as criticizing God to His face, and that’s sin. It’s okay for us to say, "I wish I could use my gift as well as they use their gift," because that means we’re aspiring to use our gifts more effectively. But it’s not okay for us to say, "I don’t know why God ever gave them that gift and me this gift! If I had that gift instead of mine, I could do just as well and look just as good as they do!" That is sin! It’s sin to reject the gift God has given you because it’s the same thing as telling Him He didn’t know what He was doing when He made you – calling Him a liar! It’s also sin to reject the fact that God gave someone else that gift because it’s the same as telling Him that He didn’t know what He was doing when He made that other person – calling God a liar! Yes, there are times when we all find ourselves in difficult circumstances because of the way God has gifted us, but God put us there so that we can grow closer to Him and become more like Him. God decided what gifts He would give you before you were ever born – live with it! He loves you enough to give you gifts that are a perfect fit for you. The gifts He has given to you are a blessing! God decides who gets which gifts.
3. Second, God expects us to use our gifts under His direction and for His glory. Can you imagine what it would be like if our hearts were to decide, "I’m tired of pumping blood, I’d rather sing"? We’d be dead before we knew what was happening! I know it sounds ludicrous, but it’s no more ridiculous than when we choose to try to use our gifts for something God never intended – like for our own glory or for our own pleasure. We can find immense pleasure in using our gifts in the ministry of the church according to God’s plan and for God’s glory. Or, if we use them for our own pleasure and glory, pain and destruction will follow. Don’t believe me? Think about some folks that did that – Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, or how about Bill Clinton? God made those folks to be gifted leaders for His glory, and instead they used them for their own glory, and millions of people were hurt. God expects us to use our gifts under His direction and for His glory.
4. Third, God is the source of the gifts, so we are merely stewards of them. I’ve know many Christians who bragged about "my gift" and how well they had used it, instead of humbly saying, "God has given me a tremendous responsibility by entrusting me with this gift, and I’m doing the best I can to be a good steward of it for His glory." So let me ask, "What are your spiritual gifts? What has God entrusted to you?" If you can’t answer clearly and distinctly, "my gifts are _____________" and then list them, "and God wants me to use them in this way," then you are being a poor steward of what He has entrusted to you. God is the source of the gifts – and we can acknowledge what He has entrusted to us – so we have no bragging rights about what we’ve done with them. Since God is the source, we can celebrate what He has accomplished using us as faithful stewards.
5. Fourth, if you aren’t using your spiritual gifts for God’s glory in the life of the church, you are slowly killing off the church. My Uncle Howard has bone cancer. Cancer is a disease where the cells mutate and begin to do things they weren’t designed to do. We all know that if cancer is untreated, we die. And that some cancer gets to the point very quickly where it is untreatable. Now I’m going to say something that may offend some of you. That’s not my purpose – my purpose is that God will somehow open your hearts to see what’s really going on and to see how much bondage you are in. I’m saying this in love, and I’d rather not say it, but I must. If you aren’t using your spiritual gifts in the life of the church, you are a cancer that is slowly killing off the church. Your spiritual life is mutated, it isn’t what God designed it to be. And the example you set leads others to follow you, and so the cancer spreads. What are your choices if you’re in this position? There are a couple of ways you can go. You can stay right exactly where you are and keep doing what you’re doing, and keep killing off the church. You can get offended and leave, and neither one of these options is the best choice for either you or the rest of the body. Or you can embrace the way God has created and gifted you, find out what your gifts are, work to develop yourself spiritually so that you will become mature, and put those gifts to work under the leadership of the church, who administer under the authority of God. Cancer isn’t good for either the cancerous tissue or the body. But God is the great Healer, and He can and will heal the spiritual cancer of those who sincerely ask and who sincerely commit to following Him. You see, the low body count my sermon title refers to isn’t numbers of people attending church; it’s the number of people using their gifts for God’s glory under His direction in the life of the church. Every time you hear an announcement repeatedly that someone is needed to fill a particular role, and that role goes unfilled, it’s because God is calling someone who is gifted to do it and they are being disobedient to His call. God has given the church all the gifts it needs to work beautifully for His glory, and the only ones who can gum up the works are those who don’t listen to His call. Maybe God is calling you, and you’re afraid. I can understand that. But courage is going ahead and doing what God calls you to do in spite of the fear knowing that He is more than able to enable to you accomplish His will and His plan. We need everyone in the church who has a personal love relationship with Jesus Christ using their gifts for God’s glory under His direction.
6. Illustration - NBA player A. C. Green writes: "Men often talk about their "glory years" in high school. At Benson High School, in Portland, Oregon, I was a sports-minded, egotistical maniac. I was the tallest guy on the team and could have broken scoring records, but Coach Gray wouldn't let me. Even with the brakes on, twice that year I scored 39 points, and in the season finale against Wilson I scored 40. I averaged 27 points per game. As a team we scored more than 100 points in seven games and averaged over 90. I was voted the Oregonian's 1981 All-Metro area player of the year, and joined Dean Derrah on the All-Metro team. Coach Gray wouldn't allow me to be a hotshot scorer because he was more interested in the final stat—number one. He knew the only way we could reach that championship level was for us to become team players. In basketball and in life, everyone starts out with a what's-in-it-for-me attitude. Children are selfish. That natural selfishness has to be broken to be a winner. You have to realize you can't do it all by yourself. You need the team. Coach Gray made me pass the ball and play unselfishly. Regardless of individual stats, we, the team, reached the top. We went all the way" (as cited on PreachingToday.com). A.C. Green’s coach realized that, just as the team can’t function properly without each part, the team also is greater than the sum of its parts. We are God’s team for transforming the world. It’s about time we decided to do something about it!

1. What’s In It for Me?

1. All of us ask the same question when God is trying to change our thinking and our hearts to reflect what He wants to do in us and through us – what’s in it for me? What benefit could I possibly get from this? What’s the purpose of all of this? Paul gives us a pretty good idea in Ephesians 4:7-16, which I will read to you from The Message.
2. Ephesians 4:7-16 (The Message) – But that doesn’t mean you should all look and speak and act the same. Out of the generosity of Christ, each of us is given his own gift. The text for this is, He climbed the high mountain, He captured the enemy and seized the booty, He handed it all out in gifts to the people. It’s true, is it not, that the One who climbed up also climbed down, down to the valley of earth? And the One who climbed down is the One who climbed back up, up to highest heaven. He handed out gifts above and below, filled heaven with his gifts. He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love – like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love.
3. What’s the purpose, the benefit of all this for us other than the fact that no one wants to be known as a cancer? It’s this: God has created a place inside all of us that longs to be part of something significant, something bigger than ourselves. Some folks try to fill that in other ways, like clubs or civic organizations. There’s nothing wrong with many of those groups, as long as we aren’t using them to fill that need of significance in our hearts. The church is God’s solution to that empty place within us. The church is that something bigger than ourselves, the body that God created to reach the world with His love and fill that need of significance in our hearts. God created us to work together like a well-oiled machine, like a team winning the championship, transforming our world with His love and grace.
4. A pretty picture, but how do we get there? First, by getting rid of the cancer. Second, by becoming, as Peterson puts it, , fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. How do we get there? By learning from those God has placed within our congregation to train us in how to walk with Him and become more like Him! That’s how! The people God has placed in this church with gifts of leadership and equipping are here to help all of us learn to walk with Him and become more like Him. God gave them to us! They will help us become mature so that, when Satan attacks our church through lies or distrust or selfishness or false teachings, we’ll be able to spot it right away and get rid of it. Then we will be graceful and effective in fulfilling our mission and vision to reach this area with the love of Jesus Christ.
5. Now I know what some of you may be thinking. I have a sinful nature too. Some of you may be thinking, "He’s just saying this stuff so he and his buddies can boss us around any way they like." I’ve thought those things before about leaders who were over me in different churches. And that definitely is a danger; I won’t lie about it. But there are two things that keep us in line. First, several of us have made ourselves accountable to each other. We ask each other the tough questions, and call each other on the carpet with Christian love when we fall short. I personally belong to three accountability groups, two with other pastors and one with men from our church. The second thing that keeps us in line is that God holds us accountable for our leadership of this church. We don’t take that lightly either, knowing that our reward in heaven depends in part on our stewardship of this flock. There is nothing I would hate to do more than to disappoint my God and Savior. I love Him too much, and so do the other leaders of this church.
6. So really, what it all boils down to, is something we talked about last week. Blessings are better than curses, and obedience is the path to God’s blessings. There are tremendous blessings in being obedient to the will of God in the use of our spiritual gifts. If we obey God in this area, He will bless us by making us more and more like Him. If we don’t obey God in this area, we will miss out on His blessing and slowly drift away from Him.
7. Richard Parker wrote, God doesn’t call people who are qualified. He calls people who are willing, and then He qualifies them (as cited on SermonCentral.com). Parker is right. We really have no excuses other than fear or selfishness to keep us from putting the spiritual gifts God has given us to work for His kingdom in the life of the church. He is more than able to enable us to bring glory to Himself!
8. Illustration - Tony Klinedinst wrote, If you compare the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, you will surely see great differences. The Dead Sea is so full of minerals and deposits all life is completely snuffed out. No fish, plants or anything else. However, the Sea of Galilee is thriving with life. What is the difference? There are many channels of water feeding into the Dead Sea, yet there is no channels funneling out. It keeps it all to itself. Yet, the Sea of Galilee is not only receiving water from rivers and creeks, it is also flowing water out to other places. There is life and activity in the Sea of Galilee because as it takes in blessings it also gives away (as cited on SermonCentral.com). Which will we choose to do: give life by using our spiritual gifts, or do nothing?

1. Conclusion

1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. All of us have areas of weakness, so there is no shame in admitting to God or to any body else that you’ve fallen short in the use of the spiritual gifts God has given you. All of us have failed in that area at one time or another. What is God saying to you this morning? Is He telling you that you need to put your spiritual gifts to work for His glory under His direction? Is He telling you that you need to become more mature so that you can more effectively use those gifts? What is He whispering to your heart?
2. If you’ve fallen short in this area, and you want to commit to doing whatever God calls you to do to develop and use your spiritual gifts and to become more like Him, please raise your hand right now as a sign of that commitment.