Is good, isn't he? He's good. It's good to be with you together. Love those baby dedications. Got a bunch of our staff babies up here today. Bunch of great church families up here getting baby dedications going on here today. It's so good.
So we've been studying 1 Corinthians for quite some time. We're in chapter 12, and we're talking about spiritual gifts and how God uses all of us together to make up an effective church body. And yet, oftentimes in the body of Christ, it's kind of like all the other relationships you have. There are people who are different than you. Come on, there are some people that are a little bit different. And those people who are different, sometimes they can get on your nerves, if you're being honest. We don't always appreciate the people who are different than us and who have different gifts than us in the body of Christ.
And just like today, back in the church of Corinth 2,000 years ago, they weren't always getting along, and so God gave us a passage of the Bible to help us appreciate the parts of the body that are different. It says this in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12: "The human body has many parts." So he's using an analogy of the human body. "But the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews. Some are Gentiles. Some are slaves. And some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one spirit, and we all share the same spirit. Yes, the one body has many different parts, not just one part. If the whole body were an eye, how would you hear? Or if your whole body were an ear, how would you smell anything? But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it only had one part? Yes, there are many parts. There are many parts, but only one body."
Okay, so the church of Jesus Christ comes together with different parts. We have different talents and giftings and perspectives, and we form one functional body. So last week, we talked about the different gifts that the Holy Spirit gives. If you want to understand more about those, and if you missed it, you can go back to last week's sermon and catch up. We talked about these declarative gifts like prophecy and words of knowledge and exhortation. We talked about the power gifts like faith and healing and miracles, or the helping gifts like serving and mercy or leadership and administration and giving. The Bible talks about all of these. But all of these gifts come from the same Holy Spirit, and they're exercised through different people for the common good so that we can all be a part of the mission that Jesus has for us.
Now, we're supposed to all work together as one with our different gifts for the glory of God, but it's a lot easier said than done, isn't it? The truth is that back then in Corinth, the people didn't always get along. Imagine that. People don't always get along. They were fighting. They were a little bit divided. They had disagreements. Whose gifts are more important than whose? Whose group deserves more funding in the church budget? Who should get more time in the church schedule? Because they didn't see eye to eye on everything the way that humans don't always, and they didn't see eye to eye now. We all kind of care about the things that we care about most. So we have this guidance in Scripture, how we can function together for the common good.
You know, we see another illustration of this, I think, when a man and a woman come together in marriage. We come together with two different lives. We have our own identities, our own backgrounds, our own families, our own talents and perspectives, and we merge these lives together into one. And it's not always easy, is it? It's a little bit rocky. Come on, we know this. We live in Arizona. Merging is a treacherous thing here and there. Try merging onto the highway in the winter when the snowbirds are here. It's just like, it's a dance, isn't it? You know, it's like, are you going to speed up or slow down? Like, are you going to let me in? No? Okay, great.
It's not easy in those first few years of marriage, is it? We've got a lot of newlyweds in our church. I love talking to newlyweds. They're always excited, like, we're married, but they always look shell-shocked at the same time. And we love laughing about it. We love laughing about the stereotypes of men and women, newlyweds in marriage. There's this stereotype that generally, not always, but generally I think men are a little messier than girls. You know? We tend to, like, leave our shoes around the house and leave our socks on the floor. Like, before I was married, I thought that changing your sheets was something you did on your birthday. It just made sense. And then I came to find out that that was not the way.
Amy, like, with girls, girls are just good at all these things guys don't appreciate. And so they're married. Like, they make homes look pretty. And they do all these things to decorate. And, you know, like, but there's also, like, these weird quirks that you don't understand until you get married. Like, we have guest towels now that I'm not allowed to use. Like, there are towels in my house that have my name on them that are just there taunting me 360 days a year. Like, but not for Ryan.
You know what I mean? Amy and I were so different when we got married. We had important things in common. Like, we both were Christians. We loved Jesus. We were both the oldest kids in our family. We were both pastor's kids. We both loved ice cream and coffee. That was about it, though. After that, we were totally different. Had different, you know, tastes and hobbies and stuff. We had different values. Like, a lot of newlyweds fight about money. We had different priorities when it came to money. I got excited about opportunities to sell, save, and invest money. She got excited about opportunities to use money. Like, she loves buying gifts for people. So whenever there was an anniversary, a birthday, a holiday, she was so excited to buy gifts for people, to wrap the gifts, make it look pretty, you know? And I was just like, really? Someone else has a birthday? That's great. But do you have to spend so much? Like, I was not prepared for this.
And then, like, we were Christians. Like, so at church we would give. But then there would be, like, special giving opportunities, like, to give to missionaries or to these projects. And so, you know, Amy would be like, what are we going to give? And I was like, well, yeah, I'm going to have to pray about that. You know? So the first few years we were married, I wasn't as generous as her, honestly. But if I'm being really transparent, okay, I wasn't so much praying, like, how much should I give in order to please God. I was more thinking, like, how much do I need to give in order to not disappoint anyone? And I was like, Amy. And I can feel some of you judging me right now. Like, wow, that's not very mature of you. That's the point. It wasn't very mature of me. I was not mature. I was immature in this area. But God brought her into my life with this area that she was strong in to help me grow in maturity in the area I was weak in. Like, she had a gift that I didn't have.
And that's how it is in the body of Christ. There are areas where she's strong that I'm not strong. And now I see these differences are real. They're complementary. I'm glad that we're not the same. Like, in our family, you know, I'm more protective. She's more hospitable. It's good that we're not the same. Like, I tend to think, how do I protect my family? She thinks, how do I make guests feel welcome when they come to our house? It's good that we're not both protective or else our house would have a moat around it with crocodiles. But if we were both hospitable like her, you know, the house would have no locks on the doors and there would just be flowers welcoming people. And there would be gypsies living in our family room. And, like, we don't know how they got there, but we're baking them muffins, you know?
And in the body of Christ, we come together with different lives and backgrounds and talents and perspectives and different gifts. But God uses us together as one for one common purpose, together for his glory. And we don't always appreciate each other's unique differences, do we? Sometimes we struggle feeling annoyed with each other. Sometimes we struggle with other people because of their different gifting. You know, like, this scripture we read, it used this metaphor of the human body. And it talks about eyes and noses and hands and feet. If you read the whole passage, I think it's funny just to kind of go with that metaphor that the Bible uses. Like, how, like, the eyes get irritated in the church with the noses. Like, you noses, you're so weird. You're just obsessed with how things smell. You know, like, everything's about smell. There's more to life than smell, you know? And besides, like, you're always sniffing things. That's creepy. And, you know, scripture says, Jesus said, "See? No, smell is not that big of a deal." And then the feet judge the eyes. You eyes are superficial. All you care is about how things look. You eyes are just about surface level. But we feet, we're about getting things done. We walk the walk. And Jesus says, you know, we walk by faith, not by sight. That's where it's at, right? We're these different parts.
And here's what we have to remember. The body of Christ, we're made up of different parts. But we all have an important role. Our different body parts have different priorities and different roles. Okay? So the reason that you have your unique passions and areas of interest, that's because God made you a certain way with unique gifting. And that's okay. But yet, if I'm just going to be really honest. I know this is going to offend somebody who's way more spiritually mature than me. Sometimes we find other Christians annoying. Because we are different. We find other Christians annoying. Like, man, why do other people, why are they like that? I just, I wish, I wish they weren't like, I wish other Christians just thought more like me. I struggle with this. I don't know if you do, if I'm the only one. I wish other, honestly, sometimes I wish other pastors thought like I did. See? There's another. The world would just be a better place if other pastors thought like I did. But you know, why, why are they like they are? Like, it would be easier if they just thought more like me. You know? And like, we, what we do is we end up sometimes unfairly judging other people and criticizing them because they have different giftings and priorities and roles. But we think incorrectly. We misunderstand them. We think sometimes like, oh, well, they're immature. Or they're compromising. Or they're mean. Or they're a pushover. Or they're insensitive. Like, but we don't understand. No, they just have different priorities and roles. Because God has gifted them differently. And he has a different function for them to play in the body of Christ.
So this is why it goes on to say in verse 21: "The eye can never say to the hand, I don't need you. The head can't say to the feet, I don't need you. In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary." So can I just use like a cheesy illustration for one second? Is that okay? How many children of the 90s we got in here? Like, you were a kid watching cartoons. Okay, who remembers Captain Planet? Okay. So, like, I was a kid watching Captain Planet when I was like, you know, in the 90s. And my mom didn't really want me to watch it. And now I realize why. Because it really was trying to push like this woke environmentalist propaganda on everybody. But at the time, I thought it was cool. Because these kids, they had powers over these elements like fire and earth and wind and water. And this little guy here, he could talk to animals. His power was heart, which I didn't want that. I didn't like that one. But I thought like this guy's like power over fire was so cool. And I was like, whoa, that's so cool. He can like burn stuff. And together, they could summon Captain Planet to fight pollution, which that really does sound pretty woke, doesn't it? But I thought like, man, if I could, you know, control fire, that would be so cool. Maybe, you know, I think it would be kind of cool if you could control the earth and make earthquakes happen. But I didn't really appreciate the other gifts that much, if I'm being honest. And yet, the show would have probably been kind of boring if all of them had the power of fire and all they did was just burn stuff. Then he wouldn't have been Captain Planet. He would have been Captain Pyro. It's probably a good thing that they had different powers and abilities.
You know what I'm saying? Like in the body of Christ, it's probably a good thing that we don't all just think the same and have the same gifts and the same passions. It's almost like maybe God knows what he's doing, making us different with different perspectives and abilities in gifting. Here's what happens in local churches. Like here's what has, I've seen this happen. These are real world examples I've seen happen. The names have been changed to protect the not so innocent, okay? But I see major misunderstandings happen. Major unfair criticisms and judgments happen. They happen among Christians because of this. Okay, so let me tell you about Susan and Tom, okay? So we got Sue and Tom. They have different giftings. Sue, she's gifted in mercy. She's just compassionate towards those who are hurting and poor and broken and hungry. She loves serving in the food pantry and feeding the homeless. That's where she's gifted. Her heart just bleeds for those who are hurting, those who need help, okay? And then Tom. He's gifted in leadership and administration. He thinks spreadsheets and budgets and numbers and systems, right? And what happens is they're both gifted in these unique areas and it's very easy for them to misunderstand each other. This really happens in churches. I've seen this type of thing play out.
So what happens is Susan, if it was left up to her, she would feed every hungry person in Arizona. Like she would drain the church's budget like in one week and feed every homeless person she could get her hands on. But yet Tom would be over here telling her, stop, no, time out, you've gone too far. You can't help everyone, Susan. Otherwise, you're going to bust the budget and the church is going to go under. And if we cease to exist, then we're not going to be able to help anyone. There's a reason on the airplane they tell you if the cabin loses pressure to put on your own air mask first. But then what happens is even though they're both operating in their gifting, they misunderstand each other. So Susan thinks, Tom, you're just heartless. You care more about budgets than people. And I'm just here trying to feed the hungry like Jesus. And Tom misunderstands Susan and he thinks, well, you're just reckless. If it were up to you, you'd give away the farm and we wouldn't even have anything tomorrow. And we wouldn't be able to help anyone. And you're out of control. And in reality, they get frustrated at each other. But they actually need each other. See, someone like Susan, she's got this big heart. God gave her compassion for the hurting. And that's a good thing. But she needs someone like Tom to give her guidelines and boundaries to work within so that it doesn't get out of control. And Tom, he loves systems and plans and budgets and numbers. But he needs someone like Susan sometimes to remind him that, like, hey, it's okay to help someone even when it falls outside of the plan and just trust God to provide according to his riches and glory. Okay? So, like, they actually need one another. You see that?
And then let me tell you about Eddie and Rhonda, okay? So Eddie, he's got the gift of encouragement. And he's a youth leader. And he noticed this young girl. She's wanting to sing on the worship team. And so he's just like, you're amazing. You're going to bless so many. So many people singing on the worship team. You'll probably be up there next Sunday singing. And everyone's going to be like, wow, God is glorified. Way to go. I believe in you. You can do it. You've got so much potential. And this little girl's like, wow, really? Thanks, Eddie. You're the best. But then there's Rhonda. And she's got the gift of leadership. Okay? And she's the worship director. And her job is to think about the whole church and what's in the best interest of the whole church. And so right now, she's super frustrated. She's like, Eddie, what's wrong with you? Like, now I have to be the bad guy and tell this girl that she's not ready to sing on the worship team. And Eddie gets frustrated at Rhonda. Like, Rhonda, seriously, why are you cold-hearted? I'm just trying to encourage this girl and speak life to her. And I see her potential. She's got so much potential. Why do you have to crush her dreams? But in reality, the church needs Rhonda and her gift of leadership and her value on the church. She's a blessing to the church and everybody who has ears, right? But the church also needs Eddie to see people's potential before they reach that standard of excellence and to speak life and to encourage. And they get frustrated at each other when, in reality, they need each other.
Okay, here's one more example. Like, there's Jake and Kim. Okay? So Jake's like, he's got the gift of faith. Man, he's always ready to pray for healing and miracles. And, man, he's just always thinking about God. He's always thinking about, like, what's happening in the supernatural realm. And he's just keyed into that kind of stuff. And then there's Kim, and she's just, like, into teaching and sound doctrine and studying the Bible. And she's got concordances and study Bibles for days. And so when the church is going through a time of crisis, like, let's say, in an election year, Jake will be like, Pastor, I know what we need to do. We need to have prayer meetings and times of fasting. And we need to get everybody together. And we just need to have everybody just, like, seek God and believe for miracles and pray, pray, pray. And, like, believe for supernatural help. But Kim, the way she's wired, she thinks, no, we've got to get people in the Bible. We need to have a 24-week Bible study in Romans 13 in the Greek and the role of the church and God and Christians and the government. And that will prepare people. And, like, what happens is they misunderstand each other. And so Jake thinks that Kim is not in God. He's not in touch with the importance of God and his power and what happens in the supernatural realm. And Kim thinks that Jake is just weird. So they kind of misunderstand each other. And what happens is instead of helping each other function together more effectively, a lot of times these groups of people, they end up just splitting up and forming different denominations. Like, I'm going to take my gifts and the things that I'm strongest in and passionate about. And I'm going to go have church with the other people who think just like me that I don't have to deal with the people who get on my nerves and think differently than me. I'm telling you, this is exactly what happened in the Protestant church in America over the last couple hundred years. And that's why you get these churches where there are a lot of people in these churches, these different groups. They're saved. They're going to heaven. They love God. They're sincere. But they have glaring blind spots and areas of weakness. Why? Because they're missing body parts. You don't want a body full of feet. You know what I'm saying? It's freaky. It's lopsided. It can't function properly.
And, of course, this is what Christians do when they're wrong. They spiritualize their errors. Here's what they do. Have you noticed how Christians, they'll cherry-pick different moments in Jesus' life to support their own passions? Let me give you an example. They'll be like, well, see, Jesus fed the hungry and hung out with sinners. See, Jesus was a mercy person. We need more soup kitchens. No, no, no. That's not it. Jesus, he told the Pharisees off. Jesus was a prophet. We need more Christians telling it like it is. No, no. See, that's not it. Jesus was a healer and he healed the sick. He was a miracle worker. He's a charismatic. We need more anointing oil. No, no. That's not it. Jesus gave the best sermons and he had brilliant insight and parables. We need more Christian education. See, no, no, no. That's not it. Jesus always went off to pray for long periods and he fasted and he knew the value of faith. And we need more prayer and fasting in the church. No, no, no. That's not it. Jesus took the 12 disciples and he mentored them and he developed them and he started a movement that changed the world. We need more leadership development. No, no, no. That's not it. Jesus picked up a towel and he washed the disciples' feet. It's not about leadership. It's about servanthood. We need to get rid of titles and offices. Power to the people. You see what people do?
So who's right? None of them. Because a partial picture of Jesus is never an accurate picture of Jesus. You need the full picture. Jesus is both the lion and the lamb. He's the mighty warrior and the humble carpenter. He's a friend of sinners and the judge of the world. He's the judge of sinners. He's the servant and the king. It's the same Jesus who's going to return one day with a sword to slay his enemies and fire in his eyes who will turn around and tenderly wipe the tears from our eyes. His life on earth, he demonstrated all the spiritual gifts in a way that none of us will. And any of us, we could pick and choose individual moments from his life to highlight. But we're not supposed to highlight individual points in his life. We're supposed to hold on to all of his life and every part that's been revealed to us. We need all of Jesus to live for Jesus. And we need all of the body to function productively. We need all of the body, all the parts, to function productively. What does that mean? It means we cannot function productively without you. Without you. Because you have gifts that I don't have. And you have gifts that your neighbor doesn't have. You are necessary to the body.
You have church bodies all across America, honestly, including this one, that are partially crippled, limping along, going, man, sure would be nice if we had another foot. Because there are people in that church going to that church who aren't functioning the way God made them to function. God did not save you from sin. He saved you from sin and gave you the Holy Spirit so that you could sit around and spectate and watch other people do the work. The role that you play makes the whole body stronger. So let me just ask you this. How are you contributing to the body of Christ? It's good that you go to church. Don't get me wrong. I think going to church, attending church is a key practice for every Christian. It's always going to help you. You should do that. But let me just be honest. That's a given. That's like JV, Christianity, okay? I go to church. Well, good. Okay? But that's not where it ends. That's like the starting point. How do you contribute? How do you contribute using your gifts, using the skills, the talents, and the gifting that the Holy Spirit gave you to build up the body of Christ? God didn't put you in this body to just watch and to consume.
Think about it. Can I just say some of this a little bit edgy? You're like, really? There's more? I mean, there are only certain types of organisms that exist in a human body and feed off the body that don't contribute anything productive to the body. Every part of your body plays a role and contributes something. Your skin plays a role, and your nerves, and your bones, and your muscles, and your organs, and your hair. God even put hair in places on your body that you don't want it, but he put it there for a reason. To reduce friction, probably, or something. Even your belly button. Your belly button. You wouldn't be here without your belly button, right? And your belly button still plays a role. You know that? It's a time capsule. You'd be like, oh, yeah, I remember when I wore that. I remember when I ate that snack. See, it plays a role. But there are certain organisms that exist in your body that only feed off the body but don't contribute anything, like parasites. Another type would be like a baby. A baby exists in the human body and is nourished by his or her mother but doesn't really give anything back to the mother. Just feeds from the mother's body.
Now, if you have a parasite in the human body, you want to get it out because all it does is leech off the body. It's not good. But if you have a baby in the human body, that's a good thing. That's a gift from God, right? Babies are a gift. It's good to have a baby because that's a sign of life, right? It's a sign of life. And if you have babies, that means you have a future. So if you're a part of the church of Jesus Christ and you're not contributing, well, I'm not contributing. I'm not going to call you. But if you're not contributing and you're a baby, the goal with babies is eventually you want them to grow up and start contributing. And we make it really easy to contribute. You don't have to sit there and wonder. We're like, okay, I would love to help, but I don't know how. We make it really easy to start. You go to G101, this class. We do it like twice a month. And you can usually just come to church and then go to the class. And it's super easy. We'll give you teams you can choose from. You can serve. We'll help you figure that out. It's very easy. And it's because we want you to be able to fulfill the function that God designed you to fulfill. That's the way that you find satisfaction in your role and the whole body gets stronger.
Here's what it says in verse 22: "In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary." Okay, follow me closely on this part because I think this is the hardest part of the passage to understand. "And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care, so we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care." So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. Okay, so I think there are at least three layers of meaning to this that I want to just talk about really quick.
First, I think it's just very plain common sense. There are certain parts of your human body that are natural to honor, that are easy to care for. For example, if a man loves a woman, he will tell her oftentimes, girl, you're so beautiful. Girl, you're fine. And she'll say, really, tell me more. Like, how? Like, she wants specific compliments. You know what I'm saying? And so he'll say something like, well, your eyes. Your eyes sparkle like diamonds. And your hair just flows. Right? You know what he doesn't say? He doesn't say, it's your nostrils for me. They just, the way they flare when you breathe. And it's just the perfect amount of hair in there, filtering out dust particles. So efficient. It's the toe on your little, the hair on your little toes. It's just, it's just. Nobody says that. Because those parts don't seem as honorable. Right? And yet, they still play an important role, don't they? Like, if you can't breathe through your nostrils, you start to appreciate them in a whole new way. You're like, wow, those things are actually pretty useful. And my little toes seem like disposable parts of the body. But if they get cut off, they have a pretty big impact on your balance, don't they? When you walk.
Here's another layer of meaning to this. You think about 2,000 years ago, what they understood about human biology and science. But you remember the word of God is inspired by God. So he already knew everything scientifically before they did. And so, think about this. Like, 2,000 years ago, they would have been very aware of the utility of the human hand. Like, oh yeah, of course, your hands are so important. You work with your hands. You need them to live and to earn a living and to survive. They're so vital and important. But then there were all these parts inside the human body that they would have been like, I honestly have no idea what that's for. It's little and gross looking. And do you even really need it? Spleen? Who needs it? Pancreas? What's that for? And yet it's so important that God decided to hide it away on the inside. Not have it out of the body on display. It's so honored that it's unseen and hidden. Okay?
So here's another layer of meaning. And I think this would be the primary meaning of the passage. In order to understand it, I think you need to reread the passage from a first-person perspective and insert yourself into the passage. Okay? So let me reread it to you with first-person perspective paraphrased and inserted into the passage in parentheses. Okay? So let's reread it with me. "In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important to God are not. In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important to me are actually the most necessary for me. And the parts I naturally tend to regard as less honorable are those I need to clothe with the greatest care. So I should carefully protect those parts that I would not normally be inclined to see. While the parts I would naturally be inclined to honor do not require this special care from me. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to the parts that I need. Otherwise, I would have less dignity."
See, it's like when I got married to Amy. The things about her that at first annoyed me were actually the things that God used to strengthen me the most. There was nothing about me that annoyed her, by the way. The things I'm the most inclined naturally to value are the things that I don't really have to work on valuing. And it's the things that I'm least inclined to see and pay attention to. Those are the things that I need to most work to pull close and value. So it's different for all of us. Like for me, you've probably noticed it's very easy for me to tell the truth and to confront. So I don't have to go out of my way to value that. And to pay attention to that. And to be friends with people who are confrontational. I need to go out of my way to be friends with people who are merciful and gracious and patient. And like keep those voices in my life. Because that helps to temper me in the area where I'm strong. But they're strong in this. And that's like, oh yeah, yeah, I need to like tone it down. That's what I think God really wants us to take away from that passage. It's the parts of the body of Christ that you're the least likely to appreciate that you actually need the most in order to be healthy.
When you understand that, this is what happens. Verse 25: "This makes for harmony among the members so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it. And if one part is honored, all the parts are glad." We're not supposed to act like independent agents in the body of Christ. We're supposed to function many parts but as one body. And care for one another. If you're hammering a nail and you hit your thumb, your mouth doesn't say, oh those are thumb problems. Not my problem. Right? Your whole body reacts. Like, ow! Like, because the whole body suffers with the thumb. Right? We function as one. Harmony. Harmony, though, it's not uniformity. It doesn't mean we have to all be the exact same and think the same. We're not. We're individuals. But we need to operate on the same wavelength. Harmony doesn't prevent individuality. You can still have your unique ethnic culture and background and perspective. But we have the same purpose. To advance the gospel and give God glory.
And then, harmony does not allow for insensitivity. Your area of spiritual gifting, listen, does not give you an excuse to be unloving. Your area of spiritual gifting, let me say this again, does not give you an excuse to be unloving. Okay? So, let me just give you two quick examples. Well, I'm just one of those guys who tells it like it is. I'm someone who loves the truth, so I tell it like it is. No, you're just a jerk. You don't get to just be a jerk and blame it on your prophetic gifting. All right? On the flip side, you got someone who's merciful. I'm just merciful and I'm a giver and I'm generous. And I give and I give and I give and I give. And then you go home and you're like, sorry, kids, dad can't pay the mortgage this month because he just gave everything away to strangers. That's actually unloving to your family because you should prioritize them first. Your gifting is not an excuse to be unloving.
Let me close with this. Remember when we first started talking about the Holy Spirit, I read this verse to you from John 14, verse 16. Jesus said this: "And I will ask the Father and he will give you another advocate, the Holy Spirit, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit who leads into all truth." Right here in this passage, you see a picture of the Trinity. Jesus the Son asking the Father to send the Holy Spirit. They're working as a team to lead you into truth. So when I read this a few weeks ago to you, the first thing that struck me was, God, what's up with all the group work? You see God acting together to lead you into truth. Jesus asked the Father. The Father sends the Holy Spirit. The Spirit leads you into truth. What's up with the group work?
Who remembers doing group work in school? Right? How many of you loved doing group work? Where are the social butterflies? Come on. I know we got some social butterflies. You're like, this is going to be great. We get to sit in a circle. We get to interact. I love group work. How many of you hated group work? All right. A lot more of you are like, like me. Okay. You're like, I hate group work. This is going to be terrible. I have to talk to people. This is going to slow me down. Right? You know, I get it. Okay. So I always thought group work was the worst. But when I started thinking about this, like, God, what's up with all the group work? I was curious. So I actually researched, are there any academic benefits to group work? Or is this a thing that teachers just do to torture their students? So I was researching it. I found, like, a bunch of studies. There was a Harvard study, a bunch of, and there are actually academic and sociological benefits to group work. And they're pretty genius, actually. So let me break it down really simply.
In a group setting, there will be a difference. There will be advanced above average students. And in that group setting, they will inevitably end up acting like leaders who guide the rest of the group through the project. And for them, the group work will become leadership development. Then there will be below average students who, for them, the group project will become their first opportunity sometimes to get exposed to other students who are achieving and succeeding in school. And so it's really helpful for them to see what those practices look like. And then for the average students, the group work actually benefits them the most because they both get to observe the students who are excelling and learn from them and help mentor the below average students and help them in their work. And so I was like, wow, I got to admit, that's pretty smart. And then I started thinking, like, well, why does God always say that? Why does God always seem to do group work? And it started to make sense to me more and more as I thought about it. God, He wants to work in us and through us together because relationship is His nature. It's not that He just wants to have a relationship, but rather relationship is His nature. It's who He is. In fact, it says this in 1 John: "Because God is love." He is love. It's not just something He does, but He is love. It's not an attribute of Him. It's who He is. And you can't love without someone to love.
It goes on to say, this is how God showed His love among us. He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love. Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. So you see it with God. Relationship has always existed from eternity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have always existed three in one. So even before God created us, He is love. He could love amongst Himself. The Father loved the Son. The Son loved the Spirit. There was love. And then He created us so that He could love us. And now after Jesus saved us, you see how God, the Father, Spirit, they all work together with the Son to save us. Now they're working together in us and through us. And Jesus said, I will build my church. But how is He going about the process of building His church? He said, I'm going to ask the Father. The Father's going to send the Holy Spirit. The Spirit's going to work in you. And I'm going to work through you to build my church. What does that tell you? He loves group work. He would rather build His church messy with you than build it perfect without you. And yeah, He knows sometimes it's going to get awkward and we're going to get irritated with each other along the way. But God says, that's okay. Working together, that's half the fun. Because Jesus could have been like, snap, the church exists. It is perfect. But for whatever reason, He decided to take it one step at a time and include us in the process and work in us and work through us because relationship is His nature. He wants to work in us and through us.
Okay, so I want to ask you to bow your heads with me for a moment. And first, I just wanted to say this to anyone who's a Christian. And you would say, man, what you said there about contributing, I felt convicted by that. I'm not going to tell you what to do with that, okay? The Holy Spirit can speak to you. And the way that you contribute looks different in different seasons of your life. So I think God can lead you in what that needs to look like. And I trust God to lead you in how to follow Him in that area of your life.
And then I think there could be people at church today, like there have been this morning so far, who you would say, I want to begin a relationship with God. And I don't yet have a relationship with God. And you understand, you know, that's what God wants most, is He wants relationship with you. The way that you experience that is through faith in Jesus. And you trust that Jesus is the Savior of the world, that He's the Son of God. And that only by trusting in Him can you be saved and forgiven from sin and receive eternal life. So what I want to do, if that's you, I just want to lead you in a prayer. And if you want to take that prayer, take that step of faith today, you can pray with me wherever you're at. So if that's you, just pray this with me. Just say, God, I ask you to save me. And I confess that I've sinned against you. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. And I believe that He rose again. I'm trusting that Jesus has saved me and forgiven me and adopted me into your family. And now I pray that you would help me to live for you. And I ask that you would lead me for the rest of my life. I thank you for always loving me every step of the way. In Jesus' name.
Let's just keep our heads bowed for one second. And I'm going to ask you to do this. We're not looking around. And I'm not going to embarrass you. But if you just prayed that prayer just between you and God, I'm just going to ask you to raise your hand up to God. Because I think it's good to solidify it physically. That's great. Anybody else? That's you. You just prayed that prayer? Two of you over there. And all I'm going to do, we've got one over here. Our service team is just going to slip you a Bible that will help you in your walk with God. It's got some material in there. If you want, we'll slip that to you. So if you just prayed that prayer and you want to just raise your hand, say, hey, that was me. We're just going to bring you a Bible. And I'm not going to do anything crazy to you. I promise. Anybody else? Sometimes it takes a second. Great. Right here. Right here, Tom. Right here. Right here. Good. Good, good, good. Anybody else? Sometimes it takes a second. You go, man, do I really want to raise my hand? Yeah. It's good. That's the most important decision you've ever made. So good. Right back there. And if you raised it and you didn't get a Bible yet, if you want to just hold it up for a second and we'll bring one to you. That's great. Just keep our heads bowed for one more second because I think we've got a couple more people. If you were there in the balcony, we've got time for you. That's good, bro. Anybody else? All right. Praise God. Thank you, Lord. We thank you for your word. We pray that we would receive it and that we would understand it and apply it to our lives in a way that honors you. I pray that you would bless your people and be with them and protect them and give them wisdom and go with them and show them favor in everything that they do. In Jesus' name, amen.
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on Aug 24, 2024
