1.245 Many Members, One Body

1.245 Many Members, One Body Another look at the value and necessity of each member of the body of Christ coming into their place so the church can move forward as a whole.  1 Cor 12:12-15

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:11

This brother Metter and it's good to be with you. I pray all is well with you. And I want to go back to where I left off in our last uh session uh to 1 Corinthians the 12th chapter, and I'm going to begin reading at the 12th verse. For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being members, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, whether we be and have all been made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member but many. So here the Lord is saying that we're many members, but by one spirit we're all baptized into one body. And there's a spirit that's in the land today that's trying to divide people, and people are pulling back and saying, Well, I don't need to go to church. We are the church. And people are saying this because of all this COVID and they aren't able to attend church. The spirit's getting a foothold. But let me tell you something, this spirit ain't new. I run into this spirit back in the 80s and early 90s where people just got this rebellion on them, and they didn't want to come to the house of God. They didn't want to uh walk under leadership, they didn't want to do what they needed to do to walk with God, and that was learned. There is a rebellion in man that he don't want to sit under leadership and wisdom and understanding. The Bible plainly tells you in Proverbs that there's a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof is the way of death. You've got to have leadership. It's like it would be like taking uh kids out here and just turning them loose without parents. They have nobody to instruct them, they have nobody to teach them, to shelter them, to care for them. Will some of them survive? Yes, they will. There are many children, especially in foreign countries. They learn to survive on the street. Uh they learn to steal, they learn to lie, they learn to cheat, uh, they learn to do what they need to do to survive. Are they uh gonna grow naturally? Yes, they are. And they may get a lot smarter about people than some of us, but look at what they turn out to be. They turn out to be misfits, they turn out to where they can't fit into society, they've got all their life, a liar, a thief, and a cheat, uh, just to get by because they have no one to instruct them right from wrong. They have nobody to teach them and edify them and teach them how to live right and educate them. That's why God gave children parents. And I know children get a certain age, they get rebellious, they don't want to do right. But let me tell you something, don't spoil you kids. Don't let them have their way when they're little, don't let them rebel against your authority. Uh, when you teach them something, you make sure it sticks, and you make sure they don't stand up and back talk and rebel against authority, because that's why our generation is in the mess it's in today. Homes are divided. And I'm gonna tell you something, when homes get divided, the church gets divided. Because if the home's out of order, the church is out of order. Whether you uh understand that or not, the church, the home is the nucleus, so to speak, of the church. And when families come together and worship the Lord together, and when they have family altar and the word of God is taught in their home, and the spirit of prayer is placed in their home, and then they go to church and worship God together, it makes the church grow. It makes society and our community flow. But there's been so much evil and perversion and ungodliness stand up in our nation, and the government has facilitated divorce and families becoming divided. They've had a hand in helping, and I know there's people out there that need help, but you cannot divide the family and expect this nation to grow in God and prosper. And that's some of the things wrong with what's happened today. And we've got to get back to the church becoming a body and the family becoming a family unit. We've got to get back to leadership. We've got to get back to the overshadowing of the Spirit of God. And if you've got so much going on with you that you think you're a leader, then you will be able to sit down and learn. If you can't learn, you can't lead. Because before you can lead, you have to learn. I've sat under ministers for years, uh, and I didn't ask for this position God's put me in, but I am learning to lead. I am learning to step into this apostolic leadership ministry. Uh, it's taken several years. I'm not telling you I'm there yet. I'm telling you that I believe that I am getting there, but we need to know that you aren't the church. You aren't the church, just like a mom or a dad's not the family. The family is a unit. There's members of a family. You can't step out there, uh fathers, and say, I'm the family. You can't step out there, mothers, and say I'm the family, just like you can't step out there and say, I'm the church. You're not the church. You're a member of the church. You're a member of the body. And if you've got a call of God for ministry, you need to find a local body, a government, a ministry you can labor in. You know, instead of you evangelists running all over the country and trying to have revivals, go get in a local church. Get in prayer, seek God. Let God speak to them about revival. Go to your pastor and say, Look, I'd like to have a revival. I'd like to bring souls into the church. I'd like to help the church grow. I'd like to help you build the church in our community so we can have a strong church and learn to labor with your pastor, you other teachers, uh, you ministers, labor with the pastor. Now, you may not have a prophet and an apostle in a local assembly, but you should have them in an area where they can minister the word of the Lord to you. We've got to get back to functioning as a unit in the ministry and as a unit in the family. I hope these words are getting down in your spirit. I hope they're being a strength and a help to you. I don't know where the Lord's going to have me keep going with this, but God's changing a lot of things. We are entering into a new era. We're entering into a new dispensation, and God is striving with everything in him to get our attention. He's put all kind of trouble in our nation to put us on our knees. And children of God, if we don't get on our knees and begin to sleep in the face of God, you think God can't make this thing worse? He can turn up the heat. You better believe God can turn up the heat till you get He gets your attention. God knows how to put you on your knees. You may not want to go to your knees, but God knows how to put you on your knees. And out of his mercy, sometimes, he puts us on our knees. I pray you'll listen and hearken to what's being told because God is striving to bring us back to Him and bend us down on our knee. May God bless you until our next session.