SPEAKER_00: For a moment there, I thought Dane was gonna preach my sermon and his prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Um thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Goes right along.
SPEAKER_00: Now, um as I was assigned these verses, uh Pastor Jason kind of distributes since we maintain uh preaching through the the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: He assigned this these verses.
SPEAKER_00: I thought maybe I'd preach on aliens today, but I decided against it.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, you know, that would take a little bit more time to do this.
SPEAKER_00: So we're no longer aliens, right?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: You've heard that phrase, haven't you?
SPEAKER_00: Seen it somewhere, maybe not pronounced quite like that.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have a Latin title for our message this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine that?
SPEAKER_00: I promise you I won't be preaching in Latin.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not fluent in Latin that way to do so.
SPEAKER_00: But what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: We see that in different places.
SPEAKER_00: If you can go to the next slide right there, we have it in um the seal of the United States, a pluribus unum.
SPEAKER_00: And that means of many one.
SPEAKER_00: Of many one.
SPEAKER_00: So I thought I'd join that phrase together with what we're talking about here, because that has been applied by different people.
SPEAKER_00: It was, I believe, used by the Latin writers a long time ago, and then also in a magazine in London, it was used to show that they're bringing many articles into one magazine, and then it was suggested in 1776 that that would become a part of the nation's seal, and it was approved later.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not talking about the seal, but I'm talking about the church of many one.
SPEAKER_00: And we have seen this already if you've read the scriptures and if you're familiar with them, you see that that is God's intent.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna base our message this morning basically on three statements that I'm going to make about this text and using many other texts also.
SPEAKER_00: So brace yourself.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't have a belt on, you might want to put the seatbelt on, gonna race through a few scriptures there to show you the reason for this is that this is a comprehensive view.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just one little verse in the Bible that shows us this.
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's important sometimes for us to open up our eyes throughout those scriptures and see how that is a concept that is always there.
SPEAKER_00: If we go to another slide here, metaphors, metaphors, metaphors.
SPEAKER_00: We use metaphors all over the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if you're completely familiar with that term.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you're an English teacher, you probably do, but if you're a Greek teacher, you should really know that, because that comes from two uh Greek words put together.
SPEAKER_00: And that means actually to carry beyond, to carry across meta and photos from moving beyond.
SPEAKER_00: So you take it from the concept of what is saying, what you're saying, let it be a building, let it be a body, and so forth.
SPEAKER_00: You carry it beyond its meaning and you use it to apply, to symbolize other things.
SPEAKER_00: And we use the metaphors, we use metaphors constantly in the way we speak.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible is full of metaphors, and if you don't focus on that, you may end up in some little corner because you don't know what it's saying.
SPEAKER_00: And that's God's way of speaking to us in so many ways.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Himself said, you know, I've speaking of spoken, I don't have the exact text right there, but I've if I speak, I'm speaking of earthly things and you don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: How would you understand if I spoke of heavenly things?
SPEAKER_00: So God is always contextualizing, always translating for us.
SPEAKER_00: He is speaking in our way of thinking to explain.
SPEAKER_00: Now, metaphors are never absolute, they don't last forever, they don't mean everything that it seems like they are supposed to.
SPEAKER_00: But we see in the book of Ephesians, as Pastor Jason has already used it, many metaphors.
SPEAKER_00: We talk about dead people coming to life.
SPEAKER_00: We have uh statements about us being his workmanship, his workmanship.
SPEAKER_00: We are citizens.
SPEAKER_00: We're thinking of nations and not aliens.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not talking about flying saucers, but aliens like a resident alien or somebody who lives or who is not a resident in a country, somebody who is not a citizen of a certain country.
SPEAKER_00: I've had one of those.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a naturalized citizen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm very glad of it, but I had one for a long time that said permanent, or not permanent resident, and I was a resident alien.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Green or what's right.
SPEAKER_00: I was an alien.
SPEAKER_00: So we use that same term in different ways, but that means you are not a citizen until you become a citizen.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have all the rights and privileges of a citizen in the country.
SPEAKER_00: So these are all metaphorically used.
SPEAKER_00: We have the building and the temple being used.
SPEAKER_00: Now, we see this brick and mortar, we're not made out of brick and mortar, right?
SPEAKER_00: So, how are we a building?
SPEAKER_00: How are we a temple?
SPEAKER_00: So, all these things, I want us to make sure that we're clear on this, these are metaphors to help expand our understanding of what God is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: His concept is always larger, much bigger than we can ever grasp.
SPEAKER_00: So he's using these metaphors to get us to understand.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to make three major statements right here.
SPEAKER_00: We are, well, first of all, reviewing a little bit of Ephesians chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: We're fellow citizens with the saints.
SPEAKER_00: We are in God's household.
SPEAKER_00: We are living stones built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone.
SPEAKER_00: We're part of a complex whole in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing.
SPEAKER_00: Just think about what he's saying right there.
SPEAKER_00: The building is growing.
SPEAKER_00: That's the language of biological growth, right?
SPEAKER_00: But the building is growing.
SPEAKER_00: We can talk like this.
SPEAKER_00: See how flexible we are in the way?
SPEAKER_00: So kind of flex your mind, also your brain, to understand that these are just illustration of what he's trying to tell us.
SPEAKER_00: And the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom also you also are being built together into dwelling of God in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna make three statements about this text, and we're gonna look at some verses.
SPEAKER_00: The first one has to do with our faith being a corporate faith.
SPEAKER_00: We can go to the next slide there, if you will, please.
SPEAKER_00: Biblical faith is fundamentally corporate.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about Google corporation or something like that, but it's corporate as a body, not individualistic.
SPEAKER_00: And you may say, Elson, here, wait a minute, wait a minute.
SPEAKER_00: We're not saved by being part of the church, uh by being in a group.
SPEAKER_00: We're saved by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and let's make let me clarify this for you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so there are some things that are absolutely your individual responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: Uh let me clarify.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 10, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know how many of you use the King James over and over again in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Let me, I'm curious.
SPEAKER_00: How many of you grew up on King James?
SPEAKER_00: Would you raise your hand?
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So you speak Shakespearean English.
SPEAKER_00: Great, awesome.
SPEAKER_00: So you shouldn't have a problem.
SPEAKER_00: We just sang a song, How Great Thou Art.
SPEAKER_00: That's good, King James, Shakespearean four centuries ago.
SPEAKER_00: The English language has been impoverished by losing the difference between the singular and the plural.
SPEAKER_00: Most languages still maintain that.
SPEAKER_00: So when he say you, he can talk about you and Texans and other Southerners have a good solution for that.
SPEAKER_00: He call them y'all, right?
SPEAKER_00: And even more if it's really a big group, it's all of y'all, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh, we have a California here who has grown up into that already, said all of y'all.
SPEAKER_00: So, but the English language, as its standard in the way that would pass muster, if you were writing an academic article, you wouldn't be saying y'all, okay?
SPEAKER_00: And you have to clarify because you could mean you, singular, and could be plural.
SPEAKER_00: But the old language clarifies this.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm bringing this up here, not because y'all need to, y'all, there it is, y'all need to read from the King James all the time, but it's helpful for you to understand what is singular and what is plural.
SPEAKER_00: So we see here, um, confessing, believing, calling is an individual's responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 10, verse 8.
SPEAKER_00: And now let's buckle up.
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at some verses here.
SPEAKER_00: It says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, thy mouth, the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Who is he talking to you?
SPEAKER_00: To he's talking to you as an individual.
SPEAKER_00: He's talking to you, Dane, right there.
SPEAKER_00: And you did that one day personally.
SPEAKER_00: You trusted Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You confess his with your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: It's not something we do because we join in a group and we all do it together.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we have also, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, whosoever is a singular thing there.
SPEAKER_00: That whosoever believeth, King James righty, whosoever believes, no, third person, singular, believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: Very personal and individual.
SPEAKER_00: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever what is that believeth, yeah, the believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: Very individual in that sense.
SPEAKER_00: Very individual.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but the ongoing life of the Christian, the daily, and the ongoing life until we're in heaven and pastor in heaven for all of eternity is a corporate faith.
SPEAKER_00: So I don't mean like we have to all believe in order for me to be saved.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I mean.
SPEAKER_00: But for me to act, behave, live out that's the word we use, and live out the Christian life, I must be among other people.
SPEAKER_00: It must be corporate in many ways.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not saying a person is no longer saved if he is a hermit and is somewhere lost in this island and nobody finds him uh for the rest of his life, and he doesn't lose his salvation because of that.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm implying.
SPEAKER_00: But the normal Christian life has to do with us living it together.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, now you have Romans chapter 12, which I'll come back to at the end, chapter 12, verse 1 and 2.
SPEAKER_00: In the King James, because of the plural, I beseech you, and uses the word you, okay, which is the direct object for ye, y'all.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the good for all us Texans here, okay.
SPEAKER_00: For y'all, I beseech y'all, therefore, ye brethren, by the mercies of God that y'all present, ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice wholly acceptable unto God, which is y'all's reasonable service, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Your reasonable service.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's kind of funny, right?
SPEAKER_00: You're okay to laugh, right?
SPEAKER_00: Here it's in church for family.
SPEAKER_00: So we are in this.
SPEAKER_00: How I'm not saying that there is not an individual responsibility here, but this is something that I think maybe he's shifting the focus.
SPEAKER_00: I beseech, beseech all of you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm begging all of you.
SPEAKER_00: You've listened to all this doctrine in Romans chapter 1, all the way to chapter 11 now.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, what are you gonna do with this?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna live in this way.
SPEAKER_00: I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, all of y'all, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: All of y'all, all of us together presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service.
SPEAKER_00: So the question arises, even at this point, if the apostle implies that this is a group action, or if he's simply addressing them as a crowd.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, we could debate that another time, not right at this moment, right here.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe it doesn't matter anything anything, but I think it does.
SPEAKER_00: But even if not, why would you say then that he used the singular for chapter 10 when he's saying, If thou shalt confess, because then it's individual.
SPEAKER_00: So I want I want us to put our thinking cap here.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity lived out is corporate.
SPEAKER_00: It's in a group.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, there's a reason why I'm saying this.
SPEAKER_00: So hold on and wait on uh we're gonna get somewhere with this here.
SPEAKER_00: Our faith, especially in action, is corporate because faith, because it affects others.
SPEAKER_00: Often the whole community is also corporate because he's called us as a group to accomplish a task or behave a certain way.
SPEAKER_00: Let's take for an illustration the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_00: We're familiar with the Great Commission, mentioned at least four, we could even say stretching and say five times in some way in the New Testament, the Gospels, and then the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_00: The Great Commissions in chapter 28 of Matthew says, Go ye, I'm using again the King James for the plural's sake, for you to be clear.
SPEAKER_00: Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.
SPEAKER_00: That's y'all, and lo, I am with y'all always, even unto the end of the world.
SPEAKER_00: So man, it's so good that I learned some Texan uh some time ago and some Southern because that's really helpful in modern English.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is Jesus saying?
SPEAKER_00: He had his disciples gathered around him, and uh we've all of us probably, I know Jim probably have also, and uh, we've lived in situations where we feel like we're all pressured.
SPEAKER_00: We had to we have to do everything in ministry, we gotta accomplish all the things, and I don't see that from this great commission.
SPEAKER_00: He's speaking to all of his disciples, and he's saying, Go ye into all the world.
SPEAKER_00: So you really think Peter went all over the world to every single section we still haven't gotten there, and we got millions and millions of Christians who, if we put our thinking caps about it, he was given a corporate command.
SPEAKER_00: You, my disciples, go into all the world, preach the gospel, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: Does everybody need to be doing the baptizing?
SPEAKER_00: Does everybody need to do the teaching?
SPEAKER_00: Does everybody need to teach every nation?
SPEAKER_00: Do you have to learn all the languages of the world?
SPEAKER_00: I'm no extrapolating all this, but I'm doing this on purpose for us to think about the fact that he was speaking to them as a group because together, together, they could do this.
SPEAKER_00: Our church supports missionaries, we support that them together.
SPEAKER_00: Sure, we give individually.
SPEAKER_00: I have some missionaries throughout the years that I've supported individually, and we can do this.
SPEAKER_00: But the general gist of it is that we do this corporately.
SPEAKER_00: And then you have all those passages that you know very well, the one another passages.
SPEAKER_00: How do you love one another if you're just a hermit?
SPEAKER_00: Somewhere, hidden somewhere, and you're not part of the church working together.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean just the church, but just out there, just anybody, because loving one another is not exclusive to the church.
SPEAKER_00: You don't just love those who who love you or those are in the body.
SPEAKER_00: How do you love one another if you have no contact?
SPEAKER_00: So this is what I'm, and it doesn't mean that it has to be through Facebook, but um, but you have connections with different people and you love on them and you share your life with them.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible talks, and I cannot take too much time here or we run out of time.
SPEAKER_00: It talks about his body.
SPEAKER_00: It's intricately interconnected.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 1 says that his body, he is, he is uh suffering for his body's sake, which is the church.
SPEAKER_00: A church is a body.
SPEAKER_00: He calls us a household of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Faith works like the bloodline.
SPEAKER_00: That's what puts us together, the faith of Christ, to bring us together into one roof, one household of faith.
SPEAKER_00: He calls us a priesthood, a ring of intercessors, attorneys in law for others, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: You're defending, standing alongside.
SPEAKER_00: I love it that we have man meeting on Thursdays here, and then I see the ladies coming up here and leading.
SPEAKER_00: But even if you're not together, whenever you're praying, you're intercessors.
SPEAKER_00: That is part of the priesthood that you're exercising.
SPEAKER_00: And we do this together, a ring of intercessors, because we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter, this is not just Paul's idea, Peter, too.
SPEAKER_00: Holy spiritual temple.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, there's so much more right there that we could say, but we are a temple we in whom we just read all the building fitly framed together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And then he calls us living stones.
SPEAKER_00: Ye also, as lively stones or living stones are built up a spiritual house and holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So our faith lived out is corporate.
SPEAKER_00: You need your to trust Christ, you need to place your faith in Christ yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody can do it for you.
SPEAKER_00: Your mom, your dad, your grandfather, we can pray for you, but we cannot believe for you.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot take your place in doing this.
SPEAKER_00: You must place your faith in Christ yourself.
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to living it out, once you're put into it, into the body of Christ, then we live it this out corporately together.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Second statement I like to make is that this is very similar to it, very similar to it, is that we have a shared life.
SPEAKER_00: Notice, for instance, that the saints are almost always mentioned in the plural.
SPEAKER_00: I think there is only one exception to this, 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: Dare any of you having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints?
SPEAKER_00: And then he writes also, Paul writes to the Romans, to all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We see the shared life of Acts chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not a prescriptive thing, but the church in Jerusalem, after the Holy Spirit came and filled them, they started living together, actually doing things all things, having all things common.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't interpret that as being a prescription that we all have to have the same big huge house.
SPEAKER_00: Right here, we do have a big Jewish house here, but I haven't seen too many beds around.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to do that, but still, as an example, it shows us that they share those things in common.
SPEAKER_00: They were together, they were of one mind, one mind, breaking bread from house to house.
SPEAKER_00: They were taking their meals together and glad with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people.
SPEAKER_00: Romans chapter 12 also says, We, though many, are one body in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For just as we have many members in one body, and all the members do not have the same function, so we who are many are one body in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: First Corinthians chapter 12.
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm throwing a whole lot of scriptures right there, but the context of chapter uh 12 of Corinthians, that the body and its members, each one of them has a function, but they all fit into the same one body.
SPEAKER_00: Paul to the Philippians, he says, strive together with one soul.
SPEAKER_00: You are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: He says to the Philippians, have the same mind among you.
SPEAKER_00: Make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
SPEAKER_00: He says that we're supposed to put on love as the perfect bond of unity.
SPEAKER_00: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians chapter 4, I'm not going to deal with very much because Pastor Jason will come up into come into that in a couple months, probably.
SPEAKER_00: But it also refers to this whole body fiddly joining together and compacted by that which every joint supplies.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible was maybe I should say born.
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, it's inspired of God, but in the context, it was brought to us in the context of Eastern contexts that are not like our Western individual, individualistic context.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we misread things because we want to throw into it our reading, our Western reading, individual.
SPEAKER_00: This is my personal right.
SPEAKER_00: I'm an individual.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, there is, but there's a combination of things, and the whole context of what we see in the scriptures is a corporate shared life, both in Israel as well as the church, now in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: So again, I cannot develop that too much, otherwise, we run out of time.
SPEAKER_00: But let me talk you, let me just take a quick little break before we go into the third statement here and point out something.
SPEAKER_00: We have a shared life, but I do realize that we cannot all know every single person here.
SPEAKER_00: None of us is God.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have that possibility.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we lose connection, we lose contact, or we're not able to keep up the same connection.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna give you a little wild illustration here, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna overstretch a little bit the illustration, but hopefully we'll make a point.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Both my big left toe, which I won't take my shoes off this time, although it would be lovely, uh, right there on the left, and the top right of my lobe are part of my body.
SPEAKER_00: Would you agree with me?
SPEAKER_00: Yes, they're all part of my body.
SPEAKER_00: It's been a long time since I've seen my big left toe scratch the top of my lobe.
SPEAKER_00: A really long time.
SPEAKER_00: As a matter of fact, I can't even remember that.
SPEAKER_00: Do you?
SPEAKER_00: Yet they're saying the same part, part of the same body.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm telling you, if this cut off right there, I some nerve right there might even tell my big toe right there, ah, somebody cut off the top of my ear.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: And I may not be in constant scratching and spending time with one another.
SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we need to ease off also on expect high expectations that uh my life has got to be the center of.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's attention and whatever's going on.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody, I got to connect with every single person.
SPEAKER_00: As the Lord leads, yes, let's absolutely do this.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes it falls off.
SPEAKER_00: So let's kind of tone it down as a church.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking to Christians over everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: If this ever goes somewhere else, uh I'm not just talking specifically a village Bible church, but us as believers as a body, we tend to just hyper be hypertense about having to do everything and connect with everything else and just accept that people connect on different bases, but always connected by the same blood, the blood of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The blood of Christ that brings us together and the Spirit who bought us into one body.
SPEAKER_00: And so if the big toe is not scratching the top of my right lobe, okay, that's okay, but they're still part of the same body.
SPEAKER_00: Don't feel like it doesn't have a place, or you don't have a place because you do.
SPEAKER_00: You belong here and you belong in the body if you are a child of God.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So hope you take that in the right spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The third statement I want to make you make to you is for the common good.
SPEAKER_00: The scriptures consistently teach that believers are saved and gifted for the common good and are called to grow together into maturity through unity, mutual service, and sacrificial love.
SPEAKER_00: Christianity is not a solitary journey.
SPEAKER_00: Living the Christian life is not a solitary journey.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, you came to Christ individually.
SPEAKER_00: You came to Christ by you placing your faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Not by somebody else doing it for you.
SPEAKER_00: But as you live this out, we are part of a spirit-formed community where we get to uh live out the Christian life, where each member belongs to all the others, even the top right of my lobe, your lobe, and my big left uh toe, or maybe the pinky toe, maybe even more so, right?
SPEAKER_00: Pinky toe is farther to the left, right there.
SPEAKER_00: The goal of the mature believer is the health and growth of the body.
SPEAKER_00: Each believer is gifted for the common good.
SPEAKER_00: I referred to 1 Corinthians chapter 12 already.
SPEAKER_00: And if you read right there, you see that the gifts of the Spirit are given to us and we participate in the life of the church together for the common good, for the edification of the body.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that phrase?
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 12, for the edification of the body.
SPEAKER_00: That's the building up of the body.
SPEAKER_00: You are part of the body to build it up, not just to be a receiver.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you have to be receiving.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we care for one another.
SPEAKER_00: And one part of the body is very strong and help support the other one.
SPEAKER_00: That kind of the way it goes, but that's life.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you'll be the weak one, weak link.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you'll be a stronger one.
SPEAKER_00: God only knows.
SPEAKER_00: Just leave it in God's hands.
SPEAKER_00: But remember that you're here for the common good.
SPEAKER_00: My attitude for a very long time, I must say, and I believe it's a very scriptural attitude, is that I come to be a part of a church.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean just come to church as in being here in the meeting.
SPEAKER_00: But I become a part of the church to see how I can contribute to it.
SPEAKER_00: And though I've never been rich, and I don't think necessarily, first of all, how much money can I give towards it?
SPEAKER_00: But what in what God has given me can I bring into the life of the church?
SPEAKER_00: And it may not be for everybody, it may be for one brother, one sister, right, that I meet, that I get to encourage, and I'm building that life.
SPEAKER_00: And that's just fine and more than fine.
SPEAKER_00: You be that link and that member in the body of Christ if it is just for one single person.
SPEAKER_00: The Reformation emphasis of Martin Luther on the priesthood of the believer, I'm sure all of us have heard that, is uh is good, and I agree with him.
SPEAKER_00: But in reality, the Bible speaks more of the priesthood of believers as a group.
SPEAKER_00: Only in cooperation can the people of God be really effective.
SPEAKER_00: The ministry is corporate.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 12 teaches us that we are unified as an organism with diverse members.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to jump forward a little bit here to Hebrews.
SPEAKER_00: We haven't mentioned Hebrews yet, but there's another passage right there.
SPEAKER_00: Hebrews chapter 10, verse 24 and 25.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the idea of stirring one another up to love and good works.
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, because I read the King James so many times, I kind of love the way it uses the term provoke.
SPEAKER_00: Are you familiar with that word?
SPEAKER_00: Provoke one another into good works.
SPEAKER_00: I like it because it sounds contrary, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because provoking is making somebody angry.
SPEAKER_00: Now, but the Bible says provoking one another into good works, but let's take this one what this translation here, stir up one another.
SPEAKER_00: And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, to stir one another, to provoke one another into good deeds, and not forsaking our own assembling together, assembling of ourselves together, as the habit of some is, but encouraging.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you do in the flip side.
SPEAKER_00: You don't forsake the assembly.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not just preaching here about missing church.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: But the purpose, I want you to understand the purpose behind all of this.
SPEAKER_00: When you join together, when we come together, or when we get together in small little groups, two people, three people, anytime the church gathers together, you are here to stimulate.
SPEAKER_00: You're here to stir one another unto good works.
SPEAKER_00: You're here to encourage.
SPEAKER_00: You don't come just to get encouraged.
SPEAKER_00: There is nothing wrong with that.
SPEAKER_00: And I know this may touch deeply in some people's minds.
SPEAKER_00: When we're just we're shoppers, we want to see where we get the best product of any church, whether it's village Bible church or any church, where do we get the best product?
SPEAKER_00: That's not what church is about.
SPEAKER_00: Church is about you as a child of God, right?
SPEAKER_00: If you belong to Christ, then you come into that and you see how can I contribute to this body or to members of this body?
SPEAKER_00: How can it be a blessing to them?
SPEAKER_00: Not forsaking our own assembling together, as the habit of some is, but encouraging this flip side, one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near, as you see Jesus is on his way back, as I believe most of us would see.
SPEAKER_00: It's getting close.
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what it is.
SPEAKER_00: Nobody here is gonna make some prophecy, some fake prophecy of exactly when he's coming, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We're not that kind of church here, in case you're wondering.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: But at the same time, but we do believe that it's coming.
SPEAKER_00: It's definitely closer than it was 2,000 years ago, and Jesus is coming.
SPEAKER_00: The more, even more so we need to stir each other up unto love.
SPEAKER_00: Stir him up for love, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I I love that.
SPEAKER_00: I love that because especially the provoking word right there, provoke somebody unto good works.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Sounds mean, right?
SPEAKER_00: No, don't take it that way.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what is meant.
SPEAKER_00: It's just like you really are intense about it.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be here to help you love.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be here to help you grow.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be here for this body to be solid in the word.
SPEAKER_00: Solid in its work for the Lord altogether.
SPEAKER_00: And even more so.
SPEAKER_00: Even more so, increasingly until the day he comes.
SPEAKER_00: So let's review this briefly here and see what that means for us.
SPEAKER_00: I made three main statements, and it had to do with the fact that the church is a corporate, the Christian life is lived out corporately.
SPEAKER_00: We need to amplify, come out of our individualistic way of thinking, of being a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: But in practice, we need one another.
SPEAKER_00: We're sharing a life, and we're here for the common good, not just what I get out of it, but what can I help others with.
SPEAKER_00: So the Christian life is inherently communal.
SPEAKER_00: Identity is received in relation to others.
SPEAKER_00: You get your identity as being a part of the body of Christ, not because you're just this star Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Or I, you know, I'm not a star Christian by any stretch of the imagination.
SPEAKER_00: Or because that's not my identity.
SPEAKER_00: My identity is being a part of the church made up of believers and children of God.
SPEAKER_00: The church is a visible, embodied community, not a collection of individuals.
SPEAKER_00: Embodied community.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a changing of our minds.
SPEAKER_00: And this is why I'm going to mention now finally two things.
SPEAKER_00: One, I believe doing this is an answer to Jesus' prayer for unity.
SPEAKER_00: Remember in John chapter 17, I pray that there will be one.
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we just elevate that prayer request of Jesus and importance of other Christian life a little higher than we have?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes just a sideline.
SPEAKER_00: We got to stand for the word.
SPEAKER_00: I am full for orthodoxy, trust me.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: I want to stand on the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's my foundation.
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes the things that limit us is not the foundation.
SPEAKER_00: We can stand on the foundation, but we we make blocks on the sides that have nothing to do with the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And we have our cultural ideas, expectations that we project on other people, say, hey, that church's got to do this, or our church needs to do this, or that Christian needs to behave that particular way, that way.
SPEAKER_00: And it has nothing to do with the foundation of Christ and the word of God, the inspired, full, inspired word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But it has to do with the way we think it's got to be done.
SPEAKER_00: It's our culture that's put us in bounds.
SPEAKER_00: And we project that to other people.
SPEAKER_00: So finally, I am going to read this text now and then later.
SPEAKER_00: But anyway, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
SPEAKER_00: And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: It's not all about the mind.
SPEAKER_00: It starts with the heart.
SPEAKER_00: Salvation comes in the heart.
SPEAKER_00: We believe with the heart.
SPEAKER_00: With a heart, man believes unto righteousness, the Bible says.
SPEAKER_00: With a heart.
SPEAKER_00: But all these are metaphors too, okay?
SPEAKER_00: So don't put them in a box either.
SPEAKER_00: And ship them home, okay?
SPEAKER_00: But metaphors with a heart.
SPEAKER_00: And God has exchanged our heart, given us a new heart.
SPEAKER_00: But the software up here, the way we think, sometimes it needs a lot of updating, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Kind of like a Windows 11 or something.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if iPhones do that.
SPEAKER_00: But um, I don't do with deal with that.
SPEAKER_00: But it's another story.
SPEAKER_00: But this software, our minds, the way we think, needs to be transformed.
SPEAKER_00: As a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
SPEAKER_00: And again, he's using the word heart, all right, in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: So metaphors are kind of flexible, but still he's talking about thinking.
SPEAKER_00: As you think, that's the way you're gonna tend to behave.
SPEAKER_00: So the transforming of the mind is crucial.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be learners.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be open to learn, be teachable, and know that we have none of us has arrived at a final conclusion of.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about the foundation of Jesus Christ, but understanding all this complex world, the meaning of life, uh in the sense of my personal life.
SPEAKER_00: How does that work and all the details of the future?
SPEAKER_00: We don't know all of those, and we need to leave that in God's hands rather than be so tight-handed about them and think that we have to have the solution and we have to understand everything.
SPEAKER_00: Be a transformed by the renewing of your mind.
SPEAKER_00: Start thinking as a body.
SPEAKER_00: Let's start thinking as a body.
SPEAKER_00: Let's start thinking even more so.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying our church does not do it.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, even when we make straightforward statements, I fear many times people take it in such an absolute way.
SPEAKER_00: This is a let's start as in let's proceed.
SPEAKER_00: And I know many of us already think that way.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're not, if you're not in that mind frame, then let's do this.
SPEAKER_00: Let's think about how what it means to be a church, to be part of the body, what it means to have a shared life, what it means to seek the common good primarily.
SPEAKER_00: I come to church, I join this church, I'm a part of this church to seek the common good.
SPEAKER_00: Not what I can get out of it, but what can I invest into it.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Father, I want to thank you that you have sent your son to come down from glory to take our place.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, to give us a new heart, a new life, and ultimately also a new mind.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of us, Lord, we need to continually have our hearts, our our minds transformed.
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit needs to be our guide as well as your word.
SPEAKER_00: Give us teachable spirits.
SPEAKER_00: Open up our minds and our hearts to hear what you have to say to the church.
SPEAKER_00: Let us be ready to serve, to serve one another, to identify ourselves to the body of Christ, and to bring glory to you.
SPEAKER_00: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.