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from last week, and that is to stir one another up. Isn't that
what we're to do, is to stir one another up into good works,
into continuing in the faith? This morning, Owen Strand will
teach to us about caring for one another from 1 Corinthians.
So without any more ado, Owen, would you come and open up the
word of life for us? Thank you, Jimmy. Good morning,
everyone. First Corinthians 12, verse 24. But God has so composed the body,
giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may
be no division in the body, but that the members may have the
same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer
together. If one member is honored, all
rejoice together. I thought of this passage recently
when reading Lamentations 3, verses 16 through 18. It's a little different context
than what I just read. He has made my teeth grind on
gravel and made me cower in ashes. My soul is bereft of peace. I have forgotten what happiness
is. So I say, my endurance has perished. So has my hope from the Lord. The simple reality here that
is captured in Lamentations 3, 16 to 18, is that life in a fallen
world is hard. Now, we know this. but it is
theoretical to us much of the time. We live in a rapid-fire,
fix-it-fast, DIY environment. Some of you have had the pleasure
of watching these home shows. They're on HGTV, or you can find
them on YouTube. It's one of the most populated
categories of entertainment, it seems like, in the 21st century.
Before marriage, I did not have many plans of watching a lot
of home renovation shows, but I can tell you I've watched a
good number. And we have watched, by the way, so many cooking shows
that I actually changed the way I grill. Okay, I just want you
to know that. You grill on very, you get the
pot or the grill very high heat, and it's better. My wife has
worked with me for a long time on these practices. So I have
actually gleaned one thing, I'm telling you, from all my viewing.
One of the things that most stands out about this entertainment
is this DIY experience. Or if it's not you who can do
it yourself. Did I say DIY? DIY. See, I'm showing how I'm not
actually qualified to talk about this. OK. I need to get back
to the Bible here rapidly. But anyway, the DIY environment,
it may not work for you to do it yourself, do it yourself.
But if not, you can just call a professional. This is the 21st
century. Somebody very skilled, very good, including numerous
men in this congregation who are very skilled at trades and
all sorts of things that I am not skilled in. And the mindset
that can produce is that if I have a problem, I just fix it. Yes? If I am hungry, zap it in
the microwave or the oven. 20 minutes later, you've got
this hot meal before you. There's nothing bad with these
kinds of realities. Many of us are thankful for them.
But you have to remember just where our context is today. We can microwave pizza. We can
buy a house online with a click, never having visited it. We can
drive 900 miles in a day. We can go to other countries
in one day in this era. We can have major surgery in
the morning and be home at 2 p.m. and be on our way. This is life
in 2022. There are all sorts of challenges
that you feel. We're going to talk about some
of them and that I feel. But there is also this sense
that, man, if I have a problem in this age, I can fix it and
I can fix it fast. And even In such a mentality,
in such a culture, you can go further. If I have a problem,
it should be fixed fast. Yes? If I have a challenge, it
better be resolved quickly. I mean, hey, my pizza's ready.
my home is renovated, I better be able to fix the challenges
and situations in my life quickly too. You see, one area can influence
your thinking in another area for all of us. Many of us get
lulled to sleep in a context like this and we think, because
we have this DIY culture, that we get a pass on fallenness,
suffering, and hardship. DIY home repair can lead to DIY
spiritual life. But here is the truth. We don't. We are all battling fallenness
together. All of us. Not some of us. Not
a few of us. not the ones who raise their
hand and have a prayer request week after week. In some form,
every single Christian is battling fallenness together. We're in
it together. Our bodies nag us. Our bodies
fail us. Things stop working that we're
working. That's hard. Sleep evades us repeatedly. Honestly, what is harder than
facing sleeplessness over and over again. Conflict resurfaces
in different relationships and dimensions of our life. Debts
come due. Our child suffers or wanders
or walks away. How hard is that? How challenging
is that? Decisions weigh on us. They press
in on us. They keep coming, too. You can't
press a pause button with decisions, can you? They keep hitting you.
They just keep coming. Depression sets in. Anxiety threatens
to submerge us. You're fighting for your spiritual
life, but it can feel like the anxieties just climb. Climb and
climb and climb. You're trying to keep your head
above water. You barely are. We yearn for a spouse who is
nowhere to be found. Lots of prayer, lots of waiting,
lots of time. No spouse. Very difficult. Sin
in general seems to have the upper hand against us. We just
feel defeated in life. In a state like this, with all
of these different factors affecting us in some form, we feel alone,
we feel helpless, and we feel uncared for. All of us do at
some level. But brothers and sisters, this
morning I would remind you, we are not alone. You are not alone. Our brief passage today shows
us God's means of grace for people battling fallenness. One major
way, that is, of battling fallenness is found in this passage. And
let me just zero in on verse 25 again, 1 Corinthians 12, once
more. That there may be no division
in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one
another. That principle, care for one
another, is not a silver bullet. It's not going to magically erase
fallenness and challenge and suffering from your life. But
it is a big help, ordained by God for you and for me and for
the entire church, not some of us, all of us. In our remaining
time, and wow, do you feel the time tick in Sunday school class
teaching at Grace Bible Church. How does Jimmy do this? How does
Michael do this week after week? In our remaining time, I want
to make five simple observations. These are simple. Our first is
this. God hates division in the church. Before I dive in, let me pray
as we turn to the text. Father, help us now as we turn
to your word. This is what we need. This is what we've come here
for. We need your truth. We need your wisdom. Thank you
that it is right here, like a field ripe for harvest. We pray now
that we would harvest this truth and that you would impress it
upon our hearts by your spirit. Thank you for your kind work
in us. In Jesus' name, amen. God hates
division in the church, that's what verse 25 says. Back to verse
24, God has so composed the body, God composed the body, God created
the church. It's God's idea, it's not man's
idea. God has composed the body, the congregation, giving greater
honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division
in the body. This is what Paul says first
to us, our first of five simple truths, very basic. He wants
there to be no division among. the congregation, and of course,
among the broader body of Christ, the universal body of Christ.
But he's zeroing in on the Corinthian church, about 2,000 years ago,
a church that is facing a fair bit of division, it must be said.
But he is teaching them afresh what their focus needs to be.
Division comes naturally, he is saying, but it is not to be
this way. We are to fight it. And this
is a strong goal, especially when you think about how many
people join churches. You might think, yeah, big churches
face the problem of division. No. Anywhere there's more than
just a handful of sinners, even redeemed sinners together, there's
going to be the serious challenge of division in the body. It's
a real and present threat. It never goes away until Christ
returns and makes this whole thing right. The threat of division
is always there. The biblical standard here is
challenging. It speaks to us all and it rebukes
us all. It's not that there are some
people who might struggle with being a little bit divisive in
their own way. It's that every last one of us
has the seeds of divisiveness in our heart. If we water them,
division will result. So this takes us back to first
principles. We are one body in Christ. We're
not different bodies. We are not different churches.
We are just one body. God has not made separate bodies
according to different skin color, ethnicity, background, income
level, educational attainment, or any other factor. There is
only one body, and God made it in Christ. And woe betide those
who would divide the one body. of Jesus Christ that takes expression,
of course, in many congregations. So knowing that God does not
want fighting and feuding in his body, we must steer clear
of it. And again, that's not for some
people out there, that's for all people. When there's a biblical
imperative and a biblical command, when there's a sin identified
in the scripture, some people may be more prone to that problem
than others, absolutely. But we're all prone to sin. That
command or that imperative is for all of us. And we all need
divine grace to live it out. It's not just a matter of, well,
just do it. You're a Christian. No, it's that we all fail to
do it as we should, and we all desperately need the grace of
Jesus Christ to do it. And you know what? We won't do
it perfectly. We won't do this don't divide
the body thing rightly. We will say things we shouldn't
say. We will slip into patterns. We will start to dislike somebody.
What we have to do then is continually go back to the cycles of confession
of sin and repentance and receiving the good word of the gospel.
Nobody out there hears an imperative and just does it all, all the
time, exactly the way they should do it. We all falter in it. We
all fail together. but we're a people not of performative
righteousness in ourselves, but of grace. Grace. Second truth, God has given honor
to all the body. That's what he Paul was talking
about just a few verses prior to this little section. I'm just
homing in on three verses in the interest of time. But what
Paul was saying is that when you consider a human body, we
don't have to spell this out in polite company, but there
are some parts that are more honorable, and then there are
other parts that are less honorable, that you cover up in these sorts
of things. Paul is saying in this section,
though, in 1 Corinthians 12, that the whole body has honor. We're not different bodies as
stated, we are different body parts of the same body. One big reason divisions arise
is because we lose sight of the honorable nature of all believers
and we slip into a kind of ranking system of Christians. And it's
not hard for us to imagine who, at least a good number of us
who love sound doctrine, and rightly so, and expository preaching,
covenant theology, and reformed worldview, glorious. But it's
not hard for us to guess, at least a good number of us, who
might be the all-stars, yes? And those parts of the body,
they have honor. MacArthur, he has honor. John Calvin, honorable. And you
know what the flip side of that is? For us to think other parts
of the body don't have honor and don't really matter, honestly.
I mean, MacArthur, yeah. Me? Her? Him? What do I do? I don't teach anything,
we might think to ourselves. I don't have a global broadcasting
ministry. Once in a while, I take a meal
to somebody. I change a lot of diapers. in a day. I work a job
that nobody really talks about, and frankly, nobody cares that
much about. What does my everyday life matter?
Those heavy hitters, Elizabeth Elliott, her life mattered. What
about me? How does my life matter? 1 Corinthians
12 would remind you that all the parts of the body have honor
from God. Not because we prove it, not
because we work ourselves into showing, hey, I do have honor.
No, honor from God because Christ redeemed you back from the grave. That's why you have honor. You're
washed, you're waiting, You're redeemed. That's why you have
honor. Not because, first and foremost,
you prove it in your strength, even in terms of this one another. You care so hard for the body
that you end up having honor. You're the John MacArthur of
caring, maybe, in your mind. No. You have honor, brother and
sister. However well-known you are, however
anonymous you are, because God has loved you. That's why you
have honor. We are all sinners in Adam, lowly,
helpless, and miserable. And we are all the same, made
righteous in Christ. Nobody gets more justification
by faith alone than anyone else. We are all equally justified
in Christ. And this means that the whole
body is honorable. All of you, everyone in this
assembly, born again in Christ, has honor. No one is a waste
of our time. Third, our oneness is to have
a form of expression, care. Our oneness is to have a form
of expression, colon, care. The Greek word here in terms
of the members may have the same care for one another is merim
nocin, merim nocin. In other verses, this verb in
its root form is translated worry, worry. Okay, quick explanation
so I don't confuse you. Paul is not saying worry in a
sinful or anxious way about one another there, that the members
may have the same worrisome, fretting, anxious, that's not
what he means. He's saying don't sin in terms
of being worried, but he's saying just underneath worry, that's
your level of care for the body. You understand? You deeply care
for this body. It's on your mind. It's on your
heart. Instead of using our energy to
dislike one another and divide from one another, we use our
God-given energy to express care for one another. And this care
is going to be needed in terms of the context of the passage.
Verse 26 says this, if one member suffers, all suffer together.
That is telling us that members of the body will suffer. In a more oblique form, I think
it's telling us we will suffer. It may take some time, it may
ebb and flow, it may be early in our life and then largely
resolve and then come back or not come back. There's not one
experience, is there? You read the Bible and different
saints, different followers of God have all sorts of different
experiences. I mean, Joseph just finds himself
continually plunged in suffering, that he does nothing to choose,
doesn't he? And then there are other believers
you and I know who, man, they don't have the same amount of
suffering. So we don't want to be unclear
about that point. But all of us will taste it in
some form. All of us will get hit by suffering. Members of the body are going
to suffer. And when we do, Paul is saying, don't suffer alone. This is the difference between
us and the world. It's not that we can avoid suffering,
as the world thinks. No. In the Christian worldview,
everyone suffers. All who are in Christ suffer.
You put a cross on your back and you follow a Savior. That
doesn't always land for us in terms of a metaphor in the 21st
century because of our DIY culture, because things resolve quickly,
because you press a button and you pay your bill, et cetera,
and so on. But carrying a cross is not an
easy thing. It's a very difficult thing.
We all have it on our back. Outside of Christ, we suffer
alone. But in the body of Christ, we
suffer together. And to push further, we care
for one another. It's beautiful. You're not alone,
Christian. God intends you to join a church
and then be cared for by that church, and also, do not miss
this, to care for others. That's a huge part of how your
faith grows and you find satisfaction in Christ. It's not just that
you get cared for, it's that you care for others. You fulfill the one another in
view. God ministers grace to you as
you do. God blesses you. God heals you,
even as you're used to heal others. Your life matters. Richard Sibbes,
the Puritan, put what the church is beautifully. The Church of Christ is a common
hospital wherein all are in some measure
sick. of some spiritual disease or
another. So, all have occasion to exercise the spirit of wisdom
and meekness. That is one of the most beautiful
quotes you will find in church history. The church, I would
encourage you to write that down. I would encourage you to put
that on your iPhone notes or your Android notes. I don't know what Android has.
I'm sorry. No division in the body. The Church of Christ is a common
hospital. It's also a forward-launching
center for the armies of the Kingdom of Light. The Church
has numerous identities, but one of its identities, one of
its services that it provides, is care. in Christ. Come. Come to the hospital. Come and be cared for. And if you are outside of Christ,
you should want in hearing these words. If you are a child in
a Christian family and you're hearing biblical teaching week
after week, you should want in, not just in through your folks,
you should want in all the way through faith in Christ so that
you will be cared for and you will be not left in the wilderness
by yourself. Fourth, we all have an opportunity
to make this practical. Fourth truth, we all can make
this practical. The remarkable truth about the
one and others, many of them, including this one, is just how
open-ended they are. Did you pick that up? That the
members may have the same care for one another. Okay. Good. How? What do you want to
do? How do you want to care for others?
There are hundreds and thousands of ways we can care for one another,
having deep gospel-driven concern for one another. And this is
part of how we see that all the parts are honorable. One of the
major ways the whole body makes itself felt is in care. And there
are some ways some can care for some, and there are other ways
that others will care for the body. And all those ways matter. OK, if they are godly and moral
and biblical, all those forms of care honor the Lord. There's no gesture too small
to count. All Christian caring counts. Writing a card to someone hurting.
Taking a meal to the sick or a family with a newborn child.
Welcoming somebody who has just moved here and is in the blizzard
of trying to figure things out. Listening to someone talk for
a while about their challenges. Just listening. This is a ministry
my mother-in-law, Jody Ware, has. She's had it for years. She does counsel for young women
in large part. women in the middle stages, but
a lot of what she ends up doing, as my wife Bethany knows very
well, is listening. Just listening. Sometimes just
listening has a profound effect on someone, doesn't it? Has it
ever helped you to just be able to talk and just share what's
going on and not keep it bottled up and not say, great, when someone
asks you how you're doing. Has that ministered to you? Perhaps
you minister to someone else there. It's expensive, isn't
it? It's costly. But it matters. Praying with
dedication for God to help the suffering. Fixing a professor's
truck when he is in town. Let the reader understand. Making
seminarians lunch and having them over for fellowship. reaching
out to a young woman who's recently moved here and offering friendship,
offering financial assistance to families or individuals in
need. We can go on and on. I could have spent the entire
time just listing ways to care. But the Bible actually doesn't
say this is the one way you care. There are numerous ways we care
for one another. And what I would have you see
once more is that none of that is anonymous. None of it is too
small. All of it matters. Every effort
to care for the body in Christ, out of love for Christ and Christ's
people matters. God sees it all. There's not
an anonymous second of your life. It may feel that way in earthly
terms, I get it, but there's not an anonymous second of your
existence. It's all Coram Deo. It's all
unto God. God sees it all. God is honored
and glorified by all your costly obedience, including the obedience
that you have to fight for, including the obedience where you have
to push through the flesh, including the moments and the days and
the hours when you don't want to read your Bible, and you don't
want to pray, and you don't want to serve the family, and you
don't want to figure things out, you don't want to provide, you're
exhausted by life, but You confess your sin, you repent, you ask
God for fresh grace, and God gives it to you. And all of it
is Coram Deo. All of it is unto God. Fifth,
and finally, all this points to the majestic kindness of God. This isn't actually about us,
is it? It's about God. God cares for
his people. That's what ecclesial care, congregational
care, is about. You think here of 1 Peter 5.
I'm about to close. 1 Peter 5, 6 through 7. Humble
yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that at
the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxiety,
casting some, casting only the acceptable anxieties, Casting
a good portion and then can't cast those? Casting all your
anxieties on Him. Every last one. Talk about the ministry of listening.
God has the ministry of listening, doesn't He? God is not just okay
with you casting your anxieties on Him. God wants them. God cast all your sins on Jesus. And Jesus wanted them. He wanted to bear your sin. He
wanted to wash you clean. It cost him everything. It was
brutal and bitter. But he wanted to wash you clean.
And now God wants all your anxieties. As a Christian, every last one. Why? Why does he want them? Because he cares for you. Could you get a sweeter clause
in the Bible? He cares for you. His care for
you is not dependent on your feelings. You may not feel like
he should care for you. You may not feel like he does
care for you now. You may feel like your sin is
too great and his care, the warranty, check it, honey, check that warranty,
seriously. I think the warranties run out
on his care. Oh, it did. Well, I don't know what we're
doing now. No, his warranty on care never runs out. He cares
for you. So Christian, the solution to
difficulties in your life is not have no cares. It's not pretend
everything's great. It's not smile and muddle through.
The solution to the situations in your life and mine is cast
your cares on God and be ministered to by the body. Be cared for
by the body. Care for the body. So my closing
exhortation to you is embrace the care of the body and find
a way to care for others. That's my concluding thought
for you. I don't mean care for 99 members of Grace Bible Church. I mean find one person to care
for. In conclusion, Remember the suffering
man of Lamentations 3. Lamentations 3, 19. Remember
my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall. My
soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me.
But this, we conclude here, this I call to mind and therefore
I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord
never ceases. His mercies never come to an
end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. Let's pray. Father, we neither
accept the care we need nor give the care we should. We all stumble
in many ways. And yet your word summons us
to find hope and find care from your body, the body of Christ,
and then especially from you. Thank you that you care for us. In Jesus name, amen.
Care for One Another
Series The "One Another" Commands
| Sermon ID | 10922151553392 |
| Duration | 31:38 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Language | English |
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