and download or stream the message 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.