One of the commentators, as I was studying this passage out, shared a story, and I did not jot this story down. I actually didn't plan on including it in the message, so I don't have all the details. But he told a story of individuals who were trying to restore a church building one time, and there was a statue of Jesus. And of course, that's not a practice that we would typically have, but they were restoring the statue of Jesus, and in the demolition of this church that they were seeking to restore the hands of the statue had been broken off. And they tried to restore the hands to the statue of Jesus, but to no avail. So eventually they just gave up and left the statue handless. And then underneath the statue, they put a plaque that said, Jesus has no hands, but his church. I think it's a very fitting description or plaque that they put. Of course, Jesus accomplishes his will as he is God. He does all that he pleases and yet, in his deity, in his sovereignty, in his power, he has decided to ascend to heaven and leave the work of evangelism and leave the work of the building of the church to the church here on earth as the Spirit works through it. And so in that sense, we very well could say Jesus has no hands but his church. We are the ones who are commissioned to go out and preach the gospel. We are the ones who are commissioned to gather together and worship him and lift up his name to be a pillar of truth, to be encouraging and admonishing, to be confronting sin, to be edifying one another. It happens through the work of Christ's Spirit inside of us as his church. And Paul continues here in chapter 12 where there is this drastic break or switch in the book of Romans 1 through 11. Again, theology, all theology, the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then he says, because of the mercy which God has shown to us in verse 1, we are called not to be conformed to the world, but to be transformed by having renewed minds, following the will of God. But now he goes further in his plan for your life as his children. Be a part of a local body and serve. The internal has been addressed, and now we are faced with the external fruit of the internal change. It is extremely natural, the world says, get, do for yourself, earn interest, always seek self-benefit, do something for numero uno, number one, yourself, take care of yourself first. But God's word says, serve from the inside out. John MacArthur, speaking of this passage says, it utterly destroys the notion that a Christian can be committed to Christ but be inactive in his service. That he can love the Lord but not obey the Lord. That he can be surrendered to the Lord but not minister for the Lord. True worship cannot be divorced from service. If you are to be one who is presenting your body a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship, and you are to be one who is not conformed to this world but being transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect, then you will be one who is therefore serving Christ. Let me read that quote again. This passage utterly destroys the notion that a Christian can be committed to Christ but not but be inactive in a service. That he can love the Lord, but not obey the Lord. That he can be surrendered to the Lord, but not minister for the Lord. True worship cannot be divorced from service. And that is exactly what the Holy Spirit writing through Paul addresses here in our passage. In verse 3 it says, For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you, not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same functions, so we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly, if prophecy, according to proportion of his faith, if service and his serving, or he who teaches and his teaching, or he who exhorts and his exhortation, he who gives with liberality, he who leads with diligence, and he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. Let's pray, Father. We thank you for the time of singing praises to Christ, that he is worthy of all blessing and honor and glory. He is the one who can come and open the seals. He's the one, the Lamb of God crucified for us, the eternal King returning for us. Father, we come together, gathered together as a church, and we ask that this church would be a healthy church. Lord, you have gifted our church graciously with gifts, as we'll see in this passage. But Lord, we can neglect these gifts. We can take these gifts and set them aside on a shelf, and very much so, this has happened in our church family, myself included. I'm guilty. But Lord, we ask that through the preaching of your word this morning, we would use these gifts which you have given to us. We would serve faithfully, wholeheartedly, that we would function as a healthy body united under Christ our head. We plead with you, Lord, to do these things. In Jesus' name, amen. We see in the beginning of verse three, for through the grace given to me, I say to everyone among you, Paul recognizes that his only authority in writing this letter in the first place or teaching them as he is, is by the grace which God has shown to him in the first place. He writes with humility. It's not a false humility to make himself seem righteous, but it is a genuine Christ-centric humility that he once persecuted the church. but was confronted and changed by Jesus. And now when he gifts an ability which Paul has, writing the most books in the New Testament, being probably one of the most read authors in all of history, if not the most read author in all of history, he recognizes that it has only been given to him by the grace from God. So as he urges them with this, he recognizes himself as a merely humble servant, enabled by God's grace. And that is the very stem or root or foundation, you could say, of his command here. Following it, he says, I urge you, I implore you, for the grace given to me, I say to you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. And again, we could go back and read beginning in verse one of chapter 12. Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you would not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. All of these commands are building off of verse one, that we would recognize God's mercy and salvation. And it is the stem and the foundation for which come these commands. In other words, if salvation is utterly by God, then there's no room for pride. We were all rebellious and hopeless people before the grace of God appeared to us in the person of Jesus Christ. So if you have received salvation, and therefore after salvation are now gifted to serve in the church, it only happens by the mercy and the grace of God. There is no room for pride, there is no room for boast. And what he starts off with is, I believe, one of the most deadly sins in the church, if not the most deadly sin in the church, and was really the root of all sin, and that sin would be the sin of pride. As we hear of the account of the fall of Lucifer, of Satan turning against God, it stems from a very obvious case of pride. And really, as you consider Adam and Eve, they listened to Satan's deceit, and really what it boiled down to was them thinking they knew better than God. Pride. And there's nothing that can destroy a church family so quickly as prideful people. Spurgeon puts it this way, pride is as hard to get rid of as Sharlock from the furrows or the American blight from the apple trees. If killed, it revives. If buried, it bursts the tomb. You may hunt down this fox and think you have destroyed it, but lo, your very exaltation is pride. None have more pride than those who dream that they have none. You may labor against vain glory till you conceive that you are humble, and the fond conceit of your humility will prove to be pride in full bloom. It imitates humility, what is most truly pride. Pride is a sin with a thousand lives. It seems impossible to kill it. It flourishes on that which should be its poison, glorying in its shame. It is a sin with a thousand shapes, and by perpetual change it escapes capture. It seems impossible to hold it. The vapory demon slips from you, only to appear in another form and mock your fruitless pursuit. To die to pride and self, one would need to die himself. Pride was man's first sin, and it will be his last. In the first sin that man ever committed, there was certainly a large mixture of pride, for he imagined that he knew better than his maker, and even dreamed that his maker feared that man might grow too great. Now you know why he's called the Prince of Preachers. Only he can say things such as that. Charles Spurgeon hit the nail on the head in regards to pride. Once you think you've beaten it over here, it pops up over here. It makes me think of that game Whack-A-Mole, right? Something like that. You hit the head down and they just keep popping back up over and over again. A game you never win. That is pride for us. That is the beginning of this command for service in church, how to function as a healthy church body, he starts off with this, beware of pride. Do not think more highly of yourself than you ought to think. Again, as I was studying this passage, there was an interesting study which people brought up. They did this test, this math test, and it actually was composed of two parts. First, it was composed of math. The second part was composed of self-esteem. And they took people from all over the world, these students, and had them take this test. It was very interesting. There was a Korean group. And they scored lowest on the self-esteem, but highest on math competency. And there was the group from the United States, and they scored highest in the self-esteem and scored absolutely lowest on the competency of math. You see, they had a high estimation of themselves. We live in a culture which would tell you that you are wonderful, you are great, you can do absolutely anything you set your mind to. You're the best, participation trophies for everybody, and so on and so on, right? And then you have a culture found in Korea, obviously, where they were promoting humility and an excellence. And though they were by far those who did the best in testing in the math, they had the lowest self-esteem. Now, we don't want either of those. In a sense, we want to be gifted, yes, but not set out to be the best. And yet at the same time, we don't want to have such a low self-esteem that it keeps us from serving. And we don't want such a self-esteem that we become prideful and look down upon others, which is the root of sin in general for us. That is exactly what Paul is getting at here. Think of yourself or hold yourself in an esteem no higher than you ought to do so. I urge you by the mercies of God to not think of yourself higher than you ought to think. So here he guards against pride, but it's a two-edged sword. He doesn't stop there. On the other side of the sword, he says this, but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. I think Nathan's okay with me sharing the story. He and I were driving the other day and we were talking about job interviews and how he was at a job interview one time and the lady asked, you know, why do you think you should get this job? And he was like, I don't have experience. There's people with more experience out there, really. And there's really no reason you should hire me over anybody else. And of course, the lady responded, you got to work at your answer on this, right? So then Nathan and I talked about it. It turned into a conversation a bit. And we said, you know, we agreed that, well, we might be able to say we have no more experience than anybody in this. Maybe we have no experience in this. But I appreciated his response was this, the next time I had a job interview, I said, you know what? I may not have more experience, but I will work hard because I want to honor Christ. And while other employees that you hire may have more experience, they may be taking extra time off when they shouldn't be, or clocking in early, or out late, and so on and so on, or not doing their job when looked at. But for me, though I may not have all the expertise, you can trust that I will work hard because I work not for you, I work ultimately for God. See, that is the type of mindset that Paul is getting at here. Saying, yeah, you may not be the most gifted person in the room. You may not be the smartest person in the room. You may not be the richest person in the room. But God has gifted you. And you should not let this humility of recognizing that you're not the most gifted person in the room, or this or that, keep you from serving in the church. So he encourages them to not think more highly than they ought to think, but to think as to have sound judgment. To think having sound judgment. Keep the gospel and God's mercy in mind as you consider yourself in the ministry which God allows you to have. Any gifting or ministry you have is only had by the grace of God, and again, I wanna quote from Spurgeon. He says, oh believer, learn to reject pride, seeing that you have no ground for it. Whatever you are, you have nothing to make you proud. The more you have, the more you are in debt to God. And you should not be proud of that which renders you a debtor. Any gifting or ability or wealth or education you have has only been given by God. and therefore you are a debtor to him. So as Paul continues on here in this verse three at the very end, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Of course, we know that salvation is by faith alone, and that's a point of the rest of Romans 1 through 11, but this is speaking of a different faith here. We'd say the faith as you have seen, as you have been given to by God. This is a faith which God has given for your ability to serve and to be used by God in the church family. And just as salvific grace has been given to you, as Ephesians 2 8 and 9 says, for by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves. It is a gift of God. So also is ableizing faith given to you as a gift from God. God has allotted to each of us a certain amount or measure of faith to serve and be used by him. So he points out an illustration for us in verse 4. I always appreciate when scripture gives me an illustration so I don't have to think of one. Verse 4, So, Paul brings in the illustration of a body. It's his favorite illustration, I think, in scripture for the church and its function. We find it also in Ephesians 4. So, you have a body, and your body has many members. You have fingers and toes and a nose, ears. Some of us have bigger ears and smaller ears. Some of us have bigger noses and smaller noses, right? But we have all these different body parts. And all of these body parts have different functions. So here he's using the illustration to point out diversity. He's emphasizing diversity. Your hands cannot see very well. Your ears don't taste very well. Your hair can't walk. The fingers can't brag to the toes that they can grasp though at the same time. We recognize that you're to walk up and grab with your hand and the hand were to look at the foot and say, well, look at me, I can hold a microphone and you can't. What would the toes logical response be? You were made for picking up things. I was made for walking, right? There's no pride in that. There's different design for each body part. And there's a diversity amongst our bodies. But then he continues and he flips it now and he points out the unity which a body has. He shows that a body is diverse. All your body parts have different functions, and yet all your body parts are unified. And he brings that out in verse five. So we who are many are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. So we see unity is now emphasized. If we're to continue with the body illustration, You have hands and feet and noses and ears. We have all these different body parts, right? And yet each of us has the same exact DNA running through each of those parts, which allow them to function in unity. And all of them are connected to the same what? The same head. Therefore, when you think, I want to shoot a basketball, both hands naturally go to shooting a basketball. Or I'm going to walk, sit down, your legs bend at the knees and you sit. Together, there is this unity that is found in your body. And we understand very well that when there's something out of whack in your body, it does not go well, does it? Those of you who have had bad backs before, where you have a joint in your back out of place, you recognize how quickly things go awry in your body when there's not this unity. But let us bring it home to what he's actually illustrating, which is the church. Many of us, I'm sure, have gone overseas, and maybe while you've been overseas, you've met a brother or sister in Christ, and immediately, your cultural, age, and interest gaps are closed. And this is a reflection of the unity of the universal church. Remember going to Africa to Zambia and meeting brothers who were in Bible college, and just, we came from worlds apart. And yet when we met, there was an instant unity and affection for each other as brothers in Christ. How can this be so? We are of the same body, which shares the same head, Jesus Christ. But let's go a step further. Just as much, if not more so, should there be evidence of the local church's body's unity. whether you are red, yellow, black, or white, whether you are from here or just moved here, whether you are a new believer or have been a believer for 35 plus years, whether you make millions or thousands or hundreds, whether you are five or 105, we are one body. We share one DNA. All of us are connected and should be functioning from our head, Jesus Christ. It is a beautiful thing when I can go to Africa and have instant unity with a brother in Christ from halfway across the world. But you know what ought to be a more beautiful thing? It's when we gather here at the Bible Church and have unity together. God has placed each one of us here in Long Island, in Queens, in Manhattan. as a body to gather together and function for the glory of God. The church is the people, not the steeple, right? The people make up the body of the church, and we each have differing functions and giftings. So to bring the illustration completely home, it is this. We have a unified body here in Port Washington, and yet in this unified body, each of us functions differently. Each of us has different giftings given to us by God, and therefore there's no room for pride in our giftings, but all the glory goes back to God Almighty. So he says in verse six, since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly. God gives each person certain abilities or particular giftings to minister to and in the church, and they are all given not according to our deservedness, but according to God's kindness. Again, the hand can't brag to the foot. I'm better at holding a microphone than you. That's what he was designed to do. And the foot could say right back to the hand, well, I can walk better than you. Well, of course you can. You were designed for walking. And as we look at the intricacies of the body, the fact that I can stand up here and breathe air through my lungs, through my throat, using my tongue to form words that go through the air, land into your ears and then are processed by your brain so that you can understand what I'm saying, God did that. The fact that you can sit there and your lungs are going in and out without even thinking about it, maybe with your mask on you are thinking about it. Or how about your heart is beating and providing oxygen and nutrients through your blood to every part of your body. And your brain is functioning and thinking and taking in and carrying on a conversation with yourself about the things that I'm saying and so on and so on. And that your eyes can look up here and see this and read that title. Our bodies are incredible things designed by God. Don't you think he's able to build a church the proper way with the proper giftings? There's no part of this church that's a mistake. There's no part of this church that can just be taken out and it not matter. There's no part of this church that can just fall asleep and be stagnant. We all know what that's like, right? Your foot is asleep after sitting for too long and you go to stand up and you can barely walk. God knows exactly what he's doing when he builds his church. He's building it into a functioning body to serve for the glory of Christ. So we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us. These gifts are given to us by God's grace, and therefore we are to exercise them accordingly. Again, to quote John MacArthur, his divine plan for believers is unity in message and commitment, but diversity in service. His divine plan for believers, or we could say a church, is unity and message and commitment, but diversity and service. And now he lists a few of the things, or a few of the ways in which people are gifted. This is in no way an exhaustive list of giftings. It's actually fairly brief, but he brings in prophecy, number one. If prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith. Prophecy definitely has an aspect of new revelation as seen in the prophets and the apostles. The prophets during the Old Testament and the apostles in the early stages of the church. But it does not necessarily mean new prophecy or new revelation from God. This passage would refer simply to proclamation of truth, proclamation of the Word of God which we have already received right here. In other words, it's exactly what I'm doing right now. You could say I'm preaching or you could say I'm prophesying, I'm proclaiming forth the truth of God's Word. And where he says, if prophecy according to the proportion of his faith, what exactly is the point of this? Well, it could either, the point could either be the amount of giftedness paralleled with the earlier verse, the portion of his giftings or the portion of his faith, or it could possibly be in accordance with the true gospel. He is to proclaim forth the word of God as in accordance with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the faith which he has. I was not able to come down strongly on either one of those things, but both of those conclusions or understandings of the text are completely legitimate and would not be a contradiction to God's Word in any other place. So you're welcome to study that out further if you want to come to a strong conclusion on what exactly Paul means there. But we can say this, as R.C. points out, R.C. Sproul, the Old Testament prophets were called upon to interpret God's Word to the people, In like manner, the New Testament prophet was one gifted in interpreting or expositing the word of God. In contemporary terms, such a prophet is a preacher. Today, it is the preacher who fulfills the task of interpreting and expositing the word of God. Secondly, as we'll see in verse 7, we have service. If service in, is serving. This word service we should recognize as connected to servant, and the word servant in Greek is what? Deacon. All right, so he could be referring to the office of deacon here. I think he's doing it in a more general way of just talking about general service in the church. So we have everyone. I'd say this command is linked to absolutely everybody. It's the least specific way which Paul could say there is to be serving in the church. And each of you ought to be willing to serve. And each of us, I would say, is gifted in a particular way to serve. And you might go, well, hold on a second. I can't sing, I can't preach, I can't teach, I can't do physical labor. Can you pray? Can you sit in attendance at church? Can you talk and encourage other people? Each of you is able to serve. So he says, if service in your serving, you could say it this way, all of you have been gifted to serve in one way or another, therefore do what? Serve. Use this gift, these abilities which God has given you to serve in the church. He goes on in verse, the second part of verse seven, are he who teaches and is teaching We have many teachers in this room this morning. There are various ways in which people teach. There's explaining God's Word, explaining it or teaching it. We have Sunday school teachers. We have those who just share what they've been learning in their devotions with others throughout the week. You're teaching or explaining the Word of God, what you've been learning, how you've been growing. We have those who would hopefully, each one of us, share the gospel with lost people, friends or neighbors around us, or family members. You're teaching the gospel or the word of God to people. Each of us should have some role in teaching. In verse eight he says, or he who exhorts in his exhortation. This is the idea of an encourager. Maybe you're one of these people, maybe you've met one of these people. I've come across quite a few of these people in my lifetime. They're just someone who watches people and they come alongside of people and encourage them to do what's right, encourage them as they're discouraged. It's used, this is the same word or idea that's used of the Holy Spirit. of a paraclete, not a parakeet, a paraclete, all right? In construction, we use cleats. It would be something that if we had a weak spot on a wall, we would come and bolster it or strengthen it using an extra piece of wood. We would call it a cleat, something to come alongside of and strengthen. The word para is alongside of. So this is a word used for the Holy Spirit. He is someone who came down to earth to dwell inside of believers and seal them to comfort and encourage them to strengthen them. He comes alongside of and bolsters us. Yes, we have the Holy Spirit who does this, but we also ought to be doing it to one another as believers in Christ. So there are certain individuals who are gifted in encouraging other people, gifted in just putting their arm around another person as they're struggling, and maybe not even saying anything, just letting them know that you're there for them, what Job's friends should have done. All right, Job's friends did a good job until they opened their mouths. He doesn't stop there though. He says, he who gives with liberality, We are to be giving sacrificially of what we have for the sake of others and the gospel of Jesus Christ. With liberality, it points out a single-mindedness, not having ulterior motives, not to gain something for oneself, but out of love for God. How often in churches are the people with the most wealth those who are able to have most persuasion. It ought not to be so, and it's not anybody's fault, really, but the person who gives, who's gifted by God and the ability to give. Here, the line that God draws in the sand is this, if you're to give, you're to give out of genuineness of heart unto the Lord. having no ulterior motives, not seeking to gain your agenda or push forth your agenda in the church. We also see he who leads with diligence. Of course, pastors lead spiritually, deacons may lead physically, but in many different ways too, teaching Sunday school, serving in nursery, cleaning, showing up early and taking care of things in the church building. It may be through a title that you lead, or it merely may be an assumed position that people look to you as one of the more mature and faithful. One commentator put it said this way, as we lead, we are to do it with diligence, and he gives three words, carefulness, constantly, and consistently. Lead in the position which you have with carefulness. Be a leader constantly. You can't take breaks from being a leader. You can't take vacations from being a leader and lead and serve in a consistent manner. And then lastly, he who shows mercy with cheerfulness. This would be one specifically apt at recognizing people's hardships and suffering, whether on the outside or inside. Have you ever been having a rough day and everybody around you is just carrying on like normal and you're acting as if everything's okay and then that one friend sees you and all they do is take one look at you and they come over to you and they go, are you doing okay? They have this ability just to recognize when you're struggling God has gifted different individuals, his children, with an ability to show mercy and care for those who are hurting. But he gives us a warning when we do this that we are to do it out of joyfulness or cheerfulness. This service should be done graciously and with joy to others. It's not putting your arm around a person and going, well, you're having a bad day again, huh? How can I help? No. I was going to them with humble graciousness, praying to the Lord, God, thank you for this opportunity to encourage a discouraged person. How can I pray for you? How can I serve you? How can I help you? See, all these commands in reality, almost all of them, except I'd say for prophecy, you would say that each one of us is commanded to take a part in. They're all things that each member of the church should be doing. But at the same time, we recognize that as part of a body, each of us are gifted with different abilities in certain ways to greater measures and lesser measures. And therefore, we ought to function in regards to that. We could think of it as a football team or a soccer team. If everybody on a soccer team decided one day that they were going to play striker or forward, and score the goals, how would that game go? Not very well. If all of the players on the soccer field decided one day we're all gonna play defense, yeah, they might not be scored against, but they're not gonna win, because nobody's gonna score for their team. And so too, we recognize as that team functions, and though everybody's playing, Even at times where your best forward is gonna run back and help on defense, and your best defender may go up and have an opportunity at scoring, they are playing their positions as they are gifted and able, recognized by the coach. We have the greatest coach. We have the greatest chief shepherd, our head, Jesus Christ, and he has gifted us. He's the one who's given us our abilities. And he knows best, he's the one building us. And though we're to be involved in all ways, as much as we can, you ought to have a recognition in humility, but recognizing that God has gifted you in certain ways to serve in his church. The encouragement this morning would be serve. Find the ways in which you are gifted. Talk with me and Nathan and get plugged into ministry. Get plugged into the body of Christ. And again, an important reminder, all these commands, the internal and external, stem from the mercy which God has shown us. Let me go a step even further. If you're not part of the church, but you have trusted in Christ as your Lord and Savior. Come and talk to me about getting baptized. If you're already baptized, come and talk to me about being a member. It is how Christ envisions his church to function, that there is a group of people committed to each other under pastors who shepherd the flock, and those churches are practicing the one another's together, serving and edifying and holding each other accountable and functioning as a body. So let me ask, what are you? If the Bible church is a body which God is at work in, whom Christ died to save, what are you? There are a few different ways in which we might be part of the body. Maybe, I'm not calling you fat, so listen to what I'm saying. You might be a fat part of the body. Maybe you're part of the stomach. Something that sits and takes but does not contribute. We all recognize in our bodies if there's too much fat on our body, our bodies do not function well and healthy. They're not able to do things that our bodies ought to be able to do. And there are many churches out there which have plenty of people in the pews, in the seats, and they intake and they intake, but they don't contribute anything. And in that sense, you could say the body of that church is fat. It's unable to function the way it needs to function. It's unable to do what it needs to do. Maybe, you would say, between you and the Lord this morning, that's you. You come, but you really play no part. You attend and you intake from the nutrients, but you don't contribute anything. I think you know what you need to do if you're in that state. There are also cancerous parts causing division and discord. Maybe you would say, based on the conversations you've had or the ways you function in the church, that you're actually a cancer to the body. We know how fast pride and vision can destroy a church body. If you are, repent, turn to Christ, be unified with the body. Maybe you're an amputated part of the body. Maybe you're not gathering or taking part in the body. Yes, bodies can function with amputated parts, but they're limited. They're held back. There are disadvantages. You could also put it this way. It's a part of your body that's asleep and not functioning. Now I recognize with COVID and health concerns, there are certain individuals who cannot meet with us physically, and we understand that, and there's a gracious attitude towards that. But each time you're not with the body of Christ, you could say in one sense, you're either asleep or amputated from the body. There's two principles to take from that. One that we already mentioned, the body is hindered. What happens to you when you're separated from the body? If your finger gets cut off, that finger can't be put back on in a month from now. Any body part of yours that is cut off, what happens to it? It dies. We understand that with a branch and a tree. Very simple. You cut a branch off of a tree, what happens to the leaves? In a day or two, they're all brown, looks like fall. So too is it dangerous for parts of the body to be separated from it. Do not be an amputated part. And may we all strive for this, strive to be a healthy part of the body. And what does a healthy part of the body look like? It's an individual who's humble, yet willing to serve according to their giftedness, to the glory of our head, Jesus Christ. Father, would you help us to be a healthy body, which gives all honor and glory to you. We thank you for our savior, Jesus Christ, the lamb. He is worthy to receive all glory and honor and power for he has created all things and for his pleasure they are and were created. So Father, would you work in this church family? Father, would we be a healthy body? Would you restore to us parts of our body which are missing, which are sleeping, which are far off? Would you help any fatty parts of our body to be turned to healthy parts, functioning parts, contributing parts? Most of all, would we glorify your name and your name alone? We pray in Jesus' name, amen.