These songs stir our hearts, but they express truth from the Word of God, the big why. What is the big why? To display and to proclaim that God is calling out a people for His name. That's the good news. He's doing it through Jesus Christ alone. Well, how can we proclaim and display that? It's one thing to say it. But what we say doesn't really have any traction, doesn't have any credibility, unless we're displaying at the same time. The entity that God has created to display the gospel, to make the gospel credible, is the church, is the people of God, is you and me working together with the power of God. Tonight we're going to be inducting some new members and I thought it would be appropriate for us to remind ourselves of the kind of unity that we have and why we have it and why it's so important. And so we're going to go to 1 Corinthians 12. 1 Corinthians 12. We're going to be focusing in on verses 4 through 7, but we want to do verses 1 through 3 first to kind of set us up as to what it is that actually unites us. And then having been united through the gospel of Jesus Christ, to see how the triune God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, work so that our testimony to the world is clear and credible, that God is actually manifest in the church as the body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians 12, beginning in verse 1, Paul writes, now, concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed You know that when you were pagans, you were led astray by mute idols, however you were led. Therefore, I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says, Jesus is accursed. Remember, we're at a time when the New Testament's not yet been complete. You have those given prophetic gift within the church, message from the Lord. And whenever you have that, there's always a chance you have somebody saying, I've got something from the Lord and it wasn't from the Lord at all. And one of the main things that would distinguish those that are not coming from the Lord is when they do not give Jesus the place that he deserves. Jesus is a curse and no one can say Jesus is Lord except in the Holy Spirit. except by the Holy Spirit. When we say, say Jesus is Lord, we're not just mouthing that, but actually saying what we've come to believe and be convinced of. This is actually the essential confession of those that are truly members of Christ's church. Those that confess from the heart this conviction, Jesus is Lord. It is a conviction that is wrought in our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit illuminates us, convinces us of this truth, that the Jesus of history, a man who lived 33 years here on the earth, that had flesh and blood, that walked the planet, whose voice people heard, whose body they saw, that that Jesus of history is, in fact, not only the Messiah, the Anointed One, prophesied in the Old Testament, but also God in the flesh. And, of course, as you look at the prophecies of the Messiah, it also becomes clear that He's God, that He's God the Son. He is Yahweh. He is the one that Isaiah spoke of as Immanuel, God with us, or with us, God, exclamation point. And so this is the confession of the viable church. Jesus is the Lord. Paul referred to this core conviction of the church all the way back at the beginning of his letter. We looked at it last Sunday morning in verse 2 of chapter 1 when he referred to those that were called to be saints. those in Corinth, called to be saints, together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours." To call upon the Lord is to indicate your trust in Him, is to indicate your worship of Him, is to indicate that you believe He is God or else you wouldn't be praying to Him. So people everywhere in every century and every country on earth that come to this conviction by the Holy Spirit are those that God has called to be His holy ones, those that belong to Him. We find the same thing in Peter's confession. You recall it in Matthew 16 where Peter breaks out after Christ has said, Who do men say that I am? And then he says, Who do you say that I am? Peter says, You are the Messiah. You are Mashiach. You are the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah. Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah. Same words he used when he first met Peter. He says, you are Simon, son of Jonah. You will be Peter. You're gonna change to a man of rock, hard conviction. who'll be a leader among men rather than just a little stone, impetuous and unstable. That's what he predicted when he first met Peter. Now, he talks to him the same way. He says, happy are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." We're going to talk more about this actually Sunday morning. Someone asked whether tonight's message was going to be part of the church series, and I told them no. Jonathan Wooster, who helps me with the PowerPoints, and I said, no, but it could be. So this is like, you know, the appendix or the link up. So we'll be looking at that great confession next week. But those who are coming to be received into membership tonight here at Hampton Park have affirmed this core conviction regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. And with that conviction, it marks them as spiritually united by faith in Christ Jesus to the people of God. We received them into membership to formalize that, for them to make clear their commitment to the body here. But ultimately, we didn't make them part of the church. The Holy Spirit's conviction in their heart that brought them to this conviction of faith that Jesus is the Lord is what brought them in. As we go on to verses four through seven, we see a brief sketch of how the triune God then reveals himself through his people who have made this great confession. In so doing, his people are able to display as well as to proclaim the good news that God is calling out a people for his name through Jesus Christ. In other words, when I unite with the church, through this core conviction, through faith in Jesus Christ, I really am united. And it is manifest, it is made clear, it is proved by the way the triune God then works through me in connection with my brothers and sisters in Christ. Look at how he describes it. We're going to look at it in just a moment. As we vote these new members into the church family, This is why I've gone to this text. This text helps us understand how to receive them, how we should view them. We have them wearing name tags for a reason. We are members one of another called to serve one another in love, and knowing someone's name is a great place to start. We are having a members fellowship time after the service and then after the pavilion dedication We're having that fellowship time for a reason This evening on the screen you will see the faces of a variety of people. I'm looking at some of them right down here They're scattered about okay a variety of people with a variety of backgrounds But as born-again believers, they are who they are and they are where they are by the will of God. We want to recognize not only how important they are to the people of God here, but to remind ourselves that God has rescued them just as he has rescued us. That God empowers them as part of the body of Christ here at Hampton Park. that their lives and ours in the church here is a God thing. It's very easy to think of church as, even if we're thinking of people as kind of a club, and very much of a human kind of cultural thing, rather than a God thing. And so part of the reason we value these members joining our church formally and why we want to value them so much is because they're being part of our body is a God thing. And we want the way that we interact with them to display that this is a God thing, something God has done. Now, verses four through seven. Now there are varieties of gifts. but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the spirit for the common good. I'm entitled our message tonight. God manifests in the church. God revealed in the church. God made clear in the church. And he makes himself clear through both variety and unity. Variety and unity. The variety of gifts, service, and activity and the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The greatest unity possible in all the universe. We see first the varieties of gifts from the Holy Spirit in verse four, and then a comment on that in verse seven, given for the common good. We see the varieties of service to the Lord Jesus in verse five, the same Lord. And we see varieties of activity through God the Father, verse six. And God is the one who empowers that activity, that energizes it. So just as the three persons of the Godhead are in perfect union and together carry out the powerful salvation of God's people, so God's people, in all their variety, work together in unity to proclaim and to display the gospel of salvation. That is their mission. They are able to fulfill this mission because God, the Father, Son, and Spirit are actively making it possible through them. I don't know if you've thought about evangelizing that way. I think typically we think about evangelizing as kind of one-on-one, sitting down, sharing Romans Road, sharing the Word with someone. That's certainly evangelizing. We think about evangelizing as a preacher standing at a lectern and giving out the gospel to those who need to hear it. But have you thought about the fact that as an entire church family, the way we live together is a proclamation of the gospel? The gospel of the God who takes people that are very different from a variety of backgrounds, a variety of makeups and gifts, and he makes them one in love. That is powerful stuff that demonstrates to the world that the gospel actually does reconcile man to God and man to man, that it actually works and will work for the sinner that has a hunger for being free from his sin and being united to God. The variety comes from the triune God and the unity comes from the triune God as well. God's manifestation in the church through variety and unity proclaims and displays the good news that He is in fact calling out a people for His name and transforming them by His power. So consider first the varieties of gifts from the Holy Spirit. Verse 4, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. Verse 7, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Now Paul's going to expand this extensively in this chapter and the two chapters to follow. In fact, I think Andy Henderson is gonna be later talking about this theme more extensively in our church series. But Paul is correcting the prideful and dismissive attitude of those who are exalting some gifts, particularly the more sensational ones, over other gifts, is somehow marking those that possess them as more spiritual than other people. These people were in fact ignoring that even the gifts they prized most were given by the Spirit. They were not evidences of spiritual superiority of the one that received them. And they were ignoring the fact that the gifts that they did not value much were also given by that same Spirit and therefore are to be treated as valuable and important because they are. To look at one gift or another as unimportant when the Spirit of God has given them doesn't match the source of these gifts. No one should treat another member of the body of Christ as unimportant or unnecessary. Nor should any member think that he himself or herself is unimportant or unnecessary to the body. We need each other and God has designed it that way. The spirit gives out spiritual gifts as he desires. And every believer is to utilize his or her own gift from the Spirit to benefit others in the body. The collective people of God are like that human body with all its different parts and functions working together for the good of the entire body. I mean, if so much as your little finger checks out, you're concerned. If you were to chop off one of your toes, that's Fred Maxwell. How fun that is. Okay? We need all the parts of the body. We need them to work together. God is manifest clearly when the members of the body of Christ each use their assigned gift or gifts for the mutual benefit of other members of the church body. So, self-centered pride or mistreatment of others, neglect of needs, Failure to use my gift for others these undermine what the spirit is doing among the people of God and as such This kind of behavior actually obscures the gospel and shrouds the manifestation of God in the world one of the ways that God manifests himself to the world is by distributing these gifts to people and having them use these gifts for the common good and And I think what we can apply to the spiritual gifts, we'd apply to anything else God has given to you. I mean, your home, or your car, or your income, or whatever opportunities are given to you for the benefit of others. They're not just given to you. They're given to be used. The question that that raises for us is what abilities and insights do you personally possess that you could use to benefit others? And what are you using them for right now? And how often do you use them? I mean, if you had a car that ran well, that did what cars are supposed to do, would you drive it, say, once every three months? Or would you use it all the time for what cars are for? Well, your gift, your gifts, your abilities, your insights, your income, everything that you have that God has given to you, it is given to you to use for the good of other people. It's distributed to you by God. Much of it, much of it, in fact, Nearly all of it and ultimately all of it, even the things you've developed on your own, you couldn't have developed without God's help, without God giving you ability. All of that came from God. It's not yours. It's not intrinsically yours. In fact, life isn't intrinsically mine. I can't keep myself alive one second longer than what God wants me to be alive, right? So all the opportunities that I have, Everything I have all that is given to me by God to be used. It's the varieties of gifts from the Holy Spirit and then we see There's also varieties of service to the Lord Jesus verse 5. There are varieties of service but the same Lord So not only is there diversity of gifts, there's a diversity of jobs to be done. And that makes perfect sense. Different gifts would lead to different jobs. You don't want to mismatch the two. All kinds of opportunities to serve the needs of others in the cause of Christ. Some tasks are high profile. Some can be thankless and known only by a few. Some are very difficult and they're full of risk. Others are more accessible and may cost little more than just being attentive to the opportunity. But all the saints need to be serving. That's what the teaching and preaching of the Word of God is for. It's to equip, to make functional each one of us for the work of serving in a way that builds up the people of God in love, according to Ephesians 4, that whole section there. Most importantly, all this work is rendered in the name of, in other words, with the authority of and for the glory of the Lord Jesus. And this is really key to giving ourselves to the work. It's not just that we do it for other people, and we should out of love, but even more importantly, we do it for the Lord. We don't serve as man-pleasers. Even if you were a slave in the ancient world, you weren't supposed to serve as man-pleasers. You were supposed to be reverencing God and serving Him in full sincerity of heart and serving the Lord Christ, knowing that He sees every particle of what you do for Him. You know, if you've been serving Jesus very long, you know that other people, I mean, you can't, other people just can't know what you're actually doing for Jesus. They can't read your mind. They don't know your intent. If you're looking to other people to give you the kudos, if you're looking at other people to make you feel like you're worthwhile and like you've served well, you're going to be disappointed. You can't live for that because nobody ever gets it right. People give you more credit than you deserve, and people give you more blame than you deserve. Because people are people, and you do the same for others, right? You don't know what's in the heart. You don't know everything that everybody else is doing. God knows. God knows every single thing you're doing. God knows your reasons for it. God knows what you're trying to do, even if what you did kind of flopped. He knows a heart behind it. And he not only sees all that, he rewards even so much as a cup of cold water given in his name. Something that seems very minor, God actually counts a value enough to reward. In fact, in the Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews says, Hebrews 6.10, For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name and serving the saints as you still do. God is completely aware of what you're doing. And that's really awesome to think about. Because there are times that gets to be quite a grind, doesn't it? There are times where it's like, oh, I'd just rather sleep all day. There are times where you just don't feel like being nice at all, right? But when you're serving Jesus, You know it's worth it. And no matter how unmotivating the people around you may be at times, and we're all pretty unmotivating sometimes, right? Jesus Christ always is a worthy master and a worthy Lord. knowing that whatever service you render is ultimately for the Lord Jesus frees you to serve with all your heart, without worrying whether other people will give you credit or blame. You can't lose when you do it for Jesus. And you also don't have to police what other people are doing. If they too are just serving Jesus, He can supervise His own servants. Thank you very much. What makes any job valuable is that it's done for the same Lord. That unites our hearts and our labors in one. And then third, we see varieties of activity through God the Father. Verse six, there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God, I'm saying it's through God we do this, it's the same God who empowers them all in everyone. So where do we get energy from? God energizes. God makes us operational to do what we do. He provides the power. He makes our efforts operational. His power is at work, not just in some members of the body, but in all members of the body. He works in us in different ways and in different seasons. He empowers us. in different places of service, but he empowers us. It's really a supernatural energy at work in us that makes it manifest to others that God is in us and is at work in and through his people. You know, I think sometimes we look at other people in certain kinds of service and, you know, it's like we think that maybe they're just like a different class of Christians. Like they've got, like they entered into the halo zone or something. Now, if you've had opportunity to actually get in close with any of those people, you come away with a couple things. You come away realizing that these people are just ordinary folk like everybody else. Now, that can lead you to saying, yeah, they're just, let me in on something. They are just ordinary folk. They're not big stuff at all like you think they are. They've got some serious flaws, and let me list the ones I saw. We could respond that way, or we could respond, God is awesome because he's using ordinary people to do extraordinary things. There are times when we're really, really conscious of this. there are times when we're not. Sometimes we're serving Jesus and it just doesn't feel like anything is happening, that it's all just mundane, that we're not getting past ground zero, it's just not, you know, and then you find out months or years later that some little thing you said, some little thing you did that you don't even remember anymore was the turning point for somebody else. There are other times when particularly at times of crisis where you feel totally incapable of dealing with what needs to be dealt with, and God just comes rushing in like a lion and empowers you to do what you never thought possible. And later you look back and you're like pinching yourself like, that was me? And the answer is really yes and no. It was God working through you. Now, God works through his people. They're ordinary people, but He's an extraordinary God. Manifest power is attractive. And one reason the gospel seems trivial or even untrue to those who have yet to believe in Jesus is the appalling lack of power that they see in those who say they belong to God. Nothing can substitute for power. We can advertise But advertising is insufficient when there's nothing backing it. It comes off as spin and as hype. And the world is already full of that. It's not that we necessarily need more billboards and more hype. What we need is the manifest power of God in our lives. People who need rescue don't need another version of something that really doesn't work as advertised. They need to see God at work in us, powerfully. And God is at work. As we yield to the Spirit of God, as we pursue what God has given us to do, God actually enables us to do it. It's kind of like stepping out to walk on water. And the water holds you up, as long as you're relying on the Lord. Think of it. When you use the gifts of the Spirit given to you and you use those gifts to serve Jesus, God the Father energizes and empowers you so that the work actually gets traction and bears fruit. Nearly everybody's heard of midlife crisis, right? I mean, I don't even like the term. One day, somebody called me middle-aged, and I thought, I'm not middle-aged. That's like old people, right? I think I'm past middle-age. I mean, if you look chronologically, right? And so you have the midlife crisis, and what's that about? That's like, well, what has my life been for? I've dumped in all this effort. I've had all these dreams, and now here I am. I'm on the downslope. If you look chronologically, what's to show for it? Well, there's eternal fruitfulness to show for it if you belong to Jesus. You and I have no idea how extensive is the impact of our lives when we give ourselves to Jesus. When we use gifts that the Spirit has given to serve the one same Lord, Jesus Christ, that unites us all with the power of God, it is actually so impressive that for ages to come, God will point at His people and say, see, this shows my wisdom and my grace. He's going to show it to the angelic powers of the wisdom and grace at rescuing lost sinners and transforming them by my power and grace. It's the gospel made visible for all the world to see. God manifests in the church through variety and unity, varieties of gifts from the Spirit, same Spirit. Varieties of service given by the authority and to the honor of the Lord Jesus and varieties of activity energized by God the Father. This is what we're about. This is what makes it worth it. The kinds of things we're going to do in the next few minutes. reference to bylaws, inducting these members, dedicating that we do all this because of this, to manifest God to the world.