Body Building (9/16/18 Standalone)

ATTN: I shared this with John before, but it thrills my soul to see young people in here on sunday mornings before the service scrounging around to set up for the service. It reminds me of what the body of Christ is about. It’s many people contributing, using their time, talent, and treasure for the good of the body so that christ may be lifted. These people don’t get paid. They do this because they believe in God and they have faith that God will repay them one day in glory over-abundantly. So rather than choosing sleep or video games on their well-deserved sunday mornings, they are here preparing so that the rest of the body could benefit.

Today, we will take a break from the John series and cover a passage that I’ve been thinking about preaching since the beginning of summer when I made a note to myself that in September, I should preach this message. So, this message has been incubating in me for the last 3 months.

If I could sum up the whole message in one sentence, it would go like this: God’s excellency is displayed most beautifully when individual members use their time, talent, and treasure to build up the body of Christ, which is the church. That, I believe is the message that Paul tries to convey to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 12, and retrospectively to us living in the 21st century.

Today, I make four observations about Paul’s message to the church about the church: 1. You have a unique contribution to make to the body.  2. You need the body to keep you alive!  3. It is God who arranges the body and builds it. 4. In God’s community, every part is equally valuable.

 

1. You have a unique contribution to make to the body.

God made each of us unique and gave us unique talents and gifts. And we are each made that way to contribute to the common good of the body. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. If you are a Christian, you cannot say, “I have no talent. I’m not good at anything and so it doesn’t matter if I’m there or not!” The Apostle makes the following argument in case someone inside the church might think that:

14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

Why would the foot say “because I’m not a hand, I do not belong to the body?” Probably because it is usually the hand is the more presentable part. A surgeon is praised for his skillful hands and not usually for his feet. So the feet would think since it’s not as versatile or useful as the hand, it wrongly think it’s not needed. Also if you are an ear, you might think because you don’t get as much attention as the eye, you might not be needed. But Paul is making the argument that all are needed and have a unique contribution to make for the common good of the body.

APP 1: To make a direct application, it is wrong to think, “Well, since I can’t lead praise like Chan or John, I’m not really needed. Or I can’t teach the Bible like Pastor Eldie or Lundy, I’m not really needed. You might not be a hand but a foot. You might not be an eye, but an ear. But you are each uniquely made and placed to contribute to the body.

ILL: Tony tells me that it’s fun for him to do construction stuff – like rebuilding floors, island, bathrooms, etc. And he’s good at it, the people who work with him told me. Me? I cannot think of anything more stressful and the opposite of fun than doing construction around the house. We bought our house 13 years ago and our house looks exactly the same as it did 13 years ago because I have made no modification to it. Why? Because I have no talent in construction. I don’t even know where to begin. Besides, my philosophy is “Why fix it when it’s not broke?” But I love reading, thinking and writing. So, I can contribute to the church with my studies. Tony on the other hand can and has contributed by fixing and beautifying the church building. We are each uniquely gifted to make contributions to the body.

Maybe you are not gifted in ways you would like. But You are uniquely gifted and talented by God not so that you can use the gift for yourself but for the good of the body.

2. You need the body to keep you alive!

Not only are gifts given to you to help the church, you yourself are also helped when you serve the body. Because you are a living organism and not a dead object or an equipment. I think it was intentional that Paul used a living organism such as a body to describe the reality of church rather than an inanimate object such as a wagon or a house. The implication is that each member needs the body to survive.

ILL: Sorry for being graphic, but if my arm gets detached from my body, it’s no good. Soon it will wither and die and will never be able to be reattached to my body. My arm cannot live apart from my body. My arm needs my body just like my body needs my arm. That is not true, say, of car parts. You take out the wheel and that wheel is fine without the car. You can even put that wheel in another car as long as it is the right size. But not so with living organisms. So is each member of the church. A member cannot live without being attached to the body of Christ, which is the church.

We were created to live in a community. Although it seems godly to hear someone says, “I don’t need anyone else. I just need God.” That is not true. After God created Adam, he said, “It is not good for man to be alone.” so, He created a community in creating Eve. That is why a baby who doesn’t have a family that loves her has psychological problems all her lives. And it breaks our hearts as parents when we see our children not have friends because we understand how vital it is to be social. We are social creatures. We were created to live, love and learn in social settings. God Himself is a social being – There is God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit living in perfect harmony.

Now, living in a community means that you contributing something to the community. You are not just consuming but contributing. Go back to the arm illustration again. The arm gets it’s vital nutrition from the stomach, blood from the heart, etc. but the arm also contributes to the body’s well-being in that it grabs the food and puts it in the mouth. What if the arm said, “I do not want to move and put food in the mouth, but I’ll just sit here and be fed? It will eventually die because it’s not feeding the body which it is a part of!

APP: In terms of individual believers and the body called the local church then, you need the body the keep you alive just like the body needs you to be healthy. We are mutually dependent on each other.

That means, it is not good enough that we go online and listen or even watch a live worship online on Sundays but not belong to a church. All you are doing is consuming. You are like an arm who just lays on the table and will not put that food in the mouth because it’s too much work. You will eventually die along with the body.

So, contribute. Your serving the body is really in turn serving yourself.  

 

3. It is God who builds the body and arranges it.
4. 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

God assigns you the role as He sees fit. A church is not a product of human-engineering or business astuteness, but an living organism arranged by God. God arranges the body as he chooses. God brings the parts He needs for the local body to create it uniquely and beautifully. When we first started our church, I didn’t understand this principle well. So, we went to conferences, often sponsored by megachurches in the Bible-belt teaching small church pastors how to grow their churches big just like they did. I still have DVDs I bought from those conferences in my bookshelf at home. The idea was that if we can just learn their methods and copy them, then we would be just as successful as they were. So, I learned a whole lot of business principles and started reading business books such as Good to Great, 7 habits of highly successful people, etc etc. but I remember a distinct moment when the Holy Spirit seems to be telling me, “If you are following all these business methods and principles, then where do I fit in? Do I need to be present in this model of church for it to be successful? And in the end if your church became successful, whatever that means, who would get the credit? Your great learning and execution or Me?”

That was the same voice I heard when I was at a dance party as a freshman in college, “What are you doing here?” the same voice I heard when I was finishing up seminary and considering moving to the West coast, “wherever you go, I will be with you.” the same voice I heard when I was considering planting this church, “I will be with you and this will be sign to you and sent me Eldie and Ange…”

ILL: If you’ve never heard the story, this is how our church started 8 years ago… As I was in agony regarding God’s will for my life as I knew that I was done with the assignment that God has given me at the Korean church. What should I do next? Should I take up a pastorate somewhere in the East Coast or should I start a church down in California? The more I prayed, the more it seemed that God wanted me to start a church right here in Tacoma. But I was too scared and so I prayed, “If this is your will, then send me a family who will do this with me. I’m too scared to do it on my own.” So, I pulled a Gideon on God (fleece). Soon after, Eldie and Ange wanted to have dinner with us. And they asked if we were thinking of starting a church. Surprised, I said yes, because we haven’t really told anyone. And they said, “If so, we want to go with you.” I asked one question to God and He gave us two answers. #1. Yes, you should start a church. And #2 That church is to be multi-ethnic. God brought more families after that such as the Agustins, the Parks, the Lees, and others who were with us temporarily to help us start.

And since then, one way that we determine where God is leading our church is seeing what kind of people God is adding to our church. So, rather than thinking, “Here are the type of people we want to go after. God bless us!”, we are asking, “God, who are you bringing to our church? Who are the people who need this body?” Then, we watch and see what kind of people God brings. We had no youth ministry when we started because we had not youth aged children, but when the Mins came along with the Twins and Marko, we thought we needed a youth ministry. When a few korean members came – we had no korean members in the beginning of our church other than my family – we decided to start a korean ministry.

So, we are growing organically. No preservatives added and that’s why the growth is slow…

APP: God assigns our talents and gifts and we should be content because God put us exactly where we need to be with exactly the kind of gifts the church needs.

 

CONC: I know there is point #4 on the bulletin under sermon notes, but I want to end here today to give you time to respond. Let me summarize it:

1. You have a unique contribution to make to the body. If you are not contributing, then this body is operating at less than its best because it’s been deprived of your gift and talent.
2. You need the body as much as the body needs you. We draw our meaning from serving something greater than ourselves and it is you who grow as you contribute to the greater body.
3. It is God who arranges and builds the body. If you are here, God brought you here because you are needed here for both the body and yourself.

 

So then, how can you contribute? I want you to help us brainstorm. I don’t want to put it all on the leaders to come up with way to serve you by helping you serve the body. Each of you is given a sheet for you to fill out. I want you to take some time with it. Talk among yourselves. And fill it out and either put them in the offering box, or if you need more time, take it home and send me the result via email. My email address is on the sheet.