Connected, Week 7

Tim Rivers | May 28, 2023

Listen

Transcription

Happy Pentecost Sunday.

The Pentecost was already making some noise right now.

Woo.

Some of y'all, some y'all like, what's Pentecost Sunday?

Pentecost Sunday is a day that we commemorate the pouring out of the Holy Spirit as we see in Acts chapter two 50 days after Easter is Pentecost Sunday. Now, why is this significant? Because prior to the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, you had to go to somebody else that would go to somebody else that would make an offering on behalf of you to God. Acts chapter two comes and God said, no more need for you to go to somebody else, to go to somebody else. Yes sir. To go to God for you. You can go directly to the source. You can have the gift of the Holy Ghost. Anybody feel what? The Holy Ghost? Come on, make some crazy noise if you're thankful. You know you’re Pentecostal when you call Holy Ghost. I'm so thankful that you're here. We want to say welcome to all of our guests that are here today. If this is your first time, thank you so much for being here at Embassy City. For those that are watching online, thank you for watching. We are so glad that we are part of your spiritual journey. We believe that God is doing something amazing in this house and through the people of this house. Can we just stop and make some noise for the 71 people that were water baptized last week?

Wow.

I love baptism Sunday. It's just an exciting time and especially want to recognize those that made a spontaneous decision. You didn't pre-register just in the moment, something quicken. You said, I got to get to this water immediately and you did it and I'm so proud of you and I'm so thankful for you listening to the Holy Spirit drawing you and getting water baptized. Also, I can't go any further without saying what a phenomenal job pastor Stan Dennis did last week.

Teaching on marriage. Man, I took down so many notes. I'm going to preach some of that stuff. You know what I mean? Great nuggets. Thank you so much for your obedience to God and for bringing us such a great word. Also, before we get into this, this is Memorial Day weekend and tomorrow is Memorial Day, which is a time that we stop and we recognize all those who have paid the ultimate price for us to live the way we can here in this country. And so I want us to just take a moment and thank all of those that have served to protect our freedoms and our rights.

There are many people in here that you've probably served. I know my family, pretty much everybody, my uncles, my grandfather, all of 'em served in the military and we're so thankful for that. All right, so we are closing out our series that we've been calling Connected Today. It's the relationship series, but if you've been rolling with us for the last seven weeks, I did not think we were going to go seven weeks. I thought four weeks, maybe five, but God had other plans. So this is our seventh week and it's a relationship series and what's been interesting and fun about this series is that we haven't spent a ton of time on romantic relationships. We've just been talking about relationships in general. We talked about how it is very important for you to be connected. God does not want you to live life disconnected, and we opened it by talking about the importance of being connected to God. Then we talked about being connected to friends. Then we talked about overcoming betrayal. Then we talked about individuality and being secure and who God has made you. Then we talked about Christian dating and then last week we covered marriage and today we are going to talk about being connected to the church.

That’s good. No, man. All right. I almost brought my apron today because I'm going to cook a little bit as well. Ephesians chapter four, Ephesians chapter four, verse number 11, Ephesians chapter four, verse number 11. I feel pretty burdened to preach on this because I do believe that there is an onslaught of opposition against the church, and so I think we need to clarify some things about what the church is and how we are to engage with the church. I am quite frankly tired of hearing critiques and criticisms of the church and its members. Right. I can't stand it. Can I just be vulnerable and honest with y'all? Absolutely. It gives 'em a nerves. Yes, too many YouTube channels, too many social media accounts attacking the church. 

So we're going to talk about it. Yeah. Talk about Ephesians chapter four, verse number 11, and he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, in deceitful schemes. Rather speaking the truth in love. We are to grow up. I'm going to stop and preach right there in every way into him who is the head into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love and somebody say Amen.

For the next little while I want to teach on my title will be connected to the church. Connected to the church. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your goodness and your mercy. Thank you for drawing us to your house. I pray that in the next few moments we will just receive revelation from your word that we will be connected to your church to one another, help us to be advocates of the church and not critiques of the church. I pray that your will would be done, that your purpose would be accomplished. Give us ears to hear, a mind to understand and a heart to receive your word in Jesus' name and everybody say amen. Amen. It's interesting, I think that nowadays especially there is a lot of talk about church hurt, in fact, that that phrase itself is kind of a hot topic for most people. Church hurt, so we hear stuff, we hear statements like this, I love God, but I'm not too sure about the church overhear statements. I love Jesus. I just can't stand people.

Just recently somebody when they found out I was a pastor, said to me, you know what I love? I love Jesus. I'm just not into the whole church thing. Now, if you are a part of the church, if you are a Christian, those statements can feel sometimes offensive, especially as a pastor, you're like, whoa, that's a strong statement, but I don't get too worked up because I understand what they are trying to say. Yeah, because nine times out of 10 when someone makes a statement like that or they feel that way, it's because they've been in an environment at a local assembly where somebody who was supposed to represent the church caused them trauma and drama and caused them to have a conflict, a crisis of faith. And so because an individual who was supposed to represent the church did anything but represent the church, now they feel a certain way about the entirety of the church. Or sometimes people have been in an environment where a pastor who is supposed to be the servant of the Lord uses the Bible to manipulate, to control people in his congregation. Let me just stop and say this man of God know the difference between your word and God's word.

As a pastor, we represent God's word. We are not God's word. If you ever run into someone who is supposed to be in ministry and they tell you, Hey, listen, I know that's what the Bible says, but listen to me pause. In fact leave because our word will never supersede the word of God, and so when pastors do that, they get confused about who has authority and when people are under that type of leadership, they can get confused about the church. I know somebody out there like, give me passage and scripture for that. All right, I'll give you one story. James and John are with Jesus. They're having some problems with the Samaritan. They're not responding really well. James and John come to Jesus and say, Hey, Jesus, shall we call down fire on them for them to be consumed just like Elijah did and you would think that's a noble thing, right? Of hey, after all, we are disciples of Christ and we have scriptural precedent for this. Let's call down fire, and Jesus rebukes them and he says, you don't know what you're of.

Amen.

Because sometimes people have scriptural precedent and try to use it in the wrong scenario. Know what spirit you're of. Know the difference between. It's your word and it's God's word, but here's another scenario why some people are mad at the church. It's not even the church's problem, it's their problem. Come on. There are some people who are mad at the church because they are the issue. They wouldn't stop gossiping. They wouldn't stop flirting with that woman's husband. They wouldn't stop causing drama in the church. They wouldn't stop acting out in service. And so when the church finally said, Hey, you got to stop this or leave, they get mad at the entirety of the church and they try to find another church to do the same thing. The reality is that at the heart of this idea that church is optional is a misunderstanding of what the church is. Yeah, yeah. That's right. Because here that this is the way you kind of clarify everything. The church is not a what? It's a who.

Because often we refer to the church as a what is the church, but what defines an inanimate object? Yeah. What is asking the question? It's asking the question of what is something? It's a building, it's a location. It's geographical, it's an assembly, and so people get confused and they call the church a what? But the church has always been a who and who refused refers to people. Even if you go all the way back to Israel, Israel was never a location. Israel was always at people. What defined the church has always been people. In fact, I want to give you a little bit of Greek here and the New Testament, there's a single word that we in the church and it's the word. Now, some of y'all probably have used this word, ecclesia, but eia, eia here, let's define what this word is. EIA or the word church is an assembly, a congregation, a church.

It's the church. The whole body of Christian believers and in the New Testament, this is used 114 times and alaia is a two part word. The first word is act, which means out from and two and callal, which means to calm. In other words, the word literally means called out and to, so when we talk about the church or eia, it's literally talking about people who've been called out of the world and to Christ. So based on the biblical definition of who the church is, it is impossible to be a Christian and not be part of the church. So it is literally impossible for people to say, I love God, but I don't love the church.

Because if you're a believer, you are the church. You represent the church. You cannot separate your Christianity from the church. Your Christianity is the church.

Now here's the problem that we have. The reason why we have a hard time or some people have a hard time connecting to the church is because it's like having that crazy uncle. Everyone's got one, right? Yeah. The uncle that you're like, man, why is he part of our family? He he's inappropriate. He does weird stuff. He dresses funny. Oh, it smells weird, but he's still, your family in the body of Christ in the church are people who don't represent the church well. They fumble all over themselves. They say stuff they shouldn't be saying. They do stuff they're not supposed to be, but here's the thing, they are still part of the church and they may be in an infancy stage. We don't get mad at little babies for puking all over the place. We don't disown them and say, oh, you no longer part of our family. No. We just recognize that they're a one year old. And so it is the case with the church. You are going to have people that are part of the church. They’re puking all over the place. Anybody saying, let's talk about the body. Some people have a funky toe or a weird finger. Some of y'all are nervous cause you're like, that's me. That's why I don't wear sandals. I don't want nobody looking at my toes, so why don't want to get pedicures? Cause they always ask me about 'em. You don't cut off your toe because it looks funky. It's just part of the body. So the truth is that we are the body of Christ. We are the church. So then we have to answer this question. Why then is the church so divided? Why are there so many factions within the body of Christ? Why is there this rise of YouTubers that literally do nothing but attack the church all in the name of being righteous and vigilantes for righteousness?

But you're causing division, right? You're not addressing doctrinal issue. You're talking about personal preferences. That's why you have to be very careful who you're listening to because there's a lot of people out there that will cry heresy and it's not even heretical, right? It's just a matter of preference.

That's why there's such a rise in social media accounts that all they do is attack the ministries, people that are in the body of Christ. And this is no surprise, right? Because this is the work of the enemy, right?

Remember we've, we've talked about this all throughout the series, that when God created Adam and Eve placed him in the garden, right? Then Satan comes into the garden and he begins to do what caused the vision between Adam and Eve and God, and between Adam and Eve, it has always been the work of the enemy to cause division. That's literally his. He has caused division from the beginning. And here's, here's what the word divide does. Division is subtraction. H here's a definition for it. Divide to divide literally means to cut in half to separate, to take away from split or to remove from. The reason why Satan wants to cause you to be disconnected and to be divided and to be separated is because he knows if he can separate you, if he can disconnect you, then he can frustrate your purpose. The the ultimate cost of Adam and Eve being divided from each other and being divided from God was their purpose, was frustrated. Think about this. What did God say to Adam and Eve? Hey, because of this, you now have to be put out of the garden, out of where paradise, out of the perfect place that I have for you. When you have the vision in your life, it will frustrate the purpose that God has for your life. This is why you have to fight for your marriage because the enemy knows if he can divide you as a couple, he will frustrate the purpose that God has for both of you to accomplish

Iss, the work of the enemy to cause division. In fact, let's look at Titus chapter three, verse number nine. This is Paul. He's speaking now. He's writing the Titus. Is this what he says? But avoid foolish conver controversies, genealogies, dissensions, and quarrels about the law for their unprofitable and worthless. That right there is a key passage. How many of us have just walked away from a conversation that we realize is quarrelsome? Callum? First, Tim, as for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him, knowing that such a person is wared and sinful, he is self condemned.

Yo, that's strong language and that's not me saying that. That's the apostle Paul writing the Titus about people that are within the church causing division. He says, have nothing to do with this person. Okay, y'all want some more word? Come on. Somebody said, give me Old Testament. Give Old Testament. All right. Proverbs chapter six, proverb chapter six, first number 16 and 19. There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are abomination to him, hotty eyes, a lion tongue and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil. A false witness who breathes out lies and one who sows discord among brothers. Let's talk about Satan. So we talked about Satan in terms of the garden, correct? And we know that he caused division between humanity and divinity between Adam Eve and God. But prior to that, Satan, his very introduction to us, he was called Lucifer and he was an angel in heaven and some reason he decided to cause an insurrection in heaven. And when he did, the scripture talks about him being cast out of heaven, but as he was cast out of heaven, he took with him a third of the angels. So prior to Satan even being by our account on earth, he was causing division in heaven. This lets us know that division inherently is demonic. I'm just standing in the book, right? Yes. Division is demonic. This is why when you have somebody that's causing division, you have to really seek God because a person who is bent on division usually does not think clearly

Because they're being influenced. Now, there are some things that should divide us doctrinal things. When someone's teaching false doctrine or they're, they're going against the non-negotiables of the Christian faith, then yeah, we should be divided from that. It's called the wheat and the terror, right? It's the separation. There is separation within the body, so to speak, but when it's just, I don't like you, I don't like the way you comb your hair, I don't like the way he preaches, blah, blah, blah, blah. We shouldn't be having that in the body of Christ because God's will for us is to be in unity. And unity means to come together. Yes, right? It means to bring together this was God's plan from the very beginning. It is not good for man to be alone. So he creates eve, and then what does he do? He brings them together to be fruitful, multiply, replen, the earth to do it and have dominion. It is God's will for us to live in unity.

Why is it God's will for you to be connected? Because you cannot survive on your own. This is why the analogy of the church is the body, because of finger connected to the body is useful, but a finger that is disconnected from the body is not useful. Why? Because it's cut off from its source of life and strength. That's good. This is why it's important for you to be connected to the church, the body of Christ. So I want to give you three reasons to be connected to the church. If you're taking notes, three reasons to be connected to the church. Let's go back to Ephesians chapter four, verse number 11. Let's read this. And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the A evangelists, the shepherds and the teachers. Here we go to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.

Now you see this is compounding, right? It begins with equipping, then it goes to the work of ministry, and ultimately it builds up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So if you're taking notes, three reasons why you need to be connected to the church. Number one is to get equipped. To get equipped. God has given gifted the church with apostles, prophets, evangels, pastors, teachers. These are we. We also call them the fivefold ministry. Apostles not to be confused with the early apostles, the 12, and then adding Paul to it. They're set in stone. The apostles capitalized T the apostles are set. There will be no one else that measures into the apostles. There were a few things that were required for them to be actually called the apostles when they had to be called directly from Jesus.

They had to have seen him before his resurrection. They had to have seen him at his crucifixion and then seen him after his resurrection. So when we see them casting lots to replace Judas, Mathias is included. Why? Because he qualified. Paul was at it later. Now some people are like, well, Paul wasn't with the 12. That's correct. But Paul was called directly by Jesus on his road to Damascus. And the other apostles, the original 12, agreed that he was called directly by Jesus and acknowledged that he was an apostle. And they did that by extending the right hand, a fellowship for all you Bible nerds. But apostles, the word apostles literally just means missionary. It means someone who goes to build and then they usually go somewhere else. So we're talking like a church planter or someone that goes through the foreign mission field. There are people that go, they build a church, they help start a church, and then they go on to something else or they go on to build another church.

And then there are the apostles, the prophets. The prophets are simply those who speak the word of God. To prophesy means to bubble for it. It means to literally speak the word of God. And then we have the evangelists, and that's pretty self-explanatory. Those that are motivated toward evangelism, toward they have a burden to bring people into the house of God. They can evangelize Billy Graham, those that can go out and just literally pack out arenas and people come to know Christ. And then pastors, those are shepherds. Some translations of the Bible call 'em shepherds and shepherds have pastored the same thing. It literally means those that take care of the flock. And then teachers pretty self-explanatory, those who teach the word of God. Now, why is God given the fivefold ministry? Because the ministries are set into the church to help equip the saints for the work of ministry. The reason why we need to be connected to the church is because through the church, we get equipped for life. In fact, I believe that the reason, one of the big reasons why there's so many Christ of faith within the church today is because people are not getting equipped. They hear fluffy sermons, cotton candy, and then when the devil shows up. They trying to have a fight with the devil, with a water gun. Good. We come to the body of Christ to get strapped, to get ready for what warfare.

We get ready to go into battle. So when you come to the body of the reason why you got to be connected to the church is because when you're connected to the church, you will be equipped what to face, the challenges that life brings you. There's the gym that I work out at has these professional athletes that come in like n f l guys, m o b guys, people that are coming to train for the combine. And it's always funny because I'll be in there working out and then when they come I'm like, man, I guess I hadn't been working out that hard. I fight a different type of battle. You know what I'm saying? So they come in and they work out and they're getting ready for their training camps. They're getting ready to go compete in the combine, and they're getting ready. And here, here's what's important, because that time that they spend in the gym, those trainers are equipping them with what is necessary for the game. When the game starts, when the season starts, it is not the time to start beating on the sidelines. That's about it. I can go 10 max.

That's the wrong time. Have you ever seen a football game with workout equipment on the side? Hey man, give me, give me five with three 50. That's the wrong time. You need to get equipped before the game starts. The reason why you are part of the body of Christ is because you get equipped to face the challenges that life brings you. This is why it's so important to be a part of a church service on Sunday, the first day of the week. Yes. So that you are equipped for the rest of the week, right? The devil's coming for you on Monday. Somebody say You ain't that, right? So you come to be equipped. The second thing that we come to do, the reason why you need to be, I'm out of breath. How do you work out some more? Second thing, the reason why you need to be connected to church is to contribute the church. The body is not just about consumption, it's about contribution.

If my fingers are just there, I'm going to be upset. I need y'all to do something. Now I benefit from my fingers, right? The whole body benefits from this hand. The fact that I could pick up a piece of chicken and some cornbread, it does what takes care of my body.

Baked chicken, you know what I'm saying?

The thing is the body, the overall health of the body depends on the contribution of its members.

That’s the reason why there are so many unhealthy churches is because they haven't been equipped and they don't contribute. The reason why we are called to contribute is because God does not waste his gifts and talents. And when we refuse to contribute our gifts and talents and our treasures to the overall benefit of the body, we are wasting God's blessing. Wow. It's just called stewardship. Yes. Remember the story about the master who gives the talents, and then he comes back and he's like, Hey, what'd you do with it? One guy doubled it, the second guy doubled it. The third one's like, I didn't do anything with it because I thought you were harsh master, and I wanted to just preserve what you gave me. He lost what he had and it was given to the one who had the most. What's the lesson here? Contribute. Be a steward of what God's given you. Why? Because it benefits the body.

The entirety of the body, the body of Christ. When you use your gifts and talents to sing, to open a door to help somebody park, to serving a kid's ministry, to hug on somebody, to pray for someone, you are strengthening the body of Christ. And too many people nowadays think that the work of ministry is the job of the ministers, but not according to the scripture. All of us are called to what? Do the work of ministry. You can go visit somebody in the hospital, you can speak encouragement to somebody, you can pray for somebody, you can counsel somebody, you can mentor somebody. God has given you those gifts to use for the benefit of the body. Here's the third thing, here's the third reason why we should be a part of the body. Christ. Actually, before we get there, let me give you one biblical example of contribution.

Y'all remember the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 to two fish and five loaves bread. It says 5,000 men. So there was probably approximately 15 to 25,000 people. And we always read that story and we go, man, Jesus boy, he fed all them, but in reality he didn't. Literally, he broke the bread, he blessed it and he gave to the disciples who distributed it. So really the ones that worked the miracle were the disciples. Mainly. Think about this, how long would it have taken Jesus if he was the only one pastoring out bread and fish? Have y'all ever been to a buffet?

Some of y'all like now I'm past that. I'm single meals only one plate. You ever been to buffet or church potluck? You know, get in line. And the reason why it takes so long is because you get caught behind somebody that's being uber picky. It's a buffet. We know you're not picky, but you know, get to somebody and they're like, nah, I like the end piece of the fish. I like the middle part of the bread. No, Jesus, I thank you, but I don't like the ends. I like the middle parts. Can you take the crust out? It would've taken forever. So what does Jesus do? Jesus commands his disciples to put the people and companies of fifties and hundreds. Then he gives the bread and the fish to the disciples, and the disciples did the work of ministry by distributing what Jesus gave to them. And when it was all said and done, there were 12 baskets remain with fragments. Now, this is just conjecture. This is not biblical, but could it be that Jesus was like, if you give what I gave you, by the end of it, you'll have a lot for you. Wow.

Here's the third reason why you should be connected to the body of Christ, and that is to grow. To grow because the scripture says that we all should do this. Why? So that the whole body shall grow up. There's a word called edification, right to edify the body. The word edification means to be built up. It means means parts coming together to build up. Think about a house for instance. If you've ever been at a new housing development, they come in, they build the roads, they've already run all the pipes, and then what happens? You have the concrete guys that come out, right? First you get the excavation, right? They create the plot where you're going to pour the concrete. Then the concrete comes and it gets poured, and then they drop off piles of wood, and then they drop off piles of sheet rock and they have nails, and they have all these building materials.

And the truth is, if you see a pile of wood, it does nothing for you. It's simply a pile of wood. But if you connect the wood to the foundation and connect the sheetrock to the wood and you put the roof on, now it becomes a habitation for somebody to dwell in. The same is true of the body of Christ, the church. When we all come together, we create, we edify, we create an edifice, a building, a habitation for the Holy Spirit to dwell within. This is why when there are factions and divisions within the body of Christ, the Holy Spirit can't dwell there in why? Because piles of wood and concrete and sheetrock by themselves do not create a habitation. But when all of it comes together, it creates a habitation for the spirit of God to dwell. That's why when you have unity, you have power.

That's why when you have unity, you have grace. Yeah. That's why when you have unity, you have love. Yeah. That's why when you have unity, you have revival. Why? Because when the body is ed of five, the Holy Spirit can work in every room, in the master bedroom, in the living room. The Holy Spirit can move throughout the house when the body is united. This is why you cannot be disconnected from the church. There is no such thing as I love God, I just can't stand the church. No, there's just certain people that you don't like. It's like going to a restaurant and getting food poisoning and being like, I hate all restaurants, but I love food. No, you just don't like that place, so don't go back there, find you a different restaurant. When Janese and I went to Sri Lanka, we went there for six months to serve as missionaries. We decided to go be adventurous and go eat some street food now. So we go to this place, it's called Gall and and we're walking around and we see all this food and the food looks delicious, and so we order some chicken, a couple other things, we eat it, and Janese gets incredibly sick. I'm talking, doesn't come out the apartment for I think two weeks in bed for five days. Literally lost all kinds of weight. Food was terrible. We talked to our family members there, there and we're like, yeah, we went and ate years of sickness. Hey, listen, the locals don't even go eat there.

And then I got to thinking about it and I said, you know what? The guy who was the cook was sharpening his knife on the curb of the street. That should have been the number one clue was something bad was going to happen, but as sick as Janese got, she didn't say, you know what? I'm never eating again. We just ate at a different place. You can't make an inference about the entirety of the church because you've had a bad experience with a few people. Just don't go hang out with those people because the Bible talks about that we grow when every joint supplies. What does that mean? The position who you're joint to says a lot about what you receive. And the reason why so many people feel out of place or disconnected is they're joined at the wrong joint. A thumb connected to the foot is no use. Why? Because it's disjointed. So what do I need to do? I need to take and get joined at the right place because when I'm joined at the right place, I know my purpose. I'm receiving what I need and I'm contributing what I need to

Get in where you fit in. That's the name of the game and the body of Christ. Get in where you fit in. If you are frustrated serving out the door, try the parking lot. If you're like, man, the parking lot's, not my jam. Get into guest central. Well, that's just my thing. Get in the kids' ministry, but be connected to the body so that you can get equipped, contribute and grow. I want to read one passage and we're going to end with this. First Corinthians chapter 12, verse number 12. This Paul writing to the church of Corinth, which has all kinds of issues for just as the body is one and has many members and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. Now, I'm going to read this passage and I'm going to replace the word body with the word church for just as the church is one and has many members and all the members of the church, though many are one church, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit, we were all baptized into one church. Jews and Greeks, slaves and free and all were made to drink of one spirit. For the church does not consist of one member, but many.

If the foot should say, because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the church, that would not make it any less a part of the church. And if the ear should say, because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the church, that would not make it any less a part of the church. If the whole church were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing and if the whole church were an ear, where would be the sense of smell, but as it is, God arranged that the members of the church, each one of them as he chose, if all were a single member, where would the church be

If all were disconnected? Where would the church be as it is? There are many parts yet one church, I cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you, nor again, the head to defeat. I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts of the church that seem to be weaker, are indispensable, and on those parts of the church that we think less honorable, we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the church, giving greater honor to the parts, to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the church, 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. Now you somebody say me, now you are the church of Christ and individually members of it and God has appointed in the church, first apostle, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping administrating and various kinds of tongues.

Are all apostles or all prophets or all teachers do all work miracles, do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues, do all interpret, but earnestly desire the higher gifts, and I will show you a still more excellent way. Do you see here? Yes, the importance of being connected to the church. Why? Because God has distributed within the church, within the body of Christ. You as a member, he's given you gifts to do what? To build up the body of Christ. We need you. Yes, you need us. We all need each other to grow and do what God has called us to do. This is the beauty of the day of Pentecost because when the Holy Spirit was poured out, it was poured out on all who would receive it? No longer was it just attributed to the juice? No longer was it just available to certain people, but now anyone who believed received. This is why in Acts two it says that there were people from everywhere gathered together and they saw the Holy Spirit poured out on those that they didn't think would receive it. When you receive salvation in the gift of the Holy Spirit, you now become a member of the church. You can't separate yourself. You're a member. Now the question is what are you doing with your membership? Heaven, follow me. Thank you so much for placing us into your body to be a part of the church. We are so thankful for the church. I'm thankful God that you've connected me into this body. I'm thankful for the gifts that are in operation. I'm thankful for the call, Lord God, to be connected. I pray, Lord, that we would be equipped, that we would contribute, and that we would grow as part of what you've called us to do. We give your name all the praise, all the glory and honor in Jesus name, amen.