Well, let's open up our Bibles to 1 Corinthians. I'm sure you guys are already there. Let me open up my Bible. And I'm going to start reading from verse 12 down to verse 31. And it says, "For even as the body is one, and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ.

And by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot says, 'Because I'm not a hand, I'm not part of the body,' it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.

And if the ear says, 'Because I'm not an eye, I'm not a part of the body,' it is not for this reason any less, any the less, a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be?

But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. If they were all one member, where would the body be? But now there are many members, but one body, and the eye cannot say to the hand, 'I have no need of you,' or again the head to the feet, 'I have no need of you.' On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

And those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable. Whereas our more presentable members have no need of it, but God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ's body and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.

All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have the gifts of healing, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they? But earnestly desire the greater gifts, and I show you a still more excellent way.

All right. Well, let's take a look at our packet. And I asked this question, what do we know from the immediate context so far? Okay? And the reason why I asked that is because we started chapter 12, but it was two weeks ago, three weeks ago. And so we need a quick refresher.

If you would glance over at chapter 12, verses one through 11, we started this conversation of spiritual gifts there. And I want to highlight to the fact that chapter 12 all the way to chapter 14, that entire section deals with the gifts of the spirit, spiritual gifts. Okay? And what's very interesting is as he starts to talk about them, you can deduce the various problems that are taking place within the church.

And so in the current context, we know there is confusion. We know there is confusion. There's confusion in the worship place, there's confusion in the church, and there's confusion about the spiritual gifts. So in chapter 12, verses one through 11, Apostle Paul describes the various character traits of the gifts, and he lists the various gifts that exist.

Okay? And in so doing, he's going to give the nature of the gifts, but one of the main things that I highlighted to you as a way of review in the last Bible study is the fact that Apostle Paul emphasized what is the source of these gifts. Okay? What is the source of these gifts?

So if you look at basically almost all the verses, it contains certain phrases that are repeated again and again and again. For example, starting from verse four, "There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God." So what you have there is a trinity, the Spirit, the Lord, and God, who are the source of the spiritual gifts to the church.

Okay? So in so laying down the spiritual gifts, the nature, and the source of it, Apostle Paul in the last time gave a command to the church that these spiritual gifts really were meant to reveal the Spirit's power, and they were to be used for the common good of the church.

Okay? Now, what we pick up in verse 12, what we pick up in verse 12 is he's going to start to talk about the nature of the church itself. So he's began talking about the spiritual gifts, but now he's going to start talking about the nature of the gifts themselves.

Oh, sorry, the nature of the church. Okay? The nature of the church. And as he's talking about the church, he describes it as one unified body, or unified in one body is what I wrote it. Okay? Now, as we take a look at this, let's take a look at verse 12.

It says, "For even as the body is one, and yet as many members, all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ." I'm going to ask you what seems to be an obvious question, but it's a trick question. What is the emphasis of verse 12?

Come on, brave soul. Raise your hand and answer the question. Any volunteers? Remember, I am not scary. And I don't like, if you volunteer and you put your, you know, you risk it, I'm not going to hurt you. I lay you down easy. Yes. One body, many members. Okay, good.

One body, many members. A lot of times you look at this whole section, and chapter 12 has been most frequently preached as like, "We got to be one!" You know? "We got to be united!" And that's typically with, you know, umph and passion, what a preacher would teach this passage as.

But the fact of the matter is, he's not just emphasizing one half of that picture. He's emphasizing both the aspect of unity and the variety, that there are many. Okay? There is unity and there are the variety. And so he uses the analogy or the metaphor of the body.

And I think that's something really important to highlight. Okay? So as I asked the question there, "What abstract truth is Paul highlighting with the church and the body analogy?" You guys can jot those two things in, that there's unified, and yet there are many pieces. But here's the more important question as we think about that.

He's emphasizing this point with the metaphor, you know? But what are the implications? What are the implications of this truth? And I want to ask you guys to take a moment to think about that. And I had you guys think about it in your discussion groups. Right? Oh. I didn't.

All right. Take time to think about it right now. Okay? In thinking about the fact that, okay, the church, okay, and talking about the nature of the church, we are to be united, we are to be together, one spirit and whatnot, but we are many members. And that truth he's highlighting with the analogy of the body.

So if we are truly like a body, what are some of the implications you can draw from that? Just throw them out there. Excellent. Okay? Let's write some of these down underneath that section. Every body part has a different function. And that functionality is important because we literally have a role to play.

Okay? And that's how he describes it later in the passage. And that's an emphatic point. Does not a part of your body have a certain, you know, purpose to it in which it's supposed to be for smell, for sight, for taste and whatnot. Okay? What are some other implications?

I feel like you want to say something. Just do it. Compliment each other. That's absolutely right. If you guys have ever hurt one leg, you know that after hurting one leg, the other one's going to start hurting too because you need both. You overcompensate and whatnot. Right? So there's a sense in which, you know, every piece of the body is necessary because together they work in tandem.

You know, in tandem. They compensate for one another. So that's another important implication. I just want a couple more and I'm going to make a point with it. Okay? Yes. Okay. Every part is important. Right? So there's a sense in which you could think that, I don't know, some parts of the body are like insignificant.

What it's like. And typically, I'm not in the medical field so I don't know a whole lot, but a lot of people think the appendix or whatever, you know. But recently they said, "Hey, there is actually a purpose to this." And then if I can use another example, just for this study, I Googled importance of the thumb.

Okay? If you get super bored, it's actually a really interesting thing you could do. Just go to Google and just type in importance of the thumb. It's really crazy just thinking about your little short stubby thumb. Alright? That if you did not have this thumb, like, there's so many different tasks, so many different functions you could not do.

And I love that. And I'm going to use that one of these days. One of these days if you guys get really discouraged and I'm going to be like, "You're so important to the church." You're like, "My thumb." You might be short, you might be stout compared to the rest.

I'm short and stout so I can say that, right? But you're super important. Because it's absolutely true. Okay? Now, the reason why I say this is because he's going to use this analogy to teach the entire congregation that whatever problems they're having, whatever issues they're having with even spiritual gifts, he's going to use this analogy to prove them wrong.

He's going to use this analogy to say, "This is how God expects you to be." So it's good for us to think through all the implications and to see this. What's more, this analogy most closely connects us with Christ our Lord. Here's an interesting part of verse 12 that I think we should pay attention to.

If you look at verse 12, it reads, "For even as the body is one and yet has many members, all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body. So also is Christ." Okay? Typically, it goes the other way. Jesus is like this, so also should you, right?

Typically, it goes, Jesus is this character trait, Jesus is like this, and so you should emulate, you should imitate. But what's really interesting is he highlights this analogy of the body and says, "So is Christ." Whoa, here's a question for you. What do you think he's saying by that?

Yes. Whoa, wait, sorry. It's okay. I'm just kidding. I just want to make you sweat. Good. So, this aspect of it is contained in, I think, what Apostle Paul's getting at. Reason why is because this passage actually is, that little segment is so brief that a lot of people have a lot of questions about it, but you're right.

If we were to think about the harmony and the unity that exists, we'd first think of the Trinity. And what's more, when we talk about husband and wife and that unity, we talk about the Trinity because there's that unity that we basically aspire to, the perfect harmony within the Godhead.

Right? Okay. And so, you're absolutely right. That has a lot to do with it because there is this question of, in what way is his concept of Christ connecting with his concept of many but one? Right? Many but one. And what I would like for you guys to just kind of jot down is, there is a theological concept that's really deep and profound, which is union with Christ.

Union with Christ. Okay? And if you ever get a chance to dig deeper into that theological topic, do it. It's going to be glorious. You're going to realize there is this supernatural, God-given miracle to his people in which by his power, and only his power, can he make you one with Christ.

Can he make the church, the entire church, one with the Lord. Okay? And in that sense, I think that's why he's talking about, "So also is Christ." Remember that Jesus is the one who taught in John 15, five, "He who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing." And so, the nature of the church, the nature of Christ, the nature of our relationship with God, there is this supernatural union. Okay? Supernatural union. And I think that's something important to think about. And because it's getting closer and closer to Thanksgiving, today I'm going to highlight, as we go and study the passage, a couple things that we should super-duper really be thankful for.

Okay? Let's be thankful for the union with Christ. I want you guys to just take a moment to think about that. You know? I appreciate when people are there for me. Like, I have people to lean on when I'm just dead tired. I appreciate, like, a lot of the people that I serve with.

I appreciate that sometimes I feel like, out of all my seminary buddies and the pastoral buddies, I feel like I have the greatest support system ever. I've got elders, Pastor Peter, the church, the deacons, the people I serve with in our different ministries and stuff, and I just feel super-supported.

Okay? Now, the reason why I talk about that is because there's a difference between somebody being with you, somebody supporting you, somebody seldomly checking up on you, asking you a good question, as opposed to somebody who is one with you. As opposed to somebody who is above and beyond just with you, but in you, and you are in Him.

You see what I'm saying? That God's presence with us is so much above and beyond what we experience and are encouraged by. Let's thank God for that. That is a mystery of the gospel, mystery of the Christian truth, that we should really be thankful for. That's something done in the power of God.

Okay? So, again, highlighting this idea, Jesus identifies Himself with the church, with the believers. Not in such a way with, like, "Yeah, I'm attached to that guy." No, like, He identifies Himself in such a way where, in verse 12, it's analogous. That the church is literally Him, the expression of His body, right?

And that the church, as having Christ as its head, literally is identified, wrapped up in Christ. That's something beautiful. Alright? Okay. Any questions about verse 12 so far? Alright, let's move forward. When we look at verse 13, it continues this idea. It says, "For by one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." Here and now, here and now, He starts to highlight the unity.

Okay? He starts to highlight the unity. Because remember, verse 12 served as kind of like an intro, and He says, "The emphasis is both, unity and variety." Unity and diversity. Okay? So here in verse 13, He's highlighting the unity aspect of it. And for us, I just want for us to think about that.

Because what He's highlighting here is, one Spirit, one baptism. One Spirit, one baptism. Okay? And in this, I just want us to think for a moment. The concept of solidarity. How many of you guys are from UC Irvine? A bunch. We have no school spirit. Other schools have a lot of school spirit.

How many of you guys from like LA? SC! Woo! Okay. Case in point. Whoa, whoa, whoa. All right. All right. You guys can just duke it out in the parking lot later. My point exactly is, we had like 30 people raise their hand, but it was silent. Okay? We had like four people raise their hand, and it was loud.

The idea is, there's a solidarity just from where you went to school. Okay? And obviously, we have solidarity with different stuff. We have solidarity because we experience the same sufferings. Why do like, I don't know, guys who went to training, like military training together, have such a bond? They shared experience.

We have solidarity because of skin color. Like ethnicity. Okay? If you have like, you know, Asian pride, if you have, why are you guys all laughing? What? I'm not going to make any racist comments. Don't be on edge, right? Just calm down. Okay. We sometimes... Thanks, Eric. But, you know, people do have solidarity based on ethnicity.

And you know what? Although, yeah, we're against racism and all that kind of stuff. I mean, people are okay with the fact that sometimes, yeah, if you're from Taiwan, you're like, yeah, Taiwan pride. Or if you're from a certain background, you say, yeah. That's solidarity. Okay? And then, there are deeper ties than that.

Deeper ties than that. And the deeper ties are things like blood. I love getting introduced to the Brazilian culture through my wife because that culture will do anything for family. They will just drop whatever. So we get a call Sunday night. It's been like, you know, Sundays are really tiring.

We're dead tired or whatever. Last minute. Hey, come up to LA. We're having dinner. I'm like, I'm not going to LA, dude. I hate LA, you know? Sorry for those of you guys who said you're from LA. But I really don't like LA because my personality is I like it calm and I don't like the bustle of the city.

I hate the traffic. I don't want to drive over there. But Bia's like, let's go. I'm like, what the heck? But then I show up and there's like 40 people there. The Brazilian culture is very much like anything for family. It's if they need money, if they need a place to crash, if they need food, whatever it is, just drop it and go do it for your family.

Okay. And I kind of envy that because I felt like maybe it's just my family, but we didn't have that kind of solidarity as a family. If even if you're a cousin, like a distant cousin, certain cultures will fight for you. Certain cultures back when I was in high school, you just don't mess with certain cultures because he'll get his brothers, his cousins, his nephews and everybody.

Right. That's just the way it is. Okay. So I want to talk about that because there are certain ties that make you just have solidarity. Here he's highlighting the fact that not only do you have a shared experience of being baptized by Jesus himself, you were dunked in the Holy Spirit, right?

But now you have in you the spirit living in you. So that's even deeper than blood. So now you don't even have just a blood tie. You have a spiritual tie identifying who you are. There should be a sense of unity above and beyond any other superficial thing on this earth.

Whatever school experience, hardship you went through, yeah, that can build a sense of solidarity. But shared experience of being saved from the wrath of God, right? Shared bloodline where we're co-heirs with Christ. Shared nature. If we're talking about unity, that spiritual aspect of what he's talking about should bring us so close together that we should be one.

Right? That we should be one. And so obviously we know that that doesn't just come naturally in the sense that it doesn't come easy. Okay? It doesn't come easy. But that's exactly what the Lord desires of us. Here's some cross references for you guys in Galatians chapter three, verse 26 through 27.

He says, "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ." And then Ephesians four, four through six, "There is one body and one spirit just as also you were called and one hope of your calling.

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all." Right? So think about that. How much he's emphasizing this fact that we should have this kind of unity. And I just want to again take a moment to get God thanks as we think about that kind of stuff.

I just mentioned that we have both shared experience, shared identity, shared bloodline. Now, as I was reading one of the commentators, it made me stop because he said, "God has given us the absolute best to which there is no more for him to give." It's an interesting statement. It's an interesting statement.

And I want you guys to think about that for a moment and see if that sits okay with you, if you have any issues with that. If that strikes you as weird or wrong and why. Okay? There's a statement, "God has nothing better to give us. He's given us his best." What do you guys think?

Correct statement, incorrect statement, and why? So I wanted to use that point as a means of giving thanks to God. And then, obviously I'm making a kind of a tricky question about, is this statement right or wrong? "God has nothing better to give us." But I want to use this opportunity to say, when we think about that which unites us, it's simply the person of God indwelling us, right?

And there's a sense to which, yeah, God is already ours and he's left his presence in us. And this truth that God is in us, that he's so close to us, and this truth that what he's given is himself, there's a huge sense in which the answer is yes.

But he has an inheritance to give us, yes, but he's given us already what's best. But he has heaven to give us, yes. He has immortality to give us, yes. But there's a supreme truth to which he's already given us what's best, his spirit that unites us, right? And so that statement, I kind of glossed over initially, but then it made me stop when I read it in the commentary.

I was like, "Dude, this guy has deep insight into the spiritual reality of the fact God has given us his spirit, okay? God has given us his spirit." So let's really make sure to give thanks to God for those things. All right. So that being done, verses 12 to 13, okay, emphasizing both the unity and diversity, and verse 13 emphasizing the type of unity we should have in the spirit.

Let's move forward. Verse 14 through 17. Can I have, let's see, Mitchell, since you're right in front of me, can you read out loud verse 14 through 17 for us? "For the body is not one member but many. If the foot says, 'Because I'm not a hand, I'm not a part of the body,' it is not for this reason any less a part of the body.

And if the ear says, 'Because I'm not an eye, I'm not a part of the body,' it is not for this reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? The whole we're hearing, where would the sense of smell be?" Okay, thank you.

All right. So as you look at that, now as he's already talked about the unity, he is talking about the diversified body, right? I call it the diversely unified body, okay? In this passage, another commentary said an interesting statement. He says, "The Corinthian church was divided where it should have been united and tried to be uniform where it should have been diverse." And there's one way to which the attitude of looking at the diversity was wrong.

Can you guys just, it's kind of obvious in the text, but can you guys identify what is the problem or the error in thinking about spiritual gifts in the Corinthian church? How about, pick on Jen, John. Okay, so what's the problem in the church? When you look at that, what can you deduce about the error of their thinking?

That either they're putting certain gifts above others, and they're not this, they're not that. They're thinking of themselves. Okay. Yeah, good. So it's just kind of this thinking of, he says, well, they're trying to start, they started to stack different gifts, you know, tier it up, and then if you were on the bottom, you're like, "Nah, I'm not that important.

I'm like a half member, pseudo member. I don't have much to offer. Boo hoo, woe is me, nobody needs me. I'm going to be out of here." Right? It's this kind of self-pity attitude of like, "I don't have this, and I'm not eloquent as this guy." And to tell you truthfully, honestly, I'm like that.

So I get really convicted by this passage. Okay. But here's the problem with that kind of thinking, you know, is even though we're grown adults, sometimes we throw pity parties. I'm only a foot, you know, I'm not even a thumb, I'm like the toe, you know. Or some kind of other pity parties is like, "I can't do what they do," you know.

Or they start to, through their rationale, not only say that they're like insignificant, they start to demean their value, and so they say, "And so I don't belong." I mean, that's the judgment that's bad, right? It's not so much that, "Oh, like identifying that I don't have skill," because reality is some of us aren't as skilled as others.

Reality is we all don't have same gifts. Reality is some gifts are bigger, some gifts are smaller, some gifts are more pronounced, you know, more noticeable, perhaps in humanistic sense, it's more glorious or whatnot, it's more performance-oriented. So the truth of the matter is there is a difference of gifts.

But then the judgment, that's where it went all sour. "I don't belong." Now, my question to you is, what would be the ramification if we allowed people to think like that? Because I only have this, I don't belong. What would be the consequence maybe of you thinking like that?

Okay, excellent. Just throw them out. This isn't a question that doesn't have wrong or right answers, but you're absolutely right. I think one of the results of that is you're not serving as you ought to. God gave us a commission for the church, he gave us responsibility in the church, and just because you say, "I don't have enough, so I'm not going to do it," that's you ditching your responsibility.

So yes, it's true that sometimes people are discouraged, so we don't want to be more heavy on them, but the reality is, yeah, if you're so discouraged, you're not doing even the small things you're responsible for, or that you could do, that's ditching your responsibility. What else? Oh yes, Michael?

I sit here, in your eyes, you would elevate people above their station. Okay. Yeah, I absolutely agree. So he was saying you'd elevate other people. The whole paradigm kind of hurts the church, where you elevate other people who you think are, "Oh, they're so cool," you know? "Oh, they're so awesome," and stuff.

And I think when the church paradigm starts to do that, when you start having this hierarchy, when you start having this, it's just a bad paradigm to have for the church. And I think there's a sense in which, yeah, there's churches that can do that. I mean, even our church could be susceptible of doing that.

If you raise certain people because of their performance, you don't value them based on their true spiritual character, but because of their gifts. And you start to evaluate who's valuable, who's more worthy, who should receive more honor based on their contribution and production for the church. I mean, what have we become then?

And on the flip side of that, yeah, then what you feel is now even projected on the other people who feel like that, who think, "I am only a half member. I'm not really valuable here." And just, that kind of upsets me, you know? Because I remember there was a, I don't know if I've ever told this story, but I went with my dad to his church, and his church was highly charismatic in the practicing of gifts and stuff, and I'm not going to go into that here now.

But one of the things that happened was they were trying to get everybody to do a certain gift, speaking in tongues, namely. And one of the pastors was going around trying to impart this gift onto other people. And he came to my dad, and my dad was praying, and then he started to lay his hand on my dad and started to pray all fervently, and I was just kind of watching this thing.

And then I was just confused because I was younger, and I was just like, "What's this guy doing?" And then this guy started really trying, so he started shaking my dad's head, he grabbed my dad's arms, he raised him up, and he started doing all this stuff, but my dad couldn't do it.

And I said, "Okay, it's kind of time for you to move on." At the end of the service, my dad and I were driving back home, and my dad looked all sad, all dejected, and he said, "I just couldn't do it. I guess the Spirit wasn't with me, and I just almost flipped a lid." I was like, "Shame on the church that makes a man feel like he's insignificant or doesn't have the Spirit because he couldn't say stuff." You know what I mean?

But you're right, if you function in that paradigm, then you create a culture of that paradigm where people are assessed and your spirituality is assessed simply by your production and performance. What's our other ramifications if you allow people to think this way? Exclusion. Good. Exclusion in the church. So you can see that there's a lot of bad ramifications.

Another one I want to highlight is continued arrogance. So a big part of the reason I say continued is remember the big problem in the Church of Corinth was their pride. From the beginning it was, "I'm with this leader. I'm with that leader." From the beginning it was, "I want to be here.

I want to be there." It was this trying to one-up each other. But in the end, even though they're having a pity party, that too can be because of pride. "I want it to be like this, but I'm like this, so forget it." It's not just discouragement. Sometimes underneath all that could be arrogance inside, and that's just as dangerous.

Here's another thing. You go against the design of God, and this is the biggest thing. You go against the directive of God. You're not just simply being disruptive to the church. You're not simply being disruptive to your own growth because of your arrogance, but you can be disruptive to the plan of the Lord, which God will not allow.

Because if you look at the passage, there are various points to which it describes that God is the one at work in the church giving these spiritual gifts. Take for example verse 18, "But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body just as he desired." Whoa, did you ever think about that?

I'm not going to get all mystical and be like, "The Lord has a wonderful plan for you, and you were here because of the sovereign will of God, and don't you ever leave." I'm not going to say that. You're like, "You guys can't ever leave because God placed you here, and you're now forever lifers." That's not true.

But this passage is so clear, explicit. God is the one who builds the church. So I can say this much, God has sovereignly brought you here. God has blessed this church with you. And I think that's something to be cherished. I think that's something to be accepted. I think that's something to be recognized, and then obeyed.

To have the kind of attitude that they have, I think you can call that also perhaps disobedience. So I would like to take a moment to thank God. Let's take another moment to thank God. Think about this. I mean, that God is intricately placing us in the church. He's providing and blessing the church with the church.

You know what I mean? And as I think about that, it's like, "Man, thank you, God. Thank you that you created us." And then we were decaying, sinful, fallen people, but you resurrected us in Christ, and then you built us up, and then you placed us in the church, and then you equipped us, and you commissioned us, and then you thought us worthy enough to carry out your purpose and plan in the church.

Thank you, God. That's pretty crazy stuff if you think about it. But again, just kind of summarizing that point, the church is unified and diversified, and to go against the kind of diversity that God has ordained in the church, that would be going against the plan and design of the Lord.

Next passage. Next passage. Let's take a look at verse 20 through 27. If I could have ... Chris, can you read that? "As it is, there are many parts to that one body that I cannot see in the head. But God has so composed his body, that it is greater honor to depart that body, as there may be no division of body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

If one member suffers, all suffer together. If one member is honored, all enjoy together." 27. Yeah, just read 27 too. "But you are a body of Christ, and a division of members of it." Excellent, thank you. So, if you guys get ... I think the thrust of the application for this is a perspective.

Remember I was saying that this body analogy is so important, that emphatic verse 27, "Now you are Christ's body, and individually members of it," that's a perspective he's teaching you. The application is going to go forth from that, but that's a perspective he is teaching you. And the way that I would like for us to think about it is, mutual dependence.

We're mutually dependent on each other. Think about this body. For the individual who thought, "I'm not a part of the body," well listen, if you cut off a piece of the body, what happens to that piece? Does it become another body? You know? Is it like one of those mutants where you cut it off and it's like bloop, and then it becomes another person?

No, it dies. It needs the body. But furthermore, when the body loses its limb, is it going to be the same? No. That body needs the member. That's mutually dependent. Okay? "You are Christ's body, and all individual members of it." So, he starts talking about this whole idea of, "Hey, if you have this second bad attitude, you know, I don't need you.

You're just a foot. And you're all arrogant, and you think you have sufficient enough gifts to sustain your body by yourself. You're just blind." Okay? "You're just blind." He says, "No, you need each other." And then there's a repeated question. Do you notice the repeated question? What's the repeated question that he keeps asking as he's trying to teach them about this body analogy?

Anyone? There's this question where he asks, "Where would the body be?" Right? He asks this question, like, "Hey, where would be the sense of smell? Where would be the sense of sight?" That's individual member. And then he asks, "Where would the body be?" Think about the impact it has.

Right? Think about the impact it has on the whole congregation, on the whole body. And so, the whole idea here is, I think, in this relationship, there is this mutual dependence. And I love when he gets more specific in terms of the relationships in the church. And if you start looking at verse 25 and 26, this is what it says, "So that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. If one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it." I think that's awesome. It's such a good goal to strive for. It's something really to think about, you know, that we absolutely need each other, you know, that we absolutely need each other.

That to have a perspective where there's a sense to which, yeah, let's say there was somebody who was being really problematic in the church. Somebody who was creating a rift. Somebody who was hard to deal with. Somebody who just made church life hard. I'm not looking at any one of you, I'm just looking at the ceiling.

Typically speaking, our natural humanistic response would be, it'd be so much easier if they just were not here. But we can't have that attitude. We can't have that attitude, right? And if you think about this, I just want to ask you to think about, isn't that a beautiful picture to be able to hurt together, be honored together, and rejoice together?

And then think about this, think about the kind of investment and the perspective it would take for us to do that with each other. That's the kind of stuff like lifelong friends say to each other. After having invested everything, overcome each other's annoyances, been frustrated with each other, forgiven each other, reconciled, and lived long together, and said, "I hurt with you, I feel you." You know what I mean?

But realize that that's what God is striving for in the church. And I hope that we can all buy into that perspective. This church community is so important that I literally need these people. And not to boast or whatever, but they need me. I need to serve, I need to be here, I need to be engaged, I need to be present.

I think that's the kind of perspective that the Lord would desire of us. And then moving forward, moving forward, in verse 30 and 31, he says, he starts asking, you know, that, or he teaches that more specifically in the church, so moving away from the body analogy, in the church, God has appointed and designed that there would be all these different gifts.

And he says not every single person does all these gifts, and neither does everybody do one gift. And then he starts asking various questions, and then in verse 31 he says, "But earnestly desire the greater gifts, and I show you still more," wait, what? I show you a still more excellent way.

Sorry, I skipped an article and then I started reading funny. Verse 31, focusing on verse 31, I want to ask you guys, what is the command here? What are the greater gifts? What is the more excellent way? What do you guys think? One more time? Gifts that do more to build a church.

Good. Other things? Other ideas? Yes. I love it when you volunteer your friend. Love? Okay, excellent. Good. I hope you guys can meditate and think about this for a moment, you know. Yes, to both the sisters who answered, chapter 13 he's going to start talking about love, right? And not only that, but there are these many, many gifts that Apostle Paul just listed, and then he starts talking about there is this greater way, a more excellent path.

And yes, perhaps he's talking about harmony and love. Perhaps he's talking about the kind of gifts that create what he just is envisioning. The kind of gifts that strive to build that body of Christ that's so connected, where each person is doing their work, each person is fulfilling their role, but they're all joined together, not seeing themselves as any better than the rest, but constantly giving each other greater honor, right?

So anyway, you guys can keep thinking about that. Let's just wrap up with thinking about this. I just want to give an encouragement, you know. If you guys, you know, sometimes wonder, like, I don't know, like that sounds good, but I just don't even know what God's will is for me, you know.

Like I don't know what to do and stuff like that, but sometimes just having this paradigm and buying into this vision of I want to help build this church, I want to help build this community, a lot of times it comes from simply your own individual faith and worldview.

Your own individual faith and worldview is going to create a culture in this church. Your own individual faith and worldview and your paradigm is going to create a structure around you. It's going to create an environment, an aura around you, expectations you have, the way you value things. It's going to influence the relationships you have and every single one of you is going to have that kind of influence, at least to a pocket of the church, right?

So I hope you guys can buy into the vision that Apostle Paul is giving. I hope you guys can have that kind of perspective that he's trying to teach, because insofar as now what we've learned in this passage, he hasn't given a specific tangible thing, now go do this.

What he said is, you are the body of Christ, right? All right, let's take a moment to pray. Father God, we want to thank you so much for your grace. Lord, as we paused momentarily at different points tonight, we just realized sometimes, although we feel like you're far, God, you are so meticulously involved in our lives.

Thank you, God, that you're constantly building us up individually and that you're also building up the church. Thank you, God, that you are investing into your body. Father, we thank you, God, that you are also gifting us for your service. We pray, God, that we would be humble servants, desiring to carry out your purposes, to be about your business, to desire to see your kingdom come.

Father, we again want to thank you, and I pray that throughout the whole week we'd be encouraged and challenged, and Lord, that the words that we study tonight would reside with us, help us just not to be forgetful, but to retain the things that you would have us to learn.

We thank you, God, that the spirit is with us, and I pray for all of us that we would have strength for our work, our classes, our family lives, and God, that we would operate and abide by your strength. We thank you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.