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The story was told about a parrot who had a job working for a nightclub, and had been

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trained to tell saucy stories to those who came to that particular place of entertainment.

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One Saturday night there was a fire, and up there in the attic that parrot was able to

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find a hole to escape the fire.

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He went down the street about two blocks until he saw a big building that had a large high

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ceiling in it, and so he managed to find a way to get in there, and he roosted up there

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in that huge wooden archway in the high ceiling.

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What he didn't know was it was a Baptist church.

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And so Sunday morning came, and the parrot woke up with the sound of the organ, kind

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of forgotten what had happened.

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He looked down, and he saw the preacher behind the pulpit, and he said, Ah!

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New bartender!

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He saw the choir come in, and he said, Ah!

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New chorus girls!

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And then he looked over to the congregation, and he said, Ah!

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Same old crowd.

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We've been talking about what it means to be a part of the same old crowd the last couple

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of weeks, I hope not the same kind as the parrot was talking about.

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As we talk about the new you as members of the body, actually the Bible speaks of two

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bodies of Christ.

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Did you know that?

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There is the body of Christ that is physical, and when we think of the physical body of

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Christ, we think of Bethlehem, where our Lord was born.

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In that body, he possessed all of the gifts and the power that was needed that he might

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accomplish God's assigned purpose to him.

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That was to originate, to institute the gospel through his suffering for our sins, his death,

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and his resurrection from the dead.

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But then there is also the spiritual body of Christ mentioned in the New Testament.

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When we think of this body, we don't think so much of Bethlehem as Jerusalem, because

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it was at Jerusalem that this body originated with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the

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day of Pentecost.

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And in this body of Christ, too, there is the power, the gifts that are needed to fulfill

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its mission, which is the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to every creature

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in the world.

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As the Lord Jesus Christ represented God, the Father, personally, we, his spiritual

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body, represent God collectively or corporately.

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Our Lord had a mission in coming into the world, and we too have a mission as his spiritual

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body.

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It is that we might get the gospel to every person in our region and beyond, to every

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corner of the earth.

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All genuine Christians are described in the New Testament as members of the body.

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I want you to notice the plurality of that, members, with an S, members of the body.

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Because in this picture, the emphasis is upon what we are together, not so much what we

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are individually.

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An important aspect of this description, members of the body, is in this emphasis, the mutual

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relations that we have as members of the body.

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The theme I want us to explore this morning is that the new you is not only an addition

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to the body and an extension of the head, but the new you is also in connection with

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other members of the body.

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We are in connection with each other.

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There are a couple of ideas that flow out of that.

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One is that the body of Jesus Christ, of which we are members if we are Christians, is a

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unity with diversity.

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We see it in our text in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, which I invite you to turn once more today.

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We have looked at verses 12 and 13, but I want you to notice some earlier verses in

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the chapter as we think about the fact that the body is a unity in diversity.

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He says in verse 4, there are varieties of gifts of the same spirit.

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In other words, among us, there are many varieties of spiritual gifts, those special abilities

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that God gives to all of us Christians to serve him.

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Tremendous variety!

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The same spirit, though, who gives all of the gifts.

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He says there are varieties of ministries, diversity in the way we serve.

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Some serve up front, some serve in places where they are seldom noticed.

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Some serve within the walls of the church and its programs, others serve outside the

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walls of the church.

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Diversity of ministries, but it is the same Lord that we are serving.

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In verse 6 he says there are varieties of effects.

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That is, the results of what we do vary.

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It is the same God, however, who works in all of us, and to him be the glory for whatever

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effects he chooses to bring to pass.

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The body is a unity, it is one, and yet it is many, just like our physical bodies.

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We are one person, we have one body, and yet the body is composed of a variety of organs

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and extensions and members which perform different functions.

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The diversity in the body of Christ originates with the creative wisdom of God.

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In the first place he has made us different physically, and that causes some difference

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among us.

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There are some who are very energetic and have lots of strength and go 20 hours a day,

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and there are others of us who need 8 or 9 or 10 hours of sleep a night.

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Is that wrong or right?

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Well, it is not a value judgment, it is just a reality that we are made differently physically,

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and therefore there is diversity.

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God has also made us so that we have different personalities.

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Not everybody can have a wonderful personality like you.

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Some of us have to have obstinate personalities.

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No, not obstinate, different.

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We are all made differently.

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We see things differently.

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God has made us that way.

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That is good.

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God has also given us different gifts for spiritual abilities.

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I believe that each of us has a gift from God with which we are to serve him in this

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life and that that gift is really a custom blend of a variety of abilities.

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There may be a major one or two and then a number of minor ones, but God knowing just

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who we are and what our function is in the body gives us a gift that is custom blended

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so that we are special, each of us, in our diversity.

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God loves diversity.

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God has placed diversity throughout his creation.

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I have been watching a film called The Journey of Life, one of Moody Institute of Science

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films now on video.

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In that film they talk about the miracle of seeds.

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They talk about how many seeds, different kinds of seeds to plants there are in the

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world.

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One of the most interesting parts of the film describes the various ways God has created

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for seeds to be transported so that plants can reproduce.

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There are some seeds that are blown with the wind.

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Remember the seeds from the tree, the maple tree, isn't it?

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The little helicopter that goes down, you used to play with when you were a kid.

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That's one kind.

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Then there is the seed of the milkweed that is like cotton, it's light and fluffy and

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it just blows off with the wind currents.

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There are some seeds that are made to drop in the ground.

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There are some seeds that are actually made to be spat out, blown out of the pod.

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They describe one seed which pod builds up pressure inside.

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When the pressure gets great enough, it actually spits the seed out as far as 50 feet.

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That's God's creative genius.

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Then some seeds are made to be eaten by animals, but not digested.

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They can't be digested by animals.

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God made them that way.

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So they are passed through the animal and are dropped throughout the forest as the animals

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travel.

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There are some seeds that are made to be dropped into water and water carries them down the

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stream or actually to other continents.

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The coconut is an example of that.

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Improvisous to water.

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It can float for thousands of miles until it finally rolls up on some sandy beach on

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an island.

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God loves diversity and just as he has put it in his creation, God has put diversity

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in his church.

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We are a unity with diversity.

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There are some implications of this truth that I think are worth talking about.

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In the first place, we can relax about our God made differences.

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Some Christians are very worried that other Christians are not just like them.

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And some of them take it upon themselves to go and fix other people like that.

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They are fixers in the body of Christ and their goal is to fix other Christians so that

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those other Christians function and tick just like they do.

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Too bad because God hasn't made us to all function just the same.

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We need to rejoice in the diversity that God has given to us.

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Relax about that.

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So somebody else thinks differently or functions differently than you do in the body of Christ.

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Rejoice!

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Celebrate the difference.

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Now we are not talking about differences where there is sin.

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We are talking about differences in giftedness.

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We are talking about differences of perspective because of the way God has made us.

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This was illustrated to me a couple of weeks ago in an elders meeting when we discussed

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an issue about which there was a great deal of difference in opinion.

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What was fun is to sit there and watch the men respond almost inevitably from the perspective

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of what I would perceive their giftedness to be.

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Their difference was born out of the way God has gifted them.

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They think differently about things.

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And so we discussed with a lot of diverse opinions this certain issue all under the

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umbrella of oneness and unity.

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Things like that should not threaten us.

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We should indeed rejoice in them because God has made us that way.

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We are all diverse.

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We are many members though a part of one body and it is good for us to think about the implication

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of that because we are to guard that unity.

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The unity in the essentials.

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Not necessarily in the superficial things where there is exterior conformity.

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No, no.

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We are talking about the essentials that we believe.

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We are to guard that.

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We are to be jealous to preserve the unity of the Spirit.

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Letting the bond of peace, the seal of peace be unbroken in our church.

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A text from Ephesians 4 was read earlier this morning that gets right to that point.

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And it says that you and I preserve unity in the body by our character.

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That is how we do it.

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By being patient, forbearing, and humble, and loving, and so on.

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By being that way in our character and expressing it then we preserve the essential oneness

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of the body of Christ though we are diverse.

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Another implication is that when there has been disharmony we need to seek to bring that

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disharmony together to reconcile it.

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We need to seek to make the body of Christ healthy again.

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The body is a unity with diversity.

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The dynamic in a local church causes each church to have a distinct personality.

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We have had people who have come to our church from other churches and they say, oh we like

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your church but it is sure not like our church back home.

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Amen.

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That is right.

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We are not.

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We have had people go from here to other places and they write back and say, oh we just can't

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find a church like Grace Church here.

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That is true.

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There is only one Grace Church Roosevelt.

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It is the composite of who we are together.

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And because we are only here we can't be elsewhere.

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There is no other church like this one.

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Every church is distinct in its personality.

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That is just normal.

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That is part of the dynamic of the church of Jesus Christ.

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We also need to remember that the size of a church also affects its personality.

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It affects the way the church functions.

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What do you think of the median sized church in the United States?

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The median sized church in the United States.

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How many of you would say it would be around 200?

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That is a good guess.

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Wrong.

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Not a bad guess.

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Actually the median sized church is 75.

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What that means is that half of the churches in the United States are 75 or fewer.

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And half of them are 75 or more.

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I grew up in a church of 75.

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And while we were there the church went like this.

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But there were times when we ran 90 or 100.

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We were among the largest churches in America.

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We were over the median.

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But you know what?

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That church of 75 or 100 functions a whole lot different than a church of 500 or 1000.

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A church has a different personality depending upon its size.

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It has to function differently.

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Let me illustrate that a little bit.

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I think it might help some.

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In a small church everyone knows everything.

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Boy that was true in that rural church I grew up in.

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Whether or not you should have known it, you did.

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Everybody knew everything.

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So there was no problem with the lack of information.

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In a large church that's not true.

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In a large church there is absolutely too much happening for everybody to stay abreast

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of it.

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Everybody in the center of this church doesn't even know everything that's happening in this

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church.

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And that's okay.

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It's not a value judgment.

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That's just the reality.

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That's the dynamics of it.

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In a small church communication of information is relatively simple.

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You just tell two or three people and it gets around.

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No.

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I mean if you announce something in the church most of the people are there every Sunday.

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Or if you put it in the bulletin it has a way, you know it stays on the back table until

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the family that was gone that Sunday comes in.

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The next Sunday they pick up the bulletin and they read it.

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It's fairly simple in a small church.

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In a large church it's complex.

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Let me tell you.

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It requires redundancy.

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It requires saying the same thing over and over again.

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There have to be internal, I should say intentional, internal communication systems established.

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We have a long way to go in that regard in our church.

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But we recognize the problem.

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It has to become intentional.

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You have to work hard at communications.

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In a small church volunteers are easily recruited.

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Now I know that there are some people in small churches that would argue with that.

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But it's much more difficult in large churches to get volunteers.

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The normal thinking is hey there's so many more people, so many more warm bodies.

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Surely it's a lot easier to get volunteers.

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No it's not.

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And there are certain human dynamics that make that true.

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One of them being in a small church it's often very close knit and there are family interrelationships.

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And because of that people feel even obligated to volunteer when they don't want to.

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In a large church there's much less of that kind of dynamic.

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And people say oh well somebody else will take care of it.

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In a small church there is stability during times of change, particularly staff changes.

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A pastor can change in a small church and it usually doesn't make a lot of difference.

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The church boss is still there.

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No just kidding.

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Usually because again of the dynamics of the relationships in the church, the leaving of

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the pastor, though there may be tears or there may be applause, it doesn't make a whole lot

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of difference.

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The church goes on.

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The larger a church gets, many people don't believe this, it's true, the larger a church

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gets the more vulnerable it becomes to staff changes, particularly the pastor.

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But other staff changes as well.

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The more vulnerable it is to disruption because of those kinds of changes.

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In a small church the pastor has one kind of a role.

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It may be mimigrafing the Boltenhoff as one of them.

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In a large church the pastor has a completely different kind of role.

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In a small church decisions are made one way.

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In a larger church decisions by the very nature of the dynamics of the organization have to

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be made differently.

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In a small church assimilation of new people happens rather easily.

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Somebody new walks in the door, everybody turns.

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There's a new person.

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And that person is hopefully welcomed and noticed and ministered to and feels enfolded

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right away.

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In a large church a person can come in the door and sit there and go out and never be

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spoken to.

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It's tragic, but that can happen.

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So therefore we have to work hard at organizing a process of assimilation.

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It has to be purposed, it has to be intentional.

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There have to be people who are willing to stand at the doors and greet, who are willing

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to usher and show people to seats, who are willing to help people find classrooms, work

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at information desks, and a variety of other things just so that assimilation can happen.

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You see a large church is not a small church that's overgrown.

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If you'll pardon me for saying so, there's some kind of an evolution that takes place

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along the way.

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So it's a completely different animal on this end from that end.

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Now that's not a value judgment, that's not saying that one is good and one is bad, that's

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just the nature of things.

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That's the way it is.

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It helps us to realize things like that.

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Statistically we are among the one percent of churches in America that run more than

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seven hundred in a morning worship service.

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Only one out of a hundred churches has seven hundred or more people in it.

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The dynamics in that kind of a church are unique as compared to smaller kinds of churches.

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That's why some of you coming into our church have had a time of adjustment.

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I hope it's been eased in some ways and it's been happy in its end, but it can be difficult

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because the dynamics are so different in a large church.

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And I can tell you from my own experience that when you go from a large church to a

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small church, reentry is just as difficult that way because of the dynamics.

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The body is a unity with diversity.

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It's good for us to remember that.

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But the body is also a unity with interdependence.

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None of us can be the whole body.

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God hasn't created us to be the whole body.

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He's created us to need each other and I want you to know that there's nothing that is more

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counter-cultural than that idea, especially today.

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Because we treasure our privacy.

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We value independence.

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We exalt self-sufficiency.

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And to be a member of the body of Christ is just the opposite of all of those.

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God has created us to be interdependent.

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The current culture, thanks to live in isolation, is something to seek.

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To live with self-reliance.

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To have the attitude, I don't really need others, I can make it on my own.

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This was illustrated in an article yesterday in the St. Paul newspaper.

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Our governor said something I agree with, so I thought I'd better quote him for once.

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He was giving a speech last week at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Minneapolis and he's

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talking about the escalating crime problems in our state and it is a serious problem and

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he says the answer rests with people, not with government.

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He says all we can do is take some small steps forward and I pray that it will be a long,

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long journey.

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Resources are limited but by working together we can solve the problem.

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He would almost say that the decade of the 80s was the I and the me era.

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He is absolutely correct.

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But he says the focus must shift to we.

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Amen, Governor Carlson.

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That's exactly where the Church of Jesus Christ is because I want you to know that this I

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and me-ism invaded the Church whole scale in the 80s and we need to understand what

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that's leading us to.

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We need to understand that we need to turn around and see that the Bible says we.

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We're not to seek our own special interests only, but we're to seek our Lord's first

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of all and then the needs, the concerns of others, and then our own in that order.

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The body is a unity with interdependence.

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We need each other's gifts.

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We need each other's gifts.

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We complement with an E each other.

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God's made us that way.

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My hand complements my I.

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My eye can see something and say in its brain, oh, I want that, but only my hand can reach

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out there and get it.

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We complement each other in our relationship as members of the body of Jesus Christ.

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When somebody works in the nursery across that hallway, they are serving us and the

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Lord.

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It's easy for them just to begin to think, oh, all I'm doing here is babysitting and

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nobody cares anyway, but it's not the case.

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Anyone who works in that nursery hopefully is exercising a God-given call to that position.

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Not only by serving us and serving God, but by serving the babies who by the tender and

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loving care and words sense acceptance and warmth right there as a young baby in the

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nursery.

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Men who serve as ushers in this church or those who serve as greeters serve all of us.

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We complement each other.

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We're all a part of the same team.

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We have different roles to play.

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The ones who sing up in this choir, do they come up here and sing because of Mark Rhodes,

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because he's so good looking?

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He laughed.

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Nobody else did.

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I don't know why you laugh.

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His wife agrees.

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Well, despite the fact that he is, I hope they're up here to sing because of Jesus Christ.

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Because God has gifted them and called them to serve in that way, and they're not singing

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for men, they're singing for God.

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They're serving us and helping us in our worship.

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You can go through all of the jobs in the church, all of the opportunities in the church,

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and you can see how it all keeps folding back.

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We're a complement to each other.

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We're all a part of the same team, so that God's work gets done.

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Therefore, the importance of faithfulness, of doing our job, the importance of when we

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say we're going to be in the nursery to be there, and not to let ourselves think, oh,

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well, there are so many others in there.

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I'm just going to skip this month.

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But when we say we're going to teach a class or help in the Sunday school to be there,

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because God's gifted us, God's called us, we're members of the body, and what we do

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makes a difference there to the functioning of the whole thing.

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If a member of my body begins to bail out on me, I've got a problem.

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If the members of my body get into competition with each other, I'm going to be sick.

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And so are the same as true in the body of Christ.

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We're not competing, we're complementing each other.

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We're working together, serving Jesus Christ, so the people in this community and around

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the world can hear the gospel and be saved.

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That's the bottom line.

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That's the bottom line of it all.

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And whatever we're doing, however we serve Christ in the body, it all comes to that bottom

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line, that others may come to know Him and serve Him.

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I'm talking about members of the body, and there may be somebody confused, because I'm

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not talking about people who are constitutionally members of our church.

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That's an important step.

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But what I'm talking about refers to anyone who is a regular part of Grace Church, whether

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constitutionally a member or not.

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If I come to this church and participate in its life to some degree, and if I am receiving

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ministry from it, then I am a member of that local body of Christ.

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It's just the way it is.

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It's not constitutional membership, it's spiritual membership.

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And by coming regularly and participating and receiving, I'm a member, I'm connected

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in God's mind, and therefore as a connected member on the body, I need to receive and

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to give.

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I need to be healthy.

401
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I need to be a participating member.

402
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Is that where you are today?

403
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As you evaluate your membership in the body of Christ, are you a connected, healthy, participating

404
00:29:23,380 --> 00:29:24,380
member?

405
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One who is giving out as well as receiving?

406
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One who is serving the head?

407
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One who is interdependent upon others?

408
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One who recognizes the value of his diversity and yet fits into the oneness of the body

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of Christ?

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It is a beautiful picture.

411
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It is a wonderful description of who God has made you to be.

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Don't function as anything less than God has made you to be.

413
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Be a member of the body.

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Let's pray.

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Dear friend, are you a child of God?

416
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Have you trusted in Jesus Christ as your Savior?

417
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Do you recognize that he died for your sin and rose again, that he might save and rescue

418
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you personally from your destiny of judgment in hell?

419
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If not, would you trust him today?

420
00:30:28,660 --> 00:30:32,620
Would you receive him as an act of faith in your life?

421
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And those of us who have done that, are we, because we have trusted Christ, are we living

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out our identity?

423
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Are we who God has made us to be and gifted us to be?

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How active are you as a member of the body here or wherever you may belong if you're

425
00:30:58,620 --> 00:31:01,620
visiting?

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Spirit of God, I pray that you'll evaluate that in my heart and the heart of every person

427
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in the sound of my voice right now.

428
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Show us whether we're healthy members or unhealthy.

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And so work to transform us, to change our attitudes, to change our lifestyle, to change

430
00:31:27,540 --> 00:31:36,260
our willingness to participate, to change our activity and giving so that we will be

431
00:31:36,260 --> 00:31:42,540
functioning as healthy members of the spiritual body of Christ.

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Would you stand with me please with our heads bowed?

433
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Sing with me the chorus that we sang just before the message today.

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In our church, Lord, be glorified.

435
00:31:58,580 --> 00:32:07,100
In our church, Lord, be glorified.

436
00:32:07,100 --> 00:32:10,580
Be glorified.

437
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In our church, Lord, be glorified today.

438
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You know the Lord will do that.

439
00:32:24,860 --> 00:32:29,420
He desires to be glorified in our church.

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And he is to the extent that he is glorified in our individual lives and we're living in

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00:32:34,780 --> 00:32:36,820
obedience to him.

442
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As we go out today, let's go with that determination in our hearts to serve him in the power of

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the Holy Spirit as he has gifted us.

444
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And so Lord, enfold us, grow us, develop us, mature us as the body of Jesus Christ, diverse

445
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in our oneness so that we will truly glorify you.

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In Jesus' name, amen.

447
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We're dismissed.