We’re in 1 Corinthians 12 this morning.

Scripture

^12:12 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.

Paul is confirming for us this obvious truth about a collection of people: everybody is different, and when you get to know them, they’re probably straight out weird. Some of you have been trying to figure out how to break that to your spouse your entire marriage. Don’t worry, she already knows you’re weird and she loves you anyways, it’s why you’re married. What that means to our spiritual family here at Cedarbrook is simple: we all might be strange and weird in each other’s eyes, but we are united together a part of the family of Christ. Nothing is changing that. Amen? Verse 13.

¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

The reason we are united despite our differences is because our obedience to the command of Jesus in baptism signifies and seals our adoption into the family of God. Baptism is a public declaration saying to the world, “Once I was not the family of God, separated by my sin. But being baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I am now a part of the family of God, united with God and with his family through faith in Jesus Christ.”

If you have not been baptized as a believer, consider taking this next step of faith and make that wildly liberating statement to the world witnessing your baptism – you belong to God and his family. Find out more about baptisms on our website. Alright, no more asides. Verse 14.

¹⁴ For the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? ¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” ²² On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, ²⁴ which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, ²⁵ that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. ²⁸ And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. ²⁹ Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰ Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? ³¹ But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.

^13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13:3 ESV)

Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, thank you for uniting us through the blood of your son, Jesus and giving us one spirit, your own, to mold us and shape us more and more into your very image. I pray that all of us can know you deeply and intimately and not be led astray by mute idols in this world. We want to live before a holy and righteous God without any burden of guilt and with a full understanding of who you are and how you receive us, as different as all of us are, into your family without hesitation or second thought. Lord, help us live courageously in faith. Help us utilize the spiritual gifts you give to us in service of your glory. We earnestly long for the opportunity. And if there have been times where we haven’t been faithful with our giftings, Lord, forgive us and allow us to go back and make amends so that we can honor you. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Introduction

We’re in week 5 of our series, “This is What We Do,” where we’re exploring 7 spiritual disciplines when practiced make us radical disciples of Jesus, ready and able to bring the Good News everywhere we go. Today, we’re exploring serving and acts of service and how that makes us radical disciples of Jesus.

Simon Sinek, a leadership consultant, once said, “The best way to grow oneself is to help somebody else grow: service…. The irony is that the more we set out to help somebody else… the more we help ourselves.”  

The premise of his idea is that as we serve others, we would gain insights and perspectives for our own lives from helping other people that would lead to our own transformation. This idea isn’t new. It’s in the Bible.

During the last supper, Jesus bent down to wash his disciples’ feet, and he epitomized serving others. He said, if I don’t serve you, you can have no part of me. Then he told his disciples after he served them by washing their feet, people will know you are my disciples by your acts of service. Jesus knew that as we served others, we would become more like him, sanctified through our service into the image of our God.

We’re going to study this scene more deeply in a few weeks, but what Jesus understood was the condition of the human heart if that heart was not postured for service. Our hearts left to their own devices would serve only itself, doing what selfishly benefits us toward a futility that never gets the outcome we truly need.

Jesus’ service to us culminated in him sacrificing himself for us on the cross so that we could have the ultimate benefit – an adoption as sons and daughters of God.

When we look at the early church, in the book of Acts, the model of service that Jesus demonstrated for the disciples became a trademark of all Christians. In fact, we learn that even Julian, the last pagan Roman Emperor, in 300AD, saw the power service had in winning people into the family of God and how those acts of service multiplied into more bold acts of service by the Christians to change the entire republic. Julian even decreed to pagan priests to outdo the Christians in acts of service, taking care of the needs of others like the Christians did, so that they can win back some of their lost converts. You see, acts of service are a major mark of being a disciple of Jesus.

If we’re not intentionally and actively serving or performing acts of service, the world will never know who we follow. But more than that, the world will never experience the love of Christ through what are supposed to be our acts of service.

My goal today is simple: I want to invite our church family to serve as Jesus did so that through our serving, we would become sanctified in the image of Jesus as we serve others in becoming more like Jesus because as Simon Sinek pointed out, we grow ourselves, as we help others grow. Let’s go back to verse 14.

¹⁴ For the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? ¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

Point 1. We are spiritually gifted to bring unity with one another

There is diversity in the family of God in race, ethnicity, but also the diversity of educations, experiences, giftings, but also passions and hobbies. Thank God we’re not all the same. We’re not robots made on an assembly line and is actually evidence of intelligent design. God created us uniquely and purposefully and place us together to be the body of Christ, the church.

Paul shows us through this analogy that the sum of its parts is greater than the individual. More plainly speaking. Don’t compare yourself to Pastor John, with his musical giftings, his vocal abilities, or his cool retro hip style. You cannot willfully withdraw from being part of the whole body of the church just because you can’t do what Pastor John does. In fact, the church needs you to do what Pastor John can’t do but only you can do so that we can be fully functioning as a whole body.

You see because it is in all this diversity, there is one thing that unites us—faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus is our savior and lord. As a member of his body, we submit ourselves to his salvation and to his lordship in our lives. Verse 21.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” ²² On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, ²⁴ which our more presentable parts do not require.

We need each other to do what only each of us can do for one another. It’s our diversity that unifies us because in that diversity, our needs are met by one another, taking care of each other. I want to be clear here about what Paul is saying: he is saying that there is no such thing as an unimportant person or an unimportant way to serve. All people and their gifts are important and vital to one another. Let’s pick up the second half of verse 24.

^24bBut God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, ²⁵ that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

This is the genius of God.

• When we serve in and/or through the church, we are caring for people God cares about.
• When we serve in and/or through the church we bring gospel unity to the people of God.
• When we serve in and/or through the church we are ushering the kingdom of God to people who need Jesus’ good news and his miraculous breakthroughs and solutions physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Your unique gifts, skills, experiences, perspectives, upbringings, privilege, all that which makes you different from everybody else, God gave those to you so that when others in your spiritual family are suffering, dishonored, or saddened, you would be moved to use whatever power and ability you have to change the predicament of that member. We must conclude that

Point 2. Our spiritual gifts must be used to serve others

That’s the purpose of having a diversity experiences, and cultures, and abilities within a church body. Verse 27.

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. ²⁸ And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. ²⁹ Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? ³⁰ Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret?

Here’s where most of us get stuck in reading a set of verses like this: the definitions of the actual roles. When we actually get into the weeds of it, we start to eliminate ourselves as viable candidates to serve people because we say none of those giftings describe us, so we must not be needed. I’m not going to do a deep dive about finding your spiritual gifts. You can register and attend our Next Steps Classes for that. First three Sundays at the 9:30am service in March.

What I want to explore with you in these verses are the modes of serving others. I didn’t see this until God opened my eyes to this as I was praying  and studying this passage this past week. The point of listing these specific spiritual gifts is to give us examples of four ways we can serve others as they are on their spiritual journey of becoming more like Christ.

• The first mode of serving is called “Finding.” Paul starts with apostles. Apostles have a missionary mindset. First point of contact with people on their journey of faith. Apostles find people that need to be served in order that those people being served can become more like God. They serve by finding people and places where the kingdom of God needs to be ushered in.
  • This is what it looks like to practically serve people in this mode of service: In the church, this looks like greeting people at our doors, you see people walking in from all types of weeks, bad, good, so-so, and you start conversations with them to learn more.
  • Through the church, this looks like being a food drive or coat drive organizer at your local school or for our CAN. You recruit people and you see needs that need to be serviced.
• The second mode is called “Encouragement.” This is also the second point of contact for people on their journey of faith. Prophets speak the words of God and enact the words of God to people.
  • In the church, this looks like being on our prayer team to pray for people and prophetically speak God’s truth in their lives. It looks like creating media or environments where people can experience the good news of God in our worship team, on the stage or in the production booth, and online.
  • Through the church, this looks like freeing up your weeknights to invite people into your house to encourage them with words or acts of love. This is not a role specifically, but a lifestyle, this is the one act of service all of us should be doing.
• The third mode of service is to “Teach.” You serve this way when you connect the dots in people’s lives. Parents, you do this all the time. I love seeing the light in Kate’s eyes, when I teach her stuff. You can see a glint of joy, it’s so exciting.
  • In the church, this looks like teaching at one of our Promiseland classes or leading a small group for our teenagers or at our Alpha classes or even being a content writer applying the Bible to daily life for our church.
  • Through the church, this looks like teaching at ESOL. Or volunteering as a parent counselor at one of our partner crisis pregnancy centers.
• The last mode of service is called “Assist.” The Apostle Paul groups these types of roles into this category: miracles, n there are helpers. Paul groups miracle workers, healers, helpers, administrators, and interpretation of tongues into this mode of service. They help people by filling needs of people in their situational circumstances with the goal of helping them become more like Jesus.
  • In the church, this looks like being part of the coffee team, to make sure people can worship Jesus on Sunday morning fully awake or doing set up and tear down at events, or helping facilitate other ministry through administration.
  • Through the church, this is where a lot of our outreach ministry is, for example at our Clarksburg Closet, to be a clothing filler or a clothing organizer. We even have a partnership with an organization that helps with translating from various languages to English and vice versa.  

The purpose of understanding the modes of service, finding, encouraging, teaching, assisting, is to take our unique talents, skills, experiences, and thoughts to serve people at various points in their spiritual journey so that the people being can become more like Jesus and find yourself, through service, becoming more like Jesus yourself.

Jesus practiced all four modes in his ministry here on earth: He found people (zacheus on the tree), encouraged people (fed 5,000), taught people (sermon on the mount), and assisted people (healed people, raised the dead). When he practiced these various modes of service, here’s what happened: people were transformed and began to live more like how God created them to be.

Verse 31.

³¹ But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.

^13:1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13:3 ESV)

Point 3. Christ’s love must be manifested in our service

• Service is not something we do because we HAVE to.
• Service is something we GET to do.
• We GET to serve because Jesus served us first.  

When we read the entirety of the Bible, we see this incredible theme pop up: God serves the people who he chose and loved. He didn’t HAVE to serve a rebellious people, but he chose to serve them and love them. Then at the right time, Jesus seized the opportunity to serve sinful people by leaving the heavens where he was served by angels to serve us by living a perfect life, and dying as the perfect sacrifice on our behalf. He did that because he loved us and wanted us to be part of his family.

Big Idea: We receive spiritual gifts to bridge God’s love to others

This week, the ministry team at Cedarbrook put together a list of service roles available in the church and through the church to serve in one of these four modes of service. We don’t want you to miss this opportunity; log onto our website right now and go the serving tab and open it. Cedarbrook.org/serve

[show list of service opportunities] – screen shot from website

	Find	Encourage	Teach	Assist	Total
Grand Total	75	107	110	180	472
IN	62	107	80	111	360
THROUGH	13	0	30	69	112

There are 75 different types of roles. 472 ways you can serve in the church or through the church. Some of these opportunities to serve require as little as 15 minutes of your time in any given week. Other opportunities require 2 hours of your time each week. Most of our opportunities only require a once a month commitment for about 90 minutes. Go and serve people to help them become more like Christ and witness yourself being transformed into Christ also.

• If you’re already serving in our church or through our church, thanks! Keep it up. Encourage the people you’re serving to serve also. The fruits of your service are paying dividends in eternity even if you’re not seeing the return now.
• If you’re not serving in the church or through the church, or anywhere intentionally and regularly. Those are the key words, intentionally and regularly, find a place, pick a people and serve others.
• Take a minute right now to sort through this list of serving opportunities in the church and through the church and find something that works for you in one of the four modes of serving. You may not be in a position to do all of those things, but you are in a position to do at least one. Choose one, fill out the form, pick a people to serve.  

Our mission at Cedarbrook is to BECOME radical Christ followers, bringing the good news by bridging Christ’s love to those who don’t him. That’s what serving postures us to achieve.

• By serving we become radical Christ followers.
• By serving we bring the good news of Jesus to people.
• By serving we bridge Christ’s love to people.

You and I are the beneficiaries of Christ’s service and his love for us. How will you use your gift to serve others so the purposes of God can be known to them. How will you use your gift to grow more in the image of Christ?

Let’s pray.

Father, there are so many opportunities you give us to serve others. Thank you for these opportunities that are so easy to take advantage of so that we could show people your love. But more than that, thank you for allowing us to have an avenue of helping ourselves become more like you as we help others become more like you. What an amazing way you created for us to become sanctified. Who knew that was a benefit for serving others. Lord, let our service not become a burden, but an opportunity ripe with potential to further your kingdom and bring you glory in our lives. I ask that all of us would boldly step into a place where we can pick a people to serve and find ourselves delighting in your love for it. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.