1 Corinthians 12:12

For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free. We have all been made to drink into the same Spirit.

For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members, every one of them, in the body as it has pleased Him. And if they were all one member, where would be the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body.

The eye cannot say unto the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." No, much more, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor. And on our uncomely parts, we have more abundant comeliness.

For our comely parts have no need, but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to the part which lacked. That there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and members in particular. Father, we are in such desperate need to be reminded of these things.

And I believe that you've brought us to this passage for such a time as this. God, you have brought our church here to teach us, Lord. Transform us to renew us. We pray that you would do just that. We want you to be glorified in us. We want you to be magnified by us. God, work in your church. Give us insight. Give us understanding. Lord, help us to yield ourselves to your word and your work by your Spirit. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all God's people agreed, saying, Amen. You can be seated.

For nearly two months now, we have been digging deeply into 1 Corinthians chapter 12, dealing with the topic of spiritual gifts. We have considered how all believers, at conversion, are baptized by Jesus with the Holy Spirit, by which we are all brought into this body, the body of Christ. We are made one in Christ, and we are placed by the sovereign direction of God the Father and gifted by the will of His Holy Spirit to effectively fulfill the work that Jesus Christ is doing here in this world.

The work of Christ did not finish when He said, "It is finished." The work for our atonement was finished; it was complete. Our propitiation was done. There remains no sacrifice needed for sin. But the work of Christ continues in this world. Well after He ascended into heaven, He is still working. When Jesus was here upon the earth, He worked with a body made of flesh and blood. Today, as He is working from heaven, He is working in this world with a body made of flesh and blood: you and I, members in particular of His body.

We have been placed within the body of Christ and gifted by the Lord for, number one, the glorification of God; number two, the edification of His body; and number three, the evangelization of the world. This is why we're here. We're here to glorify God through worship, through praise, and through adoration of Him. We are to be edified by Him, by His Spirit, through His word. Then we are to be equipped through that to go out and evangelize in this world. That is why I don't generally give evangelistic messages here at Calvary Chapel on a Sunday morning.

And that may be short-sighted. It may be my wrong assumption. However, I generally assume that when we gather together, for the most part, we're Christians. We're believers. I'm certain there are some here today who come as observers and do not know Christ. They have not entered into a relationship with Him through the work that He did on the cross. But for the most part, I'm assuming, for good or for bad, that we are believers.

We are gathered together to glorify Him through worship, to be edified and built up by Him through His Word and by His Spirit, and then prepared to go out from here to carry His Word. The reality is that most non-believers are not in this room, and many of them will probably never come into this room. However, you will interact with them on a day-to-day basis—at work, at school, where you play, where you eat, and where you buy your groceries. You're going to interact with non-believers, so we need to be ready at all times to glorify Him wherever we are, to build one another up when we come in contact with each other, and to share the Word of Christ. He equips, enables, gifts, and empowers us to do so.

Now, as with a human body, Paul has been using the illustration of the human body to speak about the body of Christ. As we saw last week, the body of Christ has unity. We are one body, one unified whole. In 1 Corinthians 12:12, Paul says, "For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body." Three times in that verse, he emphasizes that we are one. Then in verse 13, he states that we have been baptized into one body. In verse 20, he reiterates that we are many members, but one body.

So we have unity, and this unity is created by God. He is the one who has made us one. We didn't band together and say, "All right, let's make ourselves a community." He has made us a community. Like a human body, we have that unity; we are one. But there is also diversity. Just like with a human body, there is one body but many different members. From a young age, we can grasp and understand this. I shared about my daughter Addison last week. She is very young, yet when you ask her, "Addison, where is your nose?" she recognizes that she is one.

She is a unified body, but she knows that she has many members. There's my nose, and she touches it. "Addison, where's your head?" And she pats it. "And where's your belly button?" She lifts her shirt and finds it. Someone during the break between the services this morning tested it, and sure enough, she did, just as I said. I've been training her all week just to make sure that it was open. She recognizes this is Addison's nose, and then she asks, "Where's Daddy's nose?" She'll touch my nose.

So, she recognizes this concept: one body, many members. We all understand this; it's not hard to grasp. Paul is taking deep spiritual truths and presenting them to us in a very easy-to-understand sort of way. It's helpful. But there is diversity. We are one body but many members. In 1 Corinthians 12, verse 12, it states, "For as the body is one, it has many members. And all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ."

Verse 14 continues, "For the body is not one member but many." Verse 20 asks, "Now are they many members in one body?" So, there is unity, there is diversity, and this is all directed by God's sovereignty. We saw in verse 18 of 1 Corinthians 12, "But now has God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it has pleased Him."

There is one body with many members as God, in His sovereignty, has directed. He has set the members, every one of them. As we are one body with many diverse members set in place by God, we are to live in harmony. We saw it last week. Those four points—unity, diversity, sovereignty, and harmony—are evident in the passage.

In 1 Corinthians 12, verse 15, we see this harmony spoken of. Paul says, "If the eye is not a hand, am I not of the body? Is it therefore not of the body?" Of course not. "Or if the ear shall say, 'Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,' is it therefore not of the body?" No. "If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were the hearing, where were the smelling?"

There is this great harmony that is expressed in the body of Christ, bringing glory to God, edification to the body, and evangelization to this world. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor can the head say to the feet, "I have no need of you."

What then is the problem? Within the body of Christ, there is this unity, very clear. There is that diversity, sovereignly brought together by God.

And yet, the thing that seems to fail most often is the harmony. This is not the fault of God, right? Is God at fault when the church doesn't work harmoniously? No, we can't point at Him and say, "Look, you didn't do this right." He created that unity by His sovereign direction. He brought together this diversity by His hand. When the harmony breaks down, we don't blame Him. Many members have been placed into the body of Christ. It's an awesome work that God has done.

And yet, why does it seem to so often lack harmony? What's the deal here? I was reading a story once about a man who was walking along and crossing a bridge. As he walked across the bridge, he saw someone standing on the edge, clearly ready to jump. Moved with compassion, he yelled to him, "Don't jump!"

The man, preparing to jump, asked, "Why not? Nobody loves me." Thinking for a second, he replied, "Well, God loves you. God loves you. You believe in God, don't you?" The man responded, "Yeah, I believe in God."

"Oh, good, good. Are you a Christian or are you Jewish?" the first man asked. "I'm a Christian," came the reply. "Oh, me too, me too. That's good, that's good. Are you Protestant or are you Catholic?"

"Well, I'm Protestant."

"Well, that's good, me too. What kind of Protestant?"

"I'm Baptist."

"Wow! What a coincidence. That's great. Are you Independent Baptist or Southern Baptist?"

"I'm Independent Baptist."

"Oh, me too. New Evangelical Moderate Independent Baptist or Conservative Independent Baptist?"

"Conservative Independent Baptist."

"Oh, that's wonderful. Don't say that's wonderful! Are you Calvinistic Conservative Independent Baptist or Lose Your Salvation to Arminian Conservative Independent Baptist?"

"Well, Calvinistic Conservative Independent Baptist."

"You're kidding me! Dispensational Premillennial Calvinistic Conservative Independent Baptist or Historical Premillennial Conservative Calvinistic Independent Baptist?"

The conversation continued, touching on various theological distinctions, but the essence remained: despite the shared beliefs, the harmony was still lacking. What about the divisions? I thought it was just fun. Against women in ministry, dispensational, premillennial, Calvinistic, conservative, independent, Baptist, or women in ministry, dispensational, premillennial, Calvinistic, conservative, independent, Baptist?

Well, against women in ministry, dispensational, premillennial, Calvinistic, conservative, independent Baptist. Oh, you're kidding me. Me, too.

Okay. Unashamed, fundamentalist, against women in ministry, dispensational, premillennial, Calvinistic, conservative, independent Baptist, or strict separation of church and state against women in ministry, dispensational, premillennial, conservative, Calvinistic, independent Baptist? Unashamed, fundamentalist, against women in ministry, dispensational, premillennial, Calvinistic, conservative, independent Baptist? He said. Well, me too.

Okay. King James only? Unashamed, fundamentalist, against women in ministry, dispensational, premillennial, Calvinistic, conservative, independent Baptist? Or modern versions, unashamed, fundamentalist, against women in ministry, dispensational, premillennial, Calvinistic, conservative, independent Baptist. Well, modern versions, he said. Oh, you heretic, you just go ahead and jump. We got lots of divisions, don't we? Sometimes divisions we don't even know the words for. We don't even fully know how to put it into words.

There are many divisions, many denominations. When I'm talking about harmony, and that's what we're looking at here today, I'm not necessarily talking about denominational divisions. Nor am I talking about, for the sake of harmony, just a blind, ecumenical throw out all the things that divide us so that we can have harmony, sort of harmony. I'm talking about within the local body of Christ.

You see, Paul, when he wrote 1 Corinthians, was writing to a local body of believers, to the church at Corinth. As he writes to that local body of believers, recognizing that it's not the whole of all Christians, but it is a part, he says, "You are the body of Christ."

So we could fast forward and say, okay, Calvary Chapel, we are the body of Christ. By saying that, we're not claiming to be the whole of the body. If you're not a part of this, you're not a part of the body. No, that's not what we're saying. We're talking to this group, Calvary Chapel of Escondido, and we realize we are the body of Christ. We're members in particular, and God speaks to us as such. He says, "You have unity because I've created that unity." And there's diversity because I've brought together the members of that by my sovereign direction.

There ought to be harmony within this local body, and yet we recognize that there isn't—at least not always. There are so many things that can divide us, even here. That's why Paul, in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 3, says to the church at Ephesus, "Endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Within the body of Christ, we are to work to peaceably maintain harmony. The only way to achieve such harmony, especially at the local level, is to do so with humility and love.

Turn to Ephesians 4 for a moment. I just quoted one verse, verse 3, but I want to look at several others. In Ephesians 4, verse 1, Paul, speaking to that church, says, "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you, I beg you, I plead with you, that you would walk worthy of the vocation or the calling wherewith you are called." He is speaking individually to the Christians who made up the church at Ephesus. He emphasizes that he wants them to walk worthy of the calling with which they are called. God called them, set them within the body, and gifted them. He desires for them to walk in that way, fulfilling what He has called them to, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love, and endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Why should we do this? Because there is one body, as verse 4 states, and one Spirit. Since we are one body, and there is only one body—Jesus Christ, who is the head of this body—we should endeavor to maintain harmony within His body. As a church, we want to be Spirit-filled and Spirit-empowered. We desire to see God moving through His church and for His church to actively exercise their gifts as empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And that's not just Calvary Chapel of Escondido; that is all the churches in our area that honor God's Word and love Him. They all have that same desire, whether you're at Calvary Chapel Hidden Valley, Mission Hills Church, Emanuel Faith, Bethel Baptist, or Valley Baptist up in Valley Center, Gunnar Hansen's Church, or Horizon, John Luna's Church. We desire, as a body, to be functioning by the Spirit and to have a united fellowship within each one of these bodies.

But sadly, because of our flesh, even a group of Spirit-gifted Christians— and I believe that all Christians are gifted by God's Spirit— can quickly experience disunity and dissonance if we are not endeavoring to maintain harmony within the local body. We recognize there are distinct things that make us different from Emanuel Faith. Although these differences are not the orthodox principles of Christianity that bind us together as one, there are certain distinctive aspects. Maybe we don't worship in the exact same way, or perhaps we have a different form of church government. Whatever that may be, it makes us distinct, and that's fine.

However, within the local body, there should be this harmony, and it doesn't just happen. Notice Paul says we have to endeavor to keep it. We have to work. God created it; He made us one body. But we have to actually do something to maintain that harmony.

Did you know that in the United States of America, every year, 3,000 churches close their doors? The amazing thing is that 4,000 churches are planted every year. A lot of times, though, it's because when those churches break up, four or five people say, "We're going to go plant a new church." Why? Because we are free radicals. We don't have harmony. A lot of times, those churches are closing their doors each year because we will not work to keep harmony within the body that God has created.

So we say, "I'm going to go make one in my own image. I'm going to make my own body." It's dangerous. It's dangerous when there are people because the Bible speaks so much to this concept of us being the body. We are one. We are the bride of Christ. He is the vine, and we are the branches. We are the flock, and He is the shepherd. We have these pictures in Scripture that speak of us as an organism and not merely an organization.

He's the one who has brought us together. He's the one who has united us as one. Yet, there are people within the body who say, "I don't like the body. I don't like the authority structure that God has set in place. I don't like the government that God has established. So, I'm going to go do my own thing outside of the body." I just don't see that in the Scriptures.

Some people say, "Well, you know, Jesus was like that." No, he was not. For the first thirty years of his life, he lived as part of the family in Nazareth. When he left that, he lived the rest of his life, those three and a half years, with twelve men. Everywhere he went, he was with them, and they were with him. When he sent them out to ministry in Matthew chapter 10, he sent them out together in pairs, not as individuals.

You might say, "Well, Paul was very independent." No, he wasn't. Follow the book of Acts. He was either with Barnabas, Silas, Timothy, Titus, or Gaius. Everywhere you see him, he's with someone. And when he wasn't, he wrote letters saying, "Send someone to me." We are a community of believers. God has made this, not us. God has made this.

Because of our flesh, a group of spirit-gifted Christians can experience great disunity and break up that harmony very quickly. We are incredibly good at disrupting harmony. How many married couples are here today? Raise your hands. Okay, I see you. Look around and see each other. Hands up again. There they are.

Let me just speak to the guys because I'm a guy. Guys, have you ever noticed that you're good at disrupting harmony within your marriage? I won't ask the women; we'll just confess as guys. Maybe that will stir some other confessions. Yes, we're good at disrupting harmony. The same is true within the body of Christ. The gifts of the Spirit are important, and the church at Corinth loved the gifts of the Spirit. That's why Paul dedicates three chapters to this.

Now, he didn't have chapters, but he devoted a lot of work in this letter to the gifts of the Spirit. The gifts of the Spirit are completely, note this if you're taking notes, useless and wasted without the fruit of the Spirit. Without the fruit of the Spirit, they are completely useless.

Galatians chapter 5. You may have memorized it without even trying. Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 states, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love." It goes on to list joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. Against such, there is no law.

The fruit of the Spirit is essential, and I think we rightly enjoy the discussion of spiritual gifts. We should desire to see God work in and through us individually and in the church by these gifts. However, in our carnality, we may wrongly view the gifts as metrics for determining spirituality. What do I mean by that? We often look at the gifts within the body of Christ and say, "That person has this gift; therefore, they are spiritual." It just doesn't work that way.

Take the church at Corinth, for example. They came behind in no spiritual gift, as noted in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 7. They had all kinds of spiritual gifts, and yet they were carnal and worldly. Therefore, you cannot use spiritual gifts as a standard for maturity or spirituality.

As we will see when we get into 1 Corinthians chapter 13 in just a couple of weeks, the dynamic gifts of prophecy, faith, tongues, sacrificial giving, and miracles are nothing without a patient, humble, selfless, truth-loving, burden-bearing love. 1 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 1 says, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love, I have become as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal."

Furthermore, "Though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have not love, I am nothing." Additionally, "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned and have not love, it profits me nothing."

The fruit of the Spirit is love, and you can make a strong case that love is the primary fruit from which everything else flows. Without love, all the gifts are wasted and useless. The unity and diversity of the body of Christ is solely dependent upon the sovereignty of God.

He's the one who made us a united whole, who once were just diverse, free radicals everywhere. He brought us together as one. He does that; we don't do that. The harmony of the body of Christ is reliant upon the empowering of God's Spirit, but it is greatly affected or disrupted by our unwillingness to maintain that harmony. It can be completely wrecked if we're unwilling to walk in humility and love towards one another.

If God is the one who, by His will and direction, established His body, planted the church, created the church, and made it one, then He has brought us all together—diverse members as one. If that's dependent upon Him, and He started us out on the right step, in harmony as one, it's not our job to make us one and to gather together all the diverse parts. He does this, but we need to be focused on endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. Because we're very good harmony breakers—very good at it.

Look at what He says in 1 Corinthians 12, verse 19. We've already read it, but let's come back to it just to make sure it's there. "And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now there are many members, yet but one body." The eye cannot say unto the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you."

Look at this in verse 22: "No, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary, and those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon those we bestow more abundant honor, and on our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness."

If we're honest, we will recognize that each of us is naturally and sinfully proud. We default to selfishness and self-focused pride; that's our default. You can see this and test it. What is your general attitude when you're tired? That's when you get to see what your default nature is. It's really easy to put on a show for other people, but when you've had a long day at work,

Or you've had a hard day with the kids, or whatever it may be, you're tired. What do you default to? That's your nature. There we see that each of us is selfish and self-focused. It's just a reality that we do well to admit.

The first person you think about in the morning? You. The first person you look for in a picture? You. Now, I'm pointing the finger at you, but me too. The first person I look for? Me. That's a good picture. The entire picture becomes bad if I don't look good. Everybody else could look fine, but if I don't look good, it's a bad picture. I don't want that hanging on the wall. Why? Because I don't look good. I'm not the only one. Thank you. I hear it. Agreement. Oh, it makes the heart feel good, doesn't it? Agree. Confess.

You wash yourself, you clothe yourself, you feed yourself. We love ourselves. There's a false teaching that has invaded and pervaded the church for a long time. It says you need to first learn to love yourself before you can love others because Jesus says to love your neighbor as yourself. That teaching is so far off; it's unbelievable. We all love ourselves. We have no problem loving ourselves. The problem is we love ourselves too much—an inordinate affection that goes overboard.

We don't need to learn to love ourselves; we've got that one licked. No problem. It's contrary to our nature to be others-centered, and we carry that into our Christianity. We recognize that when we are saved, when we're brought into the body of Christ, we don't come in clean and perfected. We come in dirty and defiled, needing transformation. We thank God that He sanctifies, cleanses, washes, and transforms us.

Hopefully, 20 years down the road as a Christian, you don't look like you did when you first came in the door. I'm not talking about physical appearance here. None of us look like we did when we first came in the door; we've all changed physically, and maybe not for the better. Sorry, I shouldn't have gone there. But anyways, our character, our nature, the way we live, walk, think, and talk should change.

When we first come in, we're not perfect, and we bring all this stuff in with us. Now, maybe our self-centeredness wouldn't be so bad if we were totally individual in our existence before God, but we're not. God has called us into fellowship with one another.

We have fellowship with Him. We walk in the light. We have fellowship with one another. 1 John 1:7 makes it very clear. We have been brought into communion with God by the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ the righteous. Therefore, He has brought us into communion with one another. Community and fellowship are works that God does.

Now, the world outside the church, outside of Christ, can be labeled simply as the world. It is filled with competition. It seems that everything is a competition. You wake up in the morning and want to be the first one to get to the shower or the first one to get down and have breakfast. You get in your car, and everyone on the 15 Freeway must think that we are like race car drivers in Indianapolis. Here we go—competition. You get to work, and it's competition. You compete to win that bid, compete to get that promotion. If you're in school, you compete to make that grade and get ahead, striving to be at the top of the class. It's all competition in our society, in this fallen world. It's carnal.

Two girls show up to a party, both wearing the same dress. Oh my goodness! Then it becomes a competition: who looks better in this dress? Man, don't get in the middle of that conversation.

But in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free, neither male nor female. God has torn down all that worldly stuff that divides and causes competition. He brings us together as one. All that stuff is stripped away; all the middle walls of separation are done away with. We are all equal at the foot of the cross—in Christ.

Yet, to accomplish the work that God desires to do, He gifts us each individually and differently. He doesn't want us all to be an eye; He doesn't want us all to be a hand. He wants to diversely gift us as He wills. 1 Corinthians 12 makes it very clear: the Spirit gifts us as He wills. God gives us different gifts. In 1 Corinthians 4, it asks, "Who makes you to differ one from another?" The answer is God. God makes us different.

This is the only thing that distinguishes us from Christ. However, here's the problem: we immediately take that, because of our carnal nature, and we want to compete over it. "I don't have that gift; I want to get that gift." "I don't have that placement; I want to get in that placement."

I don't like that person because they have that gift, or I wish I had this gift. Now we have this competition, and we think in some way that these gifts are dependent upon us. They're not. Since we cannot compete on the fact that we've been saved—because that's by His grace through faith, not of ourselves—we cannot boast. We can't come in and say, "Well, I did more to get here than you did." No, it doesn't work that way.

Then we realize that I've got this gift, and you've got this gift. My gift is better than your gift, clearly, because I have it and you don't. We fail to recognize that the gifting is also of His grace. We did nothing to deserve it, nothing to earn it. He, by His grace, gives us these gifts as He wills. But we fail to recognize that, and in so doing, we disrupt harmony. We make ourselves ineffective as His body.

The church that does not recognize the principle that God is the one who gifted His church by His grace will be an ineffective church. They will be one of the 3,000 that closes its doors in a very short time. It doesn't take long. What God made in the Spirit, we try to perfect in the flesh, and it will die. This happens every day, and it's sad to see.

In our pride, we look at others within the body and say, "I don't need you. You're unnecessary." In saying that, we assert that we are essential. But what does Paul say here in verse 22? He says that those members which seem to be more feeble—there are people, there are members within the diversity of the body of Christ who appear to be not as necessary, not as strong as others. At first glance, one might say, "Well, we could get by if they weren't there."

Some people in the church might think, "I'm one of those people. The church would function just fine if I weren't here." But that's just not reality. It's not true, as the Scriptures reveal it. We've all heard that saying before: things are not always as they appear. It is not possible within the body of Christ for one member to say to another...

I don't need you, or you're not really necessary. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker, feeble, or unnecessary are actually indispensable. They are essential. They are absolutely necessary. Oftentimes, the members of the body that are the most visible are not, in reality, vital. Just like with the human body, you see your hands, your feet, and so forth. You can live—might be hard, but you can live—without a hand. A lot of people are doing it. Living without a leg. Many people are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan living like that.

However, lose your liver, and you're done. Lose your heart, and you're done. You're never going to see that thing, probably. It's not visible, kind of hidden. You don't think about it too much until, all of a sudden, it's not beating right. And so it's essential. It's vital. It's absolutely necessary.

You see, what happens here on a Sunday morning is that I stand up to teach or to preach, or the worship team comes up here to lead in worship. Those things are visible, but there are dozens and dozens of people and things that are going on behind the scenes that may never be seen, that you have no idea about. Without those things, this would never happen. They are essential. They're faithfully serving, praying, and exercising their gifts. They do it continually and effectively. Without them, nothing would get done.

I'm constantly reminded of this truth. This is not, nor will it ever be, a one-man show. In any church where there seems to be a one-man show, where there's one person that's exalted up and they're the anointed, and that's the person we need, that's an imbalance. He, God, is the one. Without Him, we're in trouble.

Now, this morning, you may say, "Well, I feel feeble. I feel unnecessary." You're not. The fact is, you may just not be doing what you're supposed to be doing. That may be because you don't recognize or know the gift that God has given to you, or you know and you're just disobedient. You refuse to function within the gifting that God has given you in the place that He set you because you say, "I want to do that," and you fail to recognize that God ordained as He did.

For a purpose, it is out of step, causing a loss of harmony because it creates competition. Instead of recognizing that God has set the members in particular as it has been pleasing to Him, we often forget the importance of humility. Each one of us within the body needs to recognize that we are not all that. However, our culture and society tell us otherwise, insisting that we must assert ourselves and let everyone know our worth. But the truth is, none of us is essential individually. Within the body, though, there is a part that we play that is very important.

In Philippians 2, verse 2, Paul writes to the church at Philippi, urging them to fulfill his joy by being like-minded, having the same love, and being of one accord and one mind. He expresses that he will be truly joyful if they function as one body. He advises them to let nothing be done through strife or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, to esteem each other better than themselves.

In verse 4, Paul continues, instructing them to look not only at their own interests but also at the interests of others. He encourages them to let this mind be in them, which was also in Christ Jesus. This is what it means to be like-minded with Jesus: to focus on others instead of oneself. Aren't you thankful that in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus didn't have just a momentary thought of, "No, I've got to look out for number one"? That would be a scary thought.

Paul states in verse 24 of 1 Corinthians chapter 12 that it is an awesome thing that God does in putting the body together. He has formed our local body here at Calvary Chapel in such a way that I need you, and you need me. We mutually need each other within the body because God has tempered us in that way. He made us this way and brought us together in that way. There are times when we look at people within the body and we say...

Well, they are so gifted and talented and have so many abilities that they could do it all on their own. They don't need anybody else. Such an estimation is so far from the truth. I believe that God has uniquely crafted my strengths and my weaknesses so that I need you and you need me. He has this awesome way of placing us in the work in an area where we're actually weak because it glorifies Him more greatly.

How does this practically look? When I graduated from high school, just about a month or two before graduating, a good friend, some of you know him, Dr. Nick Ifantidis, said to me, "Miles, you should really think about going into medical school." I laughed out loud. I honestly laughed out loud. "You would be a great doctor." Why? I didn't understand where he was coming from. It was really nice, but I thought misery loves company, and he wanted to pull people in. But Nick insisted, "You'd be a great doctor. You should go to medical school." I replied, "Nick, I'm just finishing school. I don't want to go to school anymore."

When I graduated from high school, my honest mindset was that I was done. I didn't have to go to school anymore. I didn't go to college because I did not want to go to school anymore. Why? Because from the time I was in fourth or fifth grade, I really began to struggle in school. I was diagnosed with dyslexia at that same time. I never used it as an excuse. I never said, "I am disabled in this area because I have this." But it was very clear that I had dyslexia, and school was very hard for me. Studying and reading were extremely difficult.

So what does God do? Laughing in heaven, He says, "I'm going to put you in a place where what you do all week long is study and read." What? Because I will be most glorified in your weakness as I gift you to do it. Now, that doesn't mean that everything we do in the Lord is always going to be in the area where we're weak. But God does sometimes do that, especially for people He is going to place in a visible position. You can ask any person who's a pastor in a teaching role, and a lot of times they'll confess the very same thing. When God places someone in a visible position, He says...

Okay, I'm going to make sure that you're really weak in this area, and I'm going to put you there. So you have to rely upon me, and He is most glorified through that. God has tempered the body. He has put us together in such a way that I need you, and you need me. That's how we function together as we rely upon His gifting by His Spirit.

In verse 25, it states that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another. Since we are all connected as one, united in the body of Christ, and since I need you and you need me, there should be—emphasize the word should—there should be no schism, no division, no tear, nor rent. Sadly, there are schisms, there are tears, there are divisions, but there shouldn't be, especially if we're doing what we ought to be doing, which is revealed at the end of verse 25: that the members should have the same care for one another.

Our society, the place we live in, work in, talk in, and think in, inflames our self-centeredness by constantly telling us that we need to care primarily for ourselves. We are constantly told this, and so we bring that self-care mentality into the body. We look around and say things like, "You need to minister to me. You need to be praying for me. You need to think about me. You need to find me a seat. You need to help me. You need to take care of me." We focus on ourselves, wanting everybody else to think about us and focus on us.

But then we're confronted with verses like Philippians 2:4, which says, "Do not look out every man for his own things, but every man for the things of others." We might think, "Oh, goodness, that hurts me." We look at a verse like that and logically think through it. Maybe I'm the only one, but we think like this: If I do what this verse is telling me, this is a great hurdle. If I do what this verse is saying—don't look out for me, don't look out for number one like the world says I should—and I dedicate myself completely to looking out for you, then I worry that no one is going to take care of me. Right?

But I want you to think for a second. Every chapel of Escondido has about 550 to 600 adults.

Could you imagine if 600 adults within this body all said, "I'm going to endeavor to not look out for myself. I'm going to look out for others"? No one would be without care. No one would slip through the cracks. No one would ever stand up and say, "Hey, nobody's ministering to me." Why? Because we'd all be endeavoring to minister to one another, and your needs would be met and taken care of. As a byproduct of that, each of us would be taken care of. This is the practical outworking of love—Biblical Christian love. The kind that we're going to study when we get into 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

The love of this world says, "If you love me, you'll take care of me." But we're going to see, when we get into 1 Corinthians chapter 13, that there is a major paradigm shift when we look at it through God's love. It's just transformational. It's hard for us to grasp. A lot of times, we really like 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Oh, we love 1 Corinthians chapter 13. Until you say, "Okay, put your name in the blank." Scott suffers long and is kind. Jared does not boast himself. Steve thinks no evil. It doesn't fit, does it? Jesus fits every one of them. As we're seeking to be more like Him, He transforms us.

Last verse, verse 26: "And whether one member suffer, all members suffer with it; or one member be honored, all members rejoice with it." This love is marked by humility. It is humble love that stoops down to condescend with the lowly, the person who is suffering. It is humble love that rejoices when someone else is honored and you are not.

In Romans 12, verse 15, Paul says, "Rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep." When one part in the body suffers, if we're all caring for one another, then every one of us, since we recognize that we're connected together by one in Christ, suffers when one part suffers.

We understand this in our human bodies. A couple of years ago, I was sparring in martial arts when I kicked and caught a guy's elbow right on the top of my foot. I hurt a bone I had never even heard of before: the fourth metatarsal. I didn't even know what the fourth metatarsal was. It's about the size of your pinky, a little thing, and it hurt badly. Every time I stepped, it sent pain through my whole foot.

Like the good man that I am, a year and a half later, I went to the doctor. They did an X-ray, and when they put it up, I thought, "Whoa, that's a metatarsal." I had never seen it before. They told me it wasn't broken, but it was dropped. It's called a dropped metatarsal, and it hurt really badly. I didn't even know what it was. I went to the chiropractor, and he put it back in place. It felt great, but boy, my entire body hurt.

One part suffers, the whole thing suffers. Have you ever had a little hangnail on your pinky finger? It can turn a 200-pound, 6'2" man into a baby. Just that little thing can cause so much pain. The whole body feels it. Have you ever gotten something small in your eye? The entire body reacts. You might say, "Oh, my eye! Wait, I have something in my eye. Can you look?" It's painful. When one part suffers, we all suffer. That's how it should be within the body when it is caring for itself.

Here's the harder one: when someone else is honored and you're not, can you rejoice with them? That's a hard one, and it's so contrary to the world, isn't it? For all of you who work in a corporate structure, you understand this perfectly. When someone else gets the promotion you've been working so hard for, can you rejoice with them? That is so contrary to the world.

That's Christ. Wow, that's heavy. As God works this into us, the world cannot help but take notice. They can't, because it's so opposite to our nature. And that's what God wants. He wants to exalt His nature in us. That's phenomenal.

So we have to ask ourselves: when people meet Miles, when people meet Todd or Eddie, do they meet Jesus and His nature?

You see, that's what the gifts are actually for. Well, that's revolutionary. It changes my whole focus on the gifts of the Spirit.

Let's stand and pray. Father, we so need you to work this in us. There's no way we can take a class at Palomar on this or manufacture it, or buy some medication for $29.95 on cable TV that will make it happen. It's only you that can transform us in this way, by your word and by the work of your Spirit.

Lord, help me to yield to that work. When my flesh wants to do its own thing, to be noticed, to be lifted up, to be magnified, whatever it may be, Lord, teach me what it is to lay down my life as you did. Transform us, God. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you.