For then I will give to the peoples purified lips,
That all of them may call on the name of the LORD,
To serve Him shoulder to shoulder.
Zephaniah 3:9
•We are many, yet one in Christ.
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks,
whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many.
I Corinthians 12:13-14
God comprises the church, just the way He wants it to be because it is made up of many different people. There are going to be a lot of differences among us. Yet together, we’re one body. We’re whole. We’re together. This is how God, through His Spirit, has designed it.
Rev. Tim Rackley, morning sermon 4/2/2023
•We are diverse, yet unified, and all important in his own way.
. . . God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired.
1 Corinthians 12:18
If one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is
honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are Christ’s body, and each one of you is a part of it.
1 Corinthians 12:26-27
It isn’t about having small gifts. It isn’t about having big showy gifts. It’s about being faithful to God, growing together in Christ.
Rev. Tim Rackley, morning sermon 4/2/2023
•We have gifts given by God that work in tandem with other believers’ gifts
We are to be humble before God and acknowledge that what we have is from Him according to His desire. . . . Be content, because God has given us all that He wants us to have to minister to others. He says the way He has made us and gifted us is needed by the church. . . . Everything we have is found in Christ.
Rev. Tim Rackley, morning sermon 4/2/2023
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13