Building the Body

I want to talk today about building the body. No, this is not a picture of Jim Simmons. Actually, it's the wrong picture, wrong kind of body building. Let's move on to the next picture. What we're really talking about is building the church. We're talking about a building program. In case you hadn't noticed, we are in a building program. And I'm thankful for that, which God has allowed us to do here, to be able to expand our facilities to reach more people and to serve families better, particularly with new nurseries and that kind of thing, which it's kind of messy and hell. And thank you for understanding the inconveniences of this phase of that project. But thank God when it's all done, we will be better for it. And the Lord will enable us to use the facilities in a better way we believe. So we are in a building program, but that's not even the kind of building I'm talking about. I'm talking about building the body. Building the people of God, not just a building, not just your physical muscle tone. I'm talking about building the people, the body of Christ. You know, when you get saved and you become a part of a church, most of us really have no clue what it's about. We come to church because we want to get something that will help us grow. A little bit, maybe help us meet the next need in our lives and help us through the week. And that's about all we know at that point. And that's okay. But there's much more to the church, much more to the Christian life, much more to our involvement in the body of Christ than that. In fact, God has designed each of us to have something to offer in the building up of his body. Every one of us here this morning has something not only to get, not only to gain from being here, but to give. God wants us to play a part in building his body, in building his church. I want to begin this morning, a new series of messages on the one and others. What the Bible teaches, by way of what we should do, one another, one for another, one with each other, that will help to build up the body of Christ. And there's no better place to start than a familiar passage to people who've been around Johnson Chapel for a while. And that's Ephesians chapter 4. So please locate in your Bible the fourth chapter of Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 4 verses 11 through 16 are kind of the foundation of our philosophy of ministry here at Johnson Chapel. This is bedrock. This is basic stuff. We've been over this before, but we're going to review it this morning, because this really forms the foundation of this particular series of messages on the one and others. This is the theological biblical foundation for everything I will say, everything I'll preach on in the next 12 weeks or so. It's built on this passage in Ephesians chapter 4. So I want us to take a look at God's plan for building up his church. God's plan for building his body. He tells us in verses 11 and 12 the process of building that he intends. This is the process that he's going to use to build up his body. In the verses before chapter 11 Paul is talking about Jesus having come down to this earth. He died. He was buried. He rose again. And he ascended back to heaven. And when he ascended back to heaven, he gave spiritual gifts to people so that they could work for him and serve him in his body. And he talks in this passage about four gifts that he gave, four gifted people, not superior to anybody else, not better than anybody else, but he focuses on these four kinds of gifts that are to be used in the building up of the body. Notice them in verse 11. It was he who gave some to be apostles and some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers. Let me stop right there for a moment and just expand just for a moment upon those four groups of people. Four kinds of gifts that God has given to the body of Christ. And it is those people who are designed to be instrumental in then equipping the church to build itself up, as we will see this passage goes on to say. Apostles were men who had seen the resurrected Christ, had been specifically verbally, personally recruited by him to serve him, and who were instrumental in laying the foundation of the church back in chapter 2 in verse 20. The Bible says that God's household was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And these men in order to lay the foundation of the church were given special miraculous ability. The Bible calls them sign gifts or the gifts of an apostle, signs of an apostle. Miraculous gifts that they were given to be able to authenticate their ministry, to serve as their credentials for the ministry they had. There are no apostles today, those were foundational men in the first century of the church that laid the foundation of the church. Then prophets. Prophets were people who received both men and women who received messages directly from God, new revelation because his revelation had not yet been fully written down in the Bible. So God would give peace meal, bit by bit, revelation from himself, things he wanted his people to know. And it was prophets who received that and then gave it out to God's people, spoke it out to God's people. Again, Ephesians 2 verse 20 says they were foundational as well. They laid the foundation of the church along with the apostles. In that strict sense of the word, there are no prophets left today. There are no people who are receiving new revelation from God. God's revelation has been fully given in his word. In the sense that people stand to proclaim God's word, there is that prophetic ministry, but no prophets today receiving new revelation from God to be given to his people. God's given his all he wants us to know right here. And then he says there are some evangelists. God gave the church evangelists. The word literally means a bearer of good news. It's a person whose entire ministry is focused on spreading the gospel, who focuses on the good news of the death, burial, resurrection of Christ. And takes that gospel where the gospel is not preached and establishes new churches. Today, the best person who kind of corresponds to that new testament evangelist is a missionary. One whose responsibility is primarily to take the gospel into new areas and start new churches. When we hear evangelists today, we think of a guy that travels around from church to church speaking in special meetings. And while that may be the case where the person whose primary ministry is to preach the gospel and reach the unchurched and the unsaved, this typically has to do with a person who's taking the gospel into new areas and starting churches. And then the fourth person that God has given to the church to help build the church up and equip the church is what's called pastor teacher. There in verse 11, notice the word some covers both of those pastors and teachers. There are some prophets, some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists. And then the next word some covers both pastors and teachers indicating that's one office with two different infacies. Pastor teacher. A pastor is a shepherd. That's what the word literally means. A shepherd of the flock. One who leads the flock and cares for the flock, but the thrust of his ministry is the ministry of the word. He cares for the flock leads the flock by feeding the flock through the ministry of the word. Typically, what we would think of by way of that term is in a larger church like ours, the role of a senior pastor whose primary responsibility is to minister the word of God. But there are other pastors who come alongside him to help feed or lead or care for the needs of the flock. And it is that responsibility that is primary. There's a common misunderstanding about the next verse. Notice the Bible says that God gave these people, particularly the end of the verse, pastors and teachers, verse 12, to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up. There's a misunderstanding about verse 12. And it is primarily because of a misplaced comma in the King James Version. In the older versions of Scripture, there is a comma in there that really should not be there. And it basically has led to this verse being understood as a three-part job description for pastors. It is the job of the pastor teacher because many of them misunderstood that translation to mean it is the job of the pastor teacher to perfect the saints, to do the work of the ministry, and to build up the body or to build up the saints. And so many have said it is the job of the pastor. That's what we pay him for. He's the paid professional to build up the saints, to do all the work of the ministry, and to build the church. That's his job, that's what we pay him for. So if someone gets sick and goes to the hospital, call the preacher, he's the one supposed to do that. If someone has a need, call the preacher, he's supposed to counsel them. If someone needs to be saved or needs to be called a preacher, that's what we pay him for. He's supposed to go visit people. When a church gets about 120 people, there is no one person that can minister to all the needs of people in a flock. And there is no four or five people that can do all of that either. Just ask our other pastors. There is nobody that can meet all of the needs of people. And that's never the way God intended it to work. God intended that specifically the pastor who leads the flock by teaching the word is to focus on that ministry of building up the saints so that the believers, the body, can do the work of ministry. And that's exactly what the newer translations emphasize, that it is our job as pastors to prepare God's people to do the works of ministry, to do the work of service. You know, the Bible teaches very plainly. And this is the way we have our ministry structured the way we do. That particularly the teaching pastor, major responsibility is the ministry of the word and prayer. You see, God impressed that upon these apostles early in the book of Acts, chapter 6, their organizational challenges for this fast growing church. And one of those organizational challenges is how to carry out the ministry of feeding widows. And there's a problem with that. And the apostles realized early on that they could get pulled in many different directions. And so they said, we will not leave the ministry of the word and prayer to serve tables. Is serving tables below them? No. But they realize that's just the first and the long string of things that will occupy their time and attention to the point that they no longer have time for the word. No longer have time for prayer. That's why we structure our pastoral staff the way we do it. In a church this size, my major responsibility is the ministry of the word and prayer for the flock. Now, unless you get confused about that, that's not all I do. At least half of my day has spent in overseeing the ministries of this church, overseeing our staff, visiting people, counseling people. I still do a lot of that, even though Jim Simmons is our pastor that does most of that. I still do a lot of that. I still have three, four, five counseling sessions every week and visit the hospitals and visit other people. I'm still involved in overseeing ministries of the church. And that's at least half my time. But the best and most important part of my time is preparing for the ministry of the word. If I start doing everything else and forget that, then the church suffers. John MacArthur had it right when writing on this passage of Scripture, he said this, the study and teaching of God's word takes time. And it's difficult for anyone who does not involve himself in that full time to understand that, but it does. I could get up here and shoot from the hip if I wanted to, but most of you would know that. And the church would suffer because of that. That would not be God's calling upon my life. He says the evangelist or pastor teacher, therefore cannot fulfill his God-given responsibility if he is encumbered with the planning and administration of a multitude of programs, no matter how worthy and helpful they are. Again, like the apostles in Jerusalem, he cannot serve tables and be faithful to prayer in the ministry of the word. He goes on to talk about how the surest way to kill a church and to stagnate a church is for the pastor whose responsibility it is to minister the word, to be drawn to so many other things that this begins to suffer. I've made you this promise before. I make it again, no matter how many other responsibilities I have, I'll add hours to the day and days to the week before I'm neglect the ministry of the word. This is my ultimate priority. I'm so thankful for my friendship with John Altizer over the past 18 months. John was a preaching pastor, he understood this, and he continually encouraged me not to lose my focus. He told me the last time we met before he took the church in Christian's word, he looked at me in the eye and he said, John, don't you ever forget your greatest voice is in the pulpit. You are responsible to teach and preach the word. Don't get sidetracked from that. And so if other things come along, they'll be shoved to other times, but I will not sacrifice the ministry of the word. That's why we have other pastors. It is their responsibility to take some of those other things that need to be administered, that need to be done, and they do it so well, to be able to free me, to be able to be the ministry of the word. That's the way a church is supposed to operate. That's God's design, that's God's plan, that's God's process here. And so the process of church growth, the process of building God's body is that God's men whom he's given to the church with certain gifts, not that we're better than anybody else, not that we're superior to anybody else, it's just what God has put on our lives. It's the calling he's put on us, and we are gifted to do that, which he's gifted us to do. And primarily the shepherd who feeds the flock is in mind here, is responsible for the preparing of God's people to do the works of ministry. By the way, the Bible talks about four things that equip or prepare or mature God's people. The same word translated equip in our version here is found other places in the Bible, and they indicate there are four things God uses to equip, to prepare, to mature His people. Four things, one of them is the word. Second Timothy chapter three, just look quickly at these verses. Second Timothy three, all scriptures, God breed, and is useful for teaching, rebuke, correcting, and training and righteousness so that the servant of God may be thoroughly, here's our word, equip for every good work. The word sometimes means to equip, sometimes it means to restore to mature, to even set a bone so it will heal properly, to mend nets, it's also used that way. The word of God equips us, and the major responsibility of a pastor is to give the word of God so that people are equipped, restored, mend, healed, fully matured to do the work of ministry. Second thing God uses, to mature and restore people is prayer. If Paphress understood this, in Colossians chapter four, verse 12, if Paphress, who was the pastor of the church at Colossi, he understood this, Paul wrote to the Colossian church, if Paphress, who is one of you, and a servant of Christ Jesus sends greetings. He had gone to visit Paul in Rome, where Paul's writing to the Colossian church from. He says, he is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, and here's our word, mature and fully assured. God's people are matured through the ministry of prayer for them. Now the third thing, and the third use of this word in the New Testament, this is hard, this is where it gets tough. Third thing God uses to mature us as his people is trials. James chapter one, consider it pure joy. My brothers, you have to consider, which means to logically think that this is pure joy because it doesn't feel like joy. So you've got to recognize God is accomplishing something through me, through trial, in me, through trials. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters. Whenever you face trials of many kind, here's why, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance, let perseverance finish its work so that you may be, here's our word, mature and complete, not lacking anything. God uses trials, fourthly God uses suffering. Oh, that hurts, but God uses suffering. Verse Peter 5, 10, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself, here it is, restore you and make you strong firm instead of best. God uses the ministry of the word, prayer, trials and suffering to mature us and grow us to establish us, to repair us, to mend us, to equip us. Now the last two are up to God, trials and suffering. The first two are up to us, the ministry of the word and prayer. And that's what God uses to equip, to establish the people of God, to do the work of ministry. That is the process that God uses for building up his church. One of the purposes, however, just look at them quickly, and I know this is somewhat of a review for many of you, verses 13 to 15. Five purposes that God's wanting us to equip people for. Here's the reason why we're to be built up as a body. Verse 13, Purpose number one is unity, until we all reach unity in the faith. Sameness, oneness, common purpose, common goal. And it is the pastor's responsibility to teach the word of God so that we understand what we're to be unified around. What our goal is, what our mission and purpose is in this world. And so we gather around that, we're unified around that in the faith. Second purpose for building up the church is the knowledge of Christ, notice, and in the knowledge of the Son of God, to know Him more, to understand more about Him so that we become more like Him. And that leads to the third purpose in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature attaining to the full measure or the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. See, as we grow in mature, the goal that is set for us to grow to to mature like is the Lord Jesus Himself. And I love the way Paul says in verse 15, where he says, instead speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the head that is Christ. That expression growing up into Him is the idea of Christ being the mold, the pattern, and we start out kind of small. But as we grow, we're beginning to take on His shape, we're beginning to fill in, we're beginning to become more like Him to grow into Him. I have a 14 year old grandson who started a high school this year and it's kind of hard for me to believe. I don't feel that old. I know I look at it but I don't feel it. My grandson, like most teenagers, doesn't have a pair of dress shoes. He wears other kinds of shoes. And so when there's a school occasion or a church occasion that requires him to wear dress shoes, he comes to grandpa. And he borrows some of my shoes. When he first started doing that a couple of years ago, his foot just slid around in those shoes. In fact, he had to really time tight and almost put bands around him to keep him on. Now, he can barely get his foot in my shoe. Size 11, the boy is almost as tall as I am and his foot is already bigger than mine. He has grown into my shoe. He has filled it out. We are to grow into Christ. He is the pattern. He is the model. As we grow, we grow to fit Him to look like Him to be more like Him. Notice the fourth purpose, verse 14, doctrinal stability, that we then we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves, blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. There's a lot of false teaching out there, a lot of cunning, crafty teaching engineered by the devil to confuse God's people. And part of the purpose of the ministry of the word of God, the process of building the church, is so that people will no longer be little children who say, oh man, look at that. That's so wild, that's neat. I'll follow this guy for a while or I like that new teaching. I don't know, firmly founded in the word of God, stabilized there so that we know what we believe and know why we believe it. And then the fifth purpose is the sharing of truth, verse 15. Instead speaking the truth in love, we will then all things grow up into Him who is the head that is Christ. Speaking the truth to unbelievers, speaking the truth to other believers, being able to share the truth with others is part of the purpose for how God wants to grow us. Those are the purposes for growth. But what I really want you to see this morning is the power for this building program. Where does the power for this come from, verse 16? From Him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love as each part does its work. From Him, Christ, it is from Christ. The power comes to do this kind of building. He's the head. Verse 15, just talking about him being the head and just like the brain of our body tells the rest of the body what to do, sends him pulses out through the nervous system to the rest of the body, tells the hand to do this or the foot to do that or the eye to look here or the neck to turn that way. The brain controls the functions of the body so it is from him from Christ that the building up with the body takes place. But notice how he has chosen to do this. Verse 16 says from him, the whole body joined and held together by every supporting ligament grows and builds itself up in love. Notice as each part does its work. I don't understand this completely. God can do anything he wants to do in any way he wants to do it. But he has chosen as the head to use the parts of his body so that the body builds itself up and each part has to do its own work. Each part is responsible to do what God has gifted it to do. And so just like the body some of you are like a major organ providing a special ministry to the body teaching music, whatever it may be. Some of you are like the joints and ligaments you tie everything together in the body with strong organizational skills that keep ministries running effectively. Some of you are like the flow of the blood in the body bringing that life giving oxygen of encouragement to others who are serving. Some of you are like the nervous system. Exorping other parts of the body to spring into action, challenging others, encouraging others with your words and your example. Some of you are like the muscles of the body you give the strength of the body by doing the hard work and by throwing yourself into ministry that needs to be done. Some of you are like the skin in the body protecting us from disease and infection and attack with a covering of prayer. But we all have a part and that leads me to God's method for building up the church which is the one another strategy. You see the foundation is here in Ephesians 4 and everything I will say and everything I will preach in the next 16 or 12 or 13 weeks is based on this foundation that God has given us as pastors to perfect, to equip, to restore, to mend the saints so that the saints can do the work of ministry. And as each part of the body does its part, the body builds itself up. That's the foundation. Now you say, well what is my part? What am I supposed to do? That's where God's one another strategy comes in. Because in the New Testament God has given us specific directions as to what we're to do. He hasn't left us to wonder about this. If the body is going to function properly, God has said, okay here it is. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, there are 12 of 13 of them. 13, one and others. God said, this is how you build each other up. This is how you minister to one another so that my body is built. 58 times in the epistles, I think I said in the early service in the New Testament, this is just in the epistles in Paul's epistles and others who wrote the letter to the Hebrews and Peter and John and people like that. In the epistles, 58 times this expression, one another or each other is found. Paul uses it 40 times. It's very basic to pause teaching us how the church should function. These one and others, when you boil them all down, these 58 occurrences, you can boil them down into 13. So here's the one and other list. If you know me, you know I'm a list kind of person. I love lists. I got lists of stuff to do that never get done, but I got the list, man. I love lists. So I love this. I love this kind of list. Here's the list of one and others in the New Testament. I don't have them on the screen. So right quick. Number one, we are members of one another. Number two, we are devoted. We are to be devoted to one another. Number three, we are to honor one another. Number four, we are to be of the same mind with one another. Number five, we are to accept one another. Number six, we are to admonish one another. Number seven, we are to greet one another. Number eight, serve one another. Number nine, bear one another's burdens. Number 10, bear with one another. There's a big difference in bearing one another's burdens and bearing with one another. We'll see that difference later. Number 11, submit to one another. Number 12, encourage one another. Those are the one and others missing one that I'll mention in just a moment. But what the Bible is saying is if the church is going to be built, if God is going to build his church, if Christ builds his church, it's going to be as every part, every member does its part. That's what Ephesians 4 says. So we all have a place and a part in this. We need each other. We need one another to do this ministry. There's an interesting video clip on the Fox News website right now. It's of a little eight year old girl who was singing the national anthem at a hockey game in Norfolk, Virginia. And just after she got into the song, her mic went dead. So here she is still singing, but nobody can hear her. And you can see in the background of the video, there's evidently a guy who's operating at kind of stuff who's walking up to evidently take the mic and try to figure out what's wrong. But all of a sudden he stops, kneels down on one knee because what has happened is the people in that arena start singing with her. They realize where she broke off. And so they just pick up the song. And instead of this little eight year old girl becoming frantic and not knowing what to do because her mic's not working. She just keeps singing. And she has the courage to keep singing because by the time she's two or three more bars into it, everybody in the arena is singing the national anthem. It's a beautiful sight. We need each other. And when one of us is down and hurting, one of us is not functioning properly. One of us may be straying away from the Lord some. We need each other to jump in and say, I'll help you sing that song. I'll finish it for you. Come on. I'll come alongside you. I'll put my arm around you. I will help you through this time. We need one another. We need each other. That's the way God has designed this to work. Now here's the way that we believe it works in our church. Look at this again pyramid model of ministry that we've accepted adopted kind of as our our philosophy of ministry. The way we want to do ministry here at Johnson Chapel. To love Christ, to grow in Christ and to serve Christ. That's our philosophy of ministry. That's our mission statement. That's our purpose. To love him, to grow in him and to serve him. And while target ministries may bring people to our church, it is really here in this morning service that we gather together to express our love to Christ and hear his words so that we know how to love him better. And so it is here that we really love Christ and we show our love to him and we express our love to him. And so you're here this morning in this service. But if you want to go to the next level in the pyramid and the next level in your spiritual growth, you need to get in a growth group that is designed to move you to loving not just loving but growing in Christ. Growth groups right now are adult Bible fellowships. Beginning of the year, we're going to be starting small groups as another kind of growth group to get you involved in. But we want everyone to be involved in some kind of growth group where you can not only study the word. That's an important component. But rather than just sitting in a pew hearing the word, you can do the one or others. You can be involved in sharing with one another, caring for one another, praying for one another, helping one another, encouraging one another, really being members of one another. You can involve yourself in the one or others. That is going to become a critical foundational part of our Bible fellowships and of our small groups because it is an important part of growth. Again, what does Ephesians for say? The body cannot grow unless each part is doing it, each member doing its part and builds itself up. I'm passionate about the ministry of the word because I know what the New Testament teaches about its power. But more than that is needed to build God's church. It takes all of us working together in the one or others to build each other up. That leads me to God's summary for building up the church. There's one one or another that I did not mention because it's a summary of all the others. You guess what it was? To love one another. To love one another. This is the focus of Jesus' prayer and Jesus' teaching, his command and his prayer at the end of his ministry. Three times in John chapter 13 he told us disciples on the night before he went to the cross. Love one another. Love one another. Love one another. Three times in two verses. Love one another. And he tells them again before he leaves the room that evening, chapter 15, verses 12 to 14, verse 17. Love one another. And then as he prays to the Father just when they leave that room, he's going to press it on him again. The very last thing he says in that prayer in John 17 and verse 26 is that I want Father, I want them to experience the love that you and I have. In other words, love each other. Love one another. So this is the focus of Jesus' command and prayer, but it is also the apostles' emphasis in the epistles as they write letters to different people. They focus on love one another. Did you know that they talk about love 85 times in the letters they wrote? 85 times. Now we're going to look at all of them this morning. No, I'm not going to do that to you. But 85 times. I mean, I've got them listed as to how many times in each epistle every epistle starting with Romans going all the way through Jude. Every epistle has at least one. And in some cases, first John 24 mentions of loving each other. I mean, this is a focus. This is and the reason why this is such a focus of Christ and of the apostles, the writers of the New Testament, the reason why this is such a focus because it summarizes all the other one and others. To love one another is to put the needs of another person first to put their welfare and benefit before your own. That's really the deepest kind of love. Jesus said greater love has no man than this than that a man lay down his life for another. That sacrificial giving of yourself. And when you do that, when you love people in that way, you're going to want to pray for them. You're going to want to greet them well. You're going to want to accept them. You're going to want to admonish them and serve them and bear with them. All of those other one another's flow out of loving one another. Oh, how we need to love one another. There's another interesting video on the time magazine's website. It's actually a story that they have on there about something that happened recently in an airport in a major city in our country. A man who a businessman who lived in Denver was on a business trip in Los Angeles and got a call that no grandparent or parent ever wants to get. And that is that his three year old grandson had been brutally murdered by his daughter's live in boyfriend. And so his heart is being ripped out and he hears that they've got the three year old boy on life support just long enough to be able to use his organs for organ transplant. And he desperately wanted to get back to be with his daughter before they turned the machine off. But he's in LA on a business trip. He's got to get to Denver. How's he going to do that? So he quickly arranges some flights. And the inevitable happens. He gets to the airport, gets through the ticket agent to get everything straightened out and starts through security. And he's pleading with the security people. This is my situation. Please understand. I've got please let me get to the front of the line. Please let me. They wouldn't do it. And so he knows he's going to miss his connecting flight. And as he runs to the gate where he's supposed to get his flight waiting for him at the gate is the pilot of that plane. Not a stewardess, not a ticket agent, the pilot. And the pilot said to him, are you Mark? And he responded, yes, I am. The pilot said to him, I am so, so sorry to hear about the tragedy in your family. We are holding this plane for you. Don't worry. I will get you there. I will get you where you need to be. And here's what he said. I'm going to quote what he said. They can't go anywhere without me. And I wasn't going to go anywhere without you. Now relax. We'll get you there. And again, I'm so sorry for what you're going through. I love what he said. They can't go anywhere without me. I'm the pilot. And I'm not going to go anywhere without you. That's love. Again, I don't fully understand this. Jesus is the pilot of his church. He's the one who flies the plane. He's the one who has said, I will build my church. But there is a sense in which Jesus has said, I'm not leaving without you. I'm not doing this without you. That's what he told us in Ephesians 4. I'm the head. I transmit to the body what it should do. But the body is only going to grow as each member does its part. I'm not leaving without you. You see, is it really important to us what Jesus said about the body will not grow as God intends it to grow unless all of us are doing our part? Unless all of us are doing the one or others. Now I know. I know what some of you are thinking. You're already up to here and doing your part. You're doing as much as you can possibly do. And it's going to be you folks who will hear this and say, I've got to do more. No. No. No. You're doing your part. It's the vestigial organs of the body. I'm talking to this morning. The organs that have no apparent use because they're not doing anything. It's you I'm talking to. You need to get serious about the one or others. You need to recognize that unless you do your part, this body is held back. Christ's work in doing what he wants to do. He's waiting on you. He's waiting on you. Let's pray together. Father, help me to do my part. Help me to be faithful in the part of the body that you've called me to. And even in other needs that maybe are not a part of my calling, but need to be done. To be faithful. I pray that each of us in this room will take seriously the commands to do the one or others so that the body can build itself up as each member does its part. Help us to take seriously the one or others we ask in Jesus name. Amen.