A People, Not A Place

Jeremiah 20:7-8
You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived.  You seized me and prevailed.  I am a laughingstock all the time; everyone ridicules me. For whenever I speak, I cry out, I proclaim, “Violence and destruction!” so the word of the Lord has become my constant disgrace and derision.

Acts 14: 19-20a
Some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and when they won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead. 20 After the disciples gathered around him, he got up and went into the town.

 

I think if we have Learned anything this past year, I would hope that it would be WE ARE A ______________ AND NOT A _______________.

 

1 Corinthians 12:12-20
For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body—so also is Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and we were all given one Spirit to drink. 14 Indeed, the body is not one part but many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. 19 And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

 

A ________________   __________ is a God-Given, God-Chosen ability He gives you—Typically outside your natural abilities—that are intended to be used to SERVE God by Serving Others.

 

1 Peter 4:10
Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God.

 

Paul’s illustration of the Body is that we would understand we are a collection of __________________________ parts—-don’t miss that.

 

_____________________ is not a GOSPEL Value. Interdependence is!

 

Church is not just an Event to be Attended but an ________________ to be Practiced.

 

Luke 22:14-20
When the hour came, he reclined at the table, and the apostles with him. 15 Then he said to them, “I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. 16 For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” 17 Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks, he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. 18 For I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

19 And he took bread, gave thanks, broke it, gave it to them, and said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.

 

1 Corinthians 11:27-28
So, then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sin against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Let a person examine himself; in this way let him eat the bread and drink from the cup.

 

1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

 

What adjustments would you need to make in your life that you would see yourself NOT as an INDEPENDENT Part of the Body of Christ but a Vital, Necessary, Needed, INTERDEPENDENT part of the Body of Christ?

 

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