Your Life Depends on It

0:08Well, as you're being seated, as you're taking your seat, if you can grab your Bibles and open up to Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12 is going to be part of our text this morning. This is week 2 in this 3-week miniseries on the type of church that I believe that God wants us to be. In fact, not just wants us to be, the type of church we must be. Our mission here at Compass Bible Church is that we would be a church that is reaching, teaching, and training.

0:31That we are carrying out the Great Commission in the lives of our flock and those around us. And if we're going to do that, then we envision being a church that, as we talked about last week, is Christ exalting, this week church equipping, and then next week culture engaging. And so as we come to this idea of being a church that is well equipped, that's going to be our focus this morning. As we get there though, I don't know if you've heard of this individual on the screen, but he is the only member of the United States Coast Guard ever to receive the Medal of Honor. And it was awarded to him in 1943 for actions that took place in September of 1942.

1:09September of 1942 in the Pacific theater, it was the Guadalcanal campaign. Coast Guard Douglas Munro was involved in transporting troops from the ships, the Marines, from the ships to the shores, to the island there in the Solomon Islands. And there was a particular excursion that they were going on to take what they termed Hill 84. And as they were going up Hill 84, the Marines got stranded atop Hill 84 because what had happened is 2 Japanese forces had come in on either side of their path back down to the water. And so the Marines radioed in for help, and they began to get artillery bombardments coming in from off the shore on either side of the main thoroughfare there to try to distract and keep the Japanese at bay so that the Marines could get off the island.

1:56Well, meanwhile, back on the boats in safety, as they're firing these cannons, the Coast Guard was mobilized again. And they said, hey, we need to get those Marines off that island. And so Douglas Munro, who had just driven one of the transports to get them to the island, stepped forward and said, I'll drive one to get them off the island. As they were driving back to the island, and as they approached the island, there was fire coming off of the island from the Japanese who saw what was happening and wanted to prevent these Marines from escaping. And so these boats, as they were coming close to the island, they were taking fire.

2:29From the enemy. And Douglas Munro was one of those boats taking fire from the enemy, and he noticed as he was drawing near to the shore that one of their other troop transport boats has become stranded on a reef. And so Munro took his transport boat and he placed his boat between the enemy fire and the boat that was stranded there on the reef. And he got out and got into the machine gun position and began to fire on the enemy. And he was doing this in hopes of 2 things: number one, being able to free that one boat so that it could get back with the troops that were on board, and number two, to try to finish the mission, to get all of those 500 Marines off the island and back to safety.

3:06Well, as he was there and as he was firing, Munro didn't notice that there was a stream of machine gun fire from one of the Japanese that was coursing across the water straight at his boat. And sure enough, that machine gun fire, one of those bullets came up and hit him right at the base of the skull where the skull meets the neck there. Munro dropped unconscious to the deck of his boat. One of the fellow soldiers there grabbed him and brought him back onto his boat, and they were driving back to safety, back to the boats that Munro had enjoyed safety in previously and could have stayed in and let somebody else go and be the driver. And as he's going back, Munro briefly regained consciousness to look at the troops that were around him and say, did they get off?

3:50That was his question. Did they get off? And the troops around him said, yeah, we got them to safety. When he heard that, Munro slipped back into unconsciousness and never recovered. So the Medal of Honor was actually awarded posthumously in 1943 to his mom and dad as the only member of the United States Coast Guard ever to receive the Medal of Honor.

4:12What made him do that? What produced that in him?

4:19The answer is he was all in with the mission at hand. He, he knew what the purpose was, and he knew initially his purpose was to get the Marines from the boats to the island. And then he understood after that that the purpose was to get the Marines from the island back to the boats. And again, when the call came to say, hey, they're in trouble, we need somebody to go after them, Munro, on the safety of his ship, on the safety of his boat, could have stepped back and said Somebody else will step forward and do this. I don't need to volunteer again.

4:50I was the one that took them out there to begin with. Somebody else will do this. And then on top of that, as he's going and sees the boat that's stranded, he could have thought to himself, wow, how unfortunate for that person in this place of need, and they're in a desperate circumstance. I'm just glad I'm not them. And he could have probably kept himself safe.

5:11But rather, because he knew what was at stake, and he knew the mission, and he knew the purpose, and he knew the role that he needed to play in that. Monroe was willing to go to the furthest extent that he possibly could in order to see the mission accomplished.

5:23Church, we don't have enemy fire in the same way that Monroe did, but be not deceived, there's an enemy firing at the church today. There's an enemy active in the world all around us that doesn't want to see the mission of the church succeed.

5:41And right now we have a mission— reaching, teaching, and training— We have a mission, we have a purpose to see lost people saved and Christ exalted, as we talked about last week, that if we're not all in as a church, we will not succeed in. And so as we come to Romans 12, verses 4 through 6, here's what I want you to think about, church. I want you to think about this, and it's cheesy, albeit, but it hopefully will stick with you. A church that's all in is a church that will win. A church that's all in is a church that will win, that will win in the eyes of Christ, that will win more souls to Christ, that will win when it comes to accomplishing the mission that we have.

6:17A church that's all in is a church that will win. What does a church that is all in look like? We're going to look at that from Romans chapter 12 and also from 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Romans chapter 12, verses 4 through 6 says this: For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

6:44Let us use them. That's where we're going to stop for right now. In Romans 12:4-6, and then also in 1 Corinthians 12 and other passages, I think we see if we're going to be a church that's all in, to be a church that's going to win, there's 3 commitments that we need from the church. And these aren't just commitments broad level. These are commitments, and this is going to be a sermon this morning, church, if I can put it this way.

7:05I'm going to get in your kitchen a little bit this morning, okay? I'm going to step on some toes, but hopefully in love this morning with what we're going to talk about as far as what I believe that the Bible teaches. And that's what I'm asking you to do. Don't, don't take my word for it, but hold me accountable to what Scripture says. Turn to the passages that we're going to be looking at together this morning.

7:23Ask yourself, what does this actually look like in action this morning? But these are commitments that we're going to need. This— we're going to need commitments from each and every single believer, follower of Jesus Christ in this room. If we're going to accomplish the mission that God has for this church. First commitment is this, number 1, commit to us by getting connected.

7:41That's point number 1 this morning, commit to us by getting connected. Back in Romans 12:4, it says this, for as in one body we have many members, okay, there's diversity but unity in the body. There's a cohesiveness, many people, one body here in the church. And then look at verse 5. He says, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and then this phrase, and individually members of one another.

8:09See, y'all, God has designed the church and the local church to consist of many people who are all committed in relationship to one another. We are members of one another. Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verses 12 through 14. 1 Corinthians 12:12-14 says this: For just as the body is one and has many members, and all members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body— Jews or Greeks or slaves or free— and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

8:46For the body does not consist of one member but of many. Okay, so Paul's talking about the same thing in 1 Corinthians 12 that he's talking about in Romans chapter 12. He's talking about the body is diverse but unified, many members, one body. Now you may be tempted to say, or maybe you have in the past, or you may have thought in the past, okay, sure, universal church, right? The church, capital C, many members, one universal church.

9:10And that's what he's talking about here, Pastor. He's talking about the universal church. He's not anywhere here saying anything about the local church. Well, I disagree, and I disagree because what he goes on to say, look at verse 18. If you're in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, in fact here it is up on the screen, verses 18 through 20.

9:25Paul goes on and says this, but as it is, God has arranged the members in the body, each one of them— notice the individuality here— each one of them as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts yet one body. Listen, this makes no sense if Paul just has in mind here the universal church. What in the world does it mean if all this is the universal church and there's no focus on the local church at all here?

9:54What does it mean that God has arranged each member as he chose? And what does it mean that each one of them, if a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts yet one body. Why would it matter if this is simply this amorphous, ambiguous universal church that he's talking about? But I would argue instead, and I think this is what he's talking about in Romans 12 as well, That he's talking about the local church.

10:15He's talking about this body right here and committing to one another and being a multifaceted, multi-diverse group that all comes together as one group because we are committed to each other. And so that's why commit to us by getting connected. Now let me flesh out that second part for just a second. Here at Compass Bible Church, a lot of people will come and say, what does it look like to be a part of the church? What does it look like for me to be a member of the church?

10:41And right now we don't have a formalized membership, but this is what we'll tell you. If this is your church home, if this is where you're saying, this is— I'm all in and I'm going to commit here, and this is where Pastor Rod, Pastor PJ, they are my pastors, then to be a part of our church looks like this: you attend, you connect, and you serve. You attend, you connect, and you serve. Attending is what you're doing right now, so congratulations, check the box on that, right? But connection, right?

11:06And that's where I want to dive in next, because I think that's the bread and butter here. And you're like, but wait a minute, I thought this was a sermon on getting equipped. It is about getting equipped, but we can't effectively equip the church if we're dealing with a church that's not committed, that's not all in, that's not connected to one another. And so the second component of connection here, and this is where I'm going to begin to, to, to meddle a little bit. And here's what I want to say, church, if you're not connecting You are missing a vital component of God's purpose for having you here.

11:35And we are missing a vital component of God's purpose for having you here. Connection, building relationships, getting involved in community is integral to finding your place in the body of Christ. Again, I go back to 1 Corinthians 12:18. God has arranged each member as he chose. You are here because God has placed you here, and God has placed you here to be in community with other brothers and sisters in Christ.

12:02I tried to highlight the language, but here it is literally highlighted for you. Romans 12:5, we though many are one body in Christ, and listen to this language, individually we are members of one another. We are members of one another. That is intimate language that Paul is using here for the church. This is not Sunday-only language here.

12:25This is doing life within community with each other. This is weeping with— in fact, that's the context in Romans 12. Romans 12:9, let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil. Hold fast to what is good.

12:35Love one another with brotherly affection. How can you do that without being connected to the church? Love one another with brotherly affection. He goes on, he says, rejoice— verse 15, rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.

12:48Live in harmony with one another. These are all descriptors, these are all things meant to be carried out and lived out within the body of Christ, and you can't do that if you're on the outside, not connected, not committed in the community of the body of Christ.

13:04Ephesians 4:25, he uses the same language here. He says, therefore, having put away falsehood, let each of you who speak the truth— or let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor. For we are members of one another. We're members of one another. This is the church membership that matters, y'all.

13:22This right here, being members of one another, being committed in community with one another, being many members but one body realized here in the local church. And so we want to see you commit to us by getting connected. But here's the thing, y'all, it's not just about committing to those to your left and your right. It's about committing to God's design for the church. There is, I'm going to argue, no such thing in the New Testament as a Sunday-only Christian.

13:50Now, those of you who have community group on Sundays, you guys are exempt from that statement. Not really though, because we still want more than just, you know, showing up at church and going to community group. But listen, there's no such thing in the category of the church. You can read it, find it, bring it to us, say, look, here's the example. Of the Sunday-only Christian, the 2-hour-a-week Christian.

14:10We talked about this last week in the Christ Exalting sermon. If Christ is going to have first place in your life, and that right now for you looks like showing up for a 2-hour service on Sunday, hour-and-a-half service on Sunday, then there's something missing, a lot of something missing. Look at Acts chapter 2. Look at the birth of the church. Look at how they were sharing all things in common.

14:29They were meeting together daily. You say, okay, well that's— a unique stage of the church, and I'll give you that. But how about 1 Corinthians 13, the great passage on loving? Love is kind, love is patient, love does not boast, it does not rejoice in evil, it does not insist on its own way. You know what, we read that at weddings, but you know what that was written to?

14:46That was written to this group right here. That was written to the church. How can you be obedient to the call to love the way that Paul calls us to in 1 Corinthians 13 by only showing up on Sunday mornings and never darkening the doors of the church or seeing anybody else for from the body of Christ the rest of the week. Or how about Galatians chapter 6? Paul says there that we are to bear one another's burdens, that if we see a brother or sister in sin, we are to restore that person in a spirit of gentleness and love for them.

15:12Listen, it's easy for you to show up this morning looking as best as you, you possibly can all week with the facade on and looking like you've got the Instagram family. That's not hard to do. What gets hard is when you begin to let somebody else into your literal kitchen because you're having them in your house or you're going to their house. When you begin to get to know someone, where they see you when you're showing up and, man, your last nerve has been frayed. That's where relationship, accountability, love for one another really takes off.

15:45Showing up on Sunday morning's not hard to do.

15:49Showing up the rest of the time and investing the way that God calls us to in the church. That's where the bread and butter of true connecting and true commitment to the bride of Christ looks like. We have a luxury in our society here of saying, well, you know, I go to church on Sunday, isn't that enough? And the early Christians wouldn't have even fathomed that luxury. And I don't think it's a good luxury.

16:09I don't think it's a good thing for us.

16:14Maybe you think, yeah, but They were under intense persecution and they really felt that need. Okay, what happens when intense persecution does come to us? Do you think a switch is going to flip for you? What relationships have you invested in with other believers right now that if tomorrow it was going to become illegal to gather together as a church, you would have somebody that was going to care for your soul, that was going to be there?

16:43So it's not just about your commitment to one another, your commitment to the Lord, but also it's all about your commitment to your pastors. This is something that Pastor Rod and I spent a long time this week talking about, and also with Marc. Hebrews 13:17 says this. He says, obey your leaders and submit to them. But this is the part that I want you to focus on here.

17:03For they are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

17:15Our primary means, church, of shepherding the flock to this level is through you being committed to us through community. Here's what I mean by that. If this is your church home and you would say Pastor Rod and I are your pastors, you need to be in a community group. And I'm not trying to be legalistic. I'm not saying you're not saved if you're not in a community group.

17:37I'm just saying if you're opting into us, if you're saying you guys are my shepherd, I want you to care for my soul, then we need you in community groups. Here's the thing, church. We have about 180 on average on a Sunday morning. There's 2 of us that are pastors. Marc is bearing some of the shepherding load as well, but even if that's 3 of us, that's 60 adults that are parsed out to each of the 3 of us.

18:02We only have about 120 of you, 127 of you involved in community group. Those numbers, you talk to any other pastor, to have 70% of a church body in community, they're going to be like, that's amazing. It is amazing, and we love that, but we're not satisfied with that. Because here's what I mean by that. When you plug into community group, here's how this helps me and Pastor Rod shepherd your soul.

18:24When I'm able to reach out to our community group leaders and say, hey, how's— how are things going in your group? Are there any needs going on that it would be helpful for me to be made aware of, that I can be praying for? Are there any counseling issues that I can help serve in? Are there any financial needs that we can come alongside and help support as a church family? Are you guys doing okay?

18:44How are you doing? Then what's able to happen there is they're able to take their group, 15, 20 people, And they're able to give me a rundown and help me understand the shepherding needs that exist within the church. If all you're doing is coming here on Sundays and then leaving, I can't effectively shepherd you. I can't know you to the level of knowing what your needs are. But when you place yourself under the care of under-shepherds, then you are also placing yourself under the care of your pastors and shepherds as well.

19:15Maybe I can try to give this a little bit more thrust here. This phrase, give an account, is the idea of being called in front of your employer and asked, hey, did you do the job that you were assigned? That's the future that Pastor Rod and I are going to face, and what's going to be the litmus test is, did you shepherd this room? And how did you do with that? And so you help us to be able to do that and do that effectively, and for us as pastors to be obedient to Christ.

19:45As you commit to us by getting connected. And Pastor Rod and I desire to be obedient to Christ in this. We want to be effective at being able to shepherd you, and the way that we're going to do that is when you commit to us. Now, maybe you need a little bit more than this. Here's what commitment looks like.

20:00Here's some of the benefits to you. You may be saying, okay, yeah, but what do I get out of this by being committed to a community group other than losing some time? And I confess that this is super small. I apologize for that. It's not the best.

20:10So let me read them out for you. First, your needs are going to be made known and provided for. When you plug into community and you get connected with other brothers and sisters in Christ, you're able to bring your needs to a group of people that are able to care for you, provide for you, and if necessary, raise those concerns up the flagpole and help the pastors to get involved in that as well, or the church at large to get involved in that. Second, counseling takes place in the context of community. You have situations— again, like I said, it's easy for you to show up this morning looking nice with the church facade on.

20:41But community is where you begin to build relationships and trust is transferred from one to another where you are able to sit down with someone and say, you know what, I look— I know it looks like we have it all put together on Sundays, but man, our marriage is struggling right now. Can I meet with you? Can I talk with you? You get that in community. You don't get that through showing up once a week and then turning around and leaving.

21:00Accountability takes place. You're going to be able to form relationships with people where they're going to get to know you and get to know how you're doing. And you're going to be able to say, hey, can you help me in my pursuit of Jesus? Can you hold me accountable to this and hold me accountable to this? The sermon also is going to be applied in community.

21:17If all you're doing is showing up here and then you're leaving and you're not involved in, in the community of the church, then I'm effectively your podcast pastor, just a worse one because you can find better ones out there.

21:30Honestly, I mean, John MacArthur can preach circles around me, obviously. That's not a newsflash. John Piper— find your favorite podcast pastor, go listen to them and free up your Sunday morning.

21:42But when you get involved in community and you connect in community within the church, then you're able to take the sermon, you're able to apply it with brothers and sisters in Christ, you're able to talk through, okay, hey, when he was talking about that one point, what does that look like in you? I'm trying to figure that out. Out for me, and our small groups, our community groups are built on that foundation and around that as well. Fourth, questions are raised and answered. You have questions, you're doing the Daily Bible Reading, you've got something come up, you're like, hey, I'm curious about this.

22:06Community and being connected to other brothers and sisters in Christ, great way to get your questions asked, and also maybe you have answers that some people need. Future leaders are identified. I mean, we're excited about what God's doing at the church, and as God grows the church, We're going to need to raise up more leaders, and getting— you getting known by other believers is a way for you to be identified as somebody that we're saying, hey, this is a future leader. We want to develop them. We want to invest in them.

22:30You're— next, you're prayed for. Your community group, that's going to be— those are our brothers and sisters in Christ that will be praying for you. But also your pastors are going to be praying for you. We're going to take our roster of our community group like we did this last week, and we're going to break it out. We're going to say, hey, these are the souls, check in with these people, check in with the leaders, hey, be praying for them.

22:49You're going to be prayed for when you're committed with us and connected with us. And then finally, mutual commitment is expressed. You're saying, I'm in, and we're looking at you saying, we're in, right? Mutual commitment is expressed. So commit to us by getting connected.

23:07There may be some roadblocks to that, and I get that. There may be some things that you're sitting there going, man, I, I, there's some impediments to me getting plugged in. So I want you to think about those things and think about what's keeping you from getting connected and saying, what can I do to overcome those things? Some questions for you to consider. Number 1, where are you moving?

23:25Where are you buying a house? Are you buying a house in a place that's going to take you out of community, out of connection? That, that as we're talking about this, which again I think is the biblical picture of what we see in Scripture. The one anothers, the loving, all this stuff being expressed. Are you going to be found in a place where your mortgage may lessen, but man, your spiritual oversight is going to lessen too?

23:48Is it worth it? What job are you taking? Are you taking a job that you have no time to be able to invest in the community of the body of Christ?

23:57What extracurricular activities are you committing to? What are you filling your calendar with? We talked about this last week with Are you the Christ-exalting person? Is Christ preeminent over your calendar such that you are saying, I'm going to commit to the bride of Christ? And then finally, what attitudes may need to be changed?

24:14Some don't want to get involved in community, if I can just be blunt, because of pride. You don't feel like you need it, or you feel like you're going to be smarter than everybody else in your community group. If you are, great. They need you. To bring your wisdom that God's given you to bear in their lives.

24:33But my guess is you're going to be encouraged too. So maybe there's some attitudes that need to be changed with this. Connection. Commit to us by getting connected. You might say, what does that look like?

24:43How do I do that? These are the groups that are available right now, that are open right now. We hope to multiply these groups. And again, I confess they're small. We've got the Bradleys, they're meeting on Sundays at 4:30.

24:52Over in Celina we've got the Kim group. They meet on Sundays at 4:30 in Little Elm. Cogans meet on Mondays at 6 in McKinney. The Kellys meet on Tuesdays at 6:30 in Aubrey, and the Littles meet on Thursdays at 6:30 in Celina. Now, this— we understand we're going to need more groups.

25:09We do have more groups. Some of them are just already full, and that's why they're not up on the list. But if you go to our website and you go to Get Connected, they're going to— there's a dropdown menu. You can find one of these groups and get connected. So here's the thing.

25:19Again, about 70% participation of our church body is connected in Community Groups. That's great, and that also means for those of you who are not, you're not going to have to look very long or far after service to find somebody who is and talk to them about the benefits that they've experienced by being in community. And so that's homework step 1 after church: find somebody who's been in a Community Group, talk to them, say, hey, what's it like? What are the benefits that you've experienced? And then homework step number 2, you guessed it, register for a Community Group.

25:44I warned our leaders as we talked about the sermon, as I sent them the recap of the sermon before yesterday, I said, look, we may get an influx— Lord willing, we will get an influx of people signing up to be in community groups after this sermon. Be ready for more people to get involved. We would love to have that be the result. If this is your church home, if I'm your pastor, if Pastor Rod's your pastor, then you need to be in a community group. You say, but I thought this was about being equipped.

26:11We're about to get there. But we can't effectively equip you if you're not all in with us. We can't effectively train you up and, and be a church that's serving to the capacity that we want to serve as effectively as we would if you first are all in with us. It's like this: you see a little old lady at a stoplight getting ready to cross the street. I've never found that, by the way.

26:33I don't know if any of you have ever seen the random little old lady by herself at the stoplight light getting ready to cross the street and been like, I've been waiting for this moment my whole life. Never seen her. But my guess is, because I believe the best about this group, that you would, out of the goodness of your heart, you would help her cross the street. If nothing else other than that's what you're supposed to do. That's the reason why it's a cliché, right?

26:56There's a difference in the way you would help her across the street and if it was your grandmother that was at the street corner. All of a sudden as you're helping your grandma across the street, you have a— you have an investment in her, her well-being. That, that in essence, her well-being is your well-being as you're helping your grandmother to cross the busy street. Why? Because you're committed to her.

27:17You're all in with her. You've got community. You've got relationship with her. We have to first be all in with each other if we're going to be effective as a church at doing the work of the ministry that God is going to equip us to do, okay? So commit to us by getting connected.

27:33There's another commitment though, and again, this is I think what Scripture teaches us here, what Paul teaches. Romans 6:4, he says this: For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function. Look at verse 6: Having gifts that differ according to the grace given us. Okay? So not all members have the same function, there are gifts that differ according to the grace given us.

27:55Us, that would imply that what? That there's a variety of different ways that we can be useful to the bride of Christ in here this morning. And that means this: if you are in Christ, if you are a Christian, you have something to contribute to the overall health of the bride of Christ here at Compass Bible Church this morning. Point number 2: commit secondly to contribute, not just to consume. Commit to contribute, not just to consume.

28:16So commit to us by getting connected, right? And then it's— man, and commit to contribute to the common good of the body of Christ, the building up of the body of Christ, not just to consume.

28:281 Corinthians 12:4-7, Paul expands upon this idea. He says this, he says, now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are varieties of service, but the same Lord. There are varieties of activities, but it's the same God who empowers them all in everyone. Notice that, in everyone.

28:47To each, to each what? To each Christian, to each individual, is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Now you've heard me say this before, I'm going to say it again, and I'll say it again. If you are in Christ, you have the Spirit. Romans 8:9, okay?

29:05Romans 8:9, Paul says, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not have Christ. There's no such thing as a Christian without the Holy Spirit, okay? So if you are in Christ, you have the Spirit, and that means you've been gifted by the Spirit for the common good of the building up of the body of Christ. That is only expressed locally in the local bride of Christ. You can't apply your spiritual gift universally to the universal church.

29:31It happens, and it's seen, and it's realized within the local body of Christ. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:15-17, kind of this metaphor building on the body imagery here, he says, if the foot should say to the hand, I'm not a hand, I don't belong to the body. It wouldn't make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, because I'm not an eye, I don't belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be?

29:56If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? And so Paul's addressing the idea that just because you're not this gift doesn't mean that you don't have something to bring to the table. Okay, the human body has parts of it that we don't need. That's Crazy to me, right? Like, the one you— we often think of the most is the appendix.

30:16You can live without your appendix. You don't need it. Some of you in this room, if I were to ask for a show of hands, which HIPAA, we don't need to do that, okay? Keep your, your lost body parts to yourselves. Some of you in this room don't have an appendix, and here you are.

30:29Congratulations, good job. Uh, your gallbladder, that's going to change some things, maybe change your diet a little bit, but you're okay without your gallbladder. Um, your tonsils— some of you are better off because you don't have your tonsils, and so you're not getting strep throat all the time anymore. You can live without your tonsils. You don't need your tonsils.

30:47Your spleen— I didn't know that one. Apparently you don't need your spleen, which when people's spleen ruptures, that's good news for them. Hey, we're good. You don't need your spleen. We're gonna go ahead and take that one out for you.

30:58You, you can live without your spleen. Uh, even a Okay, we're getting into more intense territory here. You don't need both kidneys. You can— and some kidney transplants have taken place, maybe some in the room here have given a kidney to a loved one. You can function, your body can with one kidney.

31:12Did you know your body can function with one lung? You don't need both lungs even. That's shocking. Your other lung will expand and cover the territory there. I wouldn't recommend trying that one.

31:242 lungs are better. You don't need parts of your liver. You can't lose your whole liver. You need some liver, but you don't need all your liver. You can lose part of your liver and still live.

31:35Part of your intestines, those can be gone and you'll be okay. Your thyroid gland, apparently you don't need it. You'll be okay. Listen, in the church, in the local body of Christ, there are no appendices, tonsils, gallbladders, spleens, Extra kidneys, extra lungs, parts of liver that you don't need, parts of your intestines or thyroid glands, okay? Those parts don't exist here.

32:03Why? Because we need every single one of you. Every single one of you have a vital role to play in us accomplishing the mission that God has for our church. Again, the church that's all in is the church that's going to win. And Paul's going to say in Ephesians, and we're going to get there, that when the body of Christ works properly— the way that the church works properly is when everybody is doing their part.

32:26When all the parts are functioning properly, the body of Christ functions as it's designed to function. So we need you to commit to contribute, not just to consume, because for us to be the church effectively, we need everybody working together as God has equipped us to work. 1 Peter 4:10 puts it this way. He says, as each has received a gift— notice each— as each person, each Christian has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God's varied grace. God's varied grace.

32:57There are all kinds of different gifts. You think about this is going to be even smaller, right? Just trust me, there's words that are English up there on the screen, and they come from the Bible. These are the gifts that we find in the Bible, okay? The gifts, and I would say they're more category Categories.

33:13Yep, categories. Wrong emphasis on the wrong syllable. Categories. There are categories of gifts that we find in the Bible. Gifts of wisdom, gifts of knowledge, gifts of faith, gifts of healing, gifts of miracles, gifts of prophecy, gifts of discernment, gifts of tongues, gifts of interpretation of tongues, gifts of apostleship, gifts of teaching, gifts of administration, gifts of helping, gifts of exhortation, gifts of evangelism, gifts of hospitality, gifts of mercy, gifts of leadership, and gifts of giving.

33:38Now, some of those we believe are no longer in operation. That's a different sermon. But these are categories of the way that God has equipped his church to be able to serve the church. And why do I say they're categories? I say they're categories because of this.

33:50Notice the gift of hospitality is up there. Maybe you're— whatever you picture of hospitality, having somebody over for dinner, right? You got the gift of that. What you make a welcoming, welcoming place. You enjoy that.

34:02You're warm, you're friendly, you're generous. Part of the gifts of hospitality. Now, you may take that gift of hospitality and that may be realized in the service of the church through you serving on our welcome team or our hospitality team and making coffee for the bride of Christ in the morning. You say, is making coffee a spiritual gift? Yes.

34:21Chapter and verse. It's not there, but it's an expression of the gift of hospitality, which is a way for you to serve the body of Christ, right? Gifts of service. You setting up chairs, you tearing down chairs. These are all ways that you can serve.

34:34And so all that to say, if you're looking at that list going, well, I don't know that I have anything specific on that list, that's not an exhaustive list. There are other ways that God uses your giftedness, your strengths to be able to serve and build up the body of Christ, which is the point of the gifts. And so here's the phrase that I want you to think about. We're after this. We're after you serving the body of Christ in whatever your role of maximum effectiveness.

34:55Okay. We want everybody in the church, every Christian in the church serving the bride in the role of maximum effectiveness. You say, okay, how do I determine what that is for me? Here's some questions, some diagnostic questions for you to think about diagnosing and understanding where you will be most effective in the church. Number 1, what are your strengths?

35:14A lot of times your strengths coincide with the gifts that God has given you. So what are your strengths? And just as important, what are the needs that exist in the church, right? If you feel like, man, my giftedness is I'm an excellent facilities manager. I manage a facility and a facilities team so well.

35:32That's great. We don't have a facility. But that doesn't mean that you can't be maximally effective still in the bride of Christ, because you can take the gifts that you have as a facilities manager and begin to bring them into our setup and teardown team and say, let me help. In organizing that and in executing these things, right? So what needs exist in the church?

35:51And then third, where might you maximize your usefulness to the body? Maybe you're out there and you've had preaching and teaching experience. Right now where we're at as a church plant with the ministries that we have, we have— we don't have a lot of opportunities or options for preaching and teaching. That may change as we continue to grow and add a second service and things like that with Sunday school class or whatever. That may change down the road.

36:13Right now those opportunities are limited. That doesn't mean that you're not able to be maximally useful to the bride of Christ. It may just look different than what you would say, this is my primary gifting. Okay, great, but what are your other gifts that God has provided for you? Where else can you serve?

36:28And then finally, what's your availability? What's your availability? What can you do? These are good questions to diagnose how you can be maximally effective in serving the bride of Christ, committing to contribute, not just to consume, saying, I've got something to bring to the table. I'm going to do that.

36:45I preached on this same idea during our pre-launch meetings. In fact, it was the first sermon that I preached from this room. I preached on being useful to the bride, being somebody that's serving the church, and I gave the illustration of Lego. Lego is frustrating because they always put extra pieces in the bag to cause you to second-guess while you're building it. Did I miss something?

37:06And yet if you've built enough Lego, you know that there are always extra pieces in the bag, right? There's no extra pieces in the bag when it comes to the body of Christ. Every piece has a place. We want you to be able to figure out where that place is. Church, we're doing a lot for a church plant, but there's more we want to do.

37:24There are ministries that we have percolating that we're going, man, we, we want to pull the trigger on this, but we just need more people. We need more people engaged, more people serving, more people jumping in, doing, uh, the work of the ministry, committing to contribute to the work of the ministry. I'll show my hands, it's probably not long from now that we are looking at going to 2 services. Probably within the next calendar year, certainly, we'll go to 2 services. That's going to create a heavy tax on our need for more people to serve the bride of Christ.

37:53And so there are things that we anticipate doing, things that we want to do, that we're going to need 3 deep lines. Now, outside of baseball, the second greatest sport that God has ever created is the sport of hockey, okay? And in hockey— hockey's a unique sport because in football, in baseball, in basketball, there's starters, right? And those starters, those are the ones that are going to play the majority of the game. Especially think about football.

38:18Your first line, they're the ones that are on the field the majority of the time unless it's a blowout or they get hurt. Outside of that, they're going to be out there. Nobody's subbing out Patrick Mahomes because he needs a breather, or you want to get playing time for your backup when the game's on the line. Your starters are the ones out there. Hockey's different.

38:36Hockey has multiple lines, and, and the lines all rotate on the ice and off the ice throughout the game. The average shift for a hockey player is anywhere from 1.5 to 2 minutes on the ice. That's as long as the superstar stars. Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, those guys, Roope Hintz— the longest they're on the ice is about 2 minutes. That's a long shift, okay?

38:56And then what does he need? He needs to rotate off, and he needs somebody else to be on the ice in his spot. And that person that, that takes the ice in his spot, they're going to trust that, that person is going to do the job that needs to get done. That person is going to contribute. The only person there at the game to consume is the backup goalie, and even then, sometimes he's got to get on the ice.

39:15But he's the only one that's not rotating on the ice of the players. Everybody else that's on that bench is going to be on the ice multiple times throughout the game contributing and not just consuming. We want to be a church of hockey players, okay? Hopefully a church of hockey players like the greatest team on ice, the Dallas Stars. And if we do that, and if we're all in, then we will win.

39:36But we need everybody because we need deep lines, we need excellent lines, we need quality lines, serving the bride of Christ. So commit to contribute, not just to consume. You have a place on one of our lines, and we want you to find out where that maximum role of effectiveness is. Finally, look back at verse 6, the last part of it. He says, having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.

39:59Let's use them. Let's get after it, okay? 1 Peter 4:10, again, as each has received a gift, use it to serve. Serve one another. Our 3rd point, final point this morning is this: commit to steward God's investment in you.

40:12Commit to steward God's investment in you. This is building off of the 2nd point here. Once you commit to say, I want to contribute, then you need to understand you're, you're contributing not just because the pastor stood up and preached a sermon that maybe made you feel a little bit guilty for not— that's not my goal here. And you're contributing not just because the need is there and we're saying, hey, we need you. We do, but ultimately you're contributing for this reason, because your contribution to the body of Christ is an exercise of worship.

40:40It's exalting Jesus. It's giving him first place in your role in the church by saying, I'm all in. I'm all in here and I'm going to jump in here. In fact, again, 1 Peter 4:10, as each has received a gift, he says, use it to serve one another as good stewards. A steward is one who uses something that someone gave them as it was intended to be used, right?

41:06You know this idea. We're coming off of Christmas. Parents, you bought a present or 2 for your kids, I assume. You gave that to your kids. And what if your kids said, Mom and Dad, thanks so much, this is awesome, I love it, and then they never took it out of the box?

41:23You would assume they weren't very— what rhymes with schmateful, starts with a grrr? Grateful, right? Grateful. You would be like, do you even like that thing? Yeah, Mom and Dad, I love it.

41:34I'm so thankful. You're such a generous mom and dad for giving me this gift that I have. I'm so thankful. And you know what? I tell all my other friends I have this gift.

41:44But you never use it. Well, yeah. Why? Well, I don't know. I don't know where would start with trying to use that gift.

41:52Some of us are doing that with the spiritual gift that God has given to you. And if you want to show that you are thankful for the gift that God has given you, then be a good steward of it by using it to serve the body of Christ. Again, 1 Corinthians 12 addresses this. 1 Corinthians 12:7 says, to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good, for the common good of the bride, of the body of Christ. All right, do me a favor, take your Bible over to Ephesians chapter 4 with me.

42:20Ephesians chapter 4.

42:24I want you to see this in action here.

42:28Maybe you've been waiting for me to get to this text. You're like, he's preaching a sermon on equipping and he hasn't even used the main text on equipping. Here you go, okay? Ephesians 4, let's start in verse 11. And He, God, gave the apostles and the prophets and the evangelists and the shepherds and the teachers, notice, to equip the saints.

42:47That's what we're talking about here. To equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ. Okay, this is what we've been preaching on. This is what we've been talking about. Until when?

42:58Until we all attain to the unity of faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, AKA until Jesus comes back or you're in the ground, okay? That's how long we need to be doing this. That's how long we need to be serving, committed to the bride of Christ, doing the work of ministry. Until we all attain to the stature of the fullness of Christ. Notice verse 14, so that, with the result that.

43:23The reason that we want to do this, the reason why it's important for you to be stewarding the gift that God has given you, for you to be equipped to do the work of ministry in the church, the reason why— here he goes. So that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning and craftiness and deceitful schemes. Rather— here's what we want to be, and this is the product of us doing this, being all in together— rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint, which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. When we steward the gifts that God has given us, his investment in you, then the church works the way that God has intended it to work. Then when each part is working properly, then we will be growing up in every way into him who is the head.

44:23In other words, then Christ is exalted. Then Christ has first place over his bride. When all of us are saying, I'm all in so that the church is going to win, when we are fully committed to the bride of Christ, then we are doing what God has called us to do. Then we will be a fruitful and effective church. But if we got people that are saying, I'm not there, I'm, I'm, I, I just don't have time, I'm not in, I'm on the outside, man, we can't be everything that God is calling us to be as a church.

44:52And you're going, Pastor PJ, are you really after 1,000%? Are you— you want everybody in on this and everybody serving? Unashamedly, 100% yes. Well, no church is like that, okay? And when Jesus said that we should be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect, did He want our response to be, well, nobody's perfect, so I'm not even going to try towards that goal?

45:22No. No. It may not be about perfection, but it certainly is about direction.

45:28And that's what I want our church to be about too. Listen, I love you. And if you are here and you're not involved in Community Group and you're not serving, I love you. I'm glad that you're here.

45:42But I just— I don't want you to be comfortable here, if I can be honest, because I think God has more for you.

45:52Man, here's, here's some needs that we have right now. I highlighted some. Did you notice there's some that are highlighted up there? Do you see the ones that are yellow up there? Setup and teardown.

46:01I mean, we always need more people to help with that. Trailer drivers. Is trailer driving— is that a spiritual gift? Uh-huh. You're like, yeah, but an unbeliever Any unbeliever can hook up a trailer to a hitch.

46:12Amen, he can, but not for the glory of God. You can for the glory of God, and you can serve the bride of Christ. These are all available for you, and if you go to our website and you go to get connected, get involved, you can fill out a service form. And just like I said, hey, I want people signed up and getting in community group this week. I want people signed up and getting serving this week too.

46:31And maybe you're out there, you're already serving, and you're going, I've got more bandwidth here. We'll take you. But really, we want everybody. We want people to get back in. You say, well, man, it's just a hard season for me right now.

46:44Life is difficult. I'm feeling overwhelmed. There's a lot going on. We get that. We understand that.

46:50There's going to be seasons for you to pull back a little bit, but can I encourage you not to pull back completely? Because I think serving actually helps you in the midst of those difficult seasons. Here's why. Serving gives you a sense of purpose.

47:04Purpose. Maybe you're struggling right now, you feel like you're floating, you feel like some things that had a lot of purpose for you— your job, or your marriage, or your parenting— those are not super clear right now. Man, serving the bride of Christ is going to anchor you to a sense of consistent purpose. Second, it's going to take your focus off your circumstances. As you serve the bride of Christ, your focus is not going to be on yourself.

47:27And along those lines, third, it's going to put your focus on other people. That's so good. When we're hurting, to be able to think about how we can come alongside other people. Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, blessed be the God of all comfort who comforts us in our affliction so that we can comfort other people. And so for you to serve other people is going to be so good for you.

47:47Fourth, it puts you in the path of relationships. Man, you are going to build good relationships by serving on teams with people here at the church, and you're going to need that in those seasons. Whatever number we're on, it pleases the Lord. It pleases the Lord for you to be engaged in serving His bride. And finally, it bears fruit.

48:08It bears fruit.

48:11We want everybody in this church— again, we want everybody in this church to steward God's investment in you. To steward God's investment in you. So committing to us by getting connected, committing to contribute not just to consume, and committing to steward God's investment in you.

48:29As we close, I want you to picture this. Do you know what these are? Trash cans. Yes, they are trash cans. You know where these trash cans are located?

48:37Disneyland, right? These trash cans are trash cans in Disneyland. You say, why in the world do we have a picture of trash cans in Disneyland? A couple reasons. Disneyland is famous for a lot of reasons.

48:47I would challenge the notion it's the happiest place on earth. I can handle once a year at Disneyland, and right now I'm not missing it, okay? Um, to each their own. But Disneyland is famous for a lot of reasons. One of the reasons it's famous is its cleanliness, right?

49:01And part of that goes back to this: when they bring people on staff at Disneyland, they teach them something. They say this: everyone is a custodial cast member. They'll ask the question when they gather together, hey, who are the custodial cast members? Those responsible for the upkeep and cleanliness of the grounds. And the new hires are going, I don't know, I didn't get hired for that, until they find out that everybody responds, we all are.

49:22All of us are custodial cast members. And so what they do is they teach them the Disney scoop, is what they call it. And the Disney scoop is how they teach their various cast members, whether they're a princess or they're walking around with a dustpan, How to scoop down and pick up a piece of trash in motion and go to the nearest trash can, which by the way, all of them are 30 steps apart. That's the longest you're going to walk to find a trash can in Disneyland is 30 steps, because they did the research and they found out that's most effective. And so they teach them to do the Disney scoop to pick up the trash and to deposit in the trash can.

49:53But they've conveyed the vision to the church body— or not to the church body, hello.

50:02Yep, they've conveyed the vision to Disneyland there to say, hey, all y'all need to buy into this. And if we all buy into this, it's going to make us who we are. And if they didn't get the buy-in, Disneyland wouldn't be the place it is. It wouldn't be nearly as pleasant a place for us to be. And that's what I'm trying to say, church.

50:17If we want to be a church where people walk in here and they say, whoa, I've never been to a place like this before. If we will be this kind of a church, if we will commit in community and relationships with each other, if we will commit to serving the bride of Christ, to contributing, not just consuming, if we will commit to stewarding God's investment in us, it is going to pay off. And here's what it will look like: the spiritual vibrancy in our church will skyrocket. People will come in here and they will hear— overhear biblical discussions taking place after service as people are grabbing a cup of coffee. They're going to show up and they're going to see people praying together because it's part of the DNA, it's part of the fabric of our relationships with each other.

50:53We care about each other to that level. They're going to show up and they're going to be confronted with accountability opportunities after they're here for a little bit. They're going to show up at a community group and recognize that they're there to do more than just check a box. So spiritual vibrancy. Next, ownership.

51:11You're going to walk in here and this is going to be a church where you're going to be like, man, people— this is not just the pastors. This body, this community, these people, they love this church. Church, there's a sense of belonging, there's a sense of supporting each other, there's a sense of meaningful relationships that I see here in this church, and, and man, I want to be a part of that. It's also going to make us a church where our impact skyrockets. We're going to start to see less burnout from people because we're going to have deep lines like I talked about.

51:38We're going to have a sense where people are excited and joyful to be here and serve because they're going to know that this is an act of stewardship which is a joy for them. And with that, we're going to have increased resources as a church to go out and do more than what we've been able to do so far. And so our impact is going to expand. Our generosity is going to go through the roof. We're going to be a generous church.

51:58There's going to be a sense of investment. Community groups are going to become a place of stewardship to take place in our relationships. But then that stewardship is going to overflow. We're going to have not just increased resources to do more ministry through the impact but also just in people's generosity. I get it, church.

52:15You're going to be more likely to want to give to a church where you're seeing God do things in the church than you are just out of obligation because it's something that we're supposed to do. I mean, if we will do these things and commit in this way, we're going to see this church just blow up. And my goal is not for us to be a church with an abundance of wealth. My goal is for us to be a church with an abundance of an impact. And people's generosity goes a long way in that.

52:36Our evangelism, that's going to skyrocket. That's going to go through the roof. We begin to commit and invest this way, then we are going to have more invitations for people to come to church because we will love this place. We're going to know what Spurgeon meant when he said the church is the dearest place on earth. We're going to be like, you have to come to my church.

52:50You have to be around these people. Our community groups, they will become on-ramps. You're going to say, hey, come to my community group. Get to know our people in our group here. We're going to have deepened faith, which is going to lead to more of an organic witness.

53:03And then finally, our joy is going to go up too. Our joy in being a part of this body is going to be tangible. We will have purpose, we will have family, and we will have celebration together. Man, that's where I think we can be, and it's within striking distance. This is not impossible at all.

53:21None of these things that we're calling you to are impossible if you commit to us by getting connected. Commit to contribute, not just to consume, and commit to steward God's investment in you, and these things are going to take place. The church that's all in that way is a church undoubtedly that's going to win. Will you stand with me as I pray?