Every Part of the Body is Needed

I want to read in 1st Corinthians chapter 12. 1st Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 12, and I'm going to read most of the rest of this chapter, so I'm going to read quickly. It says, For as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ.

For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? And if the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body as it has pleased him, and if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members yet but one body, and the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor the head to the foot, I have no need of you.

Nay, much more these members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. And of these members of the body which we think to be less honorable unto those which we bestow more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need, but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked.

That there should be no schism in the body, or no division, but that the members should have the same care one for another, and whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now we are the body of Christ, and the members in particular.

That's all I'm going to read. I'll make reference to a few other scriptures, but I just want to be brief and quick. Maybe the reason I have been thinking along these lines is because I didn't think it was a good idea, but God obviously did, so I have this thing on my hand.

And sometimes we take for granted, and we say things very flippantly when everything is going well, and I make no mistakes, I do the same thing, and I've been known more than once to make the remark, you know, watch your thumb or watch your hand, and I'll say something like, well, I have two, God gave me two, so I'll be alright. Well wait until you lose one, and it's a whole different story. If you don't believe me, go home and try to put on socks with one hand.

Go and try to do things that you think you can survive without another member of your body. And I think, I just have three very brief points I want to leave with you, and first of all is that every part of the body is needed. Every single one.

And sometimes we fall into the trap, and Satan is very good at discouraging us and having us think that we're not really that important. Sometimes we think, well, you know, I'm not even much of anything, I'm kind of like a toe. Nobody sees me, and all that happens is I stub it a lot.

I get stubbed, I get walked on, but can I suggest go home and cut it off and see how much you miss it. It's there for your balance. You know, somebody said if you would have taken off your, I had a neighbor tell me, if you would have taken off your thumb, they could have taken your big toe and put it on your hand.

Well, I do roofing for a living. I don't know if I could have gone back to what I did before without my balance and my big toe. Every member is important, and every member is needed.

All are needed. It says here in verse 15, if the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body. Scripture is very clear here that the moment of salvation you are brought into the body of Christ.

And just because all of a sudden one Sunday something doesn't feel quite right, you decide to stay home. That affects the body. Can you imagine if you woke up tomorrow morning and your arm said, I'm done for the day, figure it out on your own.

Or you woke up tomorrow and said, my ears are going on strike. How would you get throughout your day? So, and I know this is talking about the universal body, but can I just bring it down to a local assembly? It's very quickly and very practically. Too many times we find ourselves thinking, I don't need to go tonight.

And I understand there's times where there's health issues and you can't make it. That's not what I'm getting at. But you make the conscious decision, I'm not going to go.

The body suffers. This morning I was back home in Manchester for morning meeting and a lot of people were missing because they were here and I'm not saying they shouldn't have been here. But you feel the presence missing.

There's something not, the wholeness of the body isn't quite there. Yeah, we still remember the Lord. Yeah, I'm sure it was still a sweet odor to Him.

But there's something missing when the body is not all together. Then we, I want to leave, the next point is that there is none or there's no one more important than the other. Verse 21 tells us that the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee, nor the head to the feet.

I have no need of you. No need. Sometimes we get to a place where we think we have to do everything on our own.

We have need of no one else. That is absolutely not the case. Can you imagine if the eye decided I can do it on my own and jumped out of your body? It's still an eye, but it can't see anymore.

The head is no longer there. The ear takes off and it can no longer hear. It is no longer there.

The body must work together in unity and a function. And too many times I think we find ourselves in our local body, we are known to be the bride of Christ. We are supposed to be one body.

The Bible calls us sheep. He calls us branches and He is the vine. The Bible never tells us that there are fat vines and skinny vines or branches, fat branches and skinny branches.

Nor does it say there are six sheep and super sheep. We're all just sheep. He is the vine and we're branches.

He is the shepherd and we are the sheep. We are all the same. There is none that is more important than the other.

And too many times I think knowing that we are the bride of Christ, we're too busy beating up on ourselves. The body is beating up on itself. You would think yourself quite odd or someone quite odd if you looked out your window one day and your neighbor was in the front yard just pounding on himself.

Think what's wrong with that man? We are one body and it is for his honor and it is for his glory. That is the reason the church is still here. That is the reason the bride of Christ is still here.

It's not for myself, but it is for his honor and for his glory. And we are here as one body so that we might bring honor and glory to him. Then we come down and my last point I want to leave with you very quickly is we are to care for everyone.

Verse 25 says there is no schism in the body or no division, but the member should have the same care one for another. Whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Now are we the body of Christ. You know, since I'm right-handed, right-hand dominant, that means I swing my hammer right-handed. Which means my left hand holds the nails.

You know how many times my right hand has made contact with a hammer onto my left thumb? A lot of times. So four weeks ago when I ran this thing through a table saw, I stepped back, I turned off the saw, I looked down and this hand didn't say, well it's about time, you had coming what you had coming. This member of the body reacted to what the head told it to do and the head said the body hurts and so it grabbed and it tried to stop the flow of blood.

It was an immediate instinctive reaction. But too many times we find ourselves looking around and we see brother so-and-so or sister so-and-so and we say, well I was waiting for this day to come and I'm going to sit back and enjoy it. And the whole body suffers.

You know, this hand over here didn't say, well I'm not hurting, I'm fine, we'll figure it out on my own, I don't need that one over there. The moment this pain started setting in, the whole body started feeling it. And the pain meds didn't kick in right away, so you know what happens, the whole body started shaking.

It wasn't just the thumb over here and the rest of my fingers here said, ah, no big deal. When one member suffers, we all suffer. Every single one of us.

And we should come together, and we have heard ministry on this already this weekend so I'm not going to labor on it too much, but we should care one for another. And I'm not saying in any way that I wasn't cared for, that the saints of God have been very generous, helping out in many different ways since this all happened, and that's not what I'm getting at. I've just come to understand the importance of it maybe.

Because a lot of times when everything is going good, you read it and it's just kind of there for somebody else, until it happens to you. We're all there to care for one another. Every member is important.

You don't believe me? Try to scratch your left elbow with your left hand. Try to figure out different ways to do that. But we're there for a reason.

Every member is needed. I told the doctor when I went in for my checkup, I said, you know, if it had been one of these fingers back here, you know, in some ways I'd have rather just cut it off and wrapped it over and not worry about the tendon healing, I could have got back to work quicker. So she gave me a little lesson and she said, actually, yeah, your thumb is really important, but this little finger here, that pinky, maybe you think you're the pinky of the assembly.

Nobody really cares about you. And I didn't really care about this until she told me, you know what? This thing right here, you lose that, you lose all your grip strength. Some of you are there so that we can hang on.

We've been hearing of sisters already and some of you are there and you say, we don't take the physical part. We don't say anything audibly. We've heard about you already, but can I just leave another word of encouragement? Some of you are the backbone and nobody ever sees you, but without you there, there's nothing.

Some of you are the heartbeat and if you're not there, we struggle. Some of you are a breath of fresh air when you walk through a door, you're the lungs. That's the innermost part.

We often say the heart, we say, I love you with all my heart and the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible says that the seed of the emotion is actually the bowels. None of us here would want to be a bowel, but some of you, we can't live without you.

We need you all there to care for one another. The other thing, sometimes jealousy sets in and it says when one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. That happens in your own body, but in the assembly body, sometimes that doesn't happen if we're being honest about it.

You know, I've never, we've been hearing, Brody's not here. He likes his pizza ranch. I like my food, but I like steak and taters.

I'm more of that way. I've never been eating a meal that I like and had my hand try to tell me, you know which, I wish I could taste that. The whole body's just happy when something good is happening for it.

The problem is it's too many times we stand back in pride and we say, you know, that, they don't deserve that. You know what? I don't deserve salvation, but God in his grace and mercy has given it to us. So how can it be that we can do these things? Just very practically.

I want to read it so I don't misquote it. Colossians chapter 1 and verse 18 says that he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. Christ must be the head of our individual lives in order for this to work.

He must be the head and I must be willing to submit myself in whatever role I am for his honor and for his glory, for the benefit of the assembly. Can I encourage you even sometimes when you're dead tired after work or whatever the case is, the assembly needs you. The body needs you.

And that is the reason he has left you here for his honor and for his glory.