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Nov 19, 2023

Body Wellness

Body Wellness

Passage: 1 Corinthians 12:12-26

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: That’s the Spirit: Learning to keep in step with Him who indwells

Keywords: joy, suffering, gifts, body, honor, varieties

What does a body of Christ, to whom and for whom the Spirit gives gifts, “look like” when it is functioning as it ought? We know what are the characteristics of a physical body. What are the characteristics of a gifted and well body of Christ?

Readings & Scripture

PREPARATION: Psalm 100:1-3

LEADER: Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!
ALL: Come into his presence with singing!
LEADER: Know that the LORD, he is God!
ALL: It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

AFFIRMATION OF FAITH/SCRIPTURE READING/CORPORATE PRAYER: John 17:1, 6-11
LEADER: John 17:1 When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you,

John 17:6 “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything that you have given me is from you. 8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.

CENTRAL TEXT: 1 Corinthians 12:12-26
1Cor. 12:12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

1Cor. 12:14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

1Cor. 12:21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, 25 that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

CONFESSION OF SIN:
ALL: Father of mercies, we confess that we have sinned against you. By your Holy Spirit, come and work repentance into our hearts. Help us to see you as you are: with outstretched arms, a loving heart, and power to save. Help us to see Jesus, the friend of sinners, and to follow him more faithfully. As we have received him, so strengthen us to walk in him, depend on him, commune with him, and be conformed to him. Give us an experience of your grace that makes us bold for others, that we might joyfully tell our friends and neighbors of your saving mercy. Amen.

ABSOLUTION OF PARDON: Ephesians 2:12-14
LEADER: remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace. . . .

BENEDICTION: Ephesians 3:20-21
LEADER: Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever..

Illustrations

InView Media Album 11.19.2023

QUOTES: 

  • Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man... It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone. - C.S. Lewis

  • Joel Kimmel, © Christianity Today

  • Joel Kimmel, © Christianity Today

  • Joel Kimmel, © Christianity Today

BOOKS / DOCS