Hey! I'm alive! Thanks for being so patient with us - we've had everything from family issues to sickness going on the last few weeks. On top of all of that, while my wife was caring for three sick kids and her sick husband, she hit her foot and broke her toe. Now you would think, it's just a little toe, no big deal right? Wrong. It impacts everything. Well...that's exactly the way it is with the body of Christ too. How important do you see your role in the church? If you don't think it's indispensible like Paul says it is, it will directly impact your motivation to fulfill your role.
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
Hey! I'm alive! Thanks for being so patient with us - we've had everything from family issues to sickness going on the last few weeks. On top of all of that, while my wife was caring for three sick kids and her sick husband, she hit her foot and broke her toe. Now you would think, it's just a little toe, no big deal right? Wrong. It impacts everything. Well...that's exactly the way it is with the body of Christ too. How important do you see your role in the church? If you don't think it's indispensible like Paul says it is, it will directly impact your motivation to fulfill your role.
#SetYourMindAbovePodcast
What if I told you that God could be seen in the most ordinary things every day?
What if I told you that every day, ordinary events could teach us extraordinary eternal truths?
Would you believe me?
Hi, I’m BJ Sipe – and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above Podcast.
I am a Christian, a preacher, a husband, and a father.
Thanks for tuning in!
Well, look who’s back from the dead?!? It’s been several weeks since our last episode, and I am so thankful to be back at my coffee shop and back behind the microphone today. In fact, we’re going to get all caught up this week as we are dropping not one, not two, but three episodes before the week is over! Thank you for bearing with me with my absence and allow me to fill you in some. We have had a lot going on the last few weeks. I had a grandmother put on hospice care, my folks fly in and visit for a week, and then the epic bug of this beginning winter season come through and hit our household. It started with my son, who was running a high fever and doing everything else associated with that (just use your imagination). Then our daughter Finley came down with a double ear infection, followed by our oldest daughter catching whatever our son had. And then finally, as good families do, they shared it with me. So out of the five of us, four of us were down for the count, leaving Kylie to do most of the work trying to take care of everyone. Bless her heart, she was running around ragged and couldn’t catch a break. That was until she really caught a break – quite literally. I can’t remember if it was Friday or Saturday, but Kylie was running in to take care of a sick child in the other room, and as she was doing so she accidently kicked the door frame to our room, consequently breaking one of her toes on her foot. You could actually see the break underneath the skin, and the foot very quickly started to bruise up and turn purple all underneath her little toes. My wife has an extremely high pain tolerance, so when I heard her holler and call for my help to get out of bed I knew she had done herself in. So now all 5 of us were down for the count – three sick kids, a sick daddy, and a gimpy mamma. Needless to say, we stayed home all last week and weekend, and this is my first day back out to get back on the grind. Kylie hobbled her way out yesterday to get her some different slippers so she can walk a little better around the house, but I’ll tell you what – it’s amazing what this woman can do despite the pain she’s been in! I married a good one. But back to her toe – when you think about the body, I’m sure a toe is not the first thing that comes to your mind. We think about the head, the hands, things that we use on a regular basis day in and day out. I mean, we use our toes every day, obviously, but one little toe on our foot does not seem like that big of a deal. But that one little toe of hers being busted up has affected everything else for her. Because her toe is busted, the rest of her foot hurts along with it. As a result, she is walking differently to try and accommodate for the pain. Because of walking differently, her hips and her back hurt, which of course effects the neck and so on and so forth. You’re starting to get the picture here. Everything is connected. Breaking one little toe might not seem like a big deal, but it impacts everything else along with it. Hopefully over the next few weeks the body will do its thing and heal up in time for us to travel for the holidays.
I’m sure you know the direction we are going with this by now, but it’s a very important lesson that we need to remind ourselves of on a regular basis regarding the nature of a different kind of body. Not our physical bodies, but the body of Christ, which is the church (Ephesians 1:23). Paul discusses the nature of the church, and how each and every single individual is connected to one another, and how we impact one another. Let’s read 1 Corinthians 12:12-26 together, “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. 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. Indeed, the body is not one part but many. 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. 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. 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? But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable. And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, which our respectable parts do not need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”
I want to approach this from a little bit of a different perspective today as we look at this text, and I want us to ask ourselves this question…how important do you see your role to the body of Christ? Now, before we continue, I am not asking you to hype yourself up with some kind of self-righteous egotistical response, obviously. Paul reminds us in the context of being members of the body of Christ to not think of ourselves in this kind of way in Romans 12:3-5, “For by the grace given to me, I tell everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he should think. Instead, think sensibly, as God has distributed a measure of faith to each one. Now as we have many parts in one body, and all the parts do not have the same function, in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another.” So clearly, our answer should not be, “I’m kind of a big deal.” But you know what else our answer shouldn’t be? “I’m nobody.” I am convinced that this response is actually the most common in the body of Christ, not someone thinking too much of themselves. We look at ourselves, at our role and think, “I’m not a big part of the body. I’m not doing great work or in a public role or serving in any office, so how can what I do or bring be that important?” But such an outlook is a complete oversight to the nature of the body of Christ. Okay, so maybe you see yourself as the little toe of the church. But you know what? When that toe isn’t working the way it should, guess what happens? It impacts everything else, and in the case of the church everyone else. What you’re doing is just as important as anyone else in the church, and that is Paul’s exact point.
Why is it important for us to recognize this? Because if you don’t see your role as needed or important, you’ll be less motivated to do your part. Take my wife and I for example, again. I was sick, and she had a busted foot…but that didn’t mean we could just check out and do nothing all weekend. Our kids needed us, and if we didn’t do our jobs to the best of our ability, how greatly would our family have been impacted? Our kids need us, and we need each other, and it’s because of that knowledge that no matter what we are always motivated to rise to our respective roles. So let me ask you again…how important do you see your role in the body of
Christ? Paul says that you are indispensable. Do you believe that? Our work ethic and how we embrace the role we are called to will determine the answer to that question. So be you a toe or be you a hand, never forget how important your role is to your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.
Thank you for tuning in for this week’s first episode as we catch back up, and I would invite you back tomorrow as we will be dropping yet another episode, and once more again on Thursday. If you haven’t already, be sure to find us on Facebook for future announcements or even some special video sessions. If you have benefited from this podcast, share it with someone else that you think would benefit from it also. Until next time, know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each & every day set our minds above.