Summary:
We're created in the image of the Trinity, One God, Three Persons, bound by love in perfect harmony. Thus, we're created to bond, to God and to people. The cross of Christ binds us vertically with God, Who fills our hearts with love for real people, creating the meaningful horizontal binds we all need.

Transcript:
This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you would like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston and our neighborhood churches, or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.

Good morning. Welcome to Mosaic Church, my name in Jan. I am one of the pastors here at Mosaic. I've got the pleasure to serve, and if you're new, welcome. We're so glad you're here. We'd love to connect with you if you would like to connect. We do that initially personally. We'd love to meet you personally, and officially we do it through the connection card in the worship guide. If you fill it out legibly, then you can either redeem it at the welcome center for a gift, and it's a great gift. Or you can toss in the offering baskets when they around after, or option three, you can download the app from the app store, just Mosaic Boston, and there's a connection card in there as well. With that said would you please pray with me over the preaching of God's holy word.

Father we thank you that you are a god of love. You're not just a god who loves, but you are love. Holy Trinity, there's a perfect community in the God head. We thank you for that. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We thank you God that you proved your love to us through your son Jesus Christ. That Jesus you were the gift of the Father. The Father gave the Son, so that whoever believes might have eternal life. We thank you Christ that you came, lived the life of perfect love toward God, and toward neighbor, toward the people around you. You served. You sacrificed. You made yourself accessible. You are the embodiment of God, and you are also the embodiment of what it means to be truly human, so Lord Jesus we thank you for the gospel that on the cross you poured out your life. You poured out your blood, in order to save us from self, from egos, from selfishness, from all the things that keep us from bonding to you, bonding to the people in our lives.

We thank you that Jesus you rose from the dead and we thank you that you send us the Holy Spirit through whom we can experience God, and we can be empowered by God, and our hearts can be filled with love. I pray you make us a force of love here in the city, so that we love in a way that draws attention to the ultimate act of love in the universe, which is the gospel. Bless our time in the holy word, and we pray all this Christ's holy name. Amen.

So in the 1970s the American psychologist, Dr. Bruce Alexander, he ran a study called Rat Park. And studies had already been run where it was proven that if you put a rat in a cage by itself and you offer it two water bottles, one with just water, and one laced with a cocktail of a drug, heroin or cocaine, that as soon as the rat gets a taste of the cocaine, gets a high, that rat now chases that same high over and over, and keeps drinking from that water bottle until it dies of overdose.

Well Dr. Alexander wondered, as he said, "Was it just the drug that caused the addiction, or might the isolation have something to do with it as well?" So to test that hypothesis, he built a rat park. He built rat paradise. There was all kinds of things for the rats to do. All kinds of ways for the rats to play, and frolic, there was little community center. Public space if you will. Many food trucks for the rats. No, no, not really, but that would have been epic. He created a Boston for rats. He created a true community. And also, he provided the same two types of bottles, and surprisingly, they preferred the plain water. And even when they did imbibe from a drug filed bottle, they did so without abuse, without obsession, and not one rat overdosed. And the conclusion was there's power in community.

And the power of community is stronger than the power of drugs. But the power of community satisfies what the person was looking for. The person wasn't just looking for the drug or the high, there's a deeper problem, a problem of alienation that comes with isolation. Now that's important, and that's profound, because we live in a world where we are more connected than ever virtually. And more disconnected than ever physically, relationally. And that's one of the reasons it so... There is an opiod crisis.

Now I knew about the rat race, and I know the theology behind why that works, because we're created by a Trinitarian god, a god of community. We're created in his image, therefore, we are created to bond with God and with people, and if we don't bond with God and people we will bond with things, sex, money, drug, etc. I was reminded of the rat study this week on Friday when I got in an Uber from Brighton down to Dewey Square, and in the Uber, so the Uber driver he extended his hand. I've never had an Uber drive do this, and he said, nice to meet you. And he said forewarning, "I am chatty, because I used to work as a psychiatrist." Oh wow. Okay. And I said, "Well I am chatty too, because I am a professional talker." And he said, "What do you do?" And I said, "I am a pastor." He says, "What?" And I said, "What?"

Now you've got a psychiatrist and a pastor driving in Uber. It's like the beginning of a joke. Psychiatrist and a pastor walk into a bar. So just riveting conversation. I wish I had this on video. It's like I'm in a movie. What is the... And we got to talking about psychiatry and his job, and he said, "One of the reasons that I don't do that anymore is I"... it was important work. He said, "But I realized that people's greatest problem wasn't me writing a script and giving them a prescription. The greatest problem actually was they don't have friends. They don't have community. They don't have a support structure. And what I wanted to was I wanted to love them. I wanted to befriend them. I wanted to give them that, but because of the system of the job I couldn't do that. And he said what he was doing was important. What you are doing is so much more important. You're trying to create a true community, where people truly love one another, like one another. Where people are friends and family.

Then he asked, "Can I come to your church?" And I said, "Yeah." I said, "It's not my church first of all." But his first joke when I got into the Uber and he found out I was a pastor, he's like, "Where's your jet plane parked?" No bro. I got a Toyota Highlander. I've only ever owned a Toyota, except for my first car an Audi 80, big mistake. So back to the sermon. Back to the sermon. So he gave me his number. We're going to connect, and now we're friends, and the first thing I texted him was let's be friends. But I want more than that. And you know what Jesus, he brings disciples and he says, "Follow me." And what he told his disciples at one point, "I no longer call you servants, now I call you," what? Friends. That's in the Bible. You can Google that.

But he doesn't just call us friends either. He calls us family. That he's our older brother. We're brothers and sisters. He combines, like you have relationships in your life. Your family you have to love them. So I can't not love you, but we separate. We bifurcate between love and like. So we have people we like. We have people we love. Jesus says I want that to be one and the same. I love you and I like you. That changes everything. So that's what we're going to talk about. That's God's heart for the church. That's God's heart for the city, that the church exists in the city for the common good of the city.

The problem is the ideal, usually it doesn't happen in reality. This is why Saint Paul writes this letter to the church in Corinth, and we have the same problem so he's writing to the church in Boston as well. The church in Corinth there were divisions in leadership, division in economics with lawsuits and secondary issue, and gifting, and this is what we're talking about today. We started last week, where God when he creates us he infuses us with talents, and then when he recreates us, when we're children of God he infuses us with gifts. What the gifts do is sometimes he repurposes our talents for his glory, but often the gifts just enhance the talents. Then God brings people together. Each person in the body, in the church has different gifts, and they're brought to the church as gifts. To use their gifts for other people to be other gifts that use their gifts. So that's what we're talking about today.

We're in First Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 12 through 31. First Corinthians 12, 12 through 31. You can follow along in your Bible, on the screen, or on your screen. For just as a body is one and has many members and all the 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, slaves or free, and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 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. 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. 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, but as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he choose.

If all were a single member where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. 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." On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those part of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God ha appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you still a more excellent way. This is the reading of God's holy inherent and infallible authoritative word, may he write these eternal truths upon our hearts. The I will show you a more excellent way wasn't on the screen, but it is in the text. And that's what we're talking about today. That love is the force behind the building of the church. The relationship in the church. That this is how we are bound. We are bound by love.

Three points to the sermon. We are one. Two, are we one? And three, let's be one. First of all, we are one. Saint Paul begins with a we. Who's the we? He's talking about the church. He's talking about people who have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his light. People who are Christians they now are part of the Body of Christ, the church, and also the church locally. So who's the us? It's the church. It's the Body of Christ. He starts with that as he talks about being members he talks about it in the context of a body, like a physical body, therefore when we talk about church membership, we're not talking about being a member of a club, or of an activist organization, or political organization. Membership isn't a card, it's a belonging. That you are connected. Vitally connected to other people who are believers.

So this is verse 12. 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... What does he say? So it is with... What's the last word? Christ. Unexpected. Unexpected. What are we expecting. He's talking about being members of a church. Being members of one body, the church body. Instead, he uses a different word. He brings in the word Christ. Why do that? Why would he use these words interchangeably, church and Christ? He does so because for him they are so united. They are inextricably intertwined. This is important for us because if we live in a world where people say, "I love Jesus. I want your Jesus, but not your church, not your Christians." For Saint Paul and the early church it was one and the same. This is Christ. The other Christians in my life are Jesus to me. I am Jesus to other Christians in my life.

Where does Saint Paul get this idea? This idea was seared into his heart at his conversion. This is Acts 9: 3-5. Saul, that was his former name, birth name. He was a persecutor for Christians. And Jesus Christ meets him on the road to Damascus and converts him. That's why Saint Paul became a Christian. Verse 3 of Acts 9. Now as he went on his way he approached Damascus suddenly a light from heaven shone around him and falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him. "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" Not Christians, not the church, "why are you persecuting me," Jesus said. And Saul said, "Who are you Lord?" And he said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting."

When a person becomes a Christian they become a Christian by the power of the Holy Spirit. God the spirit saves the person. Transforms, regenerates the heart, and it doesn't stop there. God just doesn't just forgive us our sins, and says, "Now you can live you life anyway you want, just until you go to heaven." If that were the case God would just teleport us into heaven. But no, there's a purpose for us here on earth. God has a mission for every single one of us. God has a purpose. God has gifts for us to fulfill that purpose. And we do that by the power of the Holy Spirit. So when we become a Christian we're united with Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We become part of Christ. That's a spiritual reality. When you become a Christian you become a part of Christ. A part of God. This is how strong God's love is. It's like he swallows you whole. He internalizes you. We become part of him.

It's kind of hard to communicate unless you've had a baby. I remember when my oldest daughter, she is almost 11. I remember when she was born and I brought us home I learned the swaddling technique. I became a master of the swaddling technique. I was like, "This is going to be my thing." The baby burrito thing, that's my thing. In like three seconds, done. And then I was like, "What's this called burrito?" I love burritos. I'm a big fan of burritos and I'm a big fan of babies, and now it's two in one. That's awesome. And there something when you hold the baby, especially a baby burrito. And you put your nose, like as you're kissing you smell the neck. Like this right here with the saliva and all this. The little lint. Something there about that smell. And honestly, the only way I can communicate it is I love you and I want to eat you. I won't eat you, but I want to. I don't know how to... And you see this with kids.

My youngest Milana she's almost... She is two. She's what, she's two. And she loves my wife so much she tackles her climbs on top and she starts licking her. Not kissing, licking like... Like that. Like a puppy. With me it's a little different. We've got a different relationship. She starts biting me. That's what she... There something about God internalizes us. We become part of God. That's the fundamental spiritual reality. We are part of Christ, and what Saint Paul is saying is, let's make that a physical reality. But there's so much unity in the church. There's as much unity in the physical body of Christ as there is in the spiritual body of Christ, therefore disharmony is a contradiction.

Verse 13. For in one's spirit we are all baptized into one body. So by the spirit we are baptized. Baptism is a visible sign of a spiritual reality. We were baptized into one body. Jews and Greeks, counter opposites. Diametrically opposed. Slaves or free. And all were made to drink of one spirit. Hear it. He's talking about the reality. We drink God in. He drinks us in. He inhales us. He ingests us. We do the same ting with him spiritually speaking. God become part of me. That's how close our union is. And the reminder for this, the outward reality, is that bread and the cup. The Lord's Supper. The sacrament. Every time we take part and we're doing that next week, bread is the Body of Christ. We internalize it. The cup is we internalizing Christ sacrificed his blood, so we are one.

When God looks at Christians he see one. There's distinction. There's difference. There's diversity. But no division. Different but one. Not a melting pot. Not a melting... I know the U.S. is supposed to be a melting pot. That idea that got me into college. That was my essay for college. I'm an immigrant. I'm from the Soviet Union. Please let me into your school. I want to embody the American dream. Church is more than that. Church is more than the melting pot. Church is like a stew. A good church is like a good stew. You've got the steak tips of course. With the little potatoes. You've got some carrots. You've got a little onion, a little celery. And spices we need all the spices. We need all the flavors. That's what a good church is, it's like a good stew.

Now the question is, are we one? From God's perspective we are one. From our perspective, are we one? Verse 14. For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. It the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less part of the body. If the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body." And so you get it. What's he's saying is it's ridiculous for people who are part of the spiritual Body of Christ to show up and see the physical body of Christ, and say, "I do not belong here." We have a personal relationship with Jesus, person to person, but it's not an individualistic relationship. And Paul here, he's first ministering to those who had suffered at the hands of the ultra gifted who have weaponized their gifts, the people with public gifts, of prophecy, of teaching, of healing, of tongues. They've created a hierarchy of gifts. And Saint Paul says, "no." What he's doing is he's leveling the ground that we all need grace. That we are all brothers and sisters as Christians. That we all have gifts that others need.

There's two forms of exclusion, I don't belong. The first one is where the person excludes themselves. The second is when the person is excluded. Saint Paul starts with the person who feels excluded. The person who shows up to church and feels like, I don't belong here. I am not needed here. And sometimes it's because of a sense of inferiority. I'm not a hand, I'm just a foot. I'm not needed here. Well the hand's not getting anywhere without the foot. All right I'm not a mouth. I'm just an internal organ. I don't belong here. And Saint Paul starts here and says, "No, false theology. False ecclesiology. You do belong." God, if God has called you to a particular church, Mosaic or not, if God has called you, he's called you there for a reason. Perhaps you don't see that reason yet, but don't use the excuse of gift cop out to not use your gift. If God gave you gifts, he wants you to use those gifts as you love one another.

Sometimes you walk into a church and you just feel like everyone here is just better than me. They know the Bible more than I do. They're smarter than I am, or what have you. They're more godly than I am. Look we've all got to start somewhere. Every saint has a past. Every sinner has a future. Every single one. We're all a mess. We're all a mess. And God works through our mess by bringing other people into our lives that loving say, "Hey, that's a mess. Can I help? I want to help. Can I serve?" We're all a mess. So if you're a foot, and you're a dirty foot, I know someone who's really good at washing feet. If you're an ear and you're here and you're like, "I don't like the sound here. This isn't my type of music." We still need you. We still need you. We need to hear what you hear. If you're an eye we need to see what you see. If you're a heart we need to sense. We need to love the way that you love. This is what he's saying. That we all need each other. We need you here.

If you walk in and you're like, "Oh, this is a bigger church self-sustainable. It's all good you're self-sufficient. I'm not needed here." How many people in the city don't know Jesus? I can connect with a particular type of person. I can connect with people who are like me, and there's a lot of people in the city like me. There's also a lot of people in the city like you. So when you join and then they walk in they're like, "Yeah. I belong here." Well you didn't feel like you belonged, but you belong, because if Jesus called you and now that allows other people to feel like they belong. Some of you walk in, you're like, "Everyone's so friendly. Way too many people smiling. Way too many people saying hi to me." Leave me... A meet and great, that's not for me. That's not my kind of church. Look I understand. I understand. I'm an introvert. I'm an introvert that fakes the extro... By the power of the Holy Spirit, I'm growing in the whole extrovert thing.

80% of the people at this church are introverts. Did you know that? 80%, and we do the meet and great, uncomfortably and awkwardly, and you do it uncomfortably and awkwardly, and then we get to know each other. And the next time it's not as uncomfortable, and it's not as awkward, because now you're friends, and hopefully become family. If you feel like you don't belong that's usually a good sign that you definitely belong. That you definitely belong. That we definitely need you.

For example, I will give you an example of Fred and Nancy Gayle. Are they here? Fred and Nancy. They're so sweet. Back in the movie theater they showed up and this was when we used to meet in the Regal Movie Theater right down the street. Theater seven because that was a biblical number. And the average age of the church was like 23. And pastor Shane and I were the elders. We were the oldest people in the church. And Fred and Nancy came in. Fred and Nancy are retired, and they moved to the city, because they were like, "We love the city. We want to retire in the city." And they walked in and there was no one in their... No one they could connect with because they were their age. And in... I do think thing sometimes where I just point people out in the sermon, and I can because I have the excuse of, I'm up here. And I said, "We need you." And ended up on them. And they stayed. You know why they stayed? I said, "We need your wisdom, because we're all a bunch of 20 somethings trying to disciple 20 somethings." And we need someone who's lived a life of faithfulness to the Lord. We need you to teach us. We need you.

So if you walk in, and you're like, "I don't see anyone that I can naturally connect to." It may be because you need to be the first one. And then when people walk in they're like, "This is the church for me." That's what it means to be a body of... This is what it means to be a Mosaic. This is the whole thing where we're broken pieces and we're brought together. We're different colors, different shapes, different brokens, different everything, but what unites us is the cross. And with the glue between the pieces is the love that we get from the cross. So we need you. If you feel like you don't belong, we definitely need you.

Let me challenge. I don't do this often, but I want to challenge you with something. Who are the people you naturally connect with? People who are like you. You like people who are like you, because you like yourself. Hopefully. I challenge you to find, not your doppelganger, I challenge you to find at this church your anti-doppelganger. The person who is different than you in absolutely every category. Find that person. And I guarantee you that person is going to bless you and teach you more than anyone like you. You need more than you. That's what Saint Paul is saying.

Verse 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 smell. So he's saying we don't want to just be a church of eyes, because eyes see eye to eye usually only with eyes. He's saying if you're an eye, you've got to pay attention to people who are other than an eye. We don't want to be a church of just ears. We truly want to be a church that reflects the city. And the city reflects the world. So we want to be a church that actually reflects the world. And usually, this is rare by the way. If you just look around. This whole thing that's... It's already happening. And this is rare. It's rare. Because usually this is how churches are planted. One ultra gifted person who's gifted in one category for example a person who has the gift of evangelism. So we now become the evangelistic church. All we want to do is evangelize. All we want to do is see people come to faith. That's awesome, and we need people with those gifts. But then people become Christians and then what?

And the you have to disciple them, and then you've got to teach them. Then you've got to organize. Now church, it's an organism, but it needs to become an organized organism the best organisms are. So you need someone with the gift of administration. Then the church grows and you need someone with the gift of leading children's ministry, and youth ministry. And usually what happens is a person with a great gift in one area, projects that gift on everyone else, and doesn't build a team around themselves. Doesn't accept the people that God sends. And then those people go, and they start their own church. So now, there's the strictly evangelistic church, or the justice church, or the cultural center church, or the intense discipleship church. And the same thing happens to parrot church organizations.

A person said, "Okay, I did the evangelistic church, no other churches aren't doing the evangelistic, I'm going to start my own parrot church organization. All we're going to do is evangelize people." Now what happens when you have a group of people who are baby Christians? We need churches that's what he says. You can't have a church only with one gift. And the only way this works is when you realize that we are nothing without each other. And we need each other. We are nothing without each other, and we need each other. Do you really believe that. In your heart do you really believe? Can you say to the people closest to you in your life? Husbands can you say to your wife, "I'm nothing without you." I dare you. I dare you to say that today. Wives, I need you. That's what repentance is. This is how the Christian walk starts. God I need you. God help me. God I'm nothing without you. And then that humbles you and you bond with God, and now you can bond with other people. Diffidence makes all the difference.

The gospel gets rid of my pride on a dial basis. It keeps rearing it's ugly head. The gospel continually... God save me. God save me. God I need you. And now with humility. Humility allows the love to flow freely. It doesn't mean that you have to count everyone as so much more important than you, but it does mean that we're required to thing of people at least as equally in importance as us. And then Philippians 2 says, "Count others more significant than yourself." So the point is we do need you. If you walked into this church today, and you're like, "I'm just looking for a church." We need you. We need you. We need to lock arms together. We need to become members one of another.

And we are gifts to one another. That's what we talked about last week. How do I know my gifts? Do I take a personality test? Do I take a talent and a gift test online? All of those things are cool. I'm not knocking any of that. Scripture doesn't offer any of those, but you know what scripture says? Love people. Serve people. Pay attention to people. The meat, a really close knit group of people join, and minister to those people, and they'll help you discern your gifts. Like hey, you're really good at this. You're really good at that. It's kind of hard to do that on a Sunday. It begins here, but we intentionally do that during community groups during the week. Different homes, different nights of the week. And I know if you're new to the city, that's so intimidating. You're going to someone's house. No. Meet someone here. Meet your anti-doppelganger at church, and say, "Which community group do you go to? Can I come?" Like, "Yeah, of course." And now you've become friends, and the friends become family, and that's the vision of the church.

Then you see where your gifts are. You want to use your gifts more. The other thing I'll say here is when thinking of gifts don't just think about titles or offices. We're all called to teach. We're all called to serve. We're all called to love. We're all called to be generous. You don't need a title to do that. You don't need permission to be a Christian. So be a Christian. Love people. 1 Corinthians 12:18. But as it is God arranged the members in the body each one of them as he chose. If you are at Mosaic, you need to be sure God led you here, and if you're not sure pray Lord. Perhaps you're needed somewhere else, but if you're here, and you're like, "Mosaic is my church." God's brought you here, and if he's brought you here, he's brought you here for a reason. He's trying to arrange the parts. This is what he's talking about. And when you know that God is the one that gifts, and that God is the one that arranges. And when you understand that the gift you have is actually a gift. And the Greek, the word gift is charismata. Grace in the Greek is charis, charismata, meaning the gifts that we have, it's all grace.

God chooses which gifts he gives to whom, therefore we don't have to play the comparison game with don't have to be envious of someone else's game because envy kills the free flow of love. So if you're ahead, don't be jealous of the hearts or the hands, but learn from them. If you're a heart don't be... You see? You see. 1 Corinthians 12:19. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is there are many parts, yet one body. And they're all interdependent. So don't become co-dependent on one person. And this is just real talk. A lot of people have become co-dependent on whoever the mouth is. My job here is to equip you. My job isn't just to feed you. My job is also to teach you how to cook. So this is why I go verse by verse, and I try to show you what I do. Look this word is... I don't give you lessons in hermeneutics.

You come here for a month you'll understand hermeneutics. You'll understand exegesis. You'll understand how to interpret scripture. Therefore, you go home and you start reading scripture. And what you're doing is now you're cooking. And then you're like, "I've cooked more than I can eat." Then invite someone over to your house, and feed them. Let me feed you, I've cooked this bomb meal. Please come over, and the person who was invited, please don't be squeamish, "Oh I don't like eating other people's food." No eat their food. That takes love to. That take humility. Are we talking about food, or are we talking about the gospel? Yes, both. It's both. Other people cooking. This is in community group. Let other Christian teach you, "Hey what is God revealing to you through the scriptures through his Holy Spirit? Teach me." That's what I do. We're called to equip the saints for the work of the ministry as pastors.

I know we live in a city where no one trusts each other. That's part of the reason no one even wants to say hello. Hello. Are you trying to sell something to me, or steal something from me? It's one or the other. And there's just this especially in a city, there's risk and it takes trust to bond with people. It takes trust to bond, and it takes risk to trust. What does through the gospel is he takes the risk that's impeding the trust, and he replaces it with love, because perfect love casts out fear, so now we can trust. We can love.

So some Christians exclude themselves from the body. And sometimes Christian do the excluding. I don't belong here. I don't need you. That's verse 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." Some of the most heart wrenching words that you can hear. When someone that you want to be in a relationship with says, "I don't need you." And we might not say that out loud explicitly, we might act in ways that communicates this implicitly. I don't need you. My calendar, too busy. I don't need you in my phone. I have enough friends. I don't need you in my home, you're too different. I don't like how you look. I don't like how you dress. I don't like what you do for life. I don't like your education. I don't like how you smell. No. Don't communicate this verbally. Don't communicate it implicitly.

And if you felt neglected, we're sorry. And we ask that you tell us that, and we'll try to work on fixing that. Mosaic is not self-sufficient. We're not self-sustainable. God gives gifts for mutual up building. We build each one up. When God gives you a gift it's not just for you. It's for you to share. And here's the other thing I'll say. The reasons why those Christians say to other Christians is because they think they're ultra gifted. And this is what happens with gifts. Who's the most gifted person who ever lived? Obviously Jesus. Who is number two? Who is second after Jesus when it came to all the gifts? It was Satan.

And what happened with Satan was he twisted the gifts. The gifts instead of using the gifts to bless, he twisted the gifts to serve himself. And this is what Satan does. He tries to twist the gifts that God has given us. What takes someone down? What makes someone weaponize the gifts? It's just a little twisting when sin gloms onto the gifts that God has given us. Instead of using the gifts to serve, we start using the gifts to serve ourself. So be careful. And the greater your gift the greater the responsibility to use that gift. And the greater the temptation there will be to use it for self.

1 Corinthians 12:22. On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. What he's talking about here is there's presentable parts. That's the visible gifts. Then there's the unpresentable parts, the ones that you aren't presenting because they are invisible. They're behind the scene. There's visible gifts, and there's behind the curtains. Behind the scenes gifts. So for example, visible gifts, presentable parts. The face, the mouth, the ears, the eyes. But then there's something inside. The heart. The organs, which are actually indispensable. They're actually more important than everything else. And he's saying the visible parts they already get the honor. Instead when you get the honor, I want you to bestow honor. Transfer honor to the ones who are behind the scenes. Bestow honor where honor is due. Out do one another in showing honor. And what this honor does is it... This bestowing of honor is very Christ like. It's very Godly.

In the Trinity, the Father bestows honor to the Son the Son to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit to both. So we in the world. We're to show honor. We're to show attention the children. To those the world dishonors. I saw a guy walking the street today. He had a t-shirt that said I hate kids. I was kind of in a rush to Kids Summer Nights, or else I would have stopped and had a conversation with him. The world dishonors as a whole, children. Single moms, the elderly, the sick, the immigrant, the orphan, the widow, the homeless, the mentally ill, and we as the church are called to honor them. Are called to pay attention to them. Are called to serve them just like Jesus did. When the stronger pay attention to the weaker, they get stronger, so does the weaker get stronger. And they get stronger, because they realize, "Oh wow, you're weak in the thing I'm strong in, but you're also strong in the thing that I am weak in. We need each other." And the serving the weaker make everyone stronger, and what the stronger needs to know is that this person who seems weak is actually clothed in humility, and you need to be clothed in humility. And when we're clothed in humility. When we decrease together, Christ increases and that's how the church grows.

Speaking of church growth. Three years ago we made... God sent this unique person into the church, Kara Bettis. This is the Kara Bettis part of the sermon. Kara Bettis came on staff three years ago, and when she came on staff as the Mini-Mo director/administrator/communications director/everything that needs to get done, she said, "I'm going to be here for a year. I'm going to give you guys a year." And it's been three years. Since she go there the church has doubled. And all the numbers, just everything has gotten a lot better. She's made all our lives better. She's very much behind the scenes. We don't really see her. So with a heavy heart I'm making the announcement that Kara Bettis is leaving the Mosaic Boston staff, but she's remaining in the church. She loves it this much. She was offered a job to do her dream job in journalism for Christianity Today. And she was offered a job as an editor. So she will be working from Boston, because she loves this church too much. She loves you guys so much. And we love her.

So we want to honor you Kara Bettis. Big round of applause for Kara as she makes her way down. And we have a little gift for you. And we want to pray for you. So Kara though leaving staff she's remaining as a faithful member of the church, however I do ask you no longer email her with church questions. Because that's why she's leaving. No just kidding. Just kidding it's not true. The Lord is calling her to go elsewhere. We're going to pray over here. We're going to pray a prayer of thanksgiving, and also a prayer for the Lord to continue and empower her ministry. Would you pray with me.

Lord we thank you for our dear sister Kara. Lord we thank you for her tireless work here for your kingdom. She's been a blessing to so many. She's a blessing to us and to me. And we just see in her... We see Christ in her. We've seen her sacrifice. And we've seen how the Holy Spirit has used her so powerfully. And Lord I pray that you do bless her in her new ministry. And the calling that you've placed on her, use her powerfully. Give her words. Write through her to touch many people. Bless many people with your gospel. And we also pray for you to send many more Kara Bettises to this church who behind the scenes do so much, and serve so selflessly. And I pray all this in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Thank you Kara. Thank you. Thank you. Prayer emoji. We don't do that usually in sermons. What were we doing? Just honoring a person who was behind the scenes. So we are called to do that.

Now verse 24. But God has so composed the body giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. This is how we use the gifts. This is how we grow in the gifts. Just care for people. If one member suffers, all suffer. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. If you stub your toe your whole body is aching in pain. If you get a great haircut, and someone compliments you on that haircut, your hair rejoices, so does the whole body. Thank you. It takes empathy. It takes noticing. It takes stepping into a person's life. Romans 12:15. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. And love is what unlocks the capacity to empathize this deeply.

So we are one. Are we one? Let's be one. let's be who we are. It takes work. It takes commitment. It takes effort. It takes margin in life. It takes sacrifice. And where do we get the power to sacrifice like this? Where do we get the power to truly be so connected with other Christians in our life that we are individually members of one another? The whole world knows this is good. The whole world has studied that we need friends, and we need family, and we need deep relationships. Everyone talks about peace. Everyone talks about unity. But they're missing something. It's almost as if it's impossible to live like that, because people hurt us, and then hurt people who hurt people. So we want love, then we act in ways that where relationship are broken. Where do we get the power to love like this? Where do we get the power to forgive when people hurt us? Where do we get the power to be gracious? You know where we get that power, it's at the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus came, God incarnate, made himself accessible. Made himself vulnerable. Made himself pierce-able.

He came into the world, he said, "Let's be friends, let's be family." And we killed him and that's our sin. And he took our sin upon himself. Poured out his blood to cleanse us of our sin, our shame, our ego, our pride, everything that actually is what makes the world, the world. Christ now through his love knits us together. He makes us friends. He makes us family.

So this is... We have a membership class today from 1:00 to 3:00. And I'm not selling anything, I'm just giving you. I'm offering you. I'm offering you something. And I'm offering... We have room in our hearts for you at this church. We have space for you here. And we have space for you here. So get connected to this church and once you're connected, once you have friends, once this church is family, then we talk about membership. You can become a member. So if you believe this is your home church, you're welcome to come to the membership class. Or you can just come. It's free lunch. It's 1:00 to 3:00 pm today downstairs. But we don't just do membership, like fake membership, like pretend membership, like if you belong, we just confirm that belonging through the process. So we welcome you to belong, because we need each other.

In Boston, I have met some of the strongest people I have ever met. Strong in mind. Strong in will. Strong in body. But strong. Strong Christians. And if I were Satan this is how I would temp you, and I know, because this is how he temps me. He say's you are so strong. You are so strong, you don't need anybody. And now we become the rat in the cage. And now addictions. And we need the humility to say, "I might be strong in one thing, but there's people who are strong in the things where I'm weak, and I need them in my life." And when you go to someone else, and you say, "I need you." What's their response? "Oh awesome, I need you too." I need you. We need each other. We need each other. That's the point.

And we see this all throughout scripture. This is how the Lord taught us to pray. I won't do the whole thing, but here's the Lord's Prayer. My Father in heaven? No, our father. And when we pray, every time we pray the Lord's Prayer, we're thinking about, oh my brothers and sisters. My community. Our father in heaven. And then when we ask for bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. That's the love with forgiveness. Lead us not into temptation. Meaning sometimes I'm led into temptation, sometimes because I don't think I need anyone, God does allow me to be led into temptation to show me, no you're not strong, you're weak. So I need brothers and sisters that I go to and say, "Please hold me accountable when I'm led into temptation. Here's my temptations. I need you to call me out and bring me back from the zigzag path to the straight and the narrow." So my point in conclusion. Let's be friends. Let's be family. Jesus allows that to be reality.

I'm going to close with this illustration to give us just a glimpse. A glimpse of what this looks like. And we're going to go to the pyrosome. Have you ever seen this? Do you know what a pyrosome is? Oh. Oh. You're welcome for this next part of the sermon. And you should go on YouTube and watch pyrosomes. Read up on this. This thing is awesome. Tyler Burns sent this to me. Our youth ministry director. Thanks Tyler. Qz.com November 16, 2018, pyrosomes and they're called the unicorns of the sea. What is this thing. It's one body, but it's made up of hundreds, and actually thousands of individual organisms called zooids. And they're physically linked. They're shared tissue, but they're distinct. And yet they are one. And they have a purpose. They join together and they have a purpose to travel together. They need one another. By themselves they're unimpressive. They're negligible. Together, intimidating force. I actually read that they swallow up penguins, which that's not the church. We don't do that. But still that's pretty intimidating. And this is the crazy part. They are clones one of another. They clone, they reproduce. So we don't want to do the clone thing, but we do the reproduction thing in that we become Christians and others become Christians, and they're all clones of the first founding zooid, named... I don't know the zooids name, but you know where I'm going.

And here's the other thing. This is what they eat. They join together, and they way that they travel is they suck water in and they suck it out, and what they're doing is they suck the bacteria in, and they let clean water out. They're actually cleansing the area around them. And the word pyro, pyrosome comes from the Greek words pyro, fire, some, body. They're a body on fire. I affectionately named this pyrosome Mosaic Boston. That's us. A body on fire. What's that fire? God's love for others. And that's what binds us. We're bound by love.

Let's pray. Lord thank you for this time. Thank you for your scriptures, and thank you for the gospel, and thank you for your love. Jesus let us love in the same way that you have loved us. We pray this in your name. Amen.