The document discusses how the church should function as a unified body, with each member playing an important role and supporting one another. It provides several metaphors and examples from the Bible to illustrate how unity within the church is essential, such as comparing the church to a human body with many interdependent parts or a barn that was moved only through group effort. The key points are that every member has value and a contribution to make, and that unity requires recognizing our shared purpose and interdependence.

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10. The church is always supposed to be thinking
of what’s next…
…generation of believers
…generation of leaders preparing for service
…person who’s going to accept Jesus
…project we will throw ourselves into
…time we get together to worship
…level of maturity in your faith
…surprise God has ready for you - Blessing?
Challenge? Heaven?

11. We need to constantly be looking at the
horizon, to consider what’s next.
Two things to keep in mind about all that: it’s
going to take God making it happen, and it’s
also going to take more than a couple people.
In fact, it’s going to take a bunch of people –
and not just a bunch of people together, but a
bunch of people working together – like a
body. It’s going to take “unity.”

12. I visited in a church that struggled to get this
straight.
They were lacking unity.
They had a big task in front of them, but they
kept letting things get in the way. They were
proof, in fact, that you can not only meet
together each week, but you can even belong
to the same Body of Christ and still live in a
dis-united way.

13. They had members of the church dividing over
who had led them to Jesus.
There were members suing each other in
court.
There were other members who were
exercising their freedom in Christ without
caring how it affected the others.
They were divided over corporate worship –
can you believe it?

14. They didn’t agree about how it should be
conducted, and they weren’t thinking of each
other when it was time for the Lord’s Supper.
On top of this, they were using their God-given
gifts to promote themselves over one another.

15. Now, take a congregation with all this trouble
and try to fix it.
What would you do?
The Apostle Paul would write them a letter –
really?
And that’s exactly what he did. So, we all have
the opportunity to visit the church of Corinth by
reading what he wrote to them.
ESV

16. Among the word-pictures that the Bible uses to
describe the Church, the picture of a human
Body is one of the most important.
Not only does it describe Jesus as the Head,
but it also helps us picture how the rest is
supposed to fit together.
That’s what Paul does in .
In fact, I think what Paul is describing here is a
way to unity.
Christians have God’s Spirit living inside them.
Having the Holy Spirit ought to cause some
attachment among us.

18. Paul goes on to talk about some of the
different ways the Holy Spirit is seen or
“manifested” in the early church to help it grow
– “ ,” “
,” “ ,” “ ,” “
,” “ ,”
,” “
,” “ ” – 9
different special gifts, all different, but all from
the same Spirit.
And He is the One to determine who gets
which gift, and God already determined the
reason He gave those gifts was for the
common good of the Church.

19. The Church, the Body, is a unit.
It has many parts, but it’s just one Body.
It’s brought to life by the life-giving force of just
one Spirit.
That means, if you’re in Jesus Christ, I’m a
part of the Body with you.
A unit is “one.”
The word unity means “oneness.”
How is that possible in a church that has a
goal to keep adding more and more people?

20. How is unity possible when there are
thousands and thousands of congregations
meeting around the world, or 7 different adult
SS classes meeting in one building, or 4 small
groups meeting in different places, or even
360 people worshiping in 2 different worship
hours? How can we keep what is truly a
“unity”? One answer is in this word-picture
Paul paints in .
We are all parts of a body, and…

21. Imagine the Master Carpenter’s tools holding a
conference:
Brother Hammer presides, but several suggest
he leave the meeting because he is too noisy.
Brother Hammer replies, “If I have to leave this
shop, Brother Screw must go also. You have
to turn him around again and again to get him
to accomplish anything.”

22. Brother Screw speaks up. “If you wish, I’ll
leave. But Brother Plane must leave, too. All
his work is on the surface. His efforts have no
depth.”
To this, Brother Plane responds, “Brother Rule
will also have to withdraw, for he is always
measuring folks as though he were the only
one who is right.”

23. Brother Rule then complains about Brother
Sandpaper: “He ought to leave, too, because
he’s so rough and always rubbing people the
wrong way.
And so goes the discord.
In the midst of all this discussion, in walks the
Carpenter of Nazareth.
He has arrived to start his day’s work.

24. Putting on his apron, he goes to the bench to
make a pulpit from which to proclaim the
gospel.
He uses Brothers Hammer, Screw, Plane,
Rule, Sandpaper, and all the other tools.
After the day’s work, when the pulpit is
finished, Brother Saw arises and remarks,
“Brethren, I observe that all of us are workers
together with the Lord.”

25. No part should feel or act inferior in the Body
because, by God’s design, they’re all needed.
In this Body, I need your strength where I am
weak.
You need my strength where you are weak.
None of us is as smart as all of us. We need
each other. I can’t look at any part of the Body
and say it isn’t needed.

27. Isn’t it interesting that Paul would use the
human body as evidence that every member
of the church is indispensable? You can’t tell
the fingers to take over for the tonsils, or “Hey
one of you kidneys, I only really need one of
you so right one take over for the left little toe.”
All parts are different, and all have a specific
purpose.
It’s the same with people of the Church.

28. That means…Don’t look at yourself and say
that you have nothing to contribute to the
health of the Body.
If you’re saying you have no place in the Body,
that’s a cop-out – an excuse.
God put you here to be useful to the Body.
It’s His design, and it’s His Body, and He has
some point for you to be here!

29. Herman Ostry's barn floor was under 29
inches of water because of a rising creek. The
Bruno, Nebraska, farmer invited a few friends
to a barn raising.
He needed to move his entire 17,000-pound
barn to a new foundation more than 143 feet
away.
His son Mike devised a lattice work of steel
tubing, and nailed, bolted, and welded it on the
inside and the outside of the barn.

30. Hundreds of handles were attached.
After one practice lift, 344 volunteers slowly
walked the barn up a slight incline, each
carrying less than 50 pounds.
In just 3 minutes, the barn was on its new
foundation.
The body of Christ can accomplish great
things when we work together.
The parts all need each other.

31. No part should look down on any other part,
because “lesser” parts are important too.
In the Body, I recognize your worth.
Doesn’t it make sense that there are parts of
the body that are different from one another?
Paul asks in

32. There have to be different parts, or else a body
isn’t a body anymore.
In fact, if you get down to it, we’re made up of
cells – lots of different kinds of cells. When a
bunch of the same cells work together, they
form tissue – like bone tissue.
And that tissue can all work together to make
an organ – like a bone.
And that bone can work together with a bunch
of other bones to form a system – the skeletal
system.

33. But that system could never function without
the different tissues and shapes and sizes that
form it.
Now, go back to that one little cell.
Who needs it?
Well, the tissue, the bone, the system - the
whole body needs it!
To be a body, there have to be a lot of parts!

35. Someone has said that a good sermon is like
a hospital gown – just long enough to cover
the subject but short enough to keep it
interesting!
Most folks don’t care for those gowns because
there are parts of our body that we don’t
consider presentable.
That’s true.

36. So what do we do with those non-presentable
parts?
We give them more attention.
We treat them with special modesty.
What do we do with our weaker parts?
We give them special protection and care.
That’s how it works in a body.
That’s how it works in this Body.

37. Outside the Body, it doesn’t work that way, but
in the Body, no part deserves to be regarded
less.
Don’t look around you and think of someone
else that they have nothing to contribute to the
Body.
Parts of the Body may become diseased or
weak, but it’s still God’s design that put them
here.
And His design is that we would help those
parts be healthy and strong, so that they can
fulfill their role, rather than be amputated.

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The parts all honor each other.

39. Probably the bit of Scripture that is most often
read about the Lord’s Table is from
.
There Paul reviews how the Lord’s Supper
was begun and stresses how we’re supposed
to observe it in the right way.
It gives us a lot of insight to how it’s supposed
to be.
But in the verses right before, there’s some
more insight – a little glimpse into part of the
disunity in the Church in Corinth.

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42. Failing to think well of each other – failing to
honor the other members of the Body –
dishonors the table of the Lord.
This part of the Body life is to be so important,
so central, that it’s the very reason the people
of God come together.
One problem in Corinth was that they weren’t
coming together to rightly observe the Lord’s
Supper.

43. Each Sunday morning, we have an opportunity
to act like the Body of Christ – the Body that
values every part of it; the Body that
remembers Jesus Christ together.
As we honor Jesus in this way together, let’s
also remember that today in this place, and
around the world, the Body of Christ is
remembering Him together.
Since we are the Body of Christ, here is one
last point to take from this chapter…

44. No part should behave like it’s “separated”
from the others, because God put it together.
In the Body, I share your pain and joy as my
own.
We should have a certain “organic unity.” Paul
describes it in…

46. A body has a way of keeping itself in touch
with all its members.
They’re all connected to a central nervous
system, so that they keep in touch with each
other.
Your body parts have sympathy for the other
parts.
That means they “feel together.”

47. Let’s say there is a Twister tournament.
You know, that’s the game where you have a
mat with all these colored circles on it.
Someone spins a dial and tells everyone “left
hand on red” or “right foot on yellow.” It can get
pretty tricky.

48. Suppose you’re watching this and you wonder
whose left foot that is on blue.
All you have to do is stomp on it and pretty
soon you’ll find out who’s connected to that
foot.
A body works that way.
Since the parts are connected, it acts
connected.

49. King Solomon had 2 women come to him with
a challenge.
Each one had a baby, and one accidentally
smothered hers as she slept.
She switched the babies.
Now Solomon has both mothers standing in
front of him, both saying that the living baby
was hers.
What would he do?
He calls for a sword and says “Cut the baby in
half and give each mother a half.”

50. Right away, the woman who was lying says,
“Go ahead. Neither one of us will have him.”
But the baby’s real mother says, “No, let it live!
Give it to her! Better that she should have him
than that he die!”
Solomon understood what it means for people
to be connected. He understood that a mother
would suffer at even the thought of her child
suffering.

51. A body isn’t well if a part suffers but the body
doesn’t feel it.
Either the part has become somewhat
disconnected or the body isn’t well.
In a healthy situation, the body has equal
concern for all its parts.
If one part is doing well, the rest of the body is
strengthened and glad.
If one part of the body is hurting, the rest of the
body suffers with it.

52. Put this in the Church Body setting and
understand what it means.
No part of the Body should be living like it’s
disconnected – no part should behave like it’s
separated.
And the Body should be living like it feels
every part.

53. In the past we’ve had deaths in the Body that
gathers in this building. Why do we come to
those funerals? It’s because we’re part of a
body. It’s because we feel for those who are
hurting – we grieve with them because we’re
connected. Because we live as connected
people. Because we have concern for each
other. Because If one part suffers, every part
suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part
rejoices with it. We’re a part of the Body – a
unit.

54. When someone expresses a need for prayer
or for encouragement, understand that’s what
happens when we’re acting like a Body – like
we’re supposed to.
In a body, the parts live as if they’re
connected.
Paul urged the Ephesians…

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Are we doing it?
When we show the signs of unity, I believe we
are.

57. In “Witnesses of a Third Way: A Fresh Look at
Evangelism,” a chapter by Robert Neff tells
this story about visiting a church service: "It
was one of those mornings when the tenor
didn't get out of bed on the right side. ... As I
listened to his faltering voice, I looked around.
People were pulling out hymnals to locate the
hymn being sung by the soloist.

58. "By the 2nd verse, the congregation had joined
the soloist in the hymn. And by the 3rd verse,
the tenor was beginning to find the range. And
by the fourth verse, it was beautiful. And on
the 5th verse the congregation was absolutely
silent, and the tenor sang the most beautiful
solo of his life. That is life in the body of Christ,
enabling one another to sing the tune Christ
has given us.”

59. Wouldn’t you like to be part of a group of
people like that?
When the Body of Christ is functioning like it
should, it becomes a place where everyone
has a place of belonging.
People who have struggled with addictions,
with abuses, with the results of bad choices,
with disappointment about life in general, can
become one more part of this body – a unit,
made up of human parts.

60. Have you found your part in the body & is that
part functioning?
It takes all parts doing their part for the body to
be complete & active.
If each part is not performing as only it can the
Body is crippled & unable to function &
complete the task Christ called us together to
do.