Well, good evening. As you turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. I'll let you get situated there. First Corinthians 12 tonight.

Couple of announcements. Next week you're in for a real treat. Raul Ries is going to be here. It's been awhile since we've had Raul, and I keep trying to get him to find the date when he can come out. So he said he'd be with us next weekend, both Saturday and Sunday. Raul will be here. Then the following week I've also asked Mike Finizio from the opposite coast, from New York (New York accent), from Manhattan. He was with me at Ground Zero, and he has stuck it out, and he has given himself to that city, and has a tremendous ministry back there. So, you're going to get a great variety in the next couple Sundays. We're going to enjoy Raul next week. Invite your friends to both of those.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 12. Now, I realize that my message title, "How to Build a Beautiful Body," sort of sounds like an add for a health spa. In fact, it's sort of what most Americans want. The body beautiful motivates us to jog, bike, row, pump iron, as well as nip, and tuck, and stretch.

A poll was taken where people were asked, "If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?" Overwhelmingly, it had to do with appearance, as you might suspect- body type, color of hair, age, etc. The average American woman is 5'4" tall and weighs 142 pounds. That's not what she wants. She would like to be, according to these polls, 5'6" or above and in the 120's as far as weight. The average American male is 5'10" and weighs 180 pounds. That's not what he's like. He'd like to be 5'11" or 6' and be 171 pounds. Because of that the diet industry is a 33 billion dollar a year business. Everybody's into it, aren't they? In fact, it's even affecting kids these days.

A little boy was sucking his thumb, and his mom tried to break him of it, tried to reason with him. She said, "Johnny, does it taste good?"

"No," he said.

"Does it feel good?"

"No."

"Then tell me what's good about sucking your thumb."

And he said, "Well, it is nonfattening you know."

Tonight I want to talk to you about a different body. The body of Christ. The church. It is a description that the Bible uses of the church frequently. In fact, I would say it is probably Paul's favorite word picture of the church, the body of Christ. And I pray and hope that, that you will want to make it beautiful.

Here's a scenario. What would you do if you went into a small group setting, a church fellowship type of a setting, and you really didn't know the people of the group? You just knew that you were a little bit uncomfortable at first because you don't know them, and they seem different from you. Here's a number of options. Number one, you can stay anonymous in the group, as anonymous as you can during that evening, and the next time, and the next time. Number two, you could decide to leave that group and find a different group more suitable to your feelings at that moment. Number three, you cold stay and try to persuade all of those people who are different from you into your way of thinking, you know, the right way of thinking. Or number four, you could just bag the small group all together and say, "I'm leaving, and I'm not even going to find another one, because frankly, I've been broken-hearted in giving myself to other groups, and I just don't need that. I don't want to get burned again."

The body of Christ. How do we make it beautiful? How do we make it attractive, not only for believers but for unbelievers? I'm going to give you tonight four ways to do that.

A Christian without a ministry is really an anomaly. It really, it's a contradiction in terms to say, "I'm a Christian, but I really don't fit in any church, in any body of Christ, because the way God made all of us, the Bible clearly says, is that we all have a distinct purpose to fulfill within the group called the church.

So, as we go through this tonight, I want you just to be thinking, because we're going to mention gifts in this lineup, where do you fit? What are your gifts? How are you fulfilling, not just the Great Commission to go out all over the world, but that great calling to minister to the body of Christ?

I found this some time back. It's an interesting way of reasoning. It says, "There are 200 million Americans. 86 million are over 65, 76 million are under 21. That leaves only 38 million really to do the work. But 6 million are in the armed forces. That leaves 32 million left to do the work, but 6 million are on welfare. That leaves 26 million to do the work, but 15 million work for the government. That leaves 11 million to do the work." I don't exactly know what they mean by that. "Ten million are in school. That leaves 1 million to do the work, but 750,000 are disabled or sick. So that leaves only 250,000 to do the work. Last week there were 249,998 people in prison. That leaves two people to do the work, and since you don't do much, no wonder I'm so tired," writes this person.

Let's get into 1 Corinthians 12. Let me just tell you a little bit about what is happening. Corinth was a church riddled with issues, problems; and the letter of Paul to Corinth, the first letter, is to unravel and solve some of those problems that were present, including most prominently, divisiveness within that group. They were divided. They sort of entrenched themselves into little positions, one teacher against another teacher. You might say they made the body of Christ ugly. Paul writes to correct several of these issues, and in chapter 12 he attacks this issue head on.

Now there's four ways to make the body of Christ beautiful. Way number one, first, is to recognize the variety that's in it. Recognize, don't fight against it, recognize it, enjoy it. Let's jump in at verse 4. There are diversity of gifts but the same Spirit, differences of ministries but the same Lord, diversities of activities but the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues, but one and the same Spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually as he wills.

Step number one, recognize variety. There is not one gift. There is not one style of ministry. There is not one method, one denomination, one person that's to be lifted up over everyone else. Recognize the variety. God loves variety, and he has a number of things to do, ways to do them, and people to use to get them done.

Imagine what Christmas would be like if all the gifts you received were exactly the same—socks and underwear. Imagine what it would be like if every place on the globe had the same terrain. Where would you go on vacation? Imagine if everyday of the year started and ended and maintained its course exactly the same as the other. It'd be like "Ground Hog Day," that movie. And what if everybody in church had the same way of thinking exactly on every single issue, and had the same kind of giftedness? It would also be boring. We have, I'm afraid, spiritual molds. We don't know it, but we have created them in every church, in every denomination. Every organization seems to pick them up. It's this whole idea of save them and press them into this mold, and it's unfortunate, because we give people a false set of standards too often.

A few years back, Steve Taylor, who at that time was a contemporary Christian musician, now he's an older one, wrote a song called "I Want to be a Clone." It was a song that sort of highlighted the tendency within the church to homogenize everyone. Here's part of his song:

Their language was so new to me,

But Christianese God through to me

And now I can speak it fluently.

I want to be a clone.

So now I see the whole design,

My church is an assembly line.

The parts are there, I'm feeling fine.

I want to be a clone.

I've learned enough to stay afloat,

But not so much I rock the boat.

I'm glad they shoved it down my throat.

I want to be a clone.

You'll even notice that people with the same gift mix are different in the exercise of their gifts. You could take two Bible teachers and give them the exact same text to preach on, and it'll come out differently. That's variety. Give Ephesians 4 to Chuck Swindoll. Give Ephesians 4 to Raul Ries. I'll guarantee you, you'll have two different animals in terms of a message. Evangelism's the same way. Not everyone preaches like Billy Graham. A lot of people try to preach exactly like Billy Graham, and even try to take a southern accent even when they don't have one, but he's gifted at speaking to a crowd and moving thousands of people. Others don't have that same exact calling. They're evangelists, but they're better one on one, door to door. They love to knock on a door, see a fresh face, cold turkey, share the gospel. Not a lot of us like that. A lot of us would knock on the door and pray to God that nobody answers it, because that's just not how we're crafted, how we're made. So we cannot confine God to a style, a gift, a method. Recognize variety.

A good example of that are the healings of Jesus. Did he heal all people the same? Did he have a healing line where he'd kind of hit them on the forehead, and they'd fall backwards? No. He was so varied, wasn't he? Sometimes he would touch them. Another time he would not touch them, but he would speak a word from a distance. Same affect, healing. On yet another occasion, Jesus spoke to them, did nothing, but as they left and went their way, in the process they were healed. My favorite is the time that Jesus spat on the ground, and made mud out of his saliva, and wiped it in a guy's eyes, and said, "Go wash." That's an interesting style. I'd like to see some of the evangelists on TV pull that off. Jesus was so varied.

Verse 11. Look at that one more time, and notice who's controlling the variety. But one and the same Spirit. That is a reference to the Holy Spirit, the one who coordinates the body. One and the same Spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually as he wills. Notice those last two words, he wills. The church isn't really about what we will, what we want, as much as where I fit in the great scheme of what he wants.

What is he doing? What is he wanting? That's the question all of us need to be asking on an ongoing basis. What is God wanting to do here, and where do I fit in? See, these are gifts that God gives to you individually, but not to keep individually, but to share corporately with the group. They're gifts. You don't earn them, nor do you work your way up necessarily through them. In other words, you don't say, "Well, if I'm a really good word of wisdom guy, can I be a prophet eventually? Or tell you what, if I really exercise the gift of helps faithfully, can I then be a teacher?" That'd sort of be like your kneecap asking, "If I'm a good kneecap, can I be a shoulder someday?"

So the issue is God has crafted you, saved you, given you gifts according to what he wills for the whole group. And so, I would say find out what your gifts are. Find out who you are in the Lord. Be yourself. Be thyself. When you try to copy someone else, you rob the body of Christ of your uniqueness. So step number one, recognize variety.

Step number two, emphasize unity. Back to verse 11, but we'll read a few more verses. One in the same Spirit works all these things distributing to each one individually as he wills. For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and have all been made to drink into one Spirit.

Recognize variety, but emphasize unity. Now, this second truth balances out the first truth. Here's how. If we're all about recognizing variety and individuality, and we don't mix that with unity, we're going to have a malfunctioning group of people all wanting to do their own thing. You can't emphasize one and take away the other.

Consider your body. Just, just how wonderfully designed you are. Your brain, the master organ. They tell us your brain has ten billion nerve cells, ten billion. I don't know how many we really use, but we have that many. And they're connected, and they control everything. They are sending and receiving messages depending on what we see, hear, feel, experience. Six hundred muscles are being coordinated, ligaments, etc. And what's really cool is the first model worked. When God made Adam and Eve he didn't have to work the bugs out. It was perfect right out of the assembly line. It's an incredible body.

Now, in the church, since Paul gives us that analogy, Colossians tells us the head of the body is Christ. He's the master. He's the one who gives the orders. He's the one who tells this person to go there, this person to do that. The Holy Spirit, I see it, is like the nervous system taking the messages from the brain, conveying it to the different parts of the body, so that the end result is a smooth coordination, a beautiful effort to glorify God.

Your human body, and I emphasize human, because I can't necessarily say that about the church always, the spiritual body of Christ. Your human body is an amazing example of coordination. It really is truly amazing. Stomach sends a message to the brain. It says, "I need fuel. We need fuel," because frankly it's not just the stomach. It's the whole body. The brain quickly goes into action, sends a message to the legs, "Go to the kitchen." The eye sees the burger. The nose smells the onions. The hand goes out and grabs the chow, stuffs it in the mouth. The stomach is happy. The body is nourished. Talk about cooperation.

Now, it doesn't always happen that way in the body of Christ. It's not always a healthy body sending and receiving the messages from the brain and back. We all know that one of the best feelings is health. When our body is healthy, when we're operating at peak performance, nothing is better than that on a physical level.

Some years ago, I went to Venice Beach, California. Has anybody been there? Have you ever seen that? If you haven't, you've seen it on TV guaranteed. This is where they have body building on the beach, and the guys, you know, look like they got sacks of potatoes for arms. They're strong, big. And they're lifting weights on the beach, and then doing odd things for the crowds. The guy that I saw was juggling chainsaws while they were going. And I looked at that, and I'm thinking, "If this guy slips, it's a mess." You can imagine. He didn't slip. It was incredible hand/eye coordination. Every muscle, every part working so finely tuned. Hey, when the body works great, you feel great. It is great. But what happens when one, even one little part gets an infection, one little part gets inflamed? It can slow you completely down or even kill you.

A few years ago my wife was out of town, and I had a stomachache. You think, "Well, you were just lonely." Well, that's probably true, but it was more than that because at 2:00am I woke up from a sleep and I had a gut wrenching pain, and I called a friend, and he took me to the hospital, and the doctor said, "It looks really bad. You're white count is up. You have an infection. We're going to admit you into the hospital." So I stayed in the hospital for two days. Exam after exam after exam.

"Well, we don't know what the problem is but there is some part of you is infected. We just can't tell which part."

"Okay. What are you going to do?"

"Well, we got to do more tests."

So the next day they did more tests. They did this test where you drink this stuff, and they x-ray, and nothing was wrong there. Next day they did this thing called a barium enema. Now, by this time I'm just put off with this whole thing, and I'm thinking, you know, what Job said, That which I have feared has come upon me. And I start thinking, "Now which part of my body isn't cooperating, that causes me to get this. A healthy body is great when all the parts are working together, but if one little part is out of whack it is a horrible feeling. If the body doesn't coordinate, or cooperate, or communicate, it malfunctions.

I had a friend that had Multiple Sclerosis. I watched him progress through that disease. It was horrible, because he was once upright, and healthy, and very vibrant; and then he was in a wheelchair, and then he couldn't feel certain things, and his movements weren't smooth, but very pronounced and very jerky. And the doctors were saying on the brain little patches of the tissue hardened so that the connection can't be made all the way through the brain. "That synapse can't be realized fully, so it's an incomplete communication," said the doctor. So that the body isn't as beautiful symphony of movement, but this jerky, spastic, sad, "episodal" series of movements.

What I wonder is when the world looks at the church, what do they see? A beautiful symphony of movement? I think too often they see this jerky, do-your-own-thing, pump up, individuality above unity, so that there isn't a smooth coordination receiving the messages by the Spirit from the brain.

You know that one of Satan's greatest strategies is to get us to fight each other, and it's pretty obvious as to why. If we're busy fighting each other we're not going to have enough energy to fight the real enemy, him, and the kingdom of darkness. And it'll destroy us.

One night a guy a man had a dream, and you know dreams can be odd. They don't always make sense. Have you noticed that? One part'll make sense, and then you're here, and then all of a sudden you're on the other side of the world with somebody else, and it's weird. Well, this guy had a dream that he was sitting at a huge banquet table. The table was filled with the best food. It was a Thanksgiving type of a meal. Everybody was in black tie, fancy, formal dress. They sat down to eat the meal. There was a weird problem. Everybody had sandwich boards, or little boards tied to their arms. So they could grab the food, but could not bend at the elbow. Can you imagine how frustrating that would be? You're hungry. You sit down, especially in a tux, and you can do this, but you can't put it in your mouth. So they tried, and they tried. Eventually one guy had the brightest idea. He took some of the food with one arm. Since he couldn't bend it, he reached across the table, put it in the guy's mouth across from them. And they all got the idea, and soon they had a wonderful meal, because in a coordinated effort they didn't do their own thing, but they served the meal to one another. They emphasized in that dream unity.

And so we have to recognize variety. We have to emphasize unity. Look at verse 15. There's a third thing we need to do and that is maximize equality. Equality. Remember that word.

If the foot should say, "Because I'm not a hand, I'm not of the body," is it therefore, not of the body? If the ear should say, now, again, this is bazaar. He's, he's giving you an example, an analogy. Feet don't speak nor do ears, but imagine if they do. If the ear should say, "Because I'm not an eye, I'm not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now God has set the members each one of them in the body just as he pleased, and if all were one member, where would be the body? But now, indeed, there are many members, yet one body.

One of the reasons the church malfunctions is because we take certain gifts, certain parts, certain people and we "pedestalize" them. We emphasize their importance over everybody else. Whenever we do that we send an opposite message to everyone else. "Well, you're here and it's cool, but you're really not that important." So we make distinctions, separations, divisions, and in our minds at least we rank them. We grade them. One is more important than the other. What Paul is saying is that we need to maximize the idea of equality. We're all needed, all of us together.

We as human beings we love distinctions. We love it if we can be called doctor so and so, or Mr. Important Person so and so, or whatever it might be—the idea that we're just a little bit better and greater than everybody else. We divide into categories.

Look in our text, and you'll notice that Paul compares two parts of the body that are visible, usually seen—hands, eyes—with two parts of the body that are rarely seen. They're there, but they are rarely noticed—ears and feet. He says, If the foot should say, "Because I'm not a hand, I'm not of the body," is it therefore not of the body? If the ear should say, "Because I'm not an eye, I'm not of the body," is it therefore not of the body?

Your hands are more visible than your feet, especially if you're Italian. They're seen all the time doing this. And your hands are vital and they are visible, but there are certain things you can't do with your hands that you can only do with your feet. You don't wave feet. You don't shake feet. You wave your hands. But you cannot walk on your hands, at least for not any length of time, and it wouldn't be a profitable thing to do. So Paul is saying that all of them, though one is more visible than another, all of them are crucial. Same with eyes and ears. We notice eyes. We rarely notice ears as a wonderful feature.

When I first met my wife, Lenya, I noticed her eyes. They were well set, had a beautiful brow. And I remember remarking to myself, "What beautiful eyes." I didn't walk away going, "Great lobes, man. Those ears are rockin'." I didn't notice them, and I didn't care, because eyes are something we do notice. They're usually beautiful. Ears are ugly, face it. Oh, they're important. They direct the sound, but they're ugly and we don't notice them. But Paul's point is that there's an equality of importance because one can only one thing but not the other.

Verse 17 paints an interesting picture. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? Can you imagine a 5'7" eyeball? There's nothing more useless than that, right? What do you do with it? Put a big pair of sunglasses on it? It can see, but it can't communicate, because it is only one function. And we do that. We really do. The church is guilty of making 5'7" eyeballs or magnifying a certain part and saying, "This is a big important part, and we're so thrilled and honored to have this important part of the body of Christ with us tonight."

We need all the parts. Whenever we emphasize, or as I said, "pedestalize" one part above another we do two things. Number one, we set people up for failure because nobody belongs on a pedestal, and the higher we put them the farther they fall. And number two, we create inferiority. We're sending out the message, "You're not that important."

Some of you remember back in 1981, March, when President Ronald Reagan was fired upon by John Hinckley, Jr. and was wounded and hospitalized for a period of weeks and months. He's the chief executive officer of the United States of America. By ranking he is the most important. He was hospitalized. His stay in the hospital didn't really diminish the activity of the nation. The government still went on. But what would happen if all of he garbage collectors in America decided to go on strike, like they did once in Philadelphia. The city was virtually shut down. It became a hazardous waste area. Which is more important, the president or a bunch of garbage collectors? Answer: They're all vital. All of them are important.

Listen. Invisible doesn't mean unimportant. Just because someone isn't readily seen in the church doesn't mean that they're not significant. In fact, they may be more significant. Look at verse 23. Those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty. But our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there be no schism, division, in the body, but that the members should have the same care one for another.

If you lose your ear, you'll live. If you lose your eye, you'll march on. If you lose your hand, you can still make it. But if you lose other parts, like a liver, a heart, a brain, those things that are never talked about, never spent much time looking at or caring about, if you lose that, then you're toast.

In the church, the vital parts, the parts that make it really run and tick, are usually the invisible ones—the prayer warriors, the secretaries, the volunteers that come in and help and stuff envelopes, etc. So vital.

Suppose I got up to teach, and as I'm going up to teach I'm walking out on the platform, my feet decide not to cooperate. "I'm not going out there."

"Well, you got to go out there, we got to..."

"No. You know, you always draw attention to your hand, or people see your lips, or your nose, or your long head, whatever it is they're looking at that, but they never notice me. You never draw attention to me. Hey, take your shoes off tonight. Let them get a good whiff—I mean, look at me."

Or what if, what if my lungs suddenly decided they wanted more exposure. They're tired of this being hidden behind a shirt, and behind the flesh, and behind the thorax, the rib cage. They want people to see them. I'd die. Infection. Those parts that are unseen are often the most important, and I would malfunction unless they were there doing their parts.

Fourth, and finally, how to have a beautiful body spiritually, a body of Christ, is to minimize self sufficiency. Verse 21. The eye cannot say to the hand, same idea but different twist on it now. 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." No. Much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. This speaks to the person who says, "I don't need to go to church. I don't need anyone. I tried the church thing before. I've been committed to a fellowship, and I've been burned by people. I don't need other people." That's a lie. Of course, you do. God made you not to be independent, but made us to be interdependent.

In America, we love rugged individualism. We exonerate the commercial that shows the pioneer, and the isolationist, out there alone, nobody around him. But God didn't design us to work that way. We never would've heard the gospel unless it was somebody else who faithfully preached it to us. We wouldn't be able to grow in faith, in knowledge, in hope. We wouldn't be able to mature in Christ unless there were faithful teachers or friends who would nurture us in the faith. And that's Paul's point.

There's a, there's an example, you don't have to turn to it because I have a hunch that you already know it. There's an example in the Scripture where all four of these principles I just gave you come together. It's in Acts chapter 6. Let me paint this story. Let me tell you this story. In Acts chapter 6, a problem developed, a crisis in the church developed. It was a spiritual problem, and you remember that it was the, the Grecian widows complained against the Hebrew widows that they were getting more attention. They were getting more ministry, leaving these poor Greek gals alone. So they complained. It was a spiritual problem. It was a division. The body of Christ was getting blemished, ugly. The spiritual problem was met by spiritual people that kept these four spiritual priorities.

Think of it. Number one, they recognized variety. The apostles recognized, "Hey, we can't do this alone, and we're not the only gift in the church. There are other gifted people out there who are called to serve tables. Let's find them. Let's enjoy the variety."

Number two, they emphasized unity. They said, "We're not going to leave the word of God and serve tables, so you choose seven people from among you," from among this group. We're all in this together. "Let's find those from among us."

Number three, they maximized equality. They maximized equality. Seven were chosen by the group. The apostles then got behind them and endorsed them to the entire church. Saying in affect, "I'll do my part. You do your part. And we'll all flow together."

And number four, they minimized self sufficiency. Because it says, and the saying pleased the whole multitude. You didn't have the Hebrew believers and the Grecians saying, "Well, if you're not going to do it my way, I'm out of here. I'm leaving. They were none of them self sufficient. It pleased the whole multitude.

There was a guy from the University of Wisconsin, Dr. Harry F. Harlow. He worked with animals. His favorite animals, the thing he loved to do is to walk by the monkey cages and watch the baby monkeys. And as he studied these monkeys in their behavioral patterns he noticed that these baby monkeys seemed to be drawn to cloth pads at the base of the cages. And they would go up to them, and they would pet them, and they would hug them, and they would snuggle by, just these little pads. He thought it was an interesting kind of a behavior pattern.

So he conducted an experiment. The good doctor made a surrogate mother, a little monkey shaped terry cloth structure. It was wire mesh covered with terry cloth. Light was behind that little concoction to radiate heat, and a little nipple connected to a milk bottle to give food. The monkeys loved it. They went around it. They not only fed, but they cuddled up to it, perched on it, slept by it, etc.

Eight monkeys were placed in a cage. The surrogate mother that was terry cloth was put there. And another surrogate mother was made, this time out of all wire mesh, nothing soft, no cloth. A nipple was put there, too, so that food could be taken from it.

Four monkeys were forced to be fed from the wire mesh mother, four from the terry cloth surrogate mother, and then they were observed. They observed that all eight of them, it didn't matter where they got there food from, all eight of them slept by and got close to the terry cloth mother.

He kept going on with the experiment. He noticed that nursing was something that involved relationship and bonding, not just feeding. It wasn't just about getting my needs met, but there were other needs that needed to be met.

He took some monkeys, put them in a cage without any terry cloth mother, only wire mesh. There was a light. So there was warmth. There was a nipple, so there was food. The monkeys came to the surrogate mother and ate, but then cowered in the corner. They didn't handle stress very well. Some of them didn't survive.

What my concern is is that we don't become a wire meshed church. This isn't a cage where we come to just get fed, and fattened, and leave. Because if all this place is is where we come and hear a Bible study and leave, then let's not call it a body. Let's call it a mouth. There's more to it than that. We need the personal touch of every member of the body working collectively together, seeing each other as important, loving the variety, pushing for unity, and minimizing any kind of "I don't need you" self sufficiency. That's a body.

Are we perfect? Is any group? Do we have flaws? Doesn't every group?

But, Heavenly Father, we close in prayer now after hearing this. We don't want this to become just a school, an educational facility where we come and if we like the message, oh, we'll stay for it, and we'll tell others even, and come back again, and even support it financially. Lord, we don't want to be wire mesh Christians who sit on the sidelines while others feel alienated and in the corner, because it's much more than getting a spiritual meal. We're your body, and so you send us out to be your arms, your hands; with those arms and hands to hug, to embrace, to encourage, to pat on the back; with these mouths to give teaching, and exhortation, and rebuke, love, counsel; with our feet to go places that you would've gone while you were on earth, but you're not physically present anymore. So now we, your body, are sent to do that. Lord, you placed us in the body individually, but for the corporate group as you will, as you desire. And so, Lord, what is it you want from us, and where is it you want us to serve, Lord? We really don't have the right to make those calls or shots, you do. Lord, forgive us for the times we have exonerated a certain part of the body and magnified it more than other parts. We're painfully aware of the need of every part, especially when there is a malfunction of the part. Just like if we have a pituitary problem, or a heart problem. We've never considered the heart. We've spent so much time with our hair, or face, or other parts; but all of them are important and vital to you for your glory. And so we pray that we, the church, might be a beautiful body, smoothly coordinating to build up each other. Help us to learn that lesson well for your sake. In Jesus' name, Amen.