The Body Is Not One Member, But Many | Your Function is ESSENTIAL

My leaders, my leaders, my leaders, how y'all doing today, man. I want to come alongside you today and just offer you some words of encouragement. encouragement. um because you're special and God has really been showing me so much about the beauty of how special each and every last one of us actually is. And today I just want you to know that as a believer in Christ, you've been given a gift. And today I'm going to read scripture that's going to encourage you. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Lord, we come to you today right now. We just want to say thank you for this time.

Thank you for this hour. Thank you for giving us breath in our lungs. Father, thank you for allowing us to wake up today. Father, I know that there's so much that we want to accomplish and we want to do, but Lord, let us take the time to stop for a moment, be in your presence, Lord. Just be in your presence. Just dwell in your presence, God. Get a word from you, hear you, you, Father. Right now, if this leader has any type of worry, any type of anxiety, Father, we give it to you right now. We place it at your feet, Father.

If there is any form of comparison where insecurities have tried to form, Father, I'm praying that they will cast those insecurities at your feet right now. And if they don't do it right now, let them do it at least by the end of this video. Father, my intention if you would allow me to express your word so that this individual can be encouraged, so that they can know that they're gifted, so that they can realize that they're spiritual and and possibly pick up a revelation today. This is a special word that I thank you that you've given me.

So, Father, help me teach this word that it may benefit those who hear. So, Father, we just want to give you the glory. We want to give you the honor. want to give you the praise. We glorify the name and lift up the name of Jesus Christ right now because without Jesus one, I wouldn't be here. Two, this leader wouldn't be listening to this. So, Father, we just want to say thank you for sending your precious son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for me and all who have listened and who will be listening to this video today. So, Father, we just want to say that we love you.

It's in your precious son Jesus mighty name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Man, look at the wind blowing today y'all. y'all. Today's a beautiful day because my leaders, I wasn't expecting to come out here today. And as I dropped my wife off to work, this is where the spirit led me. me. And as I was led here on these be beautiful bleachers that overlook this baseball field and there's a park over there and the lake is actually not too far down. I'm in the space of peace. I just saw I don't know if I saw woodpeckers, some beautiful little birds that were around here.

trees are just swaying back and forth. They sound like the ocean. And so I've been doing good and I've been at peace and I've been asking the Lord, Lord, I want to speak more on this platform. Father, use me to speak to your leaders and to pour into your leaders. And the crazy thing is there's so much individuals who are coming to this platform now, different individuals. And I want to give a shout out to you. I see you. I see you subscribe. I see you commenting on older videos, okay? I see the support, man. I see you all who are sharing my videos.

I don't ask y'all to even like the video, but I do say, "Hey, if this can connect with you all, share it with somebody else that needs this message. Just share the video. Let me be the mouthpiece for somebody else." You know what I mean? You can really save somebody's life. A lot of people are going through darkness. They not saying nothing. That was my story of depression. Almost committed suicide 2014 because I was going through so much darkness and I wasn't saying nothing. All you would see is the biggest smile on my face. But I wasn't saying nothing.

So if you know anybody like that, do me a favor, share this video. Now, the reason for this video today that I'm inspired to share is about our gifts, spiritual gifts. And a place I want us to open up to in our Bibles is going to be in the book of Romans. There's a space in the book of Romans and also another space in the book of Corinthians that I would have us open up to. And I believe if I got this correct should be Romans 12. Let's see. Okay. Okay. I want you to open up to Romans 12 and we're going to go to verse four. Okay.

And I'm reading this scripture, my leader, because lately, my wife and I have been fascinated by the body of Christ. Christ. We've been seeing so many individuals with talents, with gifts, being able to see visions from heaven, being able to prophesy at the drop of a dime, dime, being able to heal through the miracle of healing. Whereas my wife and I, we we do certain things well, we see that while there's other people that do things phenomenal as well. And as we've been looking lately, something I've been hearing my wife say is, "Man, I want that." You know, that's what we've been saying.

We've been saying, "Man, I want that gift. I wish I had that." Right? And I find myself saying the same thing. You know, I wish I had that gift. I wish I had that skill. I wish I had that talent. I wish I could speak like this. I wish I I could break down the word like this. And in one space, it's encouraging because we know that there's levels that we can work on and levels that we can go to. But in one aspect, it could for some be discouraging because you may feel like, man, what are my gifts?

Why are they good at this, but I'm not good at this? How can they hear from God, but I don't hear them like that? How can they break down the scripture like this when it seems like the scriptures ain't speaking to me? What can I do? Have I done something? Am I far from the Lord? Are these other believers better than me? Or I'm just not worthy to even be walking this Christian walk. These may be some thoughts that come to mind. Or maybe you feel like you just been stuck for years. You feel like you got gifts.

Yeah, you good at some things, but you feel like, man, they not going nowhere. nowhere. And so, I want to encourage you with this word because you may just be at a space where this is a area that God has given you a special specific gift that you may be overlooking just how unique you are. Okay? you may actually be overlooking just how unique and special you are. And so I want us to read Romans 12 12 and I want us to read verse four. I'm going to keep reading until I I got to stop reading. And so reads and I'm reading out of the King James version.

It says for as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office. office. Office meaning function. So we being many are one body in Christ and everyone members one of another. Having then gifts deferring according to the grace that is given to us. Whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith. Or ministry, ministry, let us wait on our ministering. Or he that teacheth it on teaching. Or he that exhorted on exhortation. He that give it, let him do it with simplicity. He that So basically, let him that gives, let him do it liberally, freely. freely.

Some people have a gift that they just desire to get. Say, he that rule it with diligence. He that showeth mercy with cheerfulness, let love be without dissimulation. Okay? Harbor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love, in honor, preferring one another, not slotful, lazy in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality. hospitality.

So one thing that I want us to see here is that when we have these gifts, the first thing we need to understand is our gifts are so essential to empower others. Okay? Our gifts are not something that we just have onto ourselves. Our gifts are for the empowering of the body of Christ. Now Now as we read Romans, what we see here is the different functionalities of the body. There are certain people that have just simply received a ability to do a specific assignment. Like for me, for instance, one thing that I know that the Lord has given me is this gift of exhortation.

Exhortation is known as the gift of being able to counsel and encourage. All right? Lift people out of dark spaces. Walk alongside them and just pull them out of spaces and have a word that continues to encourage and keep people from growing weary and pressing forward. But also, I love to teach. I love to sit down and I love to study my word and listen to my word for hours. And if you have this gift of teaching, you have the ability through God to take this word, this raw food, and cook the raw food so that it is palatable and edible for someone to digest it. Okay?

And why do we want somebody to digest it? We want people to eat of this word. so that they can what? They can be filled with God's word. Okay? They can be filled with God words. Preaching is also known to some as prophecy as well. Getting a word from God and being able to relay that message on to the people. There's different giftings. And I want to keep reading this as well too. There's another space I want us to turn to which is essential. And it's in 1 Corinthians 12. We're gonna go back to Romans, but first Corinthians 12.

See, so first Corinthians 12 reads this verse 14, for the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body. Is it therefore not of the body? So I want y'all to see this very practical thing. There are different members in our body who although it doesn't do the function of the next member, it's still it's still part of the body.

Like my eyes right now will never be able to say a word. But you can say a lot with your eyes, but my eyes will never be able to vocally vocally say a word. All right? If the hole were hearing, where were the smelling? So think about this for a second. Like although there's people who who are teachers, okay, and they teach great, who would be the students? All right. Who would be the students? And so also we see pastoring, we see preaching. preaching. If everyone had a church, and if everyone was behind the pull pit, who who would be the sheep? Who would be the shepherd?

Who would be the sheep that needs a shepherd? shepherd? We'd all be shepherds, right? right? Let's keep reading. But now had God set the members, every one of them in the body as it had pleased him. So according to how it's pleased God, he's the one who distributes distributes the part of the body that we are today. The part of the body that you are, God is the one that has distributed. And once again, it's significant and it's special and it's important. Verse 20. Verse 19. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members yet but one body?

And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee. Nor again to the head, to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. necessary. Okay, feeble is the word weak. So those members of the body that tend to be more weak are necessary. That's so powerful. And that's a word of encouragement all by itself. Okay. I often think about we're not thinking about a weak part of the body. I'm thinking about my pinky. Like man, sometimes we wonder why does my pinky even exist?

If I'm being real, why does my pinky even exist? What is it doing? It's just chilling. What is my pinky toe doing? But all of these create balance. The pinky helps with a greater grip. Okay. What is the need for what's the name a body part if you if you want to participate in this in the comments below that you just feel is absolutely unnecessary? unnecessary? The Bible says these parts are necessary and in correlation to the body of Christ.

I'm telling you, there's times in my walk with God that I felt like, yo, I'm the weak vessel or I'm the weak one and there's nothing that I have to give and there's nothing that I have to offer. But that's a lie from the enemy. Every life to God is precious. There's a reason why scripture says that he'll leave the 99 and go after the one. Okay? And go after the one. This is before you're even effective as a born again believer for the body. He still deems you worthy enough to go after because you are worthy.

So, how how ignorant would it be the fact that the Lord left the 99 to go get you when you weren't even saved to think that when you came now into the body of Christ and you're a believer to think that you are unworthy because you don't have what appears to be gifts that other people have, talents that other people have, words of prophecy that others have, prophetic dreams, right? The ability to interpret tongues. How ignorant would it be? The word says to compare ourselves amongst ourselves is not wise.

And so we got to really realize how much God loves us and how fearfully he crafted us, how meticulously he crafted us, and that he made you the way that you are with the gifts that you have. It says in verse 21, "And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head of the feet, I have no need of you." Everybody has a part part in this whole body and we have need of each other. We don't have need of jealousy. The eye does not have to get jealous of the mouth. The hand does not have to get jealous of the nails.

Verse 23. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable upon these we bestow more abundant honor and our uncommonly parts have more abundant commonliness. So our uncommonly parts, okay, our unpresentable parts. 24 For our commonly parts have no need, but God had tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked. That there should be no schism in the body. Schism meaning individually. that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have same care one for another. So you can't just just there's no individuality when it comes to the body.

There's a uniqueness about every body part, but all members actually work together for our good. Think about this. If your finger, one of your fingers go missing today, you're gonna feel like something is just off. Something ain't right. Okay? You feel like something is missing if you weren't born that way. Cuz there's people born without arms, limbs, and hands. And the Bible actually says he's the one that created even those people. Okay? But if you have everything functioning and something goes wrong with one of them, you're you're not you're going to feel off. Verse 26. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it.

For one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and the members in particular. And God had first set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Verse 29 explains this with a question mark. Are all apostles though? Not everybody's an apostle. Are all prophets? Not everybody's a prophet. prophet. Are all teachers? Are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? And do all interpret those tongues? But covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.

way. And so chapter 13 begins to speak about one of my favorite chapters in the Bible begins to speak about how even if you have the gifts, it breaks down what love is first and foremost. But even if you have the gifts of tongues and and can be able to speak all mysteries, okay, all truths and all mystery and speak tongues and be able to prophesy and have the gift of faith, the greatest of every single thing is love. Okay? Is love.

And And one reason why chapter 13 is so important to chapter 12 is because in order for us to become content with our gifts is we have to begin to love love who we are in Christ. We have to love ourselves. And the best way to do this is one to lay down our lives and let go of whatever we've been coveting. coveting. Let go of whatever we've been idolizing. Let go of the idea that somebody has a better gift than us. And get our focus off of everybody else. And first and foremost, focus on Jesus. I got to focus on Jesus.

And I got to really understand what does it mean that Jesus loves me the way that I am in in my insecurities and in my imperfections and what does it mean that he truly loves me? How does he view me? Because if I can see how Jesus Christ views me, I'm going to realize that I'm more than enough and I'm not enough to Jesus when I have all these things. No, no, no. I'm enough to Jesus right now. the fact that I've come to Jesus Christ and I've accepted him as my Lord and Savior. I'm enough right now at this moment. And my gifts is enough.

And not only is my gift enough, my gift is important. Until that one spirit wants to push me forward in other gifts, what I have and I'm equipped with right now is vital and it's important for somebody else. else. For instance, the Lord had to allow me to stop comparing myself to other individuals, other individuals who may have a platform, who may be speaking, who can give some phenomenal messages. And he had to show me, Michael, what I've given you is so special. And it's special for those that I've appointed you to. They're going to hear my voice through you, the way that you are.

They need you to be exactly how you are. They don't need you to speak like those people. They don't need you to perform like those people. They need you to do exactly what you're doing. It's enough. You're enough for me, Michael. You're enough for me. This is what I've gifted you with. Now use it. Because once again, remember our gifts is not to edify us. It's to encourage the body of Christ. It's to uplift the body of Christ. is to go out there and be able to do the work that God is calling us to do.

To go out into the world, make disciples, baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. to bring the lost into the light. to break the bondages, to do the ministry work, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry, to give shelter to those without a home, to give water to those without water to drink, to help the needy, to to love those that hate us, to surrender our lives to Jesus Christ and not lose our life and find it in Christ that we may gain our life. There's so much more that God wants us to focus on.

And the the thing he does not want to f us to focus on is how great of the a body member we are in comparison comparison rather than thank God that we're a part of the body. If you're a born again believer, I thank God that you are part of the body of Christ and one day I'll see you in heaven and that the angels are rejoicing and God is rejoicing. I thank God. Our name is written in the book of life. So by nature, you're already good. You're you're great, man. You're great woman of God. You're a great man of God.

Be okay with where you are and look to become the best finger that you can be. Be the best eye that you can be. Be the best mouthpiece that you can possibly be. be. Be the best feet that you can be. Whatever body part that you are, be the best body part that you can possibly be. Because like the word says, even the weak parts are important.