The Church
One Body, One Story: The Church Redeemed and United in Christ
The sermon unfolds the church’s identity through three movements: truth, experience, and unity. We are first reminded that the church is not a building or a social club but a people redeemed by Christ—our shared story beginning at the cross, not at birth. Redemption is both a transfer out of darkness and into Christ’s kingdom, shaping the truth we confess and the experience we share. The message then confronts the walls we rebuild between one another, despite Christ having “broken down… the dividing wall of hostility” . Finally, 1 Corinthians 12 calls us to embrace our weakness, interdependence, and calling within the body. Every member matters; every member is needed. The sermon closes with thanksgiving for unseen service and an exhortation for the next generation to rise, serve, and carry the baton forward.
1 Corinthians chapter 12, and we're gonna be reading from verses 12 through to 26. For 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 Christ. For in one spirit we were all baptised into one body, Jews and Greeks. Slaves are free and all were made to drink of one spirit. For the body does not consist of one member only, 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 the sense of hearing be? And if the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members of the body, each one of them as he chose. 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 parts of the body that we think less honorable, we stow 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, that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, suffer. If one member is honored, all rejoice together. So Matthew, come up and I'll pray for you and then we'll hear what you have to say from this word. Heavenly Father, we do commit this time to you, commit that to you and the words that he has prepared from this passage are the way you've led him and we ask that you would give us ears to hear in hearts that would accept it and obey. Guide his speech we pray in Jesus precious name. Thanks mate. Beautiful, thank you very much Rick. Cool. As all things, let's pray a little bit more because it never hurts. Dear Father, Lord we just ask. that all our prayers might be answered this morning. Asking particularly this prayer now, Lord, that you may grant us ears to hear and a heart, Lord, that is malleable, that is ready to be changed and transformed by your word. Would you do this, Lord, by the power of your spirit? Lord, for these mere words will do nothing on their own, but through your spirit, all things are possible. So to change us, we pray more and more into the likeness of your Son in Jesus' name, amen. Beautiful. Now, I really liked that first song that we sung. I can't remember all the words of it, but it was talking about all creation, you know, singing praises to God. And I like it because it's painting a very helpful picture for my sermon. We're kind of singing there about the end point of our faith, the thing we're looking forward to, right? That one day, all of us are gonna be gathered together, rich, poor, every color you can imagine from all countries around the world in all kinds of different languages, praising the one Lord, the one God, all together. And I love it because it actually helps to explain the story of what the church is, right? In our first week, we talked about elders, we've talked about deacons. Now, of course, we must talk about what is the church. Again, Rick already talked about, right, is it the church building? Hopefully you guys have passed Sunday School 101. No, it's not, right? When we leave this building, it's a building, it's not technically a church. It might be a church building, but it is because of where the church gathers together. But what actually makes us a church? What makes us different from every other community group that's out there? Well, that's what we're gonna look at today. And I wanna talk to you about how it's not just a group, but what really makes it is the story that brought us together. We're gonna look at three different points this morning, but we're gonna start with our first one, which I've titled Truth and Experience, because I believe these would be the two things that really bring us together as a church. We're gonna be looking at three different passages today. The one Corinthians one will be at the third point, but for the first one, we'll be looking at Titus 2 14. Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who was zealous for good works. I wanna talk to you today. I think that one of the most fundamental ways to understand what the church is, is to understand how did we actually become a part of it? Is it because you signed the lock-in contract that means you have to stay for the next 12 months? No, this isn't a gym. No one's forcing you to stay. Is it because we all kind of get along and everyone here has, you know, all these common interests that means, because we all like, I don't know, gardening or something like that? No, it's not that. is this, that this man called Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us. Now I make reference back to that song and why I particularly liked it at the start because it talked about this end point that we have right, this place we're all going to. But also we come back here and we look backwards to a point where all of our story started. Technically your story didn't start at the beginning of your life. The story of all of us. who call ourselves Christians, started with that cross. 2,000 years ago, that's where our story started. And so this helps because I remember something from Bible college that one of our lecturers told us. says, if you remember nothing else from this class, remember this. And it's quite poignant because I don't remember anything from that class, but I do remember this. He spoke about the word redeem, or redemption. He says to be redeemed isn't just to be brought out of something, right? You know, we think of When I redeem a prize, I redeem it from the person who has it, and now it's mine. Or I redeem myself from my mistake, right? You've kind of dug yourself into a hole, but you seem to get yourself out of it. But redemption is not just about getting out of the hole. It is about where you are now. So right, it's about going from one place to another. Think about the Israelites in Egypt, right? They were redeemed out of slavery in Egypt, and they've been brought into the promised land. It's from one place to another. This exact same thing happened to us. Our story, Colossians 1.13 to 14. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and then has transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved son and whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of our sins. You see, we've gone from one kingdom to another and that has happened through the forgiveness of our sins through Jesus redeeming us on the cross. And so you see this redemption creates the church. First all of us, slaves to Satan, under his rule enslaved to our sinful desires, but we've been called out of that. And now we are a church redeemed by God and brought into his kingdom. So church is the kingdom of God under his rule. So right, Israel was redeemed by what? 10 plagues, right? 10 plagues that showed to Pharaoh who was the greatest power in the world at that time that even he was nothing in comparison to God. God is the great and mighty one. And so too the church has been redeemed. God came with a mighty act, so powerful, didn't just defeat kings and leaders, it defeated the adversary himself, Satan. But how did he do it? Not with great power and with great might. Not with many plagues. but instead the plagues that were meant for us, the curse of the law that should have been on us, instead this mighty act of love, he took all of the wrath of God and put it on his own son. He took it out on himself. And so you see, that is our story. We've been redeemed. But I wanna look today at two aspects of this redemption. Like I said at the start, truth and experience. So one of the foremost things we obviously have to accept as a church is that the church is built on truth. And the reality is this is the same for any other group that gets together, right? Maybe you've got a gardening group. The reality is if someone says gardening is sitting in front of my TV and watching people garden, they're probably not gonna fit very well into the group, are they? Right? Because the truth is gardening is getting out with a green finger and planting some veggies or doing something along, putting some flowers in something like that. And so you see the same thing is true of the church. It must be built on truth. We don't just all gather because we kind of like each other. We gather around one common thing. We need to have unity around something. And it is the truth. a day and age where the reality is most people, what's the motto, right? You do you, as long as you're not kind of impacting anyone else. which is the funniest thing in the world because all the time you guys are impacting others. Every decision you make impacts someone else. You can't get through life without impacting others. It was just made that way. But so often, you see in many churches where doctrine is brought up as a dirty word, our beliefs are seen as something which is, look, let's not push them too hard because it can be divisive. It can actually bring division into the body. It can hurt people's feelings. But we have to be really careful with letting go aspects of the truth of the gospel for feelings. I'm not saying don't be gentle, don't be respectful with our delivery. But you see, sometimes we're so scared of hurting the feelings of other people. You see, we kind of want this conversation to come up with our family members and our loved ones, where we're gonna be able to tell them the gospel and somehow they're not gonna be hurt by what you say. They will. They may not even like you. The gospel is offensive. It's still offensive to me some days. I don't like always what I'm being told. But you see it is hard because it's like this, it's like this reality. Imagine your home is on fire, right? Your mother is currently sleeping in her room. And you're like, well, the house is on fire. I should probably go wake her up. But then you notice where the fire started. It was a candle that was left on the wax drip down onto her prized crocheted blanket. She had put it into the, when we have, you know, the show. and she'd put it in there and she'd won first prize. That was her prized blanket and it is going up in flames. It's what started the fire itself. And you kind of don't want to wake her up because it's turned to ash. You don't want to her feelings. You don't want her to see that her beautiful crocheted blanket is destroyed. But if you don't wake her up, she's gonna burn. If you don't wake her up, you need to get her out of the house. Who cares about the blanket? Hurt her feelings. She's probably not gonna care at the end of the day as long as she gets out of the house. But you see, so often, we're scared to tell people that the house is on fire because it might hurt one little thing that they have to lose. Because we don't wanna compromise this one aspect. I have a good friendship with them and I don't wanna lose that. But the reality is I'm gonna lose them forever anyway. And so we must learn that at the church we are built on doctrines that offend people. Right? about sexuality, what we believe about abortion, the fact that we believe in a God who performs miracles, the fact that we even believe there is a God. And worst of all, the very fact that we actually think humans aren't inherently good, that we actually think people are born into this world sinners, and that the only way to get into heaven isn't be good enough, isn't do enough things in the church, the only hope they have, even after 60 years of faithful service as a Christian. is to believe that Jesus is the only one that will make them good enough. That he is the one who covers them in his righteousness. It is his work that gets them in. Oh, people hate that. Because ever since the beginning in the garden, we've been told you can be like God. You can actually make it on your own. You don't need other people. You don't even need God. And the hardest thing is, as we're gonna learn today, we definitely need God. And you also definitely need others. And so understand the church is built on things that offend people. But without this shared truth, we're never gonna be a family if we do not actually believe it. And so now I turn to the second thing that I was talking about. I truth, right? So we have the truth. That is what we believe. But also we are bound together by experience, right? It's not that we hold the same doctrinal position. It's not just that I say I am a sinner. It's that I actually feel like one. and I can talk to someone else and they're like, hey, I feel like a sinner too. That actually brings us together. You see, imagine it like this. Gravity, right? Something all of us experience every day, right? But I want you to take two different people, right? Imagine a six-year-old child with a soccer ball, and then imagine someone with a PhD in physics, okay? So you've got a physicist over here, six-year-old child with a soccer ball, and what? Both of them can explain to you how gravity works, right? Six-year-old does it, how? He kicks the ball, and he says, as all things go up, all things must come down, and it falls to the ground, right? and then you ask the PhD scientist, well, he could explain it to that way too. But also he can take you into a lecture room and have a whiteboard and give you 1500 textbooks explaining how gravity works. Understand this is also how the gospel works as well, right? Kids go into Sunday school, you can learn the gospel from five years old. A child at five years old can explain you the gospel in 30 seconds. So can someone with a PhD in theology. But that person with a PhD can also take you aside and explain to you, for years, the intricacies of the gospel and how it works into our lives in just a machine, right? Both are important, both are there, but understand, same truth, deeper understanding. But that's not the point that I'm trying to bring out here because now I want you to take that PhD physicist and I want you to put him on the International Space Station. He's been born there, he's always lived there, he's never known life outside of that space station. Don't actually know if it's possible, but just imagine it, right? and this six-year-old boy is still down here on the earth. Now, that fella up there, he's still a PhD. He has all the books, you know, the rockets have been sent up that brought him all the textbooks. He can explain to you in deeper understanding how gravity works, even though he has never experienced it himself, right? He can give you the whiteboards, he can explain everything. But the reality is, if that six-year-old child kicks that ball up in the air, and then it comes down and lands right on top of his head, He has experienced gravity in a way that the scientists never will. You see, there's a difference between intellectual understanding and having experienced something. And it is the same thing with the gospel. There are people who have PhD in theology who don't even believe in God. I am not kidding, there's actually quite a few of them. How can that be? How can they know all this truth? Because there is a difference between false belief and true belief, between actually experiencing The Gossip. Because if you think about it like this, many people might know, many people in this church, right? Most of us accept the fact, I am a sinner. I am someone who does not deserve to be in the presence of God. I am unholy to a holy God. But then have you actually felt the reality of being sinful? Have you actually felt like a sinner? I don't mean remorse for your sins. I don't mean feeling remorseful that you've maybe hurt someone else. I mean actually grieved over the effect that it had on your relationship with God. Have you actually been affected emotionally over the fact of what you've done against him? Over the fact that your sin didn't just hurt someone here, didn't just put you in a tight spot, but actually nailed Jesus to a cross? Do you grieve that fact? Because that is what the Holy Spirit does. It actually makes us experience a relationship with God and the pain that comes by bringing our sin into that. In the same way too, many people know Jesus died on the cross for their sins. You see, this is the funniest thing. That I sat for many years of my life and though, yes, I probably wasn't the best Christian child, I didn't go to church and things like that, I had the label Christian. I would have said that any day of the week. I could have told you, yes, Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I knew these things. But I never known what it was like to be a sinner and then better yet, one day as Christ encountered me, as he came and visited me, I finally felt what it was actually like. be loved and forgiven despite the fact I was so sinful. Many of us can muster up the fact and say, I'm pretty sure God does love me. But at the end of the day, what we're actually looking back on is the fact, well, I've been going to church for 30 years. Oh, well, I did an altar call once when I was 12. Whatever thing you want to look back on, you're not actually looking at Jesus. But at the end of day, one day I sat there and said, I'm terrible. I am a horrible human being and yet my sin was dealt on that cross rather than me. I truly knew, I had this peace that went beyond understanding that I was loved by God. And so you see, this is particularly a danger for many of us that actually make up this church. Like me, you might have grown up in somewhat of a Christian home, right? And look, many of you have wrestled with this, sure, but we also need to be very careful. When we've grown up with the rituals and with all the things that Christians do, right? We speak like Christians, we think like Christians, we do the things Christians do. Sometimes we've never lived life without the label Christian. And so that is a blessing, but sometimes when we read those verses in the Bible that talk about us being dead in that sin, I, me hate God? I don't have anything in my head that reminds me of hating God. That's probably not me. He's probably not talking about me there, right? That's a struggle that we can have because sometimes our experience doesn't line up, but sometimes we take our experience over the truth of the gospel. That the reality is all of us have to come from the same place. You see, when we read those passages and don't actually understand our connection to them, when we've actually felt like I actually did hate God at once, even if I may not see it, I know it because I know what's in me. I have a sinful nature, a sinful heart. If we don't understand that, we're actually gonna really struggle to come together as a church. You see, without this shared truth, We're just gonna remain acquaintances because we can't bond together. Yeah, we might believe in the same facts, but I can't actually talk to you about how I feel like a sinner. I can't actually celebrate just how I feel like I've been forgiven of this sin that I'm struggling with, how God has redeemed me out of it, because you don't really understand what it's like. And so we might pray that God would give us that experience and that we would be truly changed by the Holy Spirit in our hearts. And so, you know, this will lead onto our second point. We almost deal with those things that divide us. So we're read from Ephesians 2, 13 to 19. says, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far-up, this is Gentiles, non-Jews, have been brought near by the blood of the for he himself is our God, who made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinance, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross. thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached to you, you were far off, and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access into one spirit to the Father. So then you were no longer strangers and aliens, but you were fellow citizens of the saints and members of the household of God. Paul had written this letter to the church in Ephesus, right? And he was dealing with this hostility because in the early church, one of the greatest things and the easiest things to divide the church was that God for 2,000 years, three, 4,000 years had been walking with this people known as Israel, right? The nation of Israel, he had walked with them, the Jews. 2,000 years that he had been walking with them as a people in relationship with them. And now suddenly Jesus has come in and said, these Gentiles, ones who have never known God, they are exactly in the same status as you. And so of course, Because particularly when you go back to the law, right, the 10 commandments and the 613 that then come from them, they were given to Israel to set them apart from the other nations, right? God said, I've called you out of Egypt, now don't be like the rest of the world, be different, follow these commands. But now after they've followed them for thousands of years, he is saying that you guys are actually just the same as the rest of the world. because the Lord didn't actually change what was going on in their hearts. They were still the same on the inside. They might've had a cultural religious exterior, but they were still the same in their hearts. And you see Christ has come. He abolished that barrier between the Jews and the Gentiles, these things which made the Jews feel more superior. He has brought them down to the same level. Why? Because the cross proves that everyone is disobedient, that everyone needs a savior. All of us. need grace. So you see, that is why the cross can unify us. Whether we're rich, poor, black, white, young, old, whatever, whatever demographic you want to try and use to separate yourself from other people, that's all abolished. It's all gone. Because the cross exposes our common problem. All of us have sinned against God. All of us deserve hell, and yet all of us have a savior. You see all, all, we come from the same place. That is why we can bond together because our story is the same. Yes, there might be some circumstantial differences, but it is very similar. So the cross unifies us, but what we must be careful is that as Jesus came to destroy that wall between the Jews and the Gentiles, between those who are rich and those who are poor, between the young and the old, between any demographic, we must be careful to not build the wall again. You see, every single day we must deal with the fact that in our ears is being whispered this. Oh, I wouldn't have done that. I wouldn't have done that thing that that person did. I wouldn't have done it this way. I wouldn't, oh goodness, I can't believe they're wearing that in church. Oh goodness, I wouldn't have done that thing that person did. I can't believe that person's even taking communion. We have all these opinions of what people should be doing with their lives, of how we wouldn't do what they're doing. We are always sitting there judging. Even if you're really good at stopping it and not thinking about it, there's still always a thought because the devil is always there sitting there and whispering in your ear. We are always dealing with that reality. And but instead, when we see something wrong in our brother or sister's life, rather than going up to them as a brother and sister and in love, correct it. Or maybe in love, just simply acknowledging that. turning the other cheek. Instead we think, I'm gonna gossip with someone else. I'll just talk to other people about it, maybe that'll help them. Or better yet, if we are gonna say something, it's a snarky comment that we've come up with. But you see, these things are the sin of division. They are breaking up the body and God hates this. But you see, we can lay waste to these walls, we can bring them down if we just accept the reality. The people that you're looking at, the people you may be struggling with, yeah, they're sinners, just like you are. Yes, they're broken. Yes, they're not perfect. But when we accept the truth that the cross reveals that we're all the same, suddenly it's very hard to fixate on the floors, the two floors in someone when you can only see the 300 of them in yourself. It is very hard to do that. It brings those walls down. You can only elevate yourself above someone else when you ignore your own sin and forget that your sin nailed, nailed Jesus to that cross. We have to declare together, I'm weak, I am powerless, and I need Jesus to save. that breaks down those walls and enables us to come together. And Bedouins must break down those walls for our next point. As we come to 1 Corinthians 12, we need each other. Now Paul in that passage, he's using the image of a body, Lungs, we talked about it last week, particularly with Jess and her, but she was doing, know, lungs, someone's a kneecap, someone's a toenail, someone's a bit of hair on the head, right? All of us are different parts, but without those parts, the body doesn't function. And so we understand in that, right, Christianity cannot be lived in isolation. To be Christian is to be part of the church. You don't get the choice. And better yet, the New Testament is filled with all these commands. Love one another, serve one another, confess your sins to one another, pray for one another. How can you do that if you're the only Christian you know? You can't, right? We need to be with But you see, one of the hardest things that we have to accept in order to be able to do this, because we can accept, right, okay, I'm weak, I'm helpless, and I need Jesus. But it is very hard and admit to others, I am weak, I am helpless, and I need you. Because that is to actually reveal your weakness and your vulnerability to another person. With God, we can understand because at least we can take solace in, well, he's all loving, he never changes. He's not changeable like a human. I know how he'll react. Or at least he's just kind of a way. He's just kind of invisible, so I can't really see his reaction. But to do it to a person one-on-one is to actually reveal and open up ourselves and possibly invite hardship for good reason. But you even think of this in Romans 12, one, as we said, passage, that. We're getting his name now, the old fellow that used to be here who, sorry, what, who'd you say he was? Kevin, right, Kev. Kev used to love Romans 12. So from that passage, Romans 12, one, he says, appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Right? So Jesus says, lay down your life, all right? I have redeemed your life, but you are now in my kingdom, so your life is mine. And what does he say? Serve my church. Oh, come on. I'm up for serving you, but this lot? Really? Yes, this lot. And now you must serve them because they are your family. You say the church has never felt like a family to me, this church here maybe? Maybe you've never treated it like one. Maybe you've never actually realized the fact that we actually have to maybe open up. Actually have to be, not with everyone, but with a few. Because maybe we've never done that, maybe that's why we've never seemed to get anywhere else in church. It always seems so shallow. Maybe you say, have opened up to people in this church and it hurt. As in they hurt me, they betrayed me. Well, Jesus can relate very well. but also understand that just as your sin, sorry, just as other sins has hurt you, maybe you've made you wanna leave the church. You may be blind to the fact that your sin has probably also done that to others as well. Your sin has hurt others. Maybe you even made them wanna leave the church. But I also want you to think, maybe you think, no, I don't think I'm that bad. Well, okay, let's look at something that is plain. Your sin didn't make Jesus leave the church. It made him walk up a hill and get nailed to that cross, right? And yet even in his heart of hearts, he found a way to forgive you. And now I'm not saying you can find a way, you're a sinner. There's no way you could possibly forgive like that. But with a Holy Spirit that puts the heart of Christ in you, it is possible. That Holy Spirit will enable you to forgive anything done against you. Forgiveness may feel like getting crucified, but that doesn't mean it wasn't worthwhile. Doesn't mean it shouldn't be done. And so you see, in many ways we must be ready to open up to one another, to be real with one another. We all love those saints who are just real with us about the realities going on in their lives. I think about one fella I call every now and again. He's sick at the moment, but a great saint at that. He's currently sick at the moment, but whenever I call him up, we have a good chat and I'll just ask, how are you going? And he's very real with me. He tells me every bodily fluid that has been coming out of him in the last couple of weeks. He just gives it all to me, right? It is disgusting, not particularly a fan, but hey, at he's being open and real about it, right? And the reality is, if he just said, if I said, are you going? And he says, oh, I'm fine. What can I do with that? I can't minister to him, I can't encourage him, I can't do anything for him, because he's all good, he doesn't need me. But when he opens up, I'm not saying you guys have to tell us your bodily movements for the day, but when we are real with each other, we can actually be built up by this body. You see, we have to deny the lie in the garden. We aren't like God, you guys aren't all sufficient. You guys can't get away by yourselves, right? You always need someone else. But when we simply accept our identity, one of us is a pinky toe, the other one's a kneecap, the other one's a fingernail, when we just accept, I'm just that and that's okay, because I'm part of a body that one day will glorify God. I might just be a fingernail, but this fingernail is gonna give praise to God one day. That's enough. I'm okay with that. I don't have to be everything. And so that enables me to receive help because I understand I'm not the whole body. I'm just a toe. And so, as it drew to an end, I wanna just have a time of thanksgiving and also a final exhortation. It says in that passage in 1 Corinthians 12, when you look towards the end, I think it was verse 24, it says that we give honor to the parts of the body that are less visible. And so, I just wanna bring up a couple of saints and thank them for the work they do in our church. First up, Norm Hopper. I know you don't like being mentioned in sermons, but anyway. People don't know he's like a lotto, isn't it? But this man, I have seen countless times. take the hits that people wouldn't, take burdens on himself that people would rather avoid, suffer time and time again for the sake of the body that others might be built up and that the burden might be put on him. Countless times. Many of you probably don't see it. Not all of it anyway. But we need him as a part of this body and thank the Lord that God has put him here. Another man that I wanna bring up, Rick Whittle. Obviously, couldn't have a leader to do this service today without him. But also more to the point, he came into this church at a time where in the midst of great turmoil, where there many things going on. And yet with just a couple months of being here and being called into the mess, he stepped in, giving hours and hours of time, work and effort into things that people are never gonna see, probably never gonna appreciate. But yet he stepped into the calling of God. continues to. He is a part of our body and we need him. Another woman, Lorette Butel. I know people are really scared I'm gonna point that out. Now again understand these people are doing things and Lorette, whether it simply be an encouraging text that you receive on your phone that just comes out of the blue or whether it be sacrificing her time and freeing up young mothers to be able to study the Bible together on a Monday morning. You're part of the body and we need you. Or if you guys notice, every single morning before anyone comes in, there's always the elements set up at the table for communion. And there's a few of us that gather there in that room every Sunday morning to pray for the people of this church and to pray over the service. And who does all that? Rita Holt. Thank you for doing these things that people never see. Small things, right? But we honor those parts of the body that are less visible. Now, I may thank some of those people and some of you may think in your head, if you really knew those people, Matt, you probably wouldn't thank them up from the stage. You probably wouldn't be doing. Maybe you should be thanking me instead, right? Maybe you're not go as far as that. But the reality is, I'm not blind. I know they're not perfect. I know they do things, because all of us do. If you actually think that they don't or I don't see that, you've missed the whole point of the message. We need each other, weaknesses and strengths. but we choose to thank people for their service rather than fixating on their ongoing struggles with sin, which all of us have. And look, the reality is, if you want, I can go through the whole church and find things to thank all of you for if you want me to. Do you guys want the next two hours free? I can do it if I wanted to. I've just chose to pick out a few. But I also want to bring up a final exhortation from there. I want to thank these saints because in many ways they have served for decades in different ways, serving the church as many of you have. But also we must accept as a church that as humans in a broken world, our bodies, our minds, our souls have limitations. There is only so far that we can go. Better yet, in a broken world like this, there is only so much we can take. My grandfather, he's 91, I think, almost now, and he is a great saint. He's been a missionary in Tonga. He is a godly man. You would think by the end of his life, is he just singing the praises of God and just so strengthened in his faith? Well, yes, his faith is strong, it continues, but my friends, he is broken. He has seen so much brokenness in this world, so much tragedy, he wants to go to his home. He's not sitting here saying, hey, I wanna stay here. And so you see, that happens to all of us. All of us will reach a And so I would also like to put this here, that one day, the next generation must come up to take that place. The baton must be passed on. So the exhortation is, to those of us who are younger, and I don't mean just the 20 year olds, I could be talking to 60 or 70 year olds here, just so you know, yes, a lot of people might be away on retirement holidays. There's no words for retirement in the Bible. Doesn't mean you can't enjoy yourself a bit. I'm happy with that. But all of us still have a calling to serve this church in different ways. But consider the calling of God on your life and how he might be calling you to serve. Some of you might already be out doing 60 hours a week for the church. That's alright, don't push yourself too much. But, in many of us, how might God be calling us into something new? Maybe even letting go of something to try something else. In this room will one day be our future deacons and elders, most importantly. But if no one will heed the call to serve, then eventually this body will wither away. And so for the older saints, those ones who've been given it for years, yes, you're right, I'm not gonna let you retire. I'm not gonna let you kick back. right, on a few holidays, I'm happy with that. But you have a job to mentor and to care for the younger generation. If you can't see how you can do it, pray about it. Come talk to me about it. Come talk to others about it. See, how can we help the younger generation brainstorm, come up with ideas? Maybe you just haven't talked to the right person yet about it. There might be something you can do. It doesn't have to be big. It doesn't have to be taking someone aside, reading a Bible study with them every single week. I'm gonna turn this person into a man of God. It could be as simple as just getting together and praying. The most simple things. But we must allow the space, yes, for younger saints to serve. to mess up, to screw up, to do things we wouldn't do in our great wisdom. But then we celebrate the passing of the baton. We celebrate that our church will continue to remain strong as it has for 2,000 years. The gates of hell have not prevailed against it. And that is because God has always raised up another generation, placed it on their hearts to serve and to worship His name. So let us pray that that will happen for us as a church. So let's finish up as we wrap up now and pray. Father, you have always said that your church will persevere, that it will endure, that it will go on. Father, it has made it through persecutions, through sufferings, through so much attack, Lord, and yet it is still here and it is still strong. And yet, Lord, for the strength to continue, we ask would you lay it upon our hearts where you may be calling us to serve the needs of others. Big and small, how might we do it, Father? Reveal it to us now, reveal it to us in these coming weeks and these coming months, how we might pour out all that you have given to us for the sake of others. Nothing we have been given is for our own sake, but it is for this church and for the benefit of those around us. So Lord, would you please remind us of our redemption? It is our redemption that has brought us out of slavery, of sin, into freedom. to serve you. It is this redemption which unites us together and so the more we talk about it, the more united as a family we shall be. So help us to tell each other and to worship with each other, to honor one another in our weaknesses and in our strengths and most of all how you're at work through us in each of those things. So Father, please do this and please do more. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.