Latest / The Daily Word / March 27 – Placed on Purpose
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Well, hello everyone. My name is Gil Dearman. I'm senior pastor here at Lakeshore. And once again, let me welcome you to another episode of the Daily Word podcast. Hey, myself and the other pastors are just taking a little time every day to share something that stood out to us from our time in the daily reading. And at Lakeshore, we're using the Life Journal. Here on the Daily Word podcast, we're focusing on the New Testament portion of the reading schedule. So today, the highlight was 1 Corinthians chapter 12. and the verse that stood out to me was verse number 18. But before I share that, I always like to give you a little background as to what was going through my mind as I was reading this morning. And really, mine started way back when the Apostle Paul, the whole purpose and the timeframe that he wrote the letter. When he was writing to the Church in Corinth, it was 56 AD, and by that time, he'd been preaching the Gospel for almost 20 years. Ever since his conversion in 35 AD, and he was on his third missionary journey and had planted numerous Gentile churches all throughout the Mediterranean world. The reason that's noteworthy is because number one, not only does it speak to the depth and the maturity of Paul's understanding of the Gospel, especially when you remember that Paul wrote the book of Romans the same year, which is considered by scholars to be the greatest expedition of Christian doctrine anywhere in Scripture. But the second reason it's important is because it speaks to Paul's extreme transformation in his spiritual life. He went from being ⁓ a religiously prejudiced Pharisee to becoming profoundly appreciative of the vast diversity in the Lord's purposeful design for his eternal and his global church. And really the Apostle John confirmed that that really is the Lord's ⁓ plan. When in Revelation chapter 7 verse 9, he writes, after these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could number of all nations, tribes, peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white. Of course, this is what he's seeing in the future is happening in heaven. Okay, so back to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Paul zeros in then on the divine diversity that Christ built inside of the local church. And metaphorically, the way helped us to grab this was he described every local church gathering as a human body that's made up of a lot of different parts. Some of those parts he described as internal and therefore not really noticeable, but very important. Others are more external, highly visible, highly esteemed. But the overall point was that while some parts are internal, others are external, and they're all vastly different, all of them are complementary, and all of them are absolutely necessary to have a healthy functioning body. So with that background, the verse that I was drawn to this morning was, again, 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verse 18, and this is how it reads in the New King James Version Bible. But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. My observation, first of all, was that word set. It's very intentional words, the word tithami in the Greek, which means to on purpose or to intentionally place or to specifically arrange or to position something. And this tells us that God was very purposeful in His plan for each of us. and where he assigned us in a specific church for specific reasons at a specific time in our life in order that he can continue to work in and work out his very specific plan for each of us. And in case you're wondering if that really applies to you and not just to preachers and people that are maybe on lead teams or whatever, Paul removes any doubt by including the words, every one. It says that God set the members, each one or every one of them in the body just as he please. And those two words in the Greek indicate every single person. Nobody's excluded. Nobody's left out. It exhausts comprehensively every individual that God places in the church. Well, the application then kind of jumped out to me once again as a reminder. and that when we understand this, specific and how intentional that God is in this plan, then it challenges a few things for us. First of all, it completely contradicts our Western culture, because we have the idea that instead of asking the Lord to place us in the church of His choosing, that we as American Christians, we have the right to church shop or to church hop whenever we want to, based on our current context or our current personal preferences. In fact, that approach is so important that we recognize because it's dangerously close to the numerous last-day warnings that Paul gives in 1st and 2nd Timothy about people becoming lovers of what they want more than lovers of what God wants, about people choosing entertainment and comfort and convenience over genuine discipleship and the true doctrine of the Word of God and spiritual development. The next thing it challenges is our ideas about leaving the church where God has placed us too quickly, and oftentimes for what appears to be something better or bigger or more enjoyable, like a new job or a promotion or a bigger house or maybe even another church. And I'm not saying that there aren't times that God moves us, there absolutely are. But these moves should be carefully and prayerfully discerned, not only with times of fasting, but also with wise counsel. I think about what ⁓ Mark says in 836 when he asked, what is a prophet, a man or a woman, if he gains the whole world but he forfeits his own soul? We could say, what is a prophet if we get to hop around and life just stays fun and wonderful and exciting, but we lose the plan of God that he was trying to work out in our life? Finally, when we understand God's intentional purpose in placing us, then it opens our eyes to what it means to be an active part of the body. In other words, if God intentionally places us in a church, and He does, we just read that in scripture, then just coming to church and sitting in a pew, no matter how faithful we are, isn't the same as being an active part of that church's body or that church's mission, any more than if one of our body parts stopped functioning, but just stayed attached. That's not healthy. So in closing, I started pondering about Debbie and I and kind of the journey, the life that we've had as a married couple in ministry up to this point. And listen, we have not got it perfect, but I'm so grateful that the Lord's helped us and we've done our best to follow His leading wherever He asked us to go. And to the best of our ability, we exercised our faith and our patience and we've stayed fully engaged with our heart clean right where He's placed us. until he's confirmed in us and through trusted advisors, by the way, that the seasons changed. Some of these placements and the people really weren't Debbie Nye's choice. It's not something we would have made, not because they were bad, but because they were nowhere on our radar. It's like we hadn't even considered that. And others seemed like they were so different or so diverse from what we were drawn to or what we thought would really fit who we were. But again, because we followed the Lord, we were, and I'm telling you, we're continuing to be strengthened and shaped and sharpened and enriched and encouraged by those that God has placed around us. And hopefully we've been able to be a contributing factor in their life as well. Here's what Romans 8.28 says as I wrap all this up. It says, and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And I think about us, God being at work, are we giving God something to work with? Are we in the right place? Are we fully engaged? Are we active? Are we moving so that life can flow and God can use other people? Or are we just kind of slipping in the back somewhere and slipping back out when service is over and not really allowing the context that he's put us in to do what God wants it to do in strengthening and shaping us? Well, all that brings me to my prayer. And as always, I'm going to broaden it so that in case something here resonated with you, you might want to pray along. And so here's my prayer. Holy Spirit, thank you for reminding us of the Lord's intentionality in shaping our lives to experience all that He has for us. Open our eyes and ears to recognize where you're leading us and what you're leading us into. And help us to value and appreciate those that you've placed close to us, even when they're diverse or different than us. Use them to strengthen us, to sharpen us, and to shape us for your plan. And finally, Holy Spirit, give us clarity and courage and confidence to become an active part of your body. Help us to go all in, and not just part, but help us to keep moving deeper into your plan so that you can work for our good in everything we're doing. We're determined to put our trust in you and become doers of the word and not hearers only. In Jesus' name, amen.