Come & See (4) – A Part, Not Apart

Welcome to CROLCC, we are so glad you are here worshiping with us. I hope you had a very good thanksgiving holiday celebrating with your friends and family. I remember when I was in college I drove 14 hours to spend thanksgiving holiday with my relatives. Please do treasure the time you spent with family, because at the end of the day, that’s what matters the most. You know how I know? Because when there is an emergency, you always think about your family and you call them first. So don’t wait till you have to, when you are too old or too sick to do anything else, spend time with them and treasure them now.

Today we are finishing our series Come & See. We have been talking about the movement of Christianity and how it grew from the first century. It was simple – an invitation to come and see. It was not about converting anybody, it was simply about inviting people to come experience someone, to experience Jesus. Although most of us don’t feel this way, we matter in this movement because we are indispensable. You have a role to play in that movement. The church is one place where you can’t be replaced.

Moving Forward

You are indispensable to this body called “the church.” It can’t function optimally if you don’t play your part. That’s true whether you know it or not, believe it or not, or feel it or not. You can do four things to be a part of this body: connect in a group, serve on a team, give a percentage, invite a friend.

Changing Your Mind

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
1 Corinthians 12:12-13

Discussion Questions

1. In what places in life do you feel indispensable or essential? Why do you feel that way?

2. Talk about a time when you felt or were treated as expendable. What did you do?

3. Read 1 Corinthians 12:12–22. Are there any places in life where you see the kind of unity the apostle Paul talks about in this passage? Do you see that kind of unity at church? Explain.

4. What are some of the costs when people focus on the talents and gifts they wish they had instead of the ones they actually have?

5. What is your best next step in playing your part in the church—connecting in a group, serving on a team, giving a percentage, or inviting a friend? What is one thing you can do this week to begin to take that step? How can this group support you?