1 Corinthians Chapter 12:12

Matthew 26 41 says, the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. See, so we all have this battle going on. Theological term is dichotomy. That just means there's an inner struggle between the flesh, that is the old nature, the selfish nature, and the new nature, that is the Holy Spirit.

Every one of us has this battle going on. While we may strive to do it on our own, the truth is we need the Holy Spirit to become more like Jesus. Find out how we can rely on the Spirit today as Pastor David continues in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. But before we join David, have you ever considered the Bible as a whole? It's more than just a history book, a book of poetry, or a series of stories to share in Sunday School class. The Bible is one book with one central message.

You heard me right. There is one main message in the Bible, and David McGee is ready to share that life-changing message with you in his latest DVD entitled, One Book, One Message. Join David as he takes you from Genesis to Revelation and unlocks the most profound truth of all the Scripture. You'll never look at the Bible the same way again. The DVD One Book, One Message is our gift to you when you call to support Cross the Bridge today.

You can call 877-458-5508 or go online to crossthebridge.com. Now here's David McGee with today's teaching. The title of today's message is Listen to Your Body Talk.

Now this is not the Olivia Newton-John song from a few years ago. This is talking about the body of Christ, and certainly you need to listen to your physical body because as you grow and as you get older, your body tells you, don't do that, or maybe the day after, don't do that again. And we need to develop a way of listening to our physical body, but today we're talking about the spiritual body. Because 1 Corinthians chapter 12 is talking about that, and it's interesting because when we're infants, we're taught how to speak.

We're taught how to say mama, we're taught how to say dada. In my case, and most of you are aware of my testimony, but I was born a deaf mute, and my tongue was connected in front of my teeth to my gums. They clipped out at a year and a half. They discovered I was deaf at two and a half. I went through nine different surgeries, but when I was five years old, I still couldn't speak.

And they were trying to figure out if I was mentally retarded or just hadn't developed, and I went through speech therapy for four years being taught how to speak. And praise God that, and think about that, look at who God uses. God takes a deaf mute and puts him in a ministry involving teaching and music.

Only God, man. And if you're ever sitting out there and you're listening and you're going, I can't do this and I can't do that, just look up here and go, that's a deaf mute up there talking. But we're taught to speak as an infant, and that's good. But then as a Christian, we think the goal of speech is simply not to use profanity. That's the high lofty goal of Christianity.

Is it really? When we go into the Bible, I think too often when we study the Bible and Christianity, we emphasize too much what we shouldn't be doing, and we don't talk enough about what we should be doing. The goal in our speech is just not to use profanity. That's a good goal.

That should be one of the goals. But it should be to speak about God's goodness and to speak about God's love and to be an encouragement to other people. So 1 Corinthians 12 verse 13, it says, for by one spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves are free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. And what baptism is Paul speaking? I believe here he's speaking about water baptism. And we do not believe you are saved through baptism.

We believe that once you're saved, you should be baptized. I don't understand. And some people really want to get in big arguments about this. And you know what?

There's not really an argument here. You get born again, you should be baptized, period. But please don't tell me that if you, let's say, came forward today, asked God to forgive you of your sins, believed in your heart that he had done so. And then you walked out of here and something happened before you had the chance to be water baptized that a gracious, merciful God would send you to eternal punishment. I don't see that.

As a matter of fact, if you think about the scene on the cross, Jesus turned to the criminal and he said, today you will be with me in paradise. Let me ask you a question. Was that man baptized? No.

I've met some people that are really hardcore about this and go, yeah, but it rained. Brother, you're stretching. You're reaching, man.

You're grasping. We're being identified with Jesus when we're water baptized. And we talked before that you should be baptized by a merchant after you come to an understanding and an acceptance of Jesus as your Savior. Now there's three baptisms, it might surprise you to understand, there's three baptisms that are listed in the Bible. Water baptism, we've just been speaking about. Second one is Holy Spirit baptism. And the other one is baptism by fire. Baptism by fire, what is that?

Well, the last two are things that Jesus spoke about, John the Baptist spoke about, Luke 3.16. John the Baptist said, John answered in saying to all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And again in Matthew 3.11 it says, I indeed baptize you, and this is John the Baptist again. I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. And he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. So what is this, what's this baptism with fire? Well, Peter speaks about it, 1 Peter 1.7 says, These trials will show that your faith is genuine and is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold, though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world. So it's that trial by fire, that baptism of fire that continues to help us be more like Jesus. The Bible speaks about a refining process.

You know, in refining gold, they put it into a pot and they turn up the heat, and the more heat that's on it, the more impurities come up. It's a lot like our lives. See, sometimes when you're in the midst of a trial, you know, the impurities come up, you say things you shouldn't say, you do things you shouldn't do. And, you know, a lot of times we go, well, that's just not like me. That's an interesting comment. You just said something, then you step back and go, well, that's not like me to say something like that.

Well, I mean, who's it like? You just said it. So you get in the midst of this trial and what's inside comes out. And the person who's refining the gold, they scrape off the impurities, turn up the heat, scrape off the impurities.

And do you know when the refiner realizes he's done is when he looks down into that pot of gold and instead of seeing the impurities, he sees his reflection. That's what Jesus is doing, scraping off the impurities, and he's going to see his reflection in our lives. So we're all in this baptism by fire. In regards to water baptism, let's understand too that we have two ordinances, they're called sometimes, in this church and most evangelical Christian churches. That is water baptism and the Lord's Supper or communion. And a lot of times we think that both those things are New Testament concepts.

They're not. They have their roots firmly in the Hebrew Scriptures. We've annually done a Passover here and it's easy to see that at the Last Supper where communion was introduced that it had its roots clearly in Passover. And I can go through the Scriptures when Abraham saw Melchizedek, shared bread and wine, we see Genesis 40, Joseph dealing with the... The King James says butler, it's wine steward, the baker, bread and wine, pitcher of communion, and the Passover on communion. And then water baptism, you need to understand there was what was called ceremonial washings in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Mikvos in the Hebrew. And so before you would go into the temple, you would need to wash in these mikvos. As a matter of fact, on our trips to Israel, it occurred to me in the book of Acts, it talks about thousands of people being baptized. Well, Jerusalem is in the middle of the desert.

There's not a lot of lakes and ponds right around Jerusalem. So where would you baptize thousands of people? Well, it occurred to me as I was on the southern steps of the Temple Mount that there's hundreds of mikvos on the southern steps. These ceremonial baths that they used to use before they went into the temple. So these baths that they used before they went into the temple were the very place the first believers were baptized. So there's a connection between the Hebrew Scriptures and water baptism. We've been talking and we dealt with this chapter talking about being filled with the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit and stuff.

And we spent some time in that. But when it talks in this verse, we've all been made to drink into one spirit. We're talking about the Holy Spirit being filled with the Holy Spirit. And why do we need to be filled with the Holy Spirit? Simply put, to be more like Jesus. Acts chapter 1, 8 says that we need to be filled to be witnesses.

To give us power to be a better witness for Jesus. Matthew 26, 41 says, the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. See, so we all have this battle going on. Theological term is dichotomy. That just means there's an inner struggle between the flesh, that is the old nature, the selfish nature, and the new nature, that is the Holy Spirit. Every one of us has this battle going on. I was actually in a church one time and I shared with a leader about this inner struggle of wanting to do the right thing and struggling. It was interesting because he came back at me and he said, I think you need to re-examine your salvation experience. Because all things are new and you're not supposed to be struggling.

I was a young believer, I believed him. I'm not supposed to be struggling, there's something wrong with me. Years later, I read the words of Paul himself who said, the things that I don't want to do, I end up doing those.

And the things that I try to do, I end up not doing those. Anybody in here identify with that passage? Amen?

So there's some honest people here, praise God. And we're all in that struggle. And the more we give in to the Spirit, the more we act, talk, like Jesus. The more we give in to the selfish nature, the more we don't act and talk like Jesus. So the Spirit is to help us in this transformation. And the Holy Spirit is doing what? Is he trying to make us more, what?

Religious, yeah, that's it. No, more like Jesus. More loving, more kind, more truthful, more honest, all these things. 2 Corinthians 3.18 says, so all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord, who is the Spirit, makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image. So that's what the Holy Spirit, he's getting us to be more and more like Jesus, that's the life lesson. We need the Holy Spirit to become more like Jesus. We need the Holy Spirit to become more like Jesus. And as I look around of people and history, you know, I don't see anybody that I want to be like more than Jesus. As I read the Bible and see how he acted and see how he treated people and see how he handled situations and trials and, you know, simply put, Jesus, I think, is a hero.

This world needs a hero. You're listening to Cross the Bridge with David McGee. We'll return to the teaching in just a moment. But first, we have a brand new DVD that we would love to send to you. It's called One Book, One Message. In this powerful DVD, David sweeps through the entire Bible to help you understand the main message of all of Scripture. Once you grasp this amazing truth, you will never look at the Bible the same way again. One Book, One Message is our gift to you today when you call with a gift of any amount to Cross the Bridge. Your gift helps keep us on the air, encouraging you and others, so call today.

The number is 877-458-5508, that's 877-458-5508, or go online to crossthebridge.com. Now let's return to David McGee. Verse 14 says, for in fact the body is not one member but many. The body is not one member but many. Actually, there's one translation that says, for in fact the body is not just one denomination but many.

In the New Living Translation, it says, yes, the body has many different parts, not just one part. We need to understand that not any one group has a monopoly on the truth. And it can be very dangerous, you know, when you belong to a group, you start, well, we're the only ones that have it right. Everybody else, man, they're like totally messed up. I was reading one magazine and this guy did like a seven-part series on what was wrong with another guy.

Oh, man, he should do a seven-part series on the love of God. See, but there's that danger in all of us in there. Any group that's ever been formed, that is a, it's a threat, it's a threat to begin to think, well, we're the only ones that have it right. Heaven is going to be filled with those experiences of, well, you know, it happened. Nora and I years ago visited church and somebody came up after the service and said, what are y'all doing here?

Thank you, we really feel welcomed. Heaven's going to be like that, do you understand that? You're going to be walking around heaven going. What are you doing here? I know there's going to be hundreds of people coming up to me doing that. How'd you get in here? Grace of God, same way everybody did.

But we like to talk about what we disagree about, what's wrong with other people. I just, I don't want to do that. You know, at times in the ministry in the past, you know, I've kind of fallen into that.

I really want to guard against that. Because as God continues to open doors for this ministry, I don't want to shut the opportunity to minister to people. Now I'm not talking about sacrificing the truth, I'm not talking about watering anything down.

I'm just talking about, you know, let's don't condemn those who God has pardoned, amen. So I talked about parts of the body and of course the human body is very interesting. I mean, there's parts of the human body that you can't see that are very, very important. You can't, you can't see lungs. Well, I mean, if all's going well, you can't see lungs, but lungs are very important.

You can't survive without lungs. It's a part of the body. The body is made up of two types of muscles, voluntary and involuntary. Now, voluntary muscles are those that you control.

In other words, your brain says to your hand, reach out and get that cup of tea, you know, and pull it to your mouth and now sip it. Those are all voluntary muscles, okay. Then you have involuntary muscles. Those are the muscles that you don't control.

They work automatically, if you will. Now, what's really interesting in the way God created the body is the really important muscles are the ones that he decided to keep control of. Your heartbeat and your breathing. And I know if he didn't do it for anybody else, he did it for me because I would forget to breathe.

I'd be up here talking and, sorry, forgot to breathe. And you know what, isn't that like life? God's got the important stuff.

He'll take care of it. Life, death, all this stuff, God's got it. God's got it. So we all have different gifts. We're not the same.

Do you realize that? A lot of frustrations in life are because we think we want other people to be like we are. No, you don't.

Let me promise you, you don't. Do you know who the most irritating people you will ever meet in your life are the people that are like you? And the part of them that's like you is the part that will irritate you. You don't want everybody else like you. It's a nightmare of mine that I would pastor a flock of David McGee's. I would not want to do that. I would be emailing myself every Sunday.

Surely you didn't mean to say that. So praise God for the diversity and the difference in this body, in this church. We all have things to do.

Gifts of serving, gifts of giving, gifts of praying, in assessor prayer. We have something to do. We have a high and lofty goal in this place to change the world.

And it takes all of us to really to do that. Jesus in John 14, 12 said, Most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also. And greater works than these he will do because I go to my Father. Jesus turned to his levels and said, Don't be impressed by what I'm doing. You're going to do even greater things. Now, of course, our mind immediately spins towards what we're going to raise the dead. What do we get?

No, no, no, no. The greater works I believe that Jesus was talking about. Until Jesus died on the cross, people could not be born again or forgiven or saved. So Jesus fed thousands of people, spoke to thousands of people.

But after he had died on the cross, was resurrected and then ascended to heaven, Peter spoke and thousands of people were born again. That did not happen in the earthly ministry of Jesus. That's what I believe in part the greater works are. And what an incredible thing that we get to engage in those greater works. Now, please understand, we couldn't do the greater works if Jesus hadn't died for our sins. But because he's died for our sins, now we can tell other people and other people can get saved.

When we talk about the gifts, our place in the body, Romans chapter 12 verse 9 says, Don't just pretend to love others. You know what, if you're a note taker, jot this reference down. And if you're not a note taker, go ahead and start.

And jot this, if you wanna know more about the Bible, if you want more help in your spiritual life, begin to take notes. Because when you're in here, well, let me go over. First of all, almost all the time when I pray, I have a piece of paper and a pen.

You know why? Because when I pray, I expect God to talk. Now, if I don't have a piece of paper or a pen, what does that say to God? Well, even if you talk, I'm not gonna write it down. So let me encourage you when you're in here, because how often in the service God might speak something to you. And you go, oh man, that's definitely for me.

And then the busyness of life and stuff, maybe you don't remember it like you should. And there's something, and experts will tell you that there's something very special in writing things down. This is an important verse. Romans 12, nine says, don't just pretend to love others, really love them. Hate what is wrong, hold tightly to what is good, love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope, be patient and troubled, and keep on praying. When God's people are in need, be ready to help them.

Always be eager to practice hospitality. That is a great passage, isn't it? I mean, that just gives you, that is what church is supposed to look like right there. And if you ever think that you've arrived, just read that passage again and go, hey, I'm not sure I'm doing that one. Earlier in this chapter, we came across the passage that said, God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us. A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can brag about it. Oh, is that not what it says? Oh, so we can help each other.

Oh, sorry. We're given gifts so we can help each other. You have gifts that will help other people, that will be a blessing to them. And here's the awesome thing, because you're using your gifts, you will be blessed. Friend, do you know for sure that your sins have been forgiven?

You can know right now. I want to lead you in a short, simple prayer, simply telling God you're sorry and asking Him to help you to live for Him. Please pray this prayer with me out loud right now. Dear Jesus, I believe you died for me, that I could be forgiven. And I believe you were raised from the dead, that I could have a new life. And I've done wrong things. I have sinned, and I'm sorry. Please forgive me of all those things. Please give me the power to live for you all of my days. In Jesus' name. Amen. Friend, if you prayed that prayer according to the Bible, you've been forgiven, you've been born again.

So congratulations, friend, you just made the greatest decision that you will ever make. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer with David for the first time, we would love to hear from you. You can call us toll free at 877-458-5508 to receive our First Steps package, with helpful resources to help you begin your walk with Christ. If you've been encouraged by this ministry, contact us today. Your prayers and financial support help keep us on the air encouraging you and others. Call today and we'll send you a copy of Pastor David's brand new DVD entitled One Book, One Message.

You'll be blessed by this overview of the Bible, and it will forever change how you read the Scriptures. To get your copy, call 877-458-5508. That's 877-458-5508. Or visit us online at crossthebridge.com. While there, make sure to sign up for the free email devotionally. Also, if you're not able to make it to your home church this Sunday, why not join us for our live stream at 9 and 1130 Eastern. Just visit crossthebridge.com and click on our live stream link. There you can watch Pastor David teach from his home church, The Bridge, in Kernersville, North Carolina. Again, that website is crossthebridge.com. Thanks again for listening. We hope you'll join us next time as we continue to cross the bridge.