Buddies!

^{1 Corinthians 12:12-29, v 18:}

Unity and Diversity in the Body

¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ 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. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
¹⁵ Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹ If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. ²⁸ And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. ²⁹ Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles?

^{*God wants to see us fulfill the greatest potential in him}

^{*We need each other as brothers and sisters in Christ}

^{*Our relationship with God and each other is really important}

^{Eccesiastes 4:9-12} Two are better than one,
    because they have a good return for their labor:
¹⁰ If either of them falls down,
    one can help the other up.
But pity anyone who falls
    and has no one to help them up.
¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
    But how can one keep warm alone?
¹² Though one may be overpowered,
    two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

^{Mark 6:7: 7} Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits.

^{*We should serve God is pairs}

 ^{*We will be easily discouraged if alone but with a team, we can encourage each other}

^{*We should have the initiative and intentional heart in knowing each other and building ourselves up} 

**Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path**

Count your blessings

We would be a people of Gratitude

4 aspects why people are meant to worship God

1. Gratitude towards his healing grace

Isaiah 53: Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
² He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

⁴ Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.

⁷ He was oppressed and afflicted,
    yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
    and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
    so he did not open his mouth.
⁸ By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
    Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
    for the transgression of my people he was punished.
⁹ He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
    and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
    nor was any deceit in his mouth.

¹⁰ Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
    and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
    and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.
¹¹ After he has suffered,
    he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
    and he will bear their iniquities.
¹² Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
    and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
    and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Psalm 34:18: The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
    and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

*We might feel anger with the problems but God is there to set you free
*God gives us a new hope
*He molds us to be someone beautiful and bold
*God's healing grace does tremendous things in our lives
*Nothing is too impossible for God to do and heal us

2. Gratitude towards his wondrous power and infinite wisdom (v4-6)

*He knows us all by name
*We are not here by accident
Psalms 139:13-16:

¹³ For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place,
    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my unformed body;
    all the days ordained for me were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

Hebrews 4:13: ¹³ Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Matthew 19:26: ²⁶ Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

*He will come and help you
*We have experienced him
*Keep a humble heart
*God is a circumstance for our heart
*We can be in the great commission for God's ministry
*Our heart must firstly be with the Lord
*God will use anyone who is willing
*We look at the heart and God will look at that and use you much more

3. Gratitude towards His wonderful provision (v7-9)

Psalm 37:25: I was young and now I am old,
    yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken
    or their children begging bread.

Phillippians 4:19: ¹⁹ And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.

*There is always sufficiency
*Always rely on the Lord and He will provide
*If we come before Him with our request with sincerity, He will bring down his presents to us
*Everything is well provided for

4. Gratitude for security and safety (v10-14)

*God looks after us so well! with the finest of wheat
Psalms 33:20: We wait in hope for the Lord;
    he is our help and our shield.

Psalms 46:1: God is our refuge and strength,
    an ever-present help in trouble.

*We wants to be in control
*There are things we can't
Jeremiah 17:7-8: “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,
    whose confidence is in him.
⁸ They will be like a tree planted by the water
    that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
    its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
    and never fails to bear fruit.”

*God always have our best interest at heart
Psalms 91: Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
    will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
    my God, in whom I trust.”

³ Surely he will save you
    from the fowler’s snare
    and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers,
    and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of night,
    nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
    nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side,
    ten thousand at your right hand,
    but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only observe with your eyes
    and see the punishment of the wicked.

⁹ If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
    and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you,
    no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
    you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him;
    I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him
    and show him my salvation.”

*No harm and disaster will come before you

**Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path**

Leveraging your career

September 2 2012

*Don't know what your career is?
*What God wants to say

1. What is work?

Full time job-mom, dad, student

*God has a plan for each of us

2. It doesn't define who you are

*Work is going to change
*Identity of yourself is found in Christ alone
*Galatians 4:6-7: Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” ⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

*Only sons are heirs in the past
*But now sons and daughters can be heirs
*We are going to fail if we put work in front of God

3. God created us to work

*God has an identity for us
*Genesis 2:15: The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
*This was before the fall of man
*We have the responsibility to work

4. It is important to find something we like and do it well

*2 Thessalonians 3:10-12: For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
¹¹ We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. ¹² Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.

*It is not a choice to be lazy

5. Work can be difficult

*It can be discouraging going through difficult times
*We all like success but we have no choice but to have struggles along the way too
*Genesis 3:17-18: To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you;
    through painful toil you will eat food from it
    all the days of your life.
¹⁸ It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
    and you will eat the plants of the field.

*God IS PATIENT

"We are a microwave generation serving a crack-pot God" - Jentezen Franklin-

*If only we'd be patient to wait for his plan for us

6. Work with others can be difficult

1st- home
2nd-work
love- command, not necessary like
*We are called to show grace to the ungrace and lovable to the unlovable
*Philippians 2:5-6: In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶ Who, being in very nature God,
    did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

*It may not be in the workplace
*Maybe tonight we should let our grudge and anger go because His grace is sufficient for us

*We should just let God take charge

7. Work can be rewarding

*Find something we like doing
*John 10:10:  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

*There are times we do not have a life because we hate our work
*We should like what we do- tie it to the kingdom of God
*We should share a abit of our faith in our workplace

8. Work can be eternity-changing
*It should not be something we do from monday to friday and shut off

How can we be missionaries at our workplace?
*We should be challenged to be Christlike at our workplace
*Ecclesiastes 3:11: He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

There is something out there for each of us
Who is it in my life that I have to work my relationship with or just let grace reveal through me?   

**Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path**