Better Together 7-19-2026

If this is your first time listening you can check us out at lifefamily.church or on Facebook and Instagram at @lfcbeardstown

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Life Family Church Sermon Podcast. If this is your first time listening, you can check us out on our website at lifefamily.com or on Facebook at LFU. Now let's get right to the message.

SPEAKER_01 0:18

Well the Lord is good, amen. Um he's gonna get some batteries in my lapel mic. It's it was just flashing red there. Um so we'll be there in just a second. But before we get started on the word this morning, I just want to take a moment and say thank you to our youth leaders for what they did in taking our kids and taking a week off of work and and everything that they did to do to uh be a blessing to them. But thank you guys and for also getting batteries put in my lapel mic and for running all the sound stuff and for everything else. Thank you, brother. All right, you can unmute me. Can you hear me out there? Amen. Um, I just want to thank them. That was that was a great week. Our kids were blessed. I know they were, they're shy, but you know what? Um, they were telling me things that they learned and things that they did, and we watched some of the services, and man, I'm telling you, it was powerful. It was good worship, I mean quality worship, and the word was awesome, very impactful. So, yes, um I'm I'm I'm I'm gonna go next year, probably. Um but um, but it was great. Thank you guys for everything. They had a good time. All right, if you have your Bibles, if you can turn over to 1 Corinthians 12, and um we're gonna start there this morning. I want to bring out a few things, and we won't be super long because I know uh we've had a few extra things go on today, but um, if you'll give me just a few moments of your time, I believe this will encourage you and strengthen your faith. So the life of Christ flows through the body. I want you to remember that. The life of Christ flows through the body. We are the body, he is the head. It says the the the Christian life, let me say this: the Christian life was never designed to be lived only independently. We were meant to be connected. In fact, um the title of the message today is We're better together. We are truly better together. God did not save us as merely just individuals, but we were saved and he placed us into a body. We are the body of Christ. And that is literal. We are his body on this earth, he is the head, we are the body. And without the head, we can do nothing. We know that. But without the body, he can do nothing. You say, well, that doesn't, that's not right. He can do all things through us. He chose to use people to fulfill his purpose here on this earth. He he chose it that way. So it can be done no other way. He uses people to do great things. Now, 1 Corinthians 12, 27, it says this. Now you are the body of Christ and members individually. Now, every believer is a member, and every member has a place, and every member has a purpose. A body cannot function without members that refuse to be connected. It would be funny to have an arm that was cut off and try to walk around without being connected. It just don't work. It just doesn't work. Now, Paul writes in Ephesians 4, verse 15 and 16, it says this, but speaking the truth in love may grow up in all things into him who is the head, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by that every joint supplies. Underline that, every joint supplies. According to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Now, like we said, everything flows from the head, but every joint, I want you to, I want you to see this, every joint supplies. We have in our bodies what you call joints. And those joints are what holds your parts together. Without joints, everything would fall apart. We need our joints. And it's amazing how Paul ties this in, and he doesn't say every member supplies. He says every joint supplies. Meaning, until you are connected, you won't be able to release your supply. What God has placed within you individually is wonderful. Great. I love it that you're a minister. I love it that you're a singer. I love it that you're a prayer warrior. But until you become connected in fellowship with others, that gift that you have will never be recognized and never be effective. We need each other. It's like a basketball team. I remember back in the early 90s when Michael Jordan was a super good ball player, but they hadn't won a championship yet. Because every time they came up against the Detroit Pistons, they would manhandle them. And finally, the Bulls figured it out. They started playing not as individuals, they started playing as a team. And they started to rely not only on Michael Jordan, but they started to rely on others to distribute the ball and to play defense and work together as a team and they become a dynasty. Their greatness was not hinged on Michael Jordan. Their greatness was hinged upon the team. The greatness of this church is not hinged upon one individual, it's hinged upon a team. Every joint supplies. So you might feel like I'm just a nobody here. I don't have much to give or much to offer. That is a lie from the pit of hell. You and your supply is just as valuable as my supply that I'm doing right now. Your supply is valuable to the kingdom of God just as much as me standing up here teaching this morning. It is valuable to God, and He doesn't see it as what I'm doing right now is important more important than what you're doing right now. So never think for a moment, they don't need me. They'll be okay if I don't show up right. No, we truly do miss you. We miss your supply. We miss what you bring to the church when you come. When you come, you come and you bring an excitement, a joy, and a connectedness and a bondness that only God can put together. And when you're here, it encourages everybody. I want to see your smile. I want to see you shake hands and hug necks. I want to see that. That means something. You don't know what it means to people when you go and you tell them, I love you. You mean everything, you mean the world to me. Or whatever. That means a lot to people. People need to hear those things. The Bible says, do not forsake the assembling of yourself together. Especially during these times that we're in now, we need encouragement from each other. Now, that word joint, I'm gonna get science on you. Uh it's a ligament, it's let me get my glasses. A point of contact. I want you to hear this. A joint is a point of contact that which uh fastens together, it's a connecting bond. Now, every joint supplies. That word every in the Greek, it literally means without exception. Without exception. So you might think, well, I don't have much to offer here. Without exception, every joint supplies. So you are valuable to this church. Now, going on, that word supply, and I love this. I'm not going to give you the Greek word because I don't even, I can't even pronounce it myself, much less try to explain it to you. But it means to furnish abundantly, to provide generously, to fully equip, and to lavish a supply. Provide everything necessary. So when we come to church on Sunday, your job is to furnish abundantly, to provide generously, to fully equip, to lavish supply, to provide everything necessary. That's your job. You know one way you can do that? By saying amen. And I'm not, that's not my way of trying to get you to say amen. That is a serious concept that when you are participating in the message and you're saying amen and you're receiving and you're saying, so be it to me, I receive that word. That is you communicating with me. That's a joint that's connecting two parts. And if you're not focused in on the message and you're not paying attention to what's being said and you're not receiving, then it's it greatly affects the person speaking. If you don't believe me, then one day come up here and speak, and you'll notice that it does help. For those of you who do speak, can I see your hand? Amen. Do you believe what I'm saying? It helps. People need to stay connected. Now, being connected doesn't necessarily mean you just gather together. We can come together and have nothing to do with each other. But when we come together as a body, we're supposed to encourage one another. So before church starts, instead of like I did this morning, sit on the seat and just pray, it might be a good idea to go around and visit people and say, hello, how are you doing? How are you doing? Good to see you. Glad you're here. And that that is a part of you bringing your supply, being involved, staying connected. If you see somebody that's sitting by themselves, get up and go sit with them. Go encourage them, put your arm around them, say, I love you. Thanks for being here. Amen. If somebody needs a tic-tac, give them a tic-tac. I don't know. You know, one example I remember when I was younger. I was, I can't remember if we were dating then or if we were uh married at the time, but I remember I was a lot younger and a lot skinnier and a lot stronger and uh a lot more limber. So I thought, um, but my uh brother-in-law and I went fishing and he had this John boat, and we love to fish there on the French Broad River. They had some of the biggest smallmouth. It was awesome. And we had a great time. We were fishing all day long. We had this trolling motor that we would put on that little john boat and we'd putt through the areas around the river and just have a great time. But it required something for that trolling motor to work, and that was a battery that we had charged all night long. And it was a car battery. So we connected the car battery and we trolled all day long and had a great day. Caught a lot of fish and enjoyed ourselves. Got back and the dock set up pretty high. So, what I my job was to hand Jordan up all the fishing rods and all the nets and all the all the fish and all the tools and supplies, and it finally got to the trolling motor. I hand him the trolling motor, and then he's okay, give me the battery. Okay, so he's reaching down, and I grabbed this battery, and you gotta know how many of you guys have ever picked up a car battery. It's not light. Frank knows that. Yeah, you've happened pretty pretty recent, huh? So you take this car. I took this car battery in my hand and I reached up, I threw it up there to him like this right here. And guess what? He didn't grab it. He's like, just stood there, and I'm like, here, and I I held on to that battery and I went all the way down to the bottom of that river. All the way, and I'm hanging, my feet are flopping in the air, and I'm down. Finally, I let go of the battery. So I'm like, listen, I can be up here preaching, but if you're not receiving and you're not participating, it's like me handing you that battery and letting me go straight down. So please, amen, they're appreciated. Uh, responses are appreciated, you can talk, you can enjoy it, you can laugh, have a good time. But that is the way that you can join in with whoever is speaking. There's gonna be others come up here and speak. And trust me, when they're up here, I'm gonna be their biggest fan, and I'm gonna say, amen. If they say something good, I'm gonna say, amen. If they say something that's not biblical, I'm gonna jump up and say, get off the stage. Believe me, I would. I've been known. Anyways, but anyways, um, so yeah, make sure that you catch the battery. We can do nothing without the source, we can do nothing without the head. Jesus is the source of everything. John 15 talks about he is the vine, we are the branches. And he he goes on to talk that we're supposed to abide in him, in him and us. As we cannot, it says, we cannot bear fruit of our own. We have to stay connected. One of the tricks the enemy will always try to pull on every one of us. Everybody point to yourself. Me. Every one of you, he will try to isolate you on an island by yourself and keep you disconnected from the body. He'll do all he can to keep you disconnected. When he knows the true power that you possess comes in being connected. You cannot produce on your own. You have to stay connected to the vine, you have to be connected to the source. You notice, have you ever seen an apple tree standing in a field, straining, just standing there going, trying to produce fruit. Have you ever seen that? What happens to an apple tree when it's time and it starts producing fruit? It just naturally does it. You don't have to force an apple tree to produce. All you have to do is make sure those branches stay connected and make sure you give it plenty of water, plenty of sunlight, whatever it needs, the source is there that produces whatever is needed. Anything and everything you'll ever need, the Father has already supplied that need for you. Your job is not to try to produce it, your job is to stay connected to the source. The biggest fight you'll ever have in life is getting your focus off of Jesus and getting your eyes on something else. You remember the story of Peter. I've spoken about this before. Peter got his eyes off of Jesus and started looking at the circumstances. See, that's another way he can get you disconnected is to get you focused on other things. And we have to be very cautious as a Christian, not to get our eyes on other things, but to keep our eyes on Jesus. I remember I said this a few months ago. I was talking about this photographer. They did it at a safari out in the African wilderness, and they were having the time of their life. And the guy that was driving the vehicle, he told him, he says, Do not, whatever you do, do not get out of the truck. And of course, they drive around and there's all these lions everywhere, and these lions are literally drooling, ready to eat, but they have no interest in these people. And one guy asked, he said, so why is it that these lions don't attack this vehicle or don't attack us in this vehicle? He says, they don't see you as individuals, they see you connected to this vehicle. It's one to them. They're not interested in eating a truck as long as you're in the truck. But one guy decided to get out of the truck and he becomes separated from that truck, all of a sudden he becomes cat food. You see, the way that we can be defeated is to get ourselves disconnected from the source, disconnected from the body, disconnected from the church. Doing your own thing the way you want to do it. That's how you, that's how you're defeated. God has orchestrated it so that we could grow together, we could build together, we could worship together, we could accomplish together. Everything we do, we do it together. He's not about Lone Rangers, He's not about superstar preachers. He's about connected believers who want to grow together. I could do all I mean, if I wanted to, I could go out and start preaching on the road and preaching in conferences and doing all this stuff. I don't want to do that. I want this church to grow together. I don't want to do it without you. I want to be fired up and have the spirit of revival on me and you. I don't want half the church worshiping God and praising. I want all of the church worshiping God. I don't want anybody left out. I want all of us to be a part of what God is doing in this body. It's important to God that we all keep our eyes on Him because He truly is the source. And as He flows through us, the Bible says every joint supplies. Meaning this wherever there's a disconnect, the supply stops. The valve shuts off. We have to stay connected, especially in the times we're in today where the evil one is working extra hard because he knows his time is short. The enemy knows his time is running out. But God knows there's a remnant, there's a body, there's a group of people who are going to be gathered in his name and we're going to do exploits because we know who our God is and we're connected to the source. Amen. Hallelujah. So I talked this Wednesday just a little bit about being blessed and meditating on the word, and I wanted to bring out a couple things to you that I think will bless you. Go to Jeremiah seventeen. Jeremiah seventeen is probably one of my favorite verses. Verse 5, it says this thus saith the Lord, Cursed is the man who trust in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord, for he shall be like a shrub in the desert and not see when good comes, but shall inhabit parched places in the wilderness and sought land which is not inhabited. Now I want you to say this with me, say, Blessed. Blessed is a man who trust in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be like a tree planted by the water, which spreads out its roots by the river. And I want you to underline this, and will not fear when drought comes or heat comes. But its leaf will be green and will not be anxious in the year of drought. Nor will it cease from yielding fruit. So I wanted to bring that up because I want you to see how God's kingdom works. It works through us being planted. It works by us staying in our place where we're supposed to be. It doesn't work when you separate yourself and you uproot and you go here and you go there and you do this and you do that. It works only when you're planted and rooted and grounded. And when that happens in your life, then the supply that comes from only God will start to flow through you. And even in times where it seems rough, you can rejoice and you can be thankful and you can be confident knowing that God is your supply. And that even in times of drought, even in bad times, you can still have a smile on your face. Why? Because you know I'm not depending on man, I'm not depending on myself, I'm depending on the source. And I call on him, and he always answers. Why? Because he's faithful. He's a faithful God. So this is very, very, very important. And I wanted to bring this up to you today because I believe the enemy is trying his best, not here necessarily, but all over the world to try to get believers caught up in all these things and all these fads going on online, on the phone, all these social media things and all the things going on in the world, trying to get our focus on all this other stuff and keep it off of Jesus. He's the only supply we have. And if he's the only supply we have and he's our only confidence, doesn't it make sense not to worry about what's happening all over the place? You see, if we're not worried about what's happening, well, let's just put it this way if we don't know what's happening, it doesn't bother you. So if we're consumed in something and it's starting to cause you to be anxious or fearful, you need to cut that source off. And you need to get rid of that source and go to the source that brings life. This is how I do it, that I was imagining all this, how a joint works, and how all this supply and everything flows and all this stuff, and I'm just seeing this. And I'm seeing how the Bible talks about that we're supposed to lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. And it requires somebody to connect with somebody else through laying on of hands, and they receive the supply that you have that flows through you. I want you to reach over just to your neighbor beside you and just kind of touch their shoulder or grab their hand. It doesn't matter. Just lay hands on someone. And I want to take a few moments just to pray over them. Pray over healing in their body. You don't have to ask them what they need. Pray just whatever the Lord puts on your heart. Just pray that, Lord, the Lord will just um just strengthen them, encourage them, build them up. Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we love you. Lord, we pray over this body. Lord, we thank you that this is the body that you put together in this area. Lord, I pray that your supply, your strength, your nourishment will just flow through this body. That Lord, us being one together in spirit, connected to the source, Lord, we're receiving the supply. That supply is abundant. Lord, I thank you that you meet all our needs. That part of your source is the source of prosperity and blessing. And Lord, I thank you that you meet all our needs according to your riches and glory. Lord, I thank you that this person beside me is blessed and financially prosperous. Lord, I thank you that their body is healed. In the name of Jesus, I speak over their body. In the name of Jesus, I speak healing, wholeness. Lord, I curse every demonic thing that's trying to attack their body in the name of Jesus. I speak a curse over that sickness. Sickness die, disease die in the name of Jesus. I speak healing and wholeness complete. Nothing missing in their life, everything made complete because Jesus, you are the source. You flow through your body. And Lord, we release healing right now. We release healing over these bodies in the name of Jesus. Lord, I thank you that you give them the mind of Christ. That we're not held bondage by fear any longer, but perfect love that cast out all fear. And Lord, I thank you that this body is full of the love of God. Thank you, Jesus, for that love and mercy and grace, all the things that you have provided for us, Lord, we receive it right now in Jesus' name. We receive it right now in the name of Jesus. Lord, I thank you that if anyone doesn't know you as their Savior, that Lord, they would call upon you. That they would call upon you as Lord. And that they would yield their members to you as instruments of righteousness. And Lord, they will take upon themselves to go out and love people and encourage people. And Lord, I thank you that this body will continue to grow because a healthy body naturally starts to bear fruit. And Lord, I thank you that this is a healthy body. That Lord, your supply flows through us, and we don't hoard it up individually, but we release it. We release it to all the others around us, Lord. We release it to them. We thank you. We thank you for ministering to all their needs in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Hallelujah. Amen. Everybody look at me. If you're in here today and you don't know Jesus as your Lord and Savior, and you don't know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you were to die, that you would go to heaven to be with the Lord. If that's you in here and you would like to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you're on your way to heaven and that you have a relationship with God. If that's you, can you come up here to the front? We want to pray with you. Anyone? Anyone at all? Amen? Amen. Alright. So, Father, in the name of Jesus, Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you so much for your goodness and your mercy and your grace. And Lord, I pray blessing over each and everyone here. I speak blessing over their life, over every area of their life. Lord, I thank you that they have the knowledge of your will and they're walking according to your purpose. And Lord, truly we all are better together in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Well, if you get a chance to come on Wednesday nights, we'd love to have you. We have a great time, and uh, God bless you. We'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

Thanks for listening. We hope that this message helps you draw closer to God as you walk out your faith. We'll see you next week.