The following message is by pastor John Piper.

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Desiring God.

1st Corinthians 12, 12 through 31, is the scripture text for tonight's 12, 12, 12 through 31. For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body, Jews or Greeks, slaves are free, and all were made to drink of one spirit.

For the body does not consist of one member, but of many. If the foot shall say,

because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body. That would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ears should say,

because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of

the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?

But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.

If all were a single member, where would the body be?

As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you,

nor again the head to the feet. I have no need of you. On the contrary, the parts

of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable. And on those parts of the body that we think

less honorable, we bestow the greater honor.

And our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which are more presentable

parts do not require.

But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it,

that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

If one member suffers all suffer together, if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Now, you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

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