An Identity Problem

Matthew 16:18 –“And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.”

1 Peter 2:9 – But YOU ARE a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His

own special people, THAT YOU MAY proclaim the praises of Him who called you

out of darkness into His marvelous light.

I. We Have an Identity Problem

• What is a community? A group of people organized around something they share in common.

• What is a Body? A single organism with many parts held together by shared life.

Romans 12:4-5 – 4For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually MEMBERS OF ONE ANOTHER.

II. The Holy Spirit Didn't Come Just to Live in YOU – He came to live through US.

1 Corinthians 12:12-14 – 12For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14For in fact the body is not one member but many.

Ephesians 1:22-23 – 22And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

John 17:20-21 – 20“I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me THROUGH THEIR WORD; 21that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

III. We Were Not Baptized into the Body to Simply Live, but to Function

1 Corinthians 12:20-22 – 20But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. 21And 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.” 22No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.