Fiery Arrows in the House Of God

here this morning. I want you to turn with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 1 Corinthians chapter 12.

We're continuing this series on the fiery darts, the fiery arrows of the wicked one, of the evil one, of the devil, of our adversary. Saints of God, we need to realize how wicked, how vile, how dark that the devil is and we need to lay a hold of the word of God. You will not get through this battle unless you take the word of God as a sword and you take unto yourself above all else the shield of faith.

We're going to read from 1 Corinthians chapter 12. We've dealt with various arrows. I will deal with various arrows both next week and in the weeks to come.

We're going to be away for three Sundays, four Wednesdays in the States and in Thailand, but we're going to come right back in on these arrows again when we come back and in December finish out this series because we've got a lot to say about the shield of faith, but I want to deal with these arrows. I'm not being comprehensive. I'm not dealing with them all.

I cannot do that, but I am giving you significant ones, essential ones as the Lord leads me to deal with that you understand what this battle looks like. My message this morning, part 7, fiery arrows in the house of God. I am going to read from Judges 5 and then Genesis 49, but I want us to read together 1 Corinthians 12, then I'll go back to Judges 5, quote from it, and then Judges 49 and quote from it, but I want us to stay in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, reading from verse 12.

For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member but many.

If the foot shall say, because I am not the hand, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, because I am not the eye, I am not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members, every one of them, in the body as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And I cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee, nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

Nay, much more, those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, upon these we bestow more abundant honor. And our comely parts have more abundant comeliness.

For our comely parts have no need. But God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked. That there should be no chism in the body, but that the members should have the same care, one for another.

And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it. Or one member be honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

Pray with me. Let's pray for this morning's message together. Open your hearts, ask of him this morning that he might speak unto us.

Father, we thank you for the word of God. It is the sword of the spirit. It destroys the lies of hell.

It breaks up the works of darkness. It exposes and brings into light all things. And Father, we thank you for the power of the word of God.

We're not left merely defending ourselves with the shield of faith, extinguishing arrows, but we advance into the kingdom of Satan. We take the sword of the spirit, and we begin to hack, we begin to move forward. We begin to fight the adversary.

Lord God, but we thank you for the shield of faith, our confidence in Christ, in the blood of Jesus, in the truth of God's word. We lay hold of the word of God this morning. And Lord God, we're asking that you extinguish in this room this morning as we mix faith with the word of God, that fire would be put out, things that have been burning, fiery.

Lord God, arrows firing over our heads, the noise of arrows flying past us. Lord God, we ask of you, silence it in this place, that we might draw water in joy and thanksgiving. Lord God, at peace, without fear, without doubt, and enjoy the presence of God and the house of God.

In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. My message, fiery arrows in the house of God.

It says in Judges chapter 5 verse 11 in the Old Testament, it says, they that are delivered from the noise of archers in the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord. Even the righteous acts towards the inhabitants of his villages in Israel, then shall the people of the Lord go down to the gates. A strange scripture, a very unusual scripture, but it's very applicable to what I'm going to preach this morning.

You see, Judges 5 is in that era of Deborah, the judge in Israel. You'll remember the story how King Jabin, king of Canaan, or the Canaanites, and his general Caesarea actually was ruling over the land of God's people 20 long years. The Canaanites had a stranglehold over the valleys, the villages, the communities of Israel.

They still worship God. There was still a remnant. There was still a judge in the land.

There was still true preaching. There was still true ministry, but God's people were subdued. In fact, their villages were.

And it says here that under that oppression, in an hour, they're still believers. They're still alive. They're still worshiping.

They're still functioning, but the enemy is ruling the land. And when it was like that, listen to what it says. In those places where they went to draw water, water is a source of life.

You can't function without it. Every individual needs water. You need it daily.

You need it to function. It's the most basic thing of life, more necessary than bread and food. And second only to breath itself is water.

Water is essential. I believe these watering holes are pictures of God's house where the Word of God is preached, where the ministry of God is. I believe this church is a watering hole.

I believe it's an oasis. I believe it's a place where your thirst can get satisfied. We come here together to draw water.

In the Old Testament, it even gives you songs that you sing as you draw water out of the well of salvation. You're going to sing as you sing. You begin to draw forth water out of that deep well that is regeneration within the believer's life.

It is a beautiful thing. But notice here in Judges 5, when the enemy reigns and holds power in the land, it actually said these watering places were places of the noise of archers. In other words, when you went to draw water, all you heard were arrows flying past your head.

It wasn't safe to draw water. It was dangerous to draw water. When you went to satisfy your thirst and be revived in a dry and barren land, when you went to gather together with other believers drawing forth water, it was very dangerous.

You know why? Every watering hole was a target of archers. Archers, the enemy, watched over every watering hole. Do you see how the enemy in Deborah and Barak's day, the enemy had so prospered that they tied down every watering hole? Because if God's people get revived and sustained and refreshed, they're dangerous.

They can fight back. And so the enemy sat there and placed their archers beside every single watering hole. And they hindered, they fired at every person going to sustain and refresh their own soul.

The places of drawing water became a place of archers, a dangerous place, a place you had to watch yourself, watch your back. You always had to be on guard. It was dangerous to simply go and draw water.

But we read in Judges chapter 4 and 5 of how Deborah, the judge, the prophetess of God, she was a judge in those days. And Barak, a man of God, rose up through a prophecy from God. He raised an army of 10,000 men and they went to war and they won the victory against overwhelming odds.

Do you know what happened now? See, this is a move of God. This is revival. This is an attack against the enemy, not simply be an attack.

This is a national, this is a widespread turning of God's people against the enemy. They're tired of having their watering holes to be a place of arrows flying past their head, always watching out. They need refresh, but they're getting arrows coming in on them, on the left, on the right, whizzing by without number.

It becomes very dangerous under this move of God with Deborah and Barak. Do you know what happened? Let me read it again because now you understand what I'm saying. Judges 5 verse 11.

They that are delivered from the noise of archers in the place of drawing water. Do you realize the place of drawing water became a place of those gathering who'd been delivered from the archers? Now everything's changed. Now you gather at the drawing of the water.

Who's gathering? Us that have been delivered from the archers. See, I know I'm a target. You better know you're a target and you better know it's dangerous.

The enemy knows it's dangerous for us to gather as the body of Christ, to function as the church, to begin as we sang this morning. Didn't your hearts arise as we began to say? I go, I'm so glad I'm here this morning. I'm glad to be in the house of God.

I'm glad to be led and worshiped this morning because as we sing, I feel that water bubbling up. I feel the drawing forth of water. Since we are attacked by the enemy, we're watched by the enemy.

But I want to tell you, we're praying for a move of God that delivers us from the noise of the archers. I want to be one of those that's known, one of those that's been delivered from the noise of the arrows. Who are you? I am the redeemed of the Lord.

Anybody ask you who I am? I'm redeemed. I'm washed in the blood of the Lamb. Since it goes on in this verse, listen to what it says next.

In the places of drawing water, there shall they rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord. So in other words, this place of drawing water for so long under the enemy's hand was a dangerous place, a place of the noise. All you could hear when you went to the water, all your hearing.

Think about it. Imagine every time you gather, all you hear is the arrows. Isn't that what it's like at times? You know why? Because the enemy's prospered in the land.

He has marched across the land. But I tell you, let a revival come. This whole thing goes topsy-turvy or the right way up.

It said at the early church, everywhere they went, they said, these men that have turned the whole world upside down have come here. You bet. You bet.

We ought to be dangerous saints of God. We're too timid. We're too careful.

We're too harmless. We ought to be the most noted people on the face of the planet. You know why? This gospel changes lives.

This gospel contradicts every thought of the hour. But look, this place of drawing water suddenly became a place where these same people have been delivered, begin to rehearse the righteous acts of the Lord. The word rehearse means to recount, to tell again and again and again.

You're standing now drawing water, saying, the Lord did this for me. The Lord did this for me. The Lord delivered me.

The Lord saved me. The Lord changed me. The Lord forgave me.

And so suddenly now, you're not hearing the noise of arrows surrounding you. You're hearing the noise of testifying about the righteous deeds and acts of the Lord. Isn't it good when the church is no longer a place of moping down and being defeated and being worn down? You couldn't imagine what the enemy's been doing to me.

Suddenly it flips and we begin to rehearse, God did this for me. God did this for me. God delivered me.

God saved me. So another scripture in Genesis 49 verse 22. And this chapter is actually, it's Jacob on his deathbed and he's prophesied to his 12 sons.

He's actually prophesied to them about their life, who they are. But not only that, it's about their entire tribe. And not only that, about their future.

And not only that, he said about the last days, the very end of time. See, all things are written in the Bible, not for Israel, but for us, the church, upon whom the ends of the earth have come. The last days have come.

Do you realize all the things in the Old Testament are written for you and I? And so this about Judges 5, about the water, it's written for you. This about Joseph, it is written for you. We're not stealing it or taking it out of context.

Listen to what it says. This prophecy of Jacob on his deathbed prophesied his son Joseph. And he says this, it's a beautiful prophetic picture.

Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well. Notice where he is. In this vision and prophecy, Joseph is a tree, very fruitful.

But he's a fruitful tree by a well, by a water source, by a watering hole. That's why he is fruitful. You want to know why Joseph was the way, was an excellent man of God? Because this is where he dwelt spiritually.

Whose branches run over the wall. Then listen the next verse. The archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him.

Here's Joseph like a tree planted by the rivers of water. He is a fruitful tree planted by a well, a watering well, a water source. You know what's happening? The archers are firing at him.

The archers sorely grieved him. The arrows that come in over his head that almost hit him, almost wounded him, could have destroyed him. They sorely grieved him.

They hated him. What are the arrows? It was the brothers, their suspicion, their anger, their jealousy, their desire to murder him, their conniving, all of that jointly together. You know what they were? Arrows against Joseph and it could have destroyed him fatally if he hadn't have been dwelling by this water.

What is a man who's grown bountifully, planted by water? What does it represent? Psalm 1. Blessed is the man. It's a man that's planted by the rivers of water and he's meditating on the Word of God day and night, day and night, day and night. He is meditating, thinking over.

He keeps his mind in the Word of God. Saints, if you want victory like Jacob, like we dealt with last week, you're gonna meditate on the Word of God day and night. Meditation isn't like that out there.

Meditation is to mull it over, to think on it, to spend time in it, to take a scripture and begin breaking it up, begin to understand it, spend time in the Word of God, understand what forgiveness means and the love of God means and your righteousness in Christ. Go to scripture and spend time. You will grow, you will prosper, you will blossom, you will bear fruit, I promise you.

But watch out for the arrows. You're not immune to the arrows. Let me get into my message in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 here this morning.

The church is called the body of Christ some 40 plus times in the New Testament. And so when we talk about the church, the local church and the universal church, it is the body of Christ. Every time it talks about the church, that church is the body of Christ.

This church is the body of Christ. There's one universal church, invisible, that spans all of time from the early church right to now. It's also partly in heaven and partly on earth.

That is the universal church. But there's the local church. There's a thing in the Bible preached about many times called the local church.

It's specific people. It's not invisible, it's visible. You know their names, you know their faces, you know who they are, you know their testimonies.

They gather in the same place at the same time regularly within the same community. That is what the Bible calls a local church. And there are hundreds of scriptures concerning that.

When we come to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, we read the word body 18 times from verse 12 to verse 27 where we read this morning. 18 times we read the word body. That's important.

The Holy Spirit has written that for a reason. We also read the word one 15 times in this one chapter of chapter 12. So we have body and we have one.

They are emphasized in this one chapter. You also get the same thing emphasized in the book of Romans, elsewhere in Corinthians, in Ephesians, and in Colossians. When you talk about the church, body is always emphasized and oneness is always emphasized.

Here in Corinthians where we're reading from chapter 10, sorry, chapter 11 all the way through to chapter 14, three chapters, the statement about the gathering of the church together. That word together is used seven times. It's a very important word.

These chapters, chapter 11, chapter 12, chapter 13, chapter 14, what's it speaking about? It's speaking about the church gathered together. It is one body. It is the church.

It is the body of Christ. He is the head there operating. And it's talking about a specific church in Corinth gathering in the same place all together to be the body of Christ.

You are not the body of Christ as an individual. You cannot be. You can't obey scripture by yourself.

A Christian by themselves, isolated, maybe deliberately, they are disobeying so many scriptures. They can't obey hundreds of scriptures because you need other believers to interact with to fulfill hundreds and hundreds of New Testament scriptures. It says here in 1 Corinthians 12 and verse 12, just read with me, follow with me in your Bible.

For as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. Christ isn't manifest through one member. It's an entire body being one together.

Verse 13, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jew or Gentile, whether bond or free, and have all been made to drink into one spirit. Now notice here in verse 13, it says the real church, the real body of Christ gathered in one distinct place. It's by one spirit that we are all baptized into one body.

This isn't talking about baptism in water because that's a baptism in the water. It's not talking about the baptism in the Holy Ghost because that's a baptism into the Holy Spirit or in the Holy Spirit. In other words, you're saturated either in water or in the Spirit.

That isn't what this verse says. This is a baptism, an utter, absolute immersion of every individual that's born again into the body of Christ. Look at me, what it's saying here in verse 13, all are baptized into one body.

It doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile. It doesn't matter if you're English or Irish or American or some other nationality. You could even be from the Czech Republic.

If by one spirit we're baptized into one body, none of that matters. Your culture, your family, your background, your education, how much money you have in the bank, none of that matters. We have been baptized in a local church into one body.

Saints, this is the experience of every newborn Christian. You don't join a church. You're baptized into the church by the Spirit of God.

It says we are baptized by the Spirit into the church. What do you get baptized into? The church. You're immersed into the church.

You're submerged in a church. You're never meant to be an individual. Those individuals who visit church as a spectator or say, yeah, I pop in occasionally.

You've got no concept of the body of Christ. You're to be baptized. Regeneration means an immersion to be caught up as a vital part of the body of Christ.

No man can do this. You can't join this church. We don't have a membership list.

We don't have a service for you to join. You need born again. If you get born again, the Spirit of God will add you.

He will immerse you. He will put you in position. It also says we're made to drink of one spirit.

Now what is this? This baptism, this drinking is a one-off. The Greek says this drinking is a one-off drink. We drink of Christ all the time, but this drink is a one-off experience.

This baptism is a one-off experience. Being baptized into the body, drinking of one spirit. It's talking about regeneration, the new birth.

You become part of the body of Christ. A Christian without a church is an abnormality. Something's gone wrong and things do go wrong.

In our nations today, it's very hard to find a church. Some cities, the churches there are filled with heresy and compromise and sin. Some of you drive hours to this service here this morning.

Why? Because something has gone wrong in the body of Christ. Every community ought to have a local church, but it's not that way in this hour and this time. So to be baptized, look what it says, our experience ought to be baptism into the church, immersed, submerged, plunged, lost out of sight.

No longer you live in your life. The new birth actually enters you into an experience of sin. There is a body of Christ, spiritual, real, visible that I can be a partaker in.

The Holy Spirit made me a member, not a man. Whatever a man thinks or does or whatever I think or do, there is a real body that we've been birthed into. And verse 14, for the body is not one member, but many.

This local church is many, but it's one. It's one body, one church, not two, one church, but it's many members. I don't want a few members.

I don't want one member in this church. I want many members. They're all unique.

You don't conform to each other, but there's one church, one body. My message this morning, fiery arrows in the house of God. After dealing with this concern on the body of Christ, Paul deals with two issues, and I believe they're fiery arrows.

They can be. I believe all of us are prone to these two things. Maybe you as an individual have been prone to both within the same week.

Maybe within minutes, one minute you're prone to one thing, and then the next within minutes because of your carnal nature or life's experiences or your past or the onslaught of hell. That doesn't make it a fiery dart. But listen to me, the two things that I'm going to deal with here, inferiority and superiority can become fiery darts in the house of God that can damage you so badly that you're going to sit in the sidelines for the rest of your life.

I believe the devil so hates the church. Look at Judges chapter 5. The warden hole is the place of archers and the noise of arrows. Look at Genesis 49.

Jesus said, here I am 17 years old and arrows are being fired at me to destroy me. I want to tell you saints, there are things going on in a local church that are very dangerous and the devil wants to hit you hard. I've got three points here this morning.

The first two points are two fiery darts that are dealt with in the context of the body of Christ and the preaching of Paul the apostle. The first one is the fiery arrow of inferiority. I believe that one of the arrows of the devil can be named inferiority.

This is the nobodies in the church. It's not that I think they're nobodies. It's not that you think they're nobodies.

It's not that God thinks they're nobodies. They actually think they're nobodies. This person gets hit by an arrow of inferiority.

Now all of us are prone to this. This is in all of our carnal nature and flesh. Most of us will have to fight this unless you're only the next one, which is superiority.

I have to fight this. I have fought it. I will have to fight it.

Do you know the danger of inferiority? See it's one thing to be inferior but the problem is what comes in in the back of this. Jealousy, which is sin. Envy.

You become dissatisfied. You get filled with self-pity. Let me show you it in the text.

Look at verse 15. Paul writing, if the foot shall say, because I'm not the hand, I am not of the body. I want you to see this.

Here is a foot in the body of Christ. It looks across at the hand and goes, the hand is acting and feeding and working and doing many things. I'm just down here on the ground under everybody.

I am the least of all. I am on the ground. Everyone else uses me to get around.

But look at the hand. Such a place of honour. And so that member, that foot begins to think, I'm a nobody.

I'm a nothing. I'm actually the bottom of the barrel. I am the least.

You better be careful. You're dealing with something very real in your own nature but the devil uses it. You're comparing yourself with other members.

That's the first mistake. Soon as you start looking at others, what they do, how they function, what they look like, and you begin to compare yourself. Ding! You're already making a massive mistake.

You're disobeying the word of God. The Bible says we are foolish to compare ourselves with ourselves. You're making a mistake.

You're told in scripture not to do that. Because you know what? If you get locked in that, I'll tell you, things will start coming in. You'll start feeling sorry for yourself.

You'll start getting jealous. You'll start going, what's the point? All sorts of things begin to roll in on this. Some people are so trying to kill themselves to be something, they're not even edifying the body of Christ.

In theory already is very dangerous. And look what Paul writes here under the Holy Spirit. If the foot shall say, and he's speaking generally.

He's not speaking about a person. He's saying these are real things that happen. It's common to us.

It'll probably turn up in every single church is that there's people sitting there who say, if the foot shall say. That foot is actually saying, because I am not of the hand, I am not of the body. If I was that member, if I was the hand, I would feel part of the body.

But because I'm a foot, I don't feel part of the body. Do you see what you begin doing? You begin comparing yourself with another member. Then you actually, in your thinking, you say, I'm not part of the body.

I'm not like other people. I don't function in there like other people. And if you're not born again today, I hope you don't feel part of the body.

I hope you feel uncomfortable under the preaching. I hope you feel I need an experience with God to make me a member of the body. Amen.

And God's got you here to add you. I can't add you. I can't receive you in.

I can't do that. It's the power of the Holy Spirit adds you to a church. And if you're here, it's in the plan of God that you become a functioning member by the power of the Holy Spirit.

But look how dangerous this is that Paul actually begins to deal with. In their own thinking, they begin to exclude themselves from the entire body. I am the least.

I am nothing. I'm dissatisfied. I hate myself.

I'm not worthy. I'm not doing anything. All because they can't say, I'm a foot.

They can't see it. They don't believe it. They don't accept it.

They're always looking at the hand. Why are you doing that? Do you have the grace to do it? Then do it. If you don't have the grace to be a hand, why are you trying to be a hand? Have you ever tried to use your foot as a hand? Who here has ever tried, apart from Rory? Oh, I'm getting worried now.

We've got a few people in here. Were you successful? Was it fun? Was it good? Did it work well? You see, this hand is designed as a hand. This foot is designed as a foot.

My foot works very well as a foot. My hand works very well as a hand. But we better not get mixed up in the body of Christ.

Saints, I'm speaking to you here because I believe we're at the water. Well, arrows are being fired. And amidst the array of the warfare, you can begin to look in on yourself.

You can begin to despise yourself or not recognize what God has made you in the church. There was a man over a hundred years ago called Howard Carter, a young man, born again mightily by the grace of God. He had a speech impediment, but he worked hard, trained, got to use his speech more eloquently, began to pastor a local church, and God was using him to see souls saved.

But really, evangelism wasn't his gifting. He looked at the gifted ministry of evangelists, and this followed him for about 40 years. This plagued him.

He looked at George Jeffries, who he knew personally, and Stephen Jeffries, who he knew personally. He saw the big campaigns, 10,000 converts in a stadium. He watched their ministries.

It was a great battle within his heart because he always longed to be an evangelist. He always desired to have that powerful, dynamic preaching of the gospel with signs following. But he wasn't that.

He had a speech impediment that he had to work hard at. He wasn't of that temperament. He hadn't been made in that way.

I'll tell you who Howard Carter was. He established the first Pentecostal church in Birmingham. It was a small fellowship, but he began to teach the Word of God.

He began to write. He began to travel. Do you know at the end of the First World War, he was in a prison cell for conscientious objection, and God opened up as he's out there working the hands of himself, breaking big rocks with big hammers, and his body would be aching.

He got back to his cell every night, and God opened up 1 Corinthians chapter 12, chapter 14 on the nine distinct gifts of the Holy Spirit right at the beginning of this chapter. He had a revelation of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. All the time he's in that prison, God's speaking to him, and God's teaching him concerning the operation of the gifts.

He's saturated himself in the Word of God. When he got out, he'd become one of the primary leaders in the nation. He traveled the world.

He operated in the gifts of the Spirit. He actually taught the first teachings on the nine distinct gifts of the Holy Spirit. Harold Horton, who wrote a classic book, got all his notes from this man.

Saints of God, what would the body of Christ have lost if Howard Carter had been determined to either be an evangelist or be nothing in the body of Christ? I'm glad he got satisfied with being a foot. It says in verse 16, and if the ears shall say, because I'm not the eye, I am not of the body. And then look at the question he asked.

Is it therefore not of the body? Just because you don't feel part of this body, does that mean you're not part of this body? So I've noticed something. Twelve years this church has been here. Twelve years ago this week, past week.

Twelve years. And I've noticed something. So I've talked to people, and I've shared with people.

A real person born again, saved by the grace of God, can feel a sense of isolation, not belonging, of being alone, can come from your past, can come from your drugs past, or your temperament, your personality, or life's experience. And you can come in and go, I don't feel part of the body. I've got a question for you.

On the basis of God's Word, does that mean you're not part of the body? Absolutely not. You need to go back to the Word of God. You need to be careful of the thoughts rolling in your mind.

If the whole body were an eye, sorry, if the ears shall say, because I'm not the eye, I'm not the body. You saying, I am not. I'm an ear.

I want to be an eye. Why do you want to be an eye? Why are you trying to tell God what to make you in the body of Christ? I want to see. I want to impart vision to the body of Christ.

You're an ear. Why not do that? We need to hear from God. Oh no, I want to be an eye.

Imagine all of us just a big eye in this church. One big enormous eye hopping about the place. That's a monstrosity.

That's an abuse. It would be all seeing. All seeing.

It's see, see, see. Everyone would want to say, guess what I'm seeing? Yeah, I know I'm an eye and you're an eye and we're all eyes. We're all seeing the same things.

What about an ear? Who's going to hear God? Do you know specifically God gives someone something that others don't have in the church specifically. God makes some an ear who want to be an eye or an eye that wants to be an ear. Why not find out what God has made you? You don't need to force yourself.

You don't need to learn this academically. I just function. You know, a year ago I told Anna when we began to talk and I said, when you come into this church, you just need to be yourself.

You don't need to be a pastor's wife. Where's that in the Bible? There's no verse in the Bible. And I said, anyway, I'm not your typical pastor.

I don't fit anything. And I'd hate for you to fit something if I don't fit anything. What are we conforming to? I don't need to be anything.

Years ago, I didn't fit the picture of ministry. So God had to put me in the backside of Scotland away from everyone like Moses in order to prepare me and get me preaching and get me into ministry. Because I didn't, in the entire nation, I didn't fit ministry.

I mean, I can't preach like them. I can't pray like them. I can't function like them.

My personality isn't them. I can't do that. That would have destroyed me.

So he took me out of the way, dropped me in a secluded spot and says, get on with it. Saints of God, you need to be very careful. See, if everyone was an eye, it would be an unreal vision.

It would be a narrow vision. One member, no diversity, no uniqueness. This body would lose so many faculties.

The ability to walk, the ability to work, the ability to hear. All those faculties would be lost because we all want to be one big, enormous eye. That's a monstrosity.

That is actually dangerous. And yet it's in the thinking of the church of our day. Is there therefore not of the body? You need to be careful of feelings, thoughts, perceptions.

It doesn't change reality. You're part of the body. Oh, but I don't feel it.

I don't know what my place in the body of Christ is. I probably do. Ask someone around you.

Oh, I don't feel like I'm doing anything here. Just be missing for a few weeks. You'd be surprised.

People who think they're not contributing. Okay, don't be here for a couple of weeks. And then ask people what was lacking.

So you believed a lie to think you can't be here. You're not doing anything here. It's not worth being here.

You believed a lie. Someone's playing games with your mind. And this is apostolic doctrine here given.

If all desire to have the ability to impart sight to the body, we would lose our hearing ability. You'd be shocked in scripture how many men had to fight against inferiority. What about Moses? Remember the first 40 years, he was a giant of a man.

God says, I need to prepare you. I need to work on you. I need to make you a man that I can use.

What did he do? Put him in a wilderness 40 years. He lost the ability to speak. Hold on.

Are you telling me that God preparing a man to do the greatest ministry of that generation? God had to make sure he lost his ability to speak. Yes. I'm not eloquent.

I can't speak. Okay, take Aaron. That guy is going to backslide, get you in trouble, make the people of God rebel.

I'll send him to be your voice. He's eloquent. He's powerful.

All because you think you can't speak. Do you realize that here you have Moses arguing with God? I cannot speak. Or what about Gideon the angel or the mighty man of valor? Who? What? Where? You can't mean me.

The man of valor. Do you know what he said? He said, I'm not, you don't understand. He said, go and this your strength.

I'm not strong. I can't do this. My daddy has idols in there.

I'm just trying to hide bread to feed myself. The enemy's all over the land. You're going to deliver the whole land.

Saints don't argue with God. You need to be very careful. Do you realize that could have destroyed Gideon? Inferiority was a real thing.

And then later he had to do the fleece. Remember that? That's because the Lord, don't be gratified. Let's have water on the fleece.

Then he turned it over, done it back to front. He's a man with fears, doubts, insufficiency, inferiority, but he's still done the will of God. In the end, God got him there and was patient.

What about Jeremiah? I'm a child. No, you're going to go prophesy to the nation. I'm a child.

I don't even know how to speak. God spoke to Ezekiel and Jeremiah said, you don't speak to the people. I'll confound you.

Don't look at their faces. I called you to preach, but what if they don't listen? That's got nothing to do with it. You're going to do my well.

Saints in this church, are you doing the will of God? Timothy in the new Testament, it was fear. The woman that was ill with a bleeding wound for 12 years. She's unclean.

She's not meant to mix with people. She's got to be outside the city. Where do we see her on that day? She knew Jesus is there.

She pressed through the crowd. You're an unclean woman. You're meant to be outside.

You're meant to be secluded. You're not keeping me back. Don't you know, you should be dominated by inferiority according to scripture.

You ought to be out there. You're unclean. We don't want you.

Uh-uh. You know what? I'm going to touch Jesus. Some of you need to get over yourselves and say, God help me.

I don't care if my brain's coming down. I'm going to pray. I'm going to evangelize.

I'm going to be in the house of God. I'm going to clap my hands. I'm going to stand and testify.

I'm going to be in the house of God. The devil will try to exclude you, saints of God. You need to begin to fight.

Or what about the woman at the well that we mentioned earlier? There she is, five husbands. She wrecked her marriages through immorality. She comes out at the hottest point of the day, under the sun, because she can't come out when all the other women are there.

She's got no reputation. Nobody wants to be around her. She's a woman of ill repute in a community that is an entire community of ill repute.

The Jew thought nothing of the Samaritans. She meets Jesus at the well. She has an experience of him.

All of the inferiority, all of the condemnation of her sin, all of the guilt of her past falls off at the well. Where? At the well. And she goes to the city telling all the men, hey guys, come see a man.

He changed me. They're shocked. Some of you are bound by inferiority.

Who do you think you are? I'm a redeemed Christian. I'm saved by the grace of God. I'm not going to sit here to die.

I'm not giving up the battle. Do you realize one of the great arrows of the devil is inferiority? It's within your flesh. We all have to deal with it.

We all have these thoughts going through our mind, but be careful, won't you? This can become a fiery dart against this church. We can have important people taken out of this church from vital ministry in this church because of this arrow. You're wounded.

You're wounded. Saints, I'm the most unconfident, unbold, un-outspoken person you'll ever meet. But I had to get over that because he called me and I said, I will do the will of God.

For six years, told someone the other day, for six years every time I preached, I went out, walked around the park and cried every time for six years when I preached. See, preachers don't tell you that side. It kind of destroyed me.

I'd come out and say, Lord, I'm never preaching again. Used to tell him that. Out walking at night, Lord, I'm never going to preach.

And this went on. And then one solemn night, he said, I am sick, fed up of that. If you ever say that to me again, I'll take it from you.

Scared me. I never said that again. I thought it.

I felt it. Still do. Felt it this past week.

But I'm putting it on my lips because that's sin. That's sin. And you know what? The devil would have done a job on me and on the church of God.

Inferiority could have kept me out of the will of God. It could have been such a fiery arrow. It destroyed me.

Oh yes, I still would have been saved. The second arrow is the fiery arrow of superiority. So inferiority is the nobody's.

Superiority is the somebody's. This is almost the opposite, but it falls into the same thing. This is the second fiery arrow fired by a devil.

Again, this is within our nature. We all have to deal with this at some point. What is superiority? Thinking you are somebody.

It's pride. It's elitism. It's when you think that you can do the task of others.

That's superiority. I can do that better than them. Why hasn't he called you to it then? Or they do not see the vital need of others.

Huh, look at them. You better be careful. It creates arrogance, pride, independence, unrighteous judgment, false accusation.

They do not listen or learn from others. Superiority closes your ears, closes your eyes, and what's worst of all, it removes you from the body. Those who are superior most often are still in the body.

See, inferior people want to leave. They want to leave ministry. They want to leave the church.

They feel like they're being driven out. Superior people don't. They are there, but they're utterly separate in the house of God.

They are there because they're more important than others. Maybe the church will wake up and realize how wise I am, intelligent I am, and better than them I am. It's a very dangerous thing.

They think they're the most needed person in the church. They could do with a good dose of a few things I won't say. You cannot lead them.

You cannot advise them. You cannot counsel them. They persistently think they are wiser than anyone, even the Word of God.

If you bring them the Word of God, no, no, no, they know better. Look at it. It's actually here in verse 21, and the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee.

Notice this, the eye cannot say unto the hand. Notice what the eye is saying. The eye is speaking a hand and saying, I, oh, now we've got a problem.

I, that's the middle letter of sin, S-I-N, I. What's at the heart of sin? I. I is a big problem. If you don't confront I, you've got a big problem. I did it my way.

I know you did. Look what you've done with your life. I is the source of all things.

Look at this person. This person has no sense of the body, no sense of others or of their own need. They think they are the source of everything.

They have everything within themselves. Look what he says. I have no need of thee.

The eye is saying to the hand, I have no need of thee. Oh, I know they won't say it out. They'll say it in their mind.

I don't need you. I don't get anything from you. I don't rely on you.

I don't listen to you. I've got it all myself. I know.

That's an utter, radical, rebellious contradiction of this entire chapter of the body of Christ. You're going to see in the next few verses, it's a denial. Any person that thinks I'm fine, I can function without the church.

Church doesn't save me. I don't need it to get to heaven. It doesn't save me or redeem me.

But I'm telling you, God has put us in the body of Christ. And you need a watch of attitude to say, I'm fine. I've got everything in myself.

I can sustain myself on YouTube, online messages, sermon index, sermon audio, or whatever else. Yeah, you'll end up confused. Because I'll tell you what, an attitude that removes you from a normal functioning body actually twists your entire view.

You can have all those thousand sermons. We've never had so many resources, books, online videos, teaching seminars, all free at our fingertips. And I'm telling you, the church is not more holy, not more on fire.

It's not winning our nation for Christ. We've got all of these. It's got to do with a hard attitude.

And so here, this I is superior. I do not need the hand. I'm sufficient in myself.

The word need there means requirement, necessity. I have no need, no requirement. This means lack on their part.

They rely upon no one. They show no weakness. Some do not draw from others.

They wouldn't want to be seen drawing from others. They're insulated. They are separated, yet in the body.

They're in the church, in the meetings. They're in the fellowship, but they're insulated. They are self-confined.

They will not entrust themselves to anybody or anything. It says again in verse 21, nor again the head to the feet. I have no need of you.

You can't say that. Now the head, you think that's an important position. The head is now speaking to the feet.

The top part is speaking in the lowest part. The head is saying to the feet, I actually don't need you. You ever heard answer foolish? This is a way of thinking.

It's an attitude. It's not always spoken with the mouth. You wouldn't go up to someone and say, I don't need you in this church.

So it's a way of thinking. It's very subtle. I'm fine.

I'm okay. I'm insular. I don't need anything.

I'm an island. You're not the whole body. Why do you think God's made members of the body? Why do you think that is? If you're not joint, reliant, either feeding, edifying or receiving edification from others, why not? Because that is the nature of the body.

Saints, guess who ministers to me? Guess who ministers to me? Do you think I go on the phone or fly into leaders conventions? I don't want to go to a leader's convention. You minister to me. I sat at these tables, said I'm tempted.

Remember that? I've said that. I stood in this pulpit and said, I'm hurting and I'm suffering. Saints of God, I know what I'm doing.

I know how to walk with God. I've left my mark in this world. But I tell you what, I need the body of Christ.

I need you. Just on Thursday, didn't I write in our WhatsApp message? I don't always do that, but I just wrote, I wrote my sorry little story. I said, just pray for me.

I need you. I don't always feel like that, but I really need your prayers. If I ask for a prayer, I need your prayers.

I need the body of Christ. I'm not an island. I can't do it all myself.

The word need, necessity. Look at this, the head saying, no necessity, no job for you to do in my life. Nothing you can add to me.

I have everything I need. You're in poverty. You're really in poverty.

Isn't interesting. It says the head, the head, nor again, the head to the feet. I have no need of you.

Here's one. Who's the head of the body? Jesus. So the head isn't going to say to the foot.

I have no need of you. Christian, listen to me. Christ will never say to you, I don't need you.

Remember he said to the disciples, go get that donkey. And when they ask, who's it for? Say, the master has need of him. A donkey.

I'm only a donkey. Great. The master needs you.

Bring him. You know why? The Messiah, the prophecy hundreds of years old in Zachariah is going to get fulfilled. That poor donkey.

You're going to be called to carry the master. It didn't even know what it was doing. It doesn't know it's fulfilling Bible prophecy.

The most famous donkey in world history written about in the Bible, marked out. And yet it doesn't even know it. Oh, I'm just trundling along.

No one notices me. Or maybe come into Jerusalem. Wow.

All these people must've heard of me. That's superiority. None.

All these people have got the palm leafs out and throwing them down in their robes and saying, King, King of Israel. Wow. I'm important.

You're only a donkey. Do you see how we can plunge into inferiority or get lifted up into superiority? I told you once of a church I was in and a brother, a good brother stood up to do the Lord's table. And as he did, and in my heart, it came like a thump.

I went, huh. Could do better than that. Saints have only done that once in my life.

And I was disgusted with myself that the thought could be in my mind around the Lord's table. I broke and I said, Lord, don't let this be in my heart. I do not want to break bread until this is out of my heart.

How could I at the Lord's table, look down on my brother, despise my brother who's leading us around the Lord's table. I was utterly disgusted with myself. I don't want this in my heart.

Saints get it out of your heart. The thought that comes to your mind, cast it down. I don't want it there.

Either inferiority or superiority. It's trash. It's utter trash.

And it will affect you in this church. See the devil's after this church. He doesn't like the watering hole.

I can hear the arrows all the time. Oh, for a day when revival comes and we get set free and the watering hole isn't a place of attack. We're going on the attack.

We're going to tell of God's mighty deeds of his work and all of the earth. You know, there was a man who thought he was the head in the third letter of John chapter one, verse nine, John writing to the church. And he says, I wrote onto the church, but diastrophes.

He's the leader who loveth to have preeminence among them. This was a leader in the local church or so he thought he was. And John, the old apostle up in his nineties, writing a letter to the church.

And he said, diastrophes, who loveth to have the preeminence. The word preeminence there, it's phileo, proteo, phileo, phileo, phileo. It's the word for love, brotherly love.

So he loved to have the preeminence. He loved the front position, the first position, the authority position. He makes decisions.

He says, who's in fellowship. He puts out a fellowship. See, this man was on a power trip.

This was elitism. This was superiority in the body of Christ. Listen to what he'd done.

He loves to have the preeminence among them. He receiveth us, not the apostles. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, prodding against us with malicious words and not content therewith, neither does he himself receive the brethren, but he forbiddeth them that would, and he casteth them out of the church.

Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil has not seen God. It was a man who had a problem with superiority at a time.

His name was Moses. He was a chosen man, a man, regenerate, who God was going to use. It was going to take him 40 years to get there.

You know why he thought he was something? He was taught in the best education in Egypt. He was eloquent, powerful indeed. He had position, notoriety.

God says, I'm going to have to start a work in you until none of that's left. And when you get to a place where you think, I can't be used, I can't speak, go and say, praise God. People have often said, this man that lived for 120 years, he spent 40 years thinking he was something.

He spent the next 40 years finding out he was nothing. And he spent the last 40 years of his life finding out what God would do through a nobody. Third and finally, let me finish.

Interdependence. Here's the answer. Take the shield of faith this morning.

How do you get rid of inferiority or superiority? These are dangerous. It comes into your mind and heart and it affects the local church. Saints, there's no toleration for this.

You've got lots of time to grow. We've all sinned in these areas. We've all neglected in some area, but it's not acceptable.

It never will be. It's harmful. It's dangerous.

Either to think you are a somebody or you think you're a nobody. Get over it. It's sin to think you're a nobody.

Not worthy. Oh, you think I am? Interdependence. That's everybody.

Not nobody, not somebody. It's everybody. What's interdependent? It's everybody.

A vision of the entire body of Christ. It's a place of humility, reality, and honesty. Look at verse 22.

Nay, much more those members of the body which seem to be. Okay, seem. Notice that word seem.

Seem to be more feeble. Now notice what he's going to do. He's going to begin showing you that actually we're all merged together.

We're one body united together. No matter what you are, what member of the body, we are one body. And he begins by saying those members of the body which seem to be feeble.

Underline the word seem. They're not less. They're not feeble.

They seem to be. You could look at them and think they are. They are necessary.

What does it mean to be feeble without strength? Very weak. There's some members in this body. They seem to be weak.

See, if you're here, don't put up your hand. But if that's true, in your mind, would you stick your hand up please? If you're the more feeble one, if you're feeble, if you think you're feeble, or if you're sitting here thinking someone else is feeble, just think about them. So if you think you're very capable, but you think Jimmy or Sally, they're feeble.

I don't always ask you to do this, but I'm asking you to do it now, because scripture is just going to rebuke you. See, you need to be careful. They are more feeble.

They seem to be more feeble. Bible says they're more necessary. This is scripture.

So if you think you're more feeble than anyone else in this church, if you think, or if you think somebody else is more feeble, they're weak, don't have our strength. Actually, the Bible contradicts that. It says they're more necessary, more needful, to be near.

They're more indispensable. We can't do without them. Might be hard for you to work that out, but this is scripture.

Paul knows what he's saying. There's a greater sense of being needed. Your weaknesses causes you to press in.

Some of you, because you're so weak, you're still here. Welcome to God. Some of you, because you realize your own weakness, haven't been destroyed by pride.

Some of you here, because you feel your inability, you press into the word of God. You ask questions. You're here seeking God in prayer, because you think you're more feeble.

Actually, you're more necessary. Your weakness is a vital part of the body of Christ. What you may think excludes you, actually makes you essential in this body.

We need parts of the body that feel weak, or that look weak, or that seem weak. You might think you're a lesser member, or less spiritual, or less mature. Actually, no, you could be weak and very mature.

You could be having a raging battle in your mind over feeling your insufficiency, but you could be very necessary according to the body of Christ. Look at verse 23, and those members of the body which we think, see, they seem, we think to be less honorable. Just because you think it doesn't mean they're less honorable.

That means without honor, despised. What happens to those who seem less honorable? We think, you think they're less honorable. The Bible says, upon these we bestow more abundant honor.

Who do you give more honor to? The preacher? Or the visiting speaker from America, or England, or up north? No. Look, it actually says here that if you're beginning to think, oh, they're less honorable. There's something despicable.

There's something lacking in them. We bestow, and the word bestow means to hedge around them, to place around them more abundant honor. Listen, what does more abundant honor mean? It means value and price.

You're actually meant to go to town to go, there's a value on you. There's a great price on you being in the body of Christ. Saints, all of this is within Scripture, and our uncommonly parts.

So notice three things he mentions. The feeble ones, less honorable. Then thirdly, uncommonly parts.

That means the shapeless. The word means shapeless. They don't hold themselves well.

Any of you think you don't hold yourself well? I can't speak well. I can't conversation well. Maybe you're an uncommonly part.

It says they have more abundant comeliness, charm, beauty. Maybe your lack of eloquence makes you more charming. I get up and stumble.

I've been in meetings. I've heard great preachers, some of the greatest preachers of the past generation, and then I've seen someone at a meeting get up and have cried, choked up, stumbled over the words, got the verse quote wrong, and they impacted people in the meeting. I've seen great worship conferences.

People with world fame does nothing for me. And I walked into some secluded little meeting, the small gathering, and this lady stood up with a guitar and very simply began to play, and it was like the anointing of God came down. I've seen a lot of things down over the years, saints of God.

To be weak or without honor or shape is not lack of maturity. The weak and strong can either be immature or mature. Doesn't mean immaturity.

Just you're weak, more vulnerable, less eloquent, but you know what? You're more vital than me standing in this pulpit. Verse 24, but God has tempered the body together. The word tempered means co-mingled, to combine, to unite, like cement.

You mix up the sand and the cement and the stones. It's all intermixed. It gives strength.

Any one by itself isn't sufficient. Add the water in there and you're getting it all interlinked. Now you can't see what's weak and strong.

You can't even tell the sand from the stones anymore. This is working together and it says, having given more abundant honor value to that part which lacked, which was inferior. Look at this tempering of the body.

What does it do? It actually puts honor on the parts that are less honorable. Verse 25, that there should be no schism in the body. That means a split, a gap, a rant, but that the members should have the same care one for another.

Let's stand. Let's pray. Saints of God, we're going to close out just worshiping the Lord.

I'm telling you of two fiery arrows. Inferiority. Repent of it saints.

Don't let it in your heart. Don't let it rule you. It could damage you.

It could stop you doing the will of God. Are you going to have superiority? Will you begin to think you are someone that you're self-sufficient? You don't need anyone else. You may not be at diastrophes.

Can you imagine him staying in the church? I'm everything. Everything is in me. I need no one else.

I don't need John, don't need scripture, don't need brothers. That's a dangerous attitude. But you know what? If you cut yourself off in your mind, that is wrong.

You're never right in your mind to think I can exclude myself. I can draw back. I'm not a part of the body of Christ.

That's your thinking. And you know what? It's not right. It's not true.

You are a member of the body. If you're born again, if God's put you here, if you fellowship with us, you're in this body. Don't draw back.

Run into the battle saints of God. Stand up and play your part. Because you don't function, something gets missed in this house of God.

Over the coming weeks and months, saints of God, we need you more than ever. Press in, co-mingle together, so that when that world out there looks at us, it can't even see who's weak and who's strong. We stand as one body, functioning.

Oh, I can't hear, but I'm going to rely on you hearing. Oh, I'm not a hand, but I'm going to rely on your hand. I'm not a foot, but I'm going to rely on you.

Saints, I have a great sense of my own calling and of my own place. And I see many things that need done, but I will not do them. I cannot do them.

I do not have the grace, but you can do it. Someone is going to rise up and do the will of God in here. I'll never do that.

I see gaps all over the place. I will not do that because I'm not called to it. But somebody is.

Who are you? Where are you hiding? Why are you not doing it? And believe me, you just don't start doing things. Don't think you're called a preacher and stand here. You're not faithful in the house of God.

What, you think I'm going to listen to you? If you don't even do what the word of God says, why would I? Why would I? You're not called to preach to tell us what to do. You don't even do it yourself. Start thinking like that.

You're not raising your kids right. Don't preach to me about kids. Don't, don't, don't do that.

You go start your own out and then come deal with me. But if you're dealing with your kids, I'm going to sit and listen to every word you say. If you're walking with God, I'm going to listen to you.

If you're laying hold of the word of God, you've got something to teach me. Father, we love you. We bless you.

Father, I pray as we lift the shield of faith as a united body to extinguish every damage and fiery arrow, every lie, every false thought, imagination and feeling, that overwhelming sense of condemnation or guilt or pride or arrogance, whether we look down on someone or look down on ourself. Father, I pray, oh God, Lord God, set us free right here, right this moment, even as we sing here as we close. Lord God, we're asking of you, Lord God, to wash us in the blood of the lamb, Lord God, to extinguish the fiery darts of the evil one.

My God, if this has become a dominant pattern and habit in people's life, Father, I pray for the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the power of your word to set them free. Thank you for the shield of faith that extinguishes the fire in Jesus' name. Amen.