1 Chronicles 11:1. 1 Corinthians 12:17-20, 27. Ezekiel 37:1-7. Ephesians 5:30. John 19:36.

Bones provide 5 different jobs for the body.

Bones provide a framework for the attachment of muscles and other tissues. They help us with our movement. They act as levers and points of attachment. They give you mineral storage, to give you strength and energy. They even give you blood cell production. 

The Legs and Feet

Oasis Ministries could not do what we do without you, our leg bones. The leg bones carry you to work, to church, the table. Some people are the legs and feet that help find direction. Those people are those willing to fast and clean. People who won’t step over a piece of paper in a parking lot, but pick it up. People who see a need at church and take care of it. They are the leg bones. The feet bones. You don’t often see the feet, but the whole body’s ministry shows up because the feet brought them there.

The Hips

The hip bones shift weight and turn to the left and right. Thank God for the hip bones that see a vision and turn toward it. Some churches have no hip bones. They never have new visions, they just want to walk straight. They don’t know how to turn and pick someone up who fell, to turn to win a soul. But the hip bones say, “We need to feed the hungry, give strength to the weary.” Don’t fail your calling and have to be replaced!

The Backbone

Every pastor needs a Peter in the crowd that will fight for them. I thank God for the backbones in my life who care for me, asking nothing in return! Lift your hands and thank God for the people in your life that care about you and fight for you. Thank God for the people who have reached into my life. But I want God to stir me and allow me to reach into someone else’s life as well.

From Many Bones to Few

When a child is born, they have more bones than an adult. When they reach about 25-27, some bones have fused together and the adult is now left with 206 bones. There are some people you start with that you will never finish with. The day God put them in your life, He knew that they were only there for a little while. You can spend the rest of your life crying about the bones that are gone, or you can get up and say “I am in the will of God. I won’t look back and cry about yesterday no more.” Don’t get mad at God for people He removes out of your life. Get up and move forward.

The Skull

The skull is to protect your brain, your mind. Most of the biggest battles happen in the mind. I understand we have to bear our burdens, but 90% of what people talk to others about is what they themselves are facing. We need to stop worrying about what we are facing and start praying about what others are facing. If we will fight for others, God of Heaven will fight for us.

The ribcage is a big part of my message.

The number one duty of your ribcage is to protect your heart. They keep your organs safe from hard impacts and punctures and other injuries. God is calling some rib bones to repentance. Some people have forgotten that they are their brother’s keeper. It never was the will of God for you to be an island, for everything to just be about you and the Lord, or you and your battle. If I am someone’s ribcage and they got hurt it’s because I let down my guard. My prayers could have helped them. If I had been fasted up and prayed up, the Holy Ghost would have woke me up at 2 in the morning to pray for them!

If there are no rib bones and someone gets hit in the chest even lightly, it can stop their heart. But there is something between the heart and the fist. That something is the ribcage that says, “I’ll take a hit for this person. If that fist is going to get to this heart, it has to break me.” I wish the church could get such compassion for one another that we would stand between someone else and their battle, “If you are going to get to them, you have to break me first.”

We Are Our Brother’s Keeper

It’s not enough to go to church together, shout and pray together. Then go home and cry by yourself. That’s nothing more than a club. We are not a club or an organization, we are the body of the living Christ! We got adopted into a living body. We are part of something that’s eternal! And when we walked into this, we also walked into an obligation to do our part. 

Have you ever walked into someone’s life to help them and you got hurt? A rib will not go through a car accident with the airbag coming out and not be sore. Instead of whining about being sore, we need to stop and thank God that we stopped a death.

1 Samuel 12:22-23. Ephesians 4:32. Give a little of your time that’s valuable to you to someone else. It’s easy to give money but give your time. Check on someone, take them out to eat, help them, do something for them. Lay your life down for someone.

We are our brother’s keeper. Be that rib bone that protects and guards.

–Pastor Anthony Wynn