William Speer: Consider One Another

Consider One Another is a podcast focused on each other. 

Episode Transcript

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Consider One Another is apodcast focused on each other.

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Thank you for tuning in to thispodcast that is all about
stirring up love and good worksin one another.
Hello, everyone.
Welcome to this first episode ofsomething that has been in the
works for some time now.
Thank you for supporting thiseffort that I hope you will see

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by the end of this episode is soimportant.
The motivation for this podcastcomes from a myriad of
scriptures that emphasize theneed for us to consider one
another.
Romans 12, 1st Acts 2, and manyother places in the New
Testament emphasize that a majorpart of a Christian's walk is

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encouraging love.
Specifically, our theme versefor this podcast is Hebrews 10,
24, and 25.
The Bible says, Let us considerone another in order to stir up
love and good works, notforsaking the assembling of
ourselves together, as is themanner of some, but exhorting

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one another, and so much themore as you see the day
approaching.
this verse is saying that God'speople should be assets to one
another.
That is how we can stir up loveand good works in each other.
by knowing each other.
Perhaps the coolest blessing ofmy role as an evangelist has

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been getting to know so many ofyou in ways that I did not know
before.
Having spiritual conversationswith you, studying the Bible
together, hearing your storiesand just sharing meals with so
many of you has certainlystirred up love and good works
in me.
I have learned so much moreabout all of you and been

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encouraged by so many of youbecause of all the spiritual
time I am blessed with to spendwith you.
This great blessing is one thatI do not want to keep to myself,
but instead hopefully share witheveryone else through this
podcast.
Think of it this way, in thesame way that I try to share in
a sermon what I have beenencouraged by in my study of the

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Word that week.
want to use this podcast toshare with everyone the
encouragement I receive by thepeople I so often get to have
spiritual conversations with.
The scripture makes it clearthat God's people are made to
help each other by knowing oneanother.
That is what this podcast willbe all about.
For this solo episode, you seejust my name in the title.

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That is me, William Spear, thehost of this podcast.
But going forward I will not bethe only person on the mic each
episode will feature a member ofour congregation Perhaps a guest
will get in there at some point.
We'll see but the point is tohave spiritual conversation
Learning from whoever is on thepodcast that week through their

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journey, through their story,through their spiritual
insights, as we consider them.
That's the goal of this podcastoverall, but I want to name
three specific things we'reseeking to accomplish with this
effort.
Number one, This podcast willserve as a new way for us to get
to know each other better.
Now, I think our church isalready very good about this,

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but as a church grows, it canget harder and harder to make
our way through the aisles tonew people and have deep
conversations.
It breaks my heart when I amtalking to one of our college
students, and I mention anothermember, and they say, I don't
think I've had the chance tomeet that person yet.
What I want this podcast toserve as is a launching point

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for more conversations withpeople who maybe don't typically
talk to one another that much.
There are plenty of people thatwe just pass by and say hello,
but don't get to really knoweach other.
Maybe this podcast could serveas a way to say to someone, Hey,
I heard your story in thepodcast and I was really
interested about this detail.
I was really encouraged by thisthing that you said.

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Let me make it clear that thispodcast is not about getting a
huge audience across the countryor getting famous on Spotify.
This podcast is about our peoplegetting to know each other
better, and I hope it can serveas a launching point for us to
get to know each other and havemore in person spiritual
conversations.

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Number two, this podcast willserve as another form of
devotional, specifically forpodcast people who are less
inclined to read bulletinarticles.
A recent survey showed that 0percent of our high school
students read the bulletin.
That is a survey that Iconducted.
I asked all of them and theytold me no, I don't read the

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bulletin.
Thank you for your honesty.
If you are like those highschool students and you don't
read the bulletin Then youshould change that and start
reading the bulletin Butadditionally this podcast is for
you If you are more inclined tolisten to content than you are
to read it I get that and thiscould serve as a form of
devotional for you.
Third thing we're looking toaccomplish is that this could be

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something that can be easilysent to a friend or neighbor.
Again, this podcast is not aboutgetting big on Spotify, but this
is something that can be sent toour own friends and contacts.
I know Elwood Clayton reallylikes to take the bulletin, the
printed out bulletin, and handit to a friend or neighbor that

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he thinks might find itinteresting.
He'll say, hey, you should checkout And we should talk about it.
Now, if this works for you, I'dencourage you to follow that
pattern.
But, if you're like me, andthat's maybe not something you
naturally do, handing a friendor a neighbor a piece of paper,
maybe sending a link to aSpotify podcast would seem more

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natural.
For our generation, we're veryused to saying, Hey, check out
this YouTube video, here it is,I just sent it to you.
Or, check out this podcast link,here it is, I just sent it to
you.
Whenever I am trying toencourage someone to visit our
assembly, I often think, I wouldlove it if this person could
come to our services and meetGod's people.

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That would be such a good wayfor them to see what we are all
about.
But people seem to be less andless likely to accept an
invitation to church.
So maybe we can offer ourfriends and neighbors a way of
getting to know us remotely bysending them an episode of this
podcast.
Maybe if someone were to hearreal life stories of people who
found Jesus in their lives,maybe that person will be more

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interested to find Jesus intheir own life.
We are the light of the world.
Maybe this could be a new way ofletting our digital light shine.
For this solo episode, I hope Ihave encouraged you to consider
one another.
But let's keep looking at whatthe Bible has to say about this.
We looked at our theme verse,Hebrews 10, 24 through 25, This

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verse is usually referenced fromthe pulpit as a way of
explaining how important it isfor us to be at the assemblies.
And this point, this verse, isnot about checking a box to say
that we were there.
Instead, the point that theHebrew writer is making is that
we are to show up to theassembly with other people in

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mind.
That is a major point of meetingtogether, and it is a major
point of this podcast, toconsider one another.
Another famous example ofeveryone contributing to the
work of the church is found in 1Corinthians 12.
As Paul describes the church interms of a body.
You remember the passage, he'stalking about gifts that we

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receive from the Spirit.
And he explains that there aredifferent gifts but the same
Spirit.
Different ministries but thesame Lord.
Different activities but thesame God who works all in all.
Then in verse 12, For as thebody is one and has many
members, But all the members ofthat one body, being many, are
one body, so also is Christ.

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And then in verse 14, Paul seemsto get A little silly in my
opinion, but it makes his pointclear.
He goes on to say, If the footshould say, Because I am not a
hand, I am not of the body.
Is it therefore not of the body?
Verse 17, If the whole body werean eye, where would be the
hearing?
His point is this, We are onebody of many members, and each

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member has a specific use.
A body made up of 120 handswould be terrifying and not
functional at all.
Where would the hearing be?
Everyone is needed and I hopethis podcast helps us see
spiritual gifts that the othermembers of this one body have.

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The Body of Christ has manymembers, and I look forward to
using this new platform to sharemore about our members with all
of you.
As this episode closes, I willshare with you my journey in
finding my use in the body.
And I will give you the takeawaybefore the story.
The takeaway is this.
It was other members of the bodythat helped me find and pursue

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my role in the body.
As a kid.
I wanted nothing more than to bea preacher, but as I got older,
I robbed myself by comparingmyself to others.
When I got to college at FC, Ilooked at other people I knew
pursuing preaching and sawmyself as completely lacking
compared to them.
Especially those close to me,like my brother.

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I thought of myself as sodifferent from him, so I
believed that if his role in thebody was as a preacher, then my
place must be somewhere else.
The thought of being compared tomy brother and being seen as not
as good of a preacher made merun from the idea entirely.
This is not to say that therewas not another place for me to
serve in the body of Christ, butthe place that I believed I had

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talents and motivation to servein, I talked myself out of
because I was scared of beingcompared to someone else.
To go back to 1st Corinthians12, I laughed at Paul's
description of the foot sayingto the hand, because I am not a
hand, I am not of the body.
And the way we usually hear thisapplied is when we're comparing

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different roles in the body.
Like, why should the song leadersay to the preacher, because I'm
not a preacher, I am not usefulin the body.
This is a good application ofPaul's point.
This really is his point, but ifI can add to Paul's metaphor,
why should the left hand say tothe right hand, because I am not
a right hand, I am not a hand.

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In my case, I said, because I amnot my brother, I must not be a
preacher, when in reality thereis most certainly a use and a
need for me in the body ofChrist as a preacher, just like
a body needs a left hand and aright hand.
Even if I am not my brother,there is still a need for me and
a way to be useful in the bodyof Christ.

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A major takeaway from Paul'sdiscussion of the body can be
that we should not rob ourselvesOf our use in the body by
comparing ourselves to others.
This could be true for you,whatever that role might be.
You could see yourself in thekingdom, having this gift of
hospitality.
But maybe you look at the waythe Mainos host hot dog nights

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in the summer and think, well, Iguess hospitality is their
thing.
That must not be my place in thebody.
Instead, trust yourself thatwhere you thought you could
serve really is your gift, anduse your gift in whatever way
that you can.
Don't let comparison rob you ofyour place in the body.

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Paul's point is that there is aplace for everyone in Christ's
kingdom.
We need different kinds ofpreachers and we need different
kinds of hospitable people.
Speaking of hot dog nights, itwas at a hot dog night in 2023
where everything changed for me.
When I had the chance to givethe devotional on that Friday
night, I had an idea that I wasso excited about and I really

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gave it my all.
The topic Everyone has a placein the kingdom.
If for some reason you don'tremember this Hot Dog Night Devo
from two years ago, I will giveyou a refresher.
I opened up by asking if youcould have dinner with anyone
from the Bible besides Jesus,who would you want to have
dinner with?

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This led to a fun, interactiveconversation of people
mentioning why they would wantto sit down with specific people
from scripture.
I went back and I found thatnote in my phone with all of my
thoughts from that talk.
Copied and pasted from my notes,here was my closing thought.
I would argue that we do notneed to sit down with Paul or

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anyone else we mentionedtonight.
So, the point is we do not needto have a magical wish granted
of getting to sit down fordinner with Paul, instead we

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just need to sit down with eachother and talk about our faith.
Everyone's participation andcomments that night were so
encouraging to me, making mefeel good about what I had
shared with everyone.
Regardless of how good of a talkit actually was, because of all
of you who were there toencourage me, I realized that
maybe my place in the kingdomcould be preaching after all.

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Shortly after, God opened doorsfor me to pursue preaching as a
living, and I have never lookedback.
I am thankful to people like mybrother and my parents, who
encouraged me to pursuepreaching even though I was
different.
Then my brother, who was alreadya preacher, people like my
father in law and mentor, JohnGazetta, where I'm hoping to get
on this podcast at some point wewill see, but without his

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encouragement and willingness totake me under his wing, I would
not be the man that I am today.
Most importantly, I want tothank my wife who subtly
encouraged me to pursue what Iwas too scared to.
Finally, I want to thank all ofyou.
The Brandon Church of Christ.
I remember being so nervous whenall of this started that people
would not want to endure thepreaching of a preacher in

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training for an extended periodof time.
But you have given me so muchencouragement, so much
opportunity, and taught me somuch about the many different
members of the body of Christ,and how we are all needed.
Thank you.
Thank you for listening to mysermons.
Thank you to both of you whoread my articles.
And thank you for everyone whowill listen to this podcast.

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Because of your willingness toinvest in me and help me grow,
the effects of yourencouragement will be felt
across the country as we getready to move to Washington in
the summer to preach at theBremerton Church of Christ.
The One Body is many members,and each member has a place, but
maybe like me you needed theencouragement and support of the

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other members to find yourplace.
I hope this podcast helps us dojust that and helps us stir up
love and good works in eachother.
A lot of good will happen whenwe consider one another.