And this morning I want to preach on the subject God's heart for the team.
The Bible talks a lot about various teams and people working together and what we read
in Ecclesiastes chapter 4 talked about how two are better than one because they have
a good reward for their labor for if they fall the one will lift up his fellow but woe
to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him up.
Even if two lie together then they have heat but how can one be warm alone and if one prevail
against him two shall withstand him and a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
So what the Bible is teaching us is that we're better off in a team than by ourselves.
Now if you think about it even God himself is a team even though there's only one God
the Bible says in 1 John 5 7 for there are three that bear record in heaven the Father
the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one and in a sense that's a team and the
Bible says right here in Genesis 1 26 and God said let us make man in our image after
our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the
air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth.
Notice he said let us make man in our image look over to Genesis chapter 2 verse 18 and
the Bible reads in verse 18 the Lord God said it is not good that the man should be alone
I will make him and help meet for him.
So again the emphasis on the team God didn't want man to be all by himself but that there
would be a husband and wife team there.
If you think about it the family is a team the church is a team even God is a team.
Now go to Psalm 133 Psalm 133 and while you're turning there let me read you some scriptures
about how you can accomplish more as a team than when you're just by yourself.
For example the Bible says in Leviticus 26 8 5 of you shall chase 100 and 100 of you
shall put 10,000 to flight and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
Deuteronomy 32 verse 30 says how should one chase a thousand and two put 10,000 to flight
except their rock had sold them and the Lord had shut them up.
So in that example God's saying we're 10 times as effective when there's two of us as when
there's just one of us.
In the previous example by going from 5 to 100 you're five times more effective per person.
So when we're part of a team we can accomplish more for God than when we're just trying to
do everything by ourselves and alone.
Look at Psalm 133 verse 1 the Bible reads behold how good and how pleasant it is for
brethren to dwell together in unity.
It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard even Aaron's
beard that went down to the skirts of his garments as the dew of Herman and as the dew
that descended upon the mountains of Zion for there the Lord commanded the blessing
even life forevermore.
What I take from that Psalm is that people dwelling together working together having
unity together is a beautiful thing in the sight of the Lord.
He looks at that and he sees that as a very beautiful thing.
So not only is it effective but it's also a very beautiful thing.
Now think about all the great team players in the Bible.
First of all look at Jesus himself.
What did he do?
He assembled a team.
He called 12 disciples that were a team.
He was the team captain as it were.
Not only that but if you would flip over to Luke chapter number 10.
After Jesus had the team of 12 disciples the Bible says that later he ordained 70 other
also.
So he expanded the team.
He added 70 more people to the team and it says in Luke chapter 10 verse 1 after these
things the Lord appointed other 70 also and sent them to and to before his face into every
city and place whether he himself would come.
He talks about how they're to preach and so forth and this is where we get our pattern
today from this verse about sending people out two by two to go preach the gospel to
every creature.
When we go soul winning we do it in groups of two.
We're doing it in teams, right, instead of just sending everybody out by themself there's
a team that goes out of two people working together.
Flip over to Acts chapter 2.
The early church was a great team.
Not only was Jesus a great team player, the 12 disciples were a great team player, but
The 12 disciples, the 70 apostles, they all worked as a team.
Look at Acts chapter 2 and we'll see that the early church was a great team.
The Bible says in verse number 1, when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were
all with one accord in one place.
So you see the unity there, the fact that they're all on the same page, they're all
doing the same thing, they have the same vision.
Look at verse 46, and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking
bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.
Look at chapter 5 verse 12, Acts chapter 5 verse 12.
The Bible reads, and by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among
the people and they were all with one accord in Solomon's port.
So we can see basically the team spirit of that early church, a working together, a unity,
not just every man for himself and people doing their own thing.
The apostle Paul of course was a great team player, I'm not going to turn to all the scriptures,
but think about how almost all of his epistles, he opens up talking about the people that
he's working with, because they all start with the word Paul, but often it will be Paul
and Sosthenes, our brother, or Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus.
We can think of the teams that Paul was in in the book of Acts, Paul and Barnabas, Paul
and Silas, Paul and Timothy, Paul and Titus, but not only that, when we look at his letters
sometimes he'll take virtually a whole chapter, like Romans 16 for example, where he's just
greeting all of his, this my fellow laborer, this my fellow worker, this person that I
work together with, and he's praising the team, he's encouraging them, he's saluting
them, he's recognizing their contribution, and he's not just a one man show, just traveling
around, one guy, one man show, no no no, he's always working with other people in a team
accomplishing more for God than if he would have just been by himself all the time.
Now let's think about some great team players of the Old Testament, go back if you would
to 1 Samuel chapter 30.
One person in the Old Testament that stands out as a great team player was King David,
and the Bible reads in 1 Samuel chapter 30, and just to give you the context of where
we're at with this, this is when David has just had a major setback in his life, because
he went out with the Philistines, but the Philistines didn't want him to fight with
them, and then when he gets back to Ziklag where he dwelled, they'd been raided by the
Amalekites, and they'd taken their families captive, and they'd taken all their stuff,
and so then David, he leads his troops to go recover their families, and to recover
all their possessions, recover all their stuff that had been stolen.
Well the Bible says in verse 21 of 1 Samuel 30, and David came to the 200 men which were
so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the Brook
Bessor, and they went forth to meet David and to meet the people that were with him,
and when David came near to the people he saluted them.
So David, when he goes to fight with the Amalekites and take the gear back that had been stolen
and to also recover the people that had been kidnapped, there were 200 men that just couldn't
physically do it.
It's not that they were lazy or that they didn't want to do it, they'd already been
marching and traveling, and these guys were so faint that they just couldn't continue,
so they had to stay behind and watch the camp while the rest of the men went and fought
the battle.
So they get back and these 200 men come out to meet them.
Look at verse 22, then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial.
So even in David's group there were some people like that.
The Bible tells us that even in our churches today there are going to be false prophets
and Judas Iscariots that creep in, sheep amongst the sheep, tears amongst the wheat.
And so David had some guys in his group that the Bible says were sons of Belial, sons of
the devil, that's what Belial means, sons of wickedness, and the Bible says that here's
what those wicked ungodly sons of the devil said, because they went not with us, we will
not give them aught of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife
and his children that they may lead them away and depart.
Here's what they're saying, the people who couldn't go, just give them their family back,
but all of the possessions, all of the money, we're going to keep it and we're going to
just send these guys away.
We don't need these guys in our group anymore, we want to just kick them out.
But this is greed talking, because they just wanted to get their hands on their money and
their stuff.
They didn't want more spoil for themselves, they didn't want to share it with these 200
people.
And look what David says in verse 23, then said, David, ye shall not do so, my brethren,
with that which the Lord hath given us, who hath preserved us and delivered the company
that came against us into our hand.
For who will hearken unto you in this matter?
But as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarryeth
by the stuff, they shall part alike.
And it was so from that day forward that he made it a statute and an ordinance for
Israel unto this day.
What's he saying?
Every part of the team is important.
You know, there are certain people that are better at certain things, and some people,
they have the strength to do all that marching and then go straight into the battle.
Other people were physically too feeble to do that, and so they fulfilled a function
of tarrying by the stuff.
I mean, think about it.
Why did they get the stuff stolen in the first place?
Because nobody was staying and watching the stuff.
So these 200 people staying behind that are too faint to go on this major campaign offensive,
they can at least defend the stuff.
So they're still fulfilling a vital function, a vital role.
See, David was a team player.
He was one where he says, you know what, we're all working together here.
We're all going to split the spoils.
We're not going to take it away from people just because today they had a bad day, couldn't
do it.
Because, you know, on another day it could have been other people that were too faint
to go do that battle.
And so he said, no, the people who stay by the stuff part alike with those that also
went to the battle.
And this is the kind of attitude that we should have in the local church, this kind of a camaraderie
and team spirit, not an every man for himself type of a mentality.
You know, when we go out soul winning, we go out two by two.
That's a team.
And we should never disdain the one who is a silent partner because they fulfill a valuable
function by being a silent partner.
Why?
Because without the silent partner, you'd have half as many people out soul winning.
You see, for example, you know, when we go out soul winning, let's say everybody's a
person who's comfortable talking.
Everybody's good at doing the talking part of it.
Well then we would have to pair up talker with talker, right?
And then basically we'd have half as many teams as if we took all those talkers and
paired them each up with a silent partner that comes along.
You can double your soul winning force.
You know, I remember Brother Jimenez and I, we were really young.
I was about 20 and he was about 16.
And we started doing some extra soul winning just during the week and we would get together
and do four hours of soul winning because, you know, there were other church times that
we would go to, but we would do our own soul winning time also, just extracurricular.
And we would go out soul winning and then we ended up winning some people to Lord and
then adding them as silent partners, right?
Well then we doubled our effectiveness there because instead of there being two of us at
our soul winning time, now there's four.
And you say, oh, but they're not doing anything.
They're just being silent.
But they are doing something.
They're part of the team.
Number one, they're providing fellowship because it's a lot more fun to go soul winning with
someone than to go by yourself.
Because it can even feel awkward to go to the door and knock on somebody's door by yourself
and preach the gospel.
But it gives you confidence when you have somebody with you.
It reminds me of the story of Gideon where Gideon was supposed to go down and do some
reconnaissance in the camp of the enemy.
And God said, if you're fearful, take Fura thy servant.
And he takes the servant, you know, showing that he was a little bit fearful.
He felt more confident and he felt better having somebody with him.
God said, look, you can go alone and you'll be safe.
But if it makes you feel better, bring your servant.
And that's what he did.
He brought his servant.
He brought somebody with him to give him confidence.
You know, it's a lot easier to go soul winning when you have somebody with you.
What does the Bible say?
Two are better than one.
And it says in Ecclesiastes 4 where we started, it said, if they fall, the one will lift up
his fellow.
You know, if something goes wrong, it's like when you go swimming or something and they
always tell you, hey, never go swimming alone, right?
The buddy system.
It's just safer to have somebody with you.
When you go out soul winning, you're getting encouragement from the silent partner.
You're getting fellowship, camaraderie, somebody to talk to.
It's also a good safety thing.
Something goes wrong, somebody passes out in the Arizona heat.
You know, the other person can go run and get the Gatorade or whatever to revive them.
So, you know, the Bible over and over again is teaching us this principle of the team
and working together.
So we should never have this attitude where we look down on certain parts of the team
because they're not as glamorous or not as up front and center.
They don't seem as important.
Everybody's important.
And that's why I try to emphasize, you know, even just little things like when we go out
soul winning and when we come back and regroup, you know, I don't like it to hear like, well,
this person got this many people saved and this person got this many.
I like to hear the team.
What did the team do?
You know, like, okay, these two people, how many did you two people get?
Well, I was doing the talking or, well, I talked for this many.
It doesn't matter.
You two went out as a team.
And let me tell you something.
When you go out as a silent partner on soul winning and people get saved, you have a part
in that.
You're a part of that.
It's not just, oh, I was just kind of a third wheel that was just kind of dragged along
for this and I just watched somebody do this.
No, no, no.
You were part of that work and part of that team.
And look, if David is being recorded in scripture as equally rewarding those who went out to
battle and those who tarried by the stuff, and this is listed as a good thing in the
Bible, you can tell that God is pleased with this, you know, that shows that that's how
God thinks too, okay, that every part of the team is going to be rewarded for the work
that the team accomplishes, okay, in a sense.
So when we go out soul winning, that's why I like to think of it as whenever I go soul
winning with somebody, I like to think of it as, hey, we got three people saved, not
I got two and you got one.
No, it's we got three.
And then once we group up with the team again, then we like to get a group total.
And then it's just like, hey, the group got this many people saved.
And it doesn't really matter that much who exactly was the one who actually won the soul
because you know what, any time you're knocking somebody's door offering to give them the
gospel, you're doing something for God, even if they don't receive it.
You know, if you preach the gospel to somebody and they don't get saved, you know, you still
obeyed the Lord, you still warned them, you still did something, and so we should get
a team attitude that says, hey, you know what, we went out and we got a bunch of people saved.
And let me tell you, if I go out soul winning on one of these, for example, small town soul
winning marathons, and we spent eight hours out knocking doors, and I don't get anybody
saved in that eight hours, but the team got like 20 some people saved, you know, I considered
a great success and great rejoicing.
I don't feel like, wow, I wasted my time, why was I even here?
Because without me, it wouldn't have went down that way.
Because of the fact that the street that I was on where nobody wanted to hear it, you
know, somebody else would have been on that street.
And by me absorbing all the junk doors, right, I absorbed all the junk, then everybody else
was able to talk to the people that really wanted to hear the gospel.
It's true though, somebody's got to absorb those junk doors and junk streets, somebody's
got to knock those doors where nobody's home or nobody's interested, because you don't
know where the people are, you got to go knock every door, you got to talk to everybody.
And so you know what, some people end up on the street that's receptive, some people end
up on the street that's not receptive, but you know what, we're all working together,
we're all part of the team, we all should rejoice together in the work that we accomplish
as a group, okay.
But see, to develop that kind of a camaraderie and team spirit, there has to be some work
that's being done.
You know, there are a lot of churches today where no work is being done for the Lord.
Where the church is more like a social club, like a social gathering, it's almost like
a performance that you go to.
You know, it's not really a team.
See to be a team, you got to play a game, right, or to be a team, you have to perform
work or do something, right.
You wouldn't really call it a team, yeah I'm on a team, and we get together and talk, you
know, or we get together and have lunch, it's a team, no that's not a team.
Now if I said, hey we're going out and we're doing electrical work, you know, we're a team
that comes in and does this work.
Or hey we're a team that plays basketball or something, then that would be work that's
being expended, activity that's going on, sweat that's being produced.
And working together builds a camaraderie and a team spirit.
More than just getting together and doing nothing.
And your average church today is a performance that you go and attend.
You basically show up and you sit down and you listen to people sing.
A lot of times you don't even do the singing, you're not even part of the team.
And if you would on that subject go to 2 Chronicles chapter 5.
You don't even do the singing.
You sit back and listen to the really good singers up there performing, right?
They dim the lights and you sit back and you enjoy the show, and then somebody gets up
and gives you a little sermonette, a little devotional for 20 minutes, right?
And you say, oh man I feel so good right now, I feel so close to God.
And then basically you leave, and you don't come back for another week.
But look, you can go to churches like that and not know people for years and years and
years.
And it's like you never meet anyone.
I remember I went to this big church one time, it was called First Baptist Church of Elk
Grove.
And it was a liberal NIV, you know, actually it was like they would switch up the Bible
version in mid-sermon, they'd be switching.
Just verse from this, you know, so it has to go up on the big screen because they keep
switching Bibles so fast.
It's like New American Standard, NIV, Living Bible, just whatever fits the pastor's point.
You know what I mean?
He's not going to the Bible to see what it says.
He decides what he wants to say, and then he'll look at all the versions until he finds
something to say it, okay?
So anyway, you know, we went to this big church and there were about 2,000 people on a Sunday
morning, which there's nothing wrong with a church with 2,000 people, but there's no
work to do.
There's no soul winning.
Nobody, you know, we're not going out and knocking doors or anything like that.
It's just you show up for the show on Sunday mornings.
And you know, I went there for years, and I didn't have any friends.
I had one person that I knew that I knew from a previous church, okay, that I already
knew going in, so that was like my one friend, so I would always hope that she was going
to be there and say hi to her or whatever.
But like I never met anybody for two years at that church.
No friends.
Why?
Because you don't develop friendships and camaraderie and team spirit sitting and watching
it.
I mean, how many times do you walk out of the movie theater, right, with a bunch of
new friends, right?
Just, yeah, these are all my new friends.
We sat and watched a movie.
I don't even walk out of the movie theater anyway because the movies are garbage.
But the point is, the point is though, when have you seen people just forming friendships
and lasting friendships at a concert or a movie where you just sit and watch something
happen?
No, but when you go and participate in something, you make friends.
You know, if I'll take my kids down to the park and they start playing football with
some other kids or playing basketball with some other kids, then they get on a team where
they're doing something and now they have friends.
Now they're accomplishing something.
And you say, well Pastor Anderson, I've been coming to Faith Forward for a while and I
don't really, I'm not really making a lot of friends.
Okay, how many times have you been out soul winning?
Because you know what?
Everybody who goes soul winning has friends.
Lots of friends.
Because you go out, and I try to mix up the groups too when we go soul winning.
I try to make sure that people get to go with different, so it's not just always the same
two people going together.
You know, mix up the groups, different people.
So if you go soul winning, you're making a new friend every time you go soul winning
because you spend an hour or so, two hours, three hours, whatever, how long you go.
Walking, talking, sharing experiences together, working together, that develops camaraderie.
That develops friendship.
Okay?
So it's work that needs to be done.
And that's what these, a lot of the modern churches are lacking today.
The team spirit, there's no team because there's no work.
Everybody shows up and watches other people work for an hour.
They watch them sing, watch them preach.
They don't really participate in anything together.
And if you want to, you know, be in the inner circle of the church, or if you want to, you
know, get in and be a part of the team, you know, going soul winning is a way to get on
the team.
Now look down at the Bible there at 2 Chronicles chapter 5, because remember, God loves the
team.
He has a heart for the team.
All throughout the Bible, this philosophy is promoted.
He said it's not good for the man to be alone.
Even he himself operates as a team of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
The church is a team.
The family is a team.
Everything has been set up this way.
God talked about how people working together and unity and fellowship is a beautiful thing.
It's an effective thing.
Look what the Bible says in 2 Chronicles 5, 12, also the Levites.
And by the way, these are David's musicians.
Remember David was a great team player.
Here are his musicians.
Verse 12, also the Levites, which were with, excuse me, also the Levites, which were the
singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jaduthun, with their sons and their brother
and being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and saltaries and harps, stood at the east
end of the altar and with them, watch this, 120 priests sounding with trumpets.
Now 120 trumpets, that's, talk about the, this was the big band era right here, you
know.
This is a big band, 120 trumpets.
Then it says in verse 13, it came to pass, it came even to pass as the trumpeters and
singers were as one to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord when
they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music and praised
the Lord saying, for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever, that then the house was
filled with a cloud.
Then the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the
cloud for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God.
So let me ask this, when did the glory of the Lord fill the house of God?
It was when you had the singers and the musical instruments, 120 trumpets and all the other
instruments that aren't mentioned.
It says that they all played and sang together as one to make one noise, meaning that they
were playing together, sort of like the piano and the organ, playing together in time with
the singing, okay?
This is what the Bible is talking about.
To God, this was a glorious thing.
This is a beautiful thing.
In fact, he even took the time to write about this in the Bible.
He liked it so much, the way that they sang and played and the unity of it, he liked it
so much that he chose to spend a few verses talking about it and he chose that moment
to be when the glory of the Lord would enter the temple.
See this shows how God loves the unity, God loves the team, God loves people working together.
Flip over if you would to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 12, and of course we could talk about
lots of other great team players of the Bible, you know, for example, Moses and Aaron were
a team that God used and the people that were greatly used in the Bible were usually a team
player kind of a person, a person who didn't just want to take all the glory for themselves
and all the pride of themselves and do everything themselves, but rather people who wanted to
work with other people and get other people working and work together and then share the
glory, you know, and then ultimately give all the glory to God, right?
Instead of just taking it for themselves, saying, hey, look, here's what we as a team
were able to accomplish and it was really all through the power of God.
I just, well, I went out by myself and I did all this stuff by myself and look, you
can go out and do a lot by yourself, you can do a lot more as a team and the team that
I want to focus on just because we're in church is the team of the local church, but even
aside from the team of the local church, you know, the husband and wife unit, that marriage
is a team and by the way, we need to remember that in our marriage, we're working as a team
and not have this adversarial attitude with our spouse where there's kind of a struggle
going on and a battle between husband and wife.
You know, ideally we should be working together as a team.
Now the husband's the team captain and in order for that team to function harmoniously,
obviously the wife has to obey the husband because the Bible says that the husband is
the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church and the Bible teaches that
wives would be obedient unto their own husbands.
In order for that team to work well together, there has to often be a leader.
You know, you can't just have a team where everybody's doing that which is right in their
own eyes.
You know, you look at Jesus' team of the disciples, he's the leader, he's the pastor, he's the
team captain as it were.
You know, when we see the early church in one accord, but there were still people that
were leading, there were leaders in that church, there were the apostles in a leadership role,
and in the marriage, the husband's in a leadership role.
But that doesn't mean that the wife is chopped liver because they are both working as a team.
And it doesn't mean that the wife is less important because the wife is every bit as
important as the husband in that team.
And that team produces children together and raises those children.
That team serves the Lord together.
There's a different function, just like when you go out soul winning, you got the talker
and the silent partner.
Well guess what, in a marriage, you know, the wife might sometimes be more the silent
partner in a sense because she might not be as front and center or as glamorous of a position
in the team because she's not going out and maybe achieving things in the workforce.
But you know what, she's tarrying by the stuff at home.
She's holding down the fort, she's cooking the meals, she's raising the children, she's
taking care of all the day to day things that frees up her husband to go out and work and
accomplish things and build things and do whatever it is he does, whether it's pastoring
or whether it's, you know, construction work or whatever the job.
But there's a team there.
It's a team raising the children.
You know, it's the husband and the wife working together as a team.
So think of your spouse as someone who's on the same team.
Not as this enemy that you have to, you know, make sure that you keep at bay all the time.
But rather try to have a positive, you know, working together attitude of a team.
Obviously the family itself is a team.
You know, the Bible says that it's beautiful and pleasant for brethren to dwell together
in unity.
And yeah, that's the brethren as in Christians, but it's also just brothers and sisters, you
know, working together as a team, having unity.
And obviously a lot of times brothers and sisters fight like cats and dogs, you know,
when they're growing up.
I know that I would often fight with my sister.
And then, you know, as adults, we get along now on our friends.
But you know, when you're a kid, you're foolish because the Bible says foolishness is bound
in the heart of a child.
But the rod of correction will drive it far from him.
We need to have a team attitude today in the church.
And that's the emphasis of the sermon.
We need to see it as a team.
Now, a lot of people today are not even going to church anymore.
Even people who are devout Christians, even people who love the Bible, read the Bible,
and they'll even download and listen to preaching from myself or preaching from someone else
from the internet, but they don't physically attend church.
And listen, that person is not a team player.
They're trying to be this commando, you know, all by themselves, do it all by themselves.
But you know what?
That's not what God has called us to do in the New Testament.
He called us to work in a team.
Why did Jesus work in a team?
Why did the disciples work in a team?
Why did the apostles work in a team?
Why was the apostle Paul constantly part of a team?
Why did he establish churches all over the place where people could assemble?
Why did he say forsake not the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some
is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the approaching?
See, there are people out there that are not team players, and it's because of pride.
They don't want to be a cog in the machine.
They don't want to just be a part of the team.
They don't want to play defense.
They don't want to be a silent partner.
They either have to be front and center, in the limelight, running the show, or else they
just don't want to play second fiddle for anyone.
And you know what?
This is not the kind of person that God's going to use greatly, because God uses the
team player, because God uses the humble man.
And a person who can't serve under someone else, a person who can't take orders from
the coach and orders from the team captain, a person who's not willing to pass the ball,
but they just want to go in and take the shot every time, and they're going to shoot the
ball every time, and they're never going to pass to anyone else.
That person is not going to be greatly used by God, because God uses humble people that
don't care if they're the one who makes the basket.
They don't care if they're the one who wins the soul.
They just want the team to succeed.
They just want the team to win, because they're humble enough to realize it's not about them.
It's not about personal glory.
It's not about the stats that are on the back of your spiritual baseball card.
You know what it's about?
It's about getting people saved for God's glory.
Whatever gets the most people saved, whatever furthers the kingdom of God, hey, he must
increase, we must decrease.
And this type of person that has a humble attitude, that's willing to lift other people
up and help other people succeed, and that wants other people to do great things for
God and not just me, me, me.
This is the type of person that can be used by God.
All the great leaders in the Bible were first a great follower that was a part of a team
and that was a junior member of that team.
You know, we just heard a sermon in the preaching class about Joshua being a great leader.
But here's the thing about that.
Joshua was a great follower before he was a great leader, right?
Because he was the one who was Moses' minister.
He was Moses' servant.
And then you think of Elisha, the great powerful man of God, preaching, performing miracles,
chapter after chapter in the Bible, telling us about his great works.
But first, he poured water on the hands of Elijah.
That's not a real glamorous job, is it?
Being a servant, pouring water on someone's hands so they can wash their hands, but you
know what?
He was a team player.
That's why he was able to lead all these other prophets that gathered to him, the young prophets
that came and gathered with him and learned from him.
But before he was a great leader, he was a great follower.
Even Jesus Christ himself, the great leader of the 12 disciples and the great leader of
all the multitudes that followed him, you know, he said, I do always those things which
please the Father, right?
Jesus Christ said to the Father, not my will be done, but thy, he said, not as I will,
but as thou wilt, right?
Because even in the team, and you know, a lot of people, they like to bicker and fuss
and have all these weird semantic games about the Trinity.
You know, about the Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost.
And honestly, we need to just get our doctrine on this directly from the Bible.
We should go with statements in the Bible, what we believe about this, okay?
And a lot of times man's wording has come in and man's logic has come in and kind of
clouded this issue of the Trinity when I don't think it's really as complicated as people
make it.
I think people just, they complicate it and they come in with these doctrinal statements,
you know, and they talk about, you know, well is God in three persons or is God in three,
you know, and they use these terms that aren't really biblical terms.
You know, I don't really use the term God in three persons just because that's not the
way the Bible words it.
And so sometimes danger is just a, and I'm not against anybody who uses that wording
because I know what they mean, but it's just, you know, why don't we use the word that the
Holy Ghost teaches?
And so our understanding of the Trinity should be that the Trinity is, you know, found in
John 5.7 where it says there are three that bear record of heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost.
These three are one, okay?
Then we can get further understanding where the Bible says in Hebrews 1.8, for example,
but unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
So we know that Jesus is God.
Just as much as God the Father is God, Jesus is God the Son.
And then there are plenty of scriptures to show us that the Holy Spirit is God.
But the Bible also teaches that there's only one God, so there's a three in one, okay?
So there's one God, but he is made up of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and these
three are one.
And I think the best illustration of it is we as human beings are a three-part being
body, soul, and spirit, but it's one person.
Nobody would say, well, you're talking about three different people.
You're making it into three people.
No, no, no.
It's one person.
Body, soul, spirit, okay?
And these parts can be independent of one another, because when the body dies, then
the body is without the spirit, because the spirit departs the body.
They give up the ghost, okay?
There's the body, which is a full functioning mind, because the body includes your brain
also.
Everything that is flesh is the body, but then there's also the soul and the spirit.
And you know, you could liken our spirit unto the Holy Spirit.
You know, you could liken our body unto Jesus, and you could liken the soul unto the Father,
however you want to liken it.
That's a great illustration.
But a lot of times people will use the term, you know, the Godhead in their fancy doctrinal
statements is made up of three co-equal persons.
Now here's the thing about that.
That could be right, depending on how you look at that.
See whenever you start using man's wording, you've got to be careful, because, you know,
people in what sense?
They're all, I mean, Jesus is just as much God as the Father is, right?
For example, if I said, well, you know, husband and wife are equal, that would be true in
the sense that they both have the same value, the same worth, they're both human beings,
but hold on a second.
There is an authority structure in the Godhead, because the Son obeys the Father.
That's what the Bible says.
And some people freak out when you say that, but you know what, I don't care what your
stupid doctrinal statement says.
What does the Bible say?
The Bible, go to 1 Corinthians 15, because you're in chapter 12, right?
Just go a few pages to the right, look at 1 Corinthians 15, and see what the Bible actually
says.
First of all, we know that while Jesus was on this earth, he said, not as I will, but
as thou will.
He said, I do always those things which please him.
So who was the boss there?
God the Father.
And this doesn't take away from the deity of Jesus Christ.
This doesn't take away from his value of who he is.
This doesn't take away from the fact that he has the preeminence, and that in him, all
the fullness of the Godhead dwelled bodily, and the fact that, you know, that he is the
creator of all things, and that all things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made that was made.
But look, he still was obedient to the Father, okay?
And look at 1 Corinthians 15, because this is actually in the future, beyond his earthly
existence, because you say, well, he just obeyed the Father because he was on this earth.
But actually, later on, the Bible says he will also submit himself unto the Father even
after the millennium, okay?
I didn't have this in my notes.
Somebody help me out with the scripture I was looking for.
I'm drawing a blank here.
I know I'm in 1 Corinthians 15.
There it is, yeah, exactly.
Here we go.
It says in verse 22, for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive,
but every man in his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christed
is coming.
Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when
he shall put down all rule and all authority and power, for he must reign, Jesus must reign,
it's saying, till he hath put all enemies under his feet, the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death.
We know that that reign lasts a thousand years from Revelation.
For he hath put all things under his feet, watch this, verse 27, but when he saith all
things are put under him, it is manifest that he has accepted which did put all things under
him, and when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself
be subject unto him that put all things under him that God may be all in all.
What's that saying?
That even Jesus Christ on this earth obeyed the Father, but even after the millennial
reign of Christ, after Jesus rules and reigns on this earth for a thousand years, he will
then deliver up the kingdom to the Father, the Father will reign, and Jesus will even
submit himself unto the Father at that time also.
No this is what the Bible says, right, this is biblical doctrine, you can't just ignore
the Bible, I mean that's what it says.
This doesn't take away from who Jesus is, and if you think it takes away from who Jesus
is, that shows that you don't understand the team, you know, then you're the same type
of person, if you think this takes away from Christ's greatness, then you're the same type
of person who thinks, oh if the wife has to obey her husband, that means she's not as
good as him, right?
Is Jesus as good as the Father?
Absolutely, okay, well the wife's as good as her husband, but that doesn't change the
fact that there's an authority structure, and you know what, Jesus is the ultimate team
player, he's on this earth, he could run a team of twelve disciples, he could run a team
of seventy apostles, but you know what, he also knew how to be subject unto the Father,
and he also, the Bible says, humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death
of the cross.
See, to be a great team player you have to be a humble person.
Who was one of the greatest leaders in the Bible?
Moses, the Bible also says he was the meekest man upon the face of the earth.
So first, before we pastor a church, we go to church, and we have a pastor, and we obey,
and we work hard, and we're a blessing to him, right, and we learn from him, then we
go out and lead ourselves.
Before we're a parent, what do we do?
We have parents, and we obey mom and dad, and we spend our lives obeying mom and dad,
then we grow up and have our own family, and then our kids obey us.
And that's the way life works.
And it doesn't mean that one person's better than another, it means that people work together
as a team, everybody can't be the chief, and then there's no Indians.
That's not a team, right?
You can't just get a bunch of people out on a basketball court, or a football field, and
it's just every man for himself, right?
And then another team's all working together, submitting one to another, passing the ball,
obeying the coach, obeying the team leader, obeying the quarterback, or however it works.
I don't play football.
But the point is, you know, we need to get a team, God loves the team.
God says the team is a beautiful thing.
The glory of the Lord shows up when the team is working together.
Hey, when they're all in one accord in one place, that's where the Holy Ghost came upon
them in Acts 2.
In the Old Testament, they're all playing together in unity, and praising the Lord,
and singing, and playing the trumpets.
That's when the glory of the Lord showed up.
But yet so many people today, part of it is just our American culture is kind of a loner,
loner, rebel, do my own thing kind of a culture.
Nobody wants to get on the team.
Everybody just wants to be the boss.
Everybody wants to just do their own thing.
And then people just, oh, there's no good church.
But really that's just a code word for, I don't want to go to church, sit down and shut
up and be a blessing.
You know what I mean?
They want to go out and tell everybody how it is.
But before honor comes humility, the Bible says.
Before honor comes humility.
And so it's important that we learn to function as a team.
Look at 1 Corinthians 12 verse 14, it says, for the body is not one member, but many.
If the foot shall say, because I'm not the hand, I'm not of the body, is it therefore
not of the body?
And if the ear shall say, because I'm not the eye, I'm 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 body were hearing, where were the smelling?
But now God set the members, every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him.
So again, God is well pleased with the team.
God is well pleased when things are functioning together.
Aren't our bodies an amazing thing?
Because he's likening the church unto a physical body.
Isn't it amazing how our body works together?
And the Bible says if one member suffers, the whole body suffers.
I mean, you can just take a part of your body that seems insignificant, your pinky of your
left hand.
You know, this isn't super important, right?
Okay, bring it up here, let's hit it with a hammer.
Right?
Your whole body is going to ride.
Just from that one little part, say, well I don't need this, okay, let's cut it off.
Let's cut off your left pinky.
And here's the thing, you think it's not that important until you don't have it.
Then all of a sudden you're going to start realizing, wow, I actually used that thing,
you know, especially if we cut off, you know, Brother Matt's pinky, for example.
You know, the first time he sat down to play piano, he'd realize that it was gone.
And so, the thing is, you know, we need to understand that just as our body is all working
together, that's how the church is supposed to function.
And think about how many systems, I remember when I was a kid in science learning about,
you know, the eight systems of our body.
The circulatory system, the respiratory system, the immune system, the skeletal system, the
muscular system, you know, and all the digestive system, right?
And you'd turn the page and it would show you, you know, first it just shows you a skeleton,
you know, and it just shows you all the muscles, and it shows you, you know, the digestive,
I mean, even just the digestion.
There's so many things that are working together, the tongue, the mouth, that you need the saliva,
you got the bile, you got the stomach acid, and then you got the large intestine, the
small intestine, I mean, you've got all these different things.
And then there are certain parts of the body that we don't really think of a lot as being,
wow, that's critical.
I mean, we all know the heart's critical, right?
We all know the lungs are critical.
You know, what about the pancreas?
You know, is it really that important?
The gallbladder, the appendix, you know, I mean, they used to think that the appendix
had no function.
Just take it out at the drop of a hat.
In fact, there were even doctors who wanted to just standardly just remove tonsils and
appendix even when there was no problem.
Just get rid of them, they're worthless.
But then as time went on, scientists who used to say that there were like 100 and some parts
of the body that were just these vestigial organs that we don't need anymore, they're
just leftover remnants of evolution, turns out we needed every single one of them as
science advanced.
And there is a detriment to not having an appendix.
There is a detriment to not having tonsils.
There is a detriment to not having a gallbladder or anything else that's removed because it's
all there for a reason, it's all working together.
The ears, the nose, the eyes, the mouth, the stomach, the throat, the muscles, the
bones, the ligaments, and sometimes even just the tiniest part of your body can just cause
havoc to the whole body, destroy the whole system.
One little tiny thing.
You know, I mean, these little tiny plantar fascia in the bottom of your feet, right,
just this very small part, but it can send you writhing in pain if you have plantar fasciitis
where you're just in screaming, sharp pain in the bottom of your foot, okay?
What about, you know, just a little thing like, you know, one thing that I have is I
have a finger that slips out of joint like all day every day, like about 50 times a day.
It's like click, click, click, but all the time I'm constantly realizing that I'm limited
because of that middle finger on my right hand that does that.
Another physical thing I have is I have my throat will close up sometimes and just shut
my esophagus so I'll get food stuck in my throat and be choking for hours.
I mean, I could be choking for hours, totally unable to work, totally unable to do anything
just because of something as simple as the muscle around my esophagus just going like
that, just some dumb little thing, you know, but it can just shut down the whole body,
the littlest thing, you know?
That's one little tiny thing, whether it be your liver, whether it be your kidneys,
whether it be your heart, your lungs, I mean, there are so many things where if we just
destroyed them, it would just destroy the entire body.
Destroy the liver, you're dead.
Destroy the kidneys, you die.
No heart, you die.
Lungs die, right?
All these things that keep you functioning, that keep you alive.
Well, look, let's carry that over to the church now and realize that the church is a team
and we all need to work together and the more parts of the body that we have here that
are in good spiritual health and doing their job and functioning and kicking in, the greater
the health of the church and then we're going to accomplish great things for God instead
of just being this sickly decrepit, I mean, if we could look at some churches through
spiritual eyes, it would just be like an invalid.
I mean, think about the deformity.
There's no soul winning in a lot of churches, so right away there'd be no feet because that's
the feet, right?
The feet represent, you know, how beautiful are the feet of then the priest of gospel.
So basically, you know, 99% of churches would be crippled right away.
No feet.
You know, so that, I mean, that's a major handicap right there to have no feet, right?
Okay.
So that's just right out of the gate, you know, and then they're allowing all this false
doctrine to come in.
Apparently there's no nose.
Now you say, well, I, you know, okay, but you know what?
Think about how you'd look with your nose is gone, look kind of scary, right?
You know, they're not, they're, they're not listening to what God's saying.
No ears, right?
They're not opening their mouth boldly to preach the gospel.
No mouth.
Right?
I mean, think about this.
You know, the, I don't know, the arm of the Lord is not shortened that he would save.
You know, they're not, if they're not saving people, then it's like no arms, you know?
I mean, think about how sick and then all the sin, all the sin and junk and toxicity,
their skin would be all yellowish or green, like a jaundiced just from all the toxicity
in their body, right?
Cause they're not cleaning out the junk.
You know, that was another one of the systems, the excretory, is that how you pronounce it?
The excretory system, right?
Get rid of all the junk, get rid of all the waste and you know, that's what preaching
does sometimes when you preach hard against sin and you preach against all the junk of
the world, right?
You're kind of flushing the toilet on all that garbage and getting it out of the body,
right?
I mean, think about it.
What if somebody just couldn't go to the bathroom for, for, for days or weeks?
How that would just, that would literally destroy the whole body.
Let's say you had the feet intact.
Let's say you have the nose intact, the ears are intact, the mouth's intact, the arms,
legs.
You're in perfect health.
Only one problem though.
I never, I never use the restroom, never.
How long do you think you're going to last like that?
But that's how some bathroom, but that's not bathrooms.
That's how some churches are.
They need a bathroom.
Some churches, some churches like they have no excretory system.
Like think about Joel Osteen's church.
It's just, it's all positive.
Oh, you know, using the bathroom is too negative.
You know, cause why?
He never wants to clean out all the waste, right?
It's just, he's taken in a lot of food, right?
Coming in money, money, money coming in.
But then he never wants to, he never wants to relieve, relieve the church of all the
junk and the dung and all the, you know, and so why?
Cause it's, he doesn't want to offend people by the preaching.
And you know what?
That's just that toxicity, right?
That that would be the problem with not going to the bathroom is that your body would get
so toxic, right?
It would just absorb all this toxicity from the waste and it would kill you.
It would kill you.
You would be dead.
You will die from that.
Well guess what?
The church will die from it too.
So the point is that we need to have all systems functioning in order to be a healthy church.
We need to have the singing.
We need to have the Bible reading at home by yourself.
We need to have the prayer.
We need to have strong families.
We need to have soul winning.
We need to be preaching on sins so that we don't get infected and look, yeah, there's
going to be an infection.
I mean, we all have an infection somewhere in our body from time to time.
Some gets a little infected.
You get a sore throat, you know, you get a pain here, pain there.
Maybe you get a cut and it gets a little infected.
But you know what?
You got to have that immune system of the, of the preaching, cleaning things out and,
and fixing things, right?
And also other people in the church acting as like a spiritual white blood cell, you
know, coming along and helping people and being a part of the team and getting rid of
the virus and the contagion and, and, and neutralizing it, right?
All systems have to be go in order to be healthy and look, different people in the church have
different gifts, different abilities, and we all need to pitch in and be a part of the
team in order for the body to be healthy.
And that's what the Bible is teaching us here is that if we're going to have a healthy body,
it needs to all be working together as a team, as a system, everything working together.
It says in the Bible here in verse number 21, and the eye 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.
So some people that we might look at and say, well, this person's not an important person
in the church, maybe like a silent partner or whatever, somebody, somebody who's doing
the cleaning or something, yeah, but it's real necessary.
He says some of the parts 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 uncommly parts have more abundant comeliness.
What's God saying?
God is pleased by the people who do the dirty jobs and the people who do the jobs that are
not in the limelight.
You know, everybody sees the pastor preaching, everybody sees the piano player playing, everybody
sees the song leader leading, but there are a lot of other people who are working behind
the scenes and God says that those people, he bestows abundant honor upon them.
People who are just cleaning the building or just being a silent partner out soul winning,
people that are just helping in any way that they can.
But the Bible says in verse number 24, for our comeliness parts have no need, but God
has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked,
that there should be no schism in the body.
Schism is like a split, 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.
Verse 27, now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular.
And God hath said in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after
that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.
Are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers, are all workers of miracles, have
all the gifts of healing, do all speak with tongues, do all interpret?
But covet earnestly the best gifts and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.
Go to one more place, Philippians chapter 2.
So there are people who work with foreign languages, there are people who are working
with healing, people who are working with preaching, teaching, all these different ministries
of helping people in the church, caring for one another, teaching and admonishing one
another, caring for the sick, preaching the word of God, all these things have a function.
And then it just said helps, just people who help with whatever, any help, also the musicians
as well.
But the Bible says in Philippians 2 verse 1, if there be therefore any consolation in
Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies,
fulfill ye my joy that ye be like minded, having the same love, being of one accord,
of one mind, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory.
What's vain glory?
When you exalt yourself and glorify yourself.
He says but in lowliness of mind, which is the opposite, let each esteem other better
than themselves.
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
What's he saying?
Don't do your own thing, don't just be your own solo act, your own commando, you know,
team of one.
No, get on the team, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the
things of others, esteem other better than yourself, humble yourself, get on board with
the program of the church, serve, be a part of the team, get involved with the work, help
other people in the church, don't just come and just see how you can get more glory or
you can be blessed, but seek how you can be a blessing and be a team player.
And look, don't ever be one of these people who quits on church.
I'm not saying you can't switch churches, but I'm saying don't just quit on church and
become the lone ranger.
That's not God's will and I've seen people who were greatly used by God make that mistake
and just do way less for God for the rest of their life.
Why?
Because they're not on the team and you can do more in the church.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for the teachings of your word and Lord, we know that
you have a heart for the team and that you're a team and that when you were on this earth
you had a team and that all through the Bible great men of God were great team players that
could work well with other people.
And Lord, help us to be able to work well with other people so that we can accomplish
more for you and in Jesus' name we pray.