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Dear Father in heaven, please fill the pastor's spirit so it gives him wisdom to teach us and I'll be here to receive wisdom from this sermon we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Man the title of my sermon this morning is Being a Team Player. Being a team player, the Bible reads in verse number nine there, 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. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat, but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. If you would turn to Ephesians chapter number four in the New Testament, Ephesians chapter number four. It's important to be a team player. The Christian life is not every man for himself, just out there by yourself, doing your own thing, serving God. The Bible says woe unto you if you're alone and then you fall, something goes wrong. You know, it's better to have two than one. It's even better to have three together and this is important in the Christian life to realize the team. But if you're going to be a part of a team, if you're going to be a part of any kind of a group, you have to be a team player. If you're a person who always has to have their own way all the time, everything has to be exactly the way you want it, and we have to do everything exactly what you want to do, you're never going to be able to be a part of any team. Because being a part of a team has to do with doing what other people want, give and take and compromise. Look at the Bible in Ephesians chapter four verse one, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called. And then these are the tips on being a team player here in verse two, with all lowliness and meekness and with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There's a letter being written by the Apostle Paul to a local church at Ephesus and he's telling them how to have peace and unity and how to have a functioning team there at the church in Ephesus. And the first thing he says in verse number two is lowliness and meekness. You see if you're a person who's very full of themself, you think you're better than everyone else, you're prideful, arrogant, you're not going to be a good team player because you think you know better than everyone else. Of course we need to do things my way because I'm the smartest person and so my way is always the right way. Now that's the attitude of a person who's not being lowly and meek and who is a bad team player. So in order to be a good team player, we need to not have too high of a view of ourselves and think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think, but to understand that other people might have good suggestions and good ideas and they might be able to contribute something of value to the conversation. Now perhaps you are a very smart person, but I don't care how smart you are, you can still learn from other people and you can still listen to other people and you're not going to be the smartest in every single area. Here's a great quote from Brother Hiles that said, every man knows something that I do not know, therefore all men are my teachers. So even a person who has way less intellect than you, way less knowledge, way less experience, they still may know something that you don't know. So you should always be ready to listen and learn and defer to other people and realize that your way may not always be the best way. And even if your way is the best way, sometimes it's better for the sake of the group to let other people have their way and to just meekly and lowly defer to others and say, you know what, let's do it your way. Let's go ahead and do what you want to do instead of always demanding it be your way. And then it says with long suffering and then that ties in with the next statement forbearing one another in love. So the first two to go together, lowliness and meekness, obviously those are kind of two ways of saying the same thing. And then long suffering and forbearance also go together. Long suffering means putting up with people, right? Suffering long with whatever they do that's annoying or that is a pain or whatever. That is what it means to forbear. And the Bible says that with long suffering and forbearance, because we love each other, because we love the team, because we love one another, we're willing to put up with other people's mistakes. The people around us are never going to be perfect, okay? Your spouse is not going to be perfect, your children aren't going to be perfect, your parents aren't going to be perfect, your siblings aren't going to be perfect. Also in the church, your brothers and sisters in Christ are not going to be perfect. The people at your job are not going to be perfect, but yet you have to work with them as a team. And so you have to be long suffering, meaning you don't just blow up when somebody makes a mistake, you don't just get angry and lose your temper at the drop of a hat because someone did something stupid, you just let things go. You just bite your tongue and just let it go, right? Forbearance, long suffering. And then the last element that we see here, so we saw first of all the meekness and lowliness, then we saw the long suffering and forbearance, and then the last thing is endeavoring, verse 3, to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. So the third element we see here is that it's going to take work to have a team. It's not going to just happen automatically. We're not just going to automatically just have a church where everybody gets along and we just have these mission trips where everybody gets along and everybody's happy and everything goes smooth. No, it takes work. You endeavor. You work at the fact that there is unity, okay? So unity doesn't happen by accident. You strive for unity in your family. You strive for unity at the job. You strive for unity at church and it will not happen by accident. So you have to make the effort to be lowly, make the effort to be long suffering, and then also be a peacemaker and even if you're not the one clashing with others, try to help other people also not clash and help them get along and be a peacemaker. Go to 1 Peter, chapter number 5. 1 Peter, chapter 5. We're talking about being a team player, right? You've got to be humble. You've got to put effort into it. You've got to put up with other people and not expect other people to be perfect. Don't freak out when somebody makes a mistake. Just relax and go with it. And what's the secret to that is really just love, forbearing one another in love. If you love people and if you love the team, these things will start to come somewhat naturally. Look at 1 Peter, chapter 5, verse 4. It says, when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise ye younger, verse 5, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. So the Bible says here that we should be subject one to another. Now obviously there is leadership. So he says, you know, younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. So of course there's a chain of command. There's leadership in the home. Children obey their parents, wives obey their husbands, employees obey the boss, right? Obviously in the local church there's leadership at the church. The pastor is a leader in the church. But here's the thing about that is that also in addition to just a chain of command, there's also an idea of just everybody being subject one to another, clothed with humility. You know, just being humble and everybody thinking about other people's concerns and their needs and their opinions and what they want and basically just trying to work together as a team and not just forcing everybody to do things a certain way. You know, as a pastor of the church, obviously I lead the church spiritually. I set the tone. I set the program for the church. But here's the thing. People constantly have ideas and things that they want to do and soul winning programs that they want to do, mission strips that they want to do, other things they want to do. And, you know, I want to work with people on those things and not just be like, well, you know, that's not really my favorite idea or I don't really like, you know, it's like, you know what? Let's be a team player here. And I understand sometimes that the way I want to do things or the things that I want to do are not necessarily what everyone wants to do or the way everybody sees it. And so I'm open to other people's views and opinions and, you know, other things. Maybe one of my staff gets up and preaches a sermon and it's not exactly the way I see things or it's not exactly what I would have preached, but if it lines up with the Bible, I'm not going to sit there and pick it apart and say, well, you know, I think that that sermon could have been different or whatever because I realize that, you know what? Someone else coming in and preaching from a different perspective is actually edifying to the body of Christ because even if I try to be balanced and preach the entire Bible, I'm going to have blind spots. There are going to be things that I miss. And so someone else coming in and giving a different perspective can sometimes fill in a lack where I maybe am a little off balance or something. And obviously, you know, I'm not talking about somebody who's deviating from sound doctrine or deviating from scripture. I'm talking about just people who just have a different approach to life or a different point of view. Sometimes those things can be helpful to bring in other perspectives in that way. And the same thing with the ministry. You know, there are ideas that I come up with, there are ministries that I come up with. Other people have other ideas. And even if I might be a little skeptical of those ideas, I might just say, you know what? Let's try it. Let's do it. And try to include more people and not just be a one man show, but rather be a team player. You know, it's going to be the same way at your job where, you know, different people have ideas that they want to try. You don't want to be somebody who just shoots down every idea that didn't come out of your brain. Okay. You know, it reminds me of actually in the preface to the King James Bible, the epistle dedicatory, the translators have written some things in there. And one of the things that they say is they talk about how some people are going to reject the King James Bible, not because there's anything wrong with the translation, but because and I'm kind of paraphrasing it, but basically they are only interested in whatever has been struck on their own anvil. You know, they basically say like, you know, it didn't come from them. They didn't produce it. So therefore they're just going to be down on it right away. And that's just a dumb attitude, right? Because everything doesn't have to be our idea. We need to be a team player and help other people's ideas to succeed and other people's goals to be hit and so forth. Go to Hebrews chapter number 10. You're pretty close there in 1 Peter. Go to Hebrews chapter number 10. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 24. I'll start reading it while you get there. And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. And the key that I want to focus on there is that phrase, consider one another. What does that mean? Think about other people. Don't just think about yourself. Don't just think about your goals, your plan, your idea, what you want. No, consider one another. Think about other people. Consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. You know, it's not just about your spiritual development. It's about the spiritual development of the people around you. It's not just about you becoming a better Christian. It's about other people becoming a better Christian and them reaching their goals and them achieving things for Christ and earning rewards in heaven. Consider one another. Think about other people to provoke unto love and to good works. You know, being a part of a team can be motivating. And you motivate each other and you provoke one another to love and good works. And you try to help them become the best version of themselves that they can be. And it's motivating for everyone involved. And then it says in verse 25, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. And today we're getting away from the team more than we ever have in the history of America. We're getting away from the team. Now what do I mean by that? Well just look at the home today. There are more unmarried households than married households for the first time in the history of the United States. You know, it used to be that every home was pretty much a team. You know, you got mom and dad and the kids and you have to work together. You know, dad's got his role to play, mom has her role to play, the kids are playing their individual roles and that's been the norm in the United States. But now for the first time ever, there's just so much less of that because everybody wants to be doing their own thing. We have more people just living by themselves as a lifestyle than ever in the history of America. Now again, I'm not down, if you live by yourself, I'm not criticizing you, I'm not down on you. I understand that everybody's situation is different and people live alone for various reasons and I'm not against that. I'm not against you living alone or whatever. What I'm saying though is that there's a reason behind that trend though, the trend where it used to be just vast majority families and then it just goes to vast majority being singles. What's that trend? I think that part of what's driving that trend, and again I'm not trying to offend individuals in this situation, I'm just saying in general what's driving the trend is an attitude of people not wanting to be a team player with others or work with others so they have to do their own thing. They want to do it themselves. And with the technology that's rapidly developing right now, people are more and more disconnecting from other people, aren't they? And now instead of going to church, what do a lot of people do? They just tune in. They just live stream it. They just listen to it on the radio or TV or whatever they do instead of actually coming to the church. And you know what? If you're just listening at home, you're not a team player. You're not on the team. I mean, are you on a sports team because you watch the game on TV? No. A lot of people think they are. We won today. We're going to win next week. You didn't do anything. You're watching them do it. And it's the same thing. If you don't go to church and you're just watching from home, you're not being a team player. But that's the trend today, isn't it? Is stay home and watch the service, listen to the service, but don't actually show up and contribute and be a part of the team and fellowship and spend time with other people. And now many people's jobs are going online. Their schooling is going online. Church has gone online. And their entertainment has gone online. And instead of actually getting together and doing stuff, people are just by themselves so much. And they are just doing their own thing. And look, again, I'm not against people being by themselves or spending time alone. That can be necessary as well. But there's a trend that I'm pointing out where people are getting away from a team mentality. They're getting away from being a part of a team and instead just wanting to do their own thing, be a commando. And that could carry over to the Christian life. Well guess what? That's not God's plan for Christianity. That's not what God ordained. God ordained a group. He ordained the local church. He ordained the assembly. He ordained the congregation. This is his program for winning the world of Christ. It's not for a couple superstars to go out there and just be so awesome and win so many souls. No, no, no. Or their YouTube channel is so awesome that they're just a superstar on YouTube. That's not God's plan for winning the world of Christ. God's plan is for a group of people to get together, to work as a team, and to go out there and knock doors two by two, right, in a little team there, going soul winning. And you know what? How's your team spirit when you go soul winning? Go if you would to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. How's your team spirit when you go soul winning? You say, well, what are you talking about? Well, when you go soul winning, are you thinking about it as a team or are you out there for yourself? Because here are some tips how to be a good team player out soul winning. When you go out soul winning, how about this? Don't ditch your partner and just go off and do your own thing. You know, there are some people that you'll be on a missions trip, you're in a foreign country and you're soul winning and as soon as you get in a conversation with somebody, your soul winning partner just ditches you. He's just gone. So here you are giving the gospel and he's just like, see ya, and he just heads off to go do his own soul winning. But you know, I like having my partner there when I'm soul winning and when someone else is doing the talking, I want to be there for them. I don't want to just ditch them or leave them or forsake them. And even in the United States, the same thing. I mean, especially in a foreign country though, you're like, dude, stay with your partner. But even here in the United States, I mean, when we're out soul winning, you know, stay with your partner. Now obviously there are times when you need to, you know, somebody needs to go grab something or do something. I get that. I'm talking about people who just habitually, every time their partner starts giving the gospel, they're out of there. Like why can't you sit there and be a part of that soul winning with your partner? Is it just all about what you do or is it about what your partner is doing? Because you know, you could be there, you could be praying for that person in your heart. You could be praying. And how about this? Just standing by so that if some distraction comes up, you're ready to take care of it. That's part of what it means to be a silent partner. You're there to take care of distractions. You're there to help out in any way. You're praying in your heart, you know, be a part of that team. And by the way, you know, when, when we come back from soul winning, instead of saying, well, you know, I got this person saying, he got, why don't you just say how many of the team got? You know, does it really matter who was the one who was doing the talking? How about just, Hey, as a team, this is how many souls were saved with the whole group in the church van, here's what the team accomplished. Or the two of us, we come back, we've been soul winning, uh, for the day or for the hour or whatever, here's what we did and get that team player mentality, not striving for your own personal achievements or personal glory, but rather what can we achieve for the team? Look what the Bible says in first Corinthians chapter 12 verse 12, for as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ. So he's saying, look, your human body, you've got hands, feet, head, nose, mouth, ears, but it's all one body. And each body part is different, has a different function, but there's a unity there of being a body. And he's saying, that's what the church should be like. That's what a family should be like. That's what a business should be like. And so it says in verse 13, for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have all been made a drink into one spirit, for the body is not one member, but many. Member means body part. 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 ears shall say, well, because I'm not the eye, I'm not of the body, is it therefore not of the body? Let me translate this for you. Basically, if somebody said, well, I'm not the pastor, so therefore I'm not important. No, no, no, you're important. Oh, well, I'm female, I'm not male, so I guess I'm not important. No, you're important. You are part of the team. So you don't want to get this attitude that unless you're the pastor or unless you're a deacon or unless you're on staff or unless you're a man or unless you're an adult or whatever, that you're not part of the body. Folks, every man, woman, boy, and girl is part of the body. We all have a role to play. It doesn't matter if you're male or female, young, old, whether you're newly saved or you've been saved a long time. Don't be an ear that wants to be an eye. Don't be a hand that wants to be a foot. Be happy that you're the hand. Be happy that you're the ear or whatever it is. Whatever God has put you in that position, just be happy with that and fulfill that role. The wife shouldn't try to be the husband. The husband shouldn't try to be the wife. The kids shouldn't try to be the parents. Just because you're not the eye, the ear is important too. The nose is important too. Everything is important. So the way the body functions properly is when everybody isn't envying other people's positions and saying, oh, I'm not important and so all that matters is that guy. And obviously when we talk about being a team player, you'd think of sports as an illustration of this. It'd be like saying, oh, well, I'm not playing first base so I'm not important. I'm just playing right field so I'm not important. But here's the thing. Even though you might think to yourself that right field, and I don't know much about baseball so forgive me if I get this wrong, it's been a while since PE class, but it seems like the kids that weren't that good would typically get put at right field. It was kind of the least important position. But you know what? There are moments in that game when right field becomes the single most important position at that moment because somebody gets up and just bats the ball into right field. Everybody's looking at right field now. Everybody's looking at that guy. It's all about him now. He's the star for that moment. And so I don't care what position we're talking about in whatever the sport, there's always a moment when it becomes super important. And look, if that guy is asleep on the job saying, well, I'm right field so I don't matter so I'm just going to phone it in and I'm not going to try, you know, that could cause a home run to happen. That could cause him to lose the game. Everything could fall apart because of that one guy in that least important position. You see, if that position weren't important, it wouldn't exist. Baseball players would have eight people on them and that position would not exist because it doesn't matter. But apparently it does matter. It does exist because there's a moment when it's needed. And it's the same thing with our physical bodies. You know, evolutionists and biologists used to say, oh, there's like a hundred and some body parts that are vestigial and we don't really use them for anything. They're just relics of evolution. But now they're down to I think like five or six and I don't know, they're probably down to zero now because they're starting to figure out that things in the body actually have a purpose. And a lot of times in the past it was just at the drop of a hat, take out those tonsils, take out that whatever, but these things serve a function. They all serve a purpose. Everything in our bodies exists for a reason and we might think, oh, this isn't important. Just cut this out, remove this. It all matters. It's all there for a reason. And it's the same way with the church. We need to have different types of people in the church. We don't want a church of all young people. We don't want a church of all, and look, there are churches out there where it's all young people. There are churches out there where everybody's elderly. You walk in and it's just only gray hairs when you walk in. We want both. And you know, we don't want a church that has no poor people in it. We want poor people in the church. They exist for a reason. They serve a function. And at the same time, we don't want to exclude anyone who's well off and say, well, you know, we only want to reach the down and outers and the poor. That's all we care about. That's imbalance. We want to have a diversity in the church. And by the way, we don't want to limit the church to one race either. You know, there are churches out there where it's like, oh, well we have our own special, you know, black church, or we have, or you know, it's all white, or we have the Chinese church or whatever, Korean church. And look, I get it that sometimes you have to have a different church because of language. But if we're all speaking the same language, we should all be in the same church. God's house is supposed to be a house of prayer for all nations. And so we want to have red, yellow, black and white, rich, poor, young, old, male, female. We want every demographic. And we don't want to just also have only mature Christians. Oh man, our church is so great. Everybody's such a mature Christian. Everybody knows the Bible. Everybody's so, uh, zealous. Hold on a second. I want to have the guy who's not zealous. I want to have the guy who got saved last week. Because if everybody's already zealous, who am I here to motivate? Right? Say, well, I want to pastor a church where every single person goes soul winning. I want to have some people in the church that are not going soul winning so that I can preach to them to get out soul winning. Otherwise, what's the point of me even getting up here? The whole point of me getting up here and you say, well, we should only have people in the church who are living a really clean life. Well then, why am I even going to preach against sin? You know, I need to have some sinners to preach against. I need some non-soul winners to preach against. I need some liberals to preach about. I need everybody in here so I can straighten them out. Now obviously, if everybody's lame, that's a problem. If everybody's ignorant, that's a problem. If everybody's living a sinful life, yeah, we got a problem. But you know what? We want to make sure that we don't get this attitude that we only want a certain type of person in the church. No, because we need to have a diversity of cells in our body to perform different functions. Well, we need a diversity of cells in the local church as well so that we can actually be a fully functioning individual with all the components and all the parts there. And the Bible says in verse 18, but now as God set the members, every one of them in the body as it has pleased him, and if they were all one member, where were the body? I mean, what if we just had like 200 Pastor Andersons in here? No women, no children, no elderly, you know, and just everybody's just like me. Folks, there'd be a lot that we could not accomplish. It'd be a lot that would not get done. It would be a monster, okay? We don't want it. But we do want to have one Pastor Anderson, right? I mean, right? One? I hope. We don't, you know, you don't want to have too many, right? So the point is, you know, if everybody were one member, if everybody were one type of person, then we're not a body, we're not a team. It says, and the eye cannot say unto the hand, verse 21, 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 border which seem to be more feeble are more necessary. The Bible's saying some of the people that you might look at and say, well, this person is the least important person in the church, they might be more necessary than you think, and they're actually contributing something that you don't understand. It says, but those members which we think are less honorable, verse 23, upon those we bestow more abundant honor, and uncumbly parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need, but God has tempered the body together, having given more abundant honor to that part which lacked. So again, you know, if I go to the gym and work out, what am I going to work out? My best muscles? My biggest muscles? Is that what I should work out? What do you think would be the smartest thing to do if I go to the gym? It'd probably be the smartest thing to work out my weakest muscles and bring some balance to the body, okay? And so the Bible says that these parts that are more honorable, they don't really even have need that we emphasize their importance because we all get it, whereas what we need to do is make sure that we're not neglecting parts of the body that are less comely or less honorable, parts of the body that we don't really think about, but they matter. You know, when we think about our health, we probably constantly think about our heart because we feel our pulse every single day. So we feel that every day, like boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I mean, you feel it. So it's kind of hard to forget that your heart exists. It's kind of hard to forget that your lungs exist because you're breathing all the time. But you know, there are other parts of the body that you're not thinking about at all that are super important, like when was the last time you thought about your liver? You know, when was the last time you thought about your kidneys or your spleen or these different parts of your body that maybe don't come into mind as often, but yet they're super important. They're doing something, whether we understand it or not, they're doing something. And so, you know, the food that we eat and the lifestyle that we live can sometimes affect those things too, and we want to make sure that we're healthy. And so the Bible here is using the human body as an illustration for the church. And it says in verse 24 that there should be no schism in the body, like a split, right? That there should be no schism in the body, but the members should have the same care one for another. Now he's not saying don't ever have a church split. Sometimes you have to purge out the leaven and take out the trash. But when he says that there be no schism in the body, he's saying, like, for example, in a person who's paralyzed, let's say someone gets hurt and now they're paralyzed from the waist down, that would be a schism in the body. He's not talking about schism in the body like chopping someone in half. I mean, if you chop someone in half, they're dead, okay? A schism in the body, maybe in our modern vernacular, a good word for this would be a disconnect in the body, like where basically we have a church that's broken into factions that aren't working together. So if I'm paralyzed from the waist down, my lower half of my body and my upper half of my body are not working together, they're not communicating. And what happens, the lower half becomes totally ineffective. It becomes almost useless unto me. And so the same thing here is saying, you know, we don't want to have a disconnect in the body where there's a group that's, they're still part of the body, but they're alienated and they're not actually contributing or communicating or participating in the program. So this is a great chapter on being a team player. Now if you would go over to 1 Samuel chapter 15, 1 Samuel chapter 15 in the Old Testament, 1 Samuel chapter number 15. It's important to be a team player. First of all, in order to be a team player, you've got to find a team. So you've got to actually show up to church. And then when you go to church, you want to be a team player within that church, meaning that you go along with stuff even if it's not your favorite thing in the world. Now look, you know, I'm the head of my home, but yet does that mean that I don't do stuff that my wife likes because I'm a team player? You know, I'm not just going to say, no, no, no, we're going to have this house looking exactly the way I want it to look. I pick every decoration. I plan every meal. You know, we're doing it my way or the highway. You know, that's not my attitude. Now things that are important, critical key decisions, obviously, yeah, I'll put my foot down no matter what the cost and say, hey, this is what it is. You know, I'm, I'm leading this home, but I'm also a team player. So I want to do stuff that my kids like. I want to do stuff that my wife likes and we want to make sure that everybody is included in the team and that it's not just one master and a bunch of slaves, okay? That's not a good team. So want to make sure that there's a team spirit all the time and not just one person doing what they want to do and blowing off what the team wants or what's good for the team. Now the Bible says in First Samuel 15, 22, and Samuel said, have the Lord, verse 22, as great delight and burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord, behold to obey is better than sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of rams for rebellion, watch this, for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. Now that's a pretty strong statement. Think about when King Saul, same person that Samuel's talking to by the way, Saul later literally visits a witch. Where did that start? Did Saul just go from being a godly Christian to just, let's go see a witch? Is that what happened? No. You want to know when the story of the Witch at Endor starts? It starts right here. It starts 13 chapters earlier, First Samuel 15, this is where Saul starts his path toward the door of the Witch at Endor. And by the way, the Bible says in the Book of Chronicles that that's one of the main reasons that Saul was destroyed is because he consulted a witch. He consulted one with a familiar spirit. God ranked that as one of his top two sins of all time, was going to the Witch at Endor. Where did the Witch at Endor story begin? Well when Saul rebelled, Samuel told him rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and because he didn't take care of the rebellion in his life, he ends up literally getting into witchcraft. So rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. So being stubborn is a horrible sin. It's like iniquity, it's like idolatry. Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft. And you know, today in the United States of America, part of our culture glorifies rebellion and stubbornness. It's kind of just part of our culture. Now there are a lot of great things about American culture and you know, obviously you can take any bad attribute and flip it over and find a good side to it or take a good attribute and flip it over and find a dangerous side of that. And so obviously you could call stubbornness, you know, determination or being steadfast. But here's the difference is that being steadfast or determined is good and being stubborn is bad. Now they're similar and maybe you have this personality that is like that, well you better make sure that you fall on the steadfast side of the line and not on the stubborn side of the line because stubbornness is a wicked sin. Same thing with rebellion. You know, you could call it being a pioneer and being a visionary and you know, and amen. Being a visionary is great. Being a pioneer is great. Being avant-garde can be great, but you better make sure that you're on the positive side of that thing and not the negative side because it's pretty easy for the pioneer to cross over and become a rebel or for the determined one and steadfast person to cross over and become stubborn, okay? What's the difference? The difference has to do with whether we're following the word of God or not, okay? And here's the thing. Part of what the word of God tells us to do is to be a part of the team, be subject one to another, submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of God, obey them that have the rule over you, submit yourselves unto those that have the rule over you. That's part of what God's telling us to do. And when we are rebellious and stubborn in those areas, that's a major sin on par with witchcraft and idolatry, these very sinful things. You see, if we were to again think about a sports team, part of being a team player has to do with listening to what the coach is telling you, right? There's a leadership of the team. Maybe there's a team captain or maybe there's a coach or whatever. And part of being a team player is everybody's kind of listening to that same set of instructions so that we're not all coming together as a team and we all have a different philosophy of how the game is played. We all have a different idea about what defense looks like. We have a different idea about what strategy looks like. No, the purpose of the coach is to kind of get everybody on the same program. Like, okay, guys, here's how we're doing it. Here's how this is going to work. We're all in the same program. But then there's always that guy who doesn't want to be a team player. He doesn't want to listen to the coach. He wants to just do his own thing. And what is his motivation? Typically, personal glory. Go if you would to Philippians chapter 2, this is the last place we'll turn, Philippians chapter 2. You see, the coach, his goal is that the team wins the game, am I right? What's the goal? What's the goal in an athletic competition? Obviously, you want to play fairly, you want to play honorably, you want to have good sportsmanship, but you also should be striving to win. In fact, if you're not striving to win, you're not a good sport. Because losing on purpose is a form of cheating. And so the goal is to win if you have integrity and you're actually playing the right way, you should be trying to win. That's part of how you play. The coach's goal is to make the team the best he can so that they can win. His goal is not to just exalt one player and make them the superstar and just ignore everyone else. That's a bad coach, right? It's about the success of the team, it's about winning the game. It's not about one player breaking his own personal record for how many points he can score. So he can be in some hall of fame somewhere or he can have some trading card somewhere saying well he scored more points. You know, one way for a guy to score more points than anybody has ever done is for everybody to just keep passing that guy the ball. If everybody keeps passing that guy the ball, then he's more likely to break the record for most points scored in a game. But let me ask you something. If someone's a good sport and a good team player, what's more important? Breaking their personal record for how many points scored in a game or is it more important that the team wins the game? You know, are we going to pass the ball to this guy? Well if that's what makes sense for winning, yes. Not just, oh here, let's help him with his ego. Let's help him get in the record book. Does everybody see the difference? Okay now let's bring that over to the Christian life. You know, what is our church about? It's about getting people saved, it's about getting people baptized, it's about teaching people to observe all things that Christ commanded us. It's about helping one another grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It's about looking out for other people's growth and their blessing and their goals. And we don't want to be that guy who's a ball hog because it's just all about getting in the record books or whatever. That's garbage. The Bible says in verse 3 of Philippians chapter 2, let nothing be done through strife or vain glory. Now here's the thing about that word vain glory, you could just say glory because it's all vain. But I love that word vain glory because that's what it is. Whenever you do anything, you know what you could also call it? Personal glory. Because let me tell you something, personal glory equals vain glory. Doesn't matter. Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Now look, you say, well they're not better than me. Okay, that doesn't matter. Esteem them better than you. Well that's not reality. Shut up and do it because the Bible said so. Doesn't matter whether they're better. Treat them like they're better. Act like they're better. You know, consider them better. Esteem them better than yourself and don't be striving and fighting for your own personal glory. Look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others. Let me tell you how to be a much happier person in life. Make your life about helping other people succeed instead of making yourself succeed. It is much more gratifying when you can help someone else hit their goal and help someone else achieve something than achieving your own goals. When you achieve your own goal, it's an empty feeling. Help other people achieve their goals. Look not every man on his own things but every man also on things of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. You know, Christ Jesus didn't come to this earth to be served. He came to minister and to give his life for ransom for many. He came to die on the cross for others, okay? So we need to have that attitude in the church and I'll even take it a step further and, you know, there's even a team called Christianity as well. And so if I can do something to help another church succeed, then that's just as good as doing something to help our church succeed. It's not like, well we just care about building our own little kingdom here at Faithful Word Baptist Church. It's just all about our growth and us breaking attendance records or us winning souls to Christ or us achieving something. If we can help another church that's also a godly biblical church, if we can help them achieve something, then that's just as good. It's identical. And I've instructed my staff on this that, you know, if there's anything that we can do to help other churches succeed, we'll do it. And that basically when it comes to finances that, you know, spending the church's money on events that other churches are putting on, if they're soul winning events, if they're winning people to Christ, you know, that's a good use of our money. If we can fund a mission strip for another church or a soul winning event that they're doing, if we can kick in financially, that's a good use of, well yeah, but what's it doing for us? What's it doing for our church? Nothing! Nothing! Any questions? Because it's about Christ. It's not about this church. It's about Jesus Christ. And you know what? It doesn't matter whether our church gains 50 people or whether Verity Baptist Church gains 50 people or whether Stronghold Baptist Church gains 50 people, it is all the same to me because I just want the gospel to thrive. I want churches to thrive. It doesn't really matter if it's us or them or whoever, just so long as the work goes forward for Jesus, not for us or our geography or us personally, but it's just for whoever. Because at the end of the day, it's the work of Christ that matters. You know, and here's the thing, if someone leaves our church and goes to another Bible believing church, amen! That's not a loss. I don't consider that losing someone. And if somebody comes from another good Bible believing church to our church, I don't really consider that a gain. You know, it's just, you're just moving pieces around. Now neither of those things is negative. If people come from another good Fundamental Baptist Church over to ours, amen! If they go from ours to another one, amen! I'll say amen in both situations and I really feel neutral about it. You know, people come to me and they're like, oh, we're leaving, we're going to this, and I'm just like, great, wonderful. Now if they're leaving and they're not going to church anywhere or if they're leaving and going to some super lame church or something, then obviously that's sad. It's sad to see people get out of a thriving, soul winning church and go to something lame, but even so, they still, you know, as long as they go to the best church in whatever area they're moving to, like they still have my blessing. I'm still going to bless them and love them and be thankful and so I'm not going to be negative about it. But obviously it's better when people are making a lateral movement than a step down. When people are making a lateral movement where they're going from one soul winning church to another, just because of geography, or maybe not even because of geography, maybe it's just a better fit for their family, it's a better fit for their personality, amen! Because we're all on the same team. We're all on Team Jesus, not Team Faithful Word, not Team Fundamentalist Baptist, we're just on Team Jesus in the end. But then we've also got our own team here, right, of the local church, Faithful Word Baptist Church, and we want to make sure that we think about that team. So I challenge you to apply this in all areas of life and to think about how you can be more of a team player at your job, how you can be more of a team player in your home, in your family, how you can be more of a team player at church, you know, or if you do sports, be a team player when you do sports. But at the end of the day, that's the literal meaning, but at the end of the day, you know, being a team player is indispensable for the Christian life because you will not be a great Christian out on your own, commando, lone ranger, you will not be a great Christian like that. You've got to learn to be a team player. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and for all these great teachings about the team that we can find in Scripture, Lord, help us to apply these to our lives and to get off our high horses, not to be prideful and arrogant. Help us to get a humble attitude that wants to see other people increase even if it means that we decrease. Lord, help us to worry about other people's success, help other churches succeed, help our friends succeed, help our family succeed, and not just only be in it for our own goals. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, let's take our song books together and go to hymn number 343. Revive us again, number 343. Now this is a song you really have to sing out, so let's sing it out in that first verse, 343. We praise Thee, O God, for the Son of our God, for Jesus, who died and is now gone above. Hallelujah, thine the glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory, revive us again. We praise Thee, O God, for that Spirit of light, who has shown us as Savior and scattered our night. Hallelujah, thine the glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory, revive us again. All glory and praise to the Lamb that was slain, who has borne all our sins and has blessed every stain. Hallelujah, thine the glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory, revive us again. Revive us again. Fill each heart with Thy love, make each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah, thine the glory, hallelujah, amen. Hallelujah, thine the glory, revive us again.