In a world that is chaotic, are you thankful for God’s power, God’s
presence? Let me ask you another uh question. Are you thankful for the people who have helped you get where you
are in your faith today?
It could it could be parents who prayed for you. It could be somebody that brought you to church for the first
time. It could be the church that now you’re a part of. the prayer partners that have come into your life where you
you don’t pray alone, you pray together, you you bring your needs to one, whatever it is that and that’s what
we’re talking about. We’re talking about teaming. Everybody say teaming. Teaming. And the
the verse of scripture, and I’ll let you sit down, I promise. But it goes like
this. It’s in Philippians 1:27. It says, “Just be sure you live as
God’s people in a way that honors the good news of Christ.” Is that good? Then
if I come and visit you or I’m away from you, I will hear good things about you.
I will know that you stand together with the same purpose and that you work
together like a team. that you work together. What? Like a team. Say it
again. You work together like a team. To help others believe the good news.
Amen. Wow. Wow. Wow. Okay, you may be seated.
Grab something to write with. Take some notes today. We’ll put things up on the screen to kind of help and assist you in
that way so that you can go home with some some notes and some outlines.
And let’s begin with this just I want to recap a little bit from last week what
we talked about. First of all, the the word teaming is defined like this. It’s
defined as working together as a team to achieve a common goal. working together
as a team to achieve a common goal and we talked about that last week.
Second thing that we talked about last week was that nothing of great value is achieved without a team.
So the sneakers that you wear, it took a team of people to put
those shoes together. the car that you drive like it all the different parts of
it. It took a team many many many many people designing crafting all the
different parts. The house that you live in uh the the lumber came from one place
the cement came from another place and it it just goes on and on. the computer that you
use, all the little gadgets and all the little pieces and all the little part, the phone that you
use, even a pencil, the the old style pencil where it’s made out of
wood. You know what I’m talking about? And and it’s got a a little uh eraser on
the end and then the the the the lead, the pencil lead, I think we call it.
Like you think about all of those just those three or four different parts like the the eraser came from a rubber plant
in Malaia somewhere you know and the and the wood came from a for it just goes on and on.
In other words that that that it’s really true that nothing of great value nothing is achieved without a team.
So the the the next thing which I think is the second or third thing that I’m reviewing and recapping is that we said
teaming is at the core of God’s nature. So it’s not just something that
we watch on TV or something that we participate in at an athletic field.
Teaming is at the core of God’s nature. He is a triune God.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
He made you and I. He made man in in his image. And he made us male and female.
In other words, multiplication. God doesn’t just live to himself by
himself. That’s the point I’m making that at the very teaming is at the core of God’s nature. He He said this. He
said it’s not good for us to be alone. He said two are better
than one. He said where two or three are gathered
in my name, I’ll be there right there with them.
So his word tells us that he blesses those who are in unity.
His word tells us that we are all formed for family. Yeah.
And that God has placed us and places us in community.
Everybody say, “Formed for family.” Formed for family. Say, “I’m formed.” I’m formed for family. For family. Say,
“I’m not good.” I’m not good. On my own. On my own. Say, “Trust me.” Trust me.
I’m not good. I’m not good. On my own. on my own. We are better together. We are better together.
Amen. Amen. The disciples were Jesus
team. The church is Jesus team. Come on. Jesus
loves his team. And he gave himself up. The Bible says
for his team. So scripture calls us his family, his
people, Christ’s body, many parts, all one.
Bible calls us soldiers in the army, fellow citizens with God’s people,
members of God’s household who belong in God’s house with every other person. These are just this
just Bible stuff I’m spitting out to all of you today because I think many people
don’t realize that teaming is at the very core of God’s nature.
So that’s what we talked about last week. Today in this second
edition, the next few minutes, I I want to talk about grouping versus teaming.
The difference between a group and a team. I think if you’ll just keep your heart open, you’ll learn something
today. It’ll move you in the right direction in your life if you receive it. Okay. So So let’s start with this.
Groups are not a bad thing. Groups can be fun. Yeah. Uh they a group can enjoy
a concert together, uh attend an event together, a church together, uh groups
laugh together, learn together, but but a group is not a team. You can be grouping and not teaming.
You can be in a group without ever being part of a team. If you get me, say, I got you. I got
you. You can sit in the same row at church, attend the same weekly
service, or go to a meeting. You can even serve. You can even serve in the same
department and still never function right like a team.
Now, I want to just try to explain that to you. Imagine eight strangers riding in an elevator together.
They’re sharing space. My wife’s like, “Ah, doesn’t sound
fun.” Sharing space, right? They they get on the elevator, they’re together. Each one is going their own way, getting
off at different floors, headed in different directions. Just imagine that setting. And then imagine that there is
a sudden jolt on the elevator and the lights go off.
Immediately something starts to change.
First of all, in their behavior the way they view each other.
Me, you know, elevators we stand facing forward. Might nod a little bit if we’re
forced to, but they’re just not, you know, a lot. Most people get on elevators and
they’re just like, we don’t even talk to each other, right? all in an 8ft square
box. But then the jolt comes, the lights go
off and they start to communicate.
Some start to calm others down. Like some start hyperventilating, the others start being the doctor and the nurse. So
someone presses the alarm. You can imagine it. I’m kind of making
it up, but it’s it’s true. It’s what would happen. Somebody presses an alarm.
Somebody grabs their cell phone to see if they got bars. Is it working? Who do I call? Do I call 911? Anybody know the
front desk? Front desk number. Anybody? Like they’re just like going going at it
together. Well, what is that? Like what’s changed?
What turned a group of strangers
into a team that was instantly
communicating and collaborating and utilizing whatever means they could
to to get to safety and move things in the
right direction rather than just standing there looking at each other. Yeah.
The shift from group to team begins with shared space but it
becomes shared purpose. That that’s what the shift is. Yeah, it
starts with shared space but it be when it when it the evolving into a team is
when space goes to purpose
and within God’s church that’s where
God really begins to reside and to build something
significant in your life in my life. Yes. And the way he actually builds us
together, that’s a picture of the shift, the kind of thing from attending church,
hello to actually being the church.
Can think of it like this. Teaming is people with different roles, same goal.
Philippians teaches us this. It says if you have any
encouragement from being united with Christ, this is Philippians 1 or 4 1 and
2. Any any encouragement from being united with Christ? Then make my joy
complete. Now I’m stumbling. Is it four or is it two? Philippians
2. Then make my joy complete by
being likeminded.
Whoa. Have the same You could put whatever word you want to put there. This this
word is love. But you could put the same goal. You could put the same heart. You
could put same desire being one become
one in spirit and of one mind. All right. So
good. This is the apostle Paul talking to the people at Philippi encouraging them to go from
from being a group to becoming a team.
So this is what I call the language of team think. Team
think. And it’s a mindset if you would
that is rooted in unity, selflessness,
shared purpose. It’s not it’s not fleshy.
It’s not selfish. It’s not just thinking
of ourselves. It’s something higher.
It’s not just standing in our own little space thinking of what I have to do today,
what floor I’m getting off at. And no, I don’t really need to
acknowledge that you are even here. That’s right. It goes from that to whoa,
we’re here together. God put us here in the same time in the
same space. And whoa, he’s got a plan. And oh my goodness, he called us to it.
He brought you here, me here, we here. Amen. I’m a soldier. I came from the
east coast and I got assigned to Fort Lewis and I show up at a Dupont location
of Champion Center. I was on my own, but now I’m being brought together with
other people. Something bigger, something different,
something special, something beyond just sharing space. We’re now sharing
purpose.
Let me give you some examples of how the two things I I call it group think and team think. And we got a graph a graphic
I guess would be the right way to say it. When group think is is a mindset that that gathers again nothing wrong
with it but team think is a mindset of
uniting. Okay. So, we’re here, but why are we here? And what can we do
together to actually spread the good news or tell
others of the good news? Represent Christ in our
community. Group think is observation and team think is
participation. Group think is individualization.
Team think is collaboration. Group think is focused on being
valued. Team think is focused on adding value.
Let the Lord speak to you today. If you’re one of those people who goes to church and wonders if anyone is going
to shake my hand, if anyone is going to welcome me, how friendly are they? And you have your grade cards out and you’re
scoring everybody like friendly. Uh, I’m just going to give them I’m in a scale of one
to five, I’m going to give it a I’m going to give Champion Center a two.
Like I’ll give it a two today. Well, that’s that’s when you’re thinking of
being valued. Right. And people are thinking and focused on
being valued. They usually have a do not
disturb sign on their face.
You’re scary to us. You told us when you got out of your car and walked in the building, you
really didn’t want to talk to anybody. Oh, I didn’t tell you that. Your face told
us you scared people away.
But you didn’t think of I’m going to go in here and I’m going to be friendly to
some people today. And I’m going to like shake some hands and I’m going to meet some friends and
you know you you sit in a service and you’re wondering does anyone is anyone going to value me today instead of how
do I add value? I want to Well, you sing along. You clap. You worship with us.
you you know you don’t rush in and rush out.
This is a big deal. It really is. This if you I I’ve taught on this value thing
for many years and it is something we all including me by the way. We all can get hung up. We can get hung up on
getting so much focused on me that you just automatically your habit
of thought is automatically on you only on what’s going on in your life.
Yes. People will often times in our church like you could be doing this right now in today’s message. You could
be going, “Well, I actually came here today to hear a message about the power of prayer or something that would really
lift my spirit.” And you’re here talking about teeming and something I’m supposed
to do. What I came to be encouraged in the Lord and you know and so people come and
they grade messages. They grade sermons when actually if you if you just step
outside of your own individualization sometimes you will think differently
because you’ll understand I’m not the only one in the room. There are other people who might need to
hear something different. Uh God is God will help me through everything I hear to learn and to grow.
I just keep my spirit open and and and I actually am only just coming once in a while to this church.
So, Pastor Kevin could have done a powerful message on prayer for three weeks in a row and I wasn’t here.
Oh my. Don’t you love me? I hope you love me. I love you.
So the last one is similar. Self-seeking versus mission centered. These are this
is just a snapshot that you could go really into and uh and and know it all
study it all. But the point is that there’s group there’s group thinking and
there is team thinking. And if you laid these next to a team, you could even
take a sports team and you would realize how important these same things are.
It’s just teameming. It’s husband and wife teameming. It’s family teameming.
If your children are all into themselves like that, you got to keep working that out of them or they’re not going to be a
good member of the family, right? If if a husband and wife is all into
themselves, they’re not going to make a good husband or wife. Like all of these
things, individualization or collaboration, let’s work together. It’s all applies is my point in every single
scenario where people shift out of individualization or I would just say
even group thinking, observation, groups observe, groups check out. I I said to
someone uh who talked to me a few months ago, he I I chatted with him here in the
front after service and if you’re here today and that’s you, uh uh nobody else
knows but me and you. So, um but he said something like, “Hey, I just come once
in a while here, but I go to this church and I go to that church and I go to another church.” And I’m like, “Well, why don’t you just not come back
here?” And I think I shocked them. And I’m like, if this church isn’t for you,
like we don’t need a bunch of visitors who come occasionally.
To like just, you know, observe. That’s right. We’re looking for soldiers.
We’re We’re looking for team. We’re looking for team.
Thank you. You can be seated. Imagine if Jesus had said, you know, to to if the
12 had said, if Peter had said, well, hey, I’m I’m okay. I’ll be a part of this group um you you know, two times a
month. This is not unreasonable, guys.
Find out where you’re called. Where where you belong.
Go there, right? Show up.
Serve it. And keep coming.
Come back.
I forgot how I said the third thing last weekend, but you get the point. It’s like, “Show up.” Everybody say, “Show
up.” Show up. Serve. Serve. And don’t stop. And don’t stop. Just keep coming.
Like when things are hard, nobody says hi. Keep coming. Like don’t stop. You
get your feelings hurt, don’t stop. If God put you somewhere,
don’t stop. The devil doesn’t want you wherever God puts you, but don’t stop.
You just stay. You stay in the place on the team God puts you
on. Well, that’s easy for you to say. No, it’s not. I’ve wanted to leave here and pastor in Hawaii for a long time
now. I have felt God calling me to sunny states for the last 30 years. I promise
you. It’s just if we’re on assignment, we are
faithful to the people God has called us to be
with. Amen. Helen Keller said, “Alone we can
do so little and together we can do so much.” It’s powerful, isn’t it? I read a fun
fact about the big workh horses a few weeks ago. Once a workhorse is fully
grown, I’m talking about the big ones, you know, that they’re capable of pulling about 8,000 pounds, an interesting fact is that when
two horses pull a load together, they don’t just pull 16,000
lb, the team of two can pull 22,000 lbs.
Wow. And if that isn’t impressive, when they train
together, they can pull up to 32,000bs.
Is that unbelievable? Like we are not at our
best alone. We are better together.
Better together.
formed for family created for community. And by the way, shout out to the
Yakama family Yakamal location. People don’t know this yet.
You know it. Walls are going up on the new building. Walls went up this week.
Wow. Wow. People across all of our locations are a part of that at giving to it and we’re we’re but you know the
point is one person can’t do that kind of thing together. We it I mean by themselves we do it together. We do it
together. So I got a couple of more things before I wrap up. U teaming is
fundamental to our faith and our spiritual development. Hear me out on
this. Okay. If you want to play baseball, you know, represent a high
school, a university, or a city, Major League Baseball, you don’t just show up and say, “I want to play baseball for
the city of Seattle. Why not? Why can’t I just show
up and do that?” Well, you can’t play baseball alone. Baseball is a team sport.
And a fundamental part of playing baseball is learning how to be a part of a team. That’s right.
[Music] You can study baseball alone.
You can go to the batting cages alone, but you can’t develop into a baseball
player without a team.
Don’t let your unchurched friends intimidate you when they talk about being a Christian
but don’t like the church don’t want to go to church got things to
say negative about don’t don’t let that intimidate you because in the same way that teaming is fundamental to baseball
teaming is fundamental to our faith
It’s a fundamental part of the Christian life.
Spiritual maturity won’t happen in isolation. Right. That’s
right. Being part of a team will test you
and it will call you higher in your attitude,
in your faith, in your consistency, in your willingness to work
through issues, forgive other people,
get along, collaborate. That all happens in
teaming. Every baseball player has been on some
bad team. Most baseball players could say, “I’ve been on several bad
teams.” But that doesn’t mean they can go it alone.
They can’t go it alone. And I don’t know who I’m talking to this
weekend. Maybe some of you, like I said, you need to hear this because your friends don’t
get what I’m saying and you just need to keep on knowing the truth about being a
Christian. But somebody else might have felt like, well, that just hurt too
much. That last scenario at a church that was messed up, goofed
up, just bothers me. And I want you to hear today that no one
in God’s church, including pastors, can stay in a church long
enough and be part of the team without having some cuts and bruises that come
from those on your team.
They they are initiated and driven by people who are supposed to be on your side. Friendly fire happens
in God’s army. [Music] That doesn’t mean we can go it alone.
That’s right. In fact, your healing is still in the church.
The old one let you down. The old friends let you down. Let God bring you some new friends.
Open your heart up to a new opportunity, a new possibility where God can heal you.
I’m would not be the person I am.
Certainly not the pastor, but I wouldn’t be the person I am if it weren’t for if it weren’t for the church, the
teeming part. Because I’ve been slapped, smacked, hurt, felt unnoticed,
rejected, criticized. I’m not wanting sympathy.
I’m wanting you to know, oh, really? That happens to you, too? Absolutely.
Absolutely. But you know what? God’s used all of those things as I allowed
him to to make me better, to make me
stronger, to develop me, develop my
character. Amen. That’s what happens in teaming. Right. Yeah.
[Music] So, let me just end like I started uh today by just thanking everybody at
Champion Center. Like high fives to you, verbal high fives to you who are part of team church at Champion Center. Thank
you so much. Appreciate everybody who is uh connected and you are serving and you
are faithful and you’re really you’re not just a group. You’re not just part of the group mindset. You’ve moved in
from there and you’ve become part of the team. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I love you. I thank God for you. I
appreciate you. I know God. I know God’s working in your
life. And I want to say to everybody who’s not on the team that God wants you
to join the team. Well, Pastor Kevin, isn’t that presumptuous? No. No. It’s
just like being baptized. He wants you baptized. Well, do I have to be? you get to be.
It’s his plan. It’s what he wants. And by the way, we wouldn’t have seen 120 people baptized last weekend if it
weren’t for the team. If we weren’t teaming up. That’s what happens when you’re teaming
it. So, God wants you to join the team. And that all starts today attending our
church essentials May 4th today, all locations. And so, I welcome you. I hope that
you’ll jump in, jump on, be part of the team, get really connected. I know I know your life and your walk with God
will be much, much, much, much better and stronger by joining the team and
teaming it with the believers around you. Amen. Okay. Now, you receive my my message.
You receive the word today. You you receive that.
Okay. Now, if you’re a believer, you’re a follower of Jesus, I want to tell you that you’re
not in the wrong place, you’re in the right place. It’s not a coincidence that you’re here today. Amen. And that you
are in God’s house with God’s people. I I want to I want to tell you
that we’ve been praying for you to come and we believe that there are many
many people that God is still adding yes to his family to his church and that
you’re one of those. If you’ve just really been reluctant or hesitant, if you’ve been an
observer, my encouragement for you today is take a step. Take a step
toward the team that God has around you and the people God has around you called
his church. Just come in that direction today. You You belong. You belong. You
You don’t belong in the bleachers. You don’t belong in the observation deck. You don’t belong in the cheap seats.
You belong in God’s house with God’s people. I heard a story of a young man whose
family lost track of him for many years. And when I heard this story, it
made me think of you. He went away into the military. And
after he got out of the military, he got involved in some stuff and made some
mistakes, got into some trouble, and he started avoiding the law. And part of
that was, you know, just going dark and he never really intended to
stay away. But a week turned into a month, and a month turned in to a year of being
disconnected to his family. And then after 15
years, he reached out to his dad. His dad had thought his son was
dead. But when he reached out to his dad and they the joy and the excitement,
it’s like a modern-day prodical son story. everything that
happened. There’s one part of the story that was really resonating and
interesting to me and that is that they asked the the man who 15 years
had gone by and they asked him why why why did you stay away from your family so
long and here was his answer. He said, “I didn’t know what to
say. I didn’t know what to [Music]
say.” In other words, I didn’t know how to [Music]
explain. And I think people do the same thing with their spiritual family.
And what I want to tell you today is if you’ve been away, you don’t have to explain. Just
come home. Just come
home. Just come
home. You’re welcome here. We’re thankful that God brought
you here and you have an opportunity today to come home to God. Come home to the church. Give your heart
to the Lord. I’m going to pray a simple salvation prayer. Get a new beginning today. Get planted in the house of the
Lord and start a new chapter in your life. Amen. So, will you pray this prayer? Everyone in the house, just join
me. And if you’re a person here who needs a new beginning in your life and your relationship with God, just join
with me. Lean into this. Pray with me. And God’s going to hear your prayer. Are
you ready? Say this with me. Say, “Lord Jesus, Jesus, welcome to my world. my
world. Forgive me of all my sin. Forgive me of all my s. Come into my heart. Into
my heart. And into my life. into my life. And make me a new person. Make me a new person. I receive you now. I
receive you now. As the leader as the leader and as the Lord as the Lord of my life of my life. I boldly declare I
boldly declare I won’t be the same again. I won’t be the same again. In Jesus name. Jesus name. Pause one
moment. If you prayed that prayer as a new beginning in your life,
your relationship with God, I’m going to ask you to boldly at every location, just put your hand up in the air and be
a witness for a new beginning today. Good. Hands are going up. Hands are going up. Come on. Hands are going
up. God bless you. Welcome to the family of God today.
[Applause]