Everybody say, “I’m glad I’m here.” I’m glad I’m here. Everybody say, “My heart is open.” My heart is open.
My mind is ready. My mind is ready. Make me better, God. I got to tell you, like a couple of
weeks ago, I I saw three weekends in a row that I decided we’ll tie together.
and I just pivoted and changed all the, you know, maybe it whenever I I knew the Hawks were going to be in the Super
Bowl, I decided, okay, we got vision weekend. So, we’re going to we got followed by
Super Bowl weekend and then we got Valentine’s Day, like three weekends. So, that’s when we
decided we’re gonna we’re gonna just have a series called For the Win and we’re going to have fun every weekend.
Last weekend, we said vision wins. This weekend we’re going to say team wins.
Everybody say team wins. Team wins. Say it again. Team wins. Team wins. And next weekend we are going to say
love wins. How many of you know love wins?
That’s going to be a a fun weekend as well. So bring a friend and we’re going
to have good time in church. No one person will win the Super Bowl.
Just not going to happen. The Super Bowl will only be won by a team.
And the guys who win, by the way, today are the ones who play together like a
team. You can count on that. You may not be willing to get out there and say, “Well,
I’m sure such and such team is going to win. and the Hawks are going to win or I’m sure the um who else are we playing
today? I forget. New England that I’m sure the Patriots are going to win. Like
you might you not might not want to say that, but one thing you can say for sure is whoever plays together like a team
the best today is going to win. Somebody shout team wins.
Come on, say it again. Team wins. Team wins. And it’s no different in our
lives. Teaming is what wins in marriage.
Teaming is what wins at home. Teaming is what wins at work.
And teaming is what wins at church.
So shout it out again. Team wins. Team wins. Team wins.
I want to play a little football while I have a chance. I have fond memories of a football on
stage. Was any men I know we got multiple locations, but even at those
other locations, if you were here for the men’s conference,
when quarterback Curt Warner was one of our speakers and he threw a pass to yours truly.
where I went down the aisle. The place was packed with men.
It was my moment. If you can find it in video, find it. Better than any like
touchdown in history. cuz I went down up all the way up and I
sprinted across that aisle way up there and there’s a rod iron railing
sitting right you know it’s right up there. Kurt Warner like little old me. I’m not
like that tall guys. and Curt Warner stood on this stage and
threw a bullet pass about I don’t know cleared the
cleared the the bars up there cleared it by 6 in a foot I’m not sure all I know
is it hit me right here like uphill and everything
and I caught it [cheering] I caught it Yeah,
I caught it. So, what we’re going to do today is just when I feel like it, I don’t know if I’ll do it every point or
not, everything I talk about, but we’re going to have we’re going to see how we can do with a with just a simple
simple throw and catch. Throw and catch because the ball could
get dropped. The ball can get thrown bad.
You know, the ball could not be where it’s supposed to be, especially with us,
but we’re just going to try. And my helper right now, Pastor Eric,
played [cheering] I can tell you this will not be on his side if we mess it up.
He was a receiver at WSU,
[applause and cheering] wide receiver. Tight end. Tight end. Tight end. Thank you. He was
a lot bigger than he is now. [laughter] All right. So, are you ready? Like,
cameras, are you ready? I’m just going to try. I’m just going to try it. See if we can do this.
[cheering] [applause]
Everybody say, “Team wins.” Okay, you hold on to it and we’ll do it
again with somebody else. [laughter] All right. You having fun?
All right. The scripture that I’ll start with, Ecclesiastes 4:1 19, reads like this. It says, “Two
are better than one.” Can you say that with me? Two are better
than one. Say it again. Two are better than one. Now, I want you to notice few
things about this. This is a statement, not a question.
He’s not asking for input or disagreement.
He’s This is the a book written by King Solomon. It’s a
book of wisdom with a bit of poetic flare.
And he’s saying it as a matter of fact. Want to say it again? Two are better
than one. And then he goes on to emphasize, you
can read it there. I’m just going to put it into uh simple verbiage for you. He says basically, if you’re alone and you
fall, there’s no one to help you up. If you’re alone and it’s cold,
there’s no one to keep you warm. If you’re alone and an enemy attacks
you, you will be overpowered.
In other words, he’s saying team wins. He even went as far as to say, okay, two
is brilliant. It’s better than one. But then he mentions that a a strand or a
cord like a rope that has three strands in it tied together and wrapped. He’s
saying now you’re getting really strong. It’s not easily broken.
Everybody say team wins. Team wins. So just so we understand clearly going
it alone doesn’t win. Getting offended and going to your own
house and not going to church doesn’t win.
Good luck with that. It’s a violation of the Bible. It’s a
violation of God’s plan. Doing life by yourself doesn’t win.
Withdrawing from people doesn’t win.
Pushing people away doesn’t win.
Keeping your distance doesn’t win.
You know what does win? Team wins.
What I’m going to do today is I’m going to just share five traits of a winning team. This is in my
recently released book where it’s I titled it takes a team and I’m just going to give you five traits of a
winning team. And these are qualities that will help strengthen the teams in your life. Okay? The the teaming isn’t
personality based. It is practicebased.
It’s the practice of specific qualities.
So winning teams don’t just have these qualities,
they grow into these qualities. Did you catch that?
Everybody say, “We’re all growing.” We’re all growing. Everybody say, “We’re all learning.”
We’re all learning. Everybody say, “We’re all getting better.” We’re all getting better. Say, “I’m here.”
I’m here to get better. To get better. So, the first one I’m going to give them
to you in the in the acronym of teams. If you’re taking notes, you can put you can take notes a little different. Put T
E A MS like that down the side of the paper and I I’ll fill them in for you. Okay. The first one, the T stands for
tenacious. Tenacious. Tenac. Tenacious simply means to be
persistent even when something is not easy. It’s great.
You got somebody in mind, Pastor Eric, that you could throw the ball to? I’m
wondering where they’re at in the room. You got somebody Oh, you’re going to go uphill. Now, all of you can’t see this
maybe at locations, but we’re we’re all going to see how how you do. Okay. Uphill to a receiver.
We’re going to see a game of catch. Can we make it or not? Can we make it or not? [cheering]
[applause] Everybody say two are better than one. Two are better than one.
How many of you know he can’t throw the ball to himself? [laughter]
Okay. So, tenacious. That’s what we’re going to talk about first. The Seahawks have a player named Cooper Cup.
[cheering] They’re really cheering right now in Yakamal because he grew up in Yakama.
He played his entire, you know, life in football and all of that in in Yakama,
high school there, etc. And then he was drafted by the Los Angeles Rams. And in
2021, a little bit of background on him, he was the offensive player of the year and he was the most valuable player in
the Super Bowl, which they won, right? But then after that, some stuff
happened. We don’t know everything that happened, but things happened and the Rams, you
know, decided they didn’t need him anymore, that he was done as a player. I think he had some injuries. I I I think
maybe I I don’t know exactly, but
he could have said, “Yeah, I’m done with this stuff.” Like he could have said, “You know what?
You’re not treating me right. you made an agreement on a contract and now
you’re basically telling me you don’t need me anymore. And there’s a story behind all of that.
I won’t try to get into it cuz I don’t know all the facts. But
the point was is that they said he was done. They said it was over. He could
have went home and just ended and say, you know, I’ll never do that again.
That’s too painful. That hurts too much. I wasn’t treated well, but because he
refused to quit on team, he’s playing today for the Seattle Seahawks in
another Super Bowl. [cheering]
You might say, “What’s your point, Pastor Kevin?” My point is that pain, disappointment, and offenses come along
with teeming. That’s right. It’s just part of teaming. Right?
Rather than push through bad experiences,
some people become hesitant and they hold back from being committed to a
team. Somebody shout tenacious. Tenacious.
There’s a story in the Bible about God’s reducing the size of Gideon’s army. It’s
a great story in the Old Testament. There were 32,000 army. Uh I don’t want to call them
warriors because they weren’t. They were just enlisted, I guess. And and God
started telling Gideon like you you can’t go forward with this crew. And he keeps cutting the team. He keeps cutting
guys from the team and telling them you can go home.
Okay. Now, why did that happen? like why why did God go from 32,000 down
to 300 when there was a battle coming up? I’m
going to tell you why. Because the ones that were there, let me say this, God didn’t reduce the army because he needed
fewer people. That wasn’t it. He reduced it because
hesitation weakens momentum. And all the rest of them were hesitant
now. They were they were pulling back.
They were like, “I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to do this. I don’t know. Anything can happen.” Like, like I I I
said Cooper Cooper could have done that. Like they they’re like, “I don’t know if I want to really go fight.”
And and so God’s like, “Okay, you’re not good for the team. You’re not good for the team. You’re not good for the team.
You’re not good for what I need is tenacious. I need tenacious people.
I need people who push through their disappointment to be part of the team.
They use their pain as an opportunity to grow.
They use their disappointment as an opportunity for God to develop character
and strength within them. Amen. And those who are tenacious
and they are certain and they are allin and they weather the storm, they weather
the offenses. You guys know I’m talking to the church today. The church of today is more like
they’re they’re more easily offended than probably any generation of God’s church in history.
Offended about everything. somebody looks at them wrong like they they’re
offended. And we live in a culture that is easily offended. In fact, if you’re
offended, our culture applauds you. Yeah. If you’re if if you’re not
offended, our culture is trying to get you to be offended. Like, you just ought to be offended. But
but we’re called to be offense proof when it comes to teams. We’re called to
be tenacious. I’m not I’m not leaving my family because I got offended. I’m not
leaving my marriage because I got offended. I’m not leaving the church where God puts me because I got offended.
[applause] Somebody shout tenacious. Okay, the second one. Whoever has the
ball like today, I need another receiver. I need another thrower. I need another receiver.
Is that Christian right there? Okay. Can you catch?
[laughter] Cuz I know you can throw. You You were quarterback at college, so But you can
catch, right? All right, we’re going to see if if this is a good thing. Ready?
Yeah. [screaming] [cheering] [applause] Everybody say, “Two are better than
one.” Okay. E stands for enlarging. Enlarging.
I’m going to move a little faster on some of these. Enlarging simply means in the you know in the Bible the words
enlargement signifies multiplication or increase.
God told Abraham I will make a covenant with you. I will greatly increase your numbers. He was saying to him I will
enlarge you. I will increase your number. I will multiply your influence.
Your name will be known and your legacy will fill the earth. Scripture says in Isaiah 54,
God tells his people, “Enlarge the place of your tent. Stretch your tent curtains wide. Do not
hold back. Lengthen your cords. Strengthen your stakes.” My point is, we’re called to be enlargers. We’re
called to enlarge the kingdom, to be big, thinking, risk-taking, faithfilled people. We’re not called to be
smallminded into ourself. [applause] We’re called to be expansive.
We’re called to be enlargers. We’re called to lift one another. We’re called to encourage one another.
We’re called to build each other up. And this is one of the ways we can all
serve on God’s team is to be an enlarger of his kingdom.
When it comes to teaming, I’ll just hit this one really quick. There’s there’s four kinds of people. I call this the
relational math of team dynamics. There are subtractors.
And then in every room we’re in today, there are subtractors. They take strength from the team. There are
dividers who separate members of the team. There are then adders who bring strength
to the team. And then there are multipliers who expand the potential and capacity of the
team. Four kinds of people. You can do a little bit of
self-examination there and just maybe God will talk to you if you’re not on the right end of this. But adders and
multipliers are the enlargers. They add value.
They lift up. Their attention is not on being valued. It’s on adding value.
It’s on adding value. There was a guy in the Bible named
Barnabas and his name literally means son of encouragement in the New
Testament and and he he enlarged the apostle Paul’s
future when others like you know know didn’t trust the apostle Paul like
Barnabas was the guy who’s like like encouraging the apostle Paul encouraging
the people of God saying you know God’s hand is on your life, God’s hand. He’s
going to do great things through you. That’s an enlarger. And I just want to say to everybody here
today, if people are better because of you, you’re enlarging the team.
If God’s family is better because of you, God bless you. You are enlarging
the team. [applause] Petty people shrink the team. Petty
people divide the team. small thinking people like th those are
the people just watch out for them like and I would just say Bible says don’t have lunch with people who gossip and
talk about and criticize other people in the family that’s what the Bible says so
you can take it from there but enlarging is what good teammates do
they enlarge everybody shout enlarge A stands for adaptable who has the ball
want to throw it to to another player oh the quarterback has the ball. Can you catch? Okay,
I can catch. You’re not going to throw too hard, right? All right, here we go. Point A to
point B. Nice catch. You better catch. You got Steve Largin’s
jersey on.
Adaptable means to adjust
to changes to new conditions. So all you planners, all of you who like
to have a plan, go by a plan, hear me today. I believe in planning. The Bible teaches us to plan. Planning is a good
thing. But things don’t always go as planned. [laughter]
Can you say amen? Like like I remember all my ideas before
I got married and then it wasn’t really like I thought
it would be. Anybody else want to say amen? Now it’s actually better. I get to come
home with you today, Sheila. It’s better. Like, it’s better. But boy, it
wasn’t like I, you know, when you’re dating and your romance and all that. But boy, when you just decide we’re
going to be a team whoa, it’s for better, for worse.
It’s waking up to [laughter]
a person in the in the bed with you that never looked like that when you were dating. [laughter]
[laughter] Some of you like just should keep maybe a scope by the bed and hand it over in
the morning if your one and only has a issue with that. But
anyway, you wake up to a whole lot of new realities. It doesn’t quite go as planned, but winning teams don’t panic
when the play breaks down. They adjust. Tell somebody right now, adjust. Adjust.
Tell somebody else, adjust. Adjust. The two teams who are playing in the Super Bowl today, they’ve both won 14
out of 17 games this season. That’s pretty good. But in order to get there, they played
in all kinds of weather. Somebody say, “Ajust.” Adjust. They dealt with different injuries on
the team. Somebody say, “Ajust.” Adjust. They changed their game plan in the
middle of the game. Every planner here is like, “What? We had a game plan.”
Yeah. They changed it in the middle of the game. And if you watch today’s game, you’re
going to see what’s called plays breaking down. What they said they were going to do a
minute ago in the huddle suddenly is not what they’re doing right now because the
play broke down in the middle of the play. It did not go as planned. And rather than stick to the plan and lose
yardage, they improvise in the moment. And many times by improvising, they have
a gain of yardage. Sometimes even like a really surprise gain of yardage and they
get a big yardage gain because they improvise. Are you following me?
Called adjusting. It it it’s it’s it it’s it’s it’s a unique ability in all of our life. I I
like the little quote, “Blessed are the flexible, they will not be bent out of shape.”
We all got to keep that in mind when it comes to teaming. Like, don’t don’t get too don’t get too
upset right now. Just calm down. Like, that wasn’t what we planned, but we can
work through this. We figure this out, right? [laughter] We can figure this out.
I was going to tell a story about Sheila and I, but I’m not going to tell it.
It makes me look bad. Um, okay. M stands for missional.
M stands for missional. A stands for adapt. E stands for enlarge. And T
stands for tenacious. If you missed any of that, M stands for missional. Teaming. Hear me out on this. A lot of
you guys, lot a lot of you guys and gals who are really high what we call highly
social, maybe you’re an I on a disc test. You just love being around people like we need you guys. We need we need
social people, fun people, people who like to like just hang out and have a good time together. So glad that we have
a bunch of you in our church.
[applause] But here’s my point. Teaming is not about
proximity. It’s about a shared purpose.
That’s true. And I’ll explain. It’s missional in nature. So you can have many different
personalities. And usually the team is better with diversity and variety
if we’re all on the same mission together. I always like to say different roles,
same goal. There’ll be 11 different roles on offense, 11 different roles on defense
in this football game. Different roles, same goal.
Everybody’s going to do everything they can to win the game. So for you, hear me out. You can live in
the same house, work in the same office. This is proximity. You can attend the
same church and not be teeming.
Do I need to like pause? Let that sit for
That’s good, isn’t it? We all need to be reminded of this.
Teaming isn’t social. It’s purposeful.
And mission is what holds us together when pressure would pull us apart.
Remember that if you get your eyes off the mission, you’ll you’ll miss out on your future
relationally. True. If if you don’t keep your eye on the mission,
I I’ve I’ve known a lot of married couples and and counseledled and many of them just quit
no matter what we said. And the only explanation I can give you is when
marriages quit in tough times, they just lost sight of the mission. The one that started at an altar with a
pastor, they lost sight of that. and and and teams can like if you’ve
watched teams like there’s some screaming going on at one another. There’s some times when like they’re like what’s wrong with you? What you
done? You weren’t where you were supposed to be. I threw the ball where you were supposed to be and coaches are
irritated and like wrong go like but hey, we’re still together.
Emotions may go a certain way. We’re still together. We’re still going after
the W. We’re still going to go after the win. Why? Because we are a team with a
mission. We started with a mission. We’re on a mission and we’re going to maintain the mission. [applause]
Okay. Go to uh S. Let’s see if we can throw the ball again. Throw the ball again. I’m not sure. Okay.
Yeah, you’re up next. It’s you. Oh, me. I’m I’m catching it.
All right. You You throw it, right? I think I can catch it. I think I can like
Yeah. [cheering] [applause] All right. S stands for self-improving.
So like honestly like I could have like dropped the ball.
But if I drop the ball and I quit, that’s no good for my team.
True. If I mess up, it’s no good for my team if I quit.
Teams don’t improve accidentally. They improve intentionally.
And by the way, the only way for teams to get better is for individual members of the team to get better.
A team is never better than the people on it. Oh man, is this good?
A marriage is never better than the people in it.
A church is never better than the people in it, and the teams that are a part of it.
A home is never better than the people in it. If the kids will learn, if mom and dad
will learn, if everybody will learn, you drop the ball. You stay in the game. You
keep trying. You improve. You say, “I can do better. I’m a better thrower. I’m a better catcher. I’m better at this.”
Then, hey, the team has hope. Hey, I one example I love is David’s
mighty men in the Old Testament. Every man that knows the story and loves the the story
of David’s mighty men. One of the greatest examples of team
and and you know people improving themselves to make the team better is
David’s mighty men because what we call the mighty men now they’re known as the mighty men. The Bible ended up calling
them mighty men. They started off as distressed,
poor law breakers, outlaws, and outcasts.
And they became the most elite band of warriors.
They became the Navy Seals of that day. like really refined in their skills,
their commitment, their love for their nation and for one another.
So, what I want to just remind you today is
that when you get better, your team gets better. A lot of times we’re like, “Well, my my
husband needs to do this. My husband needs to do that.” Well, you can’t control what your husband does, but you can control what you do,
right? [applause] And our teams get better when the
individuals on the team make a commitment to get better.
Self improving. God, check me out. Speak to me. Show me. I dropped the ball. I’m
not going to quit. So that means you’re going to help me get better at what I
do. I I I said some things I shouldn’t have said. I’m not gonna quit. I’m I’m
I’m gonna I’m gonna get better with what comes out of my mouth.
Amen. How many of you glad you’re on God’s team?
How many of you know you’re on God’s team? Give the Lord a great big hand today and thank him that he called you.
He called you by name. I’m going to ask you to just stay right where you are in
this closing moment of my message. I hope this has not just been fun. I hope it’s been directional for you in your
life and that you’re learning and you’re allowing yourself like to just realize, you know, let me say this that the first
thing Jesus did when he started his ministry on earth was to to pick a team
and recruit a team. They call them the 12 disciples. And then he went from there and he had
72 [music] other team members. And things just rapidly, you know, began to go in
the direction that now we have this thing called the church. And you can see
what I call it here on our in our church. We called it this for years. We call it team church.
Team church. And I want to show you a scripture.
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse n 19. It goes like this. It says, “Now you are no
longer strangers to God and foreigners to heaven as the Apostle Paul to the people at Ephesus,
but you are members of God’s very own family,
citizens of God’s country, [music]
and you belong in God’s house.
You belong in God’s house.
You belong in [music] God’s house with every other
Christian. I want to just say to you today that
some of you, you assume you can be a Christian
and go it alone. Go it without
the house of God. Go it without the body of Christ. And you are what I you know if you the
Bible says that we are like a body. We’re members of one body. And if you
sever your hand your hand gets separated from the rest of your body. That hand is
[music] immediately beginning to lose life cuz it’s not created to be there on its own.
It’s created to be connected. And this one thing I hope God just today
you’ll allow God to talk to your heart because I know I’m talking to people at our locations and people who are
watching us part of our service online as well as right here in our our room. I
I know that some of you the devil is cheating you out and he has made an
advancement on your life by convincing you that you can go it alone
and still be who God meant for you to be. And you just can’t.
You just can’t. [applause and music]
It’s not always easy. There’s going to be stuff happen, but team wins. We are
created to team and knowing God, we we become part of this family. We belong in
God’s house. Well, I don’t like everybody. You don’t know what happened to me. I’ve heard these stories.
And I’m still standing on this truth today that we all belong in God’s house. Yes,
we are meant to go together, not alone. We are meant to to be connected
and a part of one another, not just loosely, but bound together in the
purpose of almighty God. doing our part and growing like the things I’ve talked
about today and growing in God’s maturing process
in our in our lives because why? Team wins every time.
Team wins [applause] every time. Stand to your feet if you
would with me today all over at every location. Just stand. And I want to take
a minute and and before we conclude this,
there are people who are here today who how about we bow our heads, close our eyes. I I want to let the Holy Spirit
talk to some people today. There’s two kinds of people I want to just make this about. The first one is that
you’re here today and God’s telling you, and I don’t know who
you are, but but who is he telling today? Come to me. Put me at the center
of your life. Lean into me and together, let’s just
move your life forward. I have a plan for you, but I need you to get past the
hesitation. I need you to get past the resistance.
I need you to put your hope in my promises today and be obedient and and let me let me lead you forward
and I’ll make a way for you where there doesn’t seem to be a way and I’ll open
up doors for you. And there’s some people in the room right now that your
next step is a step of salva salvation. And it’s just a wholly lean into him and
say, “I want to be saved and I want to walk
out your plan. I want eternity and I want your will right now.”
And then there’s another person, another type of person today who
you’re already saved. God’s been good enough to you that he saved you. You
confessed him with your mouth, but today you are disconnected
from the team and you are not part of and you have not leaned into. You’ve been hesitant.
You’ve been hurt. You’ve been wounded. your person who is looking constantly
over to that thing that happened and that’s your new reason why you’re not going to get too close. You’re not not
going to really move in and be a part of of the church and team with God’s
people. That that’s just not what you’re going to do. I’m reaching for you as well today because I I know that the enemy does this. He comes to He comes to
steal, kill, and destroy. And he comes to separate men and women from the
family of God and the people of God. And some of you today, I’m making this appeal because this is the next step for
you that God has for you in your life.
And for either one of those, while heads are bowed and eyes closed, I’m just going to ask for both of those
situations, salvation or reconnection
with God’s people. Would you just raise your hand high in the air and just confess before God today and be honest
and be open? [music] Today is talking to me. Good. Hands are going up all over the room.
All over the room today. And I’m going to lead you in a prayer. Just keep your hands up high. every location. Say this
with me. Lord Jesus, thank you for your word. Thank you for your word. Today I receive
your plan for my life. I ask you to forgive me. I ask you to
of all my sin. I want to be in right standing with you.
I want to be in right. And I believe today I believe today that I’m forgiven I’m forgiven.
I belong in your family. I belong in your family. And God today God today
I also declare I also declare that I hear you that I hear you
as you speak to me as you speak to me. I’m moving toward I’m moving toward
your people your people. I know this is your plan. I know this is
And today I take the step Today I take the step to be part of your family.
To be on God’s team to be on God’s team in Jesus name. in Jesus name. Let’s celebrate decisions
today in the house.