We’re going to keep going on their series called It Takes a Team out of our new book by that title. And
uh you know, God designed the world so that nothing of great value is achieved
without teeming. Just how he created the world to
operate. Two two are better than one. The Bible says two are better than one. And I mean, you
can’t even be born unless there’s two people.

Like, can we get like right down to it? Like some of you doubters in what I’m
saying. There you go. So, nothing nothing of any value really. Nothing
great happens uh alone. Everything that is of value
happens by teaming. And that’s what we’re talking about. It takes a team.

Like it takes a team. And the book of Proverbs is where we’re going to go
today. And let me tell you a little background on it. It it was written by the wisest man, Solomon,
and some other wise men that he was overseeing in that writing process.

And they teach us in the book of Proverbs, they teach us how to live and
act wisely. Now, Solomon not only oversaw the the
writings of the book of Proverbs, let me tell you a little bit about him, okay? He was also a great king who the Bible
says loved the Lord. He led well. He also studied plants
and science and studied animals and agriculture.

He wrote a,05 songs.

And 3,000 proverbs. So when I read this next verse,
you kind of got a little background on the guy who who wrote it. Okay? So turn
in your Bibles to Proverbs 6 67.

[Music]

I see y’all over there. That’s for you, my young crowd.

If you have no clue what that was about, that means you’re over 30 for sure.

Talk to some young bucks after church.

All right, Proverbs 6. We’ll begin with six,
then we’ll move to seven. And here’s what it says. Go to the ant, you slugard.

Go to the ant, you slugard. Consider its ways and be wise.
Let me just ask you, have you noticed that a lot of people are living tired?

Like perfectly healthy people,
middleaged people, even young people. Yeah, they wake up tired.

They think tired, talk tired,

dress tired, you know,

stay in their pajamas,

slippers. Hello.

Just saying all the young people that love me a minute ago or right now they’re like,
“Ah, tired has kind of become vogue.”

You ask them how they’re doing. Tired.

I’m tired. Well, what have you been doing? Not much.

Can we talk today? The writer says, “Go to the ant, you
tired person. You sluggish person.”

You know, this is in fact one of the labels that sociologists have put on
millennials is to call them the tired generation.

But to all the millennials and everyone else, I have good news for you today. We
don’t have to live tired.

I said we don’t have to live tired.

We are not meant to live tired. If you are if you are tired, I just say
one good thing to do is go visit a hospital. Walk around and when you walk out, thank
God that you’re not there. Thank God you’ve got air in your lungs.

Come on. You got a healthy body. Life is too good to live tired.

It’s not fair to the people that we love when we live tired.

Hello. We can’t fulfill our purpose in life
living tired. We won’t experience joy
if we surrender ourselves to tired.

Okay, where were we? Go to the ant, you
slugger. The next part says, consider its ways
and be wise. Now, the first and most obvious thing
that ants do well is teaming.

The ant is an incredible example of teamwork.

We got photos on that or anything? I don’t know. Maybe not.

Helen Keller said this. Alone we can do so little
and together we can do so much.

So, when you think about the ant, I had a little video. I was like
I I didn’t send it to the team or anything, but I stopped on a sidewalk a month ago.
If you follow me on social media, you probably saw it. I stopped on the sidewalk and I was just fascinated how
how long this trail was of marching ants
like all two like kind of like two by two or three in a row and like they’re
all in these rows like walking side by side going somewhere carrying stuff.

Such a great imagery. And that’s why the wise
man says like go to the ant. You want to know about having a good
life. You want to know about living with productivity and honoring God with your
health and your strength. Like go to the end. All right? And don’t live tired. I
don’t know if he had somebody in mind when he used the word sluggard. I bet when I used it today, you thought
of somebody. Maybe yourself. I don’t know. But uh it
it sounds kind of harsh. And that’s why I want to remind you right out of the gate
that not trying to beat up on anybody, not trying to create condemnation. I’m
trying to create inspiration. Amen. And to remind you that we serve a good God.

Come on. We serve a good God. And we all have the opportunity of a
lifetime. And when life gets heavy and when life gets difficult and when we’re struggling
with, you know, the burdens that we bear and we just feel down like we don’t want
to just we don’t want to just give into that. We need we need somebody coming along
and reminding us you don’t have to live tired. You don’t have to like shrink into the
couch. You you don’t have to just lay in the lazy boy.

And in fact, we don’t recommend it. It doesn’t please God. You don’t feel good
about yourself. You don’t get the things done that God’s given you to do.

So, so he’s saying here, take a look at what it looks like and just even the
life of an ant. So, there’s five things that today we can learn from the ant
about teameming that that I want to go over. The the first one is he he says uh
the first thing we can learn is just what I call thoughtful consideration.

So the writer says, “Go to the ant, consider its ways, and be wise.” And
that’s what we’re doing today. In other words, don’t be mindless. Think about your mindset.

We’ve been talking about mindset the last few weeks. Think about your belief.

What where are you getting that from? what you know where’s that belief come
from that causes you to maybe uh you know not not be living with life
and energy and strength. Think about your own attitude, your own approach to life. Is that how you want to stay? Is
that where you want to what you want to do? Like he’s saying he’s saying consider the ant
like just this little bitty creature that doesn’t even have a soul and and
and and think about think about your own life. Is is is it what you want
living in a sluggish way? Think about your what you’re listening
to. Think about who you’re listening to. Amen.

Compare your own mindset to the ants way of life.

That’s what he’s telling us. Like consider your way compared even to a little ant. Those ants who are teeming
and are so productive. And we’ve all been fascinated by what they build together and what they accomplish
together and how they work together. Let the ants lifestyle, let the ants
actions like teach you how to live wives.

One of my favorite stories and many of you know in the Bible is a story in the
book of Nehemiah. And there’s this part in the book of Nehemiah where there the people of
Jerusalem have they have like come alive. They’re coming out of depression
and discouragement and defeat and oppression. And a man
named Nehemiah comes and like stirs them up, says, “Come on, we can do great things.
Let’s do this together. We can’t do this on our own.” And there’s this verse Nehemiah 4 and6
where it says, “So we built the wall.” They’re rebuilding the city that was in
ruins. says, “So we built we we built the wall, not I built the wall, we built
the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height.” And I
love this last line. For the people had a mind to work
mindset. The people had a mind to work. You know, work is getting a bad rap.

today like in the current culture work is like even you know in Christians
Christians often times like talk about leisure life and you know

relaxing and they put it under values a lot you know like you need to take time
for yourself you need to like just you know chill don’t work your life away uh
you know take time for your family. They put it under like a value column. And I
don’t disagree with all of that. But sometimes like the feeling you get is

like work is bad. And work is not bad.

Some people are like, “Well, we only have to work because of the curse
in the book of Genesis.” Not true. God put us here to work. We put Adam and
Eve in the garden. The Bible says to work it like before the curse came before their
work is a privilege. Come on. To have to have something to do with your mind and have something to do
that’s productive with your hands and have skills to accomplish something. What an honor.

What a privilege to not just exist

that people had a mind like like that. So the second thing that we can learn from the ant is self motivation.

Here’s where we get to verse seven. The ant has no commander,

no overseer or ruler. Yet it stores its provision in summer

and gathers its food at harvest.

So the ant doesn’t wait to be told what to do.

The ant doesn’t need a cheerleader.

When when I came across those ants that morning on the sidewalk, like they
weren’t waiting for me to come along and say, “Come on, ants. Let’s go, guys. Hey. Hey, let’s go. You
can do it. Yeah. Yeah, you can.” Like, “Come on.” Like, they weren’t waiting
for that. They weren’t waiting for some external motivation.

And so the writer here is saying like they they don’t have overseers. They
don’t have a commander. They don’t have a ruler. And yet they get up and they get going.

They store their provisions at summer. They gather food at harvest.

You know, one of the best things that I can do for you as a church is to

stay motivated to serve you. It’s one of the best thing. How many of
you would say, “Okay, I know there’s been times in almost 40 years that Pastor Kevin did not want to do this.”

Do you know that about me? If you don’t, I’m telling you today, there has been
many times when I just knew God would had not called me to the Northwest. My time here
was done. It usually came on rainy, dreary mornings and I felt like God, I
didn’t hear you right. I think you I think you wanted me in Hawaii actually.

like that’s but one of the best things I can do for

you and and and and the the reason that see to live an unmotivated

life is one of the most to to live an unmotivated life is one of

the most selfish things that people do.

I bet I bet many of you never thought of it like that you just think about you know well this
is how I feel you I don’t want to it’s one of the most selfish things

that a person can do when a person lives tired or unmotivated

It it affects not only them but it affects their marriage.

Who wants to live and be married to a sluggish, no motivation,

barely get up, crawl around kind of person.

My wife says not her. And I don’t either.

I don’t either. They’re like, “Get your energy on. I married you.

Come alive. You’re my wife. You’re my husband.”

I bet many of you never thought about being unmotivated as being very selfish.

But an unmotivated person and living an unmotivated life

affects your marriage. It affects your family.

Our children should not have to grow up with sluggish

dads and moms who never want to do anything with them. I understand. You know, a dad works all
day, needs a little breather, a little break, like absolutely. But God bless all the guys who like work hard all day,
and they come home and they get a mindset that I love my kids and whatever they they need right now, I’m going to
spend some time with them. God bless you, dads. So generous.

So generous. And any team that you’re a part of suffers

when you are when when you are unmotivated.

So one of the best things that we can do as a church even is to stay motivated,

stay full of life, full of the Holy Spirit, full of vision, full of dreams.

Come on. Stay ambitious in the work that God has given us to do. We don’t have to

live tired.

Second Timothy, the Apostle Paul wrote to the younger

the younger uh protetéé named Timothy. Apostle Paul was his

mentor. And he told him, he said, “I’m going to remind you to stir up the gift of God

which is in you through the laying on of my hand. I’m going to pray over you.” But I want you,

everybody say, “Stir it up.” Stir it up. Come on, say it again. Stir it up.

Stir it up. See, we all can get like dormant. We can

we all have days and times and seasons in our life where we just like we’re

just like, you know, we’re tired or we think we’re tired or we buy in to a

lethargic way and mannerism of life. And I think

this is Paul was saying to him, hey man, stir it up like stir up the fire inside of you.

Stir up the gift God has given you. Like stir. How about we do that? Like just

kind of take your hand and make a little circle. Come on. We stir it up.

It’s kind of like stoke the flame. The fire’s going out.

The embers are there. Stoke it. Don’t let the fire go out in your life.

Stay on fire. Stay motivated.

The third thing we can learn from the ant is colonization.

Col. We all we we hear and know that ants have colonies, right? And I put on here colonization of course

with the right people. We call it community.

being in community with God’s people. If you’re here in one of our services

today and all your friends are people who are maybe your friends are t you’re

thinking about them when I’m preaching like yeah they’re tired they’re lazy they’re sluggish they’re you know they

they don’t get up they’re laying at home today they don’t go to church but you are and you made it like I just say it’s

time to get some new community surround yourself with some new people

people who are moving people are going somewhere

Community is a fundamental human need.

We are born to belong and we are created for community.

People are by far healthier and happier and

more productive when they serve God and live in community with one another.

The enemy wants to always point out to you the the hardships, the disagreements,

the arguments, the offenses. The enemy always wants to do that. Come on. You got to be wise.

Everybody say, “Be wise.” Say it again. Say, “Be wise.” The enemy wants every one of us to break

out of our colony that God puts us in

by pointing out like how hard it is sometimes to get along, how different we all are,

how somebody says something and people end up with these horror stories of I

went to that church and then this happened and that happened. I’m not going to ever be in a church. They they

even got a little label like church hurt. Church hurt. Church never hurt anybody.

People hurt people anywhere you go. Work, neighborhood.

But refuse to isolate. Refuse the idea that you’re better on

your own. That is a myth. That’s right. We are better together.

Work through the challenges. Work through the disagreements. That’s how you grow in the Lord. That’s how you

mature is by working through stuff in the community.

Like when you have disagreements, go to Matthew 18 or other scriptures and just say, “Oh, wow. I’m going to do this

God’s way. I’m going to say I’m sorry. I’m going to forgive.

I I I’m going to figure things out.” And when people, you know, are not good for me and it’s like oil and water, I’m

still going to bless them. I’m not going to curse them. I’m not going to be divisive. I’m just going to get with the

people that are helpful and right and I can help and be right. I want to find my colony even within the church like find

the right people and make sure that you don’t isolate.

The fourth thing you can learn, we can learn from an the ant is collaboration.

Ants collaborate. They have different roles, same goals.

Some ants are worker ants. Some are forager ants.

Some are what they call soldier ants. Different roles,

same goal. And they all work for the good of the

colony.

Nobody tries to do it all. They each play their part.

Collaboration isn’t just a smart thing. It’s a spiritual principle

that brings God’s blessing and favor on our lives.

So many scriptures I I get into some of them in the book, but the Bible tells us

that in the place of unity, God commands his blessing.

that where two or three are gathered in my name,

there am I in the midst of them. Why does he say that if it’s not true?

Why not just say when one is by themselves?

We all know we have personal relationship with God, but scripture is describing

collaboration. Yeah. And saying when we have two, when we

have three, like there’s a power, there’s a synergy that is spiritual in nature.

See, if you stop and think about the spiritual nature of synergy, it’s just

pretty profound. If you, you know, workh horses, there was a study done workh horses. A workhorse that can pull is

capable of pulling 8,000 lbs on its own. I’m talking about those big workh horses. If you put another workhorse

next to a workhorse that can pull 8,000 lbs on their own, they’re not able now

to pull 16,000. It’s not 8* 2. It’s 22,000 lb.

That’s called synergy. I I can’t explain it like there’s

something spiritual. And by the way, when they are trained to actually work

together, they can pull up to 32,000 pounds. Two,

just two. There’s something about two are better than one that we often don’t understand.

There’s a spiritual dynamic, a spiritual principle that goes along with teeming.

Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost they were in one mind and one accord 120

people one mind one accord and that’s where God poured out his spirit

poured out the Holy Spirit that day like one mind if they had been on a different

page you know half of them weren’t showing up and you know there were some of them distracted talking looking out

the window but they were all there saying we are going to give ourselves to God today. We are here to seek God’s

presence. We are here to seek God’s will. We are here to see God do something great in our lives.

They sang together. They worshiped together. They prayed together. And the Holy Spirit fell.

Number five, last one. Anticipation.

Pun intended. anticipation.

I’m going to tell you why I’m I’m saying that is that the no commander, no

overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provision in summer and gathers its food

in the harvest. Why? Why? Because they know winter’s on the

way. The ant is not just working to be

working. The ant is storing up for the future. Is anticipating

and preparing for the future at once. If you’re not going through a trial

right now in your life or a testing in your life and everything’s really easy and really good, don’t get sluggish

cuz hardship is on the way. A trial is coming. I don’t want to depress you

right now, but there’ll be a test coming your way. Store up God’s word in your heart.

Get your praise on right now. Get strong in the Lord today.

Get the promises of God flowing in your mouth. Learn the songs and sing them

so that you’re not just left empty-handed when the enemy comes in and strikes

in your life. See, so often people lose sight of the promises of God. They stop living by

faith, stop living with hope for the future. So, how about as a church today,

how about we just anticipate? We dream big things for our children, for our

church, for our life. How about we we’re coming together this time of year right now and asking what am I believing God

for? How about we do this together? How about we do it in a spirit of unity?

How about we live with vision that outlives us?

How about we do some great things together? Does that sound good? How about we do

some great things for God together?

How about we do some things together that none of us can do on our own?

How about we not worry or stop or struggle or check out

because of the economy or tough times or struggles uh in our life. How about

we keep our anticipation, our hope that even if it doesn’t feel

good right now, there’s good coming. Like I’m getting ready for it. I’m storing up. Like there’s going to be a

trial. Then there’s going to be a breakthrough. There’s going to be a victory. God is with me. I’m going to

win this battle.

Wow. Wow. Come on. Let’s celebrate what God is doing and going to do.

Amen. Let’s stand to our feet. Can we

Yes. My father has everything. [Music]

The Lord will provide my father. Thank you, God.

Come on, just lift your hands up. Worship him today.

You’re in a trial, worship him. [Music]

If you’re in the middle of a challenge, worship the Lord will provide.

my father. God, I love you. Your kingom

and it’s treasure. Everything else, it will be added. All that I need,

all that I’m needing, I know the Lord will provide.

Yeah. And I know my God’s not empty.

He gives us blessings. I’m still believing.

I know the Lord will provide. [Music]

Come on, let’s celebrate God’s goodness, God’s provision.

Amen. How about we walk by faith into the future? Does that sound good?

That’s who we are as a church. We fought a lot of battles through the years. We We’ve won a lot of battles. We’ve had

seasons when we didn’t know how it was going to work out both individually and corporately.

But we’re standing here today saying, “God has been faithful. He was faithful then. He is faithful now. And he is

faithful forever.” Amen. Praise God. Praise God.

I want to invite you today to give your life to God fully, completely.

And any man, any woman who today would say, you know what, Pastor Kevin, I’m

I’m walked into the room today in the space today as one who has held back my

life from him. I haven’t really made him the leader and the Lord of my life. I want to invite you to do that right now.

I want to invite you to take this moment and to cross over the line,

act out the decision that you want to make in your heart. Those of you who are being drawn like,

you know, this is really what I want. I I want to serve the Lord. And if that’s you today,

I want to encourage you in this moment to not hesitate. Sometimes people overthink and when they

overthink you underact. So this is a moment created for you to

just take the action. Heaven heaven is ready for this. God is waiting for this.

And so if that’s in your heart today, whoever you might be, a couple, a young person, a man, a woman,

somebody who’s single, and you’ve had some hard times maybe that have put you

where you are, divorce or struggle, and your background, you’re like, your life

is just not where you want it to be, and you want to trust the Lord. Give him your life for the future. Just if you

would right now, I’m going to count to three boldly raise a hand. I’m going to pray with you. You ready? One, two,

three. Put your hand up in the air and we’re going to pray together. Good. Good. Just keep your hand up high. This

is my moment. This is my day. And the whole church is going to pray with you today. Those of you who have

your hand up, your day of be, new beginning, salvation, we’re all going to pray this together. Say with me, Lord

Jesus, welcome to my world. Welcome to my world. Forgive me of all my sin.

Forgive me of all my s. Come into my life. You’ve been faithful.

You’ve been faithful. You are faithful. You are faithful. And today I put my trust in you

that you will be faithful in my life in my life

and in my future. in my future. So today is my day is my day

of new beginnings. Time for a new chapter. Time for a new chapter. And starting

right now, starting right now, I declare I declare Jesus,

you are the leader and the Lord of my life in Jesus name in Jesus name.

And God bless you. We cheer for you today. Come on. We celebrate you today

and all