We Can Do Great Things Together
This past Sunday, Elder spoke a one-off message surrounding the needed sense of teamwork in the Kingdom of God for the Mission of God. If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you and hope to be able to see you this upcoming Sunday!
Adam began by saying, ‘Last week, we heard from our strategic partners, who are part of our team and His team and this morning, I pray that we learn how important it is to be a part of both of those teams as well. Because you see, this whole church thing doesn’t work because of Robbie, or Jordan, or the rest of the church staff, it works, because we work as a team. In fact, we are called to work as a team. All throughout Scripture, this idea of working together is woven throughout – Moses, Noah, David, Paul, and even Jesus had a team. None of them went at it alone. They all knew the importance of having others around them. The importance of working together toward a common goal and that is what we are called to do as Legacy City and as the Church. We can’t do His work without the person sitting next to you or the person in the row in front of and behind you.’
Adam goes through several different major quotes from famous figures that speak to the capacity for us to be able to assist those around us. The Kingdom of God needs many different people to fulfill all of the different things that are needed to provide and love people properly.
‘And this idea isn’t only relegated to locker rooms before a game, John 3:30 says, “He must become greater: I must become less”. These were the words of John the Baptist when settling a dispute about baptism. In order for any team to be successful, be that athletic, corporate, or even Legacy City, I must think less of myself and more of Him. I must allow myself to reflect Him. And then and only then, will this church be as successful and fruitful as we are called to be. But as I reflect on successful teams that I’ve been on, success not only occurs because of this idea of making myself less important than the team as a whole, but also because people understood their roles. The members of the team understood that they didn’t have all of the answers and that others on the team had strengths that they didn’t have. As the world-famous philosopher Rocky Balboa once said, “You got gaps, I got gaps, together we fill gaps.” And this idea of roles isn’t new, let’s look way back in the book of Numbers and see how God believed in this idea as well.’
‘Listen to what Vince Lombardi told his Green Bay Packers, one of the most successful NFL teams in the 60’s and 70’s, “Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” And I would add this is what makes a church work. This is the only way that our church, Legacy City, is going to work. Everyone in this room is committed to the group effort of spreading His name throughout Greenwood and the surrounding communities. And how do we do this? Scripture lays it out pretty clearly in Acts 2: 44-47, 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” The church worked together. They were a team.’
‘Listen to this quote by Mother Teresa, “I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” Not just good things, but great things. But we must rely on each other. And why this sounds so easy to do, it isn’t. I started to think to myself why is this so hard to do? And it’s because pride doesn’t want us to admit that we don’t know how to do something. Pride stops us from asking for help when we need it. Pride blinds us to our need for help.’
‘Listen to what Phil Jackson has to say about that, “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” The same thing is true with Legacy City. We all have been given gifts to use and need to rely on those gifts and learn to rely on others who have gifts we don’t have. He gives us different gifts. No one in this room doesn’t have a gift that is supposed to be being used as a part of the team of Legacy City. God did not pass you over in the gift line before you were born. If you think you don’t have one, I encourage you to pray and ask for discernment and revelation because we all do. And when you allow yourself to use your God-given gift, it gets woven into the beautiful thing called Legacy City and He uses you as part of His Church. And we can’t be jealous of the gifts that other people have. For instance, I can’t and you don’t want me to do what Jordan does every Sunday or attempt to be artistic in any way. And if I allowed myself to reflect on what I can’t do, instead of what God gifted me to do, I miss opportunities to use those gifts to advance His Kingdom. So focus on what you have because God created the Church and our church to be diverse.’
‘We are all called to make the church stronger by using our gifts. When you don’t, it just weakens His Church and our church. If you are gifted with the ability to work with kids and you don’t volunteer to help with Legacy Kids, you are weakening the church. If you are gifted with the skill to build things and you don’t volunteer at Habitat, you are weakening the church. If you are gifted with the skills of being a people person and you don’t volunteer on the Host team, you are weakening the church. God has put everyone in this room here for a purpose. He has a plan for you to strengthen this church and His Church, you can’t ignore that plan. Imagine if Jesus ignored the plan? Imagine if Moses ignored the plan? Imagine if Paul ignored the plan? His plan is perfect. Be a part of it.’
‘Like we learned last week, there are organizations in this community that are also ForGreenwood. And we need to continue to support these organizations by using the talents that God has placed in this church through His people. Again, no one is here by mistake. He knew that you would be here this morning and you are here for a reason. As Herb Brooks said when addressing the 1980 US Hockey team before the semi-final match in the Olympics, “Great moments are born from great opportunity.” Every day God gives us opportunities for greatness. He gives us opportunities to use the talents He’s given you as a part of His team for greatness. Don’t miss these opportunities.’
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
We Can Do Great Things Together: ‘Discover your talent and be a part of the team. Because when you make that choice, greatness occurs. Not our greatness but His greatness.’
Main Scripture Passages: Acts 2: 44-47; 1
Corinthians 12:7-27
Main Quote 1: “Individual commitment to a group effort – that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” – Vince Lombardi
Main Quote 2: “I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” – Mother Teresa
Main Quote 3: “The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.” – Phil Jackson
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes.
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Join us next Sunday as we hear from Four Young Leaders in the Church about what God has laid on their hearts to teach on!
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