Preach "The King Has Come" 3-Part Series this week!
Preach Christmas week

Sermon Illustrations

Does anybody know who has won the most NCAA national championships in men’s basketball? It was John Wooden - the coach of the UCLA Bruins.

He won all those championships because he focused on. He created TEAMS. If you watch many basketball matchups, you’ll see that many teams have a “go-to” guy who is the anchor of the team. But individual accomplishments and records held little value to Wooden. Every year he put together the best group of players he could find. And the 5 men who best complemented each other and worked together were the ones he started.

His motto was, “The most important player when we win – is the rest of the team.”

Wooden encouraged his players to acknowledge the assists of their teammates. If one player received a pass that allowed him to score, Wooden wanted him to give the other man a wink or point to him as they moved down to the opposite end of the court.

A new player once asked Wooden “What if the other player isn’t looking when I point to him?”

Wooden just smiled, “Oh don’t worry. He’ll be looking.”

That’s the kind of teamwork that Christ wanted to build into His church.

Related Sermon Illustrations

Related Sermons