A Winning Team

Pastor John Piper teaching about preaching

Preaching Isn’t Church, but It Serves the Church

Preaching is not the totality of the church. And if all you have is preaching, you don’t have the church. A church is a body of people who minister to each other. One of the purposes of preaching is to equip us for that and inspire us to love each other better. But God has created the church so that she flourishes through preaching. That’s why Paul gave young pastor Timothy one of the most serious, exalted charges in all the Bible in

2 Timothy 4:1-2

I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word.

A Coach: is the practice of supporting an individual, referred to as the client or mentee or coachee, through the process of achieving a specific personal or professional result.

A Quarterback: Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line. Quarterbacks are the leaders of the offensive team, responsible for calling the play in the huddle and executing the play.

The offensive tackles: The right tackle (RT) is usually the team’s best run blocker. Most running plays are towards the strong side (the side with the tight end) of the offensive line. The left tackle (LT) is usually the team’s best pass blocker. Of the two tackles, the left tackles will often have better footwork and agility than the right tackle in order to counteract the pass rush of defensive ends. (Explain)

Whoever wins the Super Bowl today will be the team who’s offensives lines play best. The Quarterbacks will never have a chance to throw the ball if the two tackles do not block good, if the Center has an off snap the Quarterback will not even get the ball in his hands, the running back will never make a single yard if that offensive line can’t block today.

At the end of the game you will not hear much about the Offensive line, you will hear how great one of the Quarterbacks played and how the other had an off day. You will hear how great the wide receivers did and how great the running backs did for the winning team and you will hear how the running backs slipped up and the receivers dropped balls from the losing team. The winners will be because the offensive linemen blocking for the ones who will get all the recognition for winning.

It’s a team sport. Tom Brady nor Eli Manning can win this game today but NY as a Team can win or New England as a Team can win today it don’t matter if Tom Brady passes for 500 yards if they do not play as a team they will lose the same if Eli passes for 500 yards if NY don’t play as a team they will not win.

Brent Farr holds two NFL records one is for the most Touchdown passes 508 the other record he holds is Most passes intercepted 336

The worst passing record in the NFL history 336 interceptions but also the best record in NLF history on touchdown passes 508. Bret as good as he was he had a great weakness, he rushed the passes, he had no patientce with his receivers, he did not pass the ball to the receivers the way they could catch the ball he expected them to conform to his style. But something changed with Bret. He began to look at his role in a different way. He changed the way he passed the ball to the receiver he was passing to. He stopped expecting them to do it his way. He studied them, he learned how fast they were and throw the ball according to their ability. He became a team player. That is why he holds the record for most touchdown passes.

Let me ask you something. How do you view the other people in this church? You see their weaknesses? Oh if she would just…. Or if he would only…. To be the winning team that God has called us to be we have to learn to see each other as teammates and we have to adjust ourselves to make one another better. We work together by adjusting how we pass the ball to each other. In how we lead with penitence, in how we react to criticism, in how we correct, in how we explain, on and on…. Working with each other.

If I am going to pass the ball to you and I do not take into account how fast or how slow you run, how will you ever catch the ball? The same goes for each of us, we are a team and we have to work with each other’s strengthens and each other’s weaknesses.