“All for One and One for All”
Ephesians 4:1-16
If you are a sports fan then there have been plenty of games to watch to keep you busy. The baseball playoffs, the world series coming up. Plenty of football also. Until Thursday night we had the #2 football team in the nation right here in Tampa. USF. Thy lost Thursday night so we will see what happens to their standings. The mazing ting is that for a long time they did not even have a football team at USF. This is their 11th season. When they were first getting started they didn’t even have a lighted field to play on. All the players would drive up and park their cars around the field and turn their lights on so that they could practice at night. All of them working together mad this happen.
One of the greatest football coaches in history was Bear Bryant at University of Alabama. When asked how he won so many games through the years he said, “well I’m just an old plow hand from Arkansas, but I have learned how to hold a team together. How to lift some men up, how to calm down others, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat together, a team. There’s just 3 things I’d ever say: if anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi good, then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.
One heartbeat together, a team. A team is exactly what the apostle Paul is describing in our text today. Webster gives us a couple of definitions of teamwork (1) 2 or mor people working together (2) a single unit composed of individual components for the purpose of accomplishing a common goal. That is why Paul says of the church, verses 4-7. Paul says we are many, yet at the same time we are one. We are a team and our team is defined by our relationship to Christ. In this passage we find some important principles related to TEAMWORK.
Principle one. Team work involves many people who are often very different. Paul reminds us in his letter to Corinth that there are different kinds of gifts but the same spirit. There are different kinds of service but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working but the same God works all of them in all men. They key word in this passage is the word different. It is mentioned 3 times. We have different kinds of gifts, there are different ways to serve and there are different workings. There is not just one gift that fits all believers.
The word “gifts” comes from the Greek word “charismata”...it is the root of the word grace. He says there are different kinds of service. In other words, there are different kinds of opportunities we have to use our gifts. What I do with my gifts may look different from how you use yours.
(2) Teams work for the good of everybody. We all benefit. The scripture tells us that we’ve been given at least one spiritual gift for the common good or benefit of the body. Ephesians 4:16. Gifts are given so that they can be used through our service to others so that the church can grow stronger. When Paul wa writing to young Timothy, Paul was concerned that Timothy not only be able to identify his spiritual gift but that he would also actually do something with it. He said, “do not neglect your gift... I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God. Listen let me remind you of something....you are needed in this church. God has given you a gift and now He wants to use you. Don’t think for a moment that what you do doesn’t count or that you are not a valuable player on the team. No one can do everything but everyone can do something.
When my oldest son was in high school he had a dream of opening his own gym one day. He ha always been physically fit and this was his goal. He was good in art and so one day he showed me his plans he had drawn for the gym. It was pretty elaborate. I said, well David what will you name it? What will you call it? He said i would name it EveryBody’s gym. I though that was pretty catchy. A place for every Body.
I heard a story about 4 people in the church named EVERYBODY, SOMEBODY, ANYBODY and NOBODY. There was an important job to be done and EVERYBODY was sure that SOMEBODY would do it. ANYBODY could have done it but instead NOBODY did it. SOMEBODY got angry about this, because it was EVERYBODY’S job.
EVERYBODY thought ANYBODY would do it but NOBODY realized that EVERYBODY wouldn’t do it. It ended up that EVERYBODY blamed SOMEBODY when NOBODY did what ANYBODY could have done.
Stuart Briscoe who is a pastor in Wisconsin offers a great comparison between serving and sitting in a stadium watching football. During a game there are 22 people on the field in desperate need of rest and 50,000 spectators in desperate need of exercise! Now it is our goal here at Eagle’s Landing to get everyBody involved in the game. We want to turn spectators into servants. Why? Because we need everyone.
George Barna who is a Christian writer who does research says had the church relied upon a single, incredibly gifted, magnetic individual...the church would surely have collapsed. What te disciples discovered was that none of them had the cokmplete package of gifts, abilities and insights necessary to grow the church but each one had a very significant and defined role to play.
(3) We will accomplish much more together than we will apart. There is a concept called synergy that we talk about today and it’s kind of a new math that tells us that 1+1 does not always = 2. It could = 3 or more. Two individuals might be able to lift 100 pounds by themselves. Put them together and they might lift 300 pounds. That is synergy.
Teamwork makes a big difference in the amount of work that can be done...it makes a big difference in life and it can make a big difference here in the church. And it is critical that everyone get involved in the process. This brings us to an acronym for the word TEAM that has become very popular. Here it is.......
TOGETHER EVERYONE ACCOMPLISHES MORE
5 years ago you will recall the story of 9 miners in Pennsylvania who were trapped for 3 days in a mine shaft that was filled with water. After their amazing rescue the miners said that they had “decided early on they were either going to live or die as a group.” The 55 degree water threatened to kill them slowly by hypothermia. According to a news report they came up with this plan: when one would get cold, the other 8 would huddle around the person and warm that person and when another person got cold they would do the same. To me that is a picture of the church and how we should function. We have been created to work in community and to work together as a team. Why? Because we are better together.
Let me share with you some thoughts about ministry. When God called me to the ministry one things I did not feel was adequate for the task. And when God calls you to do ministry at any level in the church that is perhaps the biggest obstacle satan will try to throw in your path. He will try to tell you that you’re simply not capable. Let me give you some quick guidelines for finding your assignment in the church.
(1) Make sure that your doing comes out of your being. If we’re growing in grace, then we can give out in grace, not because we have to but because we want to. Working for God is an honor, not a bother.
(2) Start small. If God has prepared a work for you to do then it is not too small. Jesus said if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.
(3) Pray! Ask God every day, God what are you doing today that I can get in on? Be very aware that if God continually interrupts your schedule most of the time it is because of opportunities He is trying to place in your path. Our disappointments can be His appointments. Pray and ask God what He ha for you.
(4) Take a few steps. Start doing ministry. You could start today. Go to someone you don’t know and start a conversation. William Penn said: I expect to pass through life only once. If therefore there be any kindness I can show or any good thing I can do to my fellow man, let me do it now and not defer it or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again. You may speak to someone today who is hurting and just needs you to listen.
(5) Do the next thing ...you know to do. Ministry does not have to be complicated. When God tells you to do something continue doing that until He tells you to do something different. Then when you know what you need to do next, then do it.
(6) Start right now...today. If ever this community needed your ministry and if ever this church needed your involvement it is now. Start right now.
Commit your life to Christ today if you have not.
Rededicate your life to Christ if you need to.
Get involved in ministry. Do something with the gifts God has given you.
FALL FESTIVAL. We need: people ro run booths, to help cook, serve drinks, help with registration, decorate, cleanup......
A man approached a pastor and told him he wanted to join the church but he didn’t think he as a lot of time to devote to serving: he said, i have a very busy schedule and can’t be called upon to do any teaching or cleaning in the church or really serving in any way. I can’t help with special projects or with the student ministry...al my evenings are tied up. The pastor thought for a moment and then said, “I believe you’re at the wrong church. The church you’re looking for is 3 blocks down the street, on the right.” The man left and followed the pastor’s directions. He soon came to an abandoned, boarded up church building. Had been closed for years. The pastor made his point. And I’ll tell you any church is really only a few steps away from becoming like that the church.
