Jesus is our Message
People are our priority
Development is our focus
Unity is our pursuit
Team is our structure
Excellence is our standard
Generosity is our privilege

Team Is Our Structure – Everyone needs a team. We all have blindspots and because of that, we believe that we need godly people in our lives to help us reach our potential. These people know us and know God, love us and love God, and have our best interest in mind. As our lives are built, team provides the structure around us where, when we need help, we have not only God, but a squad we can reach out to for support. Life was not meant to be lived alone. We all need a team.

TEAM is an idea we love and hate at the same time.
We love it because no one wants to be alone. We have a built in need for people. Genesis 2:18 It is not good for man to be alone.

But we hate it too because people aren’t always easy. We can go faster alone. Team means letting people into our lives and we don’t like that.

If you work in just about any field, you will have noticed the emphasis on teamwork. Your company may not do it well, but teamwork is a huge focus.

From Dr. Scott Tannenbaum at Group For Organizational Effectiveness says:
- Research shows that collaborative problem solving leads to better outcomes.
- People are more likely to take calculated risks that lead to innovation if they have the support of a team behind them.
- Working in a team encourages personal growth, increases job satisfaction, and reduces stress.

What does the Bible say about this?

1 Corinthians 12:12-20
12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
14 For the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

God says not only are are we a team, but that we need each other to function.

Team is not just some feely good idea that some office manager came up with to spur his employees to greater production. Team is an idea that was born out of God’s heart for his people to reach the pinnacle of their capability.

We CAN go faster alone, but we go farther together! Your ceiling is always going to be what you can accomplish alone, but when you get a group of people together, the ceiling raises exponentially!

If you are struggling in your business, get a team to help.
If you are struggling at home, get a team to help.
If you are struggling internally, get a team to help.

WHY?

Because you are not built to nor are you capable, of reaching your potential alone.

Why is team our structure here?

We want everything we do to be built on the foundation of Jesus Christ, firstly, but we want everything here built upon the framework of a team. Partially that is because we want people to take ownership and not just feel like a participant. When you are an owner, you go all in. You aren’t just a member of our kid’s ministry team. You are a part of what makes an eternal impact on the lives of kids at our church. It isn’t work, it is an opportunity. And partially that is because we are convinced through Scripture and practical experience that the very best way to do anything is with a team.

Your production is better in a team.
Your perception is better in a team.
Your introspection is better in a team.
You are better in a team.

1. You need a team.
Mark 3:13-19
13 And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him. 14 And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach 15 and have authority to cast out demons. 16 He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); 17 James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); 18 Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot, 19 and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

You need a team because Jesus needed a team, and if Jesus needed a team, you need a team. Wait...Did Jesus really NEED a team? Yes. He didn’t need a team to survive, but he needed one to accomplish the task. Jesus knew he would be leaving and he needed som people, a team, to keep the kingdom ball moving on earth.

Sometimes we get pigeon-holed into a notion that the team was only there for Jesus just to do a job. This is an incredibly unfair assessment of what Jesus was doing with the 12. Was there a job to do? YES. Was there more to this team than the job? YES.

Matthew 26:36-38
36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”

This proves this team was way more than just task-oriented. Jesus was STRUGGLING with what was to come, and not just the crucifixion but the idea of being separated from his Father for the first time ever. He was struggling with his emotional and mental state. He was stressing. Don’t forget he was human, too. He brought the 12 but then Peter James and John too. WHY? Was there a spreadsheet he wanted them to look at for the last time? OR DID JESUS JUST NEED TO NOT FEEL ALONE IN THAT MOMENT?!?

Look beyond the job of ministry or the work you engage in every day. Look beyond the task. How good does it feel to be alone? To feel overwhelmed, to feel hopeless, to feel stressed out, you were not make to carry that weight alone. It is not good for you to be alone.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

We need a team here at Freedom. We can’t do this alone, and we don’t want to do this alone. We aren’t after glory and fame. We aren’t trying to build a castle that amazes people. We want to see the Kingdom move, people changed forever, you empowered to be everything God created you to be. What joy is in having the entire world but having no one to share it with? I know what I am capable of and while I might be able to do a lot, it is nothing compared to what we can do together. This is why we aren’t afraid of developing people. This is why we are so adamant about unity and team.

What in your world right now is suffering because you don’t have a team to help?
What is your world is inhibited because you don’t have a team to help?

2. You need a team to be better.
The biggest problem with not having a team is not the solitude, it’s the silence. When there is no one else speaking around you, to you, into you, you are incapable of effective self-awareness, and you will become trapped in your own tunnel of thoughts, feelings, and abilities. Translation: when you have no other voices in your life, the only one you hear is yours.

You are never always right. One of the reasons a team is so valuable is because the voices around you challenge the voices in you and you are forced to make a decision about how to proceed.

Proverbs 27:17
Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

That is what this verse means! I pray I ROUTINELY say something to you that challenges what you think internally. I may be right, I may be wrong, but if I can sharpen iron against iron, if you are wrong and I am right, we win. If I am wrong and you are right, we win. The only time we don’t win is if we aren’t challenging each other. This doesn’t happen if you aren’t willing to get someone in your life you can call a team mate.

How does this make us better?

1. A team can call out issues.
2 Samuel 12:1-7
The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. 4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” 5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” 7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!”

How you call out issues says how much you love a person.
Love covers but justice uncovers. Covering isn’t condoning. Covering is caring more about restoring them than revealing them. Sometimes you need a soft rebuke, sometimes a hard one. Last week in Romans: pursue unity guys, vs cast out the divisive person How you respond to being called out says everything about your heart. Even if they do it the wrong way, here’s the most important question: Is their rebuke accurate?
- If it isn’t don’t let it get to you.
- If it is - CHANGE. PS you’ll need a team for that.

1. A team can call out issues.
2. A team can help with issues.
Galatians 6:2
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.If you weren’t aware enough to notice the problem, it might be true that you don’t know how to fix the problem.Team helps you with more than just helping you complete a project. Team helps with completing you as well.

1. A team can call out issues.
2. A team can help with issues.
3. A team can help you see what you cannot see.
For me personally, the ability of the team to see what I cannot see is the best reason to have a team. There are a ton of reasons to have a team, but for me this is the best reason.

Killing The Orphan Spirit - I had no clue I was an orphan. I had no clue I was looking at everything in my life through the lens of a narrative designed to ruin me. Thank God I had someone in my life willing to push past the weeds of my issues to deal with the core of what was wrong with me. Thank God I was willing to listen. Thank God he was willing to say it. His willingness to have a hard conversation with me is the reason why hundreds of people so far have been changed, not just me.

What would my life be like today if I didn’t have a team around me willing to call out something in me I couldn’t see myself?

3. You need a team to be better equipped.
My narrative: Jason, you are good, just not good enough. Cold hard facts: I was never enough. I still am not enough. Best news ever: I don’t have to be. You do not have everything in you that you need to complete your calling. Believe it or not, God only gave you a portion of what you needed to complete it. The rest is found in him and others.

Ephesians 4:11-16
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

You might be anointed and talented to the max to lead worship, but you might be trash at managing teams. You might can preach the house down but you are the worst at admin? What if your time in the dark isn’t a punishment but a blessing to make sure you learn what you need to learn to do what God called you to do? What if the 17 years before Joseph’s dream’s fulfillment wasn’t about just getting him to a certain location where he could interface with pharaoh, but it was also to work our the pride that was diminishing his ability?

Embrace the team because that team has some tools you are going to need to fulfill your purpose. The moment you think they are know it alls is the moment you become a know it all. In every season ask “What can I learn” and “How can I be better?”

Do some self eval for a moment.
What is an area where you are struggling and you know it?
Who do you know that can help equip you for your purpose?

Last thing today is something hugely practical.

How do I find that team?

The two quickest ways are:

1. Find a group who knows you, knows God, loves you, loves God, and has your best interest in mind.
This isn’t going to be a group of 30. More like a group of 3.
Jesus had the 72, the 12, and the 3.
72 acquaintances - anyone can live here
12 friends - only certain people can live here
3 squad members - few people can live here

2. Find a Serve Team
Now look, this isn’t an ad for serving at Freedom, but if you need a team, the quickest way is a Serve Team.
You get instant connect points
You get instant follow up
You get instant community

Everyone needs a team. We all have blindspots and because of that, we believe that we need godly people in our lives to help us reach our potential. These people know us and know God, love us and love God, and have our best interest in mind. As our lives are built, team provides the structure around us where, when we need help, we have not only God, but a squad we can reach out to for support. Life was not meant to be lived alone. We all need a team.

First question is are you on God’s team?
If you aren’t you need to be.

Second question is do you have a team of people around you right now committed to seeing you become the best you can be?
If you don’t, then why?
Past hurts aren’t a good enough reason to keep you from potential progress. Yes, there is the potential for pain, too, but when it comes to how important teams are to your development, trying again is always better than giving up.

My last question is are you allowing that team to help you become the best you can be?

What is the Holy Spirit saying to you through this message?