I pray you’ve been getting a lot out of this series. Many of you have posted, texted, or told me personally how last week impacted you.

I want to encourage you that development, while it is hard, it is worth it. Be better today than you were yesterday. Kill those demons. Let go of the past. Forgive, forgive, forgive. Let who you know you should be have more influence on you than who you have been.

The world needs who God made you to be.

I would hope that all of us want to become who God made us to be. I think sometimes we get bogged down in the fact that we know ourselves, good, bad, and ugly, and we can be so hard on ourselves over it. We know we fall short even when others can’t see it, and because we see every single setback, we can so easily stifle our own development from within.

These moments cause us to have unfair assumptions about what we can become, and even what God is capable of doing in our lives.

Tony Robbins
“You overestimate what you can do in a moment but you underestimate what you can do in a lifetime.”

So in the process of becoming who God made you to be, be careful that you aren’t so hard on yourself that you begin doing satan’s job for him.
Give yourself some grace. Maybe even now you need to just close your eyes and do that.

“I am sorry for being so mean to you. Forgive me.” Then say, “I forgive you.” Lastly, “God, I receive your grace.”

You’d be nice to God’s son, Jesus. You are his son/daughter, too. Be nice to yourself.

In the process of becoming who God wants us to be, there is another factor that stifles and even stops that development. That is isolation.

Isolate comes from the Latin isolatus that means “made into an island.” The word went Italian then French, and by the time “isolate” got to English, the word meant, “standing detached from others of its kind.”

How many times do you feel like that?

Independence is built into the American psyche. We are by nature rebellious. We are very aggressive when our freedoms or rights are challenged. This ideology can be useful in that it pushes us to fight what shouldn’t be, to explore, expand, innovate. But what might work for building a nation is a death sentence to your spiritual and emotional life.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 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! 11 Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? 12 And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.

Because we are naturally independent (doubly if you are a native Texan), we apply that same independence to every area of our lives. This forces us into thought processes that encourage isolation. It makes us:
- internalize issues
- rely only on what we have to overcome
- reject outside help

And then when we fail at effectively fixing the issue, we shower ourselves with negativity from within, and it can even make us change how we view God and his people.

The first step in this process is that we socially isolate. This is horrible for you!

Social isolation will kill you, and the Bible confirms how badly you need people!

Genesis 2:18
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone…”
You need people. You can’t live without them!

Hebrews 10:24-2524
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Don’t be alone, brainstorm how to encourage, actively engage with people!

2 Corinthians 13:11
Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Be unified!

The second step is that as we socially isolate, we begin to believe narratives about ourselves that aren’t accurate. “An idle mind is the devil’s playground.” When there are no other voices in your life, yours is the only one you hear.

Those narratives keep us from sharing because we don’t want to reveal that we are as broken as we really are.

While this happens with everyone, this is a pandemic in men.

Psalm 34:18
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Sometimes, the best thing you can do for a person is not fix their issue, but rather be near them in their brokenness.

If you are a man in here today and you are internally struggling but externally masking, Brandon Browning is a safe place. Tony, Edgar, Matt, Marvin, among others, these are safe places. Tuesday nights at 6:30 Men’s Meetup is a safe pace. Freedom is a safe place.

We will fight for you, pray for you, encourage you, believe in you, challenge you, speak life over you, and point you to Jesus.

Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

If you are a woman in here and feel the same thing, Deborah Ruppert is a safe place. Shelby, Gwen, Monique, among others, these are safe spaces.
Wednesday night at 6:30 Women’s Meetup is a safe place.

At some point, we have to stop the cycle of isolation in our lives because the person God created you to be requires other people for that person to materialize.

You may not have met who God created you to be just yet because you’ve convinced yourself that you don’t need anyone to help you.
“Wrong”

1. YOU NEED A TEAM

Everything we do at Freedom is with “team” in mind. We call it our structure. What is a structure? The scaffolding upon which the building is built.

We don’t do things outside of a team. This isn’t always easy! You can go faster alone, but further together.

You probably don’t need a lesson on what a team is, but you do need to know what a team does.

Consider this definition of team from Luke Kuepfer at Reverb Network:
A team is a group of accountable individuals who leverage and discipline their unique strengths to fulfill a common mission by accomplishing specific goals.

In our context, a team is made up of people who:
- are accountable to each other
- disciple each other
- develop each other
all with the goal of being everything God created us to be.

Who is doing that in your life?
If no one is, then you need to get off your island.

At Freedom, we say your team should be comprised of a small group of people who know you, know God, love you, love God, and have your best interest in mind. WHY? Because there are going to be moments in your life where you need someone to tell you what you are doing wrong, where you are stopping your progress, but also moments where they call out greatness and speak life over you. And if you are not hearing that from someone who knows you, knows God, loves you, loves God, and has your best interest in mind, you will not receive the discipleship and development God through them is trying to bring.

TRUST ME - correction ain’t easy, but it is worth it.

Hebrews 12:11
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

The Message Translation - At the time, discipline isn’t much fun. It always feels like it’s going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off big-time, for it’s the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God.

Remember, this is all about you moving forward, developing. maturing. You aren’t coming here because you don’t have anything else to do on Sundays or Tuesdays or Wednesdays. You want to get closer to God and be developed!

But not all movement is maturing.
Movement without maturity just ends with you in a new spot but with the same old problems.

Luke 5:37-38
37 And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined. 38 But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

Old skin to new skin requires development, discipleship, and those things produce maturity so that when God pours the new anointing into the new you, the old you doesn’t destroy it.

So then how do I go from old wineskin to new wineskin?
YES to Jesus
YES to discipleship
YES to development
YES to the team that will help these things come to pass.

NOTHING matures without help. You included.

So first you need a team.

2. YOU NEED ACCOUNTABILITY

Accountability and team go together like love and marriage. Love is a huge part of what makes a marriage work. You don’t be faithful because it is the rule. It is because you love. In the same way, accountability is a huge part of makes the team work. You aren’t accountable because you have to be. It is because you get to be.

There is a huge kink in the armor of accountability, however, and it is super easy to exploit.

Ask me how I am doing. “GREAT! Life is awesome!”
Meanwhile, my marriage is struggling, I hate my job, and when I look in the mirror I just see a mean angry person who knows I am a failure.

A lie can kill accountability on the spot. If a lie can do that, what can the truth do?

John 8:32
you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

So what if, rather than lying so I didn’t have to tell anyone, I, instead, opened my heart and allowed someone else to help?

Galatians 6:2
Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

Some of us already feel like a burden, so the last thing we want to do is to lump our burden onto someone else. That is PRIDE talking and the devil lying. Paul didn’t say, "Look guys, if it isn’t too big a deal and doesn’t cause you too much ehh, help someone out with a burden."

Bear in this passage in Greek: "Bastazete" - YOU bear
Present Imperative Active - THIS IS A COMMAND.

When you share your burden with me, you aren’t burdening me! You are giving me an opportunity to be obedient fulfill the law of Christ. What is the law of Christ? SELFLESS UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!

I wouldn’t be afraid of someone knowing I am struggling.
I’d be afraid of no one knowing I am struggling.

What does it say that you’d rather suffer in solitude than succeed with accountability?
I think it says either you don’t understand the why behind a team, you are believing a lie that you have to do it on your own, or else, you want that pain to continue.

Even Jesus had a team.
Even Jesus knew he needed help.

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.”

The word watch means to be vigilant, alert. Why? Maybe Jesus didn’t want to be taken by surprise, knowing the time was near.

Come on…
If even JESUS wanted a team with him to stay vigilant, how much more do we need that?

Thayer’s Greek renders “watch” like this:
"be cautious, active, to take heed lest through remissness and indolence some destructive calamity suddenly overtakes one."

The team doesn’t exist to know your business. It exists to cautiously, actively, vigilantly watch over you and help you mature in the purpose of God for your life.

That team won’t be everyone you know. It isn’t your hundreds of TikTok followers. Your purpose, and even your struggles, the cross you have to bear, all of these things will limit those on your team.

We don’t need to get wrapped up in who is on our team, or why some people are on one team, but not on my team. Rather than covet someone else’s team, realize that God has a group of people specifically for you that are going to help you disciple, develop, and mature.

The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the risen Jesus in Matthew 28, but you don’t get Matthew 28 joy without the Matthew 26 team.

Psalm 133
1 Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! 2 It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! 3 It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

3. YOU NEED UNITY

You need unity in every area of your life, not just with your team. In marriage, friendships, work, you need it everywhere.

Unity is more than getting along. It is linking arms and moving the Kingdom forward in our lives. But unity is not natural. It is something we have to pursue. Unity is a core value here at Freedom.

We talked earlier that having a team kills isolation. You need a team, but there needs to be unity there too. WHY? Because Unity adds strength.

I can do little damage with a thump. A little more with a slap. But when the team called my fingers come together in unity, things can get serious lol Same goes for people when they come together.

Genesis 11:6
6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.”

What would happen if instead of isolating and trying to do it all on your own, you got in unity with a team around you and allowed the Holy Spirit to change you into who God created you to be?

When unity happens, God commands a blessing. So fellas, when you get in unity by showing up on a Tuesday night, or you are willing to open up to someone doing the week about your struggles, God commands a blessing on that.

Ladies, when you overcome the fear of thinking someone might think you aren’t the best mom in the world and talk with a Christian sister about a struggle you are having with kids, God commands a blessing.

If the blessing starts when unity starts, I wonder what stops when unity stops? Everything.

When there is no team, no unity, you start looking around and wondering why you aren’t fitting in. You start wondering if people are judging you. You start wondering if they can see through your disguise. You become critical and frustrated because you feel you aren’t getting what others seem to be getting.

At Babel, disunity destroyed the community.

What have you been missing by refusing or neglecting to engage with a team in unity?

What is keeping you from embracing team as your structure and unity as your pursuit?

Why do you need this? Because when people come together, they can achieve more than they ever could individually.

If you feel stalled, stuck, isolated, alone, you need a team. If you feel neutral to this whole thing and feel like you are fine how you are now, then I am willing to bet you haven’t stepped out of the comfort of the boat yet.

If you feel connected and strengthened and encouraged and purposeful, I bet I know the reason why.

Starting this team and unity process is not complicated and doesn’t require you to pour your guts out on day one.

It is a simple 3 step process:

1. Go to a Meetup or start serving.
Men, go to Men’s and find your team, women to women’s, youth, to youth. If you can’t swing meetups because of work, join a serve team, get in the GroupMe chats, or link up with some of the people I mentioned today. Find one person you can link up with.

2. Start the conversation with hobbies and interests.
More godly relationships have been initiated by a hobby or interest than a prayer and Bible study.

3. Engage.
Once you find that person, take off the mask. It may take time. No problem. You might not find that person right away. It’s ok. If you can’t find them, talk to a leader and let us help.

At the end of the day you have to want the person God made you to be more than you want isolation.

Freedom is here to help.

Let’s pray.

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

How does he want you to respond?