“Putting
It All Together”
By Brother Kenneth Ray
May 13th,
2012
Click here to download printable sermon
notes in pdf format.
Team—a
group of
people constituting one side in a contest or competition. (b) group of
people
working together in a coordinated effort.
I
took the time to look in the
concordance (for those of you that don’t know, a concordance is a
reference
book that you can use to find words in the Bible), and I didn’t find
the word, ‘team’
as a word listed in the Bible. I
did find
this though:
Ephesians
4:16
…fitly joined together and compacted
by that which every joint supplieth…
Verse
fifteen speaks about how we may
grow up into Him in all things which I the head, even Christ. These two verses tell us,
or, if you prefer,
show us, how in Jesus and by Jesus we can be joined together. Has anybody worked in
construction, and can
tell us what compaction is? (Daniel
came
forward and defined ‘compaction’ as:
“The
process by which you compact the earth, and then you wait a little
while, and
compact it again, before you lay the foundation.”) Basically, it means
to drive
together, to unite. It
is when things are
joined, or squeezed together, and you can lay a foundation on it.
Putting
it all together. It
says, “…every joint supplieth…” Each
joint has something to offer. You
know, if you mess up a joint, you’re
going to feel it. The
body is made up of
many pieces. If you
lose your ring finger
(in my line of work, that usually you were wearing a ring when you
shouldn’t
have been)... Where’s
Bob Hiertzler? Bob
had an accident at work several years ago
and lost part of a finger. (Bob
came up
and showed his right hand, how he’s missing most of his index finger.) Bob, does that affect you
when you’re trying
to tie a fly? “Oh
yes.” Was it easier
for you to tie flies before
that happened? “Yes, it was a lot easier.
I didn’t realize how much I used that finger until I
didn’t have it any
more.” You don’t
realize how much you
impact someone until you stop impacting them.
You don’t realize how much someone else affects you
until they’re not
there anymore. “…according to
the effectual working in the measure
of every part…” The
Greek word for
working, Energeia
[G1753]
means working, or efficiency. So,
we are
not to be part time, but full time in the measure (portion) of every
part. This includes
our gifts and abilities. If
you have the ability to pray, then you
should pray full time. If
you have the
ability to teach, then you should teach full time.
Now that doesn’t mean that you should teach
every minute. If
every time I ask you a
question, you try to teach me the history of whatever it was I asked
about,
after a while, I’m just not going to ask you any questions.
If you
lose a little bit of what you have, then the body is not as strong, and
that
goes for the body of Christ, as well.
Have
you ever played the game of
Life? There certain
squares on the game
board where it says in big letters, “STOP.”
It doesn’t matter if you rolled a ten, when you get
there, you have to
stop. Let’s stop
here for a minute.
Does
this sound, at least a little, like
being a team? Are
there any one-man
teams? I know that
there are some solo
sports, but, even then, there are, a lot of times, teams. A boxer has his trainer… Can you name some
non-sport teams? Orchestra,
politics (now, wait a minute, we
don’t want to talk about that), restaurants, ushers, board of
directors,
kitchen, workplace, emergency services, running a family, a hospital,
the
Avengers...
You
see, it’s not just the church body
that uses teamwork. The
difference is,
we use teamwork to spread the Gospel.
There are no one-man shows.
Jesus
was the closest thing to a one-man show.
Colossians
2:9 For
in Him dwelleth all the fulness
of the Godhead bodily.
If
ever there was a one-man show, this
was it. He chose to
give His time to
those around Him, and they knew that.
That’s why people came from miles around to listen
to Him.
When
he departed, He spake these words
to the eleven that we have come to know as the Great Commission:
Matthew
28:19
Go ye, therefore, and teach all
nations, baptizing them in the name…
He
did not commission cheerleaders. He
did not commission applause signs.
He did not commission teleprompters.
He commissioned them (us) to continue on the
work that He started.
You
know, after you lay the foundation,
then you need to pour the floor, and then build walls, etc. Some of us have minister’s
cards; what are we
doing with them? How
many of us are
doing what we say we are, instead of saying that we’re doing what we
know we
should be doing? One
of my teachers
taught me that if you want to make sure something gets done, give it to
somebody who doesn’t have time for it.
Huh? Well,
that way, they’ll work
to get it off their plate so that they can back to doing the other
things that
they don’t have time to do.
2
Peter 1:5-8 …add
to your faith virtue, and to virtue,
knowledge; and to knowledge…
Everything
I know from math starts with
one plus one equals two. After
you earn
addition, then you can learn subtraction, and then multiplication and
division,
but it all starts with one plus one equals two.
We are supposed to be adding.
In
the business world, they call that compounding.
Ephesians
4:11-12
And He gave some apostles,
and some prophets, and some evangelists…
Which
one are you? Maybe
none.
Maybe one. When
a building is put
up, it takes several different trades to complete that project: Masons, plumbers, framers,
carpenters, electricians,
painters, glazers, tile-workers, locksmiths, etc.
They all have different abilities, but they
are all needed to complete the building.
Not every one in the body of Christ has the same
ability.
1
Corinthians 12:28-30
…Are
all apostles? are
all prophets? are all teachers?…
No.
The answer is no.
Do your
job. You must have
the right tool for
the job. You may be
the best person at
that one thing that needs to get done.
You
may be good at several things, and so are the best person for a
particular task. If
you lend yourself to God’s work, then we
are able to be used by God for the good of many.
Put it all together, and there shall be good
measure, overflowing both from us and to us; meeting needs and having
needs
met. I’m not just
giving, I’m also
getting; bringing salvation and much needed support to make it to
journey’s
end.
Sermon
notes by Pete Shepherd
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