Sermon Central
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God's Work Is Teamwork Series
Contributed by Shine Thomas on Mar 19, 2020 (message contributor)
Summary: God is the eternal team. We are not a perfect team but we still have to work with a team. Some think better not work with a team, I am the boss and they all work to my vision.
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How many of you truly desire for the Kingdom of God to grow in a powerful way? Do you indeed, like to see this church grow in the Lordship of Christ, grow in strength, grow in unity, grow in ministry and grow in the Word? How many of you would like to see your families and workplaces to be united, so that you can accomplish God’s purpose for you and your family?
Well, you could see all this and more, if you tap into what I have to share with you through this sermon.
Presently, we are going to see how the work of God has to be done based on the teamwork Nehemiah did for God.
Now God wants us to be light and salt. God wants us to reach out to the world with his word, the gospel. God wants us to grow and believers to mature. So we have work to do. In fact, God wants to work as a team to achieve his purposes. Christian ministry always has to be a team ministry, and you are to be a team player. If you are thinking about it as your ministry, it is not Christianity.
Remember God is perfect, God is the eternal team. We are not a perfect team but we still have to work with a team. Some think better not work with a team, I am the boss and they all work to my vision. That is not how God works. A team where there is functional equality but also functional leadership, there is a leader. (I Thessalonians:1:5-6)
Why Teamwork?
1. God Works As A Team
God is Trinity. Trinity is a team. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are a team.
2. Jesus Worked as a Team
Jesus used all kinds of people with different backgrounds to reach the world. He utilized tax collectors, physicians, fishermen, women, children, etc. He also used the wealthy, poor, masters, slaves, passive people and dynamic people in his team.
3. Paul Worked as a Team
Paul the Apostle was a team player. It is said that Apostle Paul had almost 40 people in his team.
4. Greater Vision and Achievement
Teams create a vision of something larger than one can see individually. The great commission is not a one-man job. We have a part in it together. Teamwork helps us accomplish this.
Illustration of Strength through Team Work:
In a horse-pulling contest at a county fair, the first-place horse moved a sled weighing 2000 kg. The runner-up pulled 1800 kg. The owners of the two horses wondered how much the animals could pull if they worked together. So they hitched them up and loaded the sled. To everyone’s surprise, the horses were able to pull 5450 kg, that’s 1650 kg more than if they had gone alone!
Teamwork can achieve greater results. Furthermore, I want to speak about the teamwork of Nehemiah.
Background
God brought Israel back to the Promised Land but later Israel continued to sin against the Lord. The Lord warned them through the prophets to stop or they would go into captivity. They ignored the warning and they went into captivity in Babylon. So in Babylon, they cried out to God to be delivered and after 70 years God answered their prayer.
Consequently, the Babylonians had been defeated by the Persians and Cyrus their leader let the first batch of Jews return to Jerusalem led by Ezra the priest who rebuild the temple. Sometime later the walls had still been broken and here comes the man for the hour, Nehemiah.
Listen, God will do his work, his way in his timing but God chooses to work through people. So God was searching for the right person for the job.
Currently, God is looking for a man, God is looking for a woman. Would you be that person willing to step forward and say, “Lord please use me? I don’t have much ability but I am willing to be used by you.”
Here comes Nehemiah, the cup-bearer of the king Nebuchadnezzar, living in the lap of luxury and burdened for the broken walls of Jerusalem. He prays and God touched the heart of the king and Nehemiah comes to Jerusalem with the protection from the king and permission to build the walls. Nehemiah comes and inspects the walls and finds that the walls truly are in rubbles. Then he motivates the people who have been around in Jerusalem who had not been doing anything about the walls. All the people agree to construct the wall. The wall was completed in 52 days.
1 Eliashib the high priest and his fellow priests went to work and rebuilt the Sheep Gate…2 The men of Jericho built the adjoining section, and Zakkur son of Imri built next to them. 3 The Fish Gate was rebuilt by the sons of Hassenaah. They laid its beams and put its doors and bolts and bars in place. 4 Meremoth son of Uriah, the son of Hakkoz, repaired the next section. Next to him Meshullam son of Berekiah, the son of Meshezabel, made repairs, and next to him Zadok son of Baana also made repairs.