(1) Two weeks ago, I asked you if you rooted for a team no matter who played on it and if you rooted for a particular player no matter what team he/she played for. Some of you responded that you did both.
I have very few players that I root for. I will admit that I am a Brad Miller fan and have enjoyed watching him play when he is here in Indiana or Chicago.
(2) However, one of my favorite teams of all time was the 1972 Miami Dolphins. They are the only team of the modern era to have a perfect (undefeated) season along with a Super Bowl win. (a) When I think of that team, the names of Bob Griese, Paul Warfield, Larry Csonka, Jim Kiick, and their kicker, Garo Yepremian, come to my mind and memory. (b) However, when I went to the Miami Dolphins website to make sure I spelled their names correctly, I was reminded that there were 44 other men who were a part of that team.
A real football fan, especially a Miami fan, has probably memorized all 49 players’ names as well as knows something about their lives 34 years later. Can anyone here remember the names of one or two other players from that team?
Some people do, but most of us don’t. (c) But, their teammates remember their names especially the linemen, offensive and defensive, who did their jobs and helped the offense to score the points to win every game they played.
From what I remember Csonka and Kiick were the best known members of the team. They were the running backs who plowed through defenses and gained yardage against their opponents, yard by yard. Then there was Griese, the bespectacled Purdue alum who threw to receivers like the veteran Warfield who would close out his career with the team he started with, the Cleveland Browns.
However, as I did more research, I was reminded that a veteran quarterback named Earl Morrell, who was in his late 30’s by then, did most of the quarterbacking that season when Griese went down in game five with a broken leg and led the team to nine victories before Griese returned to quarterback the team in the conference championship game. He was claimed by the Dolphins in 1970 after being with the Baltimore Colts who he also led to victory as the backup quarterback in Super Bowl five when Hall-of-Famer Johnny Unitas was injured.
Then there was Howard Twilley, number 81, another wide receiver, who was the only original member of the Dolphins left when the team began play in the old AFL in 1966. He played his entire career, 11 seasons, with the Dolphins.
As I think about that team I realize that it was the efforts of all 49 players, plus the coaching staff (which included Don Shula, who coached at Miami for 25 years), that made the perfect season possible. It was a team effort, with those who became famous, and those who did not, contributing to the effort.
(3) This is my point – Ministry, like football, is a team effort and it does not matter who is the ‘star player’ or ‘head coach.’ What matters is faithfulness in service to the Lord because it is the Lord’s church and the ministry we do is done in His name.
(4) Today we conclude our look at our key operational value in the life of God’s church – service. Now I think that it is important for us to understand what ‘value’ means and value is a word with multiple meanings.
In our context a value is something of significance or importance to a person or group. It is a deeply held belief or practice that is critical to effectiveness.
In our text for this morning, as with our texts for this month, the issue of/the value of/the importance of servant hood is before us. And Paul makes it clear that ministry is a team effort. (5)
‘Who is Apollos, and who is Paul, that we should be the cause of such quarrels? Why, we’re only servants. Through us God caused you to believe. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us.’
(6) Let’s look at a few of the words and phrases in this verse as we also take a closer look at our main text.
• Who? (a)
Paul, as we have heard the past few weeks, is trying to correct some very self-centered attitudes that are dividing the church in Corinth. And he gets at the core issue when he begins his questions, designed to get his audiences to think about what they are saying to one another, with ‘Who?’ and not ‘Why?’ or ‘What?’
In an interview three years ago, Howard Twilley was asked to comment about his teammates on the 1972 Dolphins. ‘One of the great things about our team was even though we were very diverse, when we walked on that field, we became one… Of course there were clicks within the team, but Coach Shula did a great job of keeping everyone focused.’
Last week I read portions of I Corinthians 12 where Paul uses the analogy of the human body to illustrate the truth that the church is a team that has many positions, all of which are needed, but that God is, in a manner of speaking, the head coach. Twilley’s comments and Paul’s analogy makes it clear that while there is diversity on a team and in the church, when it is ‘game time,’ those differences need to be laid aside. So, for us to serve God, and our community, well and in His name, there comes a time when ‘Who’ does not matter, but ‘What’ – ministry in Jesus’ name, does matter.
• We’re only servants (b)
All pastors have egos. Some pastors have bigger egos than others and it causes problems. Laypersons have egos, too.
I think that having a positive and healthy sense of pride in our church and ministry is a good thing. But, Paul did caution that if we are going to boast, we need ‘to put no confidence in human effort. Instead, we boast about what Christ Jesus has done for us.’
These three words remind us that while we are sons and daughters of the Lord as well as friends of the Lord, as Jesus would tell the disciples in John 15:15, we are servants. We serve, we care, we give, and we do something for others in Jesus’ name, neither for our name nor for our glory.
All we do, as a part of this team, is for the honor and glory of God and not our own agenda.
• Through us God caused you (c)
When I reflect on my salvation experience, I realize that a large group of persons, over the first eight years of my life were used by the Lord to help me come to the place of commitment on a cold and clear January Sunday morning over 40 years ago.
There were Sunday School teachers, pastors, my parents, other family members, and church members. Many were men who were leaders in the church and who I looked up to. They were factory workers, brick layers, and office employees. Some had graduated high school, one was a PhD, and some were veterans of World War 2 and Korea. But, through their service in the churches I attended as a child, God used them to help me come to a saving knowledge of Him.
Right now, I want each of us to take our church bulletins and turn it over to the back page. Now, take a pen or pencil.
I am going to give you 30 seconds to list the names of as many persons as you can recall who have helped you grow in your faith and relationship with the Lord including helping you come to faith. Ready? Begin.
In verse 6 we observe, ‘My job was to plant the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it grow.’
(7) Of those listed…
(a) Who planted the seeds of faith in you? Who was it that began to tell you about Jesus and what He had done for you?
(b) Who watered the sprouts of faith in you? How did they ‘water’ the first shoots of growth and spiritual interest in you? Was it in the every day interaction of life?
Some stand out don’t they? Others seem to have had a role of planting and watering. But it was the Lord working through them to help us to come to faith.
Now take your pen or pencil again. I am going to give you 30 seconds to write another list. When I say ‘begin’ I want you to list the names of people that you know either at work, in your neighborhood, at school, or in your family who you want to see come to the Lord (or come back to the Lord). Ready? Begin.
(8) Now, how might you currently be sowing the seeds of faith? How about through your example? How do your work habits, personal habits, tone of voice/language and other things help (or hinder) sowing the seeds of faith in the lives of others?
(a) How might you also currently be watering the seeds of faith in someone else? How about through the same things plus a true and God honoring story of how God has worked in your life in a personal way?
How about in your service to others when it is inconvenient or hard or messy?
Just as we have been the recipients of others sowing and watering, we are also sowing and watering faith in others. But it is God working through us to do so.
Finally, (9)
• Did the work the Lord gave us.
Paul’s ‘work,’ his mission if you will, was to plant the seed by going to towns and cities and countries that had not yet heard the Christian message. Some are called by God to do that. All of us who profess faith in Christ are called to share that faith in word and action. But some are called to another country or another group of people different from them to share the gospel. They have been called missionaries. I also call them ‘bridge builders.’
And speaking of ‘bridge builders’ I told you three weeks ago that I would share with you some places of ministry that I believe God may be calling some of you to in our community. And as I think of service this morning, I think of Common Grace.
We have been a supporter of Common Grace since its inception and a past member of this congregation has sat on its Board of Directors. I was recently invited to do so, but said, ‘no.’
I think that one of us needs to be on the Board. If community ministry is something that you are passionate about and feel a calling to, then we need to talk because I believe that it is one of the ways that we make important connections to the community. (There is also the Grace Guides program that was presented to us a few weeks ago as well.)
(a) Obedience is an important issue with regard to service. As Paul said in chapter 12:18 ‘But God made our bodies with many parts, and he has put each part just where he wants it.’ In the analogy of chapter 12, God has assigned us places of ministry in line with His intents and purposes.
But in serving we are doing the work God has given us to do. (b) The ministry, a team effort, is a wonderful mixture of people, called by the Lord to a central purpose of helping people come to faith and then living out that faith. Look at your list of those who helped you come to faith. How different they are from one another!
As Paul concludes in our main text, (c) ‘The one who plants and the one who waters work as a team with the same purpose. Yet they will be rewarded individually, according to their own hard work. (d) We work together as partners who belong to God. You are God’s field, God’s building—not ours.’
In God’s plan, a group effort has been called for to help others come to faith. For while we are individually responsible to God with our lives and each one of us must make our own faith commitment, His commands to make disciples requires a group effort of obedient and committed individuals.
Service is considered to be a key Christian discipline and in his book, The Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster said this about the discipline (or practice) of service.
“Self-righteous service comes through human effort. True service comes from a relationship with the divine Other deep inside.
Self-righteous service is impressed with the “big deal.” True service finds it almost impossible to distinguish the small from the large service.
Self-righteous service requires external rewards. True service rests contented in hiddenness.
Self-righteous service is highly concerned about results. True service is free of the need to calculate results.
Self-righteous service picks and chooses whom to serve. True service is indiscriminate in its ministry.
Self-righteous service is affected by moods and whims. True service ministers simply and faithfully because there is a need.
Self-righteous service is temporary. True service is a lifestyle.
Self-righteous service is without sensitivity. It insists on meeting the need even when to do so would be destructive. True service can withhold the service as freely as perform it.
(10) Self-righteous service fractures community. True service, on the other hand, builds community.”
I still believe that our church has a mission and ministry in this community and beyond. But we need to improve and refine our service. (11) The goal of ministry is to serve others so that they may come to faith in Christ.
Let us seek God’s direction so that we can clearly see how to serve better and more effectively in the years ahead. Amen.
Sources:
The 1972 Miami Dolphins information is located at www.miamidolphins.com
Pat Twilley’s comments are located at
www.miamidolphins.com/pressbox/pressreleases/pressreleases.asp?contentID=2597
Foster quote is from www.sermoncentral.com and was submitted by Donnie Martin
Power Points for this sermon are available by e-mailing me at pastorjim46755@yahoo.com and asking for ‘062506svgs’ Please note that all slides for a particular presentation may not be available.
