Team Spirit

Text: Ephesians 4 (1–3) “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

Introduction: Ephesians is about behavior; behavior pleasing and worthy of the vocation (voice) of God in chapter 4:1. It is God’s voice that has called us, and He has certainly called us to unity. Walking is descriptive of an order of behavior appropriate for people who have the blessings of God in heavenly places in Christ; part of this appropriate walk, or behavior, is unity among believers.

I. The Body of Christ is a team

“A great team is not just a group of people with a common goal; it’s a group committed to working together toward a common goal.” (Blair Singer)

II. The Bible is a code of conduct for the team

Faithfulness; “Semper Fidelis” is the Marines’ ‘motto’

Mot·to — |’mätō| A short sentence or phrase chosen as encapsulating the beliefs or ideals guiding an individual, family or institution.

“Semper Fi” is more than a “MOTTO for Marines,” and it means always faithful. Faithful to everything about their team; faithfulness to each other; the mission, the brotherhood, the fallen, the leadership, the Code of Conduct. “No man will be left behind” and so forth. The church has a Code of Conduct to which we all subscribe. It means we help each other, we’re loyal to each other, we pledge to faithfully abide by the Code.

The story was told of the Customer Support representative who, when one caller complained, said “I tried to tell them, but they won’t listen to me”. He was not faithful to his team and his company, but was cowardly, disloyal, selfish, and sold out the team to save face with the caller; he broke the code. He chose to show sympathy to the caller, and separate himself from association with the company.

Many people are afraid to stand true to their team, and say things that dissociate them from their team to save face with critics. They express things they ‘disagree with’ and also ‘dislike’, and in doing so, they break the code of the Christian brotherhood. They leave their brother or sister for dead.

Tear an arm from the body of Christ and sew it to a cadaver. Does that make the cadaver part of Christ? The arm may say, “this is indeed a body also, and a better one, since nothing is required of me.” People tear themselves from the brotherhood of the body of Christ, to join another church saying it is part of the body of Christ also. Ephesians teaches us that there is one body, one faith.

III. A true team works together

Blair Singer told the story of his shipping Company and his team of employees. When overtime was required to meet a critical deadline, they didn’t leave a few to take care of it, but all jumped in and made it happen. They were a team that worked together to meet the deadline. They weren’t clock watchers. The mission must be first, then the team, then individuals.

The Epistle to the Ephesians is teaching us to be a team when it says “endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” and to “be of the same mind.”

1 Corinthians 1 (10)

“Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

IV. Wounded teammates

Hebrews 12 (12–15) “Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord: Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;”

The word, “defiled”, is a verb, meaning “sully, mar, or spoil”. Lameness is the inability to walk normally because of an injury, defect, or illness. When a brother or sister is spiritually wounded, that lameness will result in them being turned out of the way.

The defilement of bitterness is manifested by different symptoms. This epistle to the Ephesians is about BEHAVIOR — WALKING WORTHY OF OUR CALLING; it instructs us about the things that we must lay aside to keep unity, in order to be worthy. Here’s some of the symptoms;

V. Unfaithfulness

Did someone say Semper Fi?

“There is a big difference between a former Marine and an ex-Marine,” one brother said. “A former marine has served his time faithfully in all aspects. He may have been a knuckle head and messed up from time to time, but he was still faithful and finished his course honorably. An ‘ex-marine’ is one who has QUIT. Both started, but only one finished.

Faithfulness in all aspects is very important. That is why ‘ex-marine’ is a real insult. If you quit, you were not faithful. If you were not faithful, you were not a real Marine, but a quitter.

The bond between Marines does not go out to those who quit. It is only between those who have finished or are currently serving. It is similar to when people say an ex-wife (which makes you think of divorce and giving up) instead of a former wife that is now dead, but was faithful.”

When something breaks that unity, and brings people into lameness, and then turns them out of the way into lies, it breaks the “peace with all men” and defiles their personal “holiness”.

VI. A Sense of Entitlement

One psychiatrist said:

“In psychiatry we use the term ‘sense of entitlement’ to describe the outrageous attitude of some of our more narcissistic clients who believe that the world ‘owes’ them and they want to collect NOW. Patients with this type of attitude always want more. Whatever you do is never good enough for them, and they also generally show no gratitude or express any thanks — even when someone goes out of their way for them. Like the most spoiled of royalty, they merely expect that they should be the center of your world at all times.

This attitude is normally seen in toddlers, who want what they want and they want it now! Every parent has had to deal with this kind of whining. When you see this attitude repeatedly in an adult, then you know you are dealing with psychopathology. Many adults whimper at the slightest inconvenience, delay, or restriction. Why? Because, like toddlers, they are convinced they deserve what they want when they want it. They are ‘entitled’ to it.

What are psychological defense mechanisms? They are psychological strategies used by individuals to cope with reality and to maintain his/her self-image intact.

Just a few of them are…

1) Fantasy — tendency to retreat into fantasy in order to resolve inner and outer conflicts.

2) Projection — attributing one’s own unacknowledged feelings to others; includes severe prejudice, severe jealousy, hyper-vigilance to external danger, and “injustice collecting” (remember that projection is a primitive form of paranoia, so it is common in today’s world).

3) Hypochondriasis — the transformation of negative feelings towards others into negative feelings toward self, pain, illness and anxiety.”

These defense mechanisms are commonly used by people who quit when they don’t get their way, or what they want. They feel they deserve to have what belongs to others. They deserve to be paid or supported by their company, whether they work or not.

VII. Crying “VICTIM!”

Why would someone cry ‘victim’? BITTERNESS.

Psalm 55 (12–14)

“For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him: But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.”

David knew how it felt to have his friends turned out of the way, while they employed psychological defense mechanisms such as those above, to conceal and justify their bitterness.

VIII. Fear of Adversity

The Gold and the Flux

Gold is malleable, ductile and sectile, and its high thermal and electrical conductivity as well as its resistance to oxidation make its uses innumerable. Malleability is the ability of gold to be pressed or hammered into thin sheets, 10 times as thin as a sheet of paper. Just mining gold doesn’t mean it is in its purest form, it must be refined. Gold can be smelted. Smelting involves heating the gold with a chemical substance called flux. The flux bonds with the contaminants and floats on top of the melted gold. The gold is then cooled and allowed to harden in molds, and the flux-contaminant mixture (slag) is hauled away as a solid waste.

Isaiah 48 (10)

“Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.”

1 Peter 1 (6-7)

“Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ”

This means that often, the true colors of team members comes to the surface in the heat of the battle. God wants to purge our dross and retain our gold, but our response determines the outcome. We’re to be refined by the adversities, not defiled and made lame.

IX. Friendly fire

“Friendly fire” a name describing an inadvertent firing towards one’s own, or otherwise friendly forces, while attempting to engage enemy forces, particularly where this results in injury or death. A death resulting from a negligent discharge is not considered friendly fire. Neither is murder, whether premeditated or in the heat of the moment, and nor is deliberate firing on one’s own troops for disciplinary reasons, as in these cases there is no intent to harm the enemy. [1]
Similarly, inadvertent harm to non-combatants or structures, usually referred to as “collateral damage” is also not considered to be friendly fire. [2]

The term friendly fire was originally adopted by the United States military. Many North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) militaries refer to these incidents as blue on blue, which derives from military exercises where NATO forces were identified by blue pennants, hence “blue”, and the Warsaw Pact forces were identified by orange pennants. Another term for such incidents is fratricide, a word that originally refers to the act of a person killing their brother.

Sometimes people do things in the name of “fighting the devil” that hurts their fellow-soldiers (church members, people in the fellowship). Sometimes, your brother in Christ lets his personal desires get in the way and hurts his own brethren.

X. Enemies or friends?

Abraham Lincoln — a Master of Men

Lincoln had constant ‘friendly fire’ from many political opponents, people in his own political camp, who hated and opposed him; through many means, he gained the cooperation of these men who were aggressive, smart and educated. He realized that his enemies’ resourcefulness was useful to the cause and greater than his need to have their love and praise. Ostensibly, his enemies had the ‘good of the country’ at heart.

John 16 (1–3) “These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.”

XI. Jesus set the example for us

John 15 (9–14)

“As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.

XII. God’s Solution

Change the nature of His enemies

2 Peter 1 (1–4) “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

You will be loyal to God and His team when your very nature has been changed!

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