Thursday, October 8, 2015

God’s Team - Part 3 - Teamwork


Luke 10:2 Then He (Jesus) said to them, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

Michael writes this week that as Christians, we have been called to God's team, for we are fellow laborers with Christ. Jesus said in John 4:35,Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!”


Our times are in Thy hands. Though Israel stands alone against the world, God said that he who blesses Israel shall be blessed and he who curses Israel shall be cursed. The Word of God shall come to pass despite the world's division and confusion. The solutions to the world's problems are beyond the ability of the adversary - devil, his minions, and the world's masses, who do not believe His Word of truth. In every cataclysmic event in world history, God always preserves a remnant of His faithful ones. Our decision is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on God's side. When the crisis comes, God expects his people to have such confidence in Him that we will be the reliable ones who stand according to His power and endure faithfully to the end.

A team is a group on one side of a contest where winning or losing is at stake.  We inherited our sin nature from Adam and were born into the losing team.  However, we were “born again” of God's Holy Spirit into the winning team. In the spiritual contest, we have formidable foes. In my own power of the flesh, I can do nothing. However, upon the new birth from above, I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live I live by faith in the one who loved me and gave himself for  me – Galatians 2:20. I have been bought with a price ... by the payment of the innocent blood of Jesus Christ. For He who knew no sin was made the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him – 2 Corinthians 5:21.  Jesus prayed all night for those on His team ... not for those who abandoned him, but for His disciples; those disciplined followers whom He had personally called.  A winning team has a shared vision. He didn't call them to join His organization. Rather, Jesus said, "come and follow Me."  As John the Baptist declared, I'm not the bridegroom, I'm here to introduce the Bride to her Bridegroom ...  “I must decrease that He might increase" – John 3:30.


No faith other than Christianity can say: my Lord lives with me and within me. His team members are those who have been crucified with Him, and have given up their own selfish rights in allegiance to Him.  They represent not themselves, but Christ who lives in them – Galatians 2:20. Our faith and our hope is in Him. This hope is the foundation of our security. According to Ephesians 4:13-14  “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.
Therefore I am persuaded that he is able to keep that deposit of Holy Spirit that he has committed unto me against the Day of Judgment. There is no security in the things of this world ... love not the world.  Rather, set your affections on things above and not on things of the earthColossians 3:2. To turn our eyes away from worldly things is to press toward the mark of the upward calling of God in Christ JesusPhilippians 3:14. Our team mission is to impact the world for Christ. He has called His disciplined followers to influence the world and not to be influenced by the world. 

Let's continue Michael's message on being on God's Team tomorrow.
In Christ, Brian

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