Sunday, March 1, 2009: Spring Training 3--Teamwork

Spring Training: Teamwork
Romans 12: 1 – 8.

This is the third in a series of four sermons focusing on the baseball theme of "Spring Training." I began this series of sermons by interviewing Trey Hearne, a young man who works on our church maintenance staff during the off-season and pitches for a minor league baseball team in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. Trey was scheduled to begin Spring Training with the minor leagues on March 9. On Thursday of last week, Trey was called by the "big leagues." The Cardinals have three injured pitchers and needed some additional help. He left on Friday to pitch in "big league" Spring Training.

http://stlouis.cardinals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090226&content_id=3886712&vkey=news_stl&fext=.jsp&c_id=stl



I. Introduction

There are two basic reasons why we are emphasizing Spring Training for four weeks in our Sunday morning worship. First, I want to start using more creative elements in our worship—video, drama, interviews, themes, series, etc… Second, there are some people who believe the months of February and March are prime months for church attendance. I’ve never heard a good explanation why.

The first week of Spring Training, we focused on “Conditioning.” I interviewed Trey Hearne, who told us that baseball players can’t go back to Spring Training out of shape and expect to regain their position on the team. Conditioning is something that should take place every day and all year long. In the same way, Christian men and women should not expect to get in a good, spiritual condition one time a year—or even one day a week. Spiritual conditioning must be an every day, year long effort.

The second week of Spring Training, we focused on “Basic Skills and Mechanics.” Again, Trey told us that professional baseball players go back to the basics during the two months of Spring Training: throwing, catching, hitting, even spitting and scratching… As Christian men and women, the basics of our faith involve how we use our hearts, souls, minds and bodies to love God and other people.

Today, we are going to focus on an element of Spring Training that is not personal and individual. Conditioning is all about individual will power and training. Basic skills and mechanics relate to an individual player’s willingness to put in the practice time and repetition necessary to master techniques. But teamwork…On one hand, this is about an individual’s willingness to get along with others. On the other hand, a lot of teamwork depends on other people…

A baseball player in the minor leagues does not care about teamwork during Spring Training. He is more concerned with his own status. Players who get cut from the team before the season begins, simply do not care about the team. But the Major League players who know they are already on the team…these players want to use Spring Training as a time to get to know and trust their teammates.

For Christian men and women, the word “Team” ought to make us think of the church. Membership in this team does not depend on our ability. Membership is something God gives us when he saves us by his grace. Christians do not have to "make the team" to be accepted at church. No. If we expected people to be good enough to be a part of our team, our church buildings would be empty. There wouldn't even be a pastor!

The Christian life is both individual and corporate. There is an important, individual aspect of Christian life—we call it FAITH. There is also an important, corporate aspect of Christian life—we call it CHURCH. As individualistic Americans, we tend to emphasize FAITH and overlook CHURCH. But the Bible has a lot to say about CHURCH.

Exodus 20: 8…Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy…

Matthew 18: 20…For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them…

Hebrews 10: 25…Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching…

Then there is Romans chapter 12…

We believe that the book of Romans was written close to the end of the Apostle Paul’s life and ministry on earth. By this time, he was an old man. He was at a point in his life that he could look back and evaluate his work of ministry and evangelism. He also looked back at his teachings to the new Christians and fledgling churches. He was also evaluating his own relationship with God as well as his theological beliefs about the Christian life.

This leads some New Testament scholars to describe the book of Romans as Paul’s Magnum Opus—his greatest achievement. Because the book of Romans contains Paul’s most complete theological treatise on the Christian life.

In this sense Romans is different from Paul’s other writings. It is his longest and most complete. Yet in many other ways, Romans is very similar to the rest of Paul’s writings. For example, Romans begins with the same kind of greeting found in the rest of the New Testament… Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God…Grace and peace to you…I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you…

Romans is also similar to Paul’s other writings because it can be neatly divided into two sections. Paul begins with a theological section and ends with an ethical section. Another way to describe this is to say that Paul begins with theory—this is what we believe about God and why we believe it. Then he moves into a practical section—since we believe thus about God, this is how we ought to live our lives.

Our Scripture passage for today is sort of the bridge between these two sections. Romans chapters 1 – 11 contain Paul’s theology and why he believes as he does. Romans 13 – 16 contain Paul’s practical advice on how Christians ought to live in light of what God has done for us in Christ. Romans 12 is the bridge between the two sections…

Read Romans 12: 1 – 8

This is all I am going to read from chapter 12, but I want you to know that all of this chapter applies to what we are talking about today.

In my interpretation of this chapter, there are three natural divisions. Verses 1 and 2 make up the first division…Verses 3 – 8 make up the second division…Verses 9 – 21 make up the third division… I came to this interpretation based on the way Paul uses the word Body or Bodies in the chapter.

Read Romans 12: 1…Offer your Bodies as living sacrifices…Notice how Paul uses the plural form of the word Body. This plural form tells me that Paul is speaking to a group of people but he is giving us individual advice. In other words, Romans 12: 1 – 2 describes something that every man and every woman must do for himself or herself…Give your life to God daily as a sacrifice that God can use for his purposes in the world…

Read Romans 12: 4 – 5…Just as each of us has one Body with many members…In Christ we who are many form one Body…Notice how Paul uses the singular form of the word Body…

By using the same word in each of these sections, I think Paul was trying to communicate that Christians are supposed to have both an INDIVIDUAL life with Christ (Faith) as well as a CORPORATE life with Christ’s people (Church).

How can we satisfy the command that Paul gave us earlier—Offer your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to God? I believe it is very simple. Paul is saying…Take your BODY and become a part of the BODY of Christ. In other words, Take your BODY to church.


II. Two Extreme Views of Church

Again, we ask ourselves the question we asked at the beginning…How important is it for people to go to church? There are two extreme answers to this question.

On one extreme we find the people who say, I don’t need the church!

There are some people who say, I don’t need the church, because I have something better that takes the place of church…Usually, these people are members of a Bible Study group or some “half-way” Christian organization that they think better serves their spiritual needs than the church is capable of doing. To these people I would respond that they need to remember the 4th commandment in Exodus 20: 8, Remember the Sabbath Day by keeping it holy…

There are some who say, I don’t need the church, because I can worship God better in a deer stand, on a creek bank or on the golf course…To these people I would respond that they need to take note of Jesus’ words in Matthew 18: 20, Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am with them…Jesus clearly teaches us two things about worship…We need to worship in a group of more than one…And we need to gather in the name of Jesus—Deer stand, creek bank and golf course do not fit Jesus’ description…

Then, there are some who say, I don’t need the church, because I do not believe in organized religion…To these people I would respond that I have been in ministry since 1991 and served in churches as a youth minister, college minister or pastor since 1991…After years of experience, I don't believe in organized religion either…I believe in disorganized religion!

Seriously, I would remind these people to read Hebrews 10: 25, Do not give up meeting together…Togetherness is an important part of church, and you cannot get a feeling of togetherness by watching church on TV, the Internet or by jumping from one church to the next church to the next church…

Several years ago, my mother attended a Sunday School class at FBC, Canton, MS that I was teaching. In the class discussion, she shared a story that I had never heard before. During my high school years, my mother was not able to work or attend church because of a physical problem. My father, brother and I attended church every week while my mother stayed at home to watch Adrian Rogers on TV. In Sunday School in Canton a few months ago, she told the class that there was one thing that she missed more than anything else. She missed being touched by other people. That is why I still believe in the church whether it might be organized religion or disorganized religion. Because when we come to church we shake hands, we hug necks, we pat each other on the back, and we feel a sense of togetherness that cannot be found anywhere else.

On the other extreme we find the people who say, You cannot go to heaven if you don’t go to church! (Usually this statement takes a form like: You cannot go to heaven if you don’t go to MY church!)

In church history this position was stated most clearly in the year 249, by Cyprian, the Bishop of Carthage. (Now, that is Carthage as in North Africa and not Carthage as in East Texas.) Cyprian was famous for two things. As Bishop of Carthage, he claimed to have as much authority as the Bishop of Rome. In other words, he challenged the authority of the Pope. When he challenged the Pope, Cyprian claimed to have the same ability to grant salvation as did the Pope. That led to Cyprian’s famous statement, There is no salvation outside of the church!

There are still some modern-day Catholics and some entire Protestant denominations that teach the same thing today. If you are not a member of MY church, you are not saved. And even then, you had better remain in good standing with MY church if you don’t want to lose your salvation.

To these people I would respond that Romans 12 teaches something entirely different. Romans 12: 1 teaches us that we are saved as individual bodies with no reference to the church. But Romans 12: 3 – 8 teaches us that the service and ministry God calls each Christian to perform must take place as part of the church as the Body of Christ…

III. Conclusion

The best way I know to describe the proper relationship between individual Christians and the church is to use an illustration I read in the book Leadership Is an Art by Max DePree.

Max DePree is married to Jim Kaat’s sister. Many of you may remember Jim Kaat as a baseball pitcher. I remember him playing for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals in the early 1980’s. But in the 1960’s Jim Kaat pitched for the Minnesota Twins and even pitched a World Series game against Sandy Koufax.

Sandy Koufax was a left-handed pitcher who spent his entire 12-year career pitching for the Dodgers. From 1962 – 1966, Sandy Koufax was the most dominant pitcher in professional baseball. In these five years his record was 111 wins and only 37 losses. No one has ever gotten close to this kind of domination in any five period in baseball history.

Jim Kaat told his brother-in-law about Sandy Koufax’ fastball. His fastball was so fast, that it actually hummed. Batters could literally hear the ball as it approached home plate. And as Koufax took his warm-up pitches, the opposing players would sit quietly in the dugout and listen to the ball hum.

Max DePree asked Jim Kaat what made Koufax such a dominating pitcher. Kaat gave him three answers…Koufax was unusually talented…Beautifully disciplined…and Well trained.

DePree said, “I know how to take away all of his talent, all of his discipline and all of his training…Take away his catcher…You can’t have a successful pitcher without a great catcher!”

The same thing is true for Christians…Your knowledge, discipline and training mean nothing without a catcher—And every Christian needs a great church…A place to grow…A place to serve…A place to use the gifts that God has given each of us…