Today I’m going to talk about “Keeping Team Unity” in our message series Faith Workout. Each of us is on multiple teams in life. Your family is a team, you should work together for common goals. Not just the parents, but the parents and all of the children are together on the family team. You’re part of a team at work, maybe multiple teams. If you’re in a Life Group you’re on a team. If you’re a member at Life Church, you’re part of the Life Church team. If you’re working on a ministry with others, you’re part of a team.
When everyone on a team is in unity, it’s an enjoyable experience and the team can accomplish what it was created to do. However, what happens when the team unity is broken. What happens when you don’t get along with someone else on the team? What happens when arguments begin? How do you become part of the solution, not the problem in a team environment? That’s what I’m going to talk about today.
I believe that one of the most important teams that each of us is on is our families, so I’m going to focus on the family team today, but the principles will apply to any set of relationships. Probably the most common result of a breakdown of relationship on a team is an argument. You might call it a quarrel or a fight, but it’s not fun. Arguments can lead to emotional injury and sometimes things even get physical. We need to learn to avoid arguments.
Today we’re going to look at the fourth chapter of James which explains the causes of arguments and the cure for arguments. James begins with a question. NLT James 4:1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Here the Greek word for fights literally means “armed conflict or war.” The Greek word for quarrels literally means “physical combat fought with weapons.” So James is here likening arguments to armed conflicts fought with weapons. In an argument the weapons are words.
This morning I’d like to ask you to think about the person that you’ve had the most arguments with recently. As we go through the message, I trust that you will better understand what causes the conflict between you and how God would have you bring peace to the relationship in the future.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my September 9, 2007 message entitled Keeping Team Unity