MVP (Week 1)

Well today is Super Bowl Sunday and later tonight we'll see who becomes the champion.

Uh we're jumping into a new series.

Today called MVP.

Now, who has the most MVP awards in a Super Bowl in the history of the National Football League?

Tom Brady.

Tom Brady with five MVP awards.

And if you keep up with football at all or just living in America, you've probably heard of Tom Brady before.

And you may have heard that he announced his retirement last week.

Anybody see that?

He posted a video out on the beach out in front of some condos and to tell the world that he was finally retiring after retiring last year and then coming out of retirement and then he retired again.

And he gave his retirement video on the beach.

And then people ran out on that beach and found exactly where he was and scooped up sand from that exact spot and sold it on the internet.

Last I saw, there was uh some sand that was at$66,000 for the sand at the spot where Tom Brady had uh made his retirement video.

Pretty hilarious.

Um back at uh Christmas of this last year, uh Emily was helping me do some stuff in my office and uh gave me several pictures of the family of different picture frames, and uh she also, in this bag that had pictures and new pictures, you know, we have to change out those pictures every once in a while.

Um I pulled out a picture in a picture frame of somebody that I didn't know.

Um, and it's this picture.

Now you can't probably see it very well, but it's a blurry picture of a guy standing here uh in shorts, athletic shorts, and no shirt.

And uh this is Tom Brady.

This is Tom Brady, a picture of a very unathletic-looking guy.

This is a picture of Tom Brady from uh year 2000 when he was taken in the year 2000 draft in the sixth round, a hundred and ninety-ninth pick to the New England Patriots.

The Patriots passed up on him six different times in the round, in the draft before they chose him.

And we know since then that he's gone on to have 23 seasons, play the game until he's 45 years old, have 286 wins over his career, seven Super Bowl championships, through 737 touchdowns.

Um he's broken record after record after record and been the MVP, the most valuable player five times over.

This guy.

This guy.

Who looks like this?

Doesn't look, there's nothing athletic looking about him at all.

And the reason why this is on my desk is because I want to be reminded daily to never count anybody out.

To never count anybody out in their walk with God, and what the Lord could do through them, how God could use them, and nobody's too far gone and too crazy, done too, that I wouldn't be the one to just look over people, but instead be reminded that God has a plan and a purpose and a calling and value in every single person.

Crazy to think about.

Being passed over.

You want number one pick?

What number two?

What number three?

199 players chosen before him.

There's only 260 players that are chosen in the draft.

I don't know if uh you remember being on the uh playground when you were a kid, and there were always this time before dodgeball or whatever the game was that everybody lined up in a row and they chose teams.

This happened to me.

And there was always this anxiety.

Am I gonna be chosen last?

And you know, I've just like you know, when you're a kid, you're like trying to look as athletic as you can, you know, like, you know, and you're like, hey, pick me, pick me, pick me, pick me, because you don't want to get chosen last.

Why?

Why is that anxiety?

And thankfully for me, I was always kind of chosen the middle, not the most athletic.

Anxiety there because people want to do their best.

And then there's something inside of us that we want to be our best.

And so this game that's happening tonight, the Super Bowl, got the Chiefs and the Eagles playing.

Who's going for the Chiefs?

Hey, who's going for the Eagles?

Hey, going for the Eagles tonight.

And someone tonight is going to be named MVP of tonight's game.

I think they're gonna be from the Eagles.

But somebody's gonna be named the MVP for tonight, but them being named MVP tonight did not start with tonight.

It started them in the in the weight room when they were 16 years old in high school.

Them being chosen most valuable player for the Super Bowl today, it started with them keeping their grades up and staying eligible their entire way through college while they played.

It didn't just something that they did because of their performance for one night.

It was a lifetime of discipline, of work, of trying to be the best teammate that they possibly can be.

And so for the next few weeks, I wanted us to look at what it looks like for us to be the best version of ourselves, the best teammate that we can, to be the most valuable that we can in a couple different areas of our life.

Today we're talking about our church.

We're also gonna talk about our workplace.

We're gonna talk about interrelationships.

And we're gonna also talk about what it looks like as a family and parenthood over the next few weeks.

I want to share with you, this is a book here that I really like.

It's called Church is a Team Sport.

It's by a pastor named Jim Puttman.

We're connected with Jim Puttman.

He leads a ministry called Real Life Ministries out of Idaho, and uh our church is connected with him and have been for some time.

And in this story, he talks about Jim Puttman is a former wrestling coach, turned pastor and church planter, started a small group, a ragtag group of people in northern Idaho, and over a course of eight years, their ministry exploded to thousands and thousands of people and over 700 small groups meeting through their church.

Amazing.

And part of that mentality, and the reason why, and what the book says of getting there is thinking about what we do here as the body of Christ, thinking about us being teammates to one another and having a mentality that anybody can get in the game.

Anyone can get in the game.

See, I think for too long, for too long, the version of church, the version of Christianity that we have been taught or have experienced for years and years and years is to be a spectator in the fan, in this fan, in the seats.

To be looking for the outside, to watching the professionals down there on the field play, and that the best that we could do is to fill a seat and be a spectator, go to services, attend church, but I don't think that's really what we see Jesus' ministry look like, and the people that he had around him and him empowering them for them to do the work of ministry, that all of us have a part to play in the body of Christ.

More than it just being a spectator event, but it's a team adventure, a team sport together.

As we talk about what it looks like for us to bring value, I want us to go to the word to help inform us of really how we even think about that.

What does it mean to be valuable?

What does it mean to have value?

What does it mean to give value?

Because I think for sure right now in your life, every interaction that you have with your family, with your friends, with your coworkers is either adding positive value to someone or taking it away.

By way of building them up, by the way that you treat them, or by the way that you tear them down or treat them in a way that doesn't bring value to them.

We get to walk and have our value.

Something that is given to us by God above.

And it starts with this.

In 2 Corinthians 5.17, the scripture says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.

The old is gone, the new is here.

When we're in Christ, we are made brand new.

The old person, the old ways, our old life.

We've moved from death to life.

When we meet Jesus and accept him as our Savior, we are made brand new.

Jesus said, born again.

And what that does for us, it gives us uh it gives us an amazing connection to God above.

A connection that we get to be in relationship, we get to walk with, and get to be directly connected to Jesus, the Savior of the world.

Now that direct connection, Jesus talks about very specifically in John chapter 15.

John 15 · chapter mention

And he uses this analogy of a vine, a grapevine, so to speak, of being connected to the vine.

And I want us to walk through this passage together and look at the words of Jesus.

This is Jesus teaching his disciples and talking to them.

And he says, This, I am the true grapevine, and my father is the gardener.

He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn't produce fruit.

And he prunes the branches that do not bear fruit, so they will produce even more.

You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.

Remain in me, and I will remain in you.

For a branch cannot produce fruit if it's severed from the vine.

And you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

Verse 5.

Jesus, he said, Yes, I am the vine.

You are the branches.

Those who remain in me, and I am them will produce much fruit apart from me.

You can do nothing.

But if you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted.

When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples.

This brings great glory to my Father.

A few more verses.

I have loved you even as the Father has loved me, remain in my love.

When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love.

Just as I obey my Father's commandments and remain in his love.

I've told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy.

Yes, your joy will overflow.

This is my command.

Love each other in the same way I have loved you.

There's no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friends.

You are my friends.

If you do what I command.

No longer, I no longer call you slaves.

Because a master doesn't confide in his slaves, now you're my friends.

Since I have told you everything my father told me, you didn't choose me, I chose you.

I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for using my name.

Jesus gives some pretty powerful identity markers in this passage.

He talks about us being connected to him and the true vine and what that implications are for us.

And the first implication of us being connected to Jesus, who is the vine, is that we're forgiven.

We're forgiven of so much.

We are forgiven.

We're a brand new creation, is what Corinthians says.

We're forgiven of the sins that we've committed, that when we're in Christ, when we accepted him and his work, finished work for us on the cross, we begin to walk in harmony and unity with Jesus because we can, because we're forgiven by his blood, not anything we've done for ourselves.

We can't earn it.

We can't do anything to deserve it.

Along with us being forgiven, Jesus calls us and tells us and says that we will be fruitful.

That we'll be fruitful.

That we're gonna produce much fruit when we're connected to the vine.

And if we're not producing fruit, and that fruit is love of one another and of each person that's any place in their spiritual walk, the fruit of us walking in repentance in relationship with God, of pouring over of ourselves and God through us, that fruit, if we're not producing that fruit, Jesus says we're not connected to the vine.

There is a fruitfulness that we should be bearing much fruit, that God should be working through us, that we should be experiencing God's love, going out from us to other people, and that we should be walking with him.

And if you are truly his disciple, you will then produce fruit.

And then Jesus gives this very intimate identity marker, and he says, You're my friend.

You're my friend.

I call you a slave or a servant, I call you a friend.

And he says that there's no greater love than to lay down one's life for a friend, which ultimately Jesus did for them on the cross.

The ultimate love.

His sacrifice for them.

And so when we get to walk with Jesus, when we get to walk with God, he calls us friend.

Are you kidding me?

Are you kidding me?

So many people have this thought and view of God that He's this cosmic cop up in the sky, just waiting for you to mess up and to crush you, waiting for you to make a mistake, so then the axe can drop, the shoe can drop on you, that God is way far away, that he's some old man with a big white beard hanging out on a cloud a million miles away, disconnected, not caring about this world and what's going on in it, whatever the picture it is that people have in their mind of from what they've been taught, what they've seen on TV, what people have described, Jesus looks at you and says, I want you to be my friend.

I want to walk with you.

I want to love you deeply.

I want to be a best friend to you.

I want to be someone who you can go to in times of trouble, not some far-off entity or some energy of the universe, but a person who we can love and walk with.

Our friend, the King Jesus.

And when we do that, when we do that, he allows us to go to him in prayer and for us to be free.

For us to be free.

Free from sin.

Free from fear.

Look at Romans 8, 1 and 2 says.

So now there's no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.

And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.

There's no condemnation when you belong to Jesus.

When you're connected to the vine, when you belong to Him where He is the one that you get.

Your power, love, encouragement, He's the one that you go to for what you need.

The true vine.

And when we have that, we can be free.

We can be free not to be in fear.

You know, I think, and I heard this week that fear is one of the primary negative emotions that we experience in life.

And as we go through our life, that behind every single conflict that we have, there's fear.

There's some kind of fear that's there that you've experienced, that's some kind of negative emotion that's leading you somewhere, and that fear it can be absolutely paralyzing.

Maybe fear that you're gonna lose a relationship.

Fear that you're gonna have some kind of grief or loss in your life, fear that you're not gonna be good enough, fear, whatever the fear is that's deep inside of you, when you're connected to the true vine, God welcomes you into freedom without condemnation, that you belong to Him and then gives you the Holy Spirit's power so that you can defeat fear in your life.

Boy, I need that.

I need it bad.

I don't know if you're like me, but I'm one of these people who can start catastrophizing.

Something happens, and then I think about, okay, well, what you know, I start thinking about all the dominoes that can fall.

And I'm like, what's the worst case scenario?

Because I need to think about the worst case scenario here because I need to protect myself from the worst case scenario.

A few years ago, somebody told me, hey, you know that the worst case scenario, it it normally doesn't happen.

Doesn't normally happen.

And when they said that to me, it was like a light switch turn on.

I was like, oh wow.

Okay, that's so I don't necessarily need to be thinking about all of these different possible fears and how this all could work out for my bad for bad, but instead to truly believe that God has a purpose and a plan for my life, that he's called me, that ultimately, watch this, I get my value from him.

That's really what we're talking about.

We're talking about having your identity in Christ, in him alone.

When your identity is in Christ, you can be secure in him.

His plan for your life.

I want for myself and all of us here that are part of Multiply for our identity to be in Jesus.

I love our church.

I love the fact that we get to be a part of it and get to be a team together, to serve together.

But I don't want your primary identity to be that you're a part of this church.

I don't want your relationship with God for the primary identity marker that you have to be which church you're connected to, but your primary identity is that you are connected to the vine Jesus.

I love our church.

Jesus tells us that we should be a part of a church.

It's a part of us walking out our faith.

Because the church is his bride.

And we know the church is messed up.

There's tons of problems that happen in the church, but it's Jesus' wife.

And I don't like it when anybody talks bad about my wife.

We get to walk together in our identity in Christ first.

And then after we have secured our identity in Christ, then we move into our calling.

Then we move into what we do.

See, because primary is who you are.

That B, which is the B, which is that you belong to Christ.

You belong to Christ before you belong to Multiply Church.

You belong to Christ before you belong to your marriage.

You belong to Christ before you belong to the other family members you have.

You belong to Christ before you belong to the friends that you have.

If you are in Christ and you are truly connected to the vine, he is your source of value.

It comes from him.

And you know why that's so important?

Because anything other than Jesus, like a leg on a stool, can be kicked out.

It's important for us to think this way because if we're paralyzed from fear, it keeps us from taking the step to get in the game.

If we're paralyzed by fear, it keeps us from taking the step to get in the game and begin to walk out our faith in relationship with others.

Caring for other people, loving other people.

I was listening to a story this week from a guy who was a cop in DC for a number of years.

Very successful cop.

Had a lot of great cases, and ultimately that led to the CIA showing up, calling him at a late night meeting with a big stack of all the cases that he'd ever worked before, and inviting him in to be a part of the CIA.

And they began to talk about what the job was for the CIA.

And the job was for him to go into war zones and to infiltrate terrorist groups.

And this guy was saying that he got invited into the CIA, but he ultimately told him, like, I can go do this work, but I'm gonna need to be able to bring Jesus and talk about Jesus.

So I want to do this work.

Disconnected from the CIA.

For 20 years, he and his family lived in the Middle East as missionaries, and his job was to infiltrate terrorist groups.

And for him to speak the gospel to them.

He told a story of he and two other guys who got picked up by this terrorist organization.

They were in the car, they were taking them out to a remote spot, they wanted to have a meeting with them.

And they went into a room, and the way that it normally went was they would have them waiting in this room and they would put out a table and would feed them before they would go and begin to interrogate them and talk to them.

And there were three of them in the room, but they put four place settings out.

And so this, the DC cop, he's done this a few times, but the guy that was with him had this was sort of his first go at this specific situation.

He's like, What's going on here?

Why is there an extra space?

Is somebody gonna come in here?

Like, are they gonna, why is there another spot?

He's like, I don't know.

I don't know why there's more, there's another spot.

It's another place setting.

And so they asked the guards, they say, Hey, there's four spots in here.

Is somebody gonna come in and talk to us?

Like there's three of us.

And they said, No, it's for your bodyguard.

They said, our bodyguard.

It's like, yeah, that's for the big bodyguard that stands outside your door.

Yeah, he's he's big and burly, he's got a sword.

They're like, what?

Then these three guys started to realize that they were talking about an angel.

This terrorist group was seeing.

The terrorist group, they started speaking in their language and started saying the word, angel, angel.

Walking out in their calling and their purpose, but it starts with their identity in Christ first.

It starts with your identity in Christ first and believing and connected to the true vine, that then you're able to bring value.

This missionary talked about many, many times sitting with folks in terrorist groups and telling them the gospel and them receiving Christ.

Isn't God powerful?

It's amazing that when we're invited into his work, that we ultimately we don't find our value from the work or from our callings, we find our value from God.

We find our value from God.

So, what does it look like for you to be a part of the team that is the local church?

It starts with you finding your value in God first, your identity in Christ first, and then walking out the calling that God has on you.

And you have no idea what God's gonna do through you.

The people that you can impact, the people in your life that you could add a ton of value to because you're a representation of Christ to somebody who you're the only Bible that they'll ever read, you're the only church that they'll ever attend, is the fact that they're in your next office, or the fact that you guys are on the truck together, or whatever your vocation, whatever the thing is that you're walking out in life and wherever position God has placed you, for you to be the MVP of your life, it starts with being connected to the trivia.

And you don't know where in the world what God will do with you, how He uses you.