Message: "Building an Effective Team"
Genesis 11:1-9 (NLT)
by Ed Hale
on July 26, 2009

¹ At one time all the people of the world spoke the same language and used the same words. ² As the people migrated to the east, they found a plain in the land of Babylonia[a] and settled there. ³ They began saying to each other, “Let’s make bricks and harden them with fire.” (In this region bricks were used instead of stone, and tar was used for mortar.) ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves with a tower that reaches into the sky. This will make us famous and keep us from being scattered all over the world.” ⁵ But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. ⁶ “Look!” he said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! ⁷ Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.” ⁸ In that way, the Lord scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ That is why the city was called Babel,[b] because that is where the Lord confused the people with different languages. In this way he scattered them all over the world.

2^nd Corinthians 3:5 (NLT)
⁵ It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God.

Romans 8:31 (NLT)
³¹ What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us?

James 1:23 (NLT)
²³ For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror.

Ecclesiastes 4:10 (NLT)
¹⁰ If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.

Ephesians 4:32 (NLT)
³² Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.

1^st Timothy 3:8-11 (Message)
^8-13The same goes for those who want to be servants in the church: serious, not deceitful, not too free with the bottle, not in it for what they can get out of it. They must be reverent before the mystery of the faith, not using their position to try to run things. Let them prove themselves first. If they show they can do it, take them on. No exceptions are to be made for women—same qualifications: serious, dependable, not sharp-tongued, not overfond of wine.

Ephesians 3:8 (Message)
⁸When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.