Opening
Former New York Yankee great Babe Ruth once said, “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” Think about this quote in terms of unity and your life. Have you ever been united with a group of people with the same beliefs and a common goal? If you have, I chances are that group was successful in accomplishing its goal. On the other hand, have you ever been involved with a group that was divided and ended up being destroyed? Let’s take a look at a clip where Coach Boone works at bringing unity to the Titans.
Watch DVD, scene 10 (“Lessons from the Dead”) Start time: 0:30:50—End Time: 0:35:44 (4:54)
Discussion Questions
1. Former Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame Football Coach Vince Lombardi once said, “Individual commitment to a group effort—that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” What does this quote tell us about unity? (To be a united team, company, church, society or civilization, individuals have to commit to the effort of the group.) How does it make you feel when you unite with others to accomplish a common goal? (Answers will vary.) How does it make you feel when you come together with a group of people and fail to accomplish a common goal? (Answers will vary but may include disappointed and like a failure.)
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3. Is it important for a team, company, church or nation to be united? (Yes.) Why? (Answers will vary.) What are some of the problems that come up when a group becomes divided instead of united? (Possible answers include conflict, anger, hatred and disppointment.) What were some of the things that divided the Titans football team? (Race was the major division in the beginning. Jealousy was also a dividing factor on the team.)
4. Read
5. At this point in the movie, what two choices did the team have when it came to unity? (They could come together or fall apart.) Coach Boone said, “Take a lesson from the dead. If we don’t come together right now on this hallowed ground, we will be destroyed just like they were.” Did Coach Boone’s speech at Gettysburg help bring unity to the team? (Yes.) How? (They started trusting each other and coming together as a team.)
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9. Are you normally one who helps unite people or one that causes division among others? (Answers will vary.) No matter how you answered the previous question, how will you work to bring unity to others and become united with God during the coming week? (Answers will vary.)
Closing Thought
Unity is important to God in two ways. First, He wants us to be united with Him. When we are united with God, His will and our will become one, making our lives better. Second, He wants us to be united with others. When we are united with others, our world becomes a better place. When there are divisions among us, conflict and destruction are sure to follow. Will you choose to unite with others as you live your life to the glory of God?
Closing Prayer
“How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!” (Ps. 133:1)
“to equip His people for works of service, so the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Eph. 4:12-16).
“You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?” (1 Cor. 3:3)
“My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?” (James 2:1-4).
“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind” (1 Pet. 2:1).
“‘My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in Us so the world may believe You have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as We are one—I in them and You in Me—so they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know You sent me and have loved them even as You have loved Me'” (John 17:20-23).
“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26-28).
“For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully” (Rom. 12:4-8).
