Untitled Sermon

Good morning everyone, I am excited to be here with you. It is honestly, very humbling and honoring to have the opportunity to open the word with you today.

Being that it is homecoming week, I have been asked to highlight some of my athletic career and relate how it has impacted my walk with the Lord. Athletics have certainly been helpful in developing both discipline and leadership in my life.

Between the regular lifting weights, the daily practices, and the constant reminder from coaches and teammates to give every drill, sprint, and play your absolute best; I found value in discipline. It was through this discipline that I grew stronger, more athletic, and became a smarter player.

In high school, I started as a sophomore. I didn’t have to be a leader as I could rely on the upper clansmen. But the moment the season ended, only two of the starters would be on the team the next year. I had to immediately be a leader and guide to encourage and inspire my teammates.

As I transitioned to Crown, both my discipline and leadership had to be ratcheted up quickly.

Now, I want to be up front and honest by saying, it is easy to give too much emphasis to how sports develop people. I also think, we don’t give enough emphasis to the many other avenues people can travel to learn things like leadership and discipline.

The reality is, that there are many ways to become disciplined and there are many ways to learn and grow in our leadership.

This morning, I want to ask the question; “What does it mean for everyone in this room to grow and develop as a Spiritual leader?”

You are all here, studying and learning everything you need to in order to carry out the job you will take on after college. But this is not any college. This is a Bible School, a place where you can be proficiently trained for your career, while also getting a major in Christian studies. Having the opportunity to have fellowship with other believers, be challenged in your faith, grow in your biblical understanding, and leave prepared and equipped to bring the gospel with you.

With that in mind, have you seriously considered, that no matter what line of work you are preparing for, this place, this time in your life is a training ground for you to grow and mature as a believer? To cultivate greater discipline? To learn how to lead spiritually, even when the environment around you shows no spiritual vitality?

Have you considered that God didn’t bring you here just to make friends, get a degree, and have fun doing it? But rather that He has called you hear, to holy ground, to mold and shape your heart. To transform and mold you, removing the rough edges so that you can better reflect Him.

There are many avenues in life that will cultivate discipline and teach leadership. But God has called you to more. He has called you to transformational leadership. What that means, is that you are looking to make spiritual deposits in the lives of everyone in your community. It’s the building up of believers and the reaching of the lost. But it also means, that you understand you have no ability to accomplish such a task, that it is entirely beyond you. Only God can do this type of work and what He has called us to do is participate in the work and watch Him do the transforming.

Jehoshaphat is a great example of someone who understood this type of leadership. In 2 Chronicles 20, Jehoshaphat is met with an impossible situation. Verses 1-2,

2 Chronicles 20:1-2 “1 After this the Moabites and Ammonites, and with them some of the Meunites, came against Jehoshaphat for battle. 2 Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A great multitude is coming against you from Edom, from beyond the sea; and, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar” (that is, Engedi).”

So basically, Jehoshaphat - king of Judah - receives word that his enemies are on their way ready for war. But it’s not one enemy, three different nations have gathered together to form one army. This army is described as a “great multitude.” Beyond that, they are about two days away.

So leaders, what would you do? How would you respond? There is no Helm’s Deep to run too and you are outnumbered 3 to 1.

I think most of us would call for the immediate fortifying of the walls and call all of the military advisers together. I want the brightest, most strategic minds working on this together, and I want them working on it now! We have a gut instinct as leaders that says take action!

But watch what Jehoshaphat does.

2 Chronicles 20:3-4 “3 Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. 4 And Judah assembled to seek help from the Lord; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.”

There is no gathering of military. No building up the walls. Not a single physical action step taken to prepare for war. Instead, Jehoshaphat prays and called all of Judah to pray with him.

In this moment, Jehoshaphat breaks every secular rule of leadership and embraces spiritual leadership. Transformational leadership.

He know’s that all of Judah is in great peril and they will never win this fight. So instead of pretending that they have a chance, instead of pretending that they can figure out a way to win.... They turn to God.

The reality of life is this, there are many good and even great leadership practices. But if we are going to build up and cultivate deeper spiritual life in brothers and sisters around us? If we are going to reach the lost? If we want to see God do an amazing work that is simply beyond us, we have to start with prayer. We have to start by acknowledging before God that we have no ability to reach or teach apart from Him.

2 Chronicles 20:5–12 (ESV)

5 And Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord, before the new court, 6 and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. 7 Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? 8 And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, 9 ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’ 10 And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy— 11 behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. 12 O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

Transformational deposits are left in the people around us when our constant posture before the Lord is “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

If there is a place for you to remain, a place for you to live your life and operate from as a believer in Jesus, its here. This humble posture before God is something He delights in. Its something He values because when we find ourselves in this place, we rightly recognize that we are a needy people. We are so sinfully broken and disillusioned that we often live in a way where we just, figure it out. Where church, chapel, and bible classes become a practice instead of a pursuit.

Jehoshaphat teaches us a biblical principle here. That in our fallen state we have a tendency to look, act, and think horizontally. Even mature believers get caught defaulting to old habits and living life, viewing other people very similar to how everyone in that culture lives and views others.

- It makes sense, we live in a physical world where most of our problems are physical.

But that right there is the lie. That is the lie that Satan wants you to believe. Because most of your problems are Spiritual and those spiritual problems impact they physical. We get so distracted looking at the physical that we rarely stop to pull back the curtain to wrestle with physical realities developed out of spiritual realities.

From Jehoshaphat we learn the Gaze Glance principle. That we are to keep our gaze fixated vertically. Looking to God in every situation. Not ignoring the horizontal relationships and challenges but glancing at them while maintaining our gaze on the Lord. By locking our eyes on the Lord and bringing all of the horizontal pieces within reach before the throne of God we will more naturally and readily deal with ourselves and others at the Spiritual level instead of the physical.

Hear me on this, we can meaningfully reach people through physical blessings, encouraging words, and thoughtful actions. But our call as believers goes beyond reaching those needs. As co-laborers with Christ, we are to help people understand the depth of their Spiritual needs.

So I will ask again, What does it mean for everyone in this room to grow and develop as a Spiritual leader?”

1 Thessalonians 5:17 “pray without ceasing,”

Paul and Jehoshaphat were looking at two very different situations, and yet, their posture towards meaningful movement was very similar.

In observing and reading about Generation Z, I have come to believe that God is preparing and calling you to be a generation that prays. I have interacted with churches who have said that the Lord is moving powerfully among your generation. Quite honestly, I believe that the Lord isn’t just moving, but He is empowering and eqquiping you as a generation to having ongoing, meaningful ministry with the people He surrounds you.

This year has been an evidence of God’s calling us back to Himself in prayer. Last fall, I felt prompted and led to fast and pray more than ever before. In fact, I can unequivocally say to you that I fasted more last fall than I have in the rest of my life. Coming into the new year, our church decided to make January a prayer month. Where our Sunday services, youth services, and weekly Bible studies would give greater attention and focus to prayer. We held two special prayer services. We as a church cried out to the Lord much like Jehoshaphat.

But we were not the only ones praying. In fact, we were aware of other area churches. We were aware of college campuses like Asbury, Samford, Cederville, and Lee University. We were aware of other prayer gatherings that were developing in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and across the country.

I can honestly report to you that we at Grace in Upper Michigan watched God work powerfully in that time. And we are still seeing reverberations continuing to develop and cultivate people.

We had a couple of unchurched kids steel a car, run away. They made it all the way to New Mexico and it was the last place they were seen. On a Sunday morning we had several people pray for them. By Wednesday of that week they were both safely home. On Thursday, walked into church for the first time in years and sat with me for three hours. Their family committed to coming to church. The older brother accepted Christ and was baptized. The two who stole the car have connected with our student ministry.

We had a woman, who was dealing with witchcraft, using divining rods, tara cards, and weegee boards - seeking power. She was just travelling through town, lived a few hours away and met some people from our church. She was so compelled that she slept in her car in the middle of February, in the church parking lot so she could go to church the next day. Since then, she has accepted Christ, got baptised, plugged into a local church and is actively seeking the Lord. I can honestly say to you that the transformation I have seen in her is like reading a Bible story. She was like Paul, doing everything against God and in a moment, pivoted and has since sought to do everything for God.

We had a new member of our church who called and asked if on a Saturday we could just open the sanctuary for people who might want to come and pray. That Saturday, 34 people came over the course of about 6 hours and many of them where there the whole time, just seeking the Lord.

When the Asbury worship service started, we sent a team of three to go and participate in it and bring a report back of what they saw the Lord doing. It inspired many in our church to stay after the Sunday worship service to pray for the next four weeks.

This is just a few of the many examples we have watched the Lord pull together this year. But this is not a Grace Church thing, this is a God thing that He is doing in more places than just Upper Michigan.

What I am trying to say to you is that when we as the people of God take prayer seriously, God moves!

Leadership and discipline are important. But true spiritual disciplines are done in the presence of God and spiritual leadership is empty without prayer.

If you are going to be disciplined, be disciplined in prayer that exalts God.

If you are going to be a leader, be a praying leader.

In Jehoshaphats story, we find that the people’s prayer was heard.

2 Chronicles 20:15 “15 And he said, “Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the Lord to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s.”

We must learn to bring the battles we fight to the Lord.

Daniel Henderson is a former pastor who now is a prayer coach. If you read his books you will find this phrase:

“scripture fed, Spirit led, worship based prayer.”