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.

This morning, I want to ask the question; “How can you grow as a leader in your context?”

I am a believer that every person is gifted by God in a way that allows them to lead in some capacity. So maybe you are not an upfront leader, but God has gifted you and you lead behind the scenes. You lead with an example of character and helping others. You lead by how well you follow good leadership - which is so valuable.

More than that “What does it mean for you to grow and develop as a Spiritual leader?”

Ever since I was a kid I have had a heart for the great commission. I remember reading books in Junior High like Jesus Freaks from DC Talk. It was a book filled with stories of martyrs for Christ. People who went to the grave proclaiming the truth of the gospel. It inspired me and ever since I have longed to see a powerful move of God. What I have learned is that the great commission, the power of the Gospel, the truth of Jesus is needed just as much in the church as in the world. Other pastors such as Martyn Lloyd Jones identified this long ago. Making it his mission, to reach the lost who are already inside the walls of the church. But also, as a pastor, I get to live out the great commission in the community where God has placed me. I get to meaningfully invest in people to help them reach our community.

Through my role, I have learned the need for leadership. That we in our day are about to witness a massive shift in the church; where we will have few leaders at all. Research centers have produced waves of information revealing the gravity of this situation; you can read article after article about the churches need for leadership. But, the church needs more than leadership. At this point we have so many ideas about how to prepare and develop ourselves as leaders, with the idea that it will prepare us to reach the lost around us while also building up the saints. But, the lost in our country need more from the church than leadership. I believe that in your time here at Crown, as the professors and faculty pour into your life, you will find that they are trying to mold and shape more in you than leadership.

The reality is, great leaders will often fail when placed in the role of a spiritual leader. Reason being, great leaders have often become what they are out of a personal discipline that is built on personal desires. They live as though success as a leader will fulfill them as a person. Fulfillment doesn’t come from great strategies, building great teams, or developing strong relationships with your local community. They are all good and right and bring a measure of fulfillment. But you can have all of the “successes” of life, without ever truly knowing what it means to be fulfilled in Christ.

Lets take a look at Jehoshaphat’s story in 2 Chronicles 20.

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. To give further context, if you go back and read chapter 17, we see that Jehoshaphat hat roughly 1.1 million soldiers under his command and we see he has already build Fortresses across Judah.

The warriors were arranged in the army according to their fathers houses. The army of Jehoshaphat, commanded by five great generals and consisting of five unequal divisions, comprised one million one hundred and sixty thousand men, without including those who garrisoned the fortresses. No monarch, since the time of Solomon, equalled Jehoshaphat in the extent of his revenue, in the strength of his fortifications, and in the number of his troops.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 1 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 275.

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

I think most of us would call for the immediate fortifying of the walls, setting traps around the perimeter, 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.

Jehoshaphat is a great example of someone who understood that if he was going to see any meaningful advance then he had to offer something greater than leadership. He was met with a impossible situation and knew he could not lead the people out of this situation.

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, teach, or influence apart from Him. God does the transformational work, we simply do what we can to point others toward 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 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.

- 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 the physical. We get so distracted looking at the physical that we rarely stop to pull back the curtain to wrestle with physical realities that developed out of spiritual realities.

From Jehoshaphat we learn the Gaze Glance principle. That as believers, as spiritual leaders, as worshipers of the almighty God - we are to keep our gaze fixated on God. Looking to God in every situation. Not ignoring the horizontal relationships by drifting off into a utopian state. But rather, learning to keep our gaze on God and effectively glance horizontally. 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.

And this is where many Christian leaders get lost. They spend so much time trying to speak to and answer the horizontal, physical realities of life.

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. But how can we point to their spiritual needs if we can’t even recognize our own.

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

Step one is recognize your own brokenness and inability. The first response we see in Jehoshaphat is to call the nation to prayer and fasting. In their prayer and fasting they readily acknowledged that they are powerless. Lets always remember that no matter what successes or spiritual movement we experience it is because God has gone before us.

Step two:

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 equipping you as a generation to having ongoing, meaningful ministry. I not only believe that He is preparing your generation in this way but that He is using you as an example for both the older and younger generations to follow.

This year has been an evidence of God’s calling us back to Himself in prayer. Last fall, I personally 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.

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.

I can honestly report to you that we at Grace in Upper Michigan watched God work powerfully in that time. That for months, there were spiritual reverberations of the prayer that took place during that time. And we are still seeing reverberations continuing to develop and cultivate people.

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.

If you had known this woman before she came to Christ and you talked to this woman today, you would not recognize her. Part of the reason she has seen such development in the past seven months is because like Jehoshaphat and the people of Israel, she chose in the moment and continues to choose to live with open hands. Fully surrendered to whatever God wants.

If you are going to be a transformational leader, an agent of God’s kingdom that powerfully reaches the people around you, building up and encouraging the saints - You must learn to live in surrender. So many of us keep our sins hidden. We are reluctant to confess sin openly and we are reluctant to let God totally have His way with us. Because we know, if God is to have His way, then my sin needs to be exposed. My preferences and habits need to be surrendered. My posture needs to be humble.

Total surrender is challenging. But if we are going to be men and women of God’s kingdom, we have to learn to give all that we have to the Lord.

As we consider this woman who saw such radical change in her life, consider that this is just a one of the many examples we have seen God work this year. But this is not a Grace Church thing, this is a movement of God that is still developing.

God is doing a transformative work, He is inviting you to be part of it. The question is, are you willing to develop as a spiritual leader.

Are you willing to keep your focus on God?

Are you willing to regularly remind yourself of your brokenness and inability?

Are you willing to be disciplined in prayer and worship of God?

Are you willing to surrender everything for the sake of a higher calling?

The reality of life is that its not about you and its not about me. Yet, our constant temptation is to live as if it is our life. God has not brought you here to get a degree or to make new friends. God has brought you here to develop and cultivate your heart and soul to better reflect His glory to this broken world. If you are going to reflect His glory in any meaningful way, I suggest you spend a lot of time before the Father’s throne.

Yet not I but through Christ in me