Empowering Purpose

Biblical Leadership

How was your Thanksgiving?

I want to ask to ask the room two questions(5 min to think about):

Since the start of this class what has been the something you have started working on or a new practice that you have been doing since the beginning of this class?

2. What has been the hardest thing to change ie. Habit, mindset, attitude or something along those lines?

3. How has it affected you thus far?

Our Job as leaders is to define reality

We show people thing they couldn’t see before

We show people places they’ve never been

We help people achieve goals that they didn’t think was possible

We show them behaviors that they didn’t think were possible (hopefully for good)

Most importantly we should be showing them a greater view of God than they have seen before

My Job as a Pastor is to show you in the Word what is possible

To hopefully to lead us corporately together where we can’t go on our own

To communicate to people the love of God

The true reality of the gospel

To define a better reality for tomorrow

You as a leader you’re going to have to define your reality:

people who don’t lead can usually only see where they are

they generally don’t see beyond the here and the now

So we have to be good at painting the picture of where we’re going

Praying for a clear vision for our church and staff

Where are you going?

You can’t finish strong if you don’t know where the finish line is (DUH)

IN my message with speaking

So we define reality, we define the pathway

Genesis - Revelation:

300 leaders are talked about in the bible

It obviously mentions much more names than that

1 Chronicles 4 you see the son of and the son of but when I say

When I say leaders, they actually take some time to elaborate on their leadership in some aspect

300 we’re given some sort of information about

David, Solomon, Samuel, Saul, Paul, Jesus, Moses, Joshua, Samson, Nehemiah etc.

Just in your mind you can hear those names and think about something that stands out about the good or bad

The thing is out of the 300 leaders the Bible talks about only 25% of the leaders finished in the will of God

Only 25% of people finished accomplishing what God had asked them to do

So out of the 300 people in the Bible

Only 75 people accomplished and finished what God had for them

In theory only 25% of us in this room will finish what we set our to do

I believe your here for a purpose and maybe we’re all apart of the 25%

The parable of the sower only 25% receive the word and it produces fruit

Only a quarter of the people you witness

That’s why this is a numbers game

Clearing out phone numbers in my phone

What I like about the Bible and another reason I believe the Bible is true:

God chose to leave in the bad stuff

God didn’t try to hide the mistakes people made

Most of the mistakes weren’t minor ones either

What I like about God is he’s transparent

He doesn’t hide that fact that we’re all going to make mistakes

We’re all going to mess this up sometimes

We’re going to have failures that will try and take us out of the game but we can’t let that happen

Even when we blow it big

I think of the mistakes I’ve made in my life

Some are big dumb ones

I can rest easy at night knowing that I’ve never had an affair with another mans wife then sent him into battle where I should’ve been and killed her husband

These guys in the Bible blew it big

1 John 1:9 NKJV

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

You will mess this up

WE have to get back up

We as leaders are vital for the Body of Christ

Leadership is not going to be easy

To finish what we’ve started we have to Intentional with our leadership

What sets you apart from the the other 75%:

Are you smarter

Faster

Better educated

Better looking

Street smart

Have more experience

Many people focus on what sets them apart as a leader

It doesn’t matter you skill level, your education, how much money you started with, or if you started from the bottom now we here

None of that matters unless your intentional to God-We need to be pronounced in our doing for God

If then and only then will you be able to finish in the will of God

Ego says:

I’m more committed

I’m more sincere

I work harder

All those things are good but we have to be intentional to God

You see no one wakes up and says I want to screw this up today!

No one wakes up and says I really feel like being out of the will of God today

I think about King Saul:

A man who ended up outside the will of God

A man who didn’t

Finish in the will of God

He was God’s first choice as a King

Not David

In 1 Samuel 13:1-15: Saul makes some major errors in his day

Kings weren't supposed to offer sacrifices on behalf of the community. Kings could offer sacrifices for themselves, but never for the nation. That was done only by priests.

2. It was Samuel(the PRiest) who was to convey the Lord's battle plans. Saul was to wait for him. However, since Saul kept his eye on the sundial and his dwindling army, he gave in to panic and rushed ahead on his own. This reduced the sacrifice to a pointless ritual that looked more pagan than Hebrew. Gentile generals decided where, when, and whom to attack, mobilized their troops, then sacrificed to their gods to gain favor. The Hebrew sacrifice was different; it was to be an act of submission, not bribery.

3. Third, and most important to Saul made the decision to trust himself at the crisis point. His decision to sacrifice and attack was based on good common sense (from an earthly perspective).

Saul acted in disobedience and he didn’t finish:

God can deal with failures

God can deal with mistakes

He can rescue us from problems when we blow it

But if we’re continually disobedient we cannot be trusted

The real problem with Saul is that he wanted the Glory instead of Giving it to God

1 Chronicles 13:3 NKJV

3 and let us bring the ark of our God back to us, for we have not inquired at it since the days of Saul.”

Saul didn’t want to inquire with the ark of the covenant because he wanted it to be about Him and not God

When we focus on our talents and our abilities solely, we focus on our glory instead of His

We need to have those things but The Glory goes to Him

A few things to learn from Saul:

He wanted a yes man and not a Solomon

In order for you to keep your head on straight you need people around you that care more about your character than your comfort

We have to take honest inventory of our lives:

We have to know where we are before we can go anywhere else

Location is vital to your destination

ONX MAPS

I can see where I want to be but that doesn’t help me

If you don’t know where you are you’ll miss vital steps to your destination

Be brutally honest with yourself

I said before, we’re going to have more failures than our successes in leadership

Even a perfect God has less than successful leaders under him: Satan, Adam

Jesus had Judas

In our world now we see more Bad leaders than good:

Look at politicians

Medical scientist

Some teachers (Chemistry and Math in college)

Some of your parents weren’t great leaders- you might be here today cause you had good examples of what not to do

How many of you have ever said, well if i had that job i wouldn’t lead like that!

If we don’t put markers down and take inventory of our lives, we generally end up acting like the bad leadership examples we have

We end up at the lowest common denominator

Hardship doesn’t create leadership it exposes it

When chaos hits thats when your real leadership skills are put to the test

A lot of people say well I lead passionately

Passion can push you to lead

But it can’t be the only thing you lead from

Moses was passionate

But Moses let passion get the best of Him

The Bible said he looked this way and that way

Moses thought no one was watching

He didn’t lead with scrutiny

He let passion get the best of Him

Be careful if your first leadership interaction is murder!

Where did Moses get his leadership skills from?

Pharaoh

Pharaoh just killed people

We have to be careful we don’t become a product of the environment we’re around

We often reproduce what we don’t like if we’re not careful

Take inventory, be honest with yourself

We have to be honest and have transparency if we want to Finish in the will of God

There are 4 types of Leaders:

Born leaders (1%)

very rare

I’ve known very few in my life

Natural Leaders (20%)

People who grow up around other leaders

raised in leadership environments

seen it felt it

Moses was a natural leader

Learned Leaders (30%)

That’s why we’re here to learn how to be better leaders

Most Christians should fall into this category

You learn how to be better and Christlike which we in turn, use to influence people around us

Specialty Leaders(49%)

Have some sort of skill

A knack for something

No matter where we fall on the spectrum we have to be willing to learn no matter what

We also must make ourselves unlearn the bad habits that we revert back to

The thing about all leaders is that we should want to be in the game:

When Hitler rose to power it created a mighty Churchill

When America was trying to divide itself apart Lincoln quoted the word and Said “ a house divided cannot stand”

Paul had a commission by God to preach the Gospel in Rome

And preach it directly to Cesar

Roman citizens could appeal directly to Cesar

Nehemiah was a poison taster as a cup bearer- he heard that the wall was in ruin he wanted to be in the game

Leaders are generally bothered by something that gets them in the game

What bothers us gets leaders of the sidelines

Leaders don’t complain from the stands:

Watching football

Armchair quarterbacks

Haven’t sprinted since the last doughnut was about to be taken from the breakroom

People who I don’t know want to give me advice about how to run the church!

I heard someone say “Don’t rearrange the furniture unless you helped pay for it”

Leaders don’t complain from the sidelines they get in the game

What I’m talking about is Purpose:

Purpose is what empowers us as leaders

Makes us get out of bed when we don’t want to get up

Makes us get off the ground when we want to stay down

Purpose motivates us

We just came back on a plane from Durango Co:

When you have kids sometimes they let you board the plane close to first

You get to watch as everyone comes onto the plane

How long it takes to get everyone on

People who pack everything they own on vacation

People’s bags that wont fit!

There are certain rules and standards that every plane must adhere to in order to take of

Flight attendants must be able to evacuate a plane in 90 seconds

In training they do it in the dark

With smoke and two of the exits will not be working

They generally have 6 on most planes

They dim the lights during take off and landing so your eyes adjust to a power outage

So with all the people and all the things that go wrong how is it that they can get people which takes about 90 min to get them on the plane

HOw do they evacuate the plane in 90 seconds?

When the plane is on fire everyone is motivated by purpose to get off the plane

Grandmas will crush you to get off the plane

moms will tuck their babies in like footballs and crash the line of scrimmage when survival is on the line

Purpose is what motivates us to do what we do day in and day out

What is your purpose behind your business?

What is your purpose for your money?

What is your purpose for your life?

Most people leading today have a position and not a purpose

Acts 13:36 NKJV

36 “For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption;

The NIV

36 “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed.

What is your purpose?

We all have to answer two questions when we stand on the judgment seat of Christ:

Question of Faith:

Did you believe

Question of faith fullness:

2. Did you serve the purpose

God isn’t worried about how many insurance policies you’ve sold

How much money you make

God wants you to move beyond possessions to Purpose

What is your purpose?

For you business

Your family

Your life

What is your purpose?

Paul “Bear” Bryant Texas A&M coach

7-6 over Arkansas

quarterback and cornerback

The cornerback was running for a touchdown

My quarterback was running for His life

What are you running for?

Philippians 3:14 NKJV

14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.