Session 1: The Purpose of My Leadership

Intro

Great Accomplishments

Joan of Arc led French Army to victory at age 17.

Blaise Pascal built mechanical calculator at age 19.

John Calvin wrote the Institutes of the Christian Religion at age 26.

Alexander Hamilton became Washington’s right hand man at 22.

Mary Shelley published Frankenstein at 20.

Nadia Comeneci achieved Olympic victory at 14.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his first symphony at 8.

My Calling:

Can I be honest how I feel reading that list? I feel like a loser!

Whenever I get ambitious, (New Years), there comes a point where I encounter reality. That reality is weakness.

So as a result, I begin to think because I am not one of those gifted people, I am not responsible for great things like they are.

If I am not as talented, not as set up well, then why bother? Power and responsibility? I don’t have the first so I must not have the other.

Illust: My example of my dad.

So my mind has created this category unto itself: leaders.

They are the super hero Christians that go out to battle for the faith so that I can do my little life.

They are the soldiers, I am the desk job.

They are the gifted, I am the ordinary.

Senior Year:

I don’t know how you feel about it. Maybe you are ambitious, ready to take on the world. As time goes on and on I see less and less students like that. More and more I see anxiety, fear, and uncertainty.

Not just because it is an uncertain world, but because more and more students see their weakness in light of it.

Social media and technology has just let you see more of the world. And it’s an awful place.

I’m about to tell you something that goes so against most inspirational youth conferences. You are probably not going to change the world.

But Christ is.

This life God has given you is a pocket, a garden, that you must steward, you must lead, because it is the difference not only for your life but for others. Your life will continue to encounter others. It already has. You will influence them.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Edmund Burke (?)

People do watch. They observe. They are influenced. No matter where you are, you are leading someone either by your presence or your absence.

What is leadership?

Definition of Leadership: a sphere of stewardship assigned by God to motivate followers towards common vision and goals.

But human leadership is often misunderstood. When we think of leaders, we think of top dog. No one is above him. He is a high as it goes.

But leadership is not that. It is a mediating role. To be human is to be influenced by someone, and to influence someone.

Everyone is a leader.

Clarification: That does not mean everyone has the same authority, stewardship, or level of influence they have been entrusted (ex. What is everyone was principle?)

You have a sphere of influence.

You are always being influenced and being an influencer.

There are some people you must be the thermostat around and some you should be the thermometer to.

That sphere can change based on the seasons of life.

A young man has sphere of friends, and school to steward on behalf of God, but that man may gain a family one day.

A young woman has activities, but she may have children.

Either of them may lead at a company or business.

Some elevated to big spheres, others to small spheres.

Theology of Leadership:

It is wired into creation.

Genesis 1:26 ESV

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

It was the mission of Israel.

Exodus 19:5–6 ESV

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”

Every example we see after is us messing up.

Christ arrives as KING. The ultimate leader.

Matthew 21:5 ESV

“Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’ ”

PRESENT THE GOSPEL (HECK YEAH)

He sends the church, leaders on his behalf.

Revelation 2:26 ESV

The one who conquers and who keeps my works until the end, to him I will give authority over the nations,

2 Timothy 2:11–12 ESV

The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him;

Being a Leader is being a follower first.

Isaiah 32:1-8

How a Life Led By Christ Leads Others:

1. The Life of the Christian Leader brings Triumph for Christ (v. 1)

John 7:18 ESV

The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.

Illust: Middle management (Put it on the badge)

Application: You are an extension of something already happening.

2. The Life of the Christian Leader Brings Tranquility from Christ (v. 2)

Illust: Time at the Devore’s

Application: Is your life one that all people find rest in? Do you extend the peace Christ brings to you?

3. The Life of the Christian Leader Brings Teaching of Christ (v. 3)

Matthew 5:13–16 ESV

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Application: God softens hearts through your actions, but saves them through your words.

4. The Life of the Christian Leader Brings Transformation for Christ (v. 4)

The confident and the quick will learn patience, while the one too fearful will gain confidence.

Something that was once so characteristic of someone is dropped because they encountered.

Application: Your life is the difference maker.

How a Life Led by Self Hurts others:

1. The Worldly Leader Seeks Glory for Themselves (v. 5)

The worldly leader receives a the recognition of honorable and noble, but notice it is temporary.

2. The Worldly Leader Strives for Unaccountability (v. 6b)

Instead of being a shelter to others, they seek to be at a place where they can say whatever they want, think whatever they want, and do whatever they want.

Even at the expense of others.

Too busy building one’s own empire to bother helping others.

3. The Worldly Leader Slants Teaching of Christ (v. 6a)

They do speak of the Lord, but notice that it is error.

They lead others astray, but they most likely do this to remove accountability.

“God helps those who help themselves.”

Illust: Guy in Alaska who said “God is too busy to bother with that.”

4. The Worldly Leader Schemes to Benefit from Others (v. 7)

He lies to benefit.

Conclusion: Verse 8

The honesty: A lot of the time the second leader seems more like me. I want glory, I want comfort and I don’t wants to answer to people. I sideline God’s word to justify my actions. I say things to get glory.

*How do I change?*

Read Verse 8

What makes someone “Noble?” The word means willing, or ready. Generous.

You are noble because you do noble things, but you are only able to do noble things because you stand on something noble.

Luke 6:45 ESV

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

You are, because you do, because you stand.

Sometimes I stand on the foundation of self pursuit. It will lead to disaster.

Again: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” - Edmund Burke (?)

But I have realized that I am not king. Christ is. My job is not to figure out leadership on my own, it’s to follow his leadership.

I don’t have to be all those amazing young people we read at the beginning. I just need to be a follower of Christ.

Is that life not enough?

Conclusion: You Will Lead Others. The question is who will you follow. The quality of your leadership is not decided by your gifting but by whether you seek after Christ.

Every day, seek after his leadership,.