The Making of a Leader!!

THE MAKING OF A LEADER

Lessons on Leadership

I want to begin with a verse out of Proverbs.

PROVERBS 28:2 "A NATION WILL BE STRONG AND ENDURE WHEN IT HAS INTELLIGENT, SENSIBLE LEADERS." Circle the words "strong" and "endure".

Those two benefits of having good, strong leadership.

I think you could say, A family will be strong and endure when there's good leadership. And a business, and a church.

In the Living Bible it says, "With honest, sensible leaders there is stability."

There are not too many things that are needed more in life today than stability. We need it in our homes, our nation, our world.

As the leadership expands and the tasks expand then there is stability. But if the tasks are greater than the number of leaders the WE will fall.

1. NOTHING HAPPENS UNTIL SOMEONE PROVIDES LEADERSHIP FOR IT.

That is a law of life. Look at history. The Civil Rights movement was nothing until a man came along named Martin Luther King and said, "I have a dream" and he provided leadership.

The NASA space program was nothing until a guy named John Kennedy said, "We're going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade."

A man by the name of Ray Crocks said, "I want fast food at a convenient price in a clean atmosphere" and he invented an entire industry called fast food.

Everything rises or falls on leadership.

Most problems can be traced to a lack of competent leadership. The greatest problem today is a leadership shortage. The greatest need is trained leaders.

Judges 21:25 "Every man did what was right in his own eyes. There was no king in Israel."

Where there is no leadership, people do their own thing. There is instability.

2. LEADERSHIP IS INFLUENCE

If I had to summarize leadership in one word it's influence -- for good or for bad. There are positive leaders and negative leaders.

Have you ever gone onto a playground at school and within five minutes you know who the leaders are? For good or for bad.

Have you ever set with a group of teenagers and within five minutes you know who the leaders are?

Have you sat in a committee/deacon meeting and figured out who the leader was, often not the chairman? It's the person everyone keeps looking to, to find out what he thinks?

Every time you influence somebody you're assuming leadership.

1 Tim 4:12 Don't let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

Paul was telling told Timothy, "As a young man be an example in leadership."

Age has nothing to do with leadership. You can be an influence at any age and you're a model whether you like it or not. Everybody here tonight is a leader, just in different areas.

Anytime you influence somebody you're a leader. The issue is not Are you a leader?

The issue is whether or not you're a good one. You are a leader -- in your family, at home, at work, at school. The issue is, Are you a good one or not?

A Biblical definition of a leader: A leader is someone with God given ability and responsibility to influence a group of God's people to accomplish God's purpose for that group.

3. THE TEST OF LEADERSHIP IS "IS ANYBODY FOLLOWING?"

If you want to know whether you're a leader or not, simple -- Look over your shoulder. Jesus said in

John 10:27 "My sheep listen to my voice and I know them and they follow me."

Apostle Paul said this:

I Cor. 11:1 Paul said, "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ."

We all need human models. Sure we're to follow Christ but we need human models to follow.

John Maxwell's parable of leadership, "He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk."

Leadership has absolutely nothing to do with titles or position. It has to do with influence.

The test of leadership is simply if you have somebody following.

You cannot force people to follow you no matter what you do.

4. THE FOUNDATION OF LEADERSHIP IS CHARACTER, NOT CHARISMA

A lot of TV evangelists have had lots of charisma, but they've bombed out because they had no character. They had major character defects.

The foundation of leadership is character, not charisma. Charisma has nothing to do with it. You don't have to have charisma to be a leader.

You do have to have character, credibility, because leadership is influence and if you don't have credibility nobody is going to follow you.

Reputation is what people say you are, character is what you really are.

D. L. Moody said, "Character is what you are in the dark when nobody is looking."

I Timothy 3:1-13, Paul lays out the leadership characteristics for church leadership. I am not going to read this tonight but you should.

All those characteristics he laid out necessary to be in the ministry, not once does he mention you've got to have a doctoral degree.

Leadership is based on character, on who you are.

Hebrews 13:7-8 "Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith."

This passage gives us three characteristics of good leaders:

1. They have a message worth remembering.

When they talk, people listen. "Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you." Evidently, there is something worth remembering there.

2. They have a lifestyle worth considering.

"Consider the outcome of their way of life."

Does their walk match their talk? Does their life match what they say they are?

3. They have a faith worth imitating. "Imitate their faith."

If you want to be a good leader, you need to develop a message worth remembering.

Questions to ask yourself:

(What is my life message? ) (What does God want to say to the world through me?), You need to have a lifestyle worth considering and have a faith worth imitating. That's all character.

5. LEADERSHIP CAN BE LEARNED

If I didn't believe this we wouldn't be wasting time on these classes. Every one of you can be a great leader.

Philippians 4:9 "Whatever you have learned [circle this] or received or heard from me, or seen in me -- put into practice."

Leaders are made not born. There is no such thing as a born leader. They are made by the way they respond to circumstances.

You can take two people in exact opposite situations, circumstances, one of them will end up being a leader, the other washes out because of the choices they make.

The priority of training leaders I think can be seen in the ministry of Jesus.

Mark 3:14 "He appointed twelve that they should be with him and he should send them out."

Jesus had a public ministry and a private ministry. His public ministry involved preaching, teaching and healing. His private ministry involved training the disciples.

Even within the twelve He had an inner circle -- Peter, James, John -- who got to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Transfiguration -- they got extra attention.

In Galatians, Paul said Peter, James and John were the pillars of the church.

Gal 2:9 In fact, James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews.

Jesus invested the maximum time with those who would bear the maximum responsibility.

Jesus fed the masses but He spent most of His time training leadership.

I believe leadership can be learned.

6. THE MOMENT YOU STOP LEARNING, YOU STOP LEADING

All leaders are learners. The moment I stop learning, I stop leading.

The moment I, as a pastor, stop growing this church will stop growing. You must always be developing and growing and becoming what God wants you to be.

Learning to be a leader takes a lifetime. We'll see it in the life of Nehemiah -- how God prepared him and God used him and how God used the lives of other people that Nehemiah taught.

Ecc 10:10 Using a dull ax requires great strength, so sharpen the blade. That's the value of wisdom; it helps you succeed.

If you've got a dull ax and you're chopping wood, it takes more energy. But if you have a sharp ax it doesn't take as much energy. Work smarter, not harder.

You need to learn to be a leader.

I honor you for being here. The very fact that you're here says more about you than it does about this message. It says that you're interested in learning to be a leader. I honor you for that.

The person who thinks, "I know it all" is going to be left behind. It's the person who says, "I need to learn. I need to grow."

I want to challenge you to not miss any session. This will help you at work, at church, in your business.

I believe God has a place for you to serve. I believe that the very fact that you're alive means God has a purpose for your life. That involves having an influence on other people.

So I am going to close with this:

WHY DID GOD CHOOSE NEHEMIAH AS A LEADER? Of all the people why did God choose Nehemiah, the cupbearer to a pagan king? Three reasons:

1. NEHEMIAH WAS SENSITIVE TO THE NEEDS ABOUT HIM

Nehemiah's reaction is pretty incredible. Nehemiah has it made. He's at the peak of his career. Nehemiah is living on easy street, the second best position in the kingdom.

He's got a great salary, he doesn't have to rock the boat.

The problems in Jerusalem must seem like a million miles away. He's never even seen Jerusalem. He was born in Babylon because they'd been there 70 years. When he hears about God's people depressed, discouraged, defeated he takes it seriously.

Leaders are sensitive to the needs of people around them. That's the first principle of leadership I want you to understand.

We live in an area where life is really so easy compared to the rest of the world. Most of the world would love to have your problems.

We live where in many ways, we are insulated and isolated from all the problems the rest of the world faces seem far away.

You could turn on your TV any night and see all of these needs but become callused because we see them all of the time.

The point I want to make is this: The people that God uses are people who care about the things God cares about.

And God cared about the fact that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down. Since God cared about it, Nehemiah cared about it and that made him a leader.

"Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God." That's the first step in being a great leader. A sensitivity to the needs around you.

2. NEHEMIAH WAS DEPENDABLE

He had a proven track record. We see that the king considered him so trustworthy he gave him the most reliable position of the kingdom -- cupbearer.

He intrusted his personal security to him. There was enormous trust there. The point I want to make here is that God uses people who are trustworthy, reliable, dependable.

Luke 16:10 "If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities.

Luke 16:11 And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven?

Luke 16:12 And if you are not faithful with other people's things, why should you be trusted with things of your own?

Luke 16:13 "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

This gives us some ways God tests our faithfulness to see if He's going to use us or not.

One of the ways He tests us is how we serve in another person's ministry before He gives us our own.

Another way is what do we do with our money? The Bible tells us that the way you manage your money determines how much God can bless your life.

Your giving determines to a great degree how much God can bless your life.

If you cannot be trusted with money who's going to trust you with true spiritual riches?

3. NEHEMIAH WAS AVAILABLE

When the situation needed a leader, Nehemiah said, "I volunteer! Here am I, send me!" He had the job, the position that everybody else wants and the problem is a thousand miles away, two months away across the desert on a camel and he says, "I'll go!

I'm not even a contractor but I'll go rebuild the wall!" God still chose him even though he didn't have the skills for that particular job. But he was sensitive and he was dependable and he was available.

God is not looking for ability in leaders as much as he's looking for credibility, dependability, and availability.

Those qualities are a matter of choice. You may say, "I don't have certain gifts or talents or intellect." That doesn't even matter to God.

What matters are, Are you credible? Do you have character? Are you growing in character? Are you sensitive to people? Are you dependable? Can God rely on you?

Dependability is much more important than ability. Are you available?

Nothing happens until someone provides leadership for it. Everything rises or falls on leadership.

God wants to use you as a leader in your home, your business, your church.