Great Leaders

Good morning everyone I am so glad that we could be here together. I have a simple question for you this morning.

When we are in a time of Crisis who do we look to?

I think about the last year and i think about all the times in history that the world or a country was in a great crisis we look to our leaders to make decisions. Now for good or bad that is something that we look to. We look for their guidance and then we have to make a choice if we trust their decisions or if we start to question their leadership.

It had me thinking though because in the last year we have had a lot of poor leadership in our country no matter who is in charge. Yet, it had me thinking about some of the great leaders in history.

Great Leaders of History

Winston Churchill

You can’t talk about WWII leadership and not think about Winston Churchill. He was a strong leader at the time when things were tough and their was a lot of horrible things going on. Was he a perfect leader, no. However, he was still the right leader in the time of crisis during that war.

FDR

Of course there was the American counter part to Winston Churchill. He led our country through the Great Depression and then into a war. One of the most powerful things that he did was probably his fireside chats in speaking to Americans and engaging them like no one had every been able to before. Like Churchill he was far from perfect and had his own issues.

George Washington

Another great American president, if not the greatest American president. One of the great leadership qualities of Washington was the recognition of unity during the infancy of this country. Some people today would argue that led to horrible policy decisions. Yet, he saw the bigger picture and recognized the need for the unity and moved accordingly.

These men were leaders in their time. Were they perfect no. Were they great leaders. Yes. There truth is we look to great leaders in times when we need them most. Thinking about these leaders made me also think about what are the attributes of a great leader.

Common Traits of Great Leaders

Take Action

Motivate

Not Content

Accountability

Take Risks

These are obviously not the only traits of a great leader but there is a consistency of these things that is important. We want leaders to hold these attributes and we want them to be strong in these characteristics. Can you imagine a leader who doesn’t take charge and manages to motivate and push people to do more.

Yet through out history there are times that we also recognize the need for leadership and this had me thinking about a story from the Bible

1 Samuel 8:4–20 NIV

4 So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. 5 They said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” 6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.” 10 Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. 11 He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 12 Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 16 Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.” 19 But the people refused to listen to Samuel. “No!” they said. “We want a king over us. 20 Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles.”

The Problems with the wrong Leader

Here we have this story of the People of Israel looking for leader. They thought that they were in a moment in crisis. They thought that because Samuel was getting old in age that they were about to face a moment that they did not have a leader. Instead of recognizing that they were only losing their human leader and not their true leader they requested something of God that was in all honesty not for their benefit.

Despite the warnings of Samuel the people of Israel chose to put in place a King to rule over them to subjugate themselves to.

Think about that for a moment. I talked about those great leaders earlier and what they did. Yet, as i mentioned with each of them they were flawed. They didn’t live up to what the expectation should have been. The reality is they are men and they fall short of not only our standards as humans but they fall short of the standards of God who is King over all.

It is amazing to me that we still have to have these kinds of conversations. We look to leaders and people to guide us. We exalt them to high places and forsake who is ruler over all things. It is in this way that we don’t really know what is best for us and we are like children who think that if they could just eat all the candy in the world they would be happy. Yet, there is God who is shaking his head knowing that if we don’t take care of ourselves and listen to him that we will succumb to sin and ultimately death without him.

All of these things make me realize more and more what Jesus came to do.

Jesus the new “King”

The people of Israel, the disciples, and so many others looked to Jesus as the coming messiah. The coming new king who was going to lead them to victory and freedom over their political oppressors. They never imagined that God would send his son to be their king over their lives and their hearts and free them not form the bonds of the world but from the bonds of Sin.

Jesus transformed so much of what we understand in our lives. Jesus returned us to an attitude of recognizing God as our leader. If we really think about it Jesus removed the mistake that was the King that the people of Israel had wanted and instead took the place as King. His life, death, and Resurrection allowed us to be free of that choice. Not only did it free the Israelites from that it also opened the door for the whole world to claim him as King. The Gospel became truth not just for God’s chosen people but for all people of the earth.

I think it is also interesting is we look back at those five characteristics Jesus in many ways had them. He regularly took action through miracles and actively sharing the message he had to the world. He regularly motivated and challenged people to be more. Think of Nicodemus and times with the disciples that Jesus challenged them to be better. I think it would be easy to say that Jesus would never be content with anything short of every person coming back into relationship with the Father. The Accountability piece may be little more challenging just because of the whole trinity thing. Jesus was far from living the safe life. His life was regularly threatened and he faced the prospects of death many times before he was finally crucified. Also his willingness to sacrifice himself is a testament to a great risk for everything that he has done for us.

This all shows what Jesus did for us. The ability to return to a leader that isn’t of man creation but is in fact our God. This is our great hope…

A new Hope…The return of the King

On a side note that line is a great one because it references two of my favorite movie and book series. You will have to tell me if you know the connections another time. I already mentioned it but Jesus allows us to be free of the old king ship and instead return him as the leader and King of our lives. We need to hear this more and more today. To often we are looking to the world to provide us with the next great leader. Too often we are looking to our pastors, parents, politicians and so many other people to direct our lives. Now, this isn’t to say that we don’t need earthly leaders but the truth is that God is accessible to all of us and that we need to allow him to be the center of our lives. When we do this we realize that we can have hope and that we do not need to lose heart about the state of this world. We do not have to be discouraged by the things happening around us as life doesn’t seem to be going the way that we want it to. Our King is eternal and is beyond what we can see and that is why we have hope because he is more powerful than anything we can imagine. It gives new meaning to passages like this one...

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 NIV

16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

We fix our eyes on him we turn to him. We need him more and ore and we need to take heart in knowing that he loves us and longs for us to put him at the lead in our lives. This is not always an easy thing because we can’t see or touch him like we can an earthly leader. We can’t alway have what feels like a direct conversation with him like we can someone standing next to us. Yet, we know that he is there he is listenting that we can share with him the things on our heart that we can look to him for guidance and direction and leadership.

Ask yourself this morning. Are you looking to him for leadership? Does he rule your life as King? Does this give you hope? It should because one day we will stand before him and we will be in his presence again and we will rejoice with him. That is the hope that is the joy that is what makes us long for him as King.

Let us pray.