Led to Lead
Led to Lead • Sermon • Submitted
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· 243 viewsAll believers are led to lead. We may not all be called to leadership positions are given the gift of leadership, but we have all been led by God and the leaders He equipped to lead others to know Him.
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Intro
Intro
Good morning! Before I begin, I just want to say that it is an honor to be with you all this morning. Thank you guys and especially Pastor John and Chris for allowing me to preach this morning and trusting me to exposit God’s word with you all. So thank you for that!
Before we dive into the word this morning, I just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself! My name is Josh Mains, I am a spry 21 years old, and I have the great privilege of being able to lead this team. As you’ve heard already, we are YouthQuest, a youth ministry team from Liberty University. We’ve had the opportunity to be here this weekend and serve alongside the students of this church. A quick history about YouthQuest, we are actually the oldest ministry team at Liberty, serving for over 40 years! It started as a choir back in 1981, and over the years has evolved into the team that it is today. We now have a team full of teachers, musicians, actors and actresses, and camera wizards.
Now I don’t know if you could tell by my lack of an accent, but although I currently live in Lynchburg, I am not from here! I am from the alright state of Connecticut. For those of you who don’t know what Connecticut is, it’s the state that caused Florida! I guess people got so tired of constantly warming up inside during the cold winters they thought “Let’s move to Florida where we can constantly cool down inside during the blazing hot summers!”
Growing up in New England certainly shaped the way that I live. In New England, church isn’t what it is down here. In Virginia, there are 786 churches listed on the SBCV website. Between the American Baptist Association of Connecticut, and Converge Northeast, there are about 135 likeminded churches in CT. To put that into perspective, the population of CT is about 58% smaller, but, based on these numbers, has about 83% less bible believing churches. Connecticut, and 4 of the other 5 New England states, rank as the 5 least churched states in America by Pew Research. I tell you this because the thing we need most in New England, are leaders; faithful, Christian Leaders. But I have good news, we’re all leaders! God has called us all to lead something. Now I’m not saying that you need to take your leadership and move up and being a missionary in New England (although if that’s what you want to do, let’s connect afterwards). What I’m here to tell you this morning, is that you can lead right were you are. I titled this sermon, “Led to Lead”. Often times you can see someone and think, “wow they’re made to lead” or “they have the gift of leadership”. While these both can be true, the great news is that, even if we aren’t called into leadership positions, we are still led to lead. Before we get into the word, let’s pray.
PRAY
Open up your bible to the book of John, chapter 15; we’ll start there this morning. But before we do that, I’m going to set up what we’re about to learn together over the next 25 or so minutes. I’m going to give you all 5 key steps on how we are led to lead! Each and every one of us, no matter age, male or female, stage of life…none of that plays in! These 5 steps aren’t the end all and be all and are certainly not the only five steps, but more of a summary. Let’s read God’s word. We’ll be reading verse one through 8 this morning. Here we have Jesus speaking to his disciples. It is one of His final teachings to them before he departs.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
Jesus says here that He is the “true vine”. He says this because the illustration of a vine was often used to describe Israel, but Jesus is saying that He is the true vine, above Israel. He tells his disciples that they are the branches of this “true vine”. This can be applied to us, as fellow believers in Christ, that we must be a fruitful branch of the true vine.
Let’s break this down a little more. The first three verses say: John 15:1-3
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
First we see here the cohesion of Jesus and Father God. Jesus is the vine that we are to branch off from and God is the gardener that tends to the health of the vine. We see this word “fruit” used a few times here. The fruit is the end goal of today. Verse 2 tells us that we, as branches, are to produce this fruit, but how do we do that? This production of fruit is how we lead. Before we can lead though, we must be led. This brings me to point number one.
Now, fair warning, I really went full baptist this morning. I told you guys I have five points for you, but what I didn’t tell you is that they all have the same form. We’ll be looking at five “-ate” words. Our first word and my first point this morning is:
Integrate
Before we can lead, before we can even know how to lead, we need to integrate. We need to integrate Jesus into our lives. In this scripture, Jesus is talking to his disciples, the people who followed him closest. How can we lead and do as he commands if we aren’t even following Him as we should? So how do we do this, how do we integrate Jesus into our lives? Well, this is where those classic Sunday School answers come into play. You know what I’m talking about. Remember those days of sitting in Sunday School and your teacher asks you a question, but you were definitely half asleep and did not hear what she said? We all know that there are some key words we could use that would be somewhat of an answer about 90% of the time. When I was younger, I was that kid. My Sunday School teacher would call on me, she’d say “Alright Josh, now that we’ve accepted Jesus into our hearts, what do we do now?” Now since I had just woken up from my weekly Sunday morning nap I was a bit out of it. My train of thought went, “oh gosh, where am I?” - church - then I start looking for context clues, and I see something sitting on the table in front of me - my bible - “what’s the last thing I remember happening?” - Pray - “Okay, now what are we talking about?’ - probably Jesus. BOOM, now just by going through the process of waking up, I have four potential answers to her question: church, bible, pray, and Jesus. Now since I’m smart, I look at my friend next to me to tell me the answer anyway, but of course he just woke up to so he just shrugs. So, I just pick one and say a nice overly confident, “Bible”. And of course, my teacher, knowing full well that I had no idea what I just said, but also knowing that I’m like 7, says “Good job buddy…anyone have another answer?”
I tell you this because those 4 default Sunday School answers, are exactly how we integrate. It starts with Jesus. Romans 10:9-13 says this:
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
We continue to integrate by getting involved here at church! This is where we find our community of believers. This is where we are led by our pastors and our fellow believers. Proverbs 27:17 says,
Iron sharpens iron,
and one person sharpens another.
We are here to not only be sharpened and led, but to sharpen and lead others. Then we must integrate our personal spiritual disciplines. Spending time in God’s word and in prayer. We have a perfect example of how we are to pray in Jesus Christ. He prayed to God constantly and about everything, seeking His will before his own. Our personal prayer life, is such a vital part of our walk with the Lord. For this we have Matthew 6:5-8
“Whenever you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their reward. But when you pray, go into your private room, shut your door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. When you pray, don’t babble like the Gentiles, since they imagine they’ll be heard for their many words. Don’t be like them, because your Father knows the things you need before you ask him.
Finally, we are to be in God’s word. We are to commit our time to know and understand this book. In Psalm 119:9-12 we see the importance of knowing God’s word.
How can a young man keep his way pure?
By keeping your word.
I have sought you with all my heart;
don’t let me wander from your commands.
I have treasured your word in my heart
so that I may not sin against you.
Lord, may you be blessed;
teach me your statutes.
Now that we have integrated these things into our lives, we must assimilate. This is point number two, We must assimilate God’s word into our hearts. This is how we are continually led.
Assimilate
This comes from John 15:4
Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me.
As He remains in us, we are to assimilate so that we, likewise, remain in Him.
Now, assimilate may not be the most familiar word, but I think it’s the perfect word for this. Merriam-Webster defines assimilate in two ways.
“To take into the mind and thoroughly understand”
“To take in and utilize as nourishment”
We are to take in God’s word and thoroughly understand it through the disciplines we just talked about. We should be nourishing ourselves with the Holy Spirit and the Word. We are not just to take part, but to invest these things into our lives as a part of our very makeup. Are we assimilating God’s word in our lives or are we trying to plant something else with it? If you’ve ever gardened, you know that there can be invasive plants that will literally choke the roots of nearby plants. When we try to plant something else right next to where we plant God’s word, those things, due to our natural inclination to sin, start to choke the roots of God’s word in our hearts. Our priority should be God and His Word and His Will. We are to assimilate that, and allow that to nourish us over anything else so that we may produce fruit with a strong foundation.
These are the ways in which we are led. Now that we’ve been led, let’s look at how are can lead!
This all comes out of verses 5-8 of John 15.
I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
How do we remain in him so that we may produce this fruit? 1 John 2:6 tells us
The one who says he remains in him should walk just as he walked.
Let’s put this into a single word. When we “walk in the same way in which he walked” we are Imitating Christ. This is the third point this morning, and the first point of how we lead. We must Imitate Christ.
Imitate
Most of us have heard the phrase, “Imitation is the highest form of flattery”. While this is true, it is also a form of honor. That is why we see imitation as a constant theme throughout the bible, specifically the way we are to imitate Christ and those He appointed to lead. This is the beauty of being led. When we integrate and assimilate God’s word in our lives, the natural result of that is that we imitate! We live out what we’ve learned in God’s word. I could could spend all day just talking about this one point, but unfortunately, I don’t have the time for that. In fact, I only have about 10 minutes left with you. Let’s continue in the word.
One of the most explicit commands we have to imitate Christ can be found in Ephesians 5:1-2
Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.
Paul is telling us we are to imitate God as we are his dearly loved children. This is a powerful statement. Think about an earthly father and son. As the son grows up, he will continue to look and act more like his dad. The dad will then look at his son and see himself in him and feel this sense of pride and love. Well God is our heavenly father, and as we continue to Imitate Him, God looks at us proudly and with a fatherly love greater than we could ever imagine.
But how do we do this; how do we imitate God? It tells us, we walk in love. Paul, throughout all of his letters to the ancient churches, tells them something similar to what he says to the church in Corinth. 1 Corinthians 11:1
Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.
Paul is not elevating himself to the level of Christ, he is simply someone like us, serving as an example of the imitators we are to be! In his letter to Timothy, Paul describes himself as the chief among sinners, but that doesn't mean he is incapable of imitating Christ. We are all sinners, saved by grace, commanded to and capable of imitating Christ! We will, never be equal to Christ, as we are imperfect beings, but we are to constantly strive to be more like Him in the way he loves in selflessness and His obedience to His and our Heavenly Father. We see the life we are to imitate laid out for us in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Now I’ve told you all about how we are to imitate Christ, but I haven’t really told you why. We see in John 15, where we have been based out of this morning, that it is how we remain in Him, but what is that accomplishing. Well, the good news is that I don’t need to tell you, because Jesus already has in the sermon on the mount. Matthew 5:16 says,
In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.
We are imitating so that others may see Jesus through the way that we live! Even just by living out our faith, we are brining people closer to God and giving Him the glory!
Now that we have imitated Christ and people have seen the love of Him through us, we must communicate!
Communicate
This the next step in leading and producing fruit; we must communicate the gospel message! We’ve imitated Christ and shown His love to others, now we are to tell them about that love and the redemptive power of Christ!
This comes from what we call The Great Commission found in Mark 16:15-16
Then he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Jesus commands us, as His followers, to go and share this gospel! Who do you know that need to hear the gospel? I would be naive to believe that every person in this room knew the gospel or knew Jesus as their Lord and savior. I believe that we can never hear the gospel too much. In fact, I think that, even those of us who may already be saved and even those called to Church leadership, need to constantly be reminded of the gospel. This gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ, taken straight from God’s word.
Starting all the way in the beginning, God created everything and said it was good. He created man, male and female, in His own image! He even let man name all the animals of the earth. He put man and woman on earth and said they could eat anything except the fruit from one tree. Unfortunately, they were deceived by the enemy, Satan, and ate the fruit. By doing this, they brought sin into the perfect world God created and we live in a broken world. For hundreds of years, God continued to try to redeem His people and His creation, but we, as humans, continued to turn from Him. So, he sent a savior for us in the form of Jesus. Jesus was the son of God, both fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life, bringing glory to God yet was put to death on a cross, by man. A sinless man died a sinners death. But His death wasn’t for nothing. God demonstrated His love for us when Jesus died on the cross, because when He did this, He took on our sins so that we may be saved from death by our sins and live in eternal life with Him! But it didn’t end there . He rose from the dead, three days later and commanded us to go out and proclaim this gospel! He said that He will come again one day to unite all who claim His name together forever. God’s word says, Romans 10:9-13
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
If we believe that Jesus is the son of God, that he died and rose again three days later and we confess our sins and repent/turn away from them that we will be saved! This is the gospel we are commanded to share. This is what we must communicate.
Now that we’ve communicated the gospel message, we come to our fifth and final point this morning. We must cultivate.
Cultivate
This is the fruit that we read about in John 15:1-8
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit he removes, and he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me. If anyone does not remain in me, he is thrown aside like a branch and he withers. They gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be my disciples.
People will often have questions. They will likely want to respond to the gospel. We don’t just share Jesus and leave, we are to help foster these new relationships that people may have with Christ! This takes some sacrifice. This could be done through personal mentorship or discipleship, bringing them here to church on a Sunday, or maybe bringing them to a small group or bible study. Now, because we have been led, we’ve had the opportunity to lead and bear fruit with strong roots! Because of this, we can celebrate! Celebrate what God has done!
Let’s recap. This morning we’ve learned how we are all led to lead. Being led we must first Integrate God into our own lives.
Integrate
Then we are to Assimilate Him within us; not just know him, but rely on Him and have Him sustain and nourish us! We must firmly plant His word in our hearts.
Assimilate
Then we can lead. We first, imitate Christ, just as His dearly loved child.
Imitate
We do this to show His love to others and be a demonstration of Christ to those who may not know Him.
Next, we Communicate
Communicate
We share the redemptive story of Jesus. Who do you know that needs to hear this Gospel message? Is it someone at work, at school, maybe even at home? You have been given this message and I even spoke it earlier. How can you not want to share it with someone and bring them to know the love of Christ? God commands us to proclaim this message.
Now that we’ve communicated, we Cultivate.
Cultivate
We foster the newfound relationships with Christ and lead people to a deeper relationship with Him. A relationship based on integration and assimilation of God’s Word and Jesus’ love for us.
Now we can celebrate the redemptive power of Jesus Christ!
Where are you in these steps? Do you still need to integrate Jesus into your life? Maybe you’ve been imitating Christ well, but haven’t taken the step to communicate the gospel. This may mean you need to sacrifice some time and meet with someone. Maybe you’ve communicated, but realized, wow maybe I haven’t really assimilated God’s word in my heart.” These are constant processes that never stop. We should always be furthering our relationship with Christ. Just because we are cultivating, that doesn’t mean we stop imitating. Wherever you are in this just remember, He is the vine, we are the branches and we must remain in him, and he in us. You have been, and continue to be Led to Lead. Let’s pray.
Closing Prayer
Amen
