John C Maxwell - Leadership Principles From The Bible

thank you very much you may be seated good evening it's great to be at Hillsong it's great to be with Brian and Bobbie Darlene it's great to be with you and I'm excited about what tonight has to offer force in the few moments that I have to share with you in the book the 21 irrefutable laws of leadership I talked about the fact that leadership is influence nothing more nothing less in fact my favorite leadership proverb is he to think as he lead us and have no one following him is only taking a walk and I know and you know all kind of people who are just taking walks I would like to say to you this evening that Jesus is not only our Savior but he's the greatest leader that ever lived Socrates taught for 40 years Plato tops for 50 Aristotle for 40 130 years these three philosophers combined to do teaching that has affected the world but Jesus taught for three years and Jesus and his three years of teaching has influenced more people than Socrates Plato or Aristotle Jesus never painted a picture but Leonardo da Vinci Raphael Michelangelo they were inspired and some of the greatest masterpieces that ever been given to humanity were given because of the life of Jesus jesus never wrote poetry but Dante and milked and another poets were inspired and said the greatest words when they talked about Jesus he never wrote music never composed a song the Beethoven and Bach and Hayden and Handel and Mendelssohn and Darlene wrote some of the greatest words and composed some of the greatest music about Jesus 1972 is the young pastor my life was radically changed when I read a book a book on spiritual leadership in fact it was from a New Zealand ER Oswald Sanders Oswald Sanders wrote the book spiritual leadership but as a young pastor wanting to know how to lead I just devoured that book it when I finished I just wrote all over it and in the back of things that God spoke to me about leadership and and then I started going to the Bible and I began to see what the Bible talks about leadership and I became greatly encouraged when but I saw so much biblical truth about leadership and I began to gather pastors together 1974 in 1975 in the States and I would sit down with him and I would teach them in everything rises and falls on leadership and the good news is they knew how to share their faith and get people to heaven but the bad news is they didn't know how to to grow great churches and I began to teach pastors how to lead I used to have pastors only conferences and then their wives would would write in and say my husband's changed can I come too so I let the wives come and then then they said well we're going back to our church can we bring some Christian businessmen so I began to let them come in and then Christian businessmen began to say well could you come to our company and in the process of about 10 years I went from teaching pastors the Christian businessmen to to going into the secular corporate type of a culture in the United States in fact I was recently speaking to the largest lumber broker company in the world all day long I've been teaching about leadership teaching principles and when the day was finished we were doing a little Q&A at the end of the hour and one of the senior vice presidents of the company raised his hand said John I've got to ask you a question he said this leadership stuff that you've given us all day he said it's fresh it's it's new it's kind of different it doesn't feel like like corporate America he said them do you mind if I ask you what where did you get your leadership material I looked at my said you don't want to know no I said no I really do want to know and I look back at him and I said trust me you don't want to know but this time every hand was raised in the little area that I had the retreat are speaking and they're all saying oh tell us where you get the material and finally I said okay you you pushed me I said everything I know about leadership I learned from the Bible and then I shared with those men and I shared the people that company that they just read the book of Proverbs every day for a whole month they would just get all kind of leadership principles and ideas and that's that I see you've got a cocktail hour 6:30 I said I'll be there I'll hang on in the corner and if you really want to know about the Bible and what it says about leadership or about life I said I'll just be there with you I'll be glad to answer questions and for that hour from 6:30 to 7:30 the line never stopped as secular people were beginning to ask me questions about leadership and I can tell you story after story even out of that setting well here's what I know everything I know about leadership I learned from God's Word and and when you really want to learn leadership you don't have to go far you just have to go to Jesus and go to the Gospels and and he teaches us about leadership but if you allow I don't have a lot of time tonight I mean you got in late we're tired I understand that I'll let you out at midnight but I would like to share with you three or four things that Jesus has just things that I'm learning now right now about what Jesus teaches me about the leadership in fact as I was thinking about this conference I literally I just I put the stuff down on my little cards here and kind of laminated them which means that you know that if it's laminated it's of God I would have been Moses going up on top of Mount Sinai I would have come down with tablets of stone you can break those things how to come down with laminated cards with the 10 commandments sticking them in every Jewish pocket I could find and when I look at the life of Jesus and his leadership the first thing he teaches me is about servanthood you see if Jesus were here tonight he was doing a Leadership Conference to us the first thing he would teach us this leadership is servanthood he would say if we're going to lead the first thing we need to do is know how to serve I think Paul's most moving passage about Jesus is in Philippians chapter 2 and I'm just going to read a couple of verses here out of the message he's telling us and teaching us how to think correctly to think of yourselves in the way that Jesus thought of himself he had no equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of the status no matter what not at all when the time came he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave he became human having become human he stayed human it was an incredibly humbling process he didn't claim special privileges instead he lived a selfless obedient life and we died he died a selfless obedient death the worst kind of death at that a crucifixion you see when I read this passage of Scripture I realized that that Jesus was willing to surrender to the Father's will and Jesus was willing to sacrifice the privileges and and the position of heaven that he was willing to come here on earth and live among us and serve us and is willing of course to suffer on the cross no wonder Jesus would say to all of us tonight if he were here the leadership begins with servanthood no wonder he would say to us that we want to save our life we have to lose our life if we want to be first we've got to be last it'd be a lot of rule we've got to serve there's a pyramid that I teach in leadership Christian's get it corporate community has a little difficult time with it but when I get done teachers they begin to understand it it's basically a pyramid if you can picture in your mind for a moment it's at the bottom of the pyramid you can go to the left or the right there's a lot of room there's a lot of options but the higher you go in the pyramid the higher that you go in the organization higher you go in the church the higher you go in the government how are you going to in the church the higher you go the less options you have and by the time you get to the top you're out of options when people say they want to be a leader I always ask them why it's very interesting people - ha ha man if your leader oh whoa you got a parking space oh love that parking space and to begin talking about the privileges and the perks of a leader and I'm just here to tell you that you give it up if you if you're going to be a leader the first thing you realize is you're here to add value to people you're to serve people in the States we have a an expression we think the leadership expression you probably don't have it here in Australia that we sometimes will hear somebody that's the leader and they'll say it's lonely at the top did you ever hear that expression here well you know the Kadim in a sanctimonious worthless away no - it's it's lonely now leader never said that think about it if you're at the top all alone nobody's following you here's a thought get off the top go down where the people are touch them because leaders always bring people with them because they understand the value of a servant's heart in the Gospels we have a classic example of what I'm wanting to teach as far as the life of Jesus and servanthood within a few hours we see two leaders picking up basins and filling them with water Jesus of course in the upper room as he sat around the table with his disciples picked up the basin filled it with water and he went around and he washed the disciples feet I call this basin leadership Jesus picked up a basin and put others before himself Pilate in a conflict a moment as a leader caving in to the pressure the people asked for a basin of water to be brought to him also but when he took the basin of water instead of putting others first or truth first he washed his hands and put himself first Jesus the secured leader knew what it was like to stoop and serve others you see the secured the secured leaders they are into towels the insecure leaders are into titles the secured leaders are people conscious in the insecure leaders or position conscious and Jesus understood this entire process and as he looked at his disciples isn't it interesting the only time in the Gospels he basically told the disciples to do as he did the only time that Jesus said excuse me guys but I just want you to know in this area follow the model in the pattern that I've given you the only time you did it in the Gospels was here when he began to serve and and care for and wash the disciples feet 10 years ago literally 10 years ago yesterday I resigned a large Church in San Diego California to basically serve the body of Christ and I can remember as a pastor battling that issue of giving up this large church and and I was talking to God you can understand I you know a leaders known by what they lead and and and and what their organization looks like and and I'm going to leave all of this I'll never forget jesus said for 25 years you've pastored and he said it this way to me Johnny said for 25 years you've kept count give it up for the next 25 years I'll do the counting for you and one of the things I did at that time was I picked a list of a people in the body of Christ that I wanted to serve I called it my top 10 list and for the last 10 years I've just done my best very quietly some of them don't even know they did I've never skunk I don't walk into the I say I think I want to serve you they don't even have a some of them don't have no understanding this at all but I just said I'm going to commit my life to serving these people and adding to the body of Christ because I want to tell you something if you're secure that only the secure will stretch and only the secure will stoop the insecure do not have that type of dynamic in their life if Jesus were here tonight he would look at all of us and it would say to us servanthood is where you start if you want to be a leader another thing that Jesus is teaching me about leadership is about priorities in a Sermon on the Mount we know he tells us that we're to seek his kingdom and his righteousness and all of the things will be added unto us it's interesting in the Sermon on the mouth there's this one passage of Scripture that just grabs me and it just kind of fits in to where I am tonight Jesus is teaching he says give your entire attention to what God is doing right now and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow and their words he's saying focus he st. concentrate take care of today he was saying to us today matters today matters lot would tell you that when when the messengers of God said get out of Sodom and he wanted to hesitate and they had to help him out he would say today matters I can promise you Joshua would say today today matters as they look at the Israel the country of Israel the people of Israel that had led for several years and his last speeches had choose you this day whom a sir Esther would tell you today batters so she got the note from uncle Mordecai who knows what you've come into the kingdom for such a time as this David would tell you today batters this is the day the Lord has made we will rejoice and be glad in it today matters I find a lot of Christians a lot of leaders have what I call destination disease they'll come up to me they'll take Oh John could you help me I want to know God's will for my life could you just kind of help me I really want to know what God has planned for my future and I always disappoint them because I tell them it's no sweat you see trying to discover God's will that's no big deal all you got to do is take care of today listen obey God today don't worry about next year don't worry about next decade today matters obey Him today you see most Christians are educated way beyond the level of their obedience and never tried to explain God until you first obeyed him today matters today matters this moment you see I've discovered that we over exaggerate yesterday we overestimate tomorrow but we underestimate today we talked about yesterday is the good old days don't we hello I tell you back in the good old days with Dave the states we talked about the good old days old.i did they talk about the good old days in Australia well back in the good old let's catch a something they weren't that good now for somebody like myself it's 58 you don't need to worry about the good old days you forgive them when you get my age back Margaret was with me tonight we were going together in a car one day and she said John we're forgetting a lot I said I know it babe I said what are we going to do she's I got a plan I said what is it she said you remember who we are and I'll remember where we're going okay and it's helping it's helping we over exaggerate yesterday overestimate tomorrow we think we could do more than we really can tomorrow that's why we put off the bar if we had to do everything we put off until tomorrow tomorrow we'd be in deep weeds but we underestimate today listen to me carefully the secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda did you get it the secret of your success the secret of my success it's determined by our daily agenda Sid John what do you mean if I could go home with you if this wasn't a Hillsong conference and if I could go home with you and I could spend tomorrow with you and just observe I just get all I got to do is hang I don't need to run around general need to tell you what to do just let me hang with you for about eight or ten hours can I take if I just hang with you tomorrow by 6:30 7 o'clock if we're having dinner tomorrow night you do understand you do realize by tomorrow night I could look at you and with about 85% accuracy I could tell you how successful you're going to be like to say how could you do that John are you brilliant not at all no no you see the secret of your success the secret of my success is determined by our daily agenda what we do every day is either making us or breaking us can I tell you something my friend I wish I had an hour to talk to you about this I do not but let me just drop it on you're real quick most people spend their day either repairing or preparing and people that are repairing are fixing yesterday because yesterday they didn't do it right and the secret of your success in my success is determined by what we do on a daily basis and successful people make important decisions early in their life and then they manage those decisions the rest of their life now this next statement fasten your seatbelts it's going to shock you we put too much emphasis upon decision-making and too little emphasis upon decision managing let me explain in the States we have New Year's resolutions do you have New Year's resolutions here you know at the end of the year you kind of look at your next year then we'll lose weight exercise all the stuff okay how many of you ever made a New Year's resolution to see those hands okay that's very good let me ask you another question you know I'm gonna ask don't you you hate this question don't you how many have you ever made a New Year's resolution that you broke fairly soon after you made the New Year's resolution and probably out of that made a New Year's resolution never to make a new year's resolution again they say in the states that within 17 days 78% of the people that make a New Year's resolution break it but January the 17th the decision that was made on January 1st is already broken I mean hey maybe we make a decision to to exercise and and really go to the gym so what do we do I mean first part of the new year we're getting our card we go down to where we get to the parking lot we can't get in there there's a policeman out there and he's directing us on down the road because the parking lots fool so we're a little disgusted about this we can't even get in the parking lot so I'll pull so so we go three blocks down we finally find a place that we've parked the car we get our gym bag and now we're really discusses we're carrying our gym bag walking back to the gym saying I wanted to get some exercise and you go into the gym and everybody's got all the machines and salt I mean yeah you got to wait in line and you go to the managers saying I've made this resolution to lose weight and exercise and I'm here to tell you look at this I mean I can't even park here connector and here at the manager lookg smile says relax take a pill if you'll come back in about two weeks you can pull right into the parking lot you can park right by the door you can have any machine you want in the gym you see we put too much emphasis upon decision-making and too little emphasis upon decision managing every day I read this aloud to myself about a year and a half ago I wrote a book called today matters and in it I talked about the daily dozen 12 things that you want to manage on a daily basis if you want your life to be fruitful and every morning I read this because it helps me because I'm going to have to manage these 12 things and so I read aloud to myself just for today I will choose and display the right attitude just for today I will determine and act upon important priorities just for today I will know and follow healthy guidelines just for today I will communicate with and care for my family and just for today I will practice and develop good thinking and just for today I will keep and make proper commitments and just for today I will earn and manage finances right and just for today I will deepen it about my faith and just for today I will initiate and invest in solid relationships and just for today I will plan for and model generosity and just for today I will embrace and practice good values and just for today I will seek and experience improvements I will act on these decisions and I will practice these disciplines and then one day I will see the compounding results of a day lived well just for today if Jesus were to come in and talk to us about leadership he would say make servanthood your foundation learn to prioritize and understand how to manage the daily areas of your life correctly and thirdly he would say learn to relate well with others he would talk about relationships in fact I've been very surprised recently as I've been spending a lot of time in the Sermon on the Mount how much of that time is dedicated just to getting along with people leadership and relationships are intertwined let me put it this way people won't go along with you if they can't get along with you how many of you know somebody that's difficult to get along with could I see your hands not goodness it's a hundred percent let me ask you another question how many of you are seated beside that person right now no no you know who's the first the first question was a relationship question the second question was an IQ question we all know do we not all do we all know we all know people but come on now they're a little difficult I'll stick it along with huh and yet when I read the Gospels in fact just the other day I I was just one more time going through them in common or hurried away Jesus initiated relationships look at the woman on the well Jesus didn't allow prejudice to affect his relationships look at Matthew look at the sinners Jesus showed forgiveness in relationships the woman of course being stoned or about to be stoned Jesus confirmed that relationships are more important than legalism and tradition when he healed on the Sabbath Jesus built relationships in the last moments of his life when the center looked upon him and asked for mercy he said today you'll be with me in paradise I do a lot of writing I do a lot of leadership training in the area of relationships we wrote a book called winning with people and one of the winning with people principles is what I call the elevator principle and the elevator principle just separately says some people lift you up and some people bring you down in that true is it a truth don't you have people that just lifts you up and incur how many of you just have an encouraging person in your life that when you're just around and they just they just lift you up and just make you feel better than life how many have somebody like that in it and don't you love to see them come as their as their approaches they're coming to you you just feel energy infuse your body come to Daddy and when you get on their elevator when you get on their I love you only have one button but I got when you get on the elevator that button will take you higher no matter what floor you're on they have the ability to lift you higher than you are right now and then there are other people you get on their elevator it's only got one button basement exactly hey when you're when you're in the basement when you're thinking you're as low as you can go so a little but you know it's bad it can't be worse I'll get on their elevator and you get on there and you find this they got a new button LLB what's that stand for lower basement you better but I mean and when these people come to you they have the ability to suck life right out of your body what I thought about these people is their timing is impeccable come on now is that not true at least in the States their timing is impeccable is it the same here in Australia come on talk to me hi you've been with people all day you're worn out you're tired it's 9:30 10 o'clock at night you've been in meetings all day you're done you've talked to the last person you're out you're walking out in the parking lot there's no one else to see you're so excited you as you approach your car it's like an oasis you say in about 10 seconds I'm going to get inside that car and I'm going to close the door and roll up the windows and lock those babies and for 20 minutes nobody's ever going to talk to me and you get your hand right on the door handle and you hear a voice right there you don't get in the car you just lay your body on the car slay me swimming slang our Mary Wilcox said at best she said there's two kinds of people on earth today just two kinds of people no more I say not the good in the bad for its well understood the good are half bad and a better half good no there's two kinds of people on earth I mean the people who lift and the people who lean Jesus would teach us that if we're going to lead people it starts by loving people and connecting with classic example and his love to us of coming into this world thank you very much I sorry I've been ignoring you the whole service I still hate I was going to quit but I got one more point now that I got an Amen Corner right I had no had no clue to get this good up there so I'm going to talk to you and if the rest of them want to listen [Applause] the fourth thing that Jesus teaches me about leadership this is just for you if you seeing those people taking notes you tell me would you Jesus teaches me about team building Jesus teaches me Jesus teaches me that if you're going to do something significant you've got to build a team in fact one is too small of a number to achieve greatness teamwork makes the dream work just follow their lead and when you build a team and put them together to make it the only way that you can compound your vision and go from me to we is by getting people to buy in to the jury and Jesus knew it and he had this mission to please the Father and obey him does he can say those words were lost and so the first thing he did when he started his public ministry is he he gathered a team together now I don't think we would probably gather the same team that Jesus did oh man how would you like to leave your church to Peter like one day I was 10 Lord I just don't understand why you would pick those disciples and he said well they said let me give you another question I don't understand why I picked you [Music] if you study Jesus and how he built a team first of all he knew his mission and secondly he equipped his disciples in a life related context I spent a year in the Gospels asking myself how did Jesus teach and equip leaders and and it's very simple it's what I call Jesus idea of discipleship he instructed them in a life related context he demonstrated for them in a life related context he exposed them and gave them experiences in a life related context and he assessed them and brought them into accountability in a life related context that's a whole sermon in itself but Jesus not only did that but Jesus understood that if you're going to develop leaders you've got to spend time on them so I'm going to ask you a very simple question did Jesus spend an equal amount of time with everyone yes or no thank you very much he didn't spend near as much time with the crowd city as you do disciples in fact I'm or you know Bible studies by Christians are always kind of like kumbaya and yeah I did they're just kind of kissy Kissy kind of deals and I've often thought oh I would like to do some Bible studies that just would rankle Christians and what am I would love to do is if you just have you ever done a study on how many times Jesus tried to get away from people come on ambience he's teaching the ground he's teaching the ground wise teach of a brow what if he's backing up to the lake piete piete piete get the boat get the boat and let me ask you know you can do this yes or no you're the smartest crowd I've talked to today no question about that you even listen yesterday Jesus spend an equal amount of time with his disciples yes or no no no no he had three yep three gave them a lot more time and attention and energy and effort and teaching you know those three Pete Jim and John did be with the 12 disciples and they'd stop and they say Pete Jim and John you three come here quick okay now none of you other guys I'm going to take Pete Jim and John and we're going to we're going to go away for a couple of days or some places I want to show them there's some people I wanted to meet there's some things I want to teach them and I'm just going to ask you don't get in trouble while we're gone and Jesus would go off with Pete Jim and John have you ever thought have you ever thought about what the conversation was like with the other nine that were left behind huh I I got it i I think Andy I think Andy looked at Phil as it filled that ticks me off right there right there that that one that one now that grabs me the wrong way Phil have you ever noticed Jesus has no creativity he always takes the three the same three it's always beat Jim and John meet Jim and John Gibbons on boys meet Jim and John so to speak given chun-hee Phil looks at a Indian soul and I'd I bugs me though I'll tell you what really bothers me home bothers you feel I don't mind so much when they go I'll tell what I hate I hate when they come back I'll kick when they come back a space repeat espacially p he comes back he tells us where he's been he tells us who he's men remember the last time they're up on the mountain he said the druid God was there and they almost stayed up there built three taverns I wish they would have stayed up there hey Tom Tom let me ask you a question did Jesus ever ask you to go with him on one of those true no he hasn't and I seriously doubt if he ever will oh there's so much more I could teach servanthood priorities relationships team-building but I want to wrap it up now this is a very significant time for me to come back to Hillsong and Australia thank you Brian and Bobbie and team for inviting me to come back it's always an honor to be here with you in 1982 Margaret and I came to Australia and I spoke in four different cities about leadership and I can tell you is a very discouraging time for me in fact when I left Australia Margaret I talked about I said you know it just seems like God's gonna have to do a miraculous work it just it just seems like the church is not vibrant and alive and it just seemed to me that things were not going perhaps as they could and should and little did I realize back in 1982 Brian the God was birthing in you and those leaders Hillsong little do I know back then that God would raise up a church that would become a movement that God would raise up a a worship team that would begin to teach us how to worship better and come into the presence of God greater a little than I realized that that God was brooding over Australia and was about to say I'm going to take this nation and I'm going to raise up leaders I'm going to bless this nation spiritually and I'm going to reign righteousness and blessings upon their I didn't want I didn't know I've been privileged to be at Hillsong a couple times again because of the gracious of you and thank you but when I when I realized I was going to come back this time about three weeks ago I felt very distinctly impressed that I was to do one thing preaching is wonderful and I'll do some teaching tomorrow do my best to share and add value to your life but I don't really came for one reason see I have a heart for leadership and I have a heart too to see Christian leaders raised up around the world because I know this everything rises and falls on leadership and that God is looking for men and women to stand in the gap I've had the privilege in the last few years have an organization equipped that is training right now literally around the world a million leaders and that's a wonderful experience but but that isn't why I'm here as I was working on my little simple leadership message and it's a very simple leadership message nothing complicated about it in my office in my study I sensed that God was saying to me John when you're done preaching I want you to pray and ask God to in this conference tonight because today matters I want you to pray over people and ask God to raise up a whole new generation of Christian leaders that not only that not only can take Australia for God but can take the world for God [Applause] would you bow your heads with me and just close your eyes

Channel: Richard Le

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Length: 41min 42sec (2502 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 09 2017