Rich Wilkerson Jr. — Team Leaders Meeting: Becoming A Leader

Philippians chapter 2 I want to do a little bit of a Bible study today it has been in our hearts as a staff really in last season season three that we have really been leaning in to keep teaching biblical literacy across our staff and we're gonna continue to lean in this as a church there's some things that don't change I know we live in a world right now it's like live your truth but we believe the Bible is truth and so in a changing culture the thing that is changeless for us is God's Word that we serve the God who is and was and is to come that God is the same yesterday today and forever and so today I want to lay some foundation with slip Ian's chapter two I want to break down and pull up some truths for us from a leadership context Philippians chapter 2 verse 1 let me read all eleven verses to you Paul is writing to the church in Philippi and he says therefore if you have any encouragement from being United with Christ if any comfort from his love if any common sharing in the spirit if any tenderness and compassion then make my joy complete by being like-minded listen to his heart right here make my joy complete by being like-minded every leader strives for their team to be unified and that's a mark of a great leader right there like it'd make my joy complete my joy being complete is us getting along us doing life together he says having the same love being one in spirit in one mind do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit rather in humility value others above yourselves not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others in your relationships with one another have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross now this is a very very important theological concept and that is that we believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh but as much as he is God he is also man he's all God all man he chose to become all man it doesn't mean that he emptied his divinity but rather it means that he humbled himself and clothed himself in humanity it's a picture of humility it's not a picture of he didn't have for a moment he stopped being he was always gone but he decided I'm gonna lower myself and take on flesh and become like you that I could actually become the sacrifice that you've always needed here comes the good news therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus someone said Jesus at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father if you believe that verse can you put your hands together and just go ahead and stir up your face a little bit I want to talk for the next few moments around the subject of becoming a leader becoming a leader now as a title like that that's a book title okay so there's no way that I can dive into all of that but I want to use Philippians two two to talk about this idea of becoming a leader in fact tomorrow we're kicking off a new collection of talks at vu Church I'm really excited about it and the title of the collection is simply becoming and the question I'm going to pose to our church tomorrow and I love gathering before we start because I want to pose it to you as leaders I want you to come into the next twenty-four hours before the service you get into before you hear the content tomorrow that you're already letting something stir in your spirit and here's the question that we're gonna ask the next four weeks at church what we're starting to hear today who are you becoming who are you becoming like what a great question to ask yourself in the new year don't you love January you know we've had a lot of team leaders meetings but this is the first team leaders meeting that about seven of us we went and did a Barry's boot camp at 7 a.m. now I just got I want to believe that that is a tradition that we will carry out for the next 12 months but something tells me that January 1st team leaders had something to do with it how many know that gyms are full in January churches start to fill up people become very open to asking themselves Who am I becoming I think it's one of the greatest questions that you can ask yourself because the reality of is the only that's more important with who you are today is who you're becoming tomorrow who are you becoming tomorrow because maybe you're here in this room right now and you can start to talk to yourself and you're like yo man I just don't like where I am and where I'm at right now is not good and I hate the state that I'm in I hate my situation I hate my circumstance I hate my job I don't like the relationships that are around me I just don't like where I am and if you're not careful what you can do is you can start to think that your biggest problem is where you are but your biggest problem is not where you are your biggest problem is where are you headed because where you're headed is so much more important than where you are today there's so many things that we are all becoming but I think one of the great calls of the gospel is that all of us awaken to the call that we are called to lead I am becoming a leader now listen to me I am a leader but I'm also becoming a leader why do I say it that way I say it that way because there's so many things as I examine my life that I have to grow in there's so many gaps in my life anyone feel like you got a couple gaps come on we're yet where's the honest people okay if you honest people in the room today we have gaps I've gaps in my leadership I've gaps my relationships I've got gaps my finances I've got gaps in my in my physicality and my health right now there's gaps all around me but instead of letting the gaps depress me the gaps ignite me because the key to happiness is simply one word that is progress and without gaps there is no progress and so I am a leader but in the very same breath I also declare I'm becoming a leader because I don't know what awaits me in 2020 I don't know what challenges I'm going to face but I know today as I start this year with all of my friends and all of these leaders I'm declaring out loud I have not stopped becoming I'm still growing the gaps should tell you that you have room to grow and the fact that you have room to grow should encourage you and bring satisfaction that you're still becoming something aren't you thankful that you're not done growing [Applause] see whether you like it or not you're becoming something like whether you know it or not habits are forming whatever you repeat you reinforce so we're all repeating something we all have habits we all have something we're becoming good or bad richer or poorer stronger weaker smarter I'm not gonna say dumber but you decide which direction you wanna head in we always say this way directions more important than speed I am becoming a leader I want you to become a leader and this is what I know I know that one way or another you're going to grow I don't know which direction you're gonna grow we were having a New Year's Eve party I was with my good friend Sean and Sean has four kids and his youngest daughter her name's Anna Kristina and when I met Anna Kristina I think she was like three or four years of age and it's weird like sometimes like even watching my own son's I say they grow overnight but it's always startling when you don't see a child but every couple months and then you say well look you're a different person and the other day I saw Anna Cristina now she's like 10 years old and she's like all big and tall and I said I said please Anna Kristina do me a favor don't grow in 2020 I don't want you to get any bigger I mean I missed a little tiny Anna Kristina how many of you know that no matter what I say to her she can't help but grow it's a natural part of the process and it's the same thing for your life you're going to grow the question is what direction are you going to grow in here's what I know for all of us this is what I know about if you're gonna become a leader you're gonna become a leader this is always the truth the future will be more demanding than the past just the truth that's why I'm becoming a leader in 20 I don't know what awaits me I don't know what type of challenges I will have to face I don't know the problems that are in front I've never been to 20/20 before I'm a leader but I'm also becoming a leader it's like I love it this way it's like this is just the truth thick the future whatever it is for you it's gonna be if you're gonna take on the path of leadership it's gonna be more demanding than the past now this is not true if you're gonna go backwards but if you're gonna say I want to progress and I want to head in the right direction whatever awaits me will be more demanding it's like what's the reward for for passing the test in the third grade fourth grade a harder test what's what's the reward for getting through your freshman year oh I gotta go to sophomore year this is how life works and I'm telling you right now we need to awaken to this to this truth to say you know what I'm becoming something I'm becoming a leader how many know three locations is gonna be more difficult than two locations come on help me know 5,000 people on a Sunday that's one thing but yo you make his 6,000 as we step in a 2020 that's 6,000 new problems that are awaiting us I don't know you but I want to be up for the challenge I don't want to back down from it I want to lean into it recognizing that yo I'm gonna have to get ready for the future who are you becoming you make that decision today that's something the next four weeks we need to be answering what direction are you headed in what I love is when it comes to leadership we have the greatest example in the entire world even if you weren't a Christian I don't think there's any argument of who the greatest leader that ever lived even if you're not a Christian I would say you should study the life of Jesus because Jesus Christ hands-down has had a greater influence than any other person in the history of the world whether you believe he's God's Son or not you cannot deny the impact that he has left and there's so many attributes and so many characteristics that you could take time to talk about Jesus that I mean literally John says to fill up all the miracles that he did there's you couldn't feel you could fill up all the books in the world there's still be things to record about Jesus what a powerful truth yet in Philippians chapter 2 we see the Apostle Paul is using Jesus as an example as he's speaking to a church like vous Church and the attribute that he decides to lean into is the attribute known as humility and he's going to point out that Jesus is a humble leader now I want to become a leader but becoming a leader if I'm really just gonna really break it down it means like I want to become like Jesus I don't know what your new year's resolutions are I hope you have some hope you have some goals those are all really really good but I hope at the top of your list of resolutions or goals I hope the top goal is I want to become more like Jesus when you keep hearing age we can talk about spiritual formation you know what does that mean spiritual formation the process of becoming like Jesus what would Jesus do is a little exercise on your wrist for spiritual formation that in 2020 I want to look more like Jesus than I did in 2019 and one of the ways I'm gonna look more like Jesus is when I take on the path of humility see humble leaders have a different mindset humble leaders this is the mindset of a humble leader everything I do impacts other people you want to become a leader in 2020 take on the path of humility and get that phrase into your heart that everything I do impacts other people this is not a church thing this is not a Sunday thing there's not a Saturday thing this is your life type of thing you are called to leadership but if you're gonna ever become a leader you've got to think like a leader you got to think like a humble leader that whatever I'm doing whether about my job whether I'm a mom of two kids three kids whether I'm a teacher at school whether I'm a secretary at work whether I'm a lawyer whether I'm a CEO whether I'm a pastor team leader crew coach whoever you are whatever space you find yourself and you need to shift your mindset and say that my actions have consequences my actions my behavior my lifestyle impacts other people because I am becoming a leader come on somebody and I want to show you three things from the text today because really my call to us in becoming the leaders that we have to take on the attribute of humility like never before and I believe the future what it demands out of us is going to be greater than what it required out of us in 2019 and it's gonna take all of us doubling down on this concept known as humility humility is not thinking less of yourself humility is thinking about yourself less it's about going everyone what I do impacts other people I want you to inhale that and recognize that you don't get to take a vacation from being a leader you can go on vacation you're still a leader just because you're not at church on Sunday doesn't mean you stopped being a leader just because you miss crew um leadership is not I'm checking in and checking out everything I do it impacts other people and I want to show you flippy and Shepherd - why or where humility comes from I want to secondly show you why we need humility and then thirdly I want to show you what humility takes okay so let's just look at Philippians chapter 2 for a moment the first thing about where humility comes from strata tude creates humility gratitude everyone say gratitude creates humility this is so very important that you understand this it turns out that gratitude will never produce pride gratitude only produces humility it's just the truth like what gratitude the idea of gratitude is that there's something else or someone who has done something for me that's outside of me and the result is I'm grateful and the result of being grateful is I'm humbled I recognize there's other things that are working in my favor this is why social psychologists will even challenge people that are not believers to say oh you're dealing with depression or you're dealing with a lack of purpose or you're finding a hard time to put both your feet down and and action they would say take once a week and write out five things you're grateful for because social psychologists understand that if you can identify things outside of yourself that are working in your favor the result is gonna be is that you will be humbled and when you're humbled you find yourself having purpose it's really amazing because pride as it turns out does not produce happiness in fact pride is self camouflage for self-doubt pride appears to be happy arrogance looks like everything's going good I got my whole life together I'm the man but in reality it's insecure it's not producing what you're looking for instead it's humble people that are happy people the more and more I recognize that I didn't bring myself to this spot but instead there was other things that played into it I become grateful and as I become grateful I become humble and I look more like Jesus watch what Paul is trying to do in Philippians chapter 2 I want you to see this because he's he's trying to stir up something look he's mining for humility and the way he's mining for humility is he's stirring up their gratitude watch what he says Philippians chapter 2 verse 1 therefore if you have any encouragement from being United with Christ if any comfort from his love look what he said if any common sharing in the spirit if any tenderness and compassion then make my joy complete by being like-minded having the same love being one in spirit and of one mind do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit rather in humility value others above yourselves so he gets to humility but the way that he gets to humility is he starts with gratitude and he's just asking rhetorical questions hey is there anyone among you who has ever been thankful that you've been United with Christ what's he saying saying are you thankful Jesus saved you yeah go on are any of you grateful that you've been comforted by his love yeah what he's saying is is that that as you start to recognize and get grateful for where you've come from it humbles you to where you are today I think each and every one of us we need to live and lead from this place what I've learned is the bigger you grow it becomes harder to remember where you started it just becomes harder it becomes harder to go whoa there was a day that I was not saved there was a day that I did not have the peace of God like I'm looking around a room right now it's cool to see everybody because like we got some real leaders in this place people I mean like we just had this big offering like we're not like this church plan these are real leaders they can teach leadership they think like leaders but yo you need to be really really careful don't live in the past but never forget where you came from never forget where you get I Paul said I forget the former things but I don't want to forget how I started I don't want to forget what it was like before I had all of this I know like it's sometimes you like I'm a big deal yo like I shoot man like I'm a leader bro like I got people reporting to me you know people turn in reports people come to me for counsel people asked me for prayer people want me to weigh in to their life situation I'm a leader bro none of that is bad but please don't forget the day before you could even spell the word leader don't forget the day that you were never you didn't have all of this go back to the beginning go back to what it was like what you felt what did you feel what was it like when you had no relationship with Jesus if you want to become the right leader in 2020 you got a lead from a place of gratitude like gratitude is good in every season so we're all becoming at different stages but whatever stage you're at today gratitude is the thing that will create humility and what I've learned is I've learned that great leaders are grateful leaders great leaders are grateful leaders the bigger we get the further we go the harder it is to remember where started I don't want to forget where we started I don't want to forget what happens is the further we go at times the narrative changes I know it sounds so basic but I want you to see what the Apostle Paul is doing it's very very practical he's speaking to leaders he's trying to stir up leadership but the way he wants to stir up leadership is he wants them to be humble leaders we're gonna see why I know mama it's so important but the way that we come to humility is from gratitude I don't care how big this gets I don't care how large the offering becomes I don't care how many staff members we employ I don't care how many locations are started I don't care how many states carry the name boots Church I don't want us to forget how we began I don't want us to forget what it was like before anybody knew who we were we don't want to believe what others are saying about us we want to start from a humble place we're grateful to be here I remember when his team leaders meeting it wasn't a room like this there wasn't a band it was breakfast at a cafe that is long gone now but we still here I'm everyone was in my house with 40 people and we'd show up and people would have kids in another room and be drinking coffees and we were just grateful to be in the room and we were humbled to be in the room we were thankful van has anyone been United with crisis anyone been comforted by his love well if that's the case take on humility take on him let's not let the narrative change we protect the narrative let's lead our teams that you weren't grateful we're grateful to be a beach baptism at 7:00 a.m. but it's cold I know but we're grateful we're grateful to be at load-in we're grateful to go to a prayer meeting we're grateful to go to Cru we're grateful and our gratitude will create humility come on do you believe it secondly what we're gonna see Paul is going to say is he's going to show us is that unity needs humility the heart of what Paul is trying to get with this church and this is the heart of every is that is that you're going is you got to be united like unity is only sustained with humility and I want to try to be like so specific that's the point of these meetings today is I don't want to just preach sound bites I want to try to apply it to where we're at um a good way of thinking about unity as unity as our super power in fact unity is always your super power talking all the husband's out there right now it's a super power in your home talking to you business leaders out there you guys you team leaders unity is your super power what happens is this is that when a team is united it's like nothing is impossible however when a team is divided it's like nothing is possible and and I've lived on both sides of this thing I've been on United teams and it's like yo bring it on and then I've been on divided teams like we can't even tie her shoes you know like and it all comes down to this idea of Union so the Apostle Paul he's trying to stir up unity in the church he wants them to become leaders but he's like yeah you gotta get United let me show you um ten signs of United team really quick ten signs just write some of these down just things that for you to think about on your team uh here's a sign of a United team high morale morale is high well people excited to be here haha smiles on their face a United team energies on tap font out yeah we got plenty of energy but the answer is never we can't do it cuz we're tired or cuz there's no there's there's there's energy to go around numbers like blaster is non-stop you have to shut up people that are on a United team because they laugh too much stop laughing we gotta get you correct them and they laugh it's just it's a trait work is a joy I find I find purpose in this thing I'm excited to be here you know you're here early you know you're here late I know but it's a joy to do it quickly is the speed like there's a difference right from leading on your heels to leading on your toes then you go into Huddle's I can always I can always tell be given to a pre-service huddle okay where we have today because some people that come in and they're on their toes like let's go what it's the posture they don't have to sprint anywhere but they're just ready quickly is the speed I'm Joe I'm responding to the text I'm getting back to the base camp you're not waiting a 24-hour cycle for the email RSVP immediately communication quickly getting the tasks done quickly I'm not saying you're doing it in a way that the effectiveness or the efficiency of it or the quality goes down I'm just saying there's a pep in the step everyone takes responsibility just know this is my church this is our church I can always tell unity bite by people what they say right like it's been fun with the bricklayers getting to talk to different people and people that are giving and sometimes you know you'll call someone say hey thank you so much for your generosity and like yo you're doing a great job and I like it but I'm also like man I gotta get that guy in team because what he should say is we're doing a great job he should be taking it's not my job it's it's our job we all take responsibility just because it's not your fault doesn't mean it's not your problem I've never served in the parking lot well guess what if the parking lot is a mess that's your problem too I don't know anything about vous kids that's okay maybe you'll never get a chance to serve and boot kids but if it's not right over there that's all of our problem tasks become missions I don't have any tasks in my life I got mission in my life there's not one task I have to do if you feel like you're caught up doing tasks what you should do is you should write your task out and then you should create an arrow to the left and the arrow to the left or the arrow to the right which would be progression you should connect the dot as to what is that fulfill in the mission because every bit of data entry is actually a mission objective every time you do an off month meaning this feels like it it's part of the mission connect-the-dot but people talk directly to each other there's hey so listen I did that can we just let us clear this up hey hey what's up hey like just strictly you know in every realm of relationships that's gonna be required are you that's not just like you as the leader top-down that's in every space every one of your you and your wife you and your kids you and your boss you and your employees you and your team you and your leaders we just had a a bunch of our friends come in town for the holidays and you know what like all of my friends come and I got all sorts of in Friends of different personalities and it was fun and it was full of stuff but man there was lots of Crucial Conversations that had to happen none of them were bad they could be awkward there was difficult moments but the what was produced out of talking directly to each other is a closer bond deeper unity and a better relationship failure produces improvement this is when teams united if we fail but yo that's another step in the ladder we getting better from that thank God I got to learn that thank god we failed because next time we won't make a million problems don't keep making the same freakin problem number ten problems get solved quickly eat problems for lunch eat problems for breakfast bring on problems I said it earlier it's like yo 5,000 people means 5,000 problems the futures more demanding than the past because it's gonna be six thousand people is six thousand problems I'm not backing away from it I'm excited about serving I'm excited about bringing a solution thank you last 10 signs of a uniting what about 10 signs of a divided to which was make it fun on a Saturday morale is low you can see it huh team rally everyone show her everyone's always tired oh man just tired she's tired who tired you know we have a value on our team stay fit don't bring in your tire itself but what don't don't come to church tired or just tired like that doesn't help anybody smiles are scarce work is a burden oh so much work so much my plate so what you want to do I just don't know father get so much work slow is the speed the conversations slow the ideas are slow the solutions slow I don't know I mean I don't know how we're gonna fix it I don't know it just always keeps happening like that and what happened was oh my gosh everyone shifts responsibility no but I told him a thousand times I keep telling him no I I but I told them not I know I agree I just I keep telling them you're not taking responsibility you're blaming somebody else the mission becomes tasks like dude do not let the mission become a task I don't care who you are what you're doing but this is one of the best parts of your life at whatever degree you are involved with this thing called the church not because it's foo but because it's Christ's body the Church of Jesus Christ I think it's actually the only thing worthy living for I don't care how much money you make all that money you make is actually attached to what we're doing here I don't care how much influence God gives you all of that influence is attached back to this thing we're doing here this is not a task this is a mission people talk about each other hello I just have so and so would do this then that everything would be fine and just no it's just like just a person who knows we never listen they never listen you never even talk to them how do you know if they don't listen failure creates an identity of defeat lowers the standards strips away the excellence failure should be fuel for you to get better but many times you just live in a state of failure and you don't actually evaluate it you don't actually change or pivot or do something new and what happens is that you create a team where the identity is simply defeat number 10 problems create more problems problems create more problems we shift the responsibility put it on somebody else problems just begin to escalate to begin to multiply they get bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger listen Paul is trying to get them to get unified but he's saying the only way that you love you the only way of unity his unity needs humility listen to what he says this is Philippians chapter 2 watch this verse 3 rather in humility value others above yourselves not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of others in your relationships with one another's have the same mindset as Christ Jesus what he's saying is I want you to be unified but the only way that you'll ever have unity is that unity needs unity has to have unity is sustained through humility so ok so what what does humility look like then well he's pretty clear he says you should value others more than you value yourself you should value other people more than you value yourself when I was a little kid in Sunday school there's to be this little sign on the door I never forgot his little acronym and that acronym was Joy G iris never see this anyone go to church like me and joy it was Jesus others you and it's actually something really beautiful about that a lot of people don't have any joy in their life because they've got the entire chart flipped upside down it's them it's their friends their family and then if they got time for Jesus but it's actually when you seek first the kingdom of God when you actually put Jesus in proper order when you say my life I've been saved to serve other people and if all look after Jesus and other people I'm gonna find fulfillment every step of the way I want to write this down because I mean this if you're not fighting for unity you're tolerating division because unity doesn't just happen you don't just become United you decide to live I'm not gonna live on accident I'm gonna live on purpose some of you that's the biggest thing you need to hear in 2020 is just quit living on accidents start living on purpose it's not about where you're at right now that's not your problem your problem is where are you headed just get your direction down right get some patience get some fortitude it's gonna be slow then fast with God but if we're not fighting for it I promise you were tolerating it it's gonna be about valuing other people what else does he say he says look to the interests above you in fact he says put other people's interests above your interests now you see in this I mean this is like something we have to think about this is church life right now I always say about church life like if you're gonna live in church if you mount a United team it's always submitting your preference over to God's purpose like I'm not looking for my ideas to be implemented I'm looking for the best ideas to be implemented you're hearing the roster system right now that agent in Dakota we're talking about and there's gonna be a there's gonna be a change and with change they'll be conflict and out of conflict they'll be growth but it's a big change it's not happening as Adrienne said tomorrow it's gonna happen in season two but a lot of this council did it come from immediately within but rather we have focus 4:12 who is an incredible group that's been coaching us and consulting with us and they were really saying hey where you're headed if you're really gonna go to three locations the way you're doing scheduling right now is that you guys are gonna find yourselves completely burned out and you're to be going week to week you have to change the culture and the culture is we don't need you to serve you need to serve huge difference big revelation so make a commitment and honor your commitment it's a twice a month commitment we have to change the culture around and what that requires that requires will go and ah this doesn't fit my preference but you know what it's about the purpose it's not about my interest it's about the interests of others listen we will never ever have unity if we do not have humility I got to go lower some of you feel like man there's not a lot of room for me here at vous Church I think there's so many great leaders man I'm trying to climb the ladder of leadership I just want to be recognized I want to be known listen to me maybe you don't thought there's a room at the top guess what there's always room there's always room at the bottom there's always play you're not gonna be rubbing shoulders with anybody there's plenty of room at the bottom to go lower the scripture says humble yourself before the Lord and he in due season will lift you up I want to become a leader you want to know if a leader is leading really simple check the people we can talk for days about what it looks like to have a healthy team you won't know if you if you're doing your job you want to know if you're creating humility on your team is there unity on your team how is the people doing how's the team doing that's an indication of how the leaders leading our church as it grows as it flourishes it's a direct result of how I'm leading our staff is it healthy is it United before I point fingers at the staff or before I point figures I got a point fingers at myself you wanted to know how you're doing check the people lastly today number one where we get it is gratitude creates humility I'm becoming a leader I want to lead from a place of gratitude secondly why do I need humility it's because unity needs humility you can't have unity without people going lower and saying okay we'll take your preference let's let's be about the purpose I don't care if it's blue or orange I just care what's gonna have the greatest impact I don't care if I have to gather in South Miami or together in North Miami I just want to have an impact I'm about the purpose takes humble people but lastly what will it take is obedience requires humility because watch here what happens flip IANS chapter to watch what the Apostle Paul is going to say Apostle Paul puts it this way in Philippians chapter 2 starting in verse 5 he says be humble in your relations with one another having the mindset as Christ Jesus who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage watch this rather he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself by what's the word by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross obedience usually leads to self-sacrifice and the idea of being a leader just so we are all clear today leadership is not about being popular leadership is not about being seen I don't want us to lead out of a trend that it's cool or that's the hot topic we lead out of the truth of what it looks like to lead being a leader means I'm choosing what's right and just think about it some of the best leaders who ever lived they were also some of the most hated people in their time let me just think about just history Ghandi I mean what he did in India is pretty impressive but it came with some major office Abraham Lincoln got rid of slavery they killed him we quote his speech four score and seven years ago we have no idea how unpopular he was with so many people Martin Luther King jr. we talked about him all the time and we love we admire him but he was hated by almost half the nation to the point that they assassinated him while he was simply speaking up to say I have a dream that we would be United and of course Jesus Christ the one who were talking about today the one who all of us in this room have raised our hands and say we want to be your apprentice we want to be your disciple we want to become like you we want to live the life that you lived we want to behave the way that you behaved we want your thoughts we want your ways and we're actually putting your thoughts in your ways and your truth over our truth over our feelings over our opinions and you will never be an obedient servant if you're not a humble servant because what I've learned about God over and over again is he will ask you to do things that you do not want to do he's gonna do it sometimes we get nervous about the future but truly this is just the truth your only responsibility is to simply obey obedience is your responsibility outcome is God's responsibility the older I get I don't want to be successful I want to be faithful and if faithful produces fruit and if faithful produces what man call success so be it but that is not the goal and that is not the objective the objective is is that I want to become a leader I want to become like Jesus if I'm gonna become like Jesus I have to humble myself like Jesus did and I have to recognize that obedience will require humility sometimes it can be so complicated like in relationships and my wife and I you know we've joke all the time it's like I'm always trying to figure out how to love this girl the way that she needs to be loved and you do we'll do 18 years in February together you leave that crazy and sometimes like me it's soaked I don't know what she wants you know the good news about Jesus the good news about God is that it's not confusing jesus said if you love me you will obey me what's the love language of God quality time acts of service gifts physical touch it's not against any of that stuff he would just say at the top of my list is your obedience and obedience doesn't always lead to popularity I don't know what 2020 will require out of us but I am certain it will require like never before a new form of self-sacrifice but I want to become a leader I want to be like Jesus if you're wondering where to get humility today just start listening out what you're grateful for we're gonna worship in a moment hopefully you worship from a place of gratitude as we come into church tomorrow hopefully that's your posture you don't have to wait for your song you can just go yo I'm allotted about 12 to 15 minutes right now to express my gratitude for the fact that he saved me and you watch as you start to worship Him and acknowledge the fact that you didn't bring yourself to this place but he was a part of it you're gonna find yourself being humbled you're gonna find yourself not thinking about yourself you're to find yourself going how can i play my part if you're wondering why it matters all you have to do is recall the fact that if we're gonna be united we have to be humble in unity is our superpower I'm telling you if this room gets United our church gets United and if our church gets United nothing is impossible 981 thousand dollars will sound like a joke a joke it'll be laughable we're look back when and last at that eleven thousand salt one day we look back as a team we did that in a year we did that in six months we did that in a month we did that in one gathering we had a United team humble but what is the cost the cost is your obedience the cost is answering the call personally I'm not here for popularity I'm not here to be recognized I'm here because I believe I'm called to be his disciple I'm obeying him over me and it's from that moment on the cross that Paul says as he laid down his life therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name and at that name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue acknowledged that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father his humility raised him up and brought him to a place that today every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord I want to become like Jesus in 2020 I want to become a leader

Channel: VOUS Church

Views: 21,718

Rating: 4.9726496 out of 5

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Id: CTpBZ5Ci4ug

Length: 44min 12sec (2652 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 30 2020