The Convictions of a Good Leader | Pastor Sheryl Brady

[Music] today i want to talk about uh i'm going back to the life of nehemiah and i want to talk about the convictions of a good leader the convictions of a good leader the convictions of a nehemiah a rebuilder a man of god and that's what we want to talk about today so i hope you got some pen paper notes iphones eyes something uh if you don't have an iphone just uh call the church and ask for bishop and he might buy you one let the lord use you [Laughter] no but seriously ain't nothing works better for me than a good old white piece of paper and a black sharpie okay that works for me it gets in my head and it gets in my spirit uh but today i want you to just take your paper out and let's be prepared to write some things down because what i'm teaching today is not just something that is going to be for today this is something i'm building upon i'm building up on the last sunday that i spoke and on the sunday before that i one of those sundays i talked about it's a reset season and then the sunday after that i talked about we're going to build back and we're going to build back better and this is not just it's i'm not preaching that just because uh it's something to preach it's it's prophetic it's the word of the lord to us it's the word of the lord to those that are under the sound of my voice and so we are going to um take one thing and one stone and laid upon another and we are going to rebuild some of the broken areas that have happened in our lives i i was watching uh all week the coverage of the condo collapse that was in florida i know you have seen that and i i know that you have been praying as well as i have been praying but yesterday morning i was listening and i was watching the television and it said that there's a news conference that is that is coming on shortly and i heard the lord say to me get a notebook and get a pen and take notes so i got a notebook and a pin and i started taking notes from the news conference and as i began to take i took like about a page and a half of notes i have never done that in my life i've never just saw a a news conference on tv and started taking notes but that's what the lord said to me and i began to write things that they were saying and uh they were saying that in the search and rescue process that there had been a hindrance and it wasn't just by the debris that was falling that is obvious to see but it was also coming from things that we couldn't see it was coming from a fire it was coming from a deep deep rooted fire that was in the building and they couldn't seem to find the source of where the danger was coming from they couldn't seem to find the source of where the fire was coming from and then uh they had they were having torrential rains they said lightning and thunder and and the wind and the smoke that was coming from the fire it was all making it was making the whole rescue and recovery process very painstakingly slow someone even used these words and they said uh that the building had been built on shifting sand how many of you know you got to build your house on the rock let me tell you i said you got to build your house now we can look at it in the natural and and just see the the devastation there but i want you to apply that to your life spiritually if your house is built on shipping sand there is no way that it can remain stable so we have to build our house upon the rock the bible says that we are wise if we build our house upon the rock one of the volunteers said that uh so it what has been so disheartening to him was that he he saw so many people that had gathered together to help people you know people had opened up their bowels of compassion they came to to rescue and help and do whatever had to be done to get the people to safety and he said what had been so disheartening for him was that there was so many that came to help but they haven't find been able to find anybody that they could help they talked about um the the numbers of those who were unaccounted for uh and the numbers seem to not be changing very quickly that they because they couldn't seem to find the rubble was so much that they couldn't seem to find anybody one of the city officials said there are no signs of life there was maybe the first day some knocking but he said there are no signs of life but the families and the victims the families of the victims they are all holding out hope and he called for people across america and around the world to please pray now whenever the world and the leaders of the world start calling out for us to pray now it's one thing for me to pick up the phone and call uh call prophetess callaway and say i need you to pray for me but when the world says pray that tells you how desperate they are for answers and he was saying we we need you i don't know how many times i've heard terms like pray pray we are still believing we have hope we we are expecting a miracle i can't how many tell you how many times i've heard them use that terminology that is our terminology that is that is what we as the church use but now the world is using it and they're there you know and i don't know who everybody's praying to but at least i do know that everybody is realizing that they need somebody bigger than themselves to help fix the problem that they are in they said there's no real signs of hope and those real signs of life is what they said but they asked us to please keep hope alive because hope was what was driving those workers to fight and to find and to free hope was what was driving them to get in there and put themselves in harm's way to relieve the other people who might be victims in this disaster and as they interviewed one particular family one brother and one sister who was missing their mother that interview just stood out to me because when they asked the the the interviewer said how are you all doing this the son spoke up and he said i've never seen pain like this in my family's eyes never in my life have i seen pain like this he started to cry and he said my heart is shattered this man was a doctor himself he said my heart is shattered he said what i want to know is who was driving the ship who was driving the ship who was that leader who was that leader who didn't make the decision to keep my mother safe [Music] who was that he asked those questions because somebody had released a report that said in 2018 that they had been warned that there was structural damage and that they had detected structural damage that they needed to get to in a timely manner who who was that leader those words reigned throughout my head all day long who was that leader that that the construction people or those who were were giving the report who did they give it to and who did they hand it off to and whose hands did they put it in that kind of just put it in file 13 or kind of just laid it over here and now as a result we have a we have a we have a whole entire part of that city that is lying in ruins and lives are on the line there are huge lessons in leadership to be learned out of this horrific event that happened in surfside florida and as i look at the images and as i look at the hundreds of people that are crying you can tell that their their eyes are glazed over they're searching they're putting up pictures they're saying this is what my daughter looks like this is what my mother looks like if you get them on a microphone you can hear the pain in their voice as if enduring a pandemic was not enough for the last 15 months now they're dealing with all of this and i couldn't help but as i was watching and hearing i could not help but go back to the story of me nehemiah that i spoke about a couple sundays ago or maybe a couple sundays ago about how he was building back and he was going to build that better and i told you uh back then that nehemiah was one of the greatest leaders of all time this is a scripture i want you to write down the big clause of proverbs 28 and 2 in the good news bible says a nation will be strong and endure when it has intelligent sensible leaders a nation will be strong if you have that kind of bible writing right in your bible circle that they will be strong and they will endure they will be strong people will be strong and they will endure when they have intelligent and sensible leaders the living bible says it like this when there is moral rock within a nation its government topples easily but with honest sensible leaders there is stability somebody holler stability that is what we need we need stability and and the principle in this scripture right here it does not just apply to our country or to our nation you can take that principle in that verse and you can apply it to your home if you are honest and you you are a sensible leader then you can have stability if your life is shaking if your life is going crazy god said in his word if you will be honest and you will be sensible if you'll be sensible and honest then you will have security it can be applied to your family it can be applied to your businesses if you are a business person if you are an entrepreneur and you're saying my business has been shaken and it seems unstable and i don't know where to go you need to memorize this verse and you need to take it to the lord and say god help me to always be honest and be a sensible leader so that i can have stability in my business in my dreams we need stability our nation needs stability like it has never needed it before after a year of coving after a year of the loss of life after the loss of jobs after the loss of houses in all of the rapid changes that we have had to go through one minute you need a match the next minute you don't one minute uh you should do this the next minute you should do that in in the midst of all the up evils that our life uh evils that our life has went through we need stability somebody holler out i need stability do you really say it like you mean that i need stability and stability comes from good leadership leadership that is honest and leadership that is sensible and that is what nehemiah brought to the lives of the jewish community if you ever wanted to study about leadership you really should just go home and read nehemiah's story we didn't he we don't hear a lot i didn't hear a lot preached about nehemiah only thing i really knew about nehemiah but was that he they say he was the shortest man that ever lived because he was knee-high maya knee high maya and so that people just always made a joke of that but nehemiah's story i will beg to to say that his story is one of the greatest stories of leadership i have ever seen in my life he gives us nuggets and he gives us principles and he gives us strategy regarding leadership you cannot read the book of nehemiah and and have an excuse when it comes to being a leader i i believe if you study his life i believe if you study his book that you are going to understand why it should be important to you that you are a good leader it should be important to you this is not just something that god has called me to do every person under the sound of my voice today is a leader and also every movement always needs a leader i don't care if you google all of the latest movements or if you if you google movements and their leader you will find out that every major movement had a leader things began to change in the civil rights when a man by the name of martin luther king stood up and declared i have a dream there was a leader that rose to the occasion the nasa space program began to expand dramatically under the leadership of john f kennedy this church was established because a man had a vision by the name of bishop t.d jakes and he said launch a campus bring the bradys in loan them your influence that's what he did and thus we have the potter's house of north dallas that has a beautiful parking lot by the way none of this would be here had there not been leadership that established it nothing happens church until steps up and becomes a leader you can want stuff all day long but at some point you got to step up and say i will take the charge nothing is going to happen until somebody who is a leader says i'll take the wheel i'll take the responsibility i am going to be the one that gets up under the weight of this i'm going to see this come to pass i'm going to get up under the burden i'm going to begin to champion i'm going to chair i'm going to manage i'm going to bring see this need and do something about it you when when that when a leader says oh okay i see a need and i'm not going to stop until that need gets met that my friend is leadership and everything in your life rises and falls on your leadership most problems can be traced to the lack of competent leadership i said most problems can be traced to the lack of competent leadership one of the greatest problems that we face today is a leadership shortage i said we are facing a leadership shortage one of the greatest needs that we are facing today is having trained leaders ready to go leaders that you can point to and say now get into place and do what you've been training to do now get into place and go where you've been training to go i want to ask you as a part of the potter's house of north dallas first of all i want to tell you god has been training you for years time out for you to sit here and to say oh i'm just getting mine i gotta have mine today no you should have already gotten yours if this ain't just about you today there ought to be other people that i'm preaching to who you who are where you used to be and you should not be where you used to be you should be in a whole brand new place because to whom much is given much is required and if you're going to have a movement of god a movement has to have a leader that is assigned to it in the book of judges you will see where people in the book of judges people were always uh going in cycles they were up one minute and down the next and up one minute and down the nixon up one minute and down the next and and i began to understand why when when you read the last verse of the last chapter judges 21 and 25 the bible says in those days there was no king in israel and every man there was no leader in israel so every man did what was right in their own eyes every man just did their own thing every man was just their own leader and where there is no leader people will do their own thing and when everybody is doing their own thing guess what you have you have in stability and if i had to summarize leadership in one word it would be influence somebody say influence and i mean that that that there's a good influence and there's a bad influence okay there's a positive leader that that's a leader that has good influence but then there's a negative leader and that negative leader has bad influence have you ever watched a group of kids that that got together and you ain't got to watch them for long but soon pretty soon as you're watching them you're going to find out who is the leader in the midst of the pack because the leader always rises to the surface why because they have influence in their life your influence in the lives of others it speaks to your level of leadership into the lives of others and let me tell you something it's not about your age it's not about your age so you got to get over your age you cannot be to the point where you say i am oh i'm just young and nobody's listening to me because let me show you that that's wrong uh i'm going to go to first timothy 4 and i'm going to read you a couple verses of scripture first timothy 4 verse 11. this is what paul told timothy he said teach these things and insist that everyone learn them don't let anyone think less of you because you are young don't let let me tell you something do i have any teenagers watching me don't let anybody think less of you because you are young be an example to all believers in what you say what you say it needs to be an example if you what you're saying is not a good thing you are not saying because what you're becoming you you have influence so you're moving from being a good leader to being a bad leader so you have to be careful we used to say that when you're little be careful little mouth what you say be careful be an example to all believers in what you say be an example to all believers in the way that you live the way i'm sorry to tell you this uh but but uh because it's old-fashioned and some people don't like it but the way in which you live still matters to god oh y'all ain't gonna help me i said the way in which you live still matters to god that's why there's got to be some discipline in our life i can't go where i want to go i can't say what i want to say i can't just live with who i want to live with i can't just shack up with who i want to shack up with i can't just have an affair with who i want to have an affair with i can't just do those i can't just dress any old kind of way all week long and come into the sanctuary looking all holy on sunday because i'm gonna tell you you will have no influence [Applause] y'all don't like me but i'm i'm okay we're back we're back we're back [Applause] be an example in a way and with what you say in the way that you live in in in your own love don't be saying you love everybody but you're so impatient with everybody be an example in the way that you love be an example with your faith that's why sometimes you've got to go through the fire and come out without the smell of smoke you've got to go through not just for you but because god has somebody who's watching you and you got to go through it and not lose your mind in the middle of it and just say lord i trust you that you're going to bring me out that if i'm in the flood you're gonna be swimming right there along the side me you have to trust that sometimes what you go through is not even about you it is about who god has assigned to look at your life and trust me somebody is watching your life [Applause] he said live in an example with your faith live and be an example in your purity purity means purity i said purity means purity not just purity on sunday between 9 and 11 30. purity pure hearts pure motives pure desires you're not wanting it your own way you're not seeking your own love seeks not its own love cares about everybody else purity so somebody shout purity matters [Applause] never forget that it matters to god he said be this example and until i get there focus on reading the scriptures to the church don't just read what's off of the press don't just read what you learned out of the latest book written by a secular office author he said read the scriptures the scriptures matter to god church i said the scriptures matter to god read the scriptures to the church encouraging the believers don't discourage believers how many believers have you encouraged this week or have you discouraged every one of them with all of the myths like i talked about a couple weeks ago with with with tobiah and sam ballard have you been a discouragement to the body of christ have you been a discouragement or have you given words of encouragement encourage the believers and teach them do not neglect the spiritual gift that you received through the prophecy that was spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you all of our fights some students i don't know where you are if you're here today if they made it back but if you're here i want to challenge you don't forget what happened for you when the leaders laid their hands on you something came on you that was beyond you i said something came on you that was beyond you it was a calling it was an anointing it was an assignment don't take that and run without purity don't take that and run with discouragement speak life run with your gift but never forget hands were laid on you don't neglect the spiritual gift that you received to the prophecy spoken over you when the elders of the church laid their hands on you give your complete attention to these matters not part of your attention i don't know who i'm stirring up today but i want somebody to know god has a word for you in this house today give your complete attention to these matters throw yourself into your tasks so that everyone will see your progress keep a close watch on how you live and on your teaching stay true to what is right and for the sake of your own salvation and the salvation of those who hear you i read all of that simply because i wanted to tell you that paul told timothy listen this ain't about your age and i'm telling somebody in this room today it's not about your age you're not too old to remember what god has said about you you're not too old to remember that god has given you life for a reason you're not too young to say hey i heard god speak to me read the word and hear it over and over again your influence is vital but i will also tell you that your influence is fragile i said your influence is fragile because i can hear you and not hear you i can follow you and not really follow you you can be the best singer that we've ever heard in our lives you can be the best preacher that we've ever heard in our lives but if you have lost your ability to influence me i don't care how loud the crowd is clapping i don't care i don't care how loud they're clapping for you because of how good your gift to sing is or your gift to preach is or or or your gift to be a parent for that matter if you're not influencing me you are not really leading me because anytime you influence somebody that's when you are a real leader and everybody in this room everybody under the sound of my voice has to understand that god has given you the gift of leadership he put it in adam and he said take dominion take leadership it's in every last one of us and one day we will have to give an account to god for the leader that we chose not to take serious that's within us so the question is not are you a leader the question is whether or not you're a good one let me say it again the question is not whether you're a leader but the question is are you a good one you are a leader in your family some of you are leaders on your job some of you are leaders at school some of you are leaders in the marketplace some of you are leaders in the boardroom some of you are leaders in the meeting areas and my question to you today is it's not just whether you are a leader you are people are attracted to you when when they have to make decisions they care to know what you think they want to know how you're processing it because you are a leader but my question to you today is are you good at it are you good at it are you good at being a leader and if you're not you need to do what you got to do to become a better leader somebody said god make me a better leader our world needs leadership we need people in this church that are running for office we need people in this church that are running for congress we need people in this church that are running for city council we need people in this church that are running from mayors we need people in this church who are good leaders to get into the system and start infiltrating it with good leadership good biblical leadership comes with a god-given ability but it also comes with a god-given responsibility it's the responsibility to influence god's people to accomplish god's purpose for their lives nehemiah is an outstanding biblical leader he influenced people and when he influenced them they followed him if nobody is following you you are another leader you are taking a walk that's what john maxwell says if you look over your shoulder and don't see anybody you're not a leader if you fail at being influential in people's lives guess what you're not you're not a good leader and you can have all the titles in the world that you want but without influence you are not a good leader see this is the mistake that a lot of bureaucracies make it's the mistake that a a lot of big people let's say it like that when big titles make you can think all day long that your big title means you are a big leader but i'm going to tell you something if people are not following you you are all you got is a big title people will automatically follow you uh uh when when they when you have influence over them they're i'm talking about true influence and there is that there is a complete difference between having a boss and having a leader i will say that again there's a big difference between having a boss and having a leader listen a lot of people have authority but they don't have leadership you can have authority but that doesn't make you have leadership i learned that growing up in the church i've seen a lot of churches elect a leader to stand up behind the pulpit and bring the word of god but everybody knows that the guy that has the real authority is brother so-and-so sitting over there on the front row why because he's the one that has the influence he is the one that is the real leader because he is the one that sets the he is the real pace setter and if you constantly and let me just say this for somebody if you constantly have to tell people that you're the leader if you constantly have to remind people that you are the leader guess what you are not the leader i'm preaching in here today if you have to use your title to manipulate people to get things done because you've lost the ability to influence them to get things done then you are not a good leader you might be a good manipulator but you're not a good leader [Applause] leadership is about influence and if you are not influencing anybody it doesn't matter whether you think you're the leader or not you're not i said you're not the same is true in your home sir when you say to your wife we are going to do it this way because i am the spiritual head and you're not you just lost where are my sisters at don't y'all dare leave me out here like that i said you just lost you're throwing around what you think is your title but you lost lord help me here's why i say that my husband never ever ever i don't believe in our lives just said to me you are going to do this because i am the spiritual head he is the head he is the bishop he is all that and a bag of chips he is a leader but i'm going to tell you he never once said to me you're doing this because i'm the spiritual head and you are not never did he do that [Applause] because the minute he had done that we'd had a problem up in here [Applause] some of you wonder why you have a problem in your marriage could it be because you're trying to throw a title around let me tell you the harder thing than throwing the title around is finding a balance it's by taking your wife and saying baby let me help you understand let me tell you why i'm saying this let me show you what i'm seeing and you don't stop just cause you get tired of saying it you keep showing her you keep putting it in her face until she can see it and when you pray and you say god i need if this is you help her to see this and if it's not you help me to see that i am wrong because there is nothing more powerful than coming to an agreement on an issue it's not about throwing your title it's about coming to agreement and that takes work but i dare you to put the work in [Applause] cause the minute you just do it she might do it with you she might hear you but tell me she's hearing you can i tell you it's the same principle with your children the child says why and we've all been guilty of this that's parents because i told you to do it and that is why anybody ever said that to your kids we've all done that but that is a very weak position to try to motivate them that's very weak you knew you need to do to your child just like i said that a husband needs to do to a wife pull them to the side and say here's why here's why you can't just run out in the street because you're going to be hit by a car it's going to hurt you it might even take you away from me that's why you can't do it in baby i'm in your life to protect you and i want to keep you safe god gave me to you and you to me so that i could keep you safe and also if you'll be obedient god will bless you you might not understand that right now you're only 10 but if you'll be obedient i promise you there is a blessing that will come on your life and what other people have to work hard for it will be like putting a hot knife through butter for you because you are obedient it's not about you just yanking them by the arm and making them take a moment and explain to them and why is that important because when they grow up and leave your sight you have taught them how to process things you have taught them how to lead you have taught them how to think about issues and when they have to make decisions over your life you are not so scared because you taught them how to think you preaching in here pastor brady the test of real leadership and i'm almost done is having somebody that is following you and and you got to remember you can't force people to follow you i don't care what you do you cannot force people to follow you follow you so the test of good leadership is number one do you have anybody following you but the foundation of good leadership is character and it is not charisma i said it's character and not charisma you know there's a whole lot of television evangelists that have all kinds of charac of charisma oh they just look the part you know and they draw you in but when you get too close you find out that there's no character they are like it's like a a mirage there's no real character and i ain't just talking about television bridges i'm just talking about in every field everywhere a lot of people have charisma but they do not have character and you know the church has had that so twisted up guys i said we've had that so twisted up and my prayer is that through this pandemic we have learned how to grow up to the point that we stop promoting people because they look the part and we stop clapping for people because they're cute and they can sing and they could hit that note and oh they can preach you into some kind of crazy quit clapping for people that can leave you tossed to and fro by every wind and doctrine if they don't have character it doesn't matter how much charisma that they have let's wake up and let's grow up and let's be the church and quit falling for craziness y'all ain't gonna help me but i'll preach it till hell freezes over charisma is not a leadership qualification but i'll tell you some character and credibility are i said character and credibility are and you might have made some mistakes in your life but don't you allow the enemy to try to stop you from being a leader because of it just wipe that thing out and say yeah lord i made a mistake but i am not a mistake yeah i got in a bad situation and that happened to my name but i refuse to live like that i am going to come out of that why because the world needs stability and i survive the pandemic and there is something that god wants me to do leadership is about influence and if you don't have credibility people are not going to follow you i love what deal moody said character is what you are in the dark when nobody is looking at you when paul listen when paul laid out the characteristics for the church for church leadership in 1st timothy 3 1-13 just write that down first timothy 1 3-13 not once did he mention that you had to have a seminary education to be a church leader now listen i have nothing against lord have mercy against that kind of of of an education i wish to god that i had it when bishop jakes called me and said i want you to be the pastor of the pilot's house north i said wait a minute wait do you really know me do you know why i quit school when i was a kid do you know i have no seminary experience he said let me tell you something he said when you stand by people and they're lowering the bodies of their loved ones in the ground and they want to climb in the ground with them they don't need your seminary education they need your comfort they need to know that you are feeling what they are feeling they need to know that you're there for them and no education can help you feel what people feel that is a gift from god i'm not talking about anybody that's kind of education i love it i love it i love it but also let me tell you something else it's not about your personality either because god i don't well i'm i'm a reserved personality i'm just kind of shy well i'm outgoing well well i'm quiet you know all of those four different categories sanguine and all of those things you know i can't pronounce them all right now because i told you i don't have that kind of education but i looked do you know god used abraham god used moses god used paul and god used peter and all four of them are as different as night is from day but he used them you do not have to have an outgoing personality to be a leader but you do have to have character look at somebody next to you and ask them do you have character if they said yes tell them god wants to use you in my closing let me tell you this nehevia was a very ordinary man but he did total extraordinary things because he had character i'm not sure who i'm talking to today but god damn will repeat it again god did not allow you to survive the last 15 months for absolutely nothing you could have physically been sick and died do you know how many people have gotten mentally sick and died do you know how many people are emotionally sick maybe they're not died but everything in them has died you could have died on so many levels your faith could have died your desire could have died your passion couldn't die but there is a reason that you are here and that reason is because god has something for you to do say this after me god has something for me to do can i tell you there is something that god has assigned to your care there is something that god has put into your hands you are chosen by god i don't care how unchosen you feel today god said to tell you i had to tell you that you are chosen by him you are a stabilizer that doesn't mean your world will be stable every day but you have a gift in you you have a god in you you have a seed in you that enables you to stand up and speak to the storm whether it's in your life or somebody else's life and say peace be still you are a stabilizer somebody say i am a stabilizer somebody say i am an influencer and god has chosen me to be his leader does anybody believe that clap your hands listen you have been asking god for years to use you you have been telling him yes yes you've been telling him that for a long time you said lord if you can use anything take my hands take my feet touch my heart speak through me but guess what guess what nehemiah i'm ready to use you but pastor i'm so empty that's a good thing [Music] because god does miracles with empty things i said he does miracles i don't know what i have best i feel i've been through so much it's okay being empty is not a bad thing because god gets inside of you and he pulls up things you didn't even know you still had he ties them together puts a bow on him and says now watch now watch me do it in your life and i did it like this for a reason because wherever i take you and whatever i do in you and with you you will never try to take my glory because you know that without me you would not be here [Music] there's a city there's a community there's a man there's a woman there's a boy there's a girl there's somebody on your job there's somebody in your church there's somebody in your family there's possibly somebody in your very own house whose world has crumbled around them you might not know it because they're good at covering it up so you got to have what nehemiah had why did god choose nehemiah what that really means is why did he choose me he chose nehemiah and he chose you because here's something about nehemiah it's a characteristic that he had and all of you should have this if you know jesus you should have this nehemiah was sensitive to the needs of others and we living in such a selfish world if if if you are in a lane i want to be and you won't get out of my way i will shoot you lord what in the world i will fight you if it's the last can of green beans in the store i'm and i want them we're insensitive we know nothing about self-awareness we're insensitive and we don't even take time to find out that we're insensitive he was sensitive to everybody around him let me give you just a minute of history i promise i'm gonna close i gotta close there's another service that's gonna start the jewish nation had been conquered and its citizens were carried off into exile they had been enslaved they had been mistreated they had been abused they had been misused they had been carried away in exile when the political winds began to blow there was a shift and the babylon imp babylonian empire fell the king at that time was named cyrus and cyrus released them to return to rebuild and to resettle back in their homeland but when they got back to their homeland they discovered not only had their lives been shattered but their whole homeland had been shattered their city had been shadowed and so now their home but home doesn't feel like home anymore because of everything they've been through and they on top of that they don't have what it takes to rebuild their lives can i tell you today there is an entire world at your feet that does not have what it takes to rebuild their life we are struggling ourselves and we have jesus how much more are people struggling not only do they not have the strength they don't have the passion they don't even have the willpower because i have seen it a million times there is a fight that will knock the fight right out of you you can go through much so much that you stop and say okay that's it that's it i give in i cannot take it anymore because there is a blow that says okay lord that's it i am done i'm tired now god anybody ever been there i'm tired tired so they're back at their homeland they're back in jerusalem but they can't seem to summon someone up enough strength or enough resources and if that's not enough they got enemies that are mocking them and laughing at them however the one great thing that they had going for them was that they were the children of god and god made promises to his children and he is not a man that he should lie and should he ever make a promise to you rest assured that he is going to bring it to pass and because of the disadvantage that these people were living in god said i'm getting ready to send you some help you're out of resources you're exhausted you're tired but i'm sending some help your way look at somebody around you and tell them help us on the way help is on the way i don't know who we're talking to today but god wants you to know that there is a nehemiah somewhere that is about to come into your life and bring help and nehemiah had to help them because he loved the jewish community he was kin to them this was the land of their forefathers and when he heard their dilemma it broke his heart nehemiah his reaction to their news and the pain they were living in listen it was pretty incredible because nehemiah had made it he was at the very peak of his career he had the second best position in all of the land he had a real salary and he sure did not have to rock the boat but when he heard how god's people were hurting when he heard how broken they were when he heard how depressed they were when he heard how discouraged and defeated they were when he heard about the ruins that they were lying in he took it seriously look at somebody and tell him you better take this thing seriously and he chose not to become isolated and insulated by all of his good life so that he couldn't get to the point where he could feel the pain of the other people he knew this is what he chose to do he chose to come and rise to the occasion because here's why he knew that god cared about the fact that the wall had been destroyed in jerusalem he made a decision to rise to the occasion because he knew god cared about them his heart was broken because he knew god's heart was broken and the first step of being a great leader is to be moved by the feelings of people's infirmities for most of the people like today it would have been out of sight out of mine but not for nehemiah nehemiah started asking questions he started inquiring he cared about what they said he cared about their answers the bible said the first thing he did in nehemiah 1-4 when he heard their story he said i sat down and i wept why because he knew what it was like to be moved by the needs of others they were impoverished they were broken they were in a mess their faith was shattered their life was shattered but god used him and i'm gonna tell you today it's time for us to get into a place where god can use us here's how number one by being sensitive to the needs of others do you care enough to care will you look at somebody and ask them do you care enough to care well i don't have a lot pastor yes you do you know somebody would give anything to have what you have you may not have what other people have but you have what you have and little becomes much when god is in it i said little becomes much the second reason that god chose nehemiah was he was dependable he had a proven track record the king that he worked for considered him to be trustworthy so trustworthy that he gave him the most uh the most reliable position in the kingdom which was a cup bearing a cup bearer was a combination of prime minister bodyguard security and assistant to the king and the reason he was called a cupbearer is because it was his job to taste the wine before the before the king tasted it so that if there was poison in it it wouldn't kill the king but it would kill him i'll tell you something that's a dangerous job but it was his and he owned it the point i'm making is nehemiah was loyal and trustworthy and he was dependable here's the last one the third reason that god chose him and the third reason he chooses you is because he was available he was sensitive to people he was dependable and he was available and when the situation needed a leader you know what he said here am i yeah send me i'll volunteer i'll leave my comfort zone he has the job that everybody wants and even though the problem is a thousand miles away and even though it's going to take him two months to get there riding through the desert on a camel he said i'll go i'm a cupbearer though i'm not a contractor but i'll go and i'll rebuild the wall i don't have the skill set but i'll give you what i got because i'm sensitive and i'm dependable and i am available that is what god is looking for today he is not looking for your degree he is not looking for the letters behind your name he is looking he's not even looking for your ability god is not looking for that he's looking for credibility dependability and availability because those three things are a matter of choice and if you've got them it's because you choose to have them [Music]

Channel: Sheryl Brady

Views: 4,933

Rating: 4.9766083 out of 5

Keywords: Pastor Sheryl Brady, Sheryl Brady, The Potter's House of North Dallas

Id: Ssm-iAv9QqI

Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 27 2021