What We Learn About Leadership From Jesus [Patrick Morley]

[Music] well good morning men please turn in your Bibles to mark chapter 9 verse 33 and as we get going this morning let's do a shout out we have a group we want to welcome this morning new life men and they are a group of men they meet on Saturdays at 8:00 a.m. at their church quote we are struggling men who desire to grow in Christ and help each other along our journey they're led by Douglas Finn the part of New Life Christian Church and Hudson New Hampshire I think this might be the first shout out we've done in New Hampshire at an event I wonder if you would join me in giving a warm and arousing welcome to New Life men here 1 2 3 welcome guys were so honored and pleased to have you with us so we are in this series the journey to biblical manhood we're beginning the 11th challenge this morning on a leadership and the title well if the faith and life objectives are on your table we'll be looking at basically the leadership principles from a biblical perspective this morning the headpiece and you can look at the other faiths on life objectives the message today is titled what we learned about leadership from from Jesus Napoleon said give me the lucky generals in other words when he looked at all of his generals some of them had really outstanding results and others who looked on paper like that or really be outstanding generals didn't necessarily do so well and so there there was something going on beyond what was on the surface of things we're going to look at things like that in this series there is a book called Bass & Staz Dill's handbook of leadership I have the third edition the fourth edition is but it costs a hundred bucks I don't know I'm happy with my third edition and it's basically these guys and this goes back for decades they've been doing this book and they have read the entire literature on leadership every study that's ever been done on leadership they have and of course the study of leadership formally is only about a hundred years old anyway but all of that is in here and there's just a little something in here I thought right at the beginning that might be interesting to read because one of the one of the most important things that I'm not going to be able to communicate anything to you about leadership this morning until you are able to agree with this statement that you are a leader now my experience is that most men do not feel comfortable being called a leader but I'm going to show you that you are in fact a leader and I'm going to give you permission to consider yourself a leader this morning but I'm going to have to persuade you and that you are one first in other words I'm gonna have to lead you to agree that you are a leader but I want to start by reading something from this book because I think it'll be helpful despite the skepticism about the reality and importance of leadership all social and political movements required leaders to begin them they cover all different kinds of leadership but so don't get stuck on the idea of social and political movements a leaderless movement is naturally out of the question this does not mean that formal institutionalized leadership this does not mean that formal institutionalized leadership is required in fact no leader in an institutional form appeared in numerous peasant result revolts from the 16th to the 19th shree in southern Germany the same was true for journeyman's strikes during the 18th century and then he goes on to talk about many other things like that and then it goes on to say indeed leadership is often regarded as the single most critical factor in the success or failure of institutions actually there's so many things in here just just in the first few pages that are so intriguing and interesting so the starting point is for us is that our leader is Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ if you are a disciple of his makes you his leader you are a leader if you are a disciple of Jesus now you might say well you know my gift is service and if your gift is service that's wonderful but that doesn't mean that you're not a leader to say that you're not a leader would be to say like someone with the gift of evangelism not with let's just say somebody has the gift of evangelism and you don't have the gift of evangelism it would be like to say well I have no responsibility to evangelize because I don't have the gift of evangelism so you may not have the gift there is a spiritual gift of leadership Romans chapter 12 verse 8 there is a spiritual gift of leadership some of you might have that gift of leadership by the way how many of you just raise your hands do have the gift of leadership raise your hands so Wow gosh that's incredible so well many of you do this by the way doesn't doesn't surprise me this has always been a leadership Bible study anyway but even if you don't have the gift of leadership you do have the responsibility of leadership in the same way that if you don't have the gift of evangelism you still have the responsibility of evangelism so with that said those of you who do not have the gift of leadership how many of you understand that you have and accept that you have the responsibility of leadership would you raise your hands all right so you understand that you are a leader but yet even so many men do not find it comfortable when people refer to them as leader I know this is true because this is my own personal experience so I have always been a leader I've always actually looking back on it I've always been a leader of leaders but you may find it interesting that I never felt comfortable being referred to as a leader till I was way into my 40s so I was a leader in high school I was a leader in the army I was a leader in college I've been a leader in business I've been a leader in the community I've been a leader in church I've been a leader in my businesses I've been a leader here I've been I've been a leader everywhere I've ever been but it was like when people would say well you know compliment me or something or refer to me as a leader I just always feel so uncomfortable with that and it was a good 25 years into my adult life till one day I just said you know maybe I am maybe I maybe I actually am a leader so one of the things that I want to make very sure is that if you have any discomfort being thought of as a leader that you will walk out of here today understanding that it doesn't make any difference if you even if you don't have anybody following you I'm going to show you how you still are a leader if you are well you're a leader even if you're not a disciple Jesus Christ as a human being because it's just so important to the whole structure of what it means to be a human being so to be a leader in the dictionary would be mean someone to to lead means to show the way Tooley means to show the way to lead means to influence I think that might be the word that some of you are John Maxwell fans I think that he refers to leadership as influence that's one of the one of the dictionary definitions or it means to to guide so to lead is to guide to it's to influence is to show the way let me give you some examples I just saw it just leadership is just so fundamental and so organic to the human experience that you can easily overlook some of these things number one a father who teaches his children right from wrong that's showing the way that's leadership so if you are a parent you are by inherently by nature you are a leader a leader letting someone pull into the main traffic off of a side road if you do that you are a leader because you are showing the way you are influencing there are there other people around you who are observing what your your example and so forth and say oh look what that guy just did he lets somebody pull into the traffic maybe that's something I should do a way of changing the behavior of others see how it just it's everywhere and so then doing your work with excellence to do your work with excellence to set that example to show the way another way that you can be a leader even if you don't have anybody working for you if you do you work with excellence you are influencing other people the exercise of as a disciple the exercise of your spiritual gifts as a way you can be a leader to pray for people when you invite the the Holy Spirit of God to invade the circumstances of another person you're asking the Holy Spirit to influence you're asking to influence to change the way to guide that person and so that's a that's a form of Prayer is a form of leadership see I'm trying to airbrush out the the hard lines of formal of defining leadership is something formal and structured to share your faith with another person when you share your faith with another person what are you what are you doing you're leading that person we actually use the words you know we we let somebody to Jesus or we try to lead somebody to Christ when we share our faith were we're seeking to influence and that's an act of leadership to bring a guest here on Friday morning is an act of leadership because you're showing them the way are seeking to show them the way when you meet with a man for lunch who is struggling and listen to his story and ask him question you don't even have to say anything but you just ask him questions and those questions though are coming out of the wisdom that God has given you and your experience and those questions guide the conversation in other words show him the way do you see how that's an active leadership or it could be more formal it could be that you become an elder or a deacon and go through some formal leadership process or you have a position in a business where you actually have people working for you or you're an elected official or some sort of appointed administrative official where you actually have formal leadership that's certainly possible but basically anytime you offer your opinion about what ought to be done you are influencing the conversation and showing the way and so that is an act of leadership so what I hope you uuugh by the way this wasn't the first thought off the top of my head at the beginning of the week when I started thinking about this but just as I got deeper into it I do realized during the week that that leadership is intrinsic in what it means to be human being everybody's leading everybody children are leading parents unfortunately hey I even thought about this you're leading when you're backseat driving I mean leadership is everywhere and it's just part of who you are and so the title of the talk what we learn about leadership from Jesus I want to give you the big idea today and then we're gonna dive into this a little bit through the scriptures everything I need to know about leadership I can learn by staring at Jesus everything I need to know about leadership I can learn by staring at Jesus now why did I pick the word steering well just to make you think about this and a little bit of a different way because I'm trying to lead you I'm trying to influence you so I could have put everything I need to know about leadership I can learn by studying Jesus the life of Jesus right well that's what everybody says but I'm trying to influence you so I tried to pick a word that would make you go a little aha something like that [Music] everything I need to know about leadership I can learn by looking at the life of Jesus so let's look at the leadership style of Jesus we're going to so so I have a PhD in leadership and organizational change and it's interesting because I find leadership the most difficult topic to talk about of all the topics I ever talk about that's a little weird and but I tell you why it's true it's because of what my dissertation chair said Jim Bowman he's a political anyway he's professor at Florida State and so he he said when he ripped me he said you got to stop talking about all of these quote glittering generalities because so much of the writings and discussion to talk about leadership is all these glittering generalities that don't don't really get you down into the specific things and so it would be so easy to talk to you about the glittering generalities of leadership but but what we're going to do instead we're going to burrow down into kind of like one strand of the principles that Jesus puts forth now I'm going to go ahead and alert you that the third circle is entitled three principles to remember and on your questions question number two is what are the three principles to remember from today's scriptures but we're going to do a little twist from a learning theory perspective today I'm not going to tell you what those three principles are you're going to come up with them for yourselves so as we read these scriptures what I want to ask you is - what are the principles that really resonate with you about these scriptures and then you write them down and you're going to come up with the three points that you want to remember from these scriptures okay so oh oh I can't just sit back and Pat's gonna tell me today no that's exactly right you're gonna tell yourself so let's take a look we're gonna start as I said at mark chapter 9 verse 33 and we're going to look at four passages that really burrow down drill down not on a glittering generality but a very important part of leadership and it is the it is the thing that is I think the most distinctive of all the things we learn about leadership from Jesus and it's this this idea of how he looks at leadership from a very counterculture perspective so mark chapter 9 verse 33 so he has just healed a young boy who was being having convulsions he couldn't talk and he was having convulsions and Jesus had invited his disciples to be with him he was a peripatetic teacher a walking around teacher which was the custom of that day is that a teacher would gather some disciples some followers and then and they would follow him around and they would learn from him and so he had these disciples with him and they had tried to help this young young guy and but the father said you know your disciples weren't able to help at all and he said you know if if you can help me would you and and Jesus said over in verse 23 if you can Jesus said everything is possible for him who has faith it's interesting this question if you can actually in that passage which were not it's not really the one we're looking at it's the passage right before the one we're looking at the one leading up to the passage we're looking at but I counted so Jesus in I read a book once I've read several books on preaching and this one learning to preach like Jesus by lewis and lewis noted that jesus in his thirty four thousand four hundred and fifty words that he spoke which would amount to about ten thirty minute sermons so everything jesus said the thirty four thousand four hundred fifty words that he said would fit in to about ten of these bible study lessons ten thirty minute messages very interesting but in those thirty four thousand four hundred and fifty words jesus asked one hundred and fifty three questions one hundred so fifteen point three questions that he would ask per thirty minutes and that's not the way it was distributed but that if it were done there and so in this text about this healing of the the boy with convulsions I of the whenever I read that when I was reading through my Bible every time I saw a question mark after red letters I've put a circle around it and so I have in this passage one two three four five five five questions that Jesus asked just in that one story what a what an incredible teaching tool to ask questions rather than give answers which is why I decided to ask you the question what are the principles you see this morning and then right after that verse 33 they came to Capernaum when he was in the house he asked them a question what were you arguing about on the road what were you arguing about on the road now in his missions Jesus already knew the answer to that question but he it's part of his leadership style to ask questions verse 34 but they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who is the greatest so now we have followers arguing about which of them is the greatest all right all kinds of principles here pick three that you like number 35 verse 35 sitting down Jesus called the twelve the twelve disciples and he said to them if anyone wants to be first Negus first then he must be the very last and the servant of all so Jesus now introduces the most countercultural idea that he has about leadership and that is the concept of the servant leader and by the way in the last 20 years that the concept of servant leadership has absorbed the the world of the academic world that studies leadership it's like they finally discovered servant leadership and it's a hot topic two thousand year old hot topic if anyone wants to be first he must be very be the last and the servant of all and that he took a child and so forth you can read that now if you would turn to over a page to mark chapter 10 verse 35 and so this is a little later now and this is just before the triumphal entry into Jerusalem verse 35 then James and John I think about James and John these are two of the two of the twelve two of Jesus's most trusted associates John James Peter were they not the three he must trust those associates was it James Peter and John uh-huh I think it was and so they came to him and actually in the Matthew passage you learn their mother came along too and she did the talking and teacher they said we want you to do for us whatever we ask and Jesus what does he do he asked a question you know what do you want me to do for you what do you want me to do for you and they replied let one of us sit on your right and the other on your left in glory so they just had this argument they were just discussing on the road arguing on the road about who is the greatest jesus said if you want to be the first be the last and so not long after that his to two of his three closest buds come to him said hey can't we be on your left and your right when you come in your glory and Jesus in verse 30 says you don't know what you're asking you don't want to know what you're can you drink the cup here's another question can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I baptized with and they answered we can't yeah we can do that and Jesus said you will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the bad guys baptism I'm baptized with and incidentally James we know was run through by Herod with a sword and tradition has it that Paul was thrown into a boiling cauldron of oil so they did but to sit at my right or left it's not for me to grant these places belong to those for whom they have been prepared and when the ten heard this they became indignant I love this word indignant I've kind of got before I was teaching this message if but from a couple weeks ago I started thinking about this word indignant in right here in the in this passage because it was in my one year bible reading a couple weeks ago and and it's this idea to be put off you can look it up you know just but it's a very nice word because there is some sort of a being put off by a some kind of a moral injustice by something that's actually being done that's wrong so it's not just being feeling disrespected because of my human pride there is like this legitimacy to this feeling of feeling indignant with James and John and Jesus called them together and said you know that those who are regarded as rulers or leaders of the Gentiles or the nation's ethnos that world were Gentiles as ethnos e th NOS so the the leaders of the nations they they lord it over them the the people with formal Authority and they're high officials exercise authority over them not so with you counterculture not so with you instead whoever wants to become great Megas Bekka among you must be your servant that's the word Iook honest it's the word from which we get deacon must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all that's duel us do you la s like a bondservant for even the Son of Man watch this for even the Son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many now there might be a principle there that would be worth you thinking about being one a year three the example of Jesus his mission alright so now let's take a look back at Matthew 23 verse 1 and what I want you to to see here is that it's not necessarily just political leaders but it's also religious leaders can misuse their authority and since you're a leader and since you're religious you're a religious leader and so this could even pertain to you perhaps then jesus said to the crowds and his disciples I don't think it does but it could from time to time perhaps it might the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat so you must obey them and do everything they tell you but do not do what they do for they do not practice what they preach this is the whole concept of hypocrisy they don't do what they tell you to do they don't practice with it that's the whole concept of hypocrisy they tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders so in other words telling other people what they ought to do but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to help a finger to move to move them everything they do is done for men to see putting on a show they make their phylacteries wide and the tassels of the prayer shawls long they love the places of honor at banquets I've made that mistake and the more important seats in the synagogue's they love to be greeted in the marketplace and to have men call them rabbi there's some other things that have said they're by Jesus then in verse 11 the greatest among you will be your servant here we go again third time for whoever exalts himself will be humbled but whoever humbles himself will be exalted so there might be another principle or two in there to think about so Jesus put some distance between himself and religious leaders who have motives that are not to serve others and then the last one we'll look at that was right after the triumphal entry by the way and and now at the Last Supper in Luke chapter 22 Luke chapter 22 we're drilling down obviously on this idea of being a servant leader the greatest shall be the the least the first should be the last the humble will be exalted now after all of this now it's interesting I haven't had time to study this but I what I do know is that in the Bible if something's repeated twice it's important if it's repeated three times it's very important like holy holy holy is the Lord God Almighty whenever the Lord repeats something three times in Scripture it's extremely important I haven't had time to study this but this is the first time I've actually seen something that I can remember seeing that's been repeated four times this is the fourth time now so you know I'm just speculating but it seems to me that this is something that is like uber important to the Lord to get across to us so again he's just completed the Last Supper they've just broken the bread they've just had the wine Jesus is is is right on the cusp of the passion his passion and verse 24 right after that also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was to be considered the greatest fascinating jesus said that there might be a principle in there jesus said to them the kings of the Gentiles or again the leaders of the nations lord it over them and those who exercised authority over them call themselves benefactors or good people but not you you are not like this instead the greatest among you should be like the youngest and the one who rules or leader like the youngest and the leader like the one who serves for now here now we're back to the question that might be a principle in here now we're back to another question or or two from Jesus for who is greater the one who is at the table or the one who serves is it not the one who is at the table but I am among you as one who serves might be a principle there the example of Jesus following the exempt might be a principle there could be a principle there again the big idea today everything I need to know about leadership I can learn by just staring at Jesus thirty four thousand four hundred fifty words so three principles to remember you decide what they are for you today I've decided what they are for me but I do know this whatever it is that I need to know about leadership I can learn that by just staring at this life of Jesus so maybe you know maybe it's what he said maybe it's what he did maybe it's the example he set again you decide

Channel: Man in the Mirror Bible Study

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Length: 34min 21sec (2061 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 09 2017