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146. Freedom to be an Effective Leader · 4-Freedom Podcast

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I do not mean to be mean, I do mean to be mad those that
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criticize this kind of preaching.
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They don't like authority. If you ain't got the King James,
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you ain't got. Hey.
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If you don't have a King James, you don't have a Bible.
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And he'd be surprised. Son, don't go to sleep while I'm
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talking. Hey, hey, hey.
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Don't, don't. Don't you lay your head back.
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I'm. I'm important.
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I'm somebody. I love you.
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You know I love you. Have I convinced you I love you?
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Yeah. You better.
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You better nod your head Yes. Sorry.
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Come on, pull it out there. All right?
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You stay awake and you listen to me.
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I still believe if you're cold in hell.
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You bragging my family for a moment.
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I'm a preacher. When you got dressed today, you
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dressed deity. This is the Four Freedom
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Podcast, a podcast that is part of the RFP Network that seeks to
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bring freedom in Christ from the spiritual abuse of legalism.
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And so fundamentalism is designed to unpack the idea of
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authority from Scripture. The problem with that is that
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that's not the defining principle in Scripture.
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It is a part of Scripture. But the defining principle in
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Scripture is love. I found my freedom in you.
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I found a joy I can't lose. And thank God it's true.
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You wrapped your arms around me and heaven broke through from
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the moment she found me. I found my freedom in it.
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Welcome to the Four Freedom Podcast.
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This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for
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everyday Christians with everyday issues.
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Now here are your hosts, James Seyfried and Brett Moore.
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Well, welcome back to the Four Freedom Podcast.
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Thank you for being with us today.
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We are having a great time here at church.
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I'll tell you something that I just did, James, that man, it
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was such an incredible blessing is this past Sunday I went down
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to the Jackson Coliseum to the State Fairgrounds in Jackson,
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Ms. and the Mississippi Baptist had a booth set up with a side
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by side, you know, four Wheeler in it and they were giving
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people an opportunity to sign up to win it for a 3 minute gospel
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presentation. We joined together with another
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church in our association called Peru Hill Baptist Church.
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We went down there, we had a three hour slot and that we had
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a group of 14 and in that three hour slot we talked to
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approximately 150 people, we gave 150 people the gospel and
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we had 23 salvations. Amen.
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And so it was just an incredible blessing.
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You know, you, you're a little nervous at first, but man, once
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you get out there and you get in the groove of things and people
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were coming up and they were saying, look, I've, I've, I've
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heard the gospel. I'm saying I just want you to
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pray for me. I was praying for knees and
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praying for moms and surgeries and people were rededicating
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their life. It was just a tremendous,
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tremendous blessing. It's something that the
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Mississippi Baptists do is they get that side by side and and
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they give it away every year and they have different events where
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you listen to the gospel, you get entered in to win it.
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And it's a tremendous evangelism tool.
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And man, it was such an incredible blessing for us to be
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able to do. That man, that's awesome.
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I love it. I love when you told me about
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that opportunity last year, how you were going to go down this
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year. I think that's fantastic and I
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think it's it's an awesome thing that you guys are doing.
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Mine is nowhere near as spiritual as you.
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Brett, me and John. He he wanted to do a pick em
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every week of of all the football games for the NFL and
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we're week 6 and this past week we're at 14 for 14.
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I was perfect. Every single one of my picks was
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right. And man, I was on cloud 9
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because you got two games left the Sunday night and Monday
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night, Monday might Monday night game and I'm like, man, am I
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going to get this? Is this going to be perfect?
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Because I'm perfect so far. And sure enough by my picks came
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through. And so I was victorious over
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John this week and it's been good.
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We got a little competition going on.
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And so, John, if you're listening to this Booyah.
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And that's how it goes. So yeah, we are doing well.
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Family's doing well and things are going good here at the
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church. We did have one saved two weeks
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ago. And she came forward this past
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Sunday and I made a professional faith, which was awesome.
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And so that was a blessing. Still continuing to serve.
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We're taking a a load of stuff down this week to Pisgah Forest.
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That's a little South of Asheville to help a church out
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down there and just excited about what the Lord's doing and
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excited about rolling over this year.
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I'm I'm preaching through First Corinthians right now, 13
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talking through what is love? And that's been a great, great
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couple of weeks talking through that.
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So yeah. We took an offering this past
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Sunday to for Nathan's Church, for Hope Church Asheville and to
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give people an opportunity to give to it.
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Again, because we had some people out this past Sunday.
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We're taking another offering this coming Sunday.
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And so we're looking forward to gathering that offering and
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sending it straight to Hope Church.
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If you're interested in giving to Hope Church Asheville, you
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can go to hopeavl.com, Hope avl.com, we'll post that link
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for you. And you can give directly to
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Hope Church Asheville and you can make sure that your money
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goes straight to a local church in Asheville that will use 100%
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of the funds to help relief efforts.
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And so we definitely want to promote that.
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And so we're doing that. And I've got some other churches
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in our association that are given to Hope Church as well.
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And so we definitely want to be a part of that.
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We want to promote that. We want to help them as much as
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we can help them. Absolutely.
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And great things are going over there, man.
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There's some great opportunities.
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Just got word that the Asheville area, the Blue Ridge area has
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opened back up water and so water access is now flowing
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again. The treatment plants are able to
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process it. They are still requesting that
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people boil the water. They're cooking with it just to
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make sure the bacteria is out of it.
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But the treatment plants are starting to run, which is a
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great thing. The bad, the Brett, the the hard
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part right now is this getting cold and people are going to
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start freezing and there's going to be you know, Brett, when I
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was up in and I I get pictures. I've got a guy that's up in the,
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the mountain, mountain areas of North Carolina and that he's in
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a picture the other day of just whole villages that were tent
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camps, 4050 tents set up. People are just living in them.
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That's all they've got it. It looked like if you can
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remember back to like the, the movies where people were
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traveling on horseback and they'd find a clear spot of land
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and you'd have a fire in the middle and sort of tents
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surrounding them. That's what it looked like
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because that's all they have. And with temperatures dropping
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and some parts of North Carolina are are showing snow this week
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or next week, the the temperature is what's going to
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be the problem now. And when we've got winds coming
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in, some strong winds now that are coming in from this cold
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front, which they say are going to start dropping trees and make
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power outages happen again. Because the again, the, the
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ground is still so wet in some of these areas that it's just
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going to be detrimental again. So definitely some areas we can
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continue to pray and continue to help and give and go.
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And so we are loving the what we can do for the sake of the
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gospel, Speaking of for the sake of.
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The gospel you like. That we are right on the CASP of
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the for the sake of the Gospel conference man.
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Brett, I am tickled pink about being down in Catoosa and
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Ringgold. Brett, my whole family's coming.
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I think that we we had talked about that.
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I think my wife actually, she's supposed to ask off work.
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I don't know if she did or not. She's a loser about those
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things. She doesn't listen to this.
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So I can talk about about it if I want to.
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She's supposed to ask off work. Me and my three kids are coming
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down and we'll be there for that one night.
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And then Brett, you and your family will be down there and
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that we're rooming with another couple and we'll be down there.
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Schedules out Friday night to meet up Saturday morning,
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Saturday afternoon sessions, Saturday night, sort of a meet
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up again. And then Sunday morning, JC will
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close it out of his church. Man, it's going to be awesome.
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It's going to be a blessing to be down there.
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I can't wait. We're going to try to record a
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little bit while we're down there in person, maybe even
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record some video stuff. We're talking about possibly
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doing a little funny skit and that, man, I'm pumped about that
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and I hope you are as well. But yeah, we hope to see you
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down there. It's no cost.
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All you have to do is provide your lodging and your food and
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have a great time of just fellowship, worship together
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with family. And I know you're going to enjoy
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it as well. Brett, man, I hope you're
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looking forward to it just as much as I am.
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Oh man, I'm looking forward to it.
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Can't wait to be there. I'm excited.
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JC locked down the old Greg Lock to preach.
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Amen. And you know who's going to hand
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out a, you know, instead of honorary doctorates, who's going
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to be handing out apostleship certificates?
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Let's go so, so we can get our apostleship there.
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So that'll be awesome. I will be hanging that on my
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wall too. Oh yeah, bestowing the gifts
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upon us. And so we are looking forward to
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being there in, in Ringgold, GA for, for the, for the sake of
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the Gospel Conference. We look forward to it every
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year. Yeah.
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Well, Brett, what is our topic today for our episode?
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We're going to be talking today about the subject of effective
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leadership and in fact, we have 12 qualities of effective
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leadership that we would like to give you.
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This comes from a book called Being Leaders, the Nature of
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Authentic Christian Leadership by Aubrey Malphurs and not just
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pastoral leadership, but this is any type of Christian leader in
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a church. Let me start out by giving you
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this statement before we get into before we get into the rest
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of our outline today in the context of, you know, a pastor
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leading in a church and church members leading in a church.
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Here's a statement right here, a pastor.
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And I want you to think about this, James, and I want you to
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tell me your take on this quote. A pastor serves by leading.
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Everybody else leads by serving. So I'm going to say it one more
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time. A pastor serves by leading and
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everybody else leads by serving. You know, because it's the
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pastor's job to acquit people to do the ministry, not to do the
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ministry by himself, but it's the people that actually do the
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work of the ministry. The pastor, he serves by leading
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like his job is to be the leader of the church.
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But everybody else in the church, when they, you know,
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when they serve, when they stand up to serve, then they they
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become a leader by them serving. What do you think of that?
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Yeah, I agree with it. I think that a good practical
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illustration of this would be Moses, one of the great first
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leaders that we have in the Bible.
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Moses led the children of Israel by serving them.
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He went before God, he prayed, he got away, he sought the Lord,
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he sought wisdom from people that are around him.
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He led them and then they had to do the work.
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They were the ones that were serving the community.
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They were the one that were serving one another and that was
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their that were their way of leading was by serving.
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And so I agree with what you're saying.
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And I think that you can look through effective leaders
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throughout Scripture and you can see that all throughout
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Scripture, there's got to be someone that's casting the
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vision. We're going to talk about that,
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and if you've got 100 people casting 100 different visions,
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well then the church is just going to go in circles.
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But if you got 1 main thought, one main leader that's casting
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vision, that's growing, that's leading that way, then the
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others can grasp a hold of what the vision is and serve that
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way. Now we will say that leadership
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is a gift given by God. Leadership is a spiritual gift.
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It's something that God gives you.
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However, to some degree, leadership can also be taught,
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OK, it can be improved. The leadership skills you have
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can be improved. You can become a better leader.
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You can hone your talents, hone your skills.
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You can sharpen your leadership skills as well.
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In Christian leadership, it's very similar to secular
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leadership in a lot of ways. You can.
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You can improve your leadership qualities by reading secular
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books. You can listen to a Ted talk.
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You can read a Forbes magazine and get better on leading
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because there is a lot of crossover.
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There are a lot of Christian leaders that get ideas of how to
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lead by reading Fortune 500 CE OS Now.
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I will say, however, that Christian leadership is more
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nuanced than secular leadership because you've got you've got
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feelings to consider, you've got to come at it from love.
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You've got the Holy Spirit that is influencing your actions, and
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you want the fruits of the Holy Spirit to be evident in your
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life. Now we're going to tie all these
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into Scripture. We're going to give you
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practical steps today to develop good leadership habits.
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But before we get to our foundational leadership through
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Scripture, let me just say that leadership in the Old Testament
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does differ from leadership in the New Testament because Jesus
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brought something different. Jesus brought us something
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called servant leadership. We didn't see that before.
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Jesus, the Son of Man didn't come to be served.
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He came to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
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Servant leadership is leading by example, and it means leading
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with humility. It means being a good follower.
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A servant leader seeks to meet the needs of his followers.
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Opposed to just gaining more power, gaining more notoriety or
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becoming a celebrity. A servant leader is as much a
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student as they are a teacher. Yes, Jesus gave instruction.
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Yes, Jesus told Peter, get behind me, Satan.
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Jesus said, pick up your cross and follow me.
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But Jesus also washed the disciples feet.
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Jesus said, whoever's least in the Kingdom will be the
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greatest, you know. And so these are some principles
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that we're going to look at as we get into this thing of
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leadership. But we've got some scripture
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here to go over. James, why don't you lead us
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into these verses here? Yeah.
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Before I lead you to that, I do want to share one thing as what
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you said was we can learn from other secular leaders and and
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part of that in the biblical counseling movement is called
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common grace. We share common grace through
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leadership and through other advice.
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Doctors are there that give wisdom in that area.
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And so we're able to glean from that and we're able to use that
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to help us. And so some scriptural basis for
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some of these things. And I'll sort of read through
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the first couple ones and then you can give the the three steps
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to be a good leader of the trust in the Lord with all your heart
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and do not lean on your own understanding.
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This is how we can trust in God and we seek his guidance in a
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foundational way of our of our leadership.
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How is the Lord directing our leadership?
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Are we trust in the Lord with our whole heart or are we
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trusting in self with our whole heart?
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What are we doing? How are our actions
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representative of what we believe in and how are we?
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Are we leading on our own understanding or are we taking
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the truth from Scripture and the truth from the Lord and guiding
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that as a guiding foundational principle in our life?
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Right. I mean Christian leadership.
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When I think about this first, Proverbs 35 Christian
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leadership, it's not about digging deep and finding
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something in there you didn't realize was there.
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Christian leadership is about hitting your knees, Yeah, and
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realizing that you know nothing's there.
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It's realizing that you are empty and that you you don't
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have what it takes and that you can't do this without God.
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That's what it means to trust with the Lord with all your
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heart and lean not onto your own understanding.
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It's realize you, you don't have what it takes without God, and
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we'll never be effective Christian leaders if we don't
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realize that we truly do come to God empty handed.
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Yeah #2 Brett, I think it's also important for us to understand
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is if you're leading an expedition and you are going to
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go to the North Pole and you are, you've got your compass out
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and you know, North is, is, is a in the top of that compass.
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And that arrow is going to begin to move left and right.
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And you're going to have to readjust in order to continue to
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go north in your direction of where you're going.
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And the same thing holds true to the life of a leader of a
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spiritual leadership. The Bible says in John 1717,
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sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth.
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The Word of God is our spiritual N true north direction and the
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word of God must guide all leaders in all decisions and all
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actions that they take. We've got to take the word of
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God and run everything that we do through the word of God as a
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filter system. And as we are looking at the
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Word of God as our true north, if we begin to waver to the
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right or to the left of the Bible, well then that point of
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that needle is going to should begin moving and should begin to
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realign us back, and we should be able to see that we're off
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course. We're off track and the Bible is
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is the what brings us back to our center.
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Bibles are, I mean, you're 100% right.
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The Bible is our final authority and we need to remember that.
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Listen, it's not, it's not the Constitution that's our final
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authority. It's not the bylaws that are our
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final authority, not the Baptist Faith and Message or the apostle
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Crees. And I'm not dumping on any of
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that stuff. All that stuff is good and
20:33
necessary, but we have to keep the main thing the main thing,
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and we need to let the Word of God guide us, lead us and direct
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us. Yeah, absolutely.
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Brett, a funny story about that is had a pastor friend of mine
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who was at a church and he was only there about a year.
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And he said that he was at A at a deacons meeting and one of the
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men, he was wanting to change a couple things and had his Bible
20:59
out and was leading some things and he wanted to do something.
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And the one of the deacons pulled out the bylaws and took
21:08
the pieces of paper and walked over to the pastor and set them
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down on top of his Bible and said, pastor, you're, you're not
21:15
doing this according to the bylaws.
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And he said, well, these bylaws are just a piece of paper.
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They don't really they, they're there to help the, the governing
21:24
documents of the church. But ultimately it's the Bible
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that gives us direction. And the Deacon said, pastor, if
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it goes against the bylaws, it's more important than the Bible.
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And he's taking a step back. And he said so.
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So when you walked over here and you put these pieces of paper on
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top of my Bible, you were literally saying this is more
21:47
important. And it was all done.
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I'm not talking about that. But all of a sudden the guy
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realized what he said and tried backing out of it.
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And he said that he, he just realized in that moment that he
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was there was there wasn't a church as willing to make
22:00
change. And the Bible has to be, as you
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said, our final Word of Faith and practice in everything that
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we do, which leads us to Psalm 119.
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Nine. How can a young man keep his
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ways pure? By guarding it according again
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to Your word. This is the importance of prayer
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in the Holy Spirit, the daily, daily leadership tool of our
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life of praying and seeking the Holy Spirit.
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Lord, what do I do today? How do I be an effective leader?
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How do I minister to your people?
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How do I serve your people? And then using that as a way
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where we can guide and direct our paths according to the Lord.
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Amen. You know we are too quick to
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forget prayer when it comes to leadership.
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We are so quick to forget yielding to the Holy Spirit.
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Listen, before you have a meeting, a council meeting, a
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deacon's meeting, a committee meeting, any kind of meeting,
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you have to make sure you are yielded by, yielded to the Holy
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Spirit. And we must not forget to do
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that each and every time we lead.
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And look, this episode is not just geared toward pastors.
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There are Christian, there are layman Christian leaders all
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throughout the church. Any layman Christian leader can
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take these principles and use them.
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In fact, we'll go right into the three steps of being good
23:24
leader. And man, we're going to sound
23:26
like Lee Robertson here. Number one, word of God #2
23:32
prayer #3 the Holy Spirit. These are essential things when
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it comes to being a good leader. The word of God, daily study,
23:41
meditation on Scripture, be a regular prayer warrior.
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You know, you, you intentionally pray for guidance, which leads
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to the Holy Spirit. You have to trust that the Holy
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Spirit will give you the direction that the Holy Spirit
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will empower you to lead. And you know, if, if, if you
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don't regularly do this with these three things, you're not
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going to be a good Christian leader.
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And I know it sounds silly to say, I know it sounds silly to
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say to come on here. Look, Christian leaders need to
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read the Bible, pray and yield with the Holy Spirit.
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But how many Christian leaders in our churches don't do these
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simple things? Yeah.
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They don't think it's necessary. They do maybe one or two, but
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not all three. And we got leaders in our
24:28
churches ain't doing none of it. OK.
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But these are, these are these are very important things that
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we absolutely have to take care of when it comes to being a good
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Christian leader. It is essential and you're not
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going to be a good leader without it.
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We're going right into our 12 qualities.
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James, did you have anything to say about that before you take
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us into our first quality? Well, I think that it's always
24:56
good to understand that the truth through to thrive would be
24:59
the Word of God, prayer, and the Holy Spirit through.
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To thrive through to Amen and so through right there.
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Yeah, it's, it's not necessarily about being being in church
25:10
Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Sunday night, but it's, it's
25:13
understanding the the truth of the word of God, understanding
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that even Jesus while on this earth needed to time to talk to
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his heavenly Father and the Holy Spirit that leads and directs
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and guides us is is untold amazing valuable asset.
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I say asset, but it's a way of living in the in the spirit
25:37
every day of our life and being controlled by the spirit.
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And so hey, let's walk through these 1212 qualities to be an
25:44
effective leader. We'll try not to spend too much
25:47
time on each of them and we'll just go through them.
25:49
The first one is being self aware.
25:51
This is understanding that yourself, including your
25:54
strengths, weaknesses and emotions is crucial.
25:58
Humility is a key part of being self aware because it lets you
26:02
lead with the authenticity and the transparency of
26:06
understanding that we are nothing.
26:09
Brett, I'm actually preparing a message right now.
26:11
I'm talking this coming Sunday on not being envious and not
26:15
being boastful of yourself. And one of my statements that I
26:21
wrote down by John MacArthur is this envy.
26:26
I'm sorry, the only being in the universe that has the right to
26:31
be jealous or boastful is God, because he created us to love
26:37
and to serve him. And we in turn, instead of
26:40
serving him, serve self, which leads us to be an envious and
26:43
boastful. And often times in our Christian
26:46
journey we begin to take out this element of humility and we
26:51
have to understand that Jesus was fully aware of his mission.
26:55
He remained humble even as a leader.
26:57
Philippians 2 verse five and eight says this.
27:01
It says that the attitude of the Christ is this, who existed in
27:07
the form of God, yet did not consider Himself equal with God
27:10
as something to be exploited. Instead He emptied himself by
27:14
assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeliness of a
27:18
human. And when he had come as a man,
27:20
he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death,
27:24
even to the death of the cross. And for this reason, let's
27:28
continue on this cause. For this reason, because he
27:31
humbled himself, God highly exalted him and gave him the
27:34
name above all their names, the name of Jesus, where every knee
27:38
would bow in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every
27:42
tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the
27:44
Father. Amen.
27:48
You know, God advances his own through suffering.
27:52
This is a principle of Scripture.
27:54
He did it with Joseph. He did it with Moses.
27:56
He did it with Jesus, OK. He did through with through
27:59
everyone in the Bible. He advances us through
28:02
suffering. And leadership is no different.
28:06
OK, that there's a little cliche funny story out there where, you
28:10
know, somebody goes in for a job interview and he's sitting down
28:14
at the interview and he says, you know, my strengths are also
28:17
my weaknesses. My weakness is that I work too
28:21
hard, that I spend too many hours at work after everybody's
28:25
went home. And it's kind of a tongue in
28:27
cheek way of saying that my weaknesses are in actuality
28:31
strengths. Well, for the Christian context,
28:34
that's true because the weaker you are, the stronger you'll be
28:39
for the Lord because the more opportunity God will have to
28:43
work through you. Listen, Paul does not become the
28:48
apostle that he was without his thorn in the flesh.
28:52
It doesn't happen. That thorn in the flesh is what
28:56
made Paul so great and God knew that because it God advances his
29:02
own through suffering and weakness and leadership and and
29:05
we need to be self aware of that.
29:07
The second one is respect, OK? Respect builds trust and fosters
29:13
collaboration. Jesus consistently show respect
29:19
even to those who opposed him. He created a culture of honor.
29:24
Respect isn't just about avoiding disrespect.
29:28
It's about valuing others others perspectives.
29:32
OK, there's a scene in the office where Ryan the temp says
29:39
I want leadership, but don't just like boss me around, you
29:44
know, like lead me, lead me when I'm in the mood to be led.
29:51
And you know, James, we come from a a church background and a
29:56
culture. We were raised with leadership
30:00
that did not respect anybody else's opinion.
30:03
They did not respect anybody else's opinion but their own.
30:07
And if someone disagreed with them or had a different take on
30:11
something, instead of actively listening, they would just
30:15
completely shut that person down.
30:18
And that stifles growth, it stifles creativity, it stifles
30:22
ingenuity, and it kills respect. Respect isn't demanded.
30:28
Respect is earned. Amen.
30:31
You know, Brett, one of the statements that I heard, I wish
30:33
I had the clips for this and if you find them afterwards, send
30:36
them to me and I'll I'll put them in here.
30:38
But the clips that I heard as a kid growing up was bless God,
30:41
I'm the pastor and you're going to listen to what I have to say
30:43
today. You know, the door works both
30:45
ways. You can walk in this door
30:48
somebody, I'm somebody and you can walk out that door.
30:51
Bless God, the the door. Don't let the the door hit you
30:55
where the good Lord split you. Amen, Amen.
30:59
So that that's what I heard growing up and it was this fear
31:03
through respect, through fear. And that's never how respect is
31:07
is earned. Respect should be earned through
31:10
understanding that you love them, that you care about them,
31:12
that they you have your best interest out for them and they
31:15
care about you. Which leads to the third one,
31:18
which is compassion. Compassion is empathy and
31:21
action. Leader must not listen, but must
31:25
not only listen, but also take meaningful action to help
31:28
others. Imagine here Jesus is, is
31:31
feeding the 5000 as an example and him and said, Jesus, these,
31:37
these, these people who have followed you, they're, they're,
31:40
they're hungry. They, they've been traveling
31:42
with you and, and they need some food.
31:44
And he says, well, I'm going to give him food.
31:46
Bless God, I'm going to keep teaching them.
31:48
That's the only food they need. And Jesus in that moment, if he
31:52
had done that, he knew that he would have been losing people.
31:55
People would have been walking away.
31:57
People have been leaving to go take care of their families and
32:00
to take care of food. But instead he said, let's put
32:03
them in the grassy areas and let's, let's gather some food
32:07
for them. And while we find food, I will
32:11
also teach them at the same time.
32:13
And so Jesus through compassion, met their need, even though they
32:17
had been listening to him. He then set them down and fed
32:20
them. And while they were eating into
32:21
their fullness, he also fed them through the miracle and he fed
32:27
them through his teaching. And so through compassion, we
32:30
were able to do this. And which is why compassion
32:33
ministers are so powerful right now with Samaritan's Purse on
32:36
the ground and other compassion ministries that are serving
32:39
people, that are helping people, that are helping organizations
32:43
as ultimately as the hands and feet of Christ.
32:46
It's a great way where we're able to share the gospel, where
32:48
we're able to tell others about why we're out here doing this.
32:52
And so this is a great opportunity in so many different
32:56
areas of our life where we can show compassion.
33:00
You know, it's everybody knows this saying nobody cares how
33:03
much you know until they know how much you care.
33:06
And I think that that's what Jesus was showing him.
33:08
They, they came out there to hear him speak because they
33:11
wanted to hear what he knew. But what really touched them is
33:15
when they saw how much he cared for them and had compassion on
33:19
them and fed them, because that's what compassion is,
33:22
compacting action. OK.
33:25
If somebody shares a concern with you, if somebody speaks up,
33:29
they're not going to truly feel heard unless you take some type
33:34
of meaningful action on that information.
33:37
How many times have we spoke up in the past to our leadership
33:41
and just falls on deaf ears? Almost like they don't even care
33:44
about us, OK? It's all about part of Christian
33:49
leadership is having that compassion.
33:51
Next is vision. OK, Vision motivates others and
33:55
aligns them with a larger goal. Leaders must help others find
34:00
meaning in their work and demonstrate how daily tasks
34:04
connect to the larger mission. And that's what Jesus did.
34:08
Jesus always pointed his disciples towards the Kingdom of
34:13
God. Jesus was all about the mission.
34:16
Listen, you, you've got to cast vision to motivate people.
34:21
You as the leader, you have to set the goal.
34:24
You have to steer the ship in the direction that you know you
34:29
want it to go in. People don't know what their
34:33
priorities should be unless you tell them.
34:37
You know, people, if you've got a team there and they don't know
34:39
what their priorities should be, they're going to prioritize
34:43
different things and you're never going to go anywhere.
34:46
You're not going to make any advancement or any headway.
34:49
The leader has to step up, step up and say no, These are what
34:52
your priorities looks like. Looks like this is what a win
34:56
is. When we get more of these, we
34:58
get more wins. OK, If you say don't, don't
35:01
focus on that right now. That's not as important as this
35:04
over here. That's that.
35:07
That's going to be helping cast vision because they're not going
35:10
to know what's broad eyes until you tell them.
35:12
And you want to communicate this vision in ways that people can
35:17
understand, that people can remember, so your followers can
35:22
go out and share that, share your vision with other people.
35:27
And so vision is incredibly important when it comes to
35:31
Christian leadership. Absolutely agree 100%.
35:35
Next one is communication. If you can't communicate as a
35:38
leader then you're ineffective as a as a as a leader as well.
35:43
Communication is more than just transmitting information.
35:46
It is about active listening, storytelling, and ensuring that
35:50
others being heard, hearing Jesus communicated through
35:57
parables, which is making complex truth accessible.
36:01
Oftentimes you'll hear it be said.
36:03
I think Adrian Rogers was one of the ones that said that
36:07
illustrations are the windows into your message.
36:10
They are the way where people are able to peer into where your
36:16
message is at. They're able to see what you're
36:19
trying to say and communicate. And you will not be a true
36:23
leader until conflict shows up. Everyone is a leader until
36:28
there's a problem. Then the reader takes a step
36:32
forward. This is quoted from the book.
36:36
Handling conflict with wisdom and grace is how we effectively
36:40
communicate. I'm often times reminding myself
36:44
of Proverbs of sometimes it's better to keep quiet and let
36:48
the, the room talk than to open up and, and to share things.
36:52
But I'm also reminded that sometimes a good leader has to
36:55
stand up and take control and has to communicate effectively.
36:58
It has to lead well. And so there's appropriate times
37:02
for both of these. There's been times in my
37:04
ministry here in this last year where there were times where a
37:08
discussion topic was being said. And man, I just, I told my even
37:13
in Nicaragua, I told Logan who was down there with us.
37:16
There was a time where I was, I was ready to, I mean, I was
37:19
wanting to step up, but I knew what I was going to say was I
37:22
was going to be the new guy on the block.
37:24
And you know, I was going to be the guy that's just coming in
37:27
and changing and ruffling things up.
37:28
And I didn't want to, but I was ready to say it.
37:31
I was, I was about to step up and right before I said
37:34
something, Logan, who's my chairman of Deakins, he stepped
37:37
up and he said almost exactly what I was going to say.
37:41
And I told him, I said, I appreciate you doing that
37:43
because you helped me from being the bad guy.
37:46
Like you're the inside guy. You're the guy that's been here
37:48
through all the the ups and downs and the turmoil.
37:51
And you said what I wanted to say.
37:53
And I appreciate that because you stepped up and became a
37:56
leader in that moment. And so I appreciate those
37:59
things. And that's what communication
38:01
does. It's able to talk effectively.
38:04
It's more than just lecturing. Communication is also listening
38:07
and it's being able to actively listen, listen and give good
38:12
feedback from what you just heard and not talk over people
38:15
often times, and I'm guilty of this bread.
38:17
I don't know if you are, I'm constantly trying to think of
38:20
how I'm going to solve whatever problem they're coming to me
38:22
about. And I'm not listening to what
38:24
they're saying. And I'm ready to to say
38:27
something before they're even done saying it.
38:29
And my wife will, will get on to me.
38:31
She'll say, James, you didn't really listen to what they were
38:34
saying. And I'm I'm guilty of that often
38:37
times. Yeah.
38:38
You know, communication is key and, and, and you've got to
38:42
learn to communicate in several different ways.
38:44
You know, if you're a good preacher, I'm glad.
38:46
If you're a good Sunday school teacher, I'm glad.
38:48
But you got to learn to communicate through social
38:51
media. You've got to learn to
38:52
communicate through e-mail, through text.
38:54
You got to make sure that everybody's on the same page,
38:57
everybody's on the same level, and you have to put it where
39:00
everybody can understand it. Which leads us into our next
39:05
equality of leadership is learning agility.
39:09
This is being able to respond when the path is unclear.
39:15
This this is a crucial leadership skill.
39:18
Leaders who are quick learners and open the new experiences are
39:22
often more successful in navigating challenges.
39:25
You know, for instance, after the apostles had to learn and
39:29
adapt quickly after Jesus's ascension, Think about Peter and
39:34
the apostles. You know, in Acts 2, they had
39:36
never experienced that type of meeting.
39:40
That was the first time they'd ever had something like that.
39:43
They had to roll with the punches.
39:45
They had to learn it on the fly. This, this learning agility.
39:49
This is the ability to know what to do when you don't know what
39:53
to do. Sometimes you got to fake it
39:56
till you make it. Sometimes you got to you got to
39:58
be the one to step up and make the decision when nobody else
40:01
wants to wants to speak. Yes, you're going to stub your
40:04
two toe. Yes, you're going to get a black
40:07
eye. Yes, you're going to get a
40:08
bloody nose from time to time. You're going to make a mistake.
40:12
The leadership is about taking the reins.
40:14
Even if you're going to get beat up a little bit because you
40:17
can't let the ship go off the road, you have to keep it true.
40:21
You have to keep it straight. And so you may have to stumble
40:24
and fumble and make mistakes a few times, but you know, when
40:28
nobody's willing to step up and stand in that gap, even if
40:32
you're a newbie at it, you've got to be willing to step up and
40:35
stand in the gap when nobody else will.
40:38
Yeah, absolutely. I agree 100%.
40:41
Collaboration is the next one is good.
40:43
Leaders work across boundaries and bring diverse people
40:46
together. Jesus often worked to get worked
40:49
across cultural lines as showing his in when he began talking
40:55
about the Good Samaritan, Often times Jesus was giving
40:59
illustrations of hey, we've got to work together.
41:02
We've got to go to the ones that are the the abandoned.
41:05
He went to the Matthew, he went to the tax collector.
41:08
He went to the the ones that were considered the crooks of
41:12
the day. Peter who was swindling people
41:15
in his job, who was doing the wrong things that he shouldn't
41:19
be doing. He, he went to the guys that was
41:23
was not necessarily the ones we would have thought to go to.
41:27
He didn't go to the church. He didn't go to the synagogue of
41:30
the time to the Pharisees that knew the Bible front and back.
41:34
He went to the ones that we're going to make a difference.
41:38
He even chose Judas, the one that was going to betray him
41:41
because he was willing to work across diverse lines and he knew
41:46
that collaboration was going to be there.
41:48
He was willing to go against the flow.
41:51
And this is a great illustration for us of how we can collaborate
41:54
together. You know, it's never wise to put
41:58
yourself on an island, especially, you know, for us
42:01
Southern Baptist churches. I've got some churches in my
42:04
association here that they put themselves on an island, even
42:07
though they're they're part of the convention.
42:09
They don't ever fellowship with any other churches.
42:13
They don't ever participate with the other associational
42:15
meetings. And they act like they're just
42:17
on islands by themselves. And what this actually leads to
42:21
me and you know, something about this is this leads to a cult
42:24
mentality because if we don't let anybody else in our sphere,
42:29
then you know, we come over here and say, oh, well, we're the
42:31
only ones that have the truth. If we then we come over to this
42:35
ditch where we're like, oh, we're not let anyone else in.
42:39
We're the only ones that have the truth.
42:41
But then on the other side of that road, if we're over
42:45
collaborative too much and we become, say, more loyal, loyal
42:51
to the denomination and collaborating with others, then
42:54
our standards, then when that denomination starts to drift,
42:59
we'll compromise to keep the denomination together.
43:02
We'll compromise our, our, our doctrinal purity.
43:06
So we need to strike a balance between being right in the
43:10
middle here where you know, we, we, we need to like, collaborate
43:15
with other churches, but at the same time, we need to keep our
43:18
doctrinal purity, which leads us into influence.
43:22
Influence leadership isn't about power, but about the ability to
43:28
influence others towards a common goal.
43:31
Jesus influenced his disciples and crowns without force, using
43:37
wisdom and love. Listen to me, leader.
43:40
You cannot do it by yourself. You have to delegate.
43:45
You have to find volunteers. You have to find somebody else
43:48
to run the thing because you can't do everything yourself.
43:53
That is the quickest way to get burnt out.
43:56
You have to influence others to step up, to volunteer, to take
44:00
the reins. You have to use your influence
44:03
to where you're not the only one who's doing the work.
44:07
Yeah, absolutely, 100% agree. And you must, must do that #9
44:13
here as we continue on integrity, a leader must act
44:18
with honest and strong moral principles, even when it's hard.
44:22
Jesus's life exemplified this perfectly, even in his hardest
44:27
moments such as his, such as during his trial and his
44:31
crucifixion. Brett, we've seen leaders fall
44:35
recently, specifically one man that I have went to his
44:40
conference just recently and man, I respect the heck out of
44:44
him. He's a great guy, but recently
44:46
had a moral failure. I was listening to Al Mohler
44:48
give an address to Southern Seminary after this happened,
44:52
two days after it happened and Al Mohler made this statement
44:56
and he said, I don't want you to repeat this statement in Chapel.
44:59
He's talking to young people, he said.
45:01
But I was told this advice years and years ago and he said I
45:05
wanted to encourage you. I wanted to help you today.
45:08
And he says a bold statement, but it's going to help you with
45:11
your integrity. He said you will never have an
45:15
affair with a woman that's not your wife if you only if you're,
45:21
if you're never alone with a woman that's not your wife.
45:25
He said you put yourself alone in a room with a woman that's
45:29
not your wife, you're setting yourself up for a momentary time
45:34
of failure. He said integrity, never put
45:38
yourself alone in a room that's not your with a woman that's not
45:42
your wife, because you'll never have sex with that woman because
45:45
you'll always be your wife. And I thought that's such a
45:48
profound, simple statement, like just if we can just have these
45:52
moments where we can simply just put integrity on top shelf and
45:59
say, I'm going to be as much as integrity as I possibly can, I'm
46:05
going to fail. I'm going to make a stupid
46:06
mistake. It's wrong.
46:10
But if I can be an integrity person and I can be an honest
46:14
person as most as humanly possible, not saying to be
46:18
perfect, but if you can live with moral principles and you
46:21
can say when times are tough, I'm going to trust my
46:24
principles. I'm going to trust what Jesus
46:26
did was enough and trust in him. It's going to help us out in an
46:29
amazing, amazing way as leaders let.
46:33
Me tell you a quick story about integrity.
46:35
I had a youth pastor that took us on a youth trip.
46:37
I actually trying to think when it was I think he took us to
46:41
Shawnee, to camp at Shawnee and we went and, but he went to
46:46
Walmart and he bought a box fan, used it the whole week, came
46:50
back, took it back to Walmart and got his money back for it
46:55
because he only wanted it for the trip.
46:57
Well, me being 1314 years old, I went home and I told my stepdad
47:02
what he did, you know, 'cause I thought it was funny because my
47:05
youth pastor did it, but my stepfather did not think it was
47:09
funny. He thought it was dishonest and
47:12
it completely, and I only turned my my stepfather off of that
47:18
youth pastor, but off of that entire church.
47:21
You know, as a leader, you have to do the right thing.
47:25
You have to always do right, even if it hurts, because that's
47:28
what a leader does. And just like you said about not
47:31
being in a room with a woman alone, that's not your wife.
47:34
You got to set up guardrails. It's it, that's good advice.
47:39
You know, it's good advice to, it's a good guardrail to to set
47:43
up which let's go to our next one, which is courage.
47:47
Courage is another leadership quality.
47:49
Leadership requires courage, especially in difficult times.
47:54
You know, Jesus exemplified courage by standing firm in his
47:57
mission, even knowing it would lead to his death.
48:01
Listen, can't you can't step back.
48:05
You can't back down. That's what leadership is.
48:08
Leadership. When everybody else is stepping
48:10
back, you're the one stepping forward.
48:13
Yeah, absolutely. Next one is, is gratitude,
48:16
Brett. Gratitude is leaders show an
48:19
appreciation for those they lead.
48:22
Gratitude encourages and uplifts others.
48:24
Paul often express gratitude for his fellow believers in his
48:28
letters. Oftentimes you'll see where he
48:30
addresses believers that are around him, believers that have
48:33
encouraged him at the beginning of the end of his letter.
48:37
For instance, in Philippians, one that says I give thanks to
48:40
God for my remembrance of you always praying with joy for you
48:45
and in my every prayer because you were partners in the gospel
48:50
from the first day until now. So Paul is is saying, hey,
48:53
listen, there's people that are around me.
48:55
It's not just me doing this. There's people that are
48:58
surrounding me. And I think often times when we
49:00
understand that gratitude is there and we can just say a
49:04
simple word of thanks to those who are around us.
49:07
It goes a whole long ways if we can just say, hey, thank you,
49:11
Church, for what you've done. I said my open announcements.
49:16
Church, just want to thank you for your sacrifice.
49:20
Thank you for bringing in supplies and donations and
49:24
things that are going to help people.
49:25
We are not going to know how how many people are going to hear
49:29
the gospel by the bottles of water that you gave out and it's
49:34
just simply being grateful for what people do often times in my
49:39
deacons mean now open up the meeting men.
49:42
Thank you for taking time away from your families today.
49:45
Thank you for neglecting. I mean, it's a neglect.
49:48
You're, you're neglecting your family to be here late at night.
49:51
And I'll thank them for that because that's what they're
49:54
doing. They are sacrificing so that the
49:57
gospel can be spread. And we, in the same way, are
50:00
encouraging them through gratitude.
50:04
I think an attitude to gratitude, it's part of being
50:06
humble. It's part of realizing that you
50:09
didn't do this on your own. All good things come from God
50:13
and being ungrateful is actually the quickest way to let pride
50:18
over inflate your head where you fall over and chase your
50:21
followers away is being ungrateful.
50:24
And then this is the last one. The last one is resilience.
50:28
Resilience allows leaders to persevere in the face of
50:32
adversity. Look at Paul's ministry as an
50:34
example. He was beaten in prison,
50:37
persecuted, yet he continue to lead and to serve.
50:41
And all I want to say about resilience, resilience is never,
50:45
never give up, never surrender. Yes, you might have to take a
50:50
break. Yes, you might have to go on
50:52
vacation. Yes, you may have to take a
50:54
sabbatical. Everyone does.
50:56
But you just keep keeping on. You keep plugging away.
51:00
Listen, you're, you're going to fail, you're going to fall.
51:04
You're, you're going to organize a meeting and nobody's going to
51:07
show up but you just, you just keep going on, do you?
51:11
You're going to feel like a failure, but don't give up.
51:14
Keep plugging forward. Yeah, there's something about
51:18
being faithful. There's something about being
51:20
faithful to the end. I just buried a dear lady this
51:23
last week, Brett. She's 90.
51:25
She was 91 years old, faithful to her husband for 69 years,
51:30
played the church organ for 50 plus years, 54 years, something
51:33
like that, and was faithful all of her life.
51:38
I used Timothy Titus 2IN in talking about being faithful as
51:45
a faithful wife, as a faithful mother, as a faithful steward of
51:48
God's word. And I, I was just reminded in
51:51
doing that of how are we being faithful?
51:58
And this is a wonderful thing for us to be able to look back
52:02
and say, am I being faithful to the end their entire life as as
52:09
I was talking about that dear brother, and then near the end
52:13
of his ministry, near the end of his life, he'll fall into sin
52:16
and he was not found faithful. My prayer is that I will be
52:21
found faithful at the end of my life, that I will be found
52:25
faithful when it comes to the Lord judge my life.
52:28
And we can have that prayer of when times get hard.
52:32
I'm going to stick it through. I'm going to stay through it.
52:35
Reminded of John MacArthur when he was in his eighth or tenth
52:40
year of ministry at Grace Baptist Church, that Grace
52:43
Community Church there in California, where he had some
52:47
horrible uproar in the church. People not wanting him there
52:50
just had some some upset people. And he just determined that
52:55
that's where the Lord wanted him and he was going to be faithful
52:57
and staying there. And now for 50 something years,
53:00
he's been faithful to be the pastor.
53:02
The church has grown, the college has grown, people have
53:05
been sent out to be pastors out of his church.
53:08
And it's because he was faithful.
53:11
And I think there's a good life lesson for us when we are being
53:15
found faithful. Amen.
53:20
Good stuff. Love it and so and to examine
53:27
your own self here. Ask yourself where you're at.
53:30
Ask yourself what where these areas can you grow both
53:35
spiritually and practically. We've given some scripture on a
53:38
lot of these and really ask yourself, are you seeking the
53:43
Lord daily in his word? Are you seeking the Lord daily
53:46
in prayer? Lead God and direct you in all
53:51
your ways because a servant leader will do those things.
53:55
A servant leader will ultimately begin to look like Christ.
53:59
And our goal of my life and Brett's life is to be a
54:03
Christian, which is Christ like. And so we must ask ourselves,
54:07
are we being examples of Christ everywhere we go?
54:11
And these are the examples of Christ.
54:14
Amen. You know, leadership is
54:17
something that, you know, no one ever When, when I was growing
54:21
up, I never expected that I would be called to be a pastor.
54:25
I actually actually told my friends that I would never, ever
54:30
be a pastor. But you know, leadership is what
54:33
God has called me to. And we can learn leadership more
54:39
through reading, study, studying God's Word and through examples
54:43
of great leaders, great men. And like I said earlier, it's
54:47
not just pastors. There can be leaders in churches
54:51
and we just need to get the word of God and pray and ask the Holy
54:54
Spirit to lead God and direct us.
54:56
Absolutely. Exactly right.
54:58
Well, Brett, I hope you listeners have loved the episode
55:03
today of me and Brett on leadership.
55:05
We have a couple of crossover events coming up over the next
55:08
couple of weeks leading up to the RFP meet up, and we hope
55:13
you'll join us there. And I hope you've enjoyed this
55:15
episode. Thank you for those who have
55:17
reached out over the last couple of weeks and thank you for
55:21
giving and helping in the North Carolina recovery efforts and
55:25
also in the Florida recovery efforts of what they've got
55:27
going on there after the last hurricane.
55:28
Milton. And just lots of areas where we
55:31
can serve, lots of areas where we can help others and we can be
55:35
a blessing for the cause of Christ.
55:37
And so hope to see you in just a couple of weeks.
55:39
And until next time to God. Not the pastor.
55:43
Be the glory. Found my new name.
55:47
Found that good grace, found that healing.
55:51
And the tears fell down my face when I found my beginning that
55:55
has no ending. I found that second chance.
55:57
Found my best friend, found my forgiveness, found my happiness.
55:59
I've been singing ever since. And thou, my freedom, me all.
56:16
Thanks for listening to the For Freedom podcast.
56:19
If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking,
56:23
subscribing, or sharing our podcast on whichever podcast
56:27
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56:30
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