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biblestudy: Character and Leadership

Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Given 04-May-24; Sermon #1761bs; 72 minutes

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There is a man named William La Savage Lander. He was an English author of the turn of the 19th century. And he said, when Little Men cast long shadows, it is a sign that the sun is setting. Mister Lander was not actually speaking about short men. Instead, he was speaking about ignoble men. Those men who have unworthy ideals and ambitions, such men are self-aggrandizing. They're interested only in their own promotion. These Little men now, considering our political landscape that we have here in the United States, such men seem to be the rule rather than the exception, the recent residents of the White House, despite their political acumen, they are very good politically. By the way, a on the other hand, they have very few good ideas. Certainly none that have lifted out us out of political, economic and public health crisesAll they want to do is tell us what to do rather than have good ideas so that we can do for ourselves. What is good, too many of them are opposed even hostile to the traditions and principles of the nation they are supposed to be leading. Do they really understand the principles upon which this nation was founded and are they upholding them? I mean, we even have one supreme court justice who doesn't know at all what the first amendment means. She said a couple of weeks ago that the first amend amendment restricts speech. Oh, or no, no, no. She said it restricts government and that's exactly what it was put in there for. Here's a Supreme Court justice. It doesn't know that the, the, all the amendments were supposed to restrict the government about what they could do to the people. That's what we are dealing with. But getting back to the, our, our other leaders here, they are very popular. It's been split down 5050 between, well, our current candidates, Biden and, and Trump. It's about half and half. We'll go down to the November and it'll be close whichever way unless something happens in the meantime. But it just tells you that that the whole country has a problem. It's not just the leaders, the people are getting the leaders that they deserve. But I believe that if I were, if you were to put a gun to my head and say, what are these men? I would say these men are the little men that Mr Lander had in mind and they will cast long shadows because Americans will be paying for their, their failed policies for generations unless Christ comes and he will, ultimately, he will, we just do not know when now a better quotation on leadership better known at least comes from American's 16th President Abe Lincoln. He said nearly all men can stand adversity. But if you want to test a man's character, give him power. This quotation from a man who was tested as perhaps no other American chief executive has makes it clear that character in leadership matters. You can't really do without it. Holding just generally holding a position of leadership implies holding power and only people of good character can handle power properly. One could go so far as to say that character and leadership is where character matters the most because such people, leaders have influence on many people. Now today, moral character and leadership is not considered a priority when the parties look for candidates, they are not necessarily looking for good people. They're looking for people who will win recent political campaigns reveal what the candidates, public relations experts deem to be important. The first thing that they deem to be important is that they look good in a suit or that they look good on camera that they present a certain appearance. Another thing they look for is the ability to talk without saying anything, nothing of importance. At least they also value appearing tough on the on enemies, foreign and domestic. Oh, this one's way up there too. They need to be able to attract billions of dollars in contributions. Oh, also it's, it's good if a leader like that he is very willing to compromise and to draw things out, get incremental gains if they can't get the gain in a big, big flourish. Recently, it's become good on the or in the thinking of these public relations experts. If the candidate has woke opinions or at least can make it seem like he's not totally rejecting woke opinions but is able to bring them into the big tent of the party. And this person, whoever the candidate is, um has to be able like the last one to pledge support or get the support of various interest groups. The more the better because a lot of times these various interest groups vote in blocks. And if you get that particular interest group, then you may be bringing millions of voters into your camp and the public is helping because now thanks to societal backsliding, the public is willing to forgive indiscretion and obfuscation and playing out straight lying. As long as the leader, once they put him in the office, gives them what they want. All is forgiven if they are able to come through on their promises. That's what we face today. I'm being very cynical about this because it's true when you peel back the, the nice layers on the outside, that's what you see. It's all a game for power and money, but that's not what God wants. When God raises leaders. He doesn't care about power and money. He cares about character. And how that person will lead. And of course, God is the ultimate answer, ultimate source, I should say for the true answer to whether character matters in leadership and we can determine his answer to this by asking just a few very simple questions. Now, the answer should be obvious to us to those who he has called out of this world and, and given an understanding as pastor and leadership guru, John C Maxwell writes, it's true that charisma can make a person stand out for a moment, but character sets a person apart for a lifetime. So first question that we need to ask about what God thinks about character and leadership. Is this? What has he called us to become? Why are we here? Why has he called us? The answer is of course, that he has called us to become his sons and daughters. Ultimately, that's it. He's building a family. He has called you to fill a place in his family to be the bride of Christ, to fill those offices of kings and priests in his government. Maybe you could see that in Revelation 510 kings priests, those are positions of leadership. Therefore, we can rightly say putting these ideas together that his children, maybe I should serve about he has called his children to be leaders to hold important offices of great authority. From this. We can also extrapolate that ultimately the salvation process that is a training regimen is ultimately about leadership because that's the end of the course. Here are five cities. Here are 10 cities. You will be priest to me over this region, you will rule these people. So when he calls people out of this world to become his sons and daughters, he's calling them to be leaders and he puts them through a leadership training regimen. OK, a second question, we need to ask, how do we obtain these positions? Well, I've already gone into that a little bit. The Bible answers in Second Peter 318 where Peter writes that we obtain these positions by growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. OK. We learn by not just growing in the knowledge, the technicalities of things, but we also learned the way God is his attitudes, the way He approaches people, the way he forgives people, the way he waits for people, the way he guides and directs their lives so that they produce the most in other places. Scripture says that and putting it another way, says put on the new man that's Ephesians 424 and a Colossians 310 in another place. Actually several places. It is phrased as become transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. That's Romans 12, 2 and Second Corinthians 318. In other words, we prepare for these positions of leadership by taking on the very character of God Himself. That's what Christ is. Christ is God. Christ is the great leaders. He's the king of kings and Lord of Lords and we are being trained to become like him. He is the new man. We are being called to be the new man too to fill his body because he is the head. See what's going on here. We've been called to a, a great goal of being leaders and everything that is in God's word that's designed for us to learn and grow about is about leadership to be able to fulfill those positions that he has in his mansion waiting for us. That's what Christ said he was going to do, right? I gotta go, God's palace has many offices. I go to prepare a place for you and what is unsaid, but there is, I go to prepare you for the place. So he is preparing us to be just like him, the highest power in the universe, the wisest, most intelligent being the greatest leader of all the one with the purest character. OK? A third question, I hope you're getting this and understanding how I'm trying to take this as logically as possible. OK. Third question we should ask this gets a little negative. Will God allow anyone without his perfect character to rule in his kingdom? Obviously, the answer is no right. He's not going to let somebody who's been stained with sin to rule in his kingdom and often in the the Bible, especially in the New Testament. This is stated in the negative. For instance, first Corinthians 69, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? They will not have offices in the Kingdom Galatians 519 through 21 he writes about those who practice the works of the flesh, concluding with the statement that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God. So people doing evil works will not be there either. And even in the books final chapter, Jesus tells us plainly there. Revelation 2215, speaking of the New Jerusalem, but outside meaning excluded from the New Jerusalem are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever practices alive, they simply will not be there. As a matter of fact, they will not be anywhere, there'll be ashes, smoke rising forever because they will have been put into the Lake of Fire. He will not have anything unrighteous in his kingdom. So those with low character will not be there at all. He requires perfect character. Now, I understand there is a lot of grace going on in all this, but he's just waiting for our attitude to finally click to the point. We said, we say your will not my will be done. God, you're correct in everything. I'm correct in nothing. He wants to see where we come to the realization we are nothing. Why does he start to be attitudes with blessed are the poor in spirit? Because that at that moment when you're truly poor, poor in spirit, you're on the way because you're putting God first in yourself last because you have nothing to contribute. I'm not there yet. I hope many of you are. My head is still too big. I've still got too much ego, but I'm working at it. OK? We had our three questions so we can conclude that every ruler in his kingdom will have his personal stamp of approval on his or her character. God says you pass, you pass, you pass. Welcome to my kingdom. Here's your rewards. Now, Christ is the judge of all this one who has perfect character ruler over all things we find in Matthew 28 all authority has been given to me by my father. He's the high priest of the church. And like I said, he's the judge of all because of what he is and who he is and his omniscience, no one will be able to slip under his rod when he evaluates his sheep. And it is rightly said by Peter that the righteous are scarcely saved because there is such a vast disparity between any kind of human, good character and his perfect character. So we have to think about that. He's asking us to do a very hard thing, very difficult. If it were easy, everybody would be doing it. But he's had to keep the pool very small right now because it is such a hard thing. Only a small amount of people, even among those he calls will actually be chosen. Doesn't he say that many are called, few chosen? Because even among those that he, he gives a great deal to so many do not follow through, as he says in the parables, some get caught in this, some do that. Some, some get distracted by this other thing and they leave the path and do not reach the goal. And so understand he's given us a very hard, very difficult, very aggravating. Very, I do not need agonizing way. Yeah. I, I hope you all caught that. When I was going through the Sermon on the Mountain, we got to the narrow way. I was pretty specific about calling it the constricting way because it's going to press you and, and frustrate you and, and make you wanna give up because it's so difficult. The standards are so high. Everything we need to do goes against our nature and we are kicking at our nature all the time and it makes us feel this big because we fail so often. We fail to be like Christ. So we need to take this seriously. Our judgment hangs in the balance. We can't be a scoundrel by any means because we will not be in the kingdom of God. If we are a scoundrel, we can't even be someone of moderate character. It doesn't cut it. He will make sure listen to this. He will make sure that every citizen, not just ruler, every citizen of New Jerusalem has perfect character. Talk about standards. We're not going to be ruling over, you know, normal human beings. That's hard enough. I guess it'll be easier when every person is going to be perfectly responsive to all directives and understanding and have the right attitude and be compliant and submissive. We can't understand it. We do not have anything to equate it to. You get more than one person you've got to fight. It's either about to happen or you're just getting out of one and going into another one because people are just at each other all the time. And so that's why God wants us to have perfect character like him and everybody else, we have perfect character like him and this is why it's called paradise. We do not understand it because we sin and everybody else sins and we just go into a spiral of destruction, rebellion and death. So does character matter. The answer is absolutely yes. Character means everything to us as his called out ones and it means everything to leadership, whether human or divine. If somebody says it doesn't matter that a character has leadership, he's selling you down the river because character is everything in leadership. How about this question? Does a person's personal life affect his public life? Can a person be a real sinner in his public life but be, you know, Alabaster pure in his public life? No, I'll just tell you that right now because it leaks out. Remember Bill Clinton, I can put this in one part of my mind. I'll compartmentalize it and you know, I'll be able to do this without, you know, all the, the ladies, he could not do that. What happened in his second term? That compartment came busting open and it affected every person in the United States. We're talking about the Mona Monica Lewinsky scandal. That was what just one of many, he could not separate his personal life from his public life. It is impossible. There are always leaks. So we need to be careful about that in our thinking about our own leadership that we need to be humble. If we have problems in our personal life, they are going to leak over into our leadership duties and we better take care of those, those personal problems before they leak so that we can handle the leadership properly. So if a leader has a record of doing wicked things in his private life, it is not logical to think that some of his immorality will bleed over into his public life. It has to, that's the way it works. We can't divorce ourselves and split ourselves into all these different compartments because what does Jesus say? Out of the abundance of the heart? The mouse speaks, he says, out of the abundance of the heart comes murders and all those things that he listed among them adulteries and all those other things that, that he says there to the Pharisees. He said also that the sins, one sins, if you do not take care of them are going to be shouted from the rooftops because that's just the way it works. These things will out quoting Shakespeare. Ok, let's go to Mark Seven. This is a Bible study. I'm 30 minutes in and we are just getting to our first real scripture, Mark seven. But I wanted to take us through that, that logical thought process so that we understand things very simply. We need to understand that we've been called the leadership and the leadership training that we are getting or, or the, the way we get there is through leadership training, our sanctification process, we must become righteous and holy to be the kind of leader. God wants us to be OK. We're going to read verses 20 through 23 here of Mark seven, 20 through 23. This is what I just said. And he said, Jesus, what comes out of a man that defiles a man for what? From within? Out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornication, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, or lewdness and evil eye blasphemy, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and defile a man. So it's inside, it's part of our human nature, it's part of our flesh, it's our car carnality and these things do come out. We can't keep them hidden for long. A person carries what is inside of him wherever he goes and those internal traits will affect whatever he does. If the characteristics that are within him are good and benevolent, he will behave with kindness and generosity in every situation, or at least try to. Yet, if his heart is black with hate and self seeking, he will act meanly and selfishly toward everyone because that's what's inside, that's what's driving him. He may cloak his evil nature for a short time from others. But Jesus tells us, as I just mentioned, his secret sins will be shouted from the rooftops if he continues in them, that's Luke 12 3. Now let's go back to Matthew 20. I've given this so often that I got ahead of myself there. Matthew 20 verses 25 through 28. See I knew what was coming up and I just went right through it. OK? Matthew 20 versus 25 through 28. This is where we are starting to transition into leadership, proper leadership. But Jesus called them to himself. This is when James and John were arguing or you know, the the their mother is this the one with? So, so yeah, her, their, their mother was trying to get them top positions in the kingdom and one on the left, one on the right and the disciples, the the other disciples heard about this and they were all, they were all you know about to have a fight because they all wanted to be on the right hand or the left. And here the sons of Ze were jumping the line as they saw it verse 25. But Jesus called them to himself and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles Lorded over them and those who are great exercise authority over them yet it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you to be a leader, if you will let him be your servant and whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave. He doubles down just as the son of man did not come to be served. Remember who he was greatest authority in the universe, other than God, the Father, our judge, our high priest king of kings, Lord of Lords, the son of man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So he gives the perfect example of the kind of Christian leadership that we need to be striving for. He was not the one that said I am the great Jesus Christ, the son of God. You shall serve me. That's how the Gentiles would do it. They would make a strong man or they would would become a strong man and demand everybody serve them and do what they said. Now, Jesus still wants us to do what he says, but he doesn't do it as the strong man type. He makes the right example and serves so that other people know what the best thing is to do. So the rulers of the Gentiles like authority, oh, they love authority and power and they use it to control others. They will lie, cheat, steal, murder, mass murder, ethnic cleanse, whatever it takes to get what they want and where they want, they will use and abuse people even their own, stab them in the back, climb over their dead bodies to reach the top because nothing is more important than getting the first position, wherever it is, whatever the, whatever the, the group or society or what have you that they are seeking to have hold power in and rule control. If the leadership of the church were this way, it would look like a lot like the political factions and rivalries that sees just under the surface in the Catholic church. You peel back the facade of the Vatican and you see its black heart, it's a political entity and the people within it act as the Gentiles act. But among Christ's true disciples, leadership should be, it must be different. Real leaders after Christ mold are servants, people who do their best to help other people and make a good example. Every time they do anything just like Christ, they do their best to help to lift up, free them from, free others from the things that hold them back. Christian leaders make sacrifices of their time and energy to help others move forward toward the Kingdom of God. They are not concerned about position, power or wealth. You know what they are interested in people, people and their spiritual growth, their relationship with Christ and their faith in God. And what is true in a word. What I've been describing is that Christian leaders speak and act like Christ. That's what he did. They do their best to grow in his character and express it in how they work with others. Now, what are some characteristics of Christ that Christian leaders exhibit in their own work? I've got five here, five characteristics of a Christian leader that mirror or parallel what Christ Himself does. Number one, they speak the truth. Let's go to Ephesians four. Ephesians four, we will start in verse 11 says there and he himself, Christ gave some to be apostles. This is the what he gave his grace that he gave to the church by supplying leadership. He gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of ministry or service for the edifying the building up of the body of Christ. Till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man. Huh? What do you know there it is in black and white. His work is to make all of us perfect like him, the son of Godthe Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So he put leadership in the church to bring about this transformation that we should no longer be children. So we are talking about a maturity, a process of maturity here tossed to and fro carried about by every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men in the cunning, craftiness by which they lie in, wait to deceive. So the the purpose of the ministry then is to be a bulwark against the deceptions of the world by teaching the truth and to have this unity of the faith among the people so that they can all stand together against it. Let's go on. But speaking, the truth in love may grow up in all things into him. Who is the head Christ, from whom the whole body joined and knit together by what every joint supplies according to the effective working by which every part does. Its share causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. And then let's drop down all the way to verse 25. He gives a concluding statement here. Therefore, putting away lying. Each one, speak truth with his neighbor for we are members of one another. There should be no deceit among us. We should be speaking the truth to each other. That's what leaders do. That's what leaders in training do. So they get used to being truthful with one another. No, I know sometimes the truth is hard. We can be loving in the way we express truth to one another and we should be. But everything that we say should be true. So here we see that Christ's gift of leaders is for the purpose of equipping the elect you and me for service and to speak the truth and to mature into the character of Christ. Notice what he says in verse 29 let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. But what is good for necessary edification building up that it may impart grace to the hears, not hard, harsh words, even if they are true. We should be imparting grace to the here. That's a hard thing. But what we are seeing here in Ephesians four is truth speaking by the servants of Christ is vital. Our lives revolve around the truth and our words to one another must revolve around the truth. All right, let's go to the second one. Christian leaders uphold standards. Christian leaders uphold standards, the book of Titus. We remember we went through that about three years ago. It's full of admonitions on how to maintain a sound church. A lot of them are standards that Paul told Titus. These are things that you must uphold among the people there. Let's go to Titus one. Just look at a few of these Titus one. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on them. Like because I think you can see what's going on there. Titus, one versus 10 through 13. This was one that Titus had to take care of, of immediately for there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision there. The Jews there in, in crete that were part of the church whose mouths must be stopped. That's kind of harsh way to put it, but it had to happen who subvert whole households teaching things which they ought not for the sake of dishonest gain. One of them, a prophet of their own said, Cretans are all always liars, evil beasts, lady, lazy gluttons. This testimony is true. Paul says, therefore, rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith. I think that's all we need there. Let's drop down to chapter two verses six through 10. He says, likewise, exhort the young men to be sober minded in all things, showing yourself Titus to be a pattern of good works in doctrine, showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility, sound speech that cannot be condemned. That one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you. Let's keep going. Exhort servants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering that is from their own, from their masters. You know, slaves were owned by their masters. And he said, hey, people who are in the church who are slaves of another shouldn't be stealing from their masters, I should go without saying right. But it was probably a pretty widespread practice and they needed to come out of this, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, all good faith that they may or faithfulness that they may be. They, they may adorn the doctrine of God, our Savior in all things, even slaves. Paul told Timothy should be making a good example of what God teaches. Let's go on chapter three verses one and two, remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. Jump down to verse nine but avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions and striving about the law for they are unprofitable and useless. All these little debates that we have with one another about peripheral things, they are useless. We do not have time to talk about things that are, you know, so far out on the twigs of the tree that they pull us away from what is truly important. He says, rejected divisive man after the 1st and 2nd admonition, knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self condemned. OK? I read all those things because they all fill it into the illustration of that a Christian leader has to uphold fairly stringent standards. And I think the middle one that we saw there where, where Paul was telling Titus to be an example to the young men is the best way to do it. We do not need to be telling, you know, going around to every woman with a measuring tape and saying, oh, your skirt is too short. It doesn't reach, you know, this particular number on my ruler, but I'll use my wife. She has to be an example of that sort of thing and that gets through to a certain people, other people, you may have to be a little bit more forward about it, you know, say, you know, you're exposing too much in the churchYou're not being modest and that should be all it takes. But the best way to enforce the standards is to do the standard and to show it all the time and those who are thinking and, and, and wise will conform. So, that's probably a b a bad example, but it was one that the church had dealt with years ago, especially in the miniskirt eraThere were a lot of, you know, angry young women whose minister said you can't come to church in that. We've lost that in a way in the church and we need to get back to being modestYou know, if in this church, we can show a, a good example to the rest of the church. Bravo good. That's the way to do it without causing offense. Hopefully, you never know. Some people are very quick to take offense. So sometimes a church leader has to do this actively, sometimes passively, passively is best if we just see a good example and conform. That's wonderful. Sometimes it may seem harsh what Titus had to do to those Jews rebuke them sharply. That's pretty harsh. We tend to have a lighter hand in this day and age because everybody gets all offended so quickly. Um And then they spread it all over social media and it just makes a big stink, but it has to be done. We have to hold the standard as high as possible to encourage growth. If God sees that we are following the standard, he's going to supply us good fruit because He knows that he that we believe him and we practice it. OK? Number three Christian leaders listen to their charges, listen to those whom God has placed under them. They do not think they know everything. Let's go to Luke the second chapter. I want to give you an example from the life of Jesus Christ when he was just a boy, 12 years old, he was already surpassing all of us in this particular characteristic. Let's start in verse 41 Luke 241 his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast. When they had finished the days as they returned, the boy Jesus lingered behind in Jerusalem and Joseph and his mother did not know it, but supposing him to have been in the company, they went a day's journey and sought him among their relatives and acquaintances. So when they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem seeking him now. So it was that after three days, they found him in the temple sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions and all who heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. Do I need any more? Um Let's go down to verse 52. What was the result of all this good leadership that he was already showing? Verse 52? And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. It was to his great credit that he listened to his elders, listened to the priest, listened to the lawyers, listened to these people and ask them questions and probably pinned them down on certain things. He was really good at that. Um He later developed a, a rhetorical way of dealing with them that asked them questions back and pinned them to the wall because, hey, if I answer this way, he's going to think this. And if I answer him this way, the people are going to think this. And so they would have to retreat. But he was young at already displaying more character and leadership than most do. Let's go to James one verse 19, you all know this one. It is probably one of your memory scriptures, James 119. Therefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. As all the commentators say, they invariably put in God gave us two ears but only one mouth. So perhaps we should listen twice as much as we speak. It's probably a good rule of thumb that we learn to listen to people. Be eager to understand and consider not just the, the law or you know what, what God has said. Listen to them, listen to their circumstances, listen to the, the the little details of their life that may make the situation a little more tricky to to solve or just to help in then what may be a, a quotation out of the Bible is going to give them a lot of times listening is, is a way of coming to an understanding of how that person feels, how that person is thinking, what may be holding things up. You do not have to tell them, oh, you're just being stubborn. It's all your fault. That's, that's a little too much truth telling. But maybe there is a way by your listening to them and listening to their situation that you can, as I mentioned in the sermon, walk circumspectly through that problem and find out how you can truly help them. A lot of times we are much too eager to jump to a conclusion rather than to listen to their heart, listen to their circumstances and find out the best solution rather than just, you know, a, a quick um recitation of a verse because a lot of times our problems are a little bit more complicated than just that, if that would have solved the problem, they would have done it already. So we need to be forbearing and loving with people merciful, giving them time being patient so that they can work these things out. So listen, try to understand consider and perhaps it's only good to speak when all that is over and we can then speak with wisdom and truth, obviously. OK. Number four, Christian leaders give gifts, they give help. If only it's, it's the, you know, usual things that we could think about giving them. But I want you to consider something. Let's go back to Ephesians four lips run way ees four verses seven and eight. OK. You have to understand this. This is how God works. He gives gifts. But to each one of us, this is Ephesians 47 to each one of us. Grace that is gifts or providence or gifts favor some sort of help was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, he says when he ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men, understand what it's saying here, I mean, its simplest way of understanding this when Jesus Christ ascended to heaven, the first thing he did was give gifts to us, to his church. He led captivity captive, he released us and took the captivity away. And when he got to his position of almighty power, the first thing he did was send gifts to his church because they needed it. That's how Christ is. He gives gifts to men. Let's go to John 14, John 14 and verses 26 and 27. Ok. Let, let's just read verse 25 these things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the helper, the Holy spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance. All things that I said to you. Peace. I leave with you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives. Do I give to you? Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid. Let's go on to chapter 17. This is a dominant characteristic of our God. Chapter 17 verses six through eight. He tells his father, I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me and they have kept your word. Now, they have known that all things which you have given me are from you for I have given to them the words which you have given me and they have received them and have known surely that I came forth from you and they have believed that you sent me. So this is a a train or you know from God, the Father to Jesus Christ, to his disciples. There is just a process of giving. One gives to the other to the other. They're all leading father leads by giving, the son leads by giving and his disciples once they have received, they are to lead by giving cause that's the example. Let's go to verse 14, I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world, verse 22 and the glory which you have given me, I have given them and notice what this is supposed to produce. That they may be one just as we are one. I will not say that the ultimate end point of all this giving is unity. But it's pretty important that if all the people of God starting from God Himself, through his son, through his disciples, all have this giving nature that makes them unique. No wonder the world hates them because the world doesn't want to give, it wants to get. And so the people of God stand apart as givers because they are willing to share, willing to take care of one another to give of what time and resources they have. And of course, Christ's gifts are far above what we can give to other people, but we can all give time. We all have time. We all think that we do not have very much time or that our time is filled. So there is none for anybody else, but we can give time. We could all give some attention to those who do not get much attention. See what's on their minds, find out what's bothering them. See if there is some way we can give them something else to fill those needs, we can give wisdom. Some of us have kind of a short supply, but we can give what we have. And if we give wisdom, I'm sure God is willing to give us more wisdom to help. Isn't that one of the things He says, hey, if you need wisdom, call me, I'll give it to you. So we need not run out of wisdom because what God is willing to give it and we can pass it right along. Now, have you ever thought of this? We think, oh, God is the one who gives us peace. God is the one who gives us loveGod is the one who shows us kindness. God is the one who's patient and gentle and long suffering and fills us with joy and helps us be faithful and gives us support and, and comfort and one thing after another. But did you realize, do you realize that you can give every one of those things too. It's not going to be so grand and spiritual as what He gives, but you can give peace, you can give love, you can show kindness, you can be patient, you can be gentle in the way you deal with them. You can be long suffering and forbearing with people and their foibles. You can show people joy in the way you get along with them. You can show people and help them to be faithful. You can support them, you can comfort them all those things that God does. If you have his spirit and he has given them to you, you can pass them right along. That's what we are supposed to do. Isn't that the giving train father gives to the son gives to his disciples and we spread them around. That's what we are supposed to do. The way of God is not an individual thing. The way of God is a group thing. We are a group that makes up one body. We are all individuals, but we all have to give our share. That's what it says at the end of Ephesians 4 1516, right in there, we all have to do our share to bring unity to the body, in love and edification. See, this is where a lot of people get things wrong. They think that in order to give to other people, you gotta give them money or you've got to give them, you know, you've got I do not know, help tile their bathroom or, you know, you have to do something physical for them. You have to send penpal letters all over the world. You have to do this and that. Those are good things. Don't get me wrong. I'm saying if you have the opportunity and the skills and that sort of thing, go ahead and do that. That's a, that's very nice of you. But God and Christ are more interested in the spiritual things that we can help one another with in order to produce unity that we will all come to have one mind. And I go forward as his body unified into the future and whatever it holds, something that the church has lacked over the past, at least since the De Kat regime, when their divisive doctrines began to divide us all up. That's really what I've been frustrated about that. It's still progressing after 30 years, 35 years. And there just seems no stopping it because we've imbibed the, the bad attitudes of the worldI was telling somebody um that we essentially have formed or come up with our own cancel culture. And in simple terms, it's form your own group or take yourself from the group that you're in because you have one doctrine that's different, that's not going to cut it. That's not unity, that's division. So, remember, Doctor Hay, all right. Um Number five Christian leaders last one, perhaps the most important, remain humble. Christian leaders remain humble. Let's go to John 13. We're in 17, back a few pages verse 12. So when he had washed their feet, taken his garments and sat down again, he said to them, do you know what I have done to you? You call me teacher and Lord and you say well for so I am, he doesn't deny it. He has all authority. If I then your Lord and teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do as I have done to you. Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him if you know these things happy, are you if you do them? I mean, I know you've thought about this before, but really think about it now what he did there as an example for us is absolutely monumental. He was who he was. He was Lord of all, but he was humble as Lord of all to serve even the, the smallest, the most insignificant of people. He was not afraid to touch the leper. He would heal the blind and the palsied and the sick of all kinds. He would cast out demons because people were being just oppressed by them. He was willing to get down in the trenches and do what needed to be done because he was modeling true leadership that he was willing to be humble, not to put himself on high and say underling go solve that problem. No, that's not how he was. He was willing to make himself look low while doing the work. God wanted him to do. He did not balk at doing even menial service like washing the feet. That was you probably all heard that was done by the lowest slave in the house, but he was willing to do it and he had to, he used it, I guess I think in a way to wake up his, his disciples like Peter, who he had the little dispute with there that this is how they have got to be, if they are going to do his work, they better be humble and be willing to get dirty and do what needs to be done. So Jesus teaches that we need to assume lowliness. Let others show us honor rather than take it for ourselves. That's what he tells us in Luke 14 verses seven through. It's either 10 or 11. My notes here are unclear. Let me see. Luke 14 starting in verse seven. Good. So he told a parable to those who were invited when he noted how they chose the best places. Saying to them when you're invited by anyone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in the best place lest one more honorable than you be invited. By him and he who invited you and him come and say to you give place to this man and then you begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit down in the lowest place. So that when he who invited you comes, he may say to you friend, go up higher, then you will have glory in the presence of those who sit at the table with you. It was 11 for whoever exalts himself will be abased and he who humbles himself will be exalted. This principle is said time after time after time after time throughout the New Testament, because it's a critical factor. It is in my mind, the factor that gets the ball rolling. If you're truly humble, if you have, if you are poor in spirit, then you have what it takes to finish your leadership training course with honors. Because that attitude of humble service is what's going to carry you through because it's the exact character of Jesus Christ that he is perhaps most known for. He was humble even though he had no reason to be by human standards. Let's see. First Peter five where we get to the toward the end of the book. And the same thing is said, I actually read this. It must have been on my mind. First Peter five, we will start in verse five. Likewise, you younger people submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility. For God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble, therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. Let's finish in Romans eight verses 28 and 29. You know these verses, we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he foreknew. He also protested to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. So we have been foreknown and call called and preordained to be conformed to the image of his son. That's a tall order to go from worm to the great Lord of the universe. That's what we are being asked to share all the authority of Jesus Christ as his bride, as his queen. You know, but the leadership training manual and the spirit of God and the experiences that He puts us through, give us all the tools and the helps at hand by the gifts and presence of God to grow into that image. Do you know what we lack? Well humility? But I think one of the big things that we lack is will not willpower, but we lack the will to give ourselves fully to the program. We're still clinging to our flesh. But it's possible it's certainly possible because all the gifts are there ready to be given and used. We're learning how to lead with Christ like character. We're learning to lead others into this way during the millennium, during the Great White Throne judgment. What you do in these years of your life is going to affect millions or billions of people. And that's why God is so concerned about forming good character in his people because he's not concerned just about us. He's concerned about the whole world. He wants all of them as his children and he wants a leadership core that's going to do the job, right? So you have, you have all the tools, you know, what needs to be done. You need to grow in character, you need to grow in leadership. Because is not that really what it's all about?

RTR/aws/

 

 

Sermon Topics

False Gospels

Jesus Christ's Return

Life after Death

Repentance

Resurrection

The Gospel

The Kingdom of God