WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.919 So we're going to look at this issue of leadership together. There's a list of 00:00:06.919 --> 00:00:11.740 spiritual gifts found in Romans chapter 12. I'm just going to read that. Where 00:00:11.740 --> 00:00:15.240 the Apostle Paul writes to the Roman Church and says, we've got different 00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:21.080 gifts according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesied 00:00:21.080 --> 00:00:25.679 then prophesied in accordance with your faith. If it's serving then serve. If it's 00:00:25.679 --> 00:00:30.719 teaching then teach. If it's to encourage then give encouragement. If it's giving 00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:38.480 then give generously. If it's to lead do it diligently. If it's to show mercy do 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:44.079 it cheerfully. So leadership is an important part of the gifts that God has 00:00:44.079 --> 00:00:52.560 given to his church and to his people. So what does good leadership look like? 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:59.120 What does good Christian leadership look like? If you've been part of a church 00:00:59.120 --> 00:01:04.640 for any length of time then you probably know what bad Christian leadership looks 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:12.240 like and the church is much to apologize for in many ways for how poorly it's 00:01:12.240 --> 00:01:18.719 exercised leadership in many people's lives. One of the favorite films I saw 00:01:18.719 --> 00:01:23.519 last year, I saw it several times because my son loved it so much, was The Darkest 00:01:23.519 --> 00:01:32.319 Hour and that's the film about Winston Churchill leading Britain through the 00:01:32.319 --> 00:01:38.239 D-Day crisis or not the D-Day crisis but the Dunkirk crisis. Gary Oldman 00:01:38.239 --> 00:01:44.319 fantastic incredible performance as Winston Churchill and some people ask 00:01:44.319 --> 00:01:49.559 what made Winston Churchill such a great wartime leader and the answer to give is 00:01:49.559 --> 00:01:55.119 that he really hated Hitler. Really hated Hitler. So is that what a good leader is? 00:01:55.119 --> 00:02:01.239 Somebody who's full of hate? Probably not but it made him a good leader. So 00:02:01.239 --> 00:02:05.039 sometimes we look around for leadership models you know and we think you know we 00:02:05.039 --> 00:02:10.439 look at secular models Sir Alex Ferguson that great Scottish sporting legend is 00:02:10.439 --> 00:02:17.759 he a great role model or we might look at figures in the Bible and say well 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:24.199 David you know King David is he a great leadership role model but I don't want to 00:02:24.199 --> 00:02:27.719 do any of that with you. I decided to come to John chapter 15 because I think 00:02:27.719 --> 00:02:32.520 here what's happening is it's the night before Jesus is crucified he's with his 00:02:32.520 --> 00:02:37.000 closest circle of friends the future leaders of the New Testament church and 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:43.120 he's entrusting the leadership and the mission of the church into their hands. 00:02:43.120 --> 00:02:48.680 So if we want to get insight into the kind of leadership that Jesus wants in 00:02:48.680 --> 00:02:54.280 the church then this is a really helpful place to start because there are 00:02:54.280 --> 00:03:00.240 really important leadership themes woven into the passage in John 15 that 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:06.979 Derek read earlier. You might not think of yourself as a leader but actually we 00:03:06.979 --> 00:03:13.799 all teach we all pass on information we all set the tone the culture we all 00:03:13.799 --> 00:03:22.120 influence and share ideas we're all involved in making things happen in the 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:31.560 home at work in the community here in church we're all involved in leading 00:03:31.560 --> 00:03:37.840 influencing directing the course of events we might lead small groups we 00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:42.960 might lead kids church we might lead music but we're all involved at 00:03:42.960 --> 00:03:48.439 different levels in different ways in leading and influencing others. I'm 00:03:48.439 --> 00:03:52.920 going to give you a simple definition of leadership to begin with and then I'm 00:03:52.920 --> 00:03:58.159 just going to sort of unpack that in different ways and this idea of 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:01.360 leadership is not mine I read it in a book called Gospel Centre Leadership 00:04:01.360 --> 00:04:06.520 it's an excellent book by two guys called Steve Timmis and Tim Chester but 00:04:06.520 --> 00:04:10.260 really what the insight that the book has that I found most useful is this 00:04:10.260 --> 00:04:16.100 that a Christian leader is not teaching others to live under their 00:04:16.100 --> 00:04:20.100 authority or their leadership but actually Christian leadership is 00:04:20.100 --> 00:04:27.139 teaching others to live under the authority of Jesus Christ. Okay so my 00:04:27.139 --> 00:04:31.519 job is not to exercise power or authority over you as a Christian leader but 00:04:31.519 --> 00:04:37.039 it's to help you to live under Christ's kingship Christ leadership Christ 00:04:37.039 --> 00:04:41.599 authority and if you're a Christian this evening then that's that's true for all 00:04:41.599 --> 00:04:49.779 of us isn't it that what we want to do is to lead others towards Jesus and we 00:04:49.779 --> 00:04:56.279 want to lead others towards Jesus in a way that they find that he is a good 00:04:56.279 --> 00:05:02.399 king and that to live under his reign and his authority that's good you don't 00:05:02.399 --> 00:05:06.199 want to live under my authority or my reign I can tell you people I've tried 00:05:06.199 --> 00:05:10.959 it people didn't like it okay it's miserable but to live under Jesus 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:19.439 authority in reign that is wonderful because he is a good perfect king so as 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:22.319 I speak about leadership that's the kind of leadership that I've got in mind 00:05:22.319 --> 00:05:30.920 leading others to live under the good reign of Jesus Christ all my points 00:05:30.920 --> 00:05:35.639 start with L and there's loads of them so hopefully I'll be quite brief but 00:05:35.639 --> 00:05:40.959 anyway we'll go and we'll see how we go but you know all with L so living 00:05:40.959 --> 00:05:48.120 lowly listening loving we're gonna go on like that okay so let's start with living 00:05:48.120 --> 00:05:53.720 leadership so just at the beginning of John chapter 15 Jesus says I am the true 00:05:53.720 --> 00:06:03.680 vine my father is the vine dresser there's an organic metaphor here every 00:06:03.680 --> 00:06:07.500 branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away every branch that does bear 00:06:07.500 --> 00:06:14.120 fruit he prunes so that it can be more bear more fruit and verse 4 abide in me 00:06:14.120 --> 00:06:17.920 I knew as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine 00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:23.920 neither can you unless you abide in me so that's a really clear simple sort of 00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:33.840 horticultural idea that as Christians our life is rooted in Jesus Christ all 00:06:33.840 --> 00:06:41.040 spiritual life flows to the believer from Jesus he is the vine where the branch is 00:06:41.040 --> 00:06:47.680 the only way we can have spiritual life spiritual vitality spiritual fruit is to 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:55.600 live a life in union with Christ rooted in him in the previous chapter chapter 00:06:55.600 --> 00:07:02.199 14 of John's gospel in the same kind of pre crucifixion teaching that Jesus 00:07:02.199 --> 00:07:07.879 gives he's spoken to the disciples about the gift of the Holy Spirit and he 00:07:07.879 --> 00:07:12.160 says the Holy Spirit is going to come and live in you so that you can continue 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:19.600 to know my presence in your life when I'm no longer around physically I will 00:07:19.600 --> 00:07:25.000 dwell in you Jesus says by the Holy Spirit the Spirit of God brings 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:31.879 spiritual life to the people of Jesus he is the vine spiritual life flows through 00:07:31.879 --> 00:07:38.520 him so first thing then to say to this is you cannot give spiritual leadership 00:07:38.519 --> 00:07:46.319 to other people unless Jesus Christ is living in you and you are living in him 00:07:46.319 --> 00:07:51.439 verse 4 we must abide in him we must dwell in him we must live in him we 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:57.560 must remain in him and he must remain in us this is the idea that theologians 00:07:57.560 --> 00:08:01.879 call union with Christ that through faith we are united to Christ in his death 00:08:01.879 --> 00:08:09.439 and resurrection that all the life we have is bound up in Jesus Christ so I 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:13.839 want to say to you you may want to be an influencer of others you may want to do 00:08:13.839 --> 00:08:20.600 good in this world and to start that process as a Christian then you have to 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:28.279 live in relationship with Jesus Christ and you have to focus first on your 00:08:28.279 --> 00:08:34.879 relationship with Jesus Christ only through him can you do anything that's 00:08:34.879 --> 00:08:41.679 really good okay I think that's a great insight isn't it in verse verse 4 you 00:08:41.679 --> 00:08:47.159 can't bear fruit by yourself unless you abide in the vine okay so unless you 00:08:47.159 --> 00:08:56.240 abide in Jesus but if we do abide in Jesus in verse 8 he tells us we will 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:06.879 bear much fruit so some of you know about Tim Keller who is a well-recognized 00:09:06.879 --> 00:09:13.720 pastor he's now retired from Manhattan in New York and he's got a book so there's 00:09:13.720 --> 00:09:18.639 gonna be a church planting references woven through this he's got a manual 00:09:18.639 --> 00:09:24.159 called the church planter training manual that I use a lot and in it he 00:09:24.159 --> 00:09:29.879 makes a distinction between what he calls gift operation and spirit 00:09:29.879 --> 00:09:34.240 operation and he's trying to draw attention to the fact that we can do 00:09:34.240 --> 00:09:40.159 many things in a kind of church setting or a home setting or a life setting we 00:09:40.159 --> 00:09:47.679 can do lots of things out of the strength of our own gifts and sometimes it 00:09:47.679 --> 00:09:55.319 can look as if we're doing a great job but he's saying if you want what you're 00:09:55.319 --> 00:10:00.599 doing to bear lasting spiritual fruit you can't do it in the strength of your 00:10:00.599 --> 00:10:04.919 own gifts you need to do it in the power in the ministry of the Holy Spirit 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:10.839 unless God is in it unless the spirit is in it it won't bear eternal fruit the 00:10:10.839 --> 00:10:15.599 good fruit of the gospel that God is looking for there's somebody that I use 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:22.720 as an example of this now who's very dated but a man called Ted Haggard now 00:10:22.720 --> 00:10:26.399 Ted Haggard was a minister of Colorado Springs probably about 20 years ago and 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:34.440 he led a huge church 14,000 people in his church and he was also a head of the 00:10:34.440 --> 00:10:39.680 evangelical alliance of America which had 42 million members so he was on 00:10:39.679 --> 00:10:51.319 obviously an incredibly gifted person at a gifting level huge impact but at the 00:10:51.319 --> 00:10:57.879 same time he was smoking crack with male prostitutes so you had somebody very 00:10:57.879 --> 00:11:05.879 gifted but whose personal life was really corrupt and who personally was 00:11:05.879 --> 00:11:10.759 far away from God so you can operate and look as if you've got a successful 00:11:10.759 --> 00:11:15.799 church or a successful ministry or a successful life because humanly speaking 00:11:15.799 --> 00:11:21.200 that's the way it looks but without the power of the Holy Spirit it's not going 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:25.639 to bear fruit for eternity so you need to live in Jesus and Jesus must be 00:11:25.639 --> 00:11:30.279 living in you second thing I want to say is lowly good leadership gospel 00:11:30.279 --> 00:11:35.600 leadership is lowly what's the context it's the night before the crucifixion 00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:41.279 to give insight to how Jesus views leadership and how he's going to offer 00:11:41.279 --> 00:11:48.560 himself a sacrifice to rescue his people the night that Jesus is speaking here in 00:11:48.560 --> 00:11:56.879 chapter 13 he's got down and washed the feet of his disciples a really menial 00:11:56.879 --> 00:12:02.920 tasks usually taken on by the the most menial low-state as household servant 00:12:02.919 --> 00:12:12.159 Jesus is saying the Lord is the servant Jesus is saying to lead is to serve to be 00:12:12.159 --> 00:12:16.639 the leader is to be the one who is willing to take the lowest and the 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:23.439 humblest position to be a real leader Jesus says spiritually is to know that 00:12:23.439 --> 00:12:29.039 we are nothing and that Jesus is everything that it's not about us and 00:12:29.039 --> 00:12:32.839 it's not about us having power and it's not about us having influence on a 00:12:32.840 --> 00:12:37.399 authority over others I've met people who said I love to be a leader in the 00:12:37.399 --> 00:12:41.560 church because then I could make sure that things happen the right way and the 00:12:41.560 --> 00:12:46.680 church would be a lot better if I was in charge and that's what some people 00:12:46.680 --> 00:12:52.639 think of as leadership isn't it it's a power over others I was reading an essay 00:12:52.639 --> 00:12:56.639 in the New York Times a few years ago about American politics and before the 00:12:56.639 --> 00:13:01.960 last presidential America election in America and they're talking about 00:13:01.960 --> 00:13:05.879 politicians and why politicians seek office you know I mean who would want to 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:10.000 be a politician really and they drew this distinction you know that some 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:17.160 politicians seek office because they want power over others but then you get a 00:13:17.160 --> 00:13:21.160 different group of politicians who seek office because they want power to help 00:13:21.160 --> 00:13:27.200 others power to serve others power to make a difference in the lives of others 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:35.240 and so in the church leadership is not about power over but power to power to 00:13:35.240 --> 00:13:42.759 serve power to love power to hell so lowly leadership we take the lowest 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:48.400 position the biblical idea of servant leadership has caught on in lots of 00:13:48.400 --> 00:13:54.720 corporate cultures also listening leadership okay good leaders listen who 00:13:54.720 --> 00:13:59.240 do we listen to well as Christians we want to listen to God so in verse 7 he 00:13:59.240 --> 00:14:04.160 says if you abide in me and my word abides in you ask whatever you wish and 00:14:04.160 --> 00:14:09.560 it will be done for you so here Jesus is saying that we need to hear his word 00:14:09.560 --> 00:14:17.279 later on he will say we need to hear his commandments so we need to be listening 00:14:17.279 --> 00:14:25.519 listening for the voice of God listening for the word of God to lead we need to 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:30.559 hear what God is saying to us that means we need to be in the Bible and we need 00:14:30.559 --> 00:14:36.079 the Bible to be in us it means we need to be listening to God and prayer there's 00:14:36.079 --> 00:14:42.319 quite a lot of prayer here in this passage to ask whatever you wish and it 00:14:42.320 --> 00:14:48.000 will be done for you as we live a life rooted in the word of God hearing the 00:14:48.000 --> 00:14:52.680 word of God hearing the voice of God speak through scripture his spirit 00:14:52.680 --> 00:14:59.600 leads us to Christ sent our prayer ask what you will and it will be done for 00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:05.840 you so that listening well to who God is and what he's saying is really 00:15:05.840 --> 00:15:12.920 important but listening to others so Jesus isn't speaking to one person on 00:15:12.920 --> 00:15:18.000 this occasion in John 15 he's speaking to a group he's speaking to a community of 00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:25.040 people a group of friends so we never lead on our own we lead together with 00:15:25.040 --> 00:15:31.639 others we lead as part of a community that God has called on mission so you 00:15:31.639 --> 00:15:35.639 not only need to be listening to God but you need to be listening to others to 00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:41.960 hear their heart to hear their concerns to hear their needs so that you can love 00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:51.159 and serve them well to listen well requires humility where does humility 00:15:51.159 --> 00:15:55.199 come from in the Christian life well of course humility comes to the gospel 00:15:55.199 --> 00:16:02.000 because what the gospel teaches us is this that we're not chosen for leadership 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:06.039 or we're not chosen for the Christian life because we're great people or we're 00:16:06.039 --> 00:16:13.159 good people we're chosen to live for Christ serve Christ and because he's 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:20.279 merciful and gracious because he takes broken people and redeems and restores 00:16:20.279 --> 00:16:29.159 them and puts them to new and better purposes so our leadership begins out 00:16:29.159 --> 00:16:38.519 of our own brokenness our own sense of sinfulness our own conviction about our 00:16:38.519 --> 00:16:47.399 utter inadequacy and knowledge of our own heart that we are the worst kind of sinner 00:16:47.399 --> 00:16:53.799 and that it's a miracle that God loves us and is willing to work in us and 00:16:53.799 --> 00:17:02.639 through us and so we listen we listen to God we listen to others we listen to the 00:17:02.639 --> 00:17:08.159 gospel and that means learning I think it's really important that you see 00:17:08.159 --> 00:17:11.519 yourself as a learner learning is one of the most boring words in the world 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:15.759 isn't it you're gonna have to learn something you know so just sounds like 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:19.519 hard work learning things doesn't it but learning is really really important 00:17:19.519 --> 00:17:24.079 part of our existence growing in knowledge and understanding and I want to 00:17:24.079 --> 00:17:27.559 say to you really try and grow in your knowledge and understanding of God and 00:17:27.559 --> 00:17:33.119 grow and understand in your knowledge of theology now you might think theology 00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:37.559 is nothing to do with your life but you know in the day-to-day but theology 00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:41.240 makes a big difference in so many parts of life because it helps us to understand 00:17:41.240 --> 00:17:47.480 who God is what his purposes are for this world who we are what's wrong in the 00:17:47.480 --> 00:17:51.640 world around us and then how to think through the problems that we face 00:17:51.640 --> 00:17:58.559 theology gives us wisdom for life about 12 years ago I was part of a small group 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:01.160 of people who were looking at the free church of Scotland as a denomination 00:18:01.160 --> 00:18:05.640 try to work out why is our denomination shrinking and why is it so rubbish at 00:18:05.640 --> 00:18:09.559 everything that was basically the question we were asking ourselves and 00:18:09.559 --> 00:18:12.799 you might think we're still rubbish at everything so there you go we didn't solve 00:18:12.799 --> 00:18:16.120 anything but one of you know we so we look to organizational issues and 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:25.759 financial issues and vision and all kinds of structural issues but as we've 00:18:25.759 --> 00:18:29.439 peeled away all the problems you know what we found out that really at root 00:18:29.439 --> 00:18:34.319 we had a theological problem and the theological problem was that we'd 00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:39.439 forgotten what the church was for we'd forgotten that the church was for mission 00:18:39.439 --> 00:18:45.959 for sharing the good news of Jesus and so theology helped us to understand what 00:18:45.960 --> 00:18:51.120 was wrong and what needed to be done so we need to learn learn from our failings 00:18:51.120 --> 00:18:59.600 as well so listen and learn love leadership needs love so verses 9 and 10 00:18:59.600 --> 00:19:06.840 of John 15 as the Father has loved me so have I loved you 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:11.960 abide in my love if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:15.039 just as I have kept my father commandments and abide in his love so you 00:19:15.039 --> 00:19:22.359 need to love God don't you you need to love God the leader loves God and because 00:19:22.359 --> 00:19:28.319 they love God they live in obedience to God in his word and God leads us through 00:19:28.319 --> 00:19:35.119 his word by his spirit so we need to have a passion a love for the God who has 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:44.000 rescued us by his grace but we also need to love people so verse 12 this is my 00:19:44.000 --> 00:19:47.480 commandment that you love one another as I have loved you greater love has known 00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:53.079 than this that he's laid down his life for his friends so as well as loving God 00:19:53.079 --> 00:19:57.640 you need to love the people around you this is often where we fall down in the 00:19:57.640 --> 00:20:01.720 Christian life and in Christian leadership what does it really look like 00:20:01.720 --> 00:20:07.759 to love other people well well that means taking time doesn't it and most 00:20:07.759 --> 00:20:12.200 leaders don't think they've got much time they've got so much to do leaders 00:20:12.200 --> 00:20:16.240 are self-important I'm so busy I'm under so much pressure I've got all this 00:20:16.240 --> 00:20:20.960 stuff to do wow look at me and so they stop listening and looking and learning 00:20:20.960 --> 00:20:26.519 from others and so loving people means taking time for them getting to know 00:20:26.519 --> 00:20:30.920 them being their help or being their friend great ideas of friendship in this 00:20:30.920 --> 00:20:38.360 passage so many of us in leadership we get stuck on tasks I need to do this I 00:20:38.359 --> 00:20:44.719 need to do that I've got a task list and goals and all those kind of things but 00:20:44.719 --> 00:20:50.839 God calls us not to love the task but to love the people if we focus on people 00:20:50.839 --> 00:20:58.879 the tasks will get done one of the great temptations of leadership is to use 00:20:58.880 --> 00:21:08.840 people to use people as a means to getting what you want done done and so we 00:21:08.840 --> 00:21:17.120 need to learn not to use people but to serve people to love them well 00:21:17.120 --> 00:21:22.080 sometimes you know the leader thinks this is my vision so I could say you 00:21:22.080 --> 00:21:24.720 know if I was a minister of St. Columbus I would say I've got a vision for St. 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:29.039 Columbus and your job as the people of St. Columbus is to help fulfill that 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:34.279 vision and then I think I used to think of church leadership in that way and 00:21:34.279 --> 00:21:40.079 then one day I was reading a book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer called Life Together 00:21:40.079 --> 00:21:45.480 and he said God hates the visionary dreamer well it was a bit crushed because 00:21:45.480 --> 00:21:50.120 I thought I was a visionary dreamer I was very proud of my visionary dreams God 00:21:50.120 --> 00:21:53.519 hates the visionary dreamer what does that mean well he meant this that we have a 00:21:53.519 --> 00:21:57.480 vision of what the church should be and we try and force everybody into that 00:21:57.480 --> 00:22:03.400 grid and that's not what leadership is about when you look at Christian 00:22:03.400 --> 00:22:09.639 leadership actually God says you all have your different vocations your 00:22:09.639 --> 00:22:15.079 different gifts your different callings you have a workplace you have a family 00:22:15.079 --> 00:22:21.839 you have a community God has given you a mission and a ministry and the job of 00:22:21.839 --> 00:22:28.039 the leader is to equip you to live that out well and whatever sphere of life 00:22:28.039 --> 00:22:35.319 you're in so loving people means not lining them up to do what you want but 00:22:35.319 --> 00:22:40.720 it means serving them well so that they can do what God wants and the calling 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:45.079 that God has put on their life 00:22:45.079 --> 00:22:53.919 I would also say as we talk about love you know you need to love God you need to 00:22:53.919 --> 00:22:57.519 love others I think also you know you need to have passions in life you know 00:22:57.519 --> 00:23:02.559 so find one thing that you really love to do or be in life you know some of us 00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:07.199 have a passion for music some of us have a passion for working with young people 00:23:07.199 --> 00:23:11.559 or kids some of you have a passion for mercy ministry some of you have got a 00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:14.960 passion for the creative art some of you've got a passion for hospitality 00:23:14.960 --> 00:23:22.079 and so I say find that thing you love doing and God can really use that in a 00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:27.559 way to be a blessing to others and build his church and people who are good at 00:23:27.559 --> 00:23:32.120 influencing others usually are people who are passionate about something and 00:23:32.120 --> 00:23:39.440 who really care about something well so Derek and I care about church planting 00:23:39.440 --> 00:23:42.840 you know we're very simple people we have one thing that we talk about a lot of 00:23:42.839 --> 00:23:48.720 the time and it's starting new churches so find your thing that you love being 00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:55.319 and doing and pursue that so leadership needs love I'm going to go back over all 00:23:55.319 --> 00:23:59.000 these else just to keep you in the loop living leadership lowly leadership 00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:06.279 listening leadership listening includes learning loving leadership loving God 00:24:06.279 --> 00:24:18.160 loving others loving one thing with a great passion leadership means loss one 00:24:18.160 --> 00:24:23.519 of the most memorable paintings of the previous century is called the scream by 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:29.759 Edward Munch and it's a very famous painting of a face wide open and terror 00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:37.319 the screen and it's sort of speaks of despair doesn't it and hopelessness and fear and anxiety 00:24:37.319 --> 00:24:45.200 it's always our 20th century existentialist and it's the way these 00:24:45.200 --> 00:24:54.160 and fingers that Christianity chose as its symbol fear the symbol of fear the 00:24:54.160 --> 00:25:02.080 cross the cross was an instrument of fear and terror there was a rebellion 00:25:02.080 --> 00:25:10.320 about 71 BC by the the slaves led by Spartacus and it was caused by a Roman 00:25:10.320 --> 00:25:19.480 general called Crassus and once he defeated the slave rebels Crassus 00:25:19.480 --> 00:25:25.360 crucified six thousand of them along the Apian way you couldn't walk more than 00:25:25.360 --> 00:25:32.120 120 feet before you came to the next crucified person why did Crassus do that 00:25:32.120 --> 00:25:37.000 he wanted to make sure no slave ever rebelled against Rome again the cross 00:25:37.000 --> 00:25:43.839 was an instrument of terror and fear and that's what God chose to symbolize 00:25:43.839 --> 00:25:49.959 Christianity why because the way of the cross is the way of Jesus we're not 00:25:49.959 --> 00:25:57.000 called to great things we're first of all called to suffer take up your cross 00:25:57.000 --> 00:26:03.639 Jesus said and follow me if you're going to follow Jesus if you're going to be a 00:26:03.639 --> 00:26:08.039 leader for Jesus if you're going to lead others towards Jesus let me tell you 00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:17.079 this you are going to lose a lot a lot in verse 13 Jesus says this love will 00:26:17.079 --> 00:26:20.759 ask that you lay down your life for your friends you've got to be ready to 00:26:20.759 --> 00:26:29.759 sacrifice and to sacrifice in costly ways verse 18 Jesus said this the world 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:41.440 will hate you it's the way of loss we will be hated but in the Christian life 00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:48.240 the way down is the way up isn't it the Christian story is this story not only 00:26:48.240 --> 00:26:54.000 of death and of resurrection but it's also the story of resurrection and so at 00:26:54.000 --> 00:26:58.879 the heart of what it means to follow Jesus is dying to self but rising to new 00:26:58.880 --> 00:27:03.840 life in Jesus Christ and that's an ongoing process in the life of the 00:27:03.840 --> 00:27:09.280 Christian day by day we crucify the old nature we die to the old wavelength but 00:27:09.280 --> 00:27:13.600 we rise to a new way of living in Jesus Christ and you know what that means it 00:27:13.600 --> 00:27:21.720 means this that loss and gain coexist in us at the same time we lose but we win 00:27:21.720 --> 00:27:30.440 at the same moment it means that suffering and joy coexist in the 00:27:30.440 --> 00:27:38.880 Christian at the same moment because we are dying yet living because we are in 00:27:38.880 --> 00:27:49.799 union and communion with the dying yet living Jesus and his life in us shapes 00:27:49.799 --> 00:27:59.879 us so that we can lay our lives down and live for something greater so there is 00:27:59.879 --> 00:28:09.200 loss there is loss and then slightly counterintuitively there is laughter 00:28:09.200 --> 00:28:14.279 okay so I think a lot of leadership in all kinds of different communities but 00:28:14.279 --> 00:28:22.559 especially in the church is a harsh crushing negative depressing controlling 00:28:22.559 --> 00:28:30.000 and mean so whatever sphere of influence you have in your home in your 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:35.599 workplace in the church in the community please be a leader who brings 00:28:35.599 --> 00:28:44.319 laughter and joy so one of the reasons I like working with Derek is very simple he 00:28:44.319 --> 00:28:49.879 makes me laugh okay we laugh a lot and it just makes life a lot easier when you 00:28:49.879 --> 00:28:56.279 get to laugh lots one of the key things about leadership is culture creation 00:28:56.279 --> 00:29:00.359 okay when you're a leader you create a culture in your organization your church 00:29:00.359 --> 00:29:06.839 your home your family an atmosphere an ethos and lots of churches create very 00:29:06.839 --> 00:29:16.679 depressing negative cultures but Jesus said I came so that my joy will be in 00:29:16.679 --> 00:29:23.879 you and that your joy will be full there should be laughter there should be joy 00:29:23.879 --> 00:29:29.919 there should be celebration there should be thanksgiving so wherever you get to 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:34.360 influence the culture to shape the ethos in the home or the family please bring 00:29:34.360 --> 00:29:41.120 some laughter and joy and celebration celebration of all that is good and 00:29:41.120 --> 00:29:51.840 blessed that's how we can have joy and sorrow together isn't it because no 00:29:51.839 --> 00:30:00.519 matter how hard life is or difficult he's always there he's in us living in 00:30:00.519 --> 00:30:06.359 us in the power of the Holy Spirit and he is our joy so leadership is all about 00:30:06.359 --> 00:30:11.279 him isn't it that's the biggest lesson of all for leadership that it's all 00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:17.439 about Jesus if he is our joy if he is our treasure if he is our prize if he is 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:24.279 our love if he is our goal then that shapes everything else in a really great 00:30:24.279 --> 00:30:28.680 way so for those of you who aren't Christians I just want to say to you 00:30:28.680 --> 00:30:34.600 that you know I don't want you to do what I tell you I don't want you 00:30:34.600 --> 00:30:41.880 necessarily to come to my church all I want you to do is to find out that 00:30:41.880 --> 00:30:52.240 Jesus is good good in a way that you've never experienced good before life with 00:30:52.240 --> 00:31:15.960 Jesus is good and that's what we're all invited to