Episode Transcript
[00:00:05] Good morning. My name is Craig Jarvis. I am the lead pastor at village church east in Carroll Stream, and it's my privilege to bring God's word to you this morning. Michael is actually speaking at a camp this weekend and working very, very diligently. And he asked me if I would step in for him and help him out today. And I was thrilled because I don't get very many opportunities to come and catch up with all these relationships. So I really appreciate the chance to be able to do that. Our church is going well. We actually have in the next service a couple of people that we've brought with us today who are gonna be baptized along with some folks from here. So that's kind of exciting. The Lord is using us, continuing to change lives in Carol Stream, and we have some big things actually on the dock that we're looking forward to as well. Michael has proven to be a wonderful blessing to me, and I wanna just say how fortunate I am to have him in my life. He and I, as well as several other pastors now, have joined us off and on to work through these series that we've been doing together. We meet at my house on the back deck, and we talk through these together. And as that relationship has grown, I have come to value your pastor, your lead pastor, very much. And so I'm grateful for him in my life, and I know you are grateful for him in yours as well. I told the service this morning, and I'll say it to you, he's the gift I received from the Lord that I didn't even ask for. So you can take that however you want. All right? I just did. No, he's been a huge blessing to me. Well, I want to ask you a question this morning as we continue our study in two corinthians. My question. Well, let me give you a statement, and then I have a question for you. Here's my statement. You ready for it? Leadership, it's on the screen. Isn't about titles. It's about influence. Everyone influences someone.
[00:02:03] So my question to you this morning is, based on that statement, true or false, how many of you, how many leaders do we have in here today? Let me see your hand if you're a leader. All right, all right. Okay. Good, good, good.
[00:02:19] Some of you didn't listen to that statement very well.
[00:02:24] Every person is a leader to some degree. Every person, whether they have the title or not, whether they want to or not, everybody influences somebody else. It's impossible not to. In fact, when Jesus calls us to be his followers, he calls us into ready for it. A leadership position. Think about the way that he talks to us. Forgive others as you would have them forgive you. Who does the forgiving first church?
[00:02:53] We do. Right. It's in the Lord's prayer, for goodness sakes. Right. That you would forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. It's very interesting that he takes us into a lot of different leadership realms. Do unto others before they do it to you. No, that's not right. Do unto others. Yeah, you're like that. No. Do unto others as you would have them do to you. So who takes the leadership role in doing to other people before they do to us what we would want them to. Who takes the leadership role? We do.
[00:03:29] In fact, Jesus says, they will know you are my followers if you have love, one for another. Who takes the leadership role in offering love? Even when we don't give love back, we do. This is the very core of what it means to be salt and light. Jesus says, you are the salt of the earth. Don't let the salt lose its flavor. Jesus said, you are the light of the world. I'm not creating a light so that somebody can put a big barrel over it. Your light is meant to shine. Your salt is meant to be flavorful. You are meant to be a leader in very many aspects, almost, I would say, every aspect of your life. Someone has said it this way. You lead by example whether you want to or not.
[00:04:14] So, I don't know about you, but I have found that leading is a challenging task, especially in a church.
[00:04:21] Leading is a challenging task. If you take on the lead role, you risk a lot of things. When you decide on a path to follow, you risk being criticized.
[00:04:32] When you make a difficult decision, you risk relationships.
[00:04:37] When you communicate, you risk being misunderstood.
[00:04:42] When you try and meet everyone's expectations, you risk burnout.
[00:04:46] Every leadership role we take in our lives seems to have some kind of a risk involved. And a lot of times, we just wish we could go the way of Pilate. Do you remember this guy? Pilot, you remember this guy? The only thing we know that Pilate did was that he was very hydrogen.
[00:05:04] He washed his hands well. So when Pilate had Jesus come in front of him, he had two choices. He could. They wanted to crucify him. You remember the story, so he could crucify him. But that would mean that those guys, those leaders of the people, would work Pilate from that moment forward like a marionette. They could get him to do whatever they wanted him to do. Just put the pressure on him. Choice number two, he doesn't listen to them and he doesn't crucify Jesus. The problem with that is there's going to be a revolution, maccabean revolution. That just happened. He doesn't want that again. Plus, if there is a revolution and he puts down the jews, controls them, well, Rome's not going to look highly on that. He loses his job and perhaps even his life. Those two decisions are bad for him. So he comes up with a third option. And what's his third option? He washes his hands. And what does that mean? We even use that. I wash my hands of this. I don't want to be involved in whatever decision must be made.
[00:06:09] How many leadership decisions would you rather wash your hands of than get involved in?
[00:06:16] There's probably a long list. There is for me, too.
[00:06:20] But for followers of Jesus, washing our hands is not an option.
[00:06:27] We know there's more at stake and we care too much to not get involved.
[00:06:35] This brings us to our passage today, and it's in a series that we're doing called church hurts. It's in two corinthians. We're going to clean up the last part of this chapter, two corinthians one. If you want to turn there in your bibles, you're welcome to.
[00:06:48] What's happening here is Paul has to explain a leadership decision that he has made. It's a leadership decision that he didn't want to make, but he had to make it. He thought it was the right thing to do. He's convinced us of what God wanted him to do. But the corinthian church may not understand.
[00:07:07] He also is aware that Satan is using every opportunity to attack this young church.
[00:07:13] So if they receive his leadership wrongly, Satan can sneak in and do some damage.
[00:07:19] Satan knows the easiest way to attack a church is by attacking its leaders first.
[00:07:25] So in this passage, Paul had both internal and external forces challenging him as he is trying to lead.
[00:07:34] In one corinthians, Paul is writing this book. In one corinthians, we're in two corinthians. So in the first corinthians, we have it. Paul says he's anxious to be with them. He can't wait to see them, but he changed his mind after one corinthians was written. Paul actually did show up in Corinth, but he changed his mind. And we'll get to the reason why. He stayed there two days. He didn't see anyone in the church, and he left.
[00:08:04] The people were wondering why. What do you mean, Paul was here. Paul, the guy that was pastor of our church for 18 months, that Paul, the Paul that wrote us this one corinthians letter, that Paul. Yeah, Paul was here. He stayed here two days, and then he left.
[00:08:19] And they didn't understand why didn't Paul like them anymore?
[00:08:24] Didn't Paul hear about the problems that they were having? Was he embarrassed by them? Do I embarrass you? Was Paul being nice to them? But really he didn't like them? Was Paul using them in some way for his own benefit? The corinthian church was a young church. Corinth, you should know, was a very vulgar city.
[00:08:45] Corinth was a place where ships would get repaired. It had a great isthmus.
[00:08:50] You could get from. From one sea to the other sea. Its location was great. Julius Caesar made it into a sailors port, and so sailors would go there while their ships were being repaired, and anything was available there. It was second in gaming to Olympia itself. So you could go there, you could do gaming, you could do gambling. There was temple, all kinds of stuff there. Worship was done through.
[00:09:14] It was a terrible city. It was like a city where you could do whatever you want, and you could get away with whatever happened in Corinth.
[00:09:24] And this church. This church in Corinth was having a very difficult time doing ministry to a new religion, Christianity. They were all new believers, and they were having very difficult doing ministry because the dark was so dark, and they were called to be light.
[00:09:43] And those people from Corinth were getting saved, but they didn't make the change. And so as God was changing them, they struggled with how to have purity in the church. They struggled with a litany of things. There were sinful attitudes and sinful actions. Their spiritual immaturity was profound, and sin was allowed into the church, and it was spreading like gangrene.
[00:10:05] Chloe, one of Paul's friends, went to the church. We have this in one corinthians. She went to visit the church and see how they were doing. Chloe reported back to Paul and said, yeah, paul, Corinth is not doing well.
[00:10:19] So Paul said, okay, maybe Chloe's waxed. So let's send Timothy. So he sends Timothy out. Timothy comes back and says, yeah, chloe is. She's right. This church is really suffering. And Paul said, okay, what's going on there? What has creeped into the church? Here's a list from one corinthians that he does deal with. This is what we know was happening. But there's more than just this. Here's a list the church had broken into factions. Some members were living openly immoral lives. The rest of the church was not addressing sin like they should. There were parts of the church quarreling with each other, even dragging each other to the heathen courts. They were fighting over with each other what the definition of marriage was. They were fighting with each other over how women were treated in the church. They were fighting with each other about gifts and how they were to be used in the church. They were not treating the Lord's supper with reverence. They were doubting. Even if the resurrection was real. That's just a partial list from what was going on in this church.
[00:11:19] And as I put the list down there, I thought to myself, hmm, some things never change.
[00:11:26] Like any loving leader, Paul realizes things are happening, and so he goes to make a visit, but he changes his mind, and instead of making a visit, he writes them a letter instead. This letter, we do not have, one Corinthians is his reports. He addresses the sin. He goes to visit them, changes his mind, sends them a letter. And apparently it was a very harsh letter. In fact, theologians call it the severe letter. And if you read one corinthians and you think that's severe, this had to be, like, weirdly severe. We don't have that letter.
[00:12:02] Instead, the next letter we have is two Corinthians. And this is the passage we walk in today, where Paul tries to explain his decisions as a leader to this young herding conversation.
[00:12:17] So I walk you back, first of all, to one corinthians 16 five. This is when he says, I will visit you after passing through Macedonia, for I intend to pass through Macedonia.
[00:12:27] He changed his mind, I think, after writing this, because he didn't want to come to them as a stern tyrant, but as a loving shepherd. And he was afraid that if he showed up and they knew what was going on and they're embarrassed, and they know Paul is showing up, and he's going to, like, bring down the law.
[00:12:47] I think he was afraid that it would be too much for them, like, risking them feeling, like being such a disappointment to Paul, who they knew loved them, and Paul knew they loved him.
[00:13:01] So he made a decision. Rather than visiting, he would delay his visit. He would deny himself his visit, and he would write them this letter instead. We have only a couple verses that tell us what his attitude was when he wrote this severe letter that we do not have.
[00:13:18] And one of them comes out of two Corinthians two, four. And basically it says that when he was writing this letter, his pen was drenched in tears, he decided it would be best to not show up, but to give them time to heal, time to grow, time themselves, to do what the Lord was calling them to do.
[00:13:43] Unfortunately, he knew this would happen too. Wolves always come in when there's division in the church.
[00:13:50] Wolves used this opportunity to say Paul was not to be trusted. He was not a man of his word and he could not be trusted. They said, these corinthians were not important to Pauldin. They said, we're here, we love you, but where's Paul?
[00:14:07] And they try and sneak in the back door.
[00:14:11] They said, paul promised to visit and he didn't show up. And they called his character into question. So Paul writes to this church he loves, and in doing so, he gives us, I think, six characteristics about how godly leaders handle difficulty. Number one, godly leaders don't avoid hard conversations.
[00:14:35] One corinthians 16 six. This is how he introduces this conversation. And perhaps I will stay with you or even spend the winter for that you may help me on my journey wherever I go, for I do not want to be to see you now, just in passing, I want to spend time with you. I'm hoping to spend some time with you, if the Lord permits. This is his promise. He brings it up. He says, this is what I said to you. Now read that carefully on the screen and answer me one question. Did he promise to come and see them?
[00:15:05] No.
[00:15:07] No, he didn't. Perhaps I will stay as the Lord permits. I hope to spend time with you. It's not a promise, but church. If you're a hurting church and this man that you love in leadership so much that spent time with you, journeying in life with you, and you knew he was coming to town. Could you read this as a promise?
[00:15:28] Yes.
[00:15:32] Instead, he arrived two days and left. And he broke their hearts. It was a leadership decision.
[00:15:38] He explains why. And this we jump into two corinthians now.
[00:15:43] In verse 23, he says, but I call on God to witness against me. It was to spare you that I refrained from coming to Corinth.
[00:15:51] Why did Paul decide not to come to Corinth and visit them? Why did he decide to just stay there two days and leave again? Because he wanted to spare them.
[00:16:01] He doesn't ignore what he did. He doesn't sweep it under the rug. He says, yes, I was there, but I didn't stay. I didn't see you because I felt like it would crush you. He simply knew they needed more time to work it out amongst themselves.
[00:16:17] He recognized it was a risky decision for two reasons. Number one, he agonized over the potential emotional impact it would have on this church. They would be so disappointed. He knew when followers of Jesus misunderstand each other, the wounds can be very deep. Isn't that true?
[00:16:36] Would they misinterpret what he said?
[00:16:39] Would it crush their spirit? Would they read it and not understand his heart?
[00:16:45] And so he writes to them in the next chapter, two, corinthians two, this is what he writes for. I wrote to you. This is the last letter he's talking about. I wrote to you after that visit that I didn't visit you. I wrote to you out of much affliction, anguish of heart, and many tears, not to cause you pain, but to let you know of the abundant love that I have for you.
[00:17:07] He knew at risk hurting them. That was tough. And the second thing he knew is wolves would use this moment to sneak in to denounce his authority and to question his devotion to the church.
[00:17:22] In Paul's day, there were many false prophets and apostles trying to undermine Paul's authority, calling him all kinds of names, accusing him of all kinds of sin.
[00:17:31] But they didn't do it through debate.
[00:17:33] They did it through character assassination.
[00:17:37] It's interesting. They didn't question Paul's theology per se, because they would lose that game. Instead, they questioned his integrity.
[00:17:49] They did it by attacking his personality and his character. And Paul knew they would pounce on this. Satan never lets a good opportunity to attack the church go to waste.
[00:17:58] You are his target.
[00:18:01] We are his biggest problem.
[00:18:05] These wolves were simply trying to replace Paul. So like any fly in church ointment, they let the rumors fly. Here's some of the things they said. Paul wasn't a man of his word. Paul was in it for personal gain. Instead of taking your money and using it for ways that you think he's using it, he's pocketing it. Paul was not a strong leader and therefore not a true apostle. And Paul was not full of the Holy Spirit. Listen, this is shocking, but when you are called to lead for the Lord and deal with a situation, it is shocking to me how many people can be manipulated by the evil one to make the situation even worse.
[00:18:50] It's been said that to lead well, you must love deeply, and that's the challenge of leadership.
[00:18:59] Sometimes loving like that risks being hurt, misunderstood, even maligned by others. And often, leading this way requires boldness and humility to enter into really tough conversations.
[00:19:19] Number two, godly leaders lead with their heart. First, remember the verse. It says, I was to spare you. So I refrained from coming to Corinth. He follows that in verse twelve in two corinthians 112. For our boast is this the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom, but by the grace of God. Supremely so toward you. I love those last four words.
[00:19:47] Supremely so toward you. This decision, Paul is saying was made. You may not believe this, but it was made because I think it's the best, and I think it's the best for you. He goes into his history with them. You know, he talks about, like, you know us. We've done ministry together. You've supported my ministry for years. You know me. You know my love that I have for you.
[00:20:11] Nothing we have done has been for personal gain. Everything has. That we have done with you and for you has been for your benefit. We led out of love for you.
[00:20:21] It's been said leadership is not about being in charge. It's about taking care of those in your charge with integrity.
[00:20:29] His decisions were made with their supreme best at heart.
[00:20:34] Number three, God's leaders lead with grace.
[00:20:38] Next. For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand, and I hope you will fully understand, just as you did partially understand this. It's kind of a doctor seuss passage, but what he's basically saying is, listen, you've been getting information about me, and from me. You've seen Chloe. You've seen Timothy. You've seen Titus. And I just want to tell you I appreciate the way that you continue to persevere, no matter if you have the full story or partial story. You have given me grace in the way that you have perceived my intent, and I'm giving you grace as well.
[00:21:16] When Timothy came back and told Paul his visit, this is after the severe letter. Timothy went to visit, and Paul said, I think I ticked them off.
[00:21:27] I think I've crushed their spirit. Timothy, go see them. And so he goes to see the corinthian church and comes back and tells Paul, listen, they are repairing what has been broken.
[00:21:39] Things are going well again at the corinthian church.
[00:21:43] They're still in danger. There's still some things that need to be addressed. But, Paul, they're okay with you.
[00:21:50] And then Paul writes second corinthians.
[00:21:55] They had received Paul's letter and responded with humility and submissive hearts.
[00:22:00] Timothy said, they're not buying into the lives of the wolves. They're dealing with the sin. They're responding well to correction as a leader with a grace filled heart. Paul acknowledges this and he said, I'm amazed you did it even with partial information. I'm amazed you did it even with the wolves lying about me. I'm amazed that you're persevering and you're staying on track.
[00:22:20] People buy into the leader before they buy into the vision, and I think Paul had this to his benefit.
[00:22:27] Here's the truth. Highlighting grace over human abilities is the power of the gospel.
[00:22:33] Paul writes to them and he, he does bring up some of this stuff in two corinthians, but it is a totally different book than one corinthians. It is a totally different book than the severe letter, which we don't have. These wolves were coming in. They were attacking Paul by saying he was a weak person, he didn't have charisma, he didn't have the flash, he wasn't as outgoing, his teeth weren't as white as they should be.
[00:23:00] He wasn't wearing the right clothing.
[00:23:05] Paul does with that is he just hops on it and he says, listen, if I'm going to boast in anything, I'm going to boast in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:23:16] I am who God made me to be. And the gospel is powerful, regardless of the flash any human being can put on it.
[00:23:25] In our last service today, we're going to have baptisms.
[00:23:28] None of the people who are going to be baptized have a theological degree. None of them went to seminary and all of them are going to give their testimonies. And I guarantee you this, I could preach the most outstanding message you've ever heard.
[00:23:44] But people will remember those folks way longer than they'll remember what I spoke to you today.
[00:23:51] The power of the gospel is powerful, no matter who delivers it, how polished it is, when it comes from the genuineness of a changed heart, the gospel has the power to change lives.
[00:24:10] What we seek to do here at village church and what we highlight through these baptisms is not bringing attention to ourselves, but by bringing attention to the one who has redeemed us.
[00:24:21] Number four.
[00:24:23] Godly leaders always think the best of others. This is a hard one, right? Verse 14. On the day that on the day of the Lord Jesus, you will boast of us as we will boast of you. He's saying there, he's saying, listen, I am thinking the best of you. I know you have failed. I know you feel like a failure. I know I've written you stuff that may have only exacerbated the situation in your mind, but I want to tell you you're doing good.
[00:24:52] We think the best of others.
[00:24:54] He sees the best in them, regardless of the failures he already knows about. And he emphasizes the potential, regardless of their struggles.
[00:25:04] Your struggles don't have to defeat you. Everything and everybody can be used to highlight God's glory.
[00:25:12] In fact, God doesn't work best with unbroken vessels.
[00:25:19] He works best with those who've been broken.
[00:25:23] Our weaknesses highlight his greatness. And that's what Paul says here. And then he acknowledges in verse 15, I wanted to come to you first so that you might have a second experience of grace. That second experience of grace is simply every time these folks would gather money and they would give it to another hurting church. It was an experience of grace. They had helped the church in Jerusalem before. They wanted to do it again regardless of the challenges they were facing as a church. They wanted God to use them as a church. And Paul was supposed to collect that money and take that to a hurting church in Jerusalem. But he had to postpone it.
[00:26:00] And instead of highlighting their struggles, he highlights their heart to want to help others, because godly leaders always see the best in others.
[00:26:11] Number five, godly leaders don't entertain deceitful motives. Verse 17. Paul says, was I vacillated when I wanted to do this? Did I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say yes, yes, and no, no. At the same time, as surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been yes and no.
[00:26:31] In other words, this passage is kind of confusing. But what it means is when they made an oath in Paul's day, they kind of had a saying, yes, yes, no, no. It's kind of like when we swear on our mother's grave, like this is going to happen.
[00:26:47] And Paul's point here is to say, listen, we didn't make that kind of an oath. We shared our desire to visit, but we left the ultimate decision to the Lord. There's no hidden, nefarious motivation that we had in not coming to see you in this world. We are used to saying people saying yes and no at the same time.
[00:27:10] It's an election year.
[00:27:12] You are used to people saying yes and no at the same time.
[00:27:20] They are not in it to motivate anyone toward following them in their integrity. They're in it to get a vote. Paul is saying, listen, we are not in it to get a vote. We're in it to highlight the gospel. So I want to tell you, when we say yes, we mean yes. When we say no, we mean no. But you have to understand when God changes the plans, we follow his lead.
[00:27:46] Which brings us to number six. Godly leaders adapt to God's lead. Verse 20. For the promises of God find their yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our amenity to his glory. Paul is simply saying, we make plans with a sincere heart, but we let God make the changes along the way. How many things in your life, church, have you made plans for and God changed your plans? It happens on a regular basis. And Paul is saying, that's how godly leaders are. They're flexible. I never planned on being a pastor, and yet God had a plan he didn't share with me that led me right here to be with you this morning and to lead a church in Carroll stream.
[00:28:33] God always leads the way. Paul tries to reassure whatever decisions we made, it was because we believe God was making these things. He was leading us to do these things. And wolves will try and steal away the confidence that you have in us by calling our character into question. Bottom line, only God is God. A leader is simply a human being with a heavy load.
[00:28:59] So the danger is here, church. Don't hold your leaders to an unfaltering perfection. A good friend of mine, Alex, Pastor Alex, was working through this, and he said a couple of cool things that I put in right here. This is what Alex said. We cannot look at the failures and disappointments from leaders and allow those failures and disappointments to determine how deeply we engage our own walk with the Lord.
[00:29:25] And when we do that, we give the leader a higher position in our hearts than they should have. You want to be disappointment. You want to experience disappointment? Elevate a leader in your life.
[00:29:39] Eventually you will discover disappointment. Ultimately, for godly leaders, though, our word is about Jesus, our message is about Jesus, but the details are left to him.
[00:29:53] So I give you three so whats.
[00:29:57] And the first one comes from actually Paul himself in verse 21.
[00:30:02] This is how Paul wraps up the discussion. It is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who will also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
[00:30:15] So what I would say to you first, church, is God can polish your leadership abilities to look like his.
[00:30:25] He said, paul says he establishes us with you. I love that because we could walk out of this message today and think to ourselves, well, Craig talked a lot about what it means to lead in the church, what it means to be an elder in the church. But I love that the passage that he, the way he wraps it up is he says it is God who establishes us with you in Christ. Because what that means is for everyone who's a leader here this morning, you have the ability to brush up, polish up your leadership abilities to look more like Jesus Christ.
[00:31:04] He establishes us, he anoints us, he seals us. Why? So that he can use us.
[00:31:16] And he won't be done using us until you're not here anymore. In fact, one of my favorite verses in scripture, Philippians one six, and I am sure of this, that he who began, I love it so much. I want you to say it with me. Would you mind saying this with me?
[00:31:31] You tell me this verse and I am sure of this. Here we go. That he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus church. When is the Lord done with you?
[00:31:47] It's kind of morbid, I know, but yeah, kick the bucket, go to the farm in the sky, whatever it is, God is done with you when you get to see him, and then he's still not done with you because you get to worship the Lord forever.
[00:32:04] But I love the fact that no matter who you are, what your background is, how damaged you've been, what kind of sin you've been in, what kind of journey you've had, how many people you've damaged along the way with your dumb decisions. Welcome to life. But God isn't done with you yet.
[00:32:21] Number two, the reputation of godly leaders matters.
[00:32:27] We cannot lower the calling of God for the people who lead in our church.
[00:32:33] At village church east, we just brought on an elder. Another one. We have four elders now. It's very cool. I'm wondering if I have to show up at the meetings anymore. But we just brought in a new elder character. Elders is distinct in scripture. One Timothy, three, Titus one. Various different passages. I put a list up on the screen. When we did our elder installation, I had everybody read it. It was very, very long. But one of the things that sticks out to me constantly is an elder must have a good reputation in the church and an elder must have a good reputation outside the church. That is very difficult because anyone these days can ruin your reputation, you know? Thank God for the Internet, right?
[00:33:19] Al Gore, what was he thinking? So sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. You wouldn't believe how many things I'm actually holding back. So elders are meant to have a good reputation inside and outside the church. Therefore they must be protected by the people in the church.
[00:33:38] Scripture says not even to entertain an accusation against an elder, except in the, except in the visual of two, in the experience of two or three witnesses. And even then, you have to go through legal steps in the church, not outside of the church. Why is that so important to God? Because Satan is purposeful.
[00:33:59] If you, the church, are his greatest target, he is at war with you constantly.
[00:34:05] And we must maintain integrity in the church for our leadership. They must be accountable to one another. Because when the church leaders have poor reputation, it gives the church a poor reputation. And if the church has a poor reputation, God has a poor reputation.
[00:34:23] Godly leadership is what this world desperately needs. This is a transition. It's not just about leadership in the church. Godly leadership is what this world desperately needs, not only in the church, but in parenting, in friend relationships, in family relationships, in school and work relationships. Godly leadership is desperately needed these days.
[00:34:48] Satan will use anything and anybody to destroy that drive in us to be a godly leader and church. How many leaders are in this house this morning? Thank you, all of us. Yes. Okay, number three, finish with this. While God alone is the only flawless leader you can help.
[00:35:08] Every godly leader has flaws.
[00:35:11] Every godly leader has flaws. Noah was a drunk. David was a murderer. Moses, he just got mad and hit stuff. Peter was a braggart.
[00:35:22] You can go through scripture and you find all the flaws that all these godly leaders have. But they were all used of God in pretty incredible ways, right?
[00:35:31] Godly leadership, you're gonna have flaws.
[00:35:37] Only God's leadership is flawless.
[00:35:40] His promises can never be broken. You can take your certainty for God leading to the bank. His love for you cannot be questioned. It's proven at the cross. His power in you cannot be questioned. It's proven in the resurrection. His resolve for you, his commitment to you cannot be questioned. It's proven in his deposit of the Holy Spirit who lives in you. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, God's leadership in your life cannot be questioned.
[00:36:05] And it's always perfect.
[00:36:08] And the good news is you can help whatever God is doing, leading in this world today.
[00:36:15] You can help let God lead you in the way that you live, and you will find that you can be used above and beyond anything that you could think or imagine.
[00:36:26] Remember, leadership isn't about titles. It's about influence. And everyone influences someone.
[00:36:34] We are called to lead church. For such a time as this, the dark is darker.
[00:36:42] And when the dark gets darker, we should think that the light would be much more bright. I leave you with this verse in two corinthians 215. This is the next chapter, for we are the aroma of Christ Church. We are the aroma of Christ to God, among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. To one, we are a fragrance from death to death, but to the other a fragrance from life to life.
[00:37:11] Who is sufficient for such things?
[00:37:15] Church. Who is sufficient to lead like this? Who is sufficient for such things? Who is sufficient?
[00:37:22] Nobody. That's the point.
[00:37:25] But with the grace of God and the leadership of God directing your life, you can be used in ways you never thought possible. You can lead and do it in a way that looks a lot like God in the lives of those around you.
[00:37:43] Listen, Satan, I don't think cares how many followers of Jesus that he has to work with. I think what really scares him is how many people lead for Jesus.
[00:37:55] How many people stand out and be salt and light.
[00:37:59] His goal is to make you an inefficient follower or an efficient leader or a hapless follower. I say, church, let's lead for Jesus. Let's let our light shine. Let's let our salt be taste, and let's lead in every decision we make.
[00:38:20] If we need to have a hard conversation, have it. If you need to forgive first, do it. If you need to love first, do it. It is hard to lead, but it is amazing how God will use you. Satan's plan is to make you ineffective. I say we blow the lid off his plan. Let's pray. Father, I'm grateful for our time this morning. I'm grateful for this passage that we have from Paul explaining his decision making as a leader to the people that he loves so much.
[00:38:49] Sometimes it's very difficult to lead and to be vulnerable like this. And I'm grateful that you use Paul in this incredible way so that we can learn from it and we can glean truth from it as well.
[00:39:04] Help us to be bold leaders, leaders that would step into this generation and unashamedly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and whatever areas of our lives that we now are thinking about, because your holy spirit prods us to think about that right now.
[00:39:22] May we make a decision that we will be a light and we will be salt in whatever situation that is. And for the love of God, we will not wash our hands of anything that you've called us to do. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.
