But our readings begin in the 20th chapter
of Matthew's Gospel.
Matthew chapter 20 and we read from verse
20 down to verse 28.
Matthew chapter 20 verse 20.
Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to
Jesus with her sons and kneeling down asked
a favor of him.
What is it you want?
he asked.
She said grant that one of these two
sons of mine may sit at your right
hand and the other at your left in
your kingdom.
You don't know what you're asking Jesus said
to them.
Can you drink the cup I'm going to
drink?
We can they answered.
Jesus said to them you will indeed drink
from my cup but to sit at my
right or left is not for me to
grant.
These places belong to those for whom they
have been prepared by my father.
When the ten heard about this they were
indignant with the two brothers.
Jesus called them together and said you know
that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it
over them and their high officials exercise authority
over them.
Not so with you.
Instead whoever wants to become great among you
must be your servant and whoever wants to
be first must be your slave.
Just as the Son of Man did not
come to be served but to serve and
to give his life as a ransom for
many.
Then to that passage in 2nd Corinthians, 2nd
Corinthians 4 and we read from verse 7
to verse 12.
2nd Corinthians 4 verse 7.
But we have this treasure in jars of
clay to show that this all-surpassing power
is from God and not from us.
We are hard-pressed on every side but
not crushed.
Perplexed but not in despair.
Persecuted but not abandoned.
Struck down but not destroyed.
We always carry around in our body the
death of Jesus so that the life of
Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
For we who are alive are always being
given over to death for Jesus' sake so
that his life may be revealed in our
mortal body.
So then death is at work in us
but life is at work in you.
Finally just one verse in 2nd Timothy chapter
3.
2nd Timothy chapter 3 and it's just the
10th verse.
You however know all about my teaching, my
way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love,
endurance, persecutions and sufferings.
Let's just pray together.
Father we really want to thank you tonight
for the privilege of being together and of
being able to open your word freely publicly
together and consider what you would have to
say to us.
Speak Lord in the stillness while we wait
upon you.
Help us to hear your voice and grant
to us the grace to obey everything you
have to say to us in Jesus name.
Amen.
In the 25th verse of Matthew's Gospel chapter
20, Jesus describes the nature of the leadership
of those whom he defines as the rulers
of the Gentiles or the rulers of the
nations.
He says you know they lord it over
people.
That's the nature of their leadership.
They lord it over people and their high
officials exercise authority over them.
Other translations read the rulers of the heathen
lord it over them and their great men
rule as despots.
Another translation has it their great men are
tyrants over them.
Tasker writes in colloquial English we speak of
those who throw their weight about.
That's exactly what Jesus is talking about here.
Leaders who lead by throwing their weight about.
They lead by tyranny, they lead by threat,
they lead by muscle.
Now you'll see if you just glance at
the next chapter of Matthew's Gospel chapter 21
that Jesus is just about to make his
triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
And before doing so Jesus wants to prepare
his disciples for what they're about to hear
and for what they're about to see and
experience.
You see all through their history the Jews
had dreamed as they dream today of their
Messiah.
But the Messiah of whom they dreamed was
always a conquering king, a mighty leader who
would smash the enemies of Israel and would
rule in power over the kingdoms of the
earth.
They were looking for a conqueror and they
received one.
But they didn't recognize him because their conqueror
was broken on a cross.
They were looking for the raging lion of
Judah.
They received the gentle Lamb of God.
In contrast to the leadership of the rulers
of the nations, Jesus says in verse 26,
whoever wants to become great among you must
be your servant.
Whoever wants to be first must be your
slave.
And then he sums up his whole life
in one poignant sentence there in verse 28.
The Son of Man did not come to
be served but to serve and to give,
to pour out his life, a ransom for
many.
Now then look what happens next.
Verses 29 to 34.
We didn't read them but you can glance
at them.
Jesus is leaving Jericho with his disciples and
a large crowd is following.
Two blind men are sitting by the roadside
and they shout out, Lord, Son of David,
have mercy on us.
The crowd rebuke them.
The crowd tell them to be quiet.
You can imagine I'm sure what the crowd
felt and probably what they said to these
blind men.
Don't you know who this is?
It's Jesus, the rabbi.
It's possible that one or two even understood
that he was the Messiah.
Do you honestly think he will have time
for you?
Maybe, possibly, they felt he would be a
bit embarrassed, a bit upset by the sight
of two blind beggars in his path.
At present I'm reading a book, it's called
the Kennedy clan.
It's the real-life dynasty, if you like.
The Kennedy dynasty, the Kennedy family in the
USA.
Father Joe Kennedy was an immigrant into the
USA from Ireland.
He was the father of Jack, who became
the president of Edward and of Bobby Kennedy.
And he made it to the top in
America.
He made it to the top by threat,
by muscle, some would even say by tyranny.
Many don't realize that in the brilliant Kennedy
family there was a seriously mentally retarded daughter.
She was called Rosemary.
Listen to how the author of this book
describes the attitude of Joe Kennedy and the
family to Rosemary.
In a family committed to an ethos of
winning, winning, winning, having Rosemary around had always
been an anguishing problem.
The sweet, shy, affectionate girl who looked a
bit like a mother couldn't stand commotion or
violence of any kind, was from her earliest
years a spectator rather than a participant in
sport.
And if you know the Kennedy family, that
was a terrible thing, not to be a
participant going for the tape in whatever sport
they were involved in.
For years Joe and Rose were so ashamed
of having this hopelessly incompetent child in their
midst that they never told anyone about her
condition.
The exponents of the win-at-all-cost
philosophy could not bear the idea of having
a perpetual loser in their midst.
That's the attitude of the rulers of the
nations.
Win at all costs, throw your weight around,
and there's very, very little place for the
bruised, for the broken in that kind of
philosophy.
And here's Jesus, here's Jesus, just leaving Jericho,
and he stops, stops in his tracks for
two blind beggars.
While the leaders in the world have little
time for weakness, the Apostle Paul, who at
one time himself couldn't understand why God had
allowed weaknesses in his life, learned to glory
in those weaknesses.
He learned to thank God and to praise
God for weakness in his life.
I'm sure most of you know 2 Corinthians
12 and verse 9 off by heart.
But God said to me, writes Paul, my
grace is sufficient for you, for my power
is made perfect in weakness.
Therefore, says Paul, I will boast all the
more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's
power may rest upon me.
Then he adds, when I am weak, then
am I strong.
This whole section from 2 Corinthians 11, verse
1 to the end of chapter 12, is
very interesting in relation to our subject this
evening.
And if you don't mind, please turn to
those two chapters for a moment.
We won't read them all, but I want
to try and give you the general drift
of the teaching in those two chapters of
2 Corinthians.
It's obvious as you read the chapters, that
Paul was under severe attack from those whom
he rather amusingly refers to as the super
-apostles.
He does that in chapter 11 and verse
5, and again in chapter 12 and verse
11.
Obviously the earliest versions of Superman, the super
-apostles, who opposed the Apostle Paul in the
community at Corinth.
Now it would appear these opponents were a
party of Judaizing teachers, and they may well
have had a strong, charismatic leader.
He probably claimed a special relationship with Jesus,
people argue that from verse 13 of chapter
11, whether that's true or not, one thing
is certain about them.
Verse 18 tells us, they boasted in the
way the world does.
In other words, they boasted of things like
that, their descent, their family descent, their position,
their rank, their reputation.
That was what was important to these super
-apostles.
What was happening in Corinth was this.
The Corinthians were comparing the super-apostles, and
maybe their leader, particularly, with the Apostle Paul.
And Paul wasn't coming out very well in
this comparison.
They boasted, they oozed confidence in their lives
and in their leadership.
Do you remember how Paul came to Corinth?
Well, 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 3 tells
us, I came to you, says Paul, in
weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
Then they compared the sense of presence, the
rhetoric of the super-apostle, again with the
Apostle Paul.
Look at what they said about Paul, chapter
10 and verse 10.
In person, he is unimpressive and his speaking
amounts to nothing.
Paul had said earlier, in 1 Corinthians 2
and verse 4, my message and my preaching
were not with persuasive words of wisdom.
He says here in chapter 11 and verse
6, I might not be a trained speaker.
This doesn't quite sound like super-saint somehow,
does it?
Doesn't quite sound like the modern view of
the Christian leader in his leotard and with
his weights.
You know the modern view of the man
who's got it all together.
He's eloquent, he's prosperous, he's trained down to
the nth degree, he's obviously a spiritual giant.
It's a Let me tell you something about
Paul.
Do you know, he had a thorn in
the flesh.
Can you imagine that?
He calls it a messenger of Satan, and
even though he prayed that it might be
taken away, it wasn't.
He remained with him, the messenger of Satan.
I mean, why didn't he name deliverance and
claim deliverance?
What was wrong with this apostle?
In fact, Paul came to boast in these
weaknesses.
He came to utterly delight in them.
We've seen that in chapter 12 of 2
Corinthians verses 9 and 10.
So while these false teachers boasted about their
background, their reputation, their eloquence, and so on,
he boasted in his weakness, because he saw
a divine purpose in these weaknesses.
Look at verse 7 of chapter 12.
To keep me from becoming conceited, because of
the surpassingly great revelations God gave to him,
there was given me a thorn in my
flesh.
To keep me from becoming conceited.
Pride, conceit, pretentiousness will rob you of spiritual
power.
It will disqualify you from Christian leadership.
C.T. Studd wrote, God can do little
with those who either love their lives or
their reputations.
Thomas Adams wrote, pride thrust proud nebuchadnezzar out
of men's society, proud Saul out of his
kingdom, proud Adam out of paradise, proud Haman
out of court, and proud Lucifer out of
heaven.
Pride will disqualify me.
It will disqualify you from Christian leadership.
You know, I've been reading the story recently
of youth with a mission.
It's contained in a book.
I don't know whether we've got it.
Is that really you Lord?
Our brothers and sisters, and we're very close
to many of them, our brothers and sisters
in that mission had a very harrowing, a
very humiliating experience a number of years ago
now.
They were convinced that God wanted them to
buy a ship.
It was called the Maori, and it was
birthed in New Zealand.
In the New Spapers took up the story.
One national daily had as its front page
headline on one occasion, youth say God will
give them the ship.
One night they received a telephone call from
a British businessman who gave them the down
payment for the purchase of the Maori.
But as time passed, they just couldn't pay
the remainder.
Eventually they lost both the ship and the
deposit of $72,000.
In this very, very honest book, Lauren Cunningham,
the founder of YWAM, tells of a meeting
with his leaders.
When it became obvious the ship project was
falling through, and I just want to read
to you one paragraph from the book.
Every day we came into the bare austere
meeting room, expecting the heavy feeling of guilt
to lift.
But every day we found new areas which
needed purifying.
A painful awareness of God's awful holiness coursed
through the room.
We began to sense great corporate shortcomings, and
the big one was pride.
To our horror, we saw that we'd begun
to think that youth with a mission was
God's favorite tool.
We had learned more about faith than others.
We saw a glimpse into our hearts, and
it was disgusting.
Lauren speaks at that time of death in
YWAM, death of reputation, death of name, before
resurrection could come.
From that harrowing and yet cleansing and purifying
experience, God has taken YWAM forward at an
incredible pace around the world.
They learned there, as many have done over
the years, that when you are weak, then
you are strong.
They learned the basic spiritual principle that there
has to be death if there is to
be real life and power.
So Paul writes in Philippians 3 verse 10,
I want to know Christ, and I'm sure
you do, the power of his resurrection, and
I'm sure you do, the fellowship of his
sufferings.
Do you?
I want to become like him in the
way in which he died.
Do you?
You want to know power in readership, the
resurrection power of Christ, but do you want
to know the fellowship of Calvary?
Do you want to know the cross in
your life?
Do you want to be like Jesus in
the way in which he died?
How did he die?
Pouring out his life, beaten, broken, bruised, upon
a Roman cross.
In that tremendous chapter on Christian ministry, 2nd
Corinthians 4, Paul writes in verse 10, we
are always carrying around in our body the
death of Jesus, so that the life of
Jesus may be revealed in our bodies.
For we who are alive are always being
given over to death for Jesus' sake, so
that his life may be revealed in our
mortal bodies.
You willing tonight to carry around in your
body the death of Jesus, so that the
life and the power of Jesus may be
manifest in you and through you.
What does it mean?
What does that mean?
For Paul, of course, it was very true
to the facts, true to reality for him.
He must have almost daily experienced something of
the feelings that come to a man in
a death cell.
Never, never could Paul really be sure that
he would be alive the next day.
To live for Jesus' sake involved the readiness
to suffer physically and mentally for the sake
of Christ.
It meant being hated for his sake.
It carried with it the liability of being
put to death for Jesus.
That's what it meant for Paul, carrying in
his body the death of Jesus.
What does it mean for you?
For me, in Britain, in 1986, I suggest
that it means as Christians we have accepted
a totally new principle of living.
And as Christian leaders we have accepted a
totally new principle, a revolutionary principle of leadership.
The principle of the world is self-glorification.
The principle of the Christian is what?
Self-crucifixion.
The principle of the world is exalt yourself
and of the world's leaders, flex your muscles,
impose yourself on the situation, impose yourself on
that person.
The principle of the Christian is crucify yourself
and of the Christian leader take the servant's
position.
It's no longer greatness, it's no longer bigness,
it's no longer pomp, it's no longer show.
The principle of the cross is death.
Death to every demand that the flesh makes.
The demand for recognition, the demand for approval,
the demand for vindication of your leadership.
Death, death.
The cross cries out.
The hymn writer put it like this, And
all through life I see a cross where
sons of God yield up their breath.
There is no gain except by loss.
There is no life except by death.
There is no vision but by faith.
No glory but in bearing shame.
No justice but in taking blame.
And that eternal Saviour saith, Be emptied now
of right and of name.
I've laboured my first point and I've done
so quite deliberately.
But if we don't get this revolutionary principle
of the New Testament, there's little point in
going further.
Power comes from weakness and brokenness.
Humility is the human foundation for spiritual power.
That power can only flow through an empty,
broken vessel.
Power through weakness and servanthood.
The first principle of power in leadership.
The second principle, which I want to bring
before you, and the rest will be much
more brief, is power to lead by example.
Power by weakness, power through example.
Jesus had the most amazing impact on people,
didn't he?
The carpenter's son, without special education, without ever
writing a pamphlet or making a tape, has,
as some writers put it, made more impact
on this world than all the armies that
ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed,
all the parliaments that ever sat, and all
the kings that ever reigned.
He took a band of poor, unschooled Galilean
provincials and he used them to light a
revolution of love that continues to burn in
the hearts of men and women throughout the
world.
Here's Jesus approaching Matthew, the tax collector, and
just two words, follow me.
Matthew responds by immediately leaving his occupation and
becoming a follower of Jesus.
And remember, that was a government job he
had, a government job of the occupying forces.
I wonder what they thought about him walking
out on his job.
But such was the impact of Jesus that
he left everything and followed him.
Here's Zacchaeus up a tree, he thinks he's
safe from the scrutiny of Jesus, but suddenly
he's ordered to come down and Jesus announces,
I'm staying at your house, I'm coming for
a meal.
And immediately Zacchaeus gets down and off he
goes with Jesus to his home.
This same Jesus could turn away a mob
intent on stoning a woman caught in the
act of adultery with just one sentence of
rebuke.
What an incredible, incredible impact on people.
Now where did it come from?
Well we know, it's the power of God,
it's the gift of God, it's the presence
of God upon the life and ministry of
Jesus.
Do you know there's one or two simple
explanations?
And the first is, it always stands out
for me, the reality, the sincerity, the integrity
of this man Jesus.
Dr Luke reminds Theophilus at the beginning of
the Acts of the Apostles of all that
Jesus began to do and to teach.
There was always that integrity, there was always
that reality about his life.
This man wasn't just a talker, great teacher
he was, but he lived the principles that
he taught.
So when John the Baptist sent his disciples
to inquire whether Jesus was the Messiah, was
he the Christ, Jesus didn't reply with an
apologetic.
He didn't go back and say to John
the Baptist, look here's my genealogy, here's the
apologetic for my Messiahship.
This is what he said, go back, tell
John what you've heard, what you've seen.
Remember the Apostle Paul, he could write to
the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4 and verse
17, and this is incredible.
I'm sending Timothy to you, you Corinthians, he's
going to remind you of my way of
life, he's going to tell you what I
live like.
And you'll see that it agrees with what
I teach everywhere in every church.
What a statement.
Timothy's going to tell you how I live
and you know and all the churches know
that what I teach is what I live.
Do you not think the world, do you
not think the church is crying out in
our generation for leaders like that?
For leaders who've put down the weights, taken
off the fine clothing, for leaders who live
a humble life of service, they live what
they teach.
There is nothing more powerful, nothing more authoritative
than the authority of example.
Thirdly, power comes through love.
Love for God, yes, and love for people.
One of the most challenging aspects for me
of the life of Jesus is the fact
that this busy leader, with none of the
modern technology that we enjoy, this busy leader
with all the responsibility upon his shoulders for
those 33 years and particularly for those last
three years, always had time for individuals.
For individuals that the rest of society had
discarded, thrown them on the scrappy.
Jesus somehow found time for them.
Do you remember Legion?
Society had just, you know, chained him in
a cemetery.
He was uncontrollable.
Maybe they took him a meager meal once
a day.
Jesus was attracted to that man like iron
filings to a magnet.
You remember the woman at the well in
Sychar?
Humanly speaking, an insignificant woman, and yet she
got time from Jesus, attention.
I contend that as Jesus was talking to
that woman, he wasn't looking at the passing
camels.
He wasn't looking at who was coming next
to draw water.
This man with all his responsibility, I contend,
was concentrating his whole attention and his whole
love and his whole ministry at that moment
upon that one woman whom you and I,
certainly I, would probably have passed by.
You remember him on the cross?
Agony, pain, yet this man has time for
people.
Woman, woman, Mary, my mother, behold, look, your
son.
Son, behold, your mother, today you shall be
with me in paradise.
Father, forgive them.
They don't know what they're doing.
Time, attention for people.
If God hasn't given you a love for
people, then don't move into leadership.
If God hasn't given you a love and
time for people whom others may discard, then
you haven't begun the servant road.
You're not ready, you're not ready to move
in.
It's a Christian leadership.
I'd love to take time with you to
trace through the life of Peter, but we
haven't got that time.
Can you imagine why Peter followed Jesus?
Sure you can.
Here's this man, failure after failure or so
it would seem, jumping out of the boat,
you know, marching across the waves, sinking.
You ever put yourself in the feet of
Jesus at that point?
It'd be rather exciting, wouldn't it?
His feet were on the water.
But if you put yourself in his feet,
in his place, what would you have done?
What would you have done with this sinking
man who jumped out of the boat again,
so impetuous?
I'll tell you what I would have done.
I'm sure you're much better than me, but
this is what I would have done.
I would have let him sink twice.
And the third time, I'd have grabbed him
and saved him.
And I'd have had a very spiritual reason.
Peter, this has got to stop.
Impetuosity, jumping out of boats, it's got to
stop.
Cutting off ears at the wrong time.
It's wrong, it's wrong.
You have a lesson to learn.
But what do we read?
What do we read?
Immediately, immediately, he reached out his hand and
he lifted that drowning man from the waves.
Do you wonder why Peter followed Jesus?
There's no question why, is there?
The third great principle is the principle of
love.
Love for people.
Fourthly, the principle of a biblically balanced lifestyle.
Biblically balanced lifestyle.
I've been talking about death, I've been talking
about servanthood.
I don't want you to go away thinking
that all leaders dress in black and none
of them have leotards.
You know, I don't want you to think
that the life of the Christian leader is
such an intolerable burden.
That's not the story at all.
The man who has died can really live.
The man who's always worrying about his reputation,
what do people think of me?
He can never really live, he can never
really serve, never.
Because in every situation of life, the man,
the woman who hasn't accepted himself is always
looking for something for himself.
He can never give because he's always wanting
something for self.
But the person who's accepted themselves as God
has made them, rejoicing in the personality that
God has given them.
Those people can really live.
They can live a balanced, peaceful life.
Peace with themselves, peace with God.
Jesus must have been the most interesting person
the world has ever known.
I think the poet Swinburne was never further
from the truth when he described Jesus as
the pale Galilean.
And he said the world has grown gray
from his breath.
What nonsense.
Jesus brought color, energy, life to his surroundings.
He was such a creative person.
He motivated people to action using illustrations, parables
of such imagination to drive home the great
truths he was seeking to teach.
Who could help but be motivated by the
parable of the unforgiving servant?
Who could help but be intrigued and excited
and challenged by the sower and the seed,
the hidden treasure, the pearl of great price,
and so on.
You know one great danger in leadership, probably
in idealistic young people getting into leadership, is
that you become far too narrow.
You get a kind of tunnel vision in
your life and your leadership.
You're committed to your objectives and they're taking
all your time and all your energy and
you've got no time to live.
No time to be what God wants you
to be.
I was shocked out of my shoes at
our field leaders meetings in OM.
That's where all our leaders from various fields
come together once a year.
I was really shocked last September when one
or two came up to me and said,
brother, it's marvelous, isn't it?
OM is my life.
I said, what?
They said, OM is my life, my first
waking thought, my last waking thought at night.
Isn't it marvelous?
Well, that's not my experience.
I love OM.
I really do.
I love being involved, but that's not my
life.
My life is much, much broader, much more
wider, much more wide than this movement, OM.
I've been asking a lot of OM leaders.
I've been carrying out a little survey this
past week in Austria.
What are your hobbies?
It's exciting down there.
One raises rabbits, big rabbits, and he actually
exports them from Austria to the USA.
Rabbits.
And he's actually paid his way through a
university master's course through the profits of rabbit
selling.
Now that's creativity.
That's imagination.
I hope you never become a boring Christian
leader.
Always talking about the work, always talking about
your objectives, your goals, your movement, your church.
There's more to life than that.
Jesus was the most interesting, creative, balanced person
this world has ever experienced.
Finally, the fifth or whatever it is, sixth
principle of power to lead is power through
truth.
Power through truth.
Jesus was absolutely committed to truth, the truth
of God.
Mark tells us that's where it all began
as Jesus entered the wilderness or entered into
Galilee, solely proclaiming the good news of God.
And throughout his ministry, he never ceased to
proclaim the truth of God.
Whenever people came to him, he faced them
with the truth of God.
It didn't matter whether it was the rich
young ruler.
It didn't matter whether it was the woman
taking adultery.
The truth of God was what they faced.
Even the approaches of Satan were faced with
those words.
It's written.
This is the truth of God facing that
temptation.
Truth motivates, doesn't it?
When you're listening to a man who can
really handle the truth of God, it's highly
motivating, isn't it?
When you're sitting down one-to-one, counseling
with a person who knows the word of
God and can bring the word of God
into your situation, it's tremendously motivating, isn't it?
To be faced, not with human ideas, but
with the living truth of God.
And truth wrapped in the kind of enthusiasm
and creativity which you see in Jesus.
Well, it's just incredible.
It was the same with Paul in 2
Timothy 3, in verse 10.
He's challenging Timothy to follow his example in
leadership, and he reminds him about that example.
He said, Timothy, you know all about my
teaching.
He was writing in a day of doctrinal
extremism.
Not much changed, does it, in the Christian
church.
He'd only had to warn them to avoid
endless myths and genealogies.
Have you met them in the 20th century?
Endless myths and genealogies which promote controversy rather
than the work of God.
But in this day of instability, Timothy had
found someone whose teaching was consistent and clear.
And I believe he was greatly motivated by
it.
And so Paul says, the elder, the spiritual
leader, must be able to teach.
Titus, he writes, Titus 1 and verse 9,
the elder must hold firmly to the trustworthy
message as it has been taught, so that
he can encourage others by sound doctrine.
I went to the leadership conference in Scotland.
First time we've had it in Scotland, first
time this year.
We had about 600 to 800 young people
present.
We thought we'd take some pressure off this
conference if we had a Scottish conference.
And in fact, we find we're absolutely full
here, and we're now absolutely full in Scotland.
We're trying an Irish conference this year as
well.
It's great to see you, by the way.
Great.
But you know, I came away from that
conference absolutely motivated in my leadership.
Because the Reverend Eric Alexander, who was our
guest speaker, I only heard one of his
sessions.
But he took the opening chapters of Exodus,
and he just expounded the truth of God
on the subject of leadership.
And I sat there, and my life, my
ministry was fed.
And I was encouraged, because the truth of
God was facing me.
You know, there in Vienna, where I've been
this past week, the team two years ago,
when I last had a long time with
them, were really, really down.
Actually, the work was falling apart.
There are five leaders, and two of them
had come to me talking about leaving the
work.
Two years later, I don't think there are
many more motivated teams in Operation Mobilization.
What happened?
Well, two Bible teachers came to Vienna, Dr.
David Gooding and John Lennox.
I don't think they did very much preaching
as such, but they showed these men how
to get into the Word of God themselves
in a new way.
And every one of them, if they were
to come onto this platform tonight, would tell
you that it has transformed their lives.
They're being fed, they're being motivated daily with
the living Word of God.
Now, many other spiritual qualities which lead to
power in leadership could have been mentioned, but
I think that's enough with which to begin
our conference.
You want to know power?
You want to know authority in your leadership?
Don't go the way of the world, tyranny,
might, muscle.
Go the way of the cross, brokenness, servanthood.
Live the life, not just the words, not
just the activity on the pulpit, not just
the personality at the front.
Live the life.
Ask God to give you a calvary love
for His people, and get into the Word
through which God is known, His will and
His ways are understood.
Let me end with a quotation from John
Stott.
The authority by which the Christian leader leads
is not power, but love.
Not force, but example.
Not coercion, but reasoned persuasion.
Leaders have power, but power is safe only
in the hands of those who humble themselves
to serve.
Are you in a position where God can
give you His power to lead?
Maybe it would be too dangerous.
Power is safe only in the hands of
those who have humbled themselves to serve.
Let's just spend a few moments in quietness
in God's presence, and then I'll pray.
Just let God take maybe one or two
things which you've heard this evening, which were
particularly for you, and write them on your
mind, on your heart.
Remember when the Word of God is sown,
the bird Satan comes along and seeks to
take the seed before it can enter our
minds, our hearts, our lives.
Let's defend ourselves against that this evening.
Just take a few moments and ask God
to write His Word into our minds, into
our hearts.
Father, we know there's a great danger in
1986 to be molded by the patterns of
this world.
We see so much on the television, the
newspapers, the magazines, of a power of a
leadership which is so unbiblical we can't even
recognize it as we read your Word.
We pray you'll deliver us from being molded
in that way, and grant us, Lord, that
which may be against the natural man, it
may be against the flesh.
Lord, it certainly is against the way that
I think and feel so often.
Lord, grant us the liberty to walk the
way of the cross.
Reputation, power, position, prestige may not be that
for which we are reaching, for which we
are aiming.
But Lord, help us to aim with all
our might and with all our hearts to
be servants, servants of yourself and of each
other.
Lord, help us to get into your Word.
We need you to do that.
Grant us Calvary love.
Help us not to get extreme, tunnel vision
Christians.
Help us to know that humor, that creativity,
that imagination, that love of life which we
see in Jesus.
Lord, break any pride in our hearts which
is stopping you from pouring your power into
our lives.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.