Cdc 11th March 2019 Understanding Spiritual Leadership

[background music] [Speaker 1] Church fellowships cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home front. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Tech Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 2] Today, we want to look into scriptures again and look at what you may call the best way I can title what we want to look at is understanding spiritual leadership. Particularly in this dispensation of grace. I just want us to fellowship together around this topic, and I trust the Lord that we will be able to challenge ourselves again along this area. Now, if you look at the word of Jesus in John 10:10, that is a very familiar scripture. I believe we can take that offhand, can’t we? Let’s go together. "The thief cometh not, but to steal, to kill, and to destroy: but I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it abundantly." Now, Jesus' ministry was focused on something. It was focused on life. He said, "I have come that they may have life." And I want to ask you, what is the essence of spiritual leadership? You will find out that it is a matter of we know that somebody is growing in grace; we know that somebody is growing in the Lord if there is a changed life. We can't talk about Christianity without talking about a changed life. Now, if we look at something, look at Colossians. Look at Colossians chapter 3. Just look at something as we just read. Maybe I should take the Good News Bible. It says: "You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. Keep your minds fixed on things there, not on things here on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ, and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory. You must put to death then the earthly desires at work in you, such as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (for greed is a form of idolatry). Because of such things, God's anger will come on those who do not obey him. At one time, you yourselves used to live according to such desires, when your life was dominated by them. But now you must get rid of all these things: anger, passion, hateful feelings. No insult or obscene talk must come out of your lips. Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits and you have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its creator, is constantly renewing in his own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of him. As a result, there is no longer any distinction between Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarians, savages, slaves, and free, but Christ is all, in all. You are the people of God; he loved you and chose you for his own. So then, you must clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Be tolerant with one another and forgive one another whenever you have a complaint against someone else. You must forgive one another just as the Lord has forgiven you. And to all these qualities, add love, which binds things together in a perfect unity. The peace that Christ gives is to guide you in decisions that you make, for it is to this peace that God has called you together in one body. And you must be thankful." What is the essence of salvation here? How do we know a saved person? It is a changed life. That is how we know a saved person: a changed life. Move on to First Peter chapter 1, from the last verse into 2. "Since you have purified your souls in obedience to the truth, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you. Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking..." Do you see it? Because you have received the gospel, because you have been born again, what is the next thing? Laying aside. A changed life. The focus of the gospel, the only way we can know that a man received the gospel is a changed life. If I preached the gospel and they have become born again, but he still continues in the old ways, being a slave to his passion, living in hatred, hating one another, living in malice, living foolishly, living unwisely, living in lust, living in immorality, not putting away anger, not putting away obscene talk, making corrupt talk, saying corrupt things, what is the meaning of that? It means the gospel was actually not received. The essence of the gospel is a changed life. From the one way of life to a new way of life. "I've found a new way of living, I've found a new life in Christ, I've found a new joy of the spirit, I'm abiding, abiding in the vine." There is a new life in Christ. Once a man enters into Christ, there is a new life. To bring this changed life, what did God do? Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it abundantly." When Jesus was leaving, what did he say in terms of his commission? "Go into the world, preach the gospel. He who repents, is baptized, shall be saved. He who repents not shall be damned. Go into the gospel, go into the world, make disciples of men, teaching them to observe what I have commanded you." When God wanted the solution, God wanted to come down, what did he do? We saw Jesus, and he said, "I have come that they may have life and life in abundance." That life was a display of the love of God to man. God came down to man. When he was through with his mission, the Holy Spirit, angels, and man—which of them can speedily save the world? Holy Spirit? But when the Holy Spirit was to come, he was confined again in man. I'm going to make you understand what spiritual leadership is. Man, angel, Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that convicts the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Is it not better for we to set man aside and have the Holy Spirit to finish that work in just few minutes? But that Holy Spirit was made again as if you are limiting his ability to work. You confine him. Let me give an example. Maybe it will bring it out very well. You want to teach ABC to people who don't understand the ABC. You have somebody like Sister Comfort, who is a proven teacher, renowned person in ability to pass the alphabet to these toddlers, these children that want to do it. Then the proprietor, the owner, in order to get best result, he didn't send Sister Comfort to class. No, he didn't do that. Rather, he took Sister Comfort, if it is possible, and puts Sister Comfort inside a five-year-old boy who is not skilled and said Sister Comfort should find expression through the five-year-old boy. So the five-year-old boy is the one who is not skilled, wanting to do the teaching. Are you limiting your work or you're making your work go faster? That is how it looks like. I'm trying to give an understanding of something that actually God did. If that boy must teach as Sister Comfort, it means that boy must have such relationship with Sister Comfort such that whatever he wants to teach will be as a result of his constant association with Sister Comfort because he knows nothing about the alphabet. I want to explain spiritual leadership. What is spiritual leadership? So many things have been said about spiritual leadership, but I want to say some basic thing about spiritual leadership. Let's see practical example to illustrate this thing. Can we just quickly turn to Exodus chapter 3? I believe we are familiar with the story in chapter 3. One day, while Moses was taking care of the sheep of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, he led the flock across the desert and came to Sinai, the holy mountain. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him as a flame coming from the middle of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire, but that it was not burning up. "This is strange," he thought. "Why isn't the bush burning up? I will go closer and see." When the Lord saw that Moses was coming closer, he called him from the middle of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses." He said, "Here I am." God said, "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals because where you are standing on is holy ground. I am the God of your ancestors. I'm the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." So Moses covered his face because he was afraid to look at God. Then God said, "I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated in Egypt. I have heard them cry out to be rescued from their slave drivers. I know all about their suffering. And so I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out to a spacious land, one which is rich and fertile, in which the Canaanites, the Hittites, so many nations were dwelling. So now, I am sending you to the king of Egypt so that you may lead my people out of his country." Who is going to Egypt? Both of them are going to Egypt. He said, "I have come down and I will take them." He said, "But I will take them to the land." He did not say that, "I will be using you to take them to the land." He said, "I have come down and I am taking them." So do you agree when I said it's like putting Sister Comfort inside a boy? What is spiritual leadership? Let's see another reference for us to see that it's a consistent pattern with God. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 31. Moses concluded speaking to the people of Israel and said, "I am now a hundred and twenty years old, and I am no longer able to be your leader. And besides this, the Lord has told me that I will not cross the Jordan. The Lord your God himself will go before you and destroy the nation living there so that you can conquer their land, and Joshua will be your leader as the Lord has said. The Lord will destroy those people just as he defeated Sihon and Og, king of the Amorites, and destroyed their country. The Lord will give you victory over them, and you are to treat them exactly as I have told you." Who is going before them? Joshua or the Lord? You see the same thing again in this place. You see the same consistent pattern. So what is spiritual leadership? What does it mean to be a spiritual leader? What does it mean to say that I'm a believer, God called me to lead these people under God? What exactly are you saying? Is leadership something that has to do with human idea? Does it have to do with human making decisions? Does it have to do with human making rules and regulation? Does it have to do with human making policies? What exactly is spiritual leadership that you want to lead a people under God? What does it mean? Fundamental to spiritual leadership is first and foremost that a man shares oneness with God. There must be a oneness, there must be a—I don't know whether you get the point I'm making. There must be a oneness you share with God. There's an intimacy a man shares with God. There's a place of oneness, there's a place of intimacy with God. There's a place of shared issues with God. You will notice that very well, and that is what it means to be spiritual leader. Now, for you to know that that is what it means, the essence of spiritual leadership, let's look at Moses as a case study again. At a point, do you know that there was a point in Moses' life where every law that Moses gave will be "the Lord will command Moses, then he will command them." Go and check that man's life. That's why Bible said Moses was faithful in all his house. In Hebrews, he said, "Like Moses that was faithful." Faithfulness means doing exactly what is the interest of who sends you an errand. So he was faithful in all his house. There were even times when there was a case of a man picking wood on the Sabbath day that Moses did not know what to do. He said they should keep the man first. So he went to God. God now told him that this is what he should do: they should stone the man to death so that all Israel who hear this may fear and they will know that God is serious about the issue of the Sabbath before Moses now went. Look at the case of the daughters of Zelophehad. They came with a demand. He didn't know what to do. What did he do? He went to God. God said, "Moses, this is it." Then he came with an ordinance that henceforth this is what God said. Formally when there was no ordinance, what did he do? He sought the face of God. But it got to a point in life of Moses where there was a case of divorce or no divorce and Moses, because he could not handle the people, he gave them a law that they can put away their wives. At a point when God showed up, God said, "That was Moses, it was not me." Moses allowed you because of the hardness of your heart. From the beginning, anybody who follows that has done the wrong way. It was religious, it was not spiritual. And it is because today, more and more we are creating religious ordinances as against spiritual leadership. That is why we are having several problems today in our churches. This is why we are having several challenges within the family. I said within the family because God was pointing so many things to me on this matter of spiritual leadership is not just about leading people. But let me show you, God was showing so many things about this matter. Look at Abraham. There was an issue between Abraham and Sarah. Abraham wanted Ishmael to stay and inherit. Sarah said no, the bondwoman's son will not inherit with Isaac, he should be cast out. The thing was grievous to Abraham. But you notice spiritual leadership in the life of that man. What did he do? He went to God, and God said, "Go and listen to Sarah." Then by the following day, the argument was over. "Ishmael and Hagar, go away." In a matter that Ishmael was the firstborn and the law at that time, you can't throw away the firstborn. That was why Abraham wanted the firstborn, that it is unjust and unfair to throw away the firstborn. I hope you get the issue. But as far as God was concerned, the firstborn was Abraham's project. It was not God's project. It was the issue of an error. It's not an alternative to God. God's project was Isaac. And even though it was grievous to Abraham, what God wants at that point is that Ishmael and Hagar be cast out and Isaac inherit. I'm trying to show you spiritual leadership in that home. I want to tell you, if it was not about spiritual leadership, do you think they would have resolved that matter? Just the same way why in our churches, why in homes, in families, many matters remains unresolved. They will scatter, they will build it, they will go that way, later they will gather themselves in the form of an unbeliever who is a lawyer to say we are to seek to interpret things when even spiritual beings could not interpret the things of God. You now stand before one judge to say my wife did this, help me to judge who is just, who is right. The point I'm making is about spiritual leadership. I'm trying to explain what spiritual leadership is. Spiritual leadership is not first about leading people. It's first and foremost that a man shares what? Intimacy with God. It's not first about wanting to head. No. It's first about seeking to share intimacy with God. Seeking to share intimacy with God because spiritual leadership is actually the way the Master described it for us. Let’s see that in John 5:19 and John 5:30. Jesus answered them, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing on his own. He does only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son also does. I can do nothing on my own authority or of myself. I judge only as the Father tells me, so my judgment is right because I'm not trying to do what I want, but only what he who sent me wants." What is spiritual leadership? So you find that the bane of leadership today, what we call spiritual leadership today, is that the men who want to lead men are themselves not led of God. Spiritual leadership is about a man who first and foremost is led of God. Spiritual leadership is not about leading people. It's the ability for a man to be led of God. That is the foundation of spiritual leadership. Once a man can be led of God, once a man can be pushed by God in his personal life, God is leading your life. And as he's leading your life, based on that leading, you are leading people. It shows up maritally, it shows up financially, it shows up in his career, it shows up in his purpose. It shows up counseling, it shows up in preaching, it shows up in deliverance. It is that same what we are looking at in the life of Philip. Philip went down, but it was a prophetic issue. Samaria needed to be touched. An angel told Philip. The spirit of God told Philip. There was a man that was led; he was a man that shares intimacy with God. The consequence is this: Jesus said, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Whoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life." He said, "What I do is not of myself, but as I am sent, so I am doing it." So you find that the first thing about the leadership of Jesus was first what? Oneness with God. It is the same thing in your personal life, in your home, in your finances, in your job. Once it is not with him, it will be to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Several people today, their career, their marriage, their finances, their job have killed them, have wasted them. Why? Because it is not with him. Once it is not with him, once it is before him, once you can go ahead of him, the ministry, the end product of that ministry will be that it will steal, it will kill, it will destroy. I'm just trying to show you the foundation of spiritual leadership, that there's a foundational error today with the way we run our togetherness as brethren. People don't first see the need to be with Jesus, to learn Jesus, to grow with Jesus, to be with Jesus so that they will not do anything of themselves. It will be that as they hear, they do. Could it be that we don't have life? That is the issue of spiritual leadership. Because you cannot give what you don't have. Could it be that you don't have life so that to have light and you can lighten men and they can see and they can now walk in light? Could it be? Is it not a time for us as leaders to go back and check inward and check? Praise the Lord. Let's go ahead to pray this evening. Let us pray this evening. Let's talk to the Lord. I don't know how you are challenged. I don't know what you are learning from the things that we have discussed, but I just want you to reflect on this thing. Are you a thief and a robber? Are you coming before the Lord or you are coming with the Lord? Are you coming before or with? These are very important things about spiritual leadership. Just to talk to the Lord. Respond to the Lord the way you can. Just respond to the Lord the way the message came to you. Thank you, our Father. [background noise]