Message #5, I Am Here to Follow So That I Can Lead

 I hope that by this time you have noticed that these documents are rough. They are little more than copies of the notes from which I am speaking at the ZBA conference. 

They are here for the use of conference participants. Please do not share them without participation. Just write me at hmerrell@liebenzellusa.org.

Message #5, I Am Here to Follow So That I Can Lead

Written two weeks ago in SC: “I figure at this time, at the end of a long day of sessions, the theme of this conference takes on new meaning. “Why Am I Here?”

😊

I brought my airplane hat.

In this session we are going to fly over a section of scripture to observe some principles from the life of Christ that are essential for us to understand if we are going to grow in the area of leadership. In particular we are going to look at the dynamic between the leader and the follower, but not just any follower. We are going to look at the follower who is on his way to becoming a leader.

Some of you are leaders. 

• You have a responsibility to oversee the activities of others in a particular area of ministry.

• You have stewardship over money and other resources that have been made available for accomplishing the goals of that ministry.

• As we have already emphasized, you have shepherding responsibilities to develop those you lead—in particular, you have a responsibility to develop new leaders to carry on the ministry that has been entrusted to you.

Some of you are followers.

• You don’t have a great deal of freedom.

• Mainly you are told what to do.

• It may be that you have been gifted in such a way that you could lead. I would submit to you that you have a responsibility to develop that potential. 2 Tim 1:6

“For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands,” (2 Timothy 1:6, ESV) 

For most of us, we go both ways. We have someone who leads us, and/or someone to whom we are accountable, and we have a responsibility to oversee the activities of others.

I suppose what we are talking about is the process of mentoring. Whole books are written about mentoring. The concept is awfully close to discipling. For our purpose in this session, let’s think of it this way, discipling with a view toward leadership development.

BTW, the chapter in the book Paul Seger gave you, about the blacksmith is about this process.

I want you to help me with this. I have created a chart. I want you to take a few minutes and help me fill it in. See the chart in the handout for this session, or scroll down.

Since you are reading this rather than hearing it in the live session, You’ll have to work out for yourself how to go through this extended portion of scripture. I’d suggest that a good way to do this would be to read through the this section of Scripture and fill in the chart as you go.

Before you start this project, though, let me lead you through the Sermon on the Mount.

There are a great many things of interest in these passages. Our focus is the interplay between the leader and the follower who is becoming a leader. Record your discoveries and thoughts.

I’m going to walk us all through the SoM. 

Note in Mat 5:2 who Jesus is talking to

Start at the end (Which by the way is a good plan sermon prep.)

7:23-29, The Lord is talking about building a life.

Note the 5 “R”s in the chart.

The Remarkable Character of God’s People 

The Beatitudes: 

Not a deal. They are characteristics of God’s people. These are all counter-cultural. They are counter USA culture and they are counter Zambian Culture. I suppose if I use “American” instead of “USA” we could say they are counter-cultural from A to Z.

These words are descriptions.  This is what God’s people are like.  The Gospels were written during the second half of the 1st Century.  It was a time when the followers of Christ were not among the rich and famous of Roman society.  Many of them had been forced to leave their homes in Jerusalem, and later other places—you remember the persecution that Saul of Tarsus started.  Later, after he became known as Paul, he wrote to a group of Christians in Corinth and said, “Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.”  (1 Cor. 1:26)

The world looked at these poor pathetic, persecuted followers of Christ, and said, “I sure am glad I’m not one of them.  Jesus said, “No, these followers of mine are blessed.  It may not look like it now, but you just wait.  They will receive the kingdom.  They will be known as children of God.  They are the ones who will inherit the earth.  They are the ones who line up on the right side of history.

The Similitudes:

It is God’s intention that His people live lives of undeniable impact, lives of good works that bring glory to God our Father.

The Righteousness that God’s People Possess:

The second half of chapter 5 is about righteousness.  I’ve been privileged on several occasions to be a teacher. Teachers like to give homework. Here is some:

Five times in the second half of Mat. 5 you will find the words, “you have heard,” something was said.  Once you’ll see the words, “it was said.”

Look them up and see what the Lord had to say about what was said.

In all six of these instances the Lord was challenging with what the Jewish religious leaders had to say.

What the religious leaders of Jesus day did, and I think we are still doing it today, was to:

• Focus on the surface and forget the heart.

• To highlight the negative and neglect the positive.

• And above all else they figured out ways to make it easier to obey the rules so they could make themselves look good.

The Religion that is Lived Out By God’s People

Some of the religious practices that Jesus talks about are quite familiar to us today. 

You notice that in v. 1 Jesus speaks in general about acts of righteousness.

Matthew 6:1 (NASB95)

1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. 

The Riches of God’s people

 Look at 6:19.  “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven . . . . 

Then 24

 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

The Reciprocal Standard of Judgment of God’s People:

Jesus says that our standard needs to be reciprocal.  It points out, and it points back.  

Clearly this concept applies to the matter of leadership development and being developed as a leader. When you talk as a group think about that.

Take a few minutes to reflect and answer the question: “How does the teaching of the SoM apply to the interplay involved in Leadership development?” Look at it from both perspectives, the leader developing new leaders and the upcoming leader being developed. Jot down your thoughts

Now, go ahead and read through chapters 8-9. Record your thoughts. You’ll see that I have inserted some of my observations in the chart below. Don’t stop there, though. Add your own!

Grp.	Passage	General Principle:	For the Leader:	For the Follower:
All	Mt 5:1-7:23 Note 5:2	R   R   R   R   R
1	8:1-17	Command over various ailments and disorders. Leprosy, “incurable” By remote control, not he lesson on authority. Peter’s mother-in-law, Jesus cares	Let them see the possibilities	They are being taught the possibilities.
2	8:18-27	Testing & further demonstration of power	Testing, are you willing to follow, are you willing to trust. This isn’t safe.	Disciples need to step up.
3	8:28-9:8	This is not just everyday stuff. This is supernatural	A higher level of dependence. Reliance on a power greater than our own.	Push them to the edge. Note 9:8
4	9:9-38 Note 9:37-38	As in SOM the counter-cultural nature of following Christ comes through. There was criticism from 2 directions Jthe B’s followers, 14, Phar. 34	Ask them to follow. Lead them beyond themselves. This is bigger than we are.	Decide to follow Trust.

1 8:1-17 Command over various ailments and disorders.

Leprosy, “incurable”

By remote control, not he lesson on authority.

Peter’s mother-in-law, Jesus cares Let them see the possibilities They are being taught the possibilities.

2 8:18-27 Testing & further demonstration of power Testing, are you willing to follow, are you willing to trust. This isn’t safe. Disciples need to step up.

3 8:28-9:8 This is not just everyday stuff. This is supernatural A higher level of dependence. Reliance on a power greater than our own. Push them to the edge.

Note 9:8

4 9:9-38

Note 9:37-38 As in SOM the counter-cultural nature of following Christ comes through.

There was criticism from 2 directions Jthe B’s followers, 14, Phar. 34 Ask them to follow.

Lead them beyond themselves. This is bigger than we are. Decide to follow

Trust.

Now we’ll look at chapter 10 together.

Chap 10 is full of truth in regard to leadership development. We only have time to look at a few points.

1-15 Delegation

Let’s stop here for a moment.

There are two main directions that delegation takes. Sometimes, often, it will go both directions at once.

A leader may delegate in order to enable her or him to get more done. 

“A leader should only do what only the leader can do. Everything else should be delegated.”

• It’s a good principle to keep in mind. I disagree with it as an absolute.

• It can be a matter of pride.

• It assumes an ideal situation. “I have someone to whom I can delegate.” Work toward that, but in ministry settings you may not get there.

A leader may use delegation as a means of teaching. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Make sure you think it through though. My experience with interns. (50-50 standard)

Which direction was the Lord emphasizing in this instance?

See this chart:

 (https://www.infoq.com/news/2020/05/teams-delegation/)

Where in this spectrum was the Lord in His delegation?

Before we answer that, there actually are a couple of other arrows that we should draw in.

• Consider trust, let’s look at another example of delegation to see this. Phili 2:19-20

“I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare.” (Philippians 2:19–20, ESV) 

• Ability

• Resources, authority.

For sake of time let me answer a couple of questions. 

• I don’t think the Lord did trust these guys, at least not completely, consider one of them was Judas. Luke 10:17 (similar trip) They probably still didn’t get it.

“The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”” (Luke 10:17–20, ESV) 

• Concerning ability, obviously, they couldn’t come anywhere close to the Lord. Yet from what we see later, after Pentecost, they had a great deal of ability. At this point it was undeveloped, untested, and inconsistent.

• The Lord provided them with resources and authority. There is the risk that trainee will in some way hurt themselves or someone else. 

(When I was 5 years old, I had a bicycle. I lived in a small city where the streets were laid in a grid pattern. Illinois is flat so this layout worked well. The diagram below illustrates where I lived. I still remember the name of the street my family lived on, “Turlington.” The blue square is my house. I don’t remember the name of the other streets. The line in the middle of my picture is an alley (a narrow street that was there so that people could get access to the area behind their houses. It had very little traffic. Turlington and the other 3 streets in my diagram all had sidewalks parallel to them, so I could ride on Turlington Street, Streets A, B, & C without crossing the street. I was also permitted to ride in the alley. My mom and dad said I had to stay on “my block.” 

One day, my parents told me that I could cross Turlington Street and ride on that block. That meant that my bicycle world was now doubled. I could see all the things on that block, some of which couldn’t be seen from side of Turlington Street. On the very first day that I crossed the street in from of my house I got hit by a car and my bicycle got bent up. I was knocked out for a minute or so. 

Whenever new freedoms are given it also involves new risks. 

How sad it would be, however, if 68 years later my world was still confined to that small plot of ground pictured below. I think you can draw your own lessons from little piece of history.

 

Self-replicating:

I can’t take a lot of time on this, but look at v. 11. Why did Jesus tell them this?

“And whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart.” (Matthew 10:11, ESV) 

We see this self-replicating process in the Great Commission & 2 Tim 2:2.

Dangerous/costly :

Look at v. 16

““Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16, ESV) 

Then listen to the next few verses, 17-34. It is clear to me that Jesus begins to talk beyond the scope of this one mission trip undertaken by these 12 men.

If you are going to serve the Lord, there is a cost involved. Look at the passages in the Gospels where Jesus speaks about trying to keep your life and in the process losing it, and being willing to give up your life and in that way keeping it. V. 39 

Matt 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:24; 17:33; John 12:25

Acts 6 presents a problem that was solved through delegation. See Message 6 for some more thoughts on this.