Leadership - Part 1

Are you going to night vision in her beautiful big jealous but with overtures is successful, but you are competing with another ministry of personal prayer to the gods are around Turning Point Dr. David Jeremiah. She was on his disciples feelings of jealousy and competition. Continuing his series in search of the Savior is direct message title. Thank you for joining us today to begin this week, together with talk about a subject that is pretty hot right now but it's got something to say about leadership and go to the bookstore you will find a whole section on it and confine dozens and dozens of books on how to lead. Some of them tell you that the way that you lead is through organization. Some say it's the force. Some say lead to friendship some praise unity. Some preach individuality when you come to the Bible you find a very different set of principles and practices when it comes to being a leader learn a lot about it.

I would tell you I've tested these principles out and they work. This is the way to lead this is the way Jesus taught us to be leaders in our families and our businesses in our churches in our schools. These principles are wide-ranging and their impact, so be sure and be with us today and tomorrow as we talk about leadership, tackle a really tough one on Wednesday and Thursday. This is in Mark chapter 10 verses 1 to 12 what Jesus said about divorce, only doing it because it's next it's there. I'm going to jump over. I think you'll find help as we talk about that on Wednesday and Thursday of this week and I will continue moving through these last chapters of the book of Mark, let's find out what Jesus has to teach us about leadership. Most of you know us all is the pastor this church and probably don't know very much about how we got here which is not all that important.

But today I want to tell you a little bit about our background section to this story.I both grew up in homes very strict Baptist vintage. We went to Baptist churches.

All of our lives.

My father was a Baptist preacher and ultimately the president and then the Chancellor of a Baptist University. Somewhere along the way.

We both sort of got the idea that God was doing an exclusive work among Baptists, and especially among the particular kind about this that we happen to be when I graduate from high school I went to a Baptist college and when God called me to preach in college I needed to go to a seminary. So I decided to go to the Dallas theological seminary, and it was quite a shock to both of us. When we arrived in Dallas and we began to know professors and students at the seminary and we heard stories of God's blessing in their lives and ministries and believe it or not some of them were Presbyterians and others were Methodist and we even met a few Episcopalians and we realized that we had grown up with a very narrow view of how God works in the world a lot about that time someone told me a story about St. Peter meeting some folks at the gates of heaven and pointing them to a community of people over in the corner and Peter told the new arrivals to walk quietly by that gathering because they were the Baptists and they thought they were the only ones there. I need to tell you that I'm proud to be a Baptist and I am one because I believe the doctrines we embrace of the closest to the doctrines of the word of God but also learned that God is working across many denominational lines and in many places where there aren't any denominations and we seem to be a lot more concerned about labels than God is. What surprises me most when we open our Bibles to the ninth chapter of Mark is that the problems that we face in our evangelical circles seem to have had roots as far back as Jesus and the disciples when Jesus walked upon this earth. And as you read these verses that are before us, though some of them are very difficult to process and comprehend how they fit into the total picture is one thing that seems quite clear that is that our Lord has a much different view of ministry than we do, and that we can never really be God's choice servants, and do his work as he wants us to do it in less we get on his page instead of trying to drag him on dollars as you open this text in the 38th verse, you begin to see how leading by cooperation rather than by competition is illustrated for us in verse 38 we learned of a competitive attitude among the disciples know John answered Jesus saying teacher we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in your name and we forbade him, because he does not follow us. I have to believe that Jesus must've had some very discouraging moments as a human, though he was the God man. He was also the Son of Man that he had human feelings as we do, and he was a teacher and oftentimes he must've wondered where were my pupils when I was teaching because they don't seem to have been present in the class and it seems as is every time he teaches an important lesson. One of his disciples immediately violates the principle appears just taught.

Such is the case in the paragraph from Mark chapter 9. As you will remember, Jesus has just verbally and visually taught his disciples that true greatness is found in serving those who are thought to be insignificant in our last study we saw Jesus hold the child up in his hand and say to his disciples who had been arguing with themselves over which one of them was the greatest. Jesus said in Mark 937 whoever receives one of these little children in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives, not me, but him who sent me this message could not have been clearer. How could anyone not understand our Lord's sermon, but where was John when the Lord preach this sermon. Was he not in the room was a not listening. It seems as if the words are hardly out of Jesus mouth when John begins to tell Jesus about this man who's been casting out demons, but had not been doing it the way that he and the other disciples had been doing it and therefore the disciples had told him to stop. John was so concerned about those who were following them that he forgot to figure out what it means to follow him and the disciples were not setting any records.

If you remember in exorcisms in the last paragraph or so of the eighth chapter, we learn that the disciples to try to cast out a demon and they couldn't do it while Jesus and James and John and Peter were up on the Mount of Transfiguration. The other nine disciples got into an argument at the foot of the mountain with the man who brought his demon possessed son to have the demon cast out, and he didn't get anything for it because the disciples couldn't pull it off, and Jesus had to explain to them that they couldn't do it because they were prayerful. He said the sky doesn't come out except to prayer and fasting and so here are the disciples who have not been able to cast out a demon critical of a man who has been casting out demons only by another method than the one they have used they are not only upset that this man is casting out demons that are primarily upset because he's doing a better job of it than they have been doing is interesting that as you read the Bible and you become sensitive to an issue like this. All of a sudden other stories began to come to the top in your memory bank. You know there's at least three other places were the sort of thing happened to me just review them for you.

In the Old Testament. On one occasion Joshua discovered two people L dad and me dad who were prophesying others that were preaching and Joshua called Moses and said Moses you need to stop them from doing that their preaching stop them from preaching John the Baptist disciples reacted in a similar fashion when they observed Jesus becoming more popular than John was, and in John 326 he came to John and they said to him, Rabbi, he was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified behold, he is baptizing, and everyone's coming to him. In other words, John.

If you don't hurry up and do something you lose your crowd. Jesus is stealing your crowd, and when Paul was in prison in Rome and they came to him and told him that some of his contemporaries were taking advantage of his imprisonment to advance their own careers. We read about it in Philippians 115. Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife. How often this is the scenario in your day and in my if we see God at work in someone else, and it happens to be someone who is more successful than we are. We are prone to become jealous and critical of that person. I remember reading something about jealousy that helps me understand how it works. The little thing was called jealousy runs in circles. In other words, I will never really probably be jealous of the plumber who services my house for the lawyer who works downtown, or the person who runs the 7-Eleven at the corner, I'm not have to be jealous of them because jealousy runs in professional service. My problems can be some of the pastor.

Some of the leader some other person that God seems to be blessing mightily doing the very thing that I do in the same as for all of us here you jealousy issues not going to be of me so much, or anybody but the people that are in your world who do what you do. The reason the disciples were jealous of the man who is casting out demons is because that's what they did and this man was doing it better and he wasn't following the proper formula to do it. How narrow we can become when it comes to the progress of the gospel to travel around very much, you discover that God uses all kinds of people and means that you would never believe to bring folks to himself. And we do ourselves great damage when we think that we are the only ones who know how to do it right. I have a friend who runs a major ministry in his favorite mantra is we do it right. Which basically means the rest of us are all doing it wrong.

Someone gave me a bit of verse that describes how narrow we become if we are not careful. Goes like this believe is I believe no more, no less, that I am right and no one else confess feel as I feel, think, as I think, eat what I eat and drink what I drink look as I do. You always as I do, then and only then I'll fellowship with you and you know what you think that's silly little piece of verse that describes a whole lot of people that I know if you not just like me.

If you don't do things just like I do.

We can be friends. It is a sad fact that pride and competitiveness often lead us to work against others who were on the same team and the result of it is if you stop and ponder for a moment. The result of it is that those who are living in the kingdom of darkness, who need our witness are left in their oppression and suffering.

We argue about what is the right way to reach them the competitive attitude that Jesus doesn't let that sit. He's going to deal with it. So in verses 39 to 41. The Lord Jesus answers the question of a competitive attitude. First of all, he tells his disciples that we have the same goal versus 39 and 40 Jesus said do not forbid him. For no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterward speak evil of me, for he was not against us is on our side Jesus Christ John by declaring that this exorcist is casting out demons is on their side even though he is in the part of the 12 who were following Jesus.

This man was casting out demons is doing it in Jesus name.

And no one doing such a thing whatever speak evil of Jesus, the apostle Paul wrote in first Corinthians 12 three therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the spirit of God calls Jesus accursed and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit else go back to Moses and John and Paul and see what happened and what the answer was for them in this little exercise of ministerial jealousy listen to how Moses responded to Joshua when Joshua was worried about L, dad and me dad prophesying is what Moses said to Joshua, argues jealous for my sake, or that all of the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would produce.

On every one of them Moses and Joshua, I don't want you to be worried about these two preachers who may not have been licensed or ordained all that God would choose everyone to be a preacher and that he would produce. All of them listen to how John responded to his disciples when they were worried about the crowds that were coming to Jesus. John answered and said to his disciples a man can receive nothing unless it's given to him from heaven.

You yourselves bear meat witness that I said that I am not the Christ, but I've been sent before him. He who has the bride is the bridegroom with a friend of the bridegroom stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. He must increase, I must decrease every time. This shows its ugly head in the Scripture, the answer is almost scripted by Almighty God. John said I came into this world with a specific purpose to be the forerunner of Jesus Christ. What is a forerunner someone who announces that someone else is coming. It was John who said, behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

And John said to his disciples, if everybody is leaving quote my church and going to quote Jesus church.

I must be doing a good job because my purpose in coming was the point everybody to him and he must increase and I must decrease. And what about Paul Paul's in prison and his friends come and say Paul you know all your contemporaries that you hung out with before you got thrown in jail or your pastor buddies there taking your itinerant opportunities there using your imprisonment to advance their career when you think about that all the answers almost offer the same page is both Moses and John he said, what then only that in every way, whether it is in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached, and in this I rejoice. Yes, I will rejoice. Paul said let them preach I'm not responsible for their motives, but limiting what I know if Jesus Christ is being preached. Praise God, I rejoice in the preaching of the gospel should be our attitude when were tempted to be critical of others who don't necessarily do it all right or don't quote follow us. We should stop and back up a little bit and say the preaching Christ. I mutually preaching Christ, the son of the living God, the one who came back from the grave victorious over the death of the preaching Christ. They may not do it in our language, they might not do it in our style. Some of them might have roads and callers on they might look altogether different. But if the preaching the truth of Jesus Christ we should take Paul's approach and say if they preach Christ.

I rejoice in. Thank God for it is a wonderful story that took place at the end of the 19th century visited London during that time, you would have immediately been aware of the fact that there were two very famous preachers in the City of London one you've heard me speak of often Charles Haddon Spurgeon and the other who was written many books to help us understand the Scripture was a man by the name of FB Meyer, Charles Haddon Spurgeon had one big church FB Meyer had another one and it seemed at that time, as if flooding was barely big enough for the two of them because they were superstars. If you can use that term for a preacher, the great preacher G.

Campbell Morgan came back to London and Morgan was a world-class Bible expositor and all of London was buzzing with his arrival. FB Meyer said it was easy to pray for the success of G. Campbell Morgan when he was in America but when he came back to England and took a church not too far from mine was something different. So the old Adam and me, was inclined to jealousy. But I determined to do right so he said I began to pray for his success. Actually, I pray day and night for the success of G. Campbell Morgan, even as I was worrying about losing members from my church to his church. I was praying for his success. He later explained in one of his books. FB Meyer said my church gave a reception for G. Campbell Morgan and I told them at the reception that if I hadn't had the preach on Sunday evenings I go to his church and hear him preach. Here's what happened. He began to pray every day for G. Campbell Morgan and he said Mr. Spurgeon, and Mr. Morgan became so popular and drew such huge crowds that are church caught the overflow and we grew more than we ever grown in a long time from the overflow of the blessing of the other two churches while I just want to go back and remind you that we have the same goal were trying to reach this lost world for Christ and his everything around it seems to be crumbling, and as all of the things that used to separate us seem to be so insignificant and foolish to make an impact on this world for Jesus Christ. We got a quick play in the silly games we've been playing for so long. Remember that if were on the same team.

We should fight in the same way work with one another and try to make a difference in the world where we been called to make a difference. We have the same goal. But notice, Jesus added one more thing we have the same God. In verse 41 he says for whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to Christ. Assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. Here's the question does he belong to Christ. If he belongs to Christ. I don't mean just by word belongs to Christ, but generally belongs to Christ.

As a follower, a disciple of Jesus Christ. That's the core that you need to care about. Does he belong to Christ.

These words is Before us, will deliver us from a party spirit and from petty bickering's and from jealousy in Christian service. Does he belong to Christ. Romans 1479 says, for none of us lives to himself and no one dies to himself.

If we live, we live to the Lord and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or die. We are the Lord's, for to this end Christ died and rose and lives again that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living we serve the same God. Let us not forget that the first part of Jesus instruction that day was to his disciples, and I want to just pause for a moment and remind you that here in the section of the book of Mark, we actually see Jesus Christ doing a little leadership training for his disciples. He knows that one of these days he's going to be out of the picture in the whole thing will rest on them and I believe that some of these lessons which are sold very to the soul were lessons meant to help the disciples after Jesus had gone back to heaven, for we know for a fact from the Scripture that when Jesus went back to heaven.

The spirit of God brought back to their minds, many things that they had learned from Jesus while he was on this earth were in the midst of a discussion on leadership from the lips of Jesus and were going to finish that up tomorrow only mentioned to you that on Wednesday and Thursday when it tackled the subject of divorce and then on Friday to rich young ruler's part one, we are moving through the last chapters in the book of Mark during the month of November.

I hope you're doing well. I know these have been some tough times people have told me recently that they hope nobody ever mentions the year 2022 them again. The rest of their life because it's been so hard, but it will also be true. When we look back, remember that God taught us some things during these days, I remember thinking that when I went to cancer that what I learned most of all was that God was enough, and he's been enough for these times been frustrated and stressed out all the rest. We know that without God we been trouble.

Thank you God for you in our lives. Have a great day to join us tomorrow for more information on Dr. Jeremiah's current teaching series in search of Savior. Please visit our website. We also find two ways to help you stay connected monthly magazine Turning Points and daily devotional. Sign-up today and David Jeremiah.org/radio that's David Jeremiah.org/writing to ask you a copy of Ali's Hogan's Bible because finding Jesus in every book in the Bible is yours, which is the Jeremiah study Bible and the English standard version.

The new international version and the new King James version filled with helpful notes and articles for the Jeremiah Jeremiah old/radio I'm very hopefully join us tomorrow as we continue the series in search of the Savior is here on Turning Point with Dr. David Jeremiah taking time to listen to