Sermon Transcript — May 6, 2006
On my way into the hall this afternoon, I kept running into old friends and, of course, that's the beauty of the General Conference, you meet a lot of people you haven't seen in awhile. Everyone I ran into, though, on my way into the hall said, "You are speaking today, I see." I said, "Yes." And they said, "Well, I'm sure glad it's not me!" And so they kept, one after another, saying that as I walked into the hall. And then I came into the hall and they pinned a flower on me. I said, "Well, that seals it. It must be a funeral." And then I see this big picture — I'm trying to figure out what the guy's saying on the screen — and it's a bit intimidating, but I suppose I'll get used to it as we go along. I also want to welcome all of those who are on-line. I hope you are audio and not video. And a special welcome to the members in Houston. I hope you don't have me on the big screen that you are probably watching right now. If it's true, you are seeing more of me today than you've seen in the last eighteen years that I was there. I'll try to get beyond the intimidation and speak to you this afternoon.
Well, brethren, the theme of the General Conference of Elders this year is 'Service and Leadership, Today, Tomorrow and Beyond'. It's interesting that here today we are focusing on leadership — here for the next couple of days we will be focusing on leadership. Well, it's the 21 st century and we are talking about leadership. If you were in the church a hundred years ago, guess what you would have been talking about? Leadership. I acutally have a publication from the Chruch of God dated in 1860 and they were talking about ministerial conferences and guess what they were talking about? Leadership. What are the qualities? What do we look for? What do we want to see when we talk about leadership? Well, you don't have to stop there. You can go all the way back to the 1 st century. When you read the scriptures you can see that leadership was a topic even back then. In fact, one could say that leadership has been a primary topic all the way back to the beginning of time. I submit to you this afternoon that leadership and Christianity are tied together. In order to understand true leadership, you must also understand Christianity. In order to understand Christianity, one must also understand the concept of leadership.
There was a book that was published recently written by Kim Blanchard and Phil Hodges — Kim Blanchard is the author of 'The One Minute Manager', if you are familiar with his writings. His latest book is entitiled or titled 'Lead Like Jesus'. Lead like Jesus. In his book, he defines leadership in a very interesting manner. I'd like to read to you his definition. He says, "Leadership is defined as a process of influence. Any time you seek to influence the thinking, behavior or development of people toward accomplishing a goal in their personal or professional lives, you are taking on the role of a leader." In other words, leadership is synonomous with influence. If you think of Christianity, it is also synonomous with influence. In Christianity, one attempts to influence the thinking and conduct of others to follow Christ into His kingdom.
We are told that our work is to bring many sons to glory. I always marvel at the fact that it talks about many sons and not a few. Well, how do we do that? How do we bring many sons to glory or how do we participate in that process? By influencing others! By influencing others. With that definition in mind, I hope you will agree with me that leadership and Christianity are not only similar, they are so much tied together it is impossible to separate one from the other. Therefore, everyone sitting here this afternoon — everyone listening today in all of the people of God around the world — are leaders. The question isn't whether you are a leader or not — whether you are elderly, whether you are middle-aged, whether you are young — the question isn't whether you are a leader, the question is what type of leader are you?
This afternoon my sermon has a simple title although it is actually two questions, but they are very much related. The title of this sermon is 'Who Will You Follow and How Will You Lead'? Who will you follow and how will you lead? Let's begin in Revelation chapter 5. I'd like to establish at the very beginning the concept of leadership and the concept of Christianity. In Rev. chapter 5, look at verse 9. Here we go to the very end of the Bible, here we go to the scriptures that talk about the future and talk about the kingdom of God in such glowing details. And here we read in verse 9. It says:
Rev. 5:9 — they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
And notice verse 10 — and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth."
Kings and priests! Now everyone recognizes that a king is a leader and a priest would be a leader. It's hard to imagine that God has in store for all of us not only a position of leadership, but leadership — and I submit to you that we are all leaders.
In James chapter 1 and verse 18 we are told that we are a kind of firstfruits. We are the firstfruits. We are destined to be kings and priests or leaders in the kingdom of God. But how will it happen? How does it take place? I submit to you, again, the two questions: Who will you follow? and How will you lead? There is no end of books about leadership. In fact, it's a billion — actually many billions of dollars a year business. There are thousands of books, there are thousands of seminars every year, there are whole companies that make their livings out of consulting over leadership. You know, the oldest manuscript that is available today is a manuscript that is dated approximately 400 B.C. — one of the oldest — the title of the manuscript is 'The Art of War'. And the manuscript has a section in it discussing the qualities of a leader. It's not a new subject, it's been around a long time.
In fact, historians actually calculate that leadership teaching has gone through five generations and sometimes radically different as far as the ideas. Go back to the 1900's, the primary theory about leadership was what is called 'The Great Man Theory'. That theory simply taught that leaders are born, not made. In 1900, the common teaching and idea was that a leader is someone who was born a leader. You can't make a leader, he's born a leader.
Then in the 1930's, the new theory — the 2 nd generation — was called 'The Trait Theory'. A group came along at that particular time and decided that if you could only analyze all of the leaders and see what traits they have in common, and if you could only teach those traits, you could create leadership. So that was called 'The Trait Theory'. That was the second generation in the 1930's.
Move to the 1950's and then the theory became 'The Behavioral Theory' — 3rd generation — 1950's. You define leadership by behavior, not just traits, but behavior. Not traits of character, but behavior. How does a leader act? Well, the theory was that if you watch the way all the leaders acted and you picked out the common actions, then you could teach leadership based on that. 'The Behavioral Theory'.
The 4 th generation was in the 1970's. It was called 'The Contingency Theory'. The contingency theory said that you define leadership by situations. Leaders rise to the occasion based on the situation. So if we study the situations that produce leaders, then we will know how to produce leaders.
And then, finally, in the 1990's, a new theory came along that's called the 5 th generation of leadership teaching. It's call 'The Transformational Theory'. This theory says a leader is a charismatic individual who transforms people and events. A leader shapes the events and is not shaped by them. You analyze that and you will see that in 100 years, we've gone full circle and, essentially, today all five theories are taught at various times or composit of all five generations. What do we conclude from that? Well, I simply conclude that even after 100 years, leadership is as enigmatic and as subjective today as it was a hundred years ago.
But if we go back to the definition I gave to you a bit earlier, leadership is simply defined as a process of influence. If you think about that, there is really one person that you can always influence and you can always lead. And that one person is yourself. In fact, in leadership circles, they define the various types of leadership. The very first type of leadership that is defined is personal leadership — leading yourself. And, in fact, many people today, when they talk about leadership, they've gone back to a very basic principle that a person can be a manager, a person can be a supervisor, a person can be a boss, but he or she isn't necessarily a leader unless he or she is also a person of character who has learned to lead himself. I think that's a wonderful spiritual and Christian principle, that the first order of business for every one of us is learning to lead ourselves.
I submit to you this afternoon that leadership isn't all that complicated. It really isn't all that difficult to understand. We don't necessarily need books, we don't necessarily need a consultant, we have the most perfect example or the perfect example of leadership and how we should apply it in our lives in Jesus Christ. We need look no further. Therefore, leadership is not that complicated. The questions, thought, are the same. Who will you follow? and How will you lead? Who will you follow and how will you lead?
Turn with me to Mark, chapter 10. This example turns up at just about every time someone talks about leadership or talks about how we should treat one another — you'll find these verses referred to. And I don't have anything new to add to these verses, but a number of years ago a well-known individual gave a sermon which he titled, 'The Drum Major Instinct'. This speaker was Martin Luther King, Jr. On February 4th, 1968 — within six weeks of his assassination — he gave this sermon about the drum major syndorme, the drum major instinct and he quoted Mark chapter 10. Look at Mark 10, verse 35. Now in Matthew chapter 20, you find that it was the mother of James and John that came to Christ. Here we find it was James and John and it appears to be the same incident. One could conclude that they were all three there and all three making the same request.
Mk. 10:35 — James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to Him, saying, "Teacher, we want You to do for us whatever we ask."
Verse 36 — And He said to them, "What do you want Me to do for you?"
Verse 37 — They said to Him, "Grant us that we may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on Your left, in Your glory."
They asked for a position. They weren't simply asking to have a particular chair or they liked sitting in a particular place. They are asking for position. They are asking for glory. They want to be recognized and here lies what Martin Luther King, Jr. called the drum major instinct: that is, within every one of us there is the desire to be noticed, whether we are a child — you know, children want attention — whether we are an adult or an elderly person. We all want to be recognized and that was the analogy of the drum major. He said you want to lead the band. You want somebody to see you. You want to be noticed, that it's a part of each one of us, maybe more for some than others, but it's there in all of us — the drum major instinct.
And this was the issue here. John and James wanted to be recognized. They wanted someone to say, "You are important." That's what they wanted. Now, before we become too critical of them, we acknowledge that within all of us there is a bit of the drum major instinct — wanting to be recognized. But Christ said to them in verse 38:
Verse 38 — "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?"
Verse 39 — And they said to Him, "We are able." And Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized;
Verse 40 — "but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared."
And notice verse 41 — what hypocrites — The ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John.
You know why? Most likely because they beat them to the punch. The same attitude — maybe I'm wrong, but I don't doubt for a moment that they had the same desire to be recognized, to be acknowledged, to be seen. You know, we can condemn the Pharisees so soundly. They wanted to be seen, they wanted to pray in public, they wanted everyone to see their good works, and they are condemned. But in reality, brethren, can we not all acknowledge that there's a bit of the drum major instinct in every one of us.
In the sermon that Martin Luther King, Jr. gave at that time, he described the way advertising works. Did you every notice that advertising is trying to make you appear to be important. Trying to make you appear to be important. For example, there's a new magazine that's being published and you get an ad in the mail. The ad will go like this, "Mr. Franks, we know that you are an intelligent and discerning individual and because of your great intelligence, we know you will want our magazine because it is written for intellegent people." Makes you feel important! Well, of course I want the magazine. Of course I'll buy it. You see, the advertising industry plays upon the great desire to be acknowledged, to be recognized and we buy clothes because that will make us be acknowledged. We will be recognized. We buy a certain brand of whatever because of advertising. You know, it's really amazing, but we're all susceptible to the drum major instinct.
Abraham Lincoln said this. He said, "Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
Benjamin Franklin once said, "There are three things that are extremely hard: steel, a diamond and to know one's self."
The idea of recognition as exemplified by James and John, is a part of the human nature that we all have and it is something that we all must not only watch, we all must resolve, we all must realize that this isn't where God wants us to go.
Continuing on in Mark chapter 10.
Verse 42 — But Jesus called them to Himself and said to them, "You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them.
Verse 43 — "Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.
Now think about that. Christ is essentially telling the disciples the first thing you need to do is to learn to lead yourself. And how do you do that? By serving. When you serve, you are subjugating this 'drum major instinct' to be recognized — you are subjugating that and you are ruling, leading yourself as a servant of others. There's an attitude here. There's an approach here that Jesus Christ exemplified not only in His life, but in His words in what He taught the disciples.
You think about leadership, you realize there are some pitfalls to becoming a leader. Look at Proverbs chapter 13. I would say that this is probably the greatest pitfall — it fits right in with what Martin Luther King, Jr. was saying when he talked about this idea of the drum major instinct. Prov. 13:10. This verse says a great deal in a very few words. It says,
Prov. 13:10 — By pride comes nothing but strife... In the King James it says, All strife comes from pride.
Now when I first read that verse, or when I first noticed that verse a few years ago, it struck me, well that really can't be true. You know, people can have strife without pride being involved. But, you know, the more I thought about it, the more it really seemed to me that whenever there is strife, whenever there is division, whenever we see these things, that often you can find pride in the midst — usually on the part of more than one party — it's not always one-sided. But we see that. This is the great pitfall when it comes to leadership.
According to some of the studies and some of the books that you certainly can read about leadership, you will find that there are actually four areas of leadership or you might say, four types of leadership. One is called the self — leadership of the self; another is one-on-one; the third would be team or family and the fourth would be organizational. And as Blanchard in his book says, in order to get to organizational, you need to start with self. You become a leader by learning to be a servant. You become a leader by learning to lead yourself. You'll read this in many books today — it's even more prevalent today than it was a few years ago — that to look a little deeper than just position.
You know, a lot of the leadership gurus got burned a few years ago when they wrote glowing statements about Enron as a corporation. There are actually many quotes from some of the books that came out a few years ago that Enron was the perfect example of good leadership and management, the actual quotes from some of the well-known, recognized authors. Well, of course, they saw that that wasn't true, that one can be a good manager, one could be even recognized by a lot of people, but when you scratch below the surface and see that there's something terribly flawed here, you realize that the leadership we're speaking about is not the same. The leadership we are speaking about is not the same.
In reality, the dilemma of leadership today is the area of character or integrity. There was a book written a few years ago entitled, "Character Is Destiny' by Russell Gough. The author writes that "the hard part of character is not knowing what is right, but it is doing what is right". And I would say that that is true. And I would go further and say the hard part of leadership is not knowing what is right, but it is doing what is right and the shaping of character is the shaping of leadership.
Theodore Roosevelt wrote these words. He said, "To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society."
Aristotle wrote, "No one who desires to become good will become good unless he does good things."
The point being you have character, you build the character.
Now, let me give you an example or a short story or illustration that illustrates this principle of a great pitfall — that is, of course, thinking too highly of yourself or elevating yourself up. Supposedly this is a true story of a Naval incident that was almost disastrous. This occured back in 1995 when the USS Abraham Lincoln was involved in maneuvers off the coast of Newfoundland on a foggy afternoon. The fog was so thick that you could hardly see your hand in front of your face. But on a ship with all the sophistication of this Naval aircraft carrier, it wasn't a big problem. But suddenly, just off the Canadian coast a bright light shown as though it were coming from another ship. This was very strange that another ship could be so close without any notification.
A transmission came to the Captain onboard the Naval aircraft carrier that said — this was coming from the Canadians, "Please divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision."
The American Commander radioed back, "I recommend you divert your course 15 degrees to the north to avoid a collision."
The Canadians came back and said, "Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to avoid a collision."
The Americans came back, "This the Captain of the U.S.Naval ship. I say again, divert your course."
The Canadians came back and said, "Negative. I say again, divert your course."
Now, the American Captain was very frustrated. He got on the air again. He said, "This is the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States Atlantic Fleet. We are accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers and numerous support vessels. I demand that you change your course 15 degrees to the north. I say again, that's 1-5 degrees north or countermeasures will be taken to insure the safety of this ship. Please respond."
There was a long pause and then the Canadians came on and says, "We are a lighthouse. It's your call."
It doesn't pay to think too highly of yourself even if you are a huge ship in the American Navy.
Look at Luke, chapter 14, verse 11. Jesus Christ gave a principle that I'm sure we all know well. It doesn't mean it's easy to practice.
Luke 14:11 — "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Just a very simple, short statement.
In studying the subject of leadership, you can identify four domains of leadership and, again, I submit to you that these are the same four domains we would use for Christianity. The four domains are very simple, they are called the four H's — the Heart, the Head, the Hands and the Habits. The heart, the head, the hands and the habits — the four domains of leadership — that is, if your are going to lead yourself you must acknowledge the four domains — your heart, your head, your hands, your habits. And I would submit to you that these are the same four domains we have in Christianity. The heart, the head, the hands and the habits.
A number of years ago, I was on an airplane flying from Portland, Oregon to Houston, Texas. I mentioned this story recently in a sermon, but it rattles around in my brain and I remember it often as to how it occured. Now I've been on a lot of planes over the last ten years. At one time I actually received a letter from Continental Airlines congratulating me on being in the top ten percent of all travelers out of George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. I'm not sure that's a good distinction, but I did receive it.
Well, I was on this plane coming back from Portland, OR and the plane had originated in Seattle and I sat down next to an individual and a lot of times when I get on a plane, some people like to talk. I just generally work or write or do something else — or sleep. And this was a pretty long flight from Portland to Houston and I just wanted to sleep. This gentlemen was already seated. I sat down on the aisle and and two seats over, he was sitting next to the window. And into the flight, he pulled out a Bible, put it on the thing in front of him — whatever it's called — and began to read his Bible. Now, I've been on a lot of planes — I don't think I've ever seen anyone pull out a Bible and start reading. I thought, well, he was really shaming me now. I have to initiate a conversation and I have to tell him who I am.
So I initiated a conversation. I waited until he was finished reading the Bible and then I initiated the conversation and he told me who he was. He was an executive for Washington Mutual Bank and he was flying back from Seattle. He lived in Houston in a place called West University. Now, West University in Houston is a very rich area, a wealthy area. West University in River Oaks is where a lot of the wealthier people in Houston live. George Bush, Sr. lives in this particular area. But he said he was a member of the West University Baptist Church and he began to tell me this whole story of what was happening in the church. He told me that they had a building program that had been going on and it was causing a lot of problems. Because we were building a building in Houston, I had already seen some of these things and I had read a lot of statistics and a lot of things about building. One thing I read was that the number one reason that churches split is over a building program — not doctrine, not money — a building program. And he said, "We were on the verge of splitting." He said, "Our finances were in a mess." And he said, "My wife and I are accountants and the Pastor came to me and he said, 'Would you please take over. We need somebody, one voice that can work us through this.'" And he agreed to it. He said he and his wife put things back in order and everything was in order and their building was done and it was just beautiful. And then he said to me, he said, "You know, my job is an executive with Washington Mutual, but..." he said, "...my passion is my church." My passion is my church. He said, "Our Pastor instructed us to..." it was a breakfast meeting with the leadership in their church and "...he asked us to commit to reading the Bible every day for 30 minutes" for a particular period of time. And so he was explaining to me what he was doing. But he said that he had a passion. His heart was in his church, but his job was an executive with Washington Mutual.
The first domain of leadership is the Heart. The first domain is the heart. Look at Matthew, chapter 18. Mat 18. Jesus Christ spoke about Christianity. He spoke about the kingdom of God.
Mat. 18:1 — At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
Verse 2 — And Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them,
Verse 3 — and said, "Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Now, I don't think for a moment that Christ was saying you should act like a child. I don't think for a moment Christ was saying you should think like a child. What is He talking about? Notice what He said. You cannot be in the kingdom of God if you don't exhibit these characteristics — whatever they may be. I would suggest to you that He's talking about the heart — the heart of a child — open, guilless — that's what He's talking about, not acting like a child, not thinking like a child, not talking like a child, but having the heart of a child. The first domain of leadership is the heart.
You know, in pastoring churches for many years, one of the most interesting things that I think I did over the years was directing Spokesman's Club. And some of the most enjoyable things that I experienced was hearing the icebreakers as individuals would come along and they would give their icebreaker. You remember the icebreaker speech — there were very clear instructions. You were to tell how you came into the church. That was to be a part of your icebreaker and over the years, hearing the stories of how people came into the church, it really impressed upon me that conversion begins at the heart, that at first an individual is emotionally attracted. His heart is there before his head, his hands and his habits. It begins with the heart.
I always remember one story of an individual who was giving an icebreaker — I'm going to call him John Smith, although he's long since deceased, but I still probably shouldn't use his name. But he was in the 4 th Marine Division and on the morning of February the 19 th of 1945, he was a part of the forces, the Marine forces that stormed the island of Iwo Jima. It was after ten weeks of bombing that the U.S. Marines landed on Iwo Jima. Now there were 20,000 Japanese soldiers dug in on the island. Their goal was to capture Mt. Suribachi which was the highest point — it's only 500 feet, but it is the highest point on the southern tip of the island. In order to get there, they had to cross a wide expanse of beach. 30,000 Marines landed on the first day. It took thirty-six days to finally capture Iwo Jima, to finally clean it off. The Marines that landed that day sat in these landing crafts and Mr. Smith was describing what it was like.
He was a ninteen-year-old young man and he sat in this landing craft where you sat around the edges and individuals sat in the middle and you knew as you were going to this island — you knew that many of those people sitting next to you were not going to live. And maybe you wouldn't live because the first wave of Marines that come ashore and rush across that beach are going to be subjected to the greatest fire they have ever seen in their lives. Many of these young men had not been involved in some of the actual landings previously, although there were some veterans among the group as well.
This was Mr. Smith's first battle, his first opportunity into battle. And as soon as they landed, he talked about individuals thowing up because the waves were very rough and their stomachs were, of course, in a knot and they were throwing up and the smell was terrible onboard the landing craft. And finally when the door opened, they were to jump out and run as fast as they could with a backpack on and their rifles in their hands. There was no time to stop and shoot. They had to run across the beach. And as he landed — it was 8:59 a.m.on the morning of February the 19 th of 1945 when they landed — as he was running across the beach, he tells the story, he felt something really hot on the side of his neck. He reached up and found that a good portion of the side of his neck had been blown off — he had been hit by a bullet and he immediately fell to the ground and tried to hold his neck and stop the bleeding. And he knew at that point that he was going to die.
And he began to dig in the beach and in the sand to try to find a way to get out of the gunshot range so he could get under something. He was lying out on the beach. He talked about, about that time another soldier came and fell down beside him and pulled him down and dug a hole and put both of them in it. And they laid there all day long until finally that evening, the medics came and he was still alive. They took him back to the ship and the brought him back to the U.S.
And he told in his speech, he was saying, "And I knew at that moment that there was a purpose in my life." He said, "I felt it so deep inside of me, but I didn't know what it was. When I came home," he said, "I looked and I searched and then one day I was driving in my truck," he was a farmer. "I was driving in my truck and," he said, "I heard the radio — I turned the radio on and," he said, "there was a voice that came on the air and said, 'Why were you born? What is the purpose of your life?'" And he said, "I didn't know what he was going to say next, but I knew that I had heard the truth." He said, "I knew it in my heart."
The heart is the first domain for leadership. When we all came into the church, it was one of the first things that hit us — it was the emotion of coming to the truth. I remember as a youngster going to the first Feast of Tabernacles, the first Feast we attended was in the metal building in Big Sandy, Texas. In those years we didn't call it Big Sandy. I didn't know Big Sandy existed until I got down in East Texas. It was called Gladewater. I'm going to Gladewater for the Feast. Then we found out it was Big Sandy. To go there and to go and walk into this metal tabernacle before a sermon was ever given, the excitement and enthusiasm of 5,000 people in one building — all talking and all excited about the Feast of Tabernacles — there was emotion. Even as a child, it was electrifying because it was in the heart. There was an issue of emotion and of the heart before anything was ever said. And it was an exciting moment in my life. We enjoyed going to East Texas for the Feast for many years. In fact, I think I was 16 years old before I even knew that U-Haul wasn't owned by the church. You walk up and down the rows, everybody had a U-Haul trailer. I thought the church provided them. They must have! But it was exciting.
The second domain of leadership is the Head. The second domain of Christianity is the head. After the heart comes the head. To be a Christian, you must also be convicted in your head. It isn't enough to be convicted in your heart, you must be convicted in your head. After the heart you must reach the head. You must have logic. You must be able to originate thought. You must see things properly and clearly. Proverbs 23 verse 7 is a a famous verse. It says:
Pro. 23:7 — As one thinks, so is he...
What occupies your thoughts? What controls your thoughts? Are they Godly or are they not? We also know the famous scripture in Philippians 4. It talks about things to think on. The second domain of leadership is the head.
The third domain of leadership and the third domain of Christianity are the Hands. What do you do? You know, you are convicted in your heart, you're convicted in your head, what do you do with it? Again, the verse is rather obvious where Paul said it's the doers that will be justified, not the hearers. If your conduct is inconsistent with Christianity, if your conduct is inconsistent, then you cannot profess Christianity. People are influenced by what you do usually more than they are by what you say.
I always remember years ago making a visit with a new person and as we were talking, this individual told me where he worked and I just blurted it out, I said, "Oh, we have a memeber who works there." He said, "Well what's his name?" And I told him and literally he said, "Well, I want nothing to do with your church." He said, "If he is an example of your church, I want nothing to do with it." He said, "He is the most foul-mouthed individual on the job, he mistreats everyone around him, no one wants to be around him. If that's your church, then I want nothing to do with it!" The third domain of leadership is your hands, what are you doing with what God has given you?
Then finally, the fourth domain of leadership, the fourth domain of Christianity is the Habits. The habits. You can be convicted in your heart, you can be convicted in your head, you can actually do good things, but if you don't do them habitually you still will not be leading yourself. Habit. You know,
to keep the Sabbath once will do you little good. It's to keep the Sabbath week after week after week. You know, there were two statements made in scripture about Christ and the Apostle Paul. Do you know what they say? Christ, as His custom was... to do what? To go to the synagogue It says of the Apostle Paul in Acts 17, as his custom was, his habit was to go.
A number of years ago I actually had a horse. When I was living in Big Sandy I worked on the ranch around horses and cows and thought that would be a great thing to do, to be a cowboy. So when I got out of college, a member offered me a horse and I said, that's great. I'd love to have the horse. I had the horse for a few years — a beautiful horse, a beautiful buckskin. I had a lot of enjoyment, but I learned a lot about habits with a horse. I was told, I can't verify that this is true, but if you can get a horse to do a certain thing twenty-one consecutive times, certain behavior, that it will never, never — you can never break that. It will always do that. Of course, if it was twenty-one consecutive bad things, it would always do that — as my horse would do when it would throw me over its back over and over again. Twenty-one times was probably a small number of times, but habit, doing things over and over again, doing what is right over and over again. Look at Hebrews chapter 5 and verse 14. There is a statement made about how we practice — what we do. It says,
Heb. 5:14 — But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. In the King James margin it has 'habit' — that is, those who by habit have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.
The fourth domain of leadership is Habit. You begin with the heart, go to the head, you go to the hands and then you have habits. You rule yourself. You lead yourself. The four domains of leadership, the four domains of Christianity.
A hundred yeras ago, Charles Sheldon wrote a novel titled 'In His Steps'. In this novel he tells a story of a poor man down on his luck who lost his job in Chicago and was forced to beg on the street to feed himself and his 10-year-old daughter. He left Chicago and arrived in the small town of Raymond, Illinois. He went from house to house asking everyone to help him, to provide him a little food for his daughter or to provide him with a job. Whatever. And everyone was too busy. "Well, no. I'm going somewhere else now." "Well, no, I have another task to do." "No, I have to go take care of my family." Finally he came to the Pastor's home in this small town and he knocked on the door and the Pastor came and said, "Well, I don't have time now. I'm preparing my sermon for tomorrow. Go away."
The next morning, the Pastor was giving his sermon on the subject of serving your fellow man, when in the middle of his sermon this bedraggled, disheveled individual walks into the church and begins slowly walking up the aisle and everyone stops and everyone looks and watches him as he walks up the aisle. And he comes to the very front of the room and he turns and looks at the congregation and he begins to point to each one. And he said, "You were too busy to help me when I came by your house. And you were too busy. And you were too busy. And the Pastor was too busy to help me." And then he blurted out, he says, "What would Jesus have done?" At that moment, the man collapsed and he was taken to the Pastor's home and a few days later, he died.
And that next week the Pastor came with a proposition for this small church in this small town. He said, "For the next year, everyone of you here promises that you will do nothing without first asking the question, What would Jesus do? No matter how difficult it is." And the rest of the novel goes through what happened to these people.
There was the editor of the newspaper and he had to ask the question when he wanted to put a scurrilous headline in order to sell more papers. He had to ask himself, Well what would Jesus do? So he changed it to something that was true. He had to ask himself the question when he recieved advertising, Well what would Jesus do? Should I advertise this product? And he decided he should not. He lost a lot of business. And he goes through every one of these people in this small town in this small church and every decision they made, they had to ask themselves what would Jesus do?
I suggest to you this afternoon that leadership and Christianity are no more complicated than the simple question, What would Jesus do? In 1 Peter 2:21 we are told we must follow His steps. I began this sermon by asking you who will you follow and how will you lead? We are the firstfruits. We are the redeemed from this earth. And we are leaders today. We are people of influence and we will be leaders tomorrow in the kingdom of God. Who will you follow? How will you lead? It is in the Heart, the Head, the Hands and finally the Habits. It is leadership and it is Christianity. You are leaders. You are people of influence. Who will you follow and how will you lead?