Character of a Leader

Barker, good afternoon to all of you. Boy, there's a lot more of you now that I'm standing up here looking back. Whenever I'm speaking in Portsmouth, always you have some days when there's a lot more people, some days when there's fewer, and it's exciting when there's a lot. So thank you for being here. I say that especially to the camp staff. I said a lot of times, without you guys, I'd just be a guy with a car full of stuff.

And if you notice my car out there, it is full of stuff. But I want to second Mr. Phelps's thanks to the Dayton congregation for hosting us. I know it's not a small thing. It's a big service, and I very much appreciate you taking this on and making us welcome, giving us a place to meet, and even feeding us. All those are good things. And thank you for moving services back. Actually, that's not as big a difference for me, but for those who traveled further, I'm sure they were very appreciative of having that extra hour to be able to get here.

I actually had extra time on my hands this morning. I'm in the same state as last year, where I have to pass on greetings from my wife and son. They're down at her parents' house again this year. And it occurred to me, I remember last year saying, well, she's not here. She's going to start on potty training. It didn't take last year. We made a weak effort and decided he wasn't ready. So we did start a few months later, and it's progressing. Which is good. Actually, he's gotten to a point where sometimes we'll be there in the room and he'll suddenly jump up and take off running.

And that's a great sign, because when he's running to the bathroom to take care of those things, we're very happy about that. So I'm hoping things go as planned. They might be here next year. I've talked to several people saying, I think it's time to bring the mini-camp back to Camp Khatubik and bring some of the young parents and the kids. So you'd be surprised how much we think ahead and look to the future on these things. Which reminds me of an introduction, but before I get into my introduction, I thought there's one thing I need to do before we start this sermon.

I'd like everybody to take a look outside. If you see a white squirrel, let me know. Otherwise, if you were here last year, you'll remember that. Those who weren't, just keep it an inside joke. We can explain it later. I mentioned planning ahead because I actually started on the introduction to this sermon.

I'll do that. Sometimes I'll start and I'll do a little work, then come back to it later. In my introduction, I wanted to make a note of how much Ukraine has been in the news lately.

And of course, little did I know that suddenly Iran, not Iran, Iraq, would push Ukraine to the back burner and nobody's talking about Ukraine anymore. But if you will, think back a few days when we heard a lot about Ukraine. In danger of civil war, in danger of being taken over by its neighbor Russia.

And I mention that because I found it interesting that that current crisis, in my own mind, had pushed away thoughts of... It was a bit over a year ago when they'd actually had a popular revolution in Ukraine.

If you remember, the people had this uprising and they forced President Viktor Yanukovych and some of his top officials to flee the country. You know, that he was doing a bad job and they wanted to replace him. Now, during that time that President Yanukovych ruled the country, he lived for many years on an estate about an hour's drive outside of Kiev, which is the capital of the country.

He lived behind high walls and a heavily patrolled estate. But soon after, he was driven from power and he was no longer there. A lot of the protesters were a little curious. And they made this trip out to the estate. You might remember seeing that in the news. News cameras accompanied them. They came to the now not-guarded estate, opened the gates and went in, and were shocked to find out what opulence and luxury this president was living in.

This was at a time when the average Ukrainian lived on a salary of about $500 a month. Now, that's not as poor as some people. I know there are probably some students in the room that are thinking $500 a month. I've lived on that before. But still, they were living on what we consider bare bones. But Yanukovych's estate had exotic gardens, fountains and flowing rivers, his own private golf course, his own private zoo, and a large garage filled with luxury sports cars.

Is that what the office of president existed for? Certainly not. I found it interesting, though. He was booted from office because he was doing a poor job of ruling and because of corruption, not because of embezzlement. It was only after he was gone that people realized how much he had been stealing from them. Stealing from his own country and his own people. But I did a little research. President Yanukovych was far from the worst at stealing from his own people. If we go back a couple decades, in the 1980s and 90s, there was a President Mobutu of Zaire.

I had to practice pronouncing names to get ready for this sermon. President Mobutu amassed a personal fortune of approximately $5 billion. During that time that he was amassing this fortune, his country experienced massive currency devaluation. Hyperinflation. The type where people have to load money into wheelbarrows to go and buy a loaf of bread.

All that wow Mobutu was keeping his ill-gotten fortune in overseas banks in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands and such. I read that some people would say his government provides the classic definition of the word kleptocracy. Kleptocracy meaning rule by thieves. People do wonder sometimes why the peoples of Africa are so poor. When it comes down to it, they have an abundance of natural resources.

So much so that everyone there should be quite well off. But it's sad that many of the nations for much of their history have been ruled by leaders who are more interested in amassing wealth for themselves than in seeking the good of their own people.

I appreciate Mr. Phelps leading me the extra water. Now, seeking personal fortune at the expense of his or her people is far from the only way that leaders have abused their positions in the past. Joseph Stalin came to power, of course this was in the previous century, and what was then the USSR through political intrigue, brute violence, even murder. And then he used those techniques to maintain himself in power for many years.

Now, we were allied with the USSR during World War II, and it's fresh on my mind I've been reading Winston Churchill's history. Actually, I've been reading it for about the last two and a half years. It's a long, long account. But we were willing to work with anyone who would help us defeat Hitler. It was afterwards, though, we learned that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of more Russians than Hitler was.

Stalin, shortly after he came into power, had about 800,000 political prisoners executed. That's nearly a million. Nearly two million he sent to prisons in Siberia, where most of them died. And then, to force his population to accept the economic and the agricultural reform policies that he wanted to enact, and sometimes because they wouldn't cooperate, he arbitrarily cut off food shipments. No food is going to that part of the country.

And he brought the starvation or death by malnutrition diseases to millions of people. And there are many more examples we could cite. I don't have all the details, partly because we don't have the records, but Communist Chairman Mao Zedong of Communist China forced policies similar to Stalin's on his country to bring in communism. Some estimates say he caused the deaths of 40 million Chinese people. But it's not new, not something unique to the 20th century. If we look further back in history, we can see over the years kings, pharaohs, emperors, Caesars. They likewise have used the power of their position, their position as leaders, to brutally subjugate people.

Men have taken for granted that authority was a license to appropriate wealth and comfort for themselves while their subjects suffered. Now, some of you might think I forgot and thought I was in a classroom instead of church service. But this should matter to us more than just as a history lesson. We're here keeping God's Sabbath day. We're part of God's church because He has called us to be leaders, even to be rulers. Each one of us, not only the ministers, not only those who are ordained, not those with advanced education or those who seem to have special talents, God didn't call us because we're already well suited for leadership.

He called us because He wants to train us for that. He requires us to learn and grow in the relevant traits of leadership. He wants us to build the character of leaders. As Mr. Phelps mentioned, the theme for our Christian living classes at camp this year is leaders, people of character. I want to consider how and why that should apply to all of us. How it will, obviously, definitely apply to each and every one of us. It's for much more than just the summer camp staff.

As I said, we are called to be leaders. During the spring Holy Days that have only recently passed, I was surprised. I guess because of the way the calendar fell, we had about a month between the Pentecost and camp last year. This year it came down to a week. But during those Holy Days, it seemed like I was constantly turning to Scriptures talking about how we are called to become spirit-born children of God.

That's our destiny. That's why we were born, to remind us of one of our earlier booklets. But our understanding of the second resurrection, the meaning of the eighth day that comes in the fall festivals, shows that everyone who's going to accept God's way of life, who will accept Christ's sacrifice, and we hope that will be almost everyone, they'll all be born as children of God. That destiny is intended for everyone. Now, God won't force it on people if they don't accept it, but God wants all to be born into His family.

But that fulfillment is a long ways off. God's plan has multiple steps, which is part of why He gave us the annual Holy Day cycle. And we review every year those steps. As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the resurrections come in order. Christ the first fruit, then those are His that is calling, and eventually all the rest. Now, the reason I'm describing this pertains to what we're looking at for next week and to all of us, because we're called by God now. Each in His own order now is our time. We're called ahead of most people on the planet, because He's got a job for us to do.

We have work and responsibilities that God wants us to fulfill. He called us specifically for that reason. A well-respected minister in God's church used to say, You weren't called just for your own salvation. That's not why you were called now. Because if we were called for just our own sakes, God might have waited for when He opened the minds of everyone else. It might have been easier back then. Why did God call you now? And you, I could say, us, every one of us. Let's read some of it in Revelation 5, beginning in verse 9.

Revelation 5 and verse 9. Don't tell me I'm being... I don't mean to sound all that stern, but I do want us to take this as a very serious point here. It's a very high calling that we have. We're breaking into a thought. Of course, John had this great vision of the end of the age and saw the heaven itself. And we see the 24 elders and they have the prayers of the saints. And we begin reading in verse 9. It says, They sang a new song, saying, You're worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals.

For you are slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God. And we shall reign on earth. That's us. That's our destiny. We're to be made kings and priests and reign on earth. Now, there are other references to this in the book of Revelation. If you turn back a couple of pages in chapter 2, verse 26, as part of the message to the seven churches, well, a saved debate for whether they're eras or something else for another time.

But in verse 26, Christ promises, He who overcomes and keeps my works until the end, to Him I'll give power over the nations. Have you ever thought of yourself as having power over nations? Well, to start off today, I looked at some men who had power over nations, but they didn't use it very well. Let's look at chapter 3, verse 21. Revelation 3, 21.

Now, I'm reading select verses out of Revelation to show my point. I'm not going to go through the accounts of, of course, catastrophe, famines, natural disasters, the heavenly signs. But we do know that eventually that leads to the return of Jesus Christ with power and glory to rule the entire earth. Christ, we often use the term, soon coming king. It's not as soon as we used to think it was, but it probably, maybe it is that soon now. Sorry, I'm thinking back. I've been reminiscing a lot and preparing for camp orientation, looking at old pictures, and I thought, yeah, I thought that I'd never be an adult serving on staff at camp, because Christ would return by then. Well, He hadn't returned by then, but He might be any time now, and when that happens, He's got a role for us to play in that new kingdom He'll establish.

From what we understand of God's plan, from the time of Adam and Eve, throughout human history, God allowed humans to do things their own way. To go out and develop their own forms of government, their own religion, their own educational systems. And through thousands of years of mankind trying just about every system and every style imaginable, it's been shown that we can't do it. Not successfully. We can't rule ourselves properly. The sad history of the human race is going to show that only God's way works. Only God's laws and God's government will be successful.

And what will complete this lesson for mankind is when, after getting to try out everything but God's way, the government of Jesus Christ, during a thousand-year reign on earth, which is what the Feast of Tabernacle's pictures, will be successful. We're going to get a chance to see it work in action, but we're not going to be sitting on the sidelines watching and saying, wow, that's great! Good job, Jesus! We're glad you're doing it right!

He wants to have us as part of that team doing the job for him, or doing the job with him. Let's turn to one more reference to that. In Daniel 7, there's a very clear picture of that.

And these thoughts come to mind to me, as I said, we picture that time at the Feast of Tabernacles. Of course, God set it up that way. The Feast is designed to picture the Millennial Rule of Jesus Christ on earth.

Summer Camp was an institute in the Bible for that purpose, but we do try to establish some of that when we have the camp atmosphere. Instead of calling it, this is like the Kingdom of God, we use the term the Zone, but we try to make it as much like we think God's Kingdom will be as we possibly can.

And of course, it takes more than one person doing it. Daniel 7, verse 13, Daniel is relating this vision, and he says, It's good to know the others will be destroyed, but they weren't very good ones.

As I said, I described the rule of Stalin and Mao, and I didn't look in detail, but the Caesars, some of them did some good things, but a lot of them did rotten things. All those kingdoms come and go, they're destroyed, but Jesus Christ's Kingdom is the one that will never be destroyed. But he won't rule alone. Look at verse 17. This is part of an explanation of the vision. Earlier, he'd seen great beasts, and says, Those beasts are four kings that will arise out of the earth, but the saints of the Most High, look around the room. You'll see the saints of the Most High right here, shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever and ever.

This is some big stuff we're looking forward to, big goals ahead for us. Us becoming spirit-born children of God, reigning with Jesus Christ over the whole earth.

And I thought, you know, if somebody walked in partway through this, who was not a member of the church, maybe they got their address wrong, and they heard me saying this, and they might look around, and they might start laughing. Because it's pretty obvious to be a look. Right now, we're not kings and priests.

We're not powerful spirit beings. Far from it. Matter of fact, in a large sense, you could say we're not even all that powerful of physical beings. Now, we've got a lot of youth in the audience today, more so than a lot of our congregations. So we've got some power, but, you know, we're not people that you would think are going to go and take over the world and institute great rulership.

You might read these prophecies and these promises and say, well, is this really about some other people? Maybe it's not about us?

No, it's not about other people. It is about us. And the key to understanding this is that God doesn't choose people because they're leaders already.

He makes the people He calls into leaders. He fits the people that He calls for rule in His Kingdom.

And again, that relates to why we're called now and not later when Christ returns. It'll probably be a little bit easier for them because there's going to be good government. There won't be Satan to lead people astray. It'll be a good time in some ways. Well, in many ways. What am I saying? In every way, it's going to be good. Now, we'll have to be rebuilding the world from destruction, but it's going to be so much easier to accept God's way of life when everybody's living it.

He calls us now, though, because He needs leaders to be already ready for that time. So He's calling us, and He gives us a lifetime to grow and develop into those traits that we need to have.

Occasionally, He even gives us special opportunities to practice. And that's one of the reasons I wanted to speak on this today before we go to summer camp. Summer camp provides a chance for the staff to practice some of that. To say, okay, I know leadership is an important thing and that we have to exercise the right character to do it. Well, let's practice. Let's look at some of the traits we need as leaders and work on developing those.

As I said, we have various opportunities at different times. Of course, every time the group comes together, how many different jobs are there to conduct SABAS services? A lot of people do those jobs and we all serve. And believe me, it's been fresh in my mind to run a summer camp. How many different jobs are there? Lots and lots.

God calls ordinary people, but He calls them to be something more than ordinary.

I want to turn to a scripture that might not be the first one you think of when we think of developing righteous character. It's in Luke 22, Luke 22, verse 31.

This is during that last Passover that Jesus met with His disciples.

And it's funny, I've used that very phrase, I think, in a lot of sermons lately. It's occurred to me how much Jesus taught in those last days that He had with His disciples. Even that very last day.

And of course, He passed on so much to them that He knew they wouldn't really understand until later, after His crucifixion and resurrection, when they would have the Holy Spirit. He said, then you're going to understand it.

Of course, He covers a lot of that in the latter chapters of John. I wanted to turn here to Luke 22 because He said something unique to Peter. Let's look in verse 31.

I'll help if I'm in the right chapter.

The Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you, that he might sift you as wheat.

Now, that doesn't sound very pleasant. And I'm sure whatever Satan had in mind for Peter wasn't very pleasant. And Jesus knew that Satan had been trying to get at Peter because Peter had a special role. And Jesus told him that, which probably had Peter a little nervous. And he said, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you are converted, strengthen your brethren.

When you're converted, when you're converted, strengthen your brethren. Now, that's the original King James version. The New King James, which I normally read, says, when you've returned to me. Which is the same meaning. Remember, return or repent. It's all that turning around and going the right way.

And it was after this, of course, Peter said, I'm ready to go to prison and to die for you. And Jesus said, I'm sure he wasn't smirking the way I'm tempted to. Yeah, yeah, I know. But before the cock crows twice tomorrow morning, you're going to deny that you even know me. And of course, Peter had trouble buying that. It's interesting, Jesus knew in advance the weakness that Peter had. He knew that Peter's faith and his confidence would fail. But he was planning, and he was counting on a change. Peter wasn't fit to be a ruler. He wasn't fit to be an apostle yet. But he would be. And that should be encouraging to all of us. We don't have to be fit to be kings and priests yet. But we should be closer than we were when first we were called. And we should be closer a week from today than we are now. In Mark's Gospel account, it says that when Jesus called Peter and Andrew to leave their career as fishermen, he said, I'll make you become fishers of men. So, the become is the word I wanted to stress on that. You're going to become fishers of men. He didn't call them because they already were. Jesus didn't seek out powerful preachers or advanced scholars of his word. Now, the apostle Paul later recalled who was an advanced scholar, but Paul had a lot of other things to learn. For the most part, he called humble fishermen, herdsmen, traders, such like that. And if we look around in the Church of God today, we can see God hasn't changed his style. We might live in the richest, most powerful country in the world. And I try to remind ourselves that we live in the richest, most powerful country in the world. But that doesn't mean that we are rich and powerful, at least not among our current society. Now, compared to some people in some parts of the world, compare us to the average person in Bangladesh or many countries in Africa and other parts of the world, we are rich and powerful. But we're average or below average for a common society. What Paul wrote to the congregation in Corinth about 2,000 years ago is just as valid today. Let's read it in 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 26. Or if you prefer to turn in your hymnal, I don't remember the page number, but we've all sung this song many times. Paul was talking to the brethren there in Corinth who he would have to correct and straighten out on a number of factors. And if he came into this congregation or any congregation, he'd probably find a number of things that he could correct us all on.

And it's partly because of where we start out. He said, For you see your calling, brethren, not many wise, according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.

And the base things of the world, the things which are despised, God has chosen. The things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are.

That's a good thing to remember when you're, you know...

Hang on, I wrote something that I wanted to say, and now I can't read it.

Oh, that's where we go.

I'm going to say, this is a good thing to remember when you're 20-something and put in charge of a group of people. Sorry, it wasn't in my original notes, but I thought of it this morning. You know, that God didn't call us as the great and mighty and powerful, but He called us to become great. But, you know, I remember the first time I was a counselor at, I think I was 24, I felt pretty powerful and smart then. I look back now and say, Boy, Frank, you are stronger than you are now, but, Boy, you weren't as smart, or you weren't... Well, never mind. I had a lot to learn.

But let's keep in mind also, some people are tempted to use this passage as an excuse. Well, I'm just common and weak. What do you expect? God calls, you know, the base and the low.

What else can you expect? What we should expect is what God expects.

He calls us in a state of being common, weak, and foolish, but He does not intend for us to remain that way. He calls us to change, to grow, to build and develop that character. With God working in us, we're to become those that will confound the mighty.

The same Peter that Jesus told would return, that Jesus said, when you are converted, that same Peter is the one that wrote in 2 Peter 3, 18, grow in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. And since then, Peter was exhorting others to grow in grace and knowledge, and he knew something about that.

He'd come a long ways from that night when Jesus said, you're going to deny that you even know me before the rooster crows.

Too often we doubt our ability to become something different, to become something better. Or worse yet, we might not even want to try.

The thing along those lines made me think of one of my favorite movies. I've been on a roll lately of quoting old movies.

Actually, there are only a few of you from Portsmouth, so you can hear some of these again.

One of my favorite movies was The Dead Poets Society. How many of you have seen that? It occurred to me now that it's going to be an old movie. A lot of the campers, it would have come out. I don't know where the time went, but that's actually a movie that helped solidify in my mind the goal that I wanted to become a teacher. I was out of Ambassador College, and I said, what do I want to do with my life?

I was thinking about going into teaching, and that sort of settled it for me. I wanted to be like the character in that movie who helped young men set themselves on their course.

Many people who saw that movie remembered one phrase. You might have remembered a lot of it, but if you only remembered one thing from that movie, one phrase, do you remember what that was?

Carpe diem was the Latin phrase.

But unfortunately, too many people didn't remember the context of it.

Robin Williams, of course, was the star, and he played a teacher named John Keating. I've got a copy of the movie at home, so I can remember some of these things. My memory's not that good.

He told that phrase to his young students early in the year. When he first met them, he took them out into the hallway of the school, and they were looking at old pictures. Pictures of former students at the school.

They were pictures of them young and strong, with their whole lives ahead of them. He reminded the students these guys you're looking at are dead. They were students 80, 100 years ago. They've lived their lives, but they went from being these young people just starting out to doing something, to changing and growing. Then, as part of that talk, while they're looking at the pictures, he starts whispering in the back, and he says, if you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy. Go on, lean in. Do you hear it? Carpe. Carpe diem. Seize the boy... and the kids are looking around like, who is this guy? But he says, Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary.

More than the carpe diem, I remember the phrase, Make your lives extraordinary. Make your lives extraordinary.

At some point in your life, you have to stop waiting for something extraordinary to happen to you, and think about making your life extraordinary. God calls us to do that, to make our lives into something that's not ordinary, but extraordinary.

And the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 48, is one of our memory scriptures, where he says, You shall be perfect, just as your Father in Heaven is perfect. That's a high goal. That one's always been intimidating to me.

But I like the point that it's, Shall be. Not, you're going to go to hell, fire, and burn forever, because you're not perfect yet, but you're going that direction. You shall be perfect. We don't get that way instantly, and not on our own. But God doesn't ask us to do something that he won't give us power and help to accomplish. If you will, turn to Luke 24, verse 49. Luke 24, verse 49. I almost said something. Sue says I put a jinx on myself when I say it, so I'm going to wait until later to see if it's true.

But this, of course, after the crucifixion and resurrection, and Christ met with the disciples a number of times, and this is one of the last, and he says, Behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, tarry, or wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.

That's kind of an exciting thing. Wait here, you're going to be endued with power from on high. That's sort of colorful language, but he's going to give you power. God calls us for the purpose of changing and growing, for the purpose of becoming perfect. And he gives us the power to do it. He knows we can't do it on our own. As I said earlier, that's why he gave mankind, we think, about 6,000 years to try it.

Try every type of government you want. Try every self-help improvement thing you can think of. That's not going to work, but go ahead and try. When God's government is established, we'll see what does work. But we'll also see that mankind on his own can't become perfect. We need that power from God. And that power is God actually living in us. If we'll turn to Galatians 2 and verse 20. This has been a memory scripture for me, at least, since one of my favorite instructors in college told us that this was his favorite scripture. And he was somebody I respected a lot. I said, if it's his favorite scripture, I'd better remember it.

It was a favorite for a good reason. It talks about God living in us by the power of the Spirit. Paul wrote, I have been crucified with Christ. Now, I didn't mean he'd been nailed up to a stake and died, but he meant he put to death the old man, as he wrote in other places.

I put to death that old life that I was living. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Christ lives in me. He doesn't possess us like a demon, but the Spirit of God, the essence and power of God will dwell in us. And therefore, we don't have to live that old life. Now, the life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. That's terrific! We have the power.

We can become mighty and great. We were called weak and base, but God calls us to give us the power to become those who will confound the mighty, make the lies of the world seem foolish compared to him. What should we do with that power? And what way should we be developing? Since we're to become kings and priests, we need to become leaders. What type of leaders should we be? Now, for the camp staff, of course, we're going to look at some examples this coming week. That's part of what made me want to speak on this.

If you'll indulge me, I couldn't help but think of another one of my favorite movies. It's funny, they say you can tell a lot about a man by the books he reads and the movies he watches, so I hope this doesn't say something bad about me. But another one of my favorite movies of all time is Braveheart. Of course, it's about William Wallace, and it's the supposed history of William Wallace. Some historians will say, boy, they sure exaggerated things. Hollywood does that. But, of course, William Wallace in the Middle Ages led Scotland in their fight for independence from England.

According to the movie, Wallace didn't even want to be a leader of men. He wanted to raise crops and children, as he said early in the movie. But he became a leader because somebody needed to do it. There's one scene after he'd led the successful battle.

I remember the special effects were amazing at the time because it looked like guys fighting with swords. A little bit gruesome. It's not one for little kids. Although, I saw a special one showing that no horses were injured in filming that movie.

And if you've seen the movie, you know the scene I'm talking about. Anyways, after this great battle, the great leaders from around Scotland get together and they're giving awards and honors to William Wallace and his men. But very soon after that, they start arguing amongst themselves. They say, now it's time for us to declare a king. Guys say, oh, this is our man. No, look at these documents. They argue back and forth. Wallace gets fed up and he walks out. Where are you going? He says something. But after him, Robert de Bruce comes out.

They have a private discussion. Robert de Bruce is a young nobleman who's in the line for the throne. He's trying to explain to William Wallace, well, the nobles, they argue because they have a lot to lose. They've got stakes on both sides. Blah, blah, blah. But William Wallace says something interesting. He says, what does that mean to be noble? And looking at Robert de Bruce, he says, your title gives you claim to the throne of our country.

But men don't follow titles. They follow courage. Now our people know you, both noble and common. They respect you. And if you would just lead them to freedom, they'd follow you. And so would I. If you've watched that movie, that's one of the stirring parts of the way he says that. And if I could say it with a Scottish accent, I'm sure it'd be much better. But I like that line, men don't follow titles. They follow courage. Even though that speech is a bit of fiction.

I don't think there was a stenographer whenever William Wallace met Robert de Bruce. But it's good for us to remember, in God's kingdom, when Christ returns, people won't follow us just because we're declared to be kings and priests. Okay, here's your king. Someone could call you a king. I mean, I've called myself that before. I've called myself all kinds of things. That doesn't matter. We need to build the character that will make us into good leaders. And that's what fits with our Christian living theme for camp this summer. It said leaders, people of character. It's not just leaders. Follow them. It's leaders, people of character. What is that character? We can learn character traits by looking at important leaders.

I want to go to that, but let's consider some of what the Bible will show us. What are the character traits that a godly leader should develop in practice? Now, I just mentioned courage. Is that one? I don't think it is, but I want to put that aside because I don't think it should come first. For our initial answers, let's look to the foundation of God's church. And I'm saying that because Paul wrote at one point that the church is built on the foundation of the prophets and apostles.

That's, of course, with the understanding that more foundational than them is the rock that is Jesus Christ that the church is built on. So I'm not trying to change doctrine. The church is founded on the rock that is Jesus Christ. But it's also foundational are the prophets and apostles. Now, we've seen Christ intends them to rule in His kingdom.

And Matthew 19, I'm sorry if you'll turn there, will see that He designated specific high positions of leadership for the twelve apostles. Matthew 19 will begin in verse 27. But I want to analyze some of the traits that He saw in them and some traits that they needed to develop that He would tell them about. Matthew 19 and verse 27. Now, Peter answered and said to Him, that is, to Jesus, See, we've left all and followed you. Well, therefore, what shall we have?

And Jesus said to them, Assuredly I say to you that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Everyone who's left houses or brothers or sister or father or mother or wife or children or lands for My name's sake shall receive a hundredfold and inherit eternal life. That sounds pretty good.

And this shows, as I said, they were called to be leaders, kings, sitting on twelve thrones. But this not only shows that they were destined to rule, but we also read one of the primary characteristics needed for leaders. That is, putting God first. We could call that devotion to God. Peter said, we've left everything else. And Jesus didn't say, oh yeah? What'd you do that for? He didn't need to give up all that. No, Jesus said, no, that's expected. You do have to do that. You have to put devotion, loyalty and obedience to God above and beyond everything and anything else. And Christ didn't just say it. He did it Himself. Think of what He had already done. He had, if you read John 1-1, He'd existed eternally. I'm not going to turn there, but remember, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. This was Jesus who had been that Word and He divested Himself of being God. Talk about giving something up. You could have told Peter, yeah, you gave up stuff. Look what I gave up. But He didn't say that. He was prepared to give up more. He was about to sacrifice the physical life that He had and do it willingly and gladly for the sake of the people that He served. Jesus Christ put God's will above all else. That's a commitment we made at baptism, or some of you will make at baptism. Another place Jesus says something similar, in Luke 14, 26, He said, If a man following Him doesn't love Him, that is Jesus or God, more, more than father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, more even than your own life. You can't be Christ's disciple. That's an important part of all baptismal counseling. It's funny, we go through it and we're ready to do it. But when you think about it, more than your children, more than your husband or wife, putting God first isn't easy. That's why we need His Holy Spirit to be able to do it. But He says He will make it possible. So I want to say the first and the most basic characteristic of a godly leader is making devotion, loyalty, and love of God the overriding force in His life. It should be in our lives. Putting God first. Now, there's different ways to say that, but as I said, I think Jesus Christ taught that. Doing that, of course, means living by God's Word. And it means staying in close contact with God. And we do that through prayer and Bible study and occasional fasting. These tools of, you know, are the spiritual tools we speak of. They're important. That's part of putting God first. Let's turn ahead in Luke to see another characteristic of godly leadership. Luke chapter 22 and verse 28. I'm going to watch out. I'm going to be wearing bifocals before this is done. Putting it off as much as I can. Luke 22 and verse 28. Jesus speaks to the disciples and He says, You are those who have continued with Me in My trials, and I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one on Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and set on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And of course, it's just after this, the Scripture I just read earlier, about Satan wanting to sift Peter. This reiterates the points that we've already made. That the apostles were destined for rulership. And we are too. We share in that. But let's back up and see that just before that, Jesus made another very powerful and profound statement about a characteristic of leadership that we need to learn. Up in verse 24, it's funny, when their minds should have been on other things, this is what they were discussing.

There was also a dispute among them, among the disciples, as to which of them should be considered the greatest. And Jesus said to them, The kings and the Gentiles exercised lordship over them. Those who exercised authority over them are called benefactors. That's how worldly leaders do it. As I mentioned, men like Mobutu, Stalin, Yanukovych, they called themselves benefactors to their people. But they lorded power over their subjects, and benefitted themselves. Jesus wants something different from us, as we carry on in verse 26. Not so among you, on the contrary. You guys don't be like that. You be the exact opposite. Let he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger. He who governs as he who serves. Well, who's greater? He who sits at the table, or he who serves? Isn't it he who sits at the table? Yet I am among you as one who serves. Jesus set them an example. I'm the one that's serving. You need to be servants. Godly leadership is a position of service. If you're taking notes, that's one thing. That could be one of the most important things out of this, and I didn't make it up. It's not my point, of course, it's Jesus Christ. But Godly leadership is a position of service. It's service to God, of course, but it also consists of serving His people, serving the lowliest among them. Not them serving you, not them serving me. Godly leadership is a position of service. The leader serving the others, not the people serving the leader. Now, we already know that Jesus gave up everything for the sake of His creation, but a service goes beyond that. Not only He was one who served, but He is continually. He serves us by being attentive to our needs, listening to our prayers, listening to us when we gripe and complain. I've been guilty of that, and sometimes I have to say, I'm sorry, I need to stop focusing on myself so much. Paul wrote the phrase, Imitate me as I imitate Christ. To be godly leaders, to be people of character, we need to imitate Christ's example. Let's look at the example that he said in John 13. This is a very well-known incident, but it bears us reading, especially when we want to look, how does a leader serve? What is the characteristic, the trait of a good leader? This is going back to that Passover. John 13. Now, before the feast of Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come, well, actually I want to drop down because we know that. Let's go to verse 3. Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, that he'd come from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside his garments, took a towel and girded himself. And after that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. Now, we can skip past the incident with Peter of not wanting his feet washed, and Jesus is telling him, you'd better let me do it. Let's go to verse 12 when he explains. So when he had washed their feet, taken his garments and sat down again, he said to them, Do you know what I've done to you? You call me teacher and Lord, and you say, Well, for so I am. This is important. Jesus hadn't forgotten who he was or lost track of his position. He was saying, Yes, I am your Lord and your teacher. If then, if I then, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's. I've given you an example that you should do as I've done to you.

A big point here is Jesus didn't just say that a leader should serve his followers. He lived it. He set the example every day. And in this case, he did it through the most menial service. Washing someone's feet, it's not common in our society today, so it seems foreign to us. And we follow this example very exactly once a year as part of the Passover service. But let's think when will we have the opportunity to follow it in an unplanned way, in a way that's not formalized, a way that might be a lot messier. Because face it, we do foot washing in nice clothes on the Passover. Although I still, well, I tell people around that time, I still remember my first Passover. Well, everybody remembers their first Passover. But I remember that walking back to the room where we do the foot washing, and then it occurred to me, okay, we covered a lot of stuff in baptismal counseling, but one of the things we never covered is, how do you wash another person's feet? And I had this momentary panic. I don't know how to do this. Luckily, there were a lot of other guys doing it. I could follow their example. We don't always have that. Sometimes we just have to dive in and do menial service. Think ahead, camp staff. During the next week, when are you going to have the chance to do menial service for a camper? Things happen. A camper might get sick to his stomach and make a mess and need help. It's not unheard of for even teenagers to have a bladder problem in the middle of the night. Do you just want to mock them and make fun and say, you go clean yourself up? Or are you going to be willing to get up, deprive yourself of sleep, and go help that person? Not to mean him, but get dirty and smell of yourself helping the person. During the millennium, when we're spirit-borne, powerful sons of God, are we going to have opportunity to do menial service for the frail human beings that will be there to serve? Now, we'll have the ability to force them to do whatever we want, but will we decline to use that power to make them do it and instead serve them with patience and tenderness and love? Now, we're not there yet, so we can all say, yes, I want to do that. But the way we'll know that we'll do it then is if we practice it now. I think that's one of the reasons God gives us children and makes the children take so long to grow up. So you can practice doing menial service. Believe me, now, my sister is only a couple years older than me, but she got married right out of high school and had kids, and so as a young uncle, I got to change a lot of diapers. And then decades went by without me doing it or thinking about it again, and then suddenly comes along Connor, and guess what? Babies are messy! And some of the mess they make stinks! It's horrible! But, you know, parents do it because they love, and they want to help their child grow. God does that for us because He loves us and wants to help us grow. And the trick is for us to do it for more than just our own children. Do it for the other person. Do it for anyone. Christ got down and washed the disciples' feet, including Judas Iscariot. He washed Judas' feet. Now, as I said, it's not like we're going to have to go wash someone's feet, necessarily, although that could be a possibility, but menial service is the heart of Godly leadership, the willingness to do it. We use that term, will you have a foot-washing attitude?

Now, and I say this, I said I feel like I'm being stern and preaching down, but I don't mean to sound that way because those of you who are on the camp staff, you're there because we view you as having that attitude. I've told people, I've been saying it for years, and I say it again, 90% of my job was done when I clicked the Accept button on a group of people and made the assignments. That's the biggest part of the job, already choosing the right people. Now I'm encouraging you to follow through on the kind of people that we trust that you are and that you're growing to be. So I'm not here to say, get into shape, you evil people, you're not right. No, I want to encourage you to say you are that right kind of people, and I think you can continue doing it and do it better. Summer Camp gives us a wonderful chance to practice being godly leaders because we'll make mistakes. Believe me, I can tell you examples of me as a counselor doing the exact wrong thing. Thankfully, God is merciful, and a lot of campers are forgiving, and they get over it, and some of them don't even remember. You'll make mistakes, but we'll pick up and do better. I want to move on to some others. Remember that quote from Braveheart when William Wallace said, men don't follow titles, they follow courage. I just can't do a good Scottish accent. Men don't follow titles. No, that's... never mind.

As I said, I don't disagree with that. I did want to stop and look at the more fundamental traits of godly leadership that Christ taught first. Because courage alone is an important trait, but that's insufficient. Men will follow a courageous leader, but sometimes in pursuit of a faulty goal. We've noted the world has had some powerful leaders, some of them very courageous. Mao Zedong, if you read about the Chinese Revolution and the civil war that was going on in the setting of World War II, he was courageous, and he was a charismatic, powerful leader. But he wasn't a godly leader. I can say that because he believed in atheism and that was the communist trait, so I know he wasn't godly. So we want to be godly leaders. So first, we need to focus on our commitment to living God's way of life and to humble service to others. The thing I want to add beyond that is, I hesitate to say I because I stole this from Dr. Ward. So I've been hearing him preach this for half my life. He calls it the Three C's, Courage, Conviction, and Commitment. So courage, actually let's change the order. Conviction, Commitment, and Courage. Say that for a particular reason. Let's look at those and see how they'll build into that courage. Because we can define conviction as that weight that is put on your mind and on your heart that compels you to live by God's Word. You're convicted of it. If you'll turn over to John 16, I'm just a couple pages away. John 16 and verse 7, Jesus introduces that term. John 16 and verse 7, he says, Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it's your advantage that I go away. If I don't go away, the Helper won't come to you. But if I depart, I'll send it to you. I'm using the pronoun, it, because that's what it should be. When it has come, it will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. There's that conviction. Now, Jesus didn't leave them wondering, what's this paraclete, this Helper? Over in verse 13, he says, When it, the Spirit of Truth. He's talking about the Holy Spirit. When it comes, it'll guide you into all truth. What is truth? Across the page in John 17, 17, he says, To God, your word is truth. So God's word is the truth, and the Holy Spirit will lead you in understanding of that truth. It doesn't speak on its own authority. The Spirit doesn't speak. It works in our mind so that we understand the word of God. And those two things together are powerful convicting agents. God's word and God's Spirit. When we have that working together, we're convicted of God's way.

The phrase I like to say is, we not only know it, but we know that we know it. And we have to do it. It's like, I'm convicted. I have to live this way. It's not just information. It's a drive-in compelling force, because this is what's right. It's the only way that's right. So I've got to live God's way of life. I've told people, some people, when they're first called, sometimes married people have to go to their mate and say, I have to keep the Sabbath. I'm become convicted. I can't work anymore. I've got to go to services.

And the other person's looking at me like, are you crazy? I like that my wife's parents tell that story, because one of them came into church first and then the other later. But her mom at first thought her dad was off as rocker. What do you mean you've got to go to this church on Saturday? Well, he was convicted. He read it in God's word, and the Holy Spirit made him understand and be compelled to do it. Then we make a commitment. We commit ourselves to that way of life. We commit ourselves to the God whose way it is.

A leader who is committed is one that people want to follow. Partly because they sense that he won't waver. He won't turn back. We sometimes cite Matthew 24 and verse 13 that says, He that shall endure to the end shall be saved. That's commitment. Endure to the end. Winston Churchill once said in a speech, if I'm quoting it properly, but he's known as saying, Never give up. Never, never, ever, never give up. And that's the way we should be about living God's way of life and our devotion to Him.

That we want to be in His family and will never give up. And we'll find then that courage will be a product of that conviction and that commitment. If you're convicted and you've committed, courage just flows out of it. And to me, that's a good thing to hear. Believe it or not, I don't, well, maybe easily believe it. I don't think of myself as a naturally courageous person. So I don't have to worry about that, though, because God provides the formula.

Now we might wonder, what is courage? Is courage the ability to just fearlessly charge into danger? That's not the type of courage I'm talking about. And I've heard it said, you know, complete lack of fear, that's not courage. That's either ignorance or foolishness. But courage is that ability to master one's fear. You control it, so it doesn't control you. And we could break it down. There's physical courage.

That's the ability to face pain or injury or danger. But often moral courage is more important. Moral courage. Suddenly my mouth didn't work right. Moral courage is that ability to face ridicule, to face peer pressure, embarrassment, any type of mental pressure. That's moral courage, and that's what we need to have. And we can find an example of both types of courage in the original apostles. It's not hard to see that their courage came as a result of their conviction and commitment.

I'm going to turn to Acts 5. And if you'll join me there, I'll remind you that before the Holy Spirit dwelled in them, their courage failed. They all fled from the Garden of Gethsemane. When those soldiers came and surrounded Jesus, they fled. Mark ran away naked, it says. But the power of the Holy Spirit, which combined with God's Word, convicted them in their hearts. Led them to a firm commitment to live God's way to preach the Gospel. And when that happened, they courageously faced challenges and threats. Let's begin in Acts 5, verse 27.

Now, this is after they'd been seized by officers and soldiers. It says, they brought them, that is the apostles, and set them before the council. And the high priest asked them, saying, Did we not strictly command you not to teach in his name? Or in this name that is the name of Jesus Christ? Look, you filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood on us. Now, just think, if you were called in to the leader of your nation.

Can you imagine being called in to the White House? And President Obama is there with his cabinet and leaders, maybe the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying, We told you not to do this. Now, you better cut it out.

Would it take moral courage to resist that? I mean, that's the equivalent of what they were going through. And in verse 29, Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. That's long been one of my favorite scriptures, because that's courage. We ought to obey God rather than men. And that applies to all of us. Now, we have to know what God commands us to do to be able to do that.

Now, of course, that was a brave answer, but then they had to follow it up with actions. Look down to verse 40, and you'll see that they did follow up with actions.

When they agreed, that is the Sanhedrin, the council agreed, they called the apostles and beat them. Then they commanded them that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. So they beat them, said, Don't you speak in his name again? And what did they do? They departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. So they didn't let that get them down. And daily in the temple and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ. They'd just been told by the leaders of their country, You'd better not do this again. And then they beat them, and they said, Stop doing that, or you're going to get more of this. And they went out and said, This is great. We're suffering for Christ's sake. And they did not cease. They took the abuse. They had courage. That's courage that people would follow. It's courage that we still follow. We follow those men through their writings, and we follow those who followed them. There's a chain on down through history. That courage was a product of deep spiritual conviction and commitment.

And of course, I've been saying, those are vital traits to Godly leadership. These are aspects of the character of leaders. Courage, conviction, and commitment. They fit well with humble service. And let's keep in mind, the humble service comes even before the courage. Service to God and His people. And to do that, of course, that must come from a devotion to putting loyalty and obedience to God above and before everything else.

That's the character of a leader. As I said, they don't follow titles, but they'll follow that character.

So I've been taking a brief look at some of the traits of leadership. As I said, at camp this week, we're going to look at some others. But we'll do well to continue focusing on developing the characteristics that are required for us to be good leaders. Because remember, that is our calling. That's why we were called now. We are to be sons and daughters of God Almighty. We're to reign as kings and priests with Jesus Christ. But our calling is one of service. We're called to lead through service. And when we feel inadequate to fulfill such a great purpose, and most of us do at some point or another, I do lots of times, we should remember God didn't call us because we were already so well qualified and suited to be kings and priests. He called us because we're not. Because we're so ordinary. He's going to show the world that He can take the ordinary people and build them into something great. God will work in us to make our lives extraordinary. I'm going to work every catchphrase I can into this conclusion. But what's most required for being a leader is character. And I want to encourage us all, not me encourage you, but me encourage all of us, including me, to build that character. Let's build that character so that we can serve God and serve the people of God.

Thank you.