Allen Jackson - Great Leaders In Difficult Times - Part 2
I believe we must develop a greater awareness and dependence upon the helper whom the father has provided. I'm not suggesting something new or extra biblical. I'm suggesting a different pattern, a different type of trust, a more personal awareness. I'm suggesting that the current season demands of us, here it is, spiritual growth. Well, "I don't wanna grow pastor, I'm going to heaven. Like what I'm really trying to figure out is how much I can get away with and still go to heaven".
Well, I suspect if that is your mentality and you hold it, you're gonna find out sooner than later. Not a threat. The landscape is changing, and we're going to need God's help. You know, the disciples had a great deal of experience. They had followed Jesus for three years. They had front row seats for the most remarkable journey. They fed a multitude with the little boy's happy meal. They saw Jesus walk on the water. They watched him raise the dead, open blind eyes, they saw him turn water into wine, still the storm, cast out demons. They were a part of that drama, and then, he gave them short-term assignments and they came back and said, "We can do what you do".
And then, at the end of that three year run, Jesus said, "I'm leaving and where I'm going, you can't come," and they were very unhappy with that. They said, that's not the bargain. "Wherever you're going, we'll go. You said, 'Follow me' and we followed you, and we intend to keep following you". And Jesus says, "No, no further, but I'm going and I, because I'm going, I'll send you a comforter, a helper and it will be better for you". I promise you, they didn't believe him. But the fruitfulness of the next season of their lives exceeded the fruitfulness of their lives when they were with Jesus. They turned the world upside down.
So, I'm asking you, are you willing to become a group of people who can turn the world upside down? Are we gonna stubbornly say "No, I've got everything and I'm gonna go to heaven and please don't ask me, I don't want a grow". Well, not everybody would accept Jesus's invitation and I'm not imagining 100% acceptance today, but I want to plant the seed. I believe God has good things for you. Better things than you'll get if, better things for me than if I get my own way. I'm like the toddler that knows, they know the best way to run their life. They know what they want to eat and when they wanna eat.
Now, they want you to prepare it for them, and they want you to supply it. And when they make a mess, they want you to clean it up, but they wanna live by the rule of "Me do it". And if you allow them to do that, they'll destroy themselves. And you and I are toddler-like, a lot of times, in our spiritual emotions, we wanna do it. We just want God to clean up our messes and provide what we want when we want to. And I believe God, in His wisdom, is raising up a generation of great leaders, people that make a difference in His kingdom. I'm not talking about huge platforms, but you'll lead well in your home and in your family, in our communities. You interested?
I'll give you an example of this kind of interdependence, Acts, chapter 16, Paul's in the midst of his missionary journeys, and it's not easy. "Paul and his companions," it's in your notes, "travel through the region of somewhere, let's just call it Smyrna and Galatia. And having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia". Don't you wish there was more information? The Holy Spirit kept him from preaching the word in Asia. How? Did his flight get canceled? Couldn't they rent a car? And somebody, whose flights got messed up in New York, and they rented a car, couldn't they rent a car? I don't know. It's all that we're told.
All Luke chooses to tell us is, "they were kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of someplace, they tried to enter someplace else, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to". Well, wait, can you tell us more about that? The Holy Spirit kept him from doing something in one place, and the Spirit of Jesus kept them from doing it, there's no, did their flight get canceled again? I want a new travel agent. "So, they passed by Mysia and they went to Troas". Verse 9, "During the night, Paul had a vision". This time, we got a little bit more information. "He had a vision and a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, 'Come over to Macedonia and help us.' After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them".
They got two no's and an invitation to go someplace they hadn't planned on, all because of directions from a helper, that had information they didn't have access to, had perspective that they didn't have, and they were willing to cooperate, to the point that when Paul had a vision in the night, he got up the next morning and said to the team, "We're going here, not there, cancel the flights, book new ones, call our host in the other city and tell him we won't be coming. And if you know anybody in the place, we're headed, see if we can meet with them".
I travel a good bit, folks. People would call you reckless. If I told you I was leaving for the weekend to go to Philadelphia, and then you saw me on television in Baltimore, you would think I probably hadn't represented the facts to you accurately. And if I said to you, "Well, the Lord told me to go to Baltimore". "Yeah, whatever. You're smoking"? Well, I was in Colorado. It was legal. No new rumors. Everything that's legal is not godly. I wanna walk you through some people that I think were pretty interdependent upon God's direction that they modeled some things that we could pick up in Exodus 3. It's a familiar story. Moses has been recruited.
"The Lord saw that he'd gone over to look, and God called to him from within the bush. Moses and Moses said here I am". Yeah? Speak. God tells him what he wants him to do, "Go, I'm sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people of the Israelites out of Egypt. And Moses said, who am I? Who am I? I tried that remember that's why I'm living in the desert and smell like a sheep. I'm a fugitive there. I'm not going back". Isaiah, chapter 6, Isaiah is being recruited, arguably the greatest until you get to Jesus, of the Hebrew prophets. Certainly, one of the most poetic, insightful, and when he's recruited, he says, "Woe to me! I'm ruined. I'm a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King".
You prefer the New Testament. Luke, chapter 1, Jesus is recruiting teenagers. This isn't age-dependent, this leader thing. Don't get puffed up because you have gray hair, and think you should go to the front of the parade. You may be spiritually immature. And if you're on the younger end of the spectrum, don't say you get to sow your wild oats, you could be forfeiting the opportunity to have significance in the kingdom. Most of the great leaders in the Bible recruited when they're pretty young. In this case, you know the story, it's Mary, she's a teenager.
Now, Gabriel, the archangel says, "You'll be with child and give birth to a son and you're going to give him the name Jesus. Then Mary asked the angel one question. 'How will this be? I haven't him engaged in the behaviors that would make that even a possibility". I mean, it's a polite discussion, but she's saying, "That's just simply impossible. I know how that happens". And the angel said, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you, and the holy one to be born to be, you will be called the Son of God". I know the language is very poetic, but that didn't really answer the question. If I said to you, "God's gonna use you to change our community". And you said, "How"? I said, "Oh, the Holy Spirit will help you". Well, that clarified everything. Well, that was much the answer that Mary received, and she said, "Okay".
So, let me ask you a question: what's the essential characteristic across all of those circumstances, across many years, across many cultures, very different assignments: Moses leading a group of slaves, and Mary with an immaculate conception, giving birth to the son of God? But what was the consistent component in all of those different platforms? Widely differing assignments. The opportunities are different but there's one consistent component and I'm gonna submit to you, that it's humility. "May it be to me, as you have said". Before Moses could accept the assignment, he's saying, "Who am I"? Isaiah is going, "Woe is me"! He's not saying, "You know, I'm pretty good with words. I just have kind of a natural charisma. People tend to follow me. What would you like me to do for you, big fella"?
I've always wanted to tell the king what to do. There's none of that. Isaiah is saying, "Woe is me! I deserve judgment more than opportunity". Humility. Boy, that's not a contemporary objective. I mean, we've just pushed that to the back of the lexicon. Proverbs 15:33 says, "The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom and humility comes before honor". How many of you would like to be honored by God? Oh, I'm thinking, "Yeah, I put my feet in the air if it'll help". Well, the, predecessor to that, the prequel to being honored by God is humility. Well, somebody get Amazon up. Let's order some. In fact, let's establish a regular delivery.
So, if that's not how we get humility, is it? Matthew 23, this time it's Jesus, "The greatest among you," I'm interested in who that would be. People say, "You know, I don't, doesn't matter to me. I just want to go to heaven". If that's your attitude, you'll miss it. Let's take that same attitude and plug it in someplace else. Suppose, you're pregnant. You say, "Listen, I don't want to be a great parent, I just wanna have a kid". Well, somebody better pray for that child. "I don't wanna be a great employee, I just want a job". Well, I pray you don't work for me. "I don't wanna be a great boss, I just wanna be in charge".
Well, I pray I don't work for you. And yet, we say repeatedly, brazenly, as God's people, "I don't, I don't want to, I'm not trying to be significant in the kingdom of God. I'm not trying to, I just I just wanna get there". Excuse me? Who told you that attitude was all right? Jesus is sent to us, the greatest in the kingdom of God, we ought to all be leaning forward. Yes? But we've taken the coward's way out, "Well, I'm not really interested in that. I'm born again. I've been baptized". Well, good. Listen to what he said, "The greatest among you will be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but whoever humbles himself will be exalted".
Now, that's a little better bait. How about God being your promoter? God said, "I'll take you on. I will see to it that you get more opportunities than you could get on your own". "Well, I'm kind of interested in that program". But he said, "The way to do that is we have to humble ourselves". If God humiliates you, if God humbles you, that's called humiliation; that's not fun. If you humble yourself, it's the pathway to promotion, significance. 1 Peter, chapter 5, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, he'll lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on, He cares for you".
See, there's always a temptation to imagine that there's some self accomplishment. We begin to use language which brings separation and invites exaltation. I spent a lot of years around Christians, and spirit-filled Christians, and Christians with lots of spiritual language, and there's a tremendous temptation. Let me suggest, you let the fruit of your life be the evidence of your spiritual development, not a weird vocabulary, not a 1,000-yard stare. I've told you, a lot of times, you know, if your car's out of gas, you don't need guidance, you need cash and a filling station. We act weird.
I've told the story, but that was years ago, I was a young man, I was freshly minted driver's license, and I was tasked to take somebody to the airport, and on the way, I was supposed to stop and let them pray for someone. And the person I was shuttling was a retired army lieutenant colonel, big guy. And this was before Google, I didn't have a GPS, I just had an address, and I couldn't find the address, and I didn't want to appear stupid, I wanted to appear spiritual. And so, when I couldn't find the address, I said, "Well, I guess the devil didn't want you to pray for that person". And this guy had a voice that sounded like God, and he said, "Allen, it has nothing to do with the devil. You got lousy directions". "Sir, yes, sir. Let me take you to the airport quickly".
You don't have to use this faux vocabulary, pretend something you're not. Let the authenticity of your life find its way to the surface and cultivate enough genuine spirituality. Then, when it gets to the surface, it's recognized. If you're a fraud, it won't hold up under pressure. The Corinthians fought about who baptized them. Not real maturity. Great gifts arrive with great responsibilities, you know that. The Bible says, "To whom much is given much is required".
Now, if humility is the key, the corrosive force is pride. It's the opposite. Proverbs 16:18 says, "Pride goes before destruction," not before a fall before destruction. So, here's the idea, I wanna wrap it up, I want you to consider regularly engaging in behaviors which cultivate humility and deconstruct pride. In the same way, you do a daily inventory about your hygiene, whether you brushed your teeth and washed behind your ears, do a daily inventory. What did I do today that would let humility flourish, because if I'm doing that, God's gonna bring promotion. And what did I do today that would help me deconstruct those subtle invitations of pride? Because if I'm allowing that to flourish, it's gonna bring destruction to my life and to the people I care about.
Don't leave this to chance. You're not special. I know, we're all worried about our little self images. We've been working, they've been massaging them since we were kids. "Well, you know, I thought we were the apple of God's eye and we're fearfully and wonderfully made". Well, I agree with that. I'm not suggesting that those verses are legitimate and true, but they're not the whole council. We're all a part of God's creation. Those verses are applied universally, which means you're not particularly special. He thinks everybody's wonderful. I'm gonna have to think about this. You're not entitled. You may be a child of God, and I pray you are, but we should all be reminded consistently that's an expression of His grace. Wasn't something we earned or we merited; we were chosen. There's no room to boast.
Look at 1 Corinthians 28, "He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him". He's the one that gets the glory and the credit. We wanna lead well, so his kingdom can be revealed and established and flourished in the earth. And we're willing to lead well through challenging times and face difficulties because God won't get the glory, people will look at us and go, "That has to be God. I know them. On their best day, they're dumb as a stick".
When God was inviting me to the ministry, the last place I wanted to come to do that, was back to my hometown. I grew up here, they knew I was not a godly. Aren't you glad we didn't have social media back in the day? Sure. The things we said. Well, I wanna wrap it up with an action plan to, to cultivate humility. Carefully establish the highest ambition of your life for the kingdom of God, but that's gonna take some time. It's easy to say at church. I can roll that off in a sentence. It'll take you a season to begin to do that. How you spend your time, what you do with, what you're dreaming about? The Bible tells us to not cultivate selfish ambitions, just "have nothing to do," Philippians 2, "with selfish ambition".
Ambition is not wrong. You need ambition for the Kingdom of God. It's countercultural, it's counter intuitive. "You mean, I would do things with my time and energy that might create less returns in the immediate season, but they have significance in the Kingdom of God"? That's exactly what I'm talking about. Your friends will think you've lost your balance. It'll put you in a minority. Carefully establish the greatest ambition of your life for the kingdom of God. I would submit, beyond that, you want to serve regularly. The most precious resource, the most valuable resource, the irreplaceable resource of your life is your time.
And here's what I'm suggesting, that you be sure and give it away for the Lord. Wow. "Amen," is the word you're all searching for. This is like a little interactive thing we do on the weekends. I know how valuable time is. It's precious. Are you giving any of it away for the purposes of the Lord? "Well, that's my time. Well, not exactly". The Lord gave you breath today. I'd add to that one more: if you're gonna serve regularly, you wanna give generously. Your money whispers to you, the temptation of self-sufficiency. It just submit, it just feeds into our being that, "If I've got a little bit more, and I could get a little bit more than that, I'd be self sufficient, and then, I could live in a different way".
Generosity, cultivates a transfer of trust. If you're not generous, when you have a little, you won't be generous when you have a lot. Practice generosity. It will break the stranglehold, and then cultivate the importance of others. People matter. They really do. The simple ways you do that, again, we're trying to grow humility. Remember? Listen, actually listen to other people. Practice compassion. I think of compassion as a muscle. You know, if you have a muscle and you don't use it for just a couple of weeks, it'll atrophy, it'll start to shrink, it'll disappear almost. And some of us are our compassion muscle's pretty atrophied. Not pity, compassion.
Let humility grow in your life, folks, it will bring the blessing of God. It will. Maybe it's not, it's not like a, a vending machine, you drop in a humility marker and you get out what you want. That's manipulation. But you start slowly to build it into your habits and your patterns and your behaviors, and you'll find God adds blessings to places you didn't expect, and outcomes you couldn't explain in the other way than God's help. The alternative is pride. You wanna do everything you can to deconstruct it in your life. Repent, renounce it, release whatever you've got to do. You wanna separate yourself from pride, it's more corrosive than any disease that could beset your body. It will rob you of more than any economic failure or bad investment. Don't tolerate it. The pride doesn't mean you're some weak worm of the dust with no gifts.
Humility doesn't say, "There's nothing about me that has value". Humility is the right understanding of yourself. You understand your strength, your gifts, and your weaknesses. I think of Moses, the Bible says, where the meekest man on the face of the earth, and he stood in front of Pharaoh and said, "Let these people go," and then he stood in front of the people and said, "Walk this way". Can you imagine that responsibility? Moses was not a pushover. I'm not talking about being gutless and without courage. I'm talking about understanding the source of our strength. We need great leaders because we're facing great challenges, and we want them to come from someplace else. What if we decided to be those people? I brought you a prayer. Why don't you stand with me? I want to just give you a starter set. We're gonna keep working on this. Let's read this prayer together.
Heavenly Father, you created the earth and everything in it by your great power. I choose to yield my life to you. I choose obedience to your principles. Forgive me for stubborn responses of rebellion. Holy Spirit, teach me to walk with integrity in the sight of God. Grant me an awareness of your presence. My hope is in my God and his great love for his people. His faithfulness endures forever and his mercies do not fail. Amen.