Lessons in Leadership
Part One: “Leaders Make a Difference”
Professor: Noah, the son of Lamech
©Larry L. Thompson (2003)
Text: Hebrews 11:7 (NIV)
“By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
INTRODUCTION:
Today we begin an eight week study entitled, “Lessons in Leadership.” We will examine eight leaders from the Bible and look at a different characteristic of leadership from each life. We will use the word of God to allow the Biblical leader to become our adjunct professor for the weekly course and will entertain a new professor from key Leaders found throughout the Bible.
What is a Christian Leader?
A Christian leader is an individual who is ‘called and equipped by God’ to lead others in the pursuit of the will of God that ultimately results in Christ being glorified.
Christian Leadership should include five key attributes.
1. Leaders MOBILIZE people for an eternal purpose.
2. Leaders INFLUENCE people to pursue God’s will.
3. Leaders PURSUE God directed goals.
4. Leaders SACRIFICE for the privilege to lead.
5. Leaders EARN THE TRUST of those they lead.
KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF A CHRISTIAN LEADER
Let’s identify Key Characteristics of someone we identify as a spiritual leader. All the Christian leaders I have studied—in Scripture, in person, in history books—possess three distinct but related key characteristics.
1. THE CHRISTIAN LEADER IS CALLED BY GOD. He is called to servanthood, but following the example of Christ he serves by leading. The vast majority of God’s human creation is followers. Those who have been anointed by God to lead are valuable to the Body of believers—in functional terms—by their willingness to follow their call and provide leadership His followers desperately need.
2. THE CHRISTIAN LEADER MODELS THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST. Because the central function of a Christian leader is to enable people to know, love and serve Christ with all their heart, soul, mind and spirit, the leader must himself possess and model spiritual attributes—characteristics of a surrendered and submitted heart, manifested through their speech and behavior—that reflects the nature of God.
3. THE CHRISTIAN LEADER IS SPIRITUALLY EQUIPPED. Christian leaders are able to perform tasks and guide people toward accomplishing the directives of God as a result of being spiritually equipped for their assignment. Spiritual leaders are equipped to inspire and motivate people, direct the energy and resources of people, casting God’s vision, building teams, celebrating victories, reviewing defeats, delegating authority, making decisions, developing strategy, and accepting responsibility for outcomes and always giving all glory to God.
The Bible is perfectly clear that spiritual leadership happens best when it occurs in the context of a spiritually gifted and equipped team of people working with a God called leader. Moses had Joshua, Aaron and Hur. Jesus had Peter, James and John. Paul had Timothy, Barnabas, Luke and Titus. As Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 12:7, each believer is given a gift to be used “for the common good” (NIV). Each spiritual gift is not meant to be exhaustive, but complementary. No one gift (or an individual possessing a certain gift) is better than any other. Christian leaders can not exercise the gift of leadership without other Christians joining with them and using their gifts to see God glorified and His work completed.
As a pastor/teacher and leader, I desperately need great teachers, administrators, counselors, those with the gift of service and hospitality as well as people with all the other gifts that will come along side with me and to help me lead. God created us to be in community; we need each other for the Body to function properly. Creating a framework in which the synergy for this biblical model to occur is one of the great challenges to every Christian leader.
QUESTION: “Why Begin the New Year of 2003 With a Biblical Sermon Series on Leadership?”
Because It is Perhaps The Greatest Need We Have In Our Fellowship and not only in our church but the fact that The New Testament Church in America is in a CRISIS!
• WE HAVE A CRISIS OF SPIRITUAL FAITH: Tens of millions of Americans are searching for something to believe in.
• WE HAVE A CRISIS OF SPIRITUAL MATURITY: Millions of born-again believers have little or no spiritual depth. They are ineffective servants of God because they do not know what they believe, or how to use their faith to impact this world.
• WE HAVE A CRISIS IN OUR UNWILLINGNESS TO CHANGE: The Church seems afraid to invest in new modes of being the Church, fearful of breaking free from antiquated models while still holding true to the one Gospel Message that has the power to change the world. At times we are guilty of embracing our irrelevant traditions while deceiving ourselves into believing we can change our world in this twenty-first-century.
• WE HAVE A CRISIS IN CHRISTIAN LEADERSHIP. I contend that all these other crises would not be serious crises but simply opportunities for transformation—if we had spent the past years developing true Christian leaders, fully equipped in God’s word leading the Body of Christ in this nation.
As I have contemplated this New Year it is my contention that biblical leadership is one of the key missing links to the church becoming the healthy world changing community that Scripture models and the Holy Spirit inspires us to embrace.
This sermon series is designed to be used of the Spirit to build, challenge and call out Christian leaders. If God has called you to lead, then it is time you were equipped and began to lead. Leadership in the Body of Christ at First Baptist Church is your privilege, it is your responsibility and it will result in your joy. It is my desire that the Spirit will use this series to awaken the call to Spiritual Leadership and as God’s people surrender to His call we will lead in such a way that brings honors Him.
INTRODUCTION of TODAY’S LEADER & OUR LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE:
OUR PROFESSOR: NOAH, THE SON OF LAMECH
OUR LEADERSHIP PRINCIPLE: ‘LEADERS WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE’
Today we begin with the first book in the Bible and the first leader that the Lord will use to teach us this principle in leadership is Noah. We welcome Professor Noah and I give you the following background regarding your instructor today.
The Leaders Life:
Noah’s life involves not one, but two great and tragic floods. The world in Noah’s day was flooded with evil. Of God’s created people, only Noah was left to honor and respect the Lord. God’s GRACE response to this tragic sinful situation was a 120-year-long gift of mercy, a last chance, during which Noah built an Ark, a graphic illustration of the message of his life and death. For Noah, obedience meant a long-term leadership commitment to see the completion of this God called project.
Many of us have trouble sticking to any project, whether or not it is directed by God. It is interesting that the length of Noah’s obedience was greater than the lifespan of people today. Perhaps this is one great challenge that Professor Noah’s life of leadership provides for us is to live, in acceptance of God’s grace means to live an entire lifetime of obedience and gratitude desiring to make a difference in the world we live.
BIBLICAL BACKGROUND REGARDING THE LIFE OF NOAH:
The Leaders Strength:
• ONLY TRUE FOLLOWER OF GOD IN HIS GENERATION
• Second father of the human race
• Man of patience, consistency, and obedience
• First major shipbuilder
• A preacher of righteousness
The Leaders Sin:
• Following the flood there is a time when Noah got drunk and embarrassed himself and his family when HIS NAKED DRUNKENNESS EXPOSED BY HIS SONS.
The Leaders Story:
• ONE LEADER CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
• God is faithful to those who obey him
• God does not always protect us from trouble, but protects us through the trouble
• Obedience to God is a life-long commitment
• Even faithful leaders must remember the sinful nature is always with them
The Leaders Scripture
• The Key Verse Regarding Noah’s Life: Genesis 6:22 (NIV)
“Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”
With the background now presented regarding today’s Professor of Leadership let us join his class in Part One of the Sermon Series: LESSONS ON LEADERSHIP: TODAY’S SUBJECT: ONE LEADER CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
TEXT: Genesis 6:5-8 (NIV)
“The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. [6] The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. [7] So the Lord said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth--men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air--for I am grieved that I have made them." [8] But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
I. LEADERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE THROUGH THEIR FAITH
Hebrews 11:7 (NIV)
“By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.”
Genesis 7:5-10 (NIV)
“And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. [6] Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. [7] And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. [8] Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, [9] male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. [10] And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.”
LEADERS WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE BY THEIR FAITH LIVE A LIFE OF OBEDIENCE: there was the great obedience of Noah. The emphasis of these verses is the explicit faithful obedient response of Noah to God’s will and word: he did exactly what God said to do. In order to do exactly what God commanded Noah had to act by FAITH because it had not yet begun to rain. Noah was still acting by faith. All he had was what we have: God’s Word and the warning of judgment to come. He had nothing else other than God’s Word. He had built the ark with nothing other than God’s Word to go on, and now, he enters the ark with nothing but God’s Word to go on. Not a drop of rain had yet fallen; nothing had yet happened to indicate that judgment was about to fall upon the earth. God alone had spoken to Noah, and Noah had acted on God’s Word alone. THE TRUE SPIRITUAL LEADER WILL KNOW GOD’S WORD AND THEN ACT BY FAITH TO LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO THE WORD OF GOD. Two faith facts clearly indicate the difference this leader was able to make:
1. NEITHER AGE NOR MAGNITUDE OF THE PROJECT DETERS GOD’S LEADER WHO ACTS BY FAITH. Noah was 600 hundred years old when the flood began (Genesis 7:5-6). Noah spent 120 years building the ark. This means that Noah was 480 years old when God first told him to build the ark and prepare for the coming judgment. Just think of the great faith and obedience of Noah: he began work on the most strange and unbelievable project imaginable. He built a huge box-like structure out in the middle of nowhere, and all the while he preached the righteousness and coming judgment of God. The ark was roughly the size of one and one half football fields. Noah did this—worked at building the ark and at preaching—for 120 years, all in obedience to the Word of God. All he had to go on was the Word and Warning of God. We must remember the great faith and obedience of this spiritual leader that made a difference: He was involved in faithfully completing this God-directed project for 120 years…all based solely upon the Word of God. TOO MANY CHRISTIANS MISS THE OPPORTUNITY FOR LEADERSHIP BECAUSE THEY IMPOSE THEIR OWN RESTRICTIONS ON WHY THEY CAN NOT COOPERATE WITH GOD’S WILL FOR THEIR LIFE…
• Too old
• Too young
• Bad timing
• I don’t have the money to give
• Don’t have the time to give
• Don’t have the education
• I have a family
• I am single
• Tomorrow, not today
REMEMBER THAT NEITHER AGE NOR MAGNITUDE OF THE PROJECT DETERED GOD’S LEADER FROM MAKING A DIFFERENCE AND ACTING BY FAITH!
2. A LEADER WHO WALKS BY FAITH WILL NOT BE DETERRED BY REASON OR RIDICULE. Noah went into the ark and took only those whom God had said were to enter (Genesis 7:7). Only Noah and his family, which included his wife and his three sons and their wives, were allowed to enter the ark—only eight persons altogether. Think how difficult this was: isolating himself and his family from the rest of mankind, thinking—knowing within his heart—that he and his family were to be the only survivors left from the coming holocaust, the only survivors upon the whole earth. Just imagine the emotions—the effect upon you—if you knew that only eight people had survived a world-wide holocaust and you were one of the survivors. But this Leader acted with the faith that made a difference and his action was based solely upon the Word of God.
II. LEADERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN THEIR FAMILY
Genesis 7:1 (NIV)
“The Lord then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.”
What every potential spiritual leader in this service needs to understand today is that YOUR LIFE AS A SPIRITUAL LEADER WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN YOUR FAMILY. Your willingness to submit to biblical instruction, to live in obedience to the directive of God’s word, to walk with spiritual integrity WILL IMPACT OTHERS AND ESPECIALLY THOSE WHO ARE CLOSEST TO YOU…YOUR FAMILY.
God chose Noah because of the way he lived his life as a spiritual leader but notice that it was NOT MERELY NOAH that benefited from this walk of faith and righteousness…His example also made a difference in the lives of those he loved the most, his family. As you consider what Professor Noah shares with you today you must not allow this truth to escape your heart…When you commit to being the spiritual leader that God has called you to be those closest to you will also benefit when you do what is right and act in obedience to His perfect will for your life.
120 years had passed and Noah had lived in obedience to God and his leadership was a witness to all who passed by watching the construction of this Ark. Finally, after 120 years, God told Noah that his whole family was to enter the ark. Though none of his friends, associates or people who passed by ever received God’s message to repent, this word from God was bound to help ease the heart of Noah, for those whom he loved the most—his immediate family—were to be saved along with him. Does this indicate that Noah’s sons and their wives were also followers of God? Probably, for Noah was a godly leader and godly man, and as a godly man, his duty, according to the Word of God, was to lead and instruct his children to follow God. Year after year of living with and being taught by this godly father and leader was bound to make an impact upon the three boys and eventually upon their wives. The very fact that God would choose them to be saved and the fact that they entered the ark point to their being true followers of the only living and true God. Noah’s leadership made a difference in his family!
Noah’s godly example before his children shows us the critical importance of godly leadership that must be demonstrated by godly parents. Remember: there were no other godly people upon earth, not a single person followed God. There was only Noah and his wife and three sons. Imagine what it was like being the only young person who followed God, the only young person who lived righteously and godly, who obeyed their parents, who stood against the crowd and didn’t curse, drink, cheat, or live in sexually immorality. These were Noah’s sons. They apparently followed God and stood right beside their father in living and preaching righteousness to their ungodly generation. What a lesson for the Christian parents of this world: to live godly lives before their children and to teach their children to follow God, to make following Him their greatest priority!
III. LEADERS MAKE A DIFFERENCE FOR THE FUTURE
Genesis 9:8-17 (NIV)
“Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: [9] "I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you [10] and with every living creature that was with you--the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you--every living creature on earth. [11] I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth." [12] And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: [13] I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. [14] Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, [15] I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. [16] Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." [17] So God said to Noah, "This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
ILLUSTRATION: 80 year old man planting orange tree seed in his back yard and a young neighborhood boy watched the old man work the ground, plant the seed, and water the seed. Afterward the young boy asked what he was doing. “I’m planting an orange tree.” The young boy thought for a moment and asked with careful respect, “Do you really expect to live long enough to eat the oranges from the tree?” The old man looked at the young boy and said, “No son, but those who follow me will enjoy the fruit of my labor.”
It is the faithful leaders whose obedience today will make a difference in the future of the lives of others tomorrow. Our investment today will be the fruit the next generation will enjoy. Noah is the classic example of this leadership principle.
Noah stepped out of the ark after a year onto an earth that was void of human life. But God gave him a reassuring promise and in this promise we see, “A Leaders Faith that made a Difference for the Future.”
The difference this leader made in our future today is seen through the three distinctive parts of the covenant God made with Noah.
1. A FLOOD will never again destroy our world
2. SEASONS will always come as expected
3. The RAINBOW reminds us that God keeps ALL His Promises
When you and I see a rainbow it MUST remind us of the legacy this godly leader left us as a result of His Faith that Made a Difference in Our Future.
CONCLUSION:
Picture this, it is the last week before the flood and Noah preaching what will be the final messages to an unrepentant generation. The ark is finished and stands with open door, gleaming in its final coat of pitch. Suddenly one of his sons come running to give the news, “Dad, I heard that the old man down the street just died, you know, the oldest man that has ever lived in these parts. You told me that his father was Enoch and he was like you, that he walked with God. They want you to preach the old man’s funeral…what’s his name again?” Noah pauses to reflect and then speaks, “The old man’s name is Methuselah and his name means, “when he dies the end shall come.” Imagine Noah preaching Methuselah’s funeral sermon.
“You all knew Methuselah,” he might have said. “His father was Enoch, a prophet of God. This man’s name means ’when he dies the end shall come.’ And now he is dead and the end is coming, it is surely coming, the long-delayed judgment of God. But salvation has been provided for you all. Who will come and seek refuge in the ark? Who has the courage to be responsive to the call of God today? All that is needed is one simple step of faith . . ." Yet for one final time, the world laughs and rejects the call of this godly leader and they watch him walk with his family up the ramp and into the ark and God shuts the door behind them. For 120 years the mercy of God gave the world an opportunity to repent but one day God’s mercy had been used up and now the judgment would fall. The rain would begin shortly; there would be plenty of believers after the first few days of rain…people would pound on the door of the ark shouting for Noah to open the door to let them. They would confess they believe but it would be too late…they wasted away their day of grace.
Noah’s great faith as a spiritual leader is seen in this: he had no evidence, he had nothing but the Word of God, yet he acted in obedience upon God’s Word. He believed everything that God said, and He did everything God commanded and the Lesson Noah leaves us today is this: GODLY LEADERS WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!
THE PROFESSOR’S PASSION: “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”
THE PROFESSOR’S PROMISE: “But God remembered Noah”
TODAY’S POP QUIZ: THE PROFESSOR’S PRIORITY:
SPIRITUAL LEADERS WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE…
• WALK BY FAITH. THEY DO NOT FEAR THE CROWD.
• WALK WITH THEIR FAMILY. THEY DO NOT FEAR WALKING WHERE OTHERS HAVE NEVER DARED TO WALK
• WALK TO THE FUTURE. THEY UNDERSTAND THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO THE FUTURE AND THEIR GRATITUDE TO THE PAST.
