I. We have talked about character, commitment, communication, and competence, and there is no way that I can say how important those things are, but the list of things that we need to be concerned with about leadership does not stop there by any means.
A. If we are going to lead in our family, at work, in our service for God or in any organization in the culture that we live in today, we definitely have to have courage.
B. What do these three men have in common?
1. The Auto racer who set the world speed record at Daytona in 1914.
2. The pilot who recorded the most aerial combat victories against the Germans in WWI.
3. And the Secretary of War’s special advisor who survived a plane crash and twenty-two days on a raft in the Pacific ocean during WWII.
C. They all lived through some dangerous circumstances, they all displayed courage and they were all the same man, Eddie Rickenbaker.
D. Eddie Rickenbacker was always up to a challenge. When he was twelve his father died and he became the family’s breadwinner. He worked selling newspapers, eggs, and goat’s milk.
1. Then he worked in a glass factory, a brewery, and a foundry, and then as a teenager he became a race car mechanic, and at age 22 he started racing and at 24 broke the world speed record.
E. When WWI started he tried to enlist as a aviator, but was overage and under educated, so he started the war as a chauffeur and talked his superiors into sending him to fight school.
1. Despite not fitting in with his younger college educated aviators, he excelled as a pilot, and by the time the war was over he had logged over 300 hours in combat, survived 134 aerial battles, and claimed 26 kills of German planes.
2. He was awarded the Medal of Honor, eight Distinguished Services Crosses, and the French Legion of Honor, and was promoted to captain and put in command of his squadron, and was nicknamed the American Ace of Aces.
3. When he was asked about his courage he admitted that he had been afraid, but then said, "Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared."
4. After the war he became the president of what became Eastern Airlines, made it the first airline that showed a profit and was not government subsidized, and when the President of the United States canceled their Commercial carriers air mail contracts he took him on and won.
5. After he died at age 83 his son William wrote "if he had a motto it must have been the phrase I have heard a thousand times;" "I’ll fight like a wild cat."
F. When you look at the life of someone like Eddie Rickenbacker you have to see courage, but it can also be seen in every person that steps up to be a leader in any organization, if what they lead moves forward they have had to have made some courageous decisions.
G. I know that there are a lot people who are afraid to step up and be leaders, and I know that there are a lot of you that feel the same way, but God needs people who will show the courage to step forward even though they are scared and unsure about their ability to lead.
H. And I can assure you of this without any doubt this church needs people who will step up and be the leaders that it needs, to move forward in the job that God has put it here to do.
II. Some things that we need to know about courage are:
A. COURAGE BEGINS WITH AN INWARD BATTLE. Every test that you face as a leader and every test that you face about stepping out to become a leader begins inside you.
1. The test of courage is no different. Psychotherapist Sheldon Kopp says "All the significant battles are waged within self."
2. Courage is never the absence of fear, it is doing what you are afraid to do, it is it is having the power to step out into new territory even though is it a scary thing.
3. And in the case of service to God it is putting yourself in God’s hands to help you do that which you don’t feel capable of doing in God’s power instead of your own.
B. COURAGE IS ALSO MAKING THINGS RIGHT INSTEAD OF JUST SMOOTHING THEM OVER.
1. Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. made a statement that is surely true, he said, "the Ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy."
2. As leaders in our families, at work and in our service for God we will have to take a stand and show courage, at times when it is needed.
3. As leaders and I will say again that we are all leaders in some way, we have to have the courage to stand, and the conviction follow through, and the determination to take on the tasks that others shrink from.
C. COURAGE IN A LEADER INSPIRES COMMITMENT IN THOSE WHO FOLLOW THEM.
1. Billy Graham says, "Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened."
2. I assure you that for every person in this church that steps forward to take on a task that they are afraid to take on, someone else will be helped to have the courage to step forward too.
3. Every time you as a leader in your family, and where you work and in your service for God, have the courage to stand for what is right there will be others who will stand for what is right because they become more courageous because of what they see in you.
4. Jim Mellado says " Leadership is the expression of courage that compels people to do the right thing"
5. Courage is contagious, and for every person who will show the courage to follow God there will be others who become brave enough to do the same.
6. My favorite story in the bible about that is when David killed Goliath. The Army of Israel was afraid to fight the Philistines, but a young boy killed a giant and the whole army of Israel found the courage to rout the Philistines.
(1 Sam 17:51-53NIV) David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the scabbard. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword. When the Philistines saw that their hero was dead, they turned and ran. Then the men of Israel and Judah surged forward with a shout and pursued the Philistines to the entrance of Gath and to the gates of Ekron. Their dead were strewn along the Shaaraim road to Gath and Ekron.. When the Israelites returned from chasing the Philistines, they plundered their camp.
7. David proved he was a man who knew how to get a head and the whole army found a courage that they didn’t know they had.
8. The only way that we will ever have the leaders that we need in the church is for some of you to step forward and inspire others to follow.
D. ANOTHER THING ABOUT COURAGE IS THAT YOUR LIFE EXPANDS IN PROPORTION TO YOUR COURAGE.
1. Fear limits our lives. Roman Historian Tacitus wrote " the desire for safety stands against every great enterprise."
2. But courage does just the opposite. It opens doors to new possibilities.
3. John Henry Newman said " Fear not that your life will come to an end, but that it will never have a beginning."
4. Courage not only gives you a good beginning , but it gives you a better future.
5. One of the most important things to remember about courage is that those who have the courage to step out and take risks and those who don’t experience the same amount of fear in life, the only difference is that one overcomes it and moves forward and the other lets it stop them in their tracks.
6. If you have to deal with fear anyway you might as well make it count, and God needs people who will make it count for Him.
7. A circuit riding preacher named Peter Cartwright was about to deliver as sermon, and was told the President Andrew Jackson was in the audience, and was asked to keep his comments inoffensive.
8. One of his comments was "I have been told that Andrew Jackson is in the congregation. And I have been asked to guard my remarks. What I must say is that Andrew Jackson will go to hell if he does not repent."After the service Andrew Jackson walked up to Cartwright and said, "if I had a regiment of men like you, I could whip the world."
9. That is exactly what we as Christians have been given the job of doing taking on the world and seeing as many of the world as possible come to know Jesus, and it will take every person of courage doing a there part for it to come out the way it should.
III. But along with Courage we also have to have discernment.
A. Discernment can be described as the ability to find the root of the matter, and it relies on intuition but it more than that depends on the ability to sit down and think a thing through.
B. Discernment is important to being a good leader, but even good leaders don’t always use it in the way they should.
C. To give you some examples of how important discernment can be let me read you some quotes from some people who were great leaders.
1. I Tell you Wellington is a bad general, the English are bad soldiers; we will settle the matter by lunch time." That statement was made my Napoleon Bonaparte at breakfast before the battle of Waterloo.
2. Thomas J. Watson the chairman of IBM in 1943 said " I think there is a world market for about five computers.
3. "I don’t need bodyguards." That statement was made by Jimmy Hoffa one month before he disappeared.
D. Discernment is an indispensable quality for any leader that wants to be effective and successful.
E. That means that as parents and leaders of our families, and in business, and as people that God has called to carry out his work, that we have to cultivate the quality of discernment.
F. That’s what Jesus was getting at when He said in (Mat 10:16 NIV) I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.
IV. To develop discernment there are some key elements that we have to work at.
A. DISCOVER THE ROOT ISSUES.
1. Leaders have to deal with many issues day in a day out whether it be in their family, at work, or in their service for God, and it is rare that they are able to gather all the information that it takes to see the whole picture.
2. That is why developing discernment is so important. Researcher Henry Mintzberg of McGill University said, "Organizational effectiveness does not lie in that narrowminded concept called rationality. It lies in the blend of clearheaded logic and powerful intuition."
3. As leaders in our families, and every other area of life discernment enables a leader without being able to see the whole picture the ability, to fill in the missing pieces through intuition and find the real heart of the matter.
B. WE ALSO HAVE TO ENHANCE OUR PROBLEM SOLVING.
1. If we can see the root of the problem we can solve it. The closer a leader is to his area of giftedness and the more they exercise and use their giftedness, the stronger their intuition and ability to solve problems will become.
C. WE ALSO HAVE TO EVALUATE OUR OPTIONS FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT.
1. Management consultant Robert Heller advises: "never ignore a gut feeling , but never believe that it is enough."
2. Discernment isn’t relying on intuition alone , nor is it relying of intellect alone. Discernment is the ability to follow your gut feeling and your head combined, to find the best option for those you lead.
3. Discernment is also the ability to realize when it is time to go beyond the way that you have always done things to find ways that will work better to serve those that you lead.
D. WE ALSO HAVE TO MULTIPLY OUR OPPORTUNITIES.
1. People who don’t develop discernment are seldom in the right place at the right time.
2. Although great leaders seem to a lot of people to be lucky, it is not luck! It is creating your own luck, as a result of discernment. It is the willingness to use experience to follow our instincts.
3. And in service to God it is the willingness to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit to allow God to use you to do things that you never thought you could do.
E. For a long time the Swiss had a lock on the watchmaking industry. They built the best watches that money could buy and by the 1940s they made 80% of the watches in the world.
1. In the late 1960s when an inventor presented a new idea for a new type of watch every Swiss watch company he approached rejected it. But believing that his idea was a good one the man took it to a company in Japan. The name of that company was Seiko, and the design was the digital watch. Today 80% of the watches used, use a digital design.
2. One Discernment-driven decision can change your whole direction of life. We have to develop discernment as leaders, because as leaders in our family, and leaders in our profession, and as leaders in service to God failure to be willing to change the way that we do things, and failure to get to the root of what it is that we are given the responsibility to do can make a difference in the lives of a lot of people.
F. In being a leader anywhere but especially for God and as a Christian, courage and discernment have to go together, and they are vital. We have to have the courage to step out on faith believing that God will lead us to the right decisions.
1. We have to be willing to stand up and take responsibility for the things that we believe in, and we have to give the Holy Spirit room to work in our lives so that God can lead us and develop in us the discernment that will allow us to better serve the people that we lead.
V. As leaders we have to have courage and discernment.
A. Without any doubt, this church needs people who will step forward and be the leaders that it needs to move forward in the job that God has put it here to do, and your family needs you to step up and be the godly spiritual leader that God created you to be.
B. COURAGE BEGINS WITH AN INWARD BATTLE. Every test that you face as a leader and every test that you face about stepping out to become a leader begins inside you.
1. Courage is never the absence of fear; it is doing what you are afraid to do, it is it is having the power to step out into new territory although it is a scary thing.
2. And in the case of service to God, it is putting yourself in God’s hands to help you do that which you don’t feel capable of doing, in God’s power, instead of your own.
C. COURAGE IS ALSO MAKING THINGS RIGHT INSTEAD OF JUST SMOOTHING THEM OVER.
1. As leaders we have to have the courage to stand, the conviction to follow through, and the determination to take on the tasks that others shrink from.
D. COURAGE IN A LEADER INSPIRES COMMITMENT IN THOSE WHO FOLLOW THEM.
1. Billy Graham says, "Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are stiffened."
2. Courage is contagious and for every person who will show the courage to follow God there will be others who become brave enough to do the same.
3. The only way we will ever have the leaders we need in the church is for some of you to step forward and inspire others to follow.
E. ANOTHER THING ABOUT COURAGE IS THAT YOUR LIFE EXPANDS IN PROPORTION TO YOUR COURAGE.
1. Fear limits our lives, but courage does just the opposite. It opens doors to new possibilities.
2. John Henry Newman said " Fear not that your life will come to an end, but that it will never have a beginning."
3. Courage not only gives you a good beginning , but it gives you a better future.
F. We also need discernment as leaders.
G. We have to DISCOVER THE ROOT ISSUES.
1. Leaders have to deal with many issues, day in and day out, and it is rare that they are able to gather all the information that it takes to see the whole picture.
2. "Organizational effectiveness does not lie in that narrowminded concept called rationality. It lies in the blend of clearheaded logic and powerful intuition."
H. WE ALSO HAVE TO ENHANCE OUR PROBLEM SOLVING.
1. If we can see the root of the problem, we can solve it. The closer a leader is to his area of giftedness, and the more he exercises and uses his giftedness, the stronger his intuition and ability to solve problems will become.
I. WE ALSO HAVE TO EVALUATE OUR OPTIONS FOR MAXIMUM IMPACT.
1. Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe that it is enough."
2. Discernment isn’t relying on intuition alone , nor is it relying on intellect alone. Discernment is the ability to follow your gut feeling and head combined to find the best option for those you lead.
3. Discernment is also the ability to realize when it is time to go beyond the way that you have always done things to find ways that will work better to serve those that you lead.
J. WE ALSO HAVE TO MULTIPLY OUR OPPORTUNITIES.
1. People who don’t develop discernment are seldom in the right place at the right time.
2. Although great leaders seem to a lot of people to be lucky, it is not luck. It is creating your own "luck" as a result of discernment.
3. And in service to God it is the willingness to follow the leadership of the Holy Spirit to allow God to use you to do things that you never thought you could do.
