Security
Matthew 11:28-30; Psalm 103:11-12; John 3:17
August 11, 2003
I. We have talked about a lot of things dealing with leadership, and I know that some of you may be wondering when we are going to be through with this subject, and we are getting closer.
A. But there are some more things that we need to understand about being a leader.
B. And there can be no doubt that we, as a church, need leaders to step forward, and I have been thrilled to see more people doing that lately.
C. I want you to know that I appreciate everyone who has stepped forward to take on more of a leadership role, but more than that, I think that you need to know that it pleases God.
D. For every one of you who step forward, we are one step closer to being what God wants us to be as a church. And everyone that steps forward encourages others to do the same.
E. One of the things that we have to have to be the leader that we are supposed to be is security.
F. John Maxwell says, "You can’t lead people if you need people."
G. Andrew Carnegie says, "No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it."
H. What they are saying is, if you aren’t secure about who you are, if you are insecure about your abilities and your position, then you will always be afraid that someone else is going take your position as a leader.
I. I would be willing to bet that almost everybody in here has worked for a boss like that at some time, and it is a miserable position to be in.
J. The only way that a leader can make themselves better is to make the other leaders around them better.
K. And if we are so insecure about our own position as a leader that we are constantly afraid that someone is going to get more credit than us and make others think that they’re better than we are, we will constantly be trying to push the people around us down to build ourselves up.
L. I want you to notice that the only way for you push someone else down is to go down yourself.
M. When that happens, everyone that we lead will suffer and whatever we are leading will suffer.
N. As leaders, to improve whatever it is that we are leading, we have to build up the people around us.
II. During the time that Ronald Reagan was president, leaders of seven industrial nations were meeting at the White House to discuss economic policy. Ronald Reagan has told about coming across Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau strongly criticizing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, telling her that she was all wrong and her policies wouldn’t work.
A. Reagan says that she stood there with her head up and waited until he was through and then walked away.
B. Later Reagan went to Margaret Thatcher and said , "Maggie, he should have never spoken to you like that. He was out of line. Why did you let him get away with that?
C. Reagan said, that Margaret Thatcher looked at him and said, " A woman must know when a man is being simply childish."
D. That story characterizes Margaret Thatcher. It takes a strong secure person to succeed as a world leader and that is especially true when that person is a woman.
E. Margaret Thatcher has been swimming upstream all her life.
1. As a student of Oxford University she majored in Chemistry, a field dominated be men. She became the first woman president of Oxford University Conservative Association.
2. A few years later she qualified as a lawyer and worked as a tax specialist.
3. In 1959, she went into politics, a profession with few women.
4. And when she became a member of Parliament, she was frequently asked by her party to face opponents in debates.
5. Her conviction and skill may have been the result of something that her father told her. He said, "You don’t follow the crowd; you make up your own mind."
F. Her competence and convictions earned her several government posts, and as Secretary of State for Education and Science, she was called the most unpopular woman in Britain.
G. She continually made decisions that improved her country, and faced a lot of criticism, but always remained secure in her convictions.
H. She stood for conviction in leadership, and the result was that she was called the "Iron Lady" and was elected to three consecutive terms as Prime Minister of England, and she is the only British leader in modern history to accomplish that.
I. Margaret Thatcher seemed to have no doubts about herself or what she believed in. That is the way it has been with all truly great leaders.
J. You may have noticed this and I know I have seen it. If someone sees themself as a loser, then they will find a way to lose. If they start quitting then they will become a quitter.
K. Anytime someone’s success goes beyond their security the result is self- destruction.
L. Insecure leaders are dangerous to themselves, their followers, and the organizations that they lead, because being in a position of leadership magnifies our personal flaws. Whatever negative baggage we carry from other areas of our life, gets harder to carry when we try to lead others.
M. The thing that we have to remember as Christians is that we don’t have to carry the negative baggage from our past any farther than the cross.
N. Jesus says that we should bring to Him all those things that weigh us down and let Him take them from us.
(Mat 11:28-30 NIV) "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
O. One area that most people don’t understand about being a Christian is that they are not to carry all their past failures with them. When Jesus says that he takes away our sin, it means that He takes it away.
P. And when we accept Him as Savior, the past is to be forgotten, in that we are not to let what is in our past drag us down.
Q. As Christians, we have an advantage as leaders, in that we don’t have to carry any old baggage with us, we just have to lay it down at the Cross and tell ourselves that it is no longer ours to carry. And if we can do that then we can have a security that will allow us to be secure as leaders.
III. But it is also important that as leaders (and we are all leaders) that we recognize insecurities in ourselves that will hinder us from being the leaders that we should be. Insecure leaders have several common traits.
A. THEY DON’T PROVIDE SECURITY FOR OTHERS.
1. There is an old saying that says," You cannot give what you do not HAVE."
2. Just like people who don’t have a particular skill can’t teach that skill to others, people without security can’t make others feel secure.
3. For a person to be an effective leader, the kind that others want to follow, they need to make those who follow them feel GOOD about themselves.
B. Insecure leaders, TAKE MORE FROM PEOPLE THAN THEY GIVE.
1. Insecure people are on a constant search for approval, acknowledgment, and love. Because of that, their focus is on finding SECURITY and not on giving it to others.
2. So they are usually takers and not givers, and they are not leaders that make the people that they are supposed to be leading, feel secure. They make those that they lead insecure and uneffective leaders with them.
C. INSECURE LEADERS CONTINUALLY LIMIT THEIR BEST PEOPLE.
1. Show me an insecure leader and I will show you someone that can’t GENUINELY celebrate their follower’s victories.
2. They might try to keep those who lead with them from having any victories, by undermining what they do, or take credit for what others accomplish.
3. Only secure leaders can give others the power to LEAD.
4. The better an insecure leader’s people perform, the more insecure they feel, and the harder they will work to limit how much others can accomplish so that others get less recognition.
D. INSECURE LEADERS LIMIT WHAT THEY LEAD.
1. When followers are undermined and receive no recognition, they become discouraged and eventually stop performing at their potential.
2. When that happens, whatever the leader is in charge of suffers.
E. Secure Leaders: Are able to believe in OTHERS because they believe in themselves.
1. They aren’t ARROGANT, they know their own strengths and weaknesses, and respect themselves.
2. When the people who serve with them perform well, they’re not THREATENED.
3. They go out of their way to bring the best people together and BUILD THEM UP so that they perform at the highest level.
4. When their team SUCCEEDS, it brings them great joy.
5. They see the success of the people that they lead as the highest COMPLIMENT they can receive for their leadership ability.
F. Take a minute to reflect on how this applies to your life.
1. How well do you understand and respect YOURSELF?
2. Do you know your STRENGTHS and feel good about them?
3. Have you recognized your WEAKNESSES and come to grips with the ones that you can’t change?
4. Have you left your baggage from the past at the Cross and let JESUS deal with it?
5. If we can realize that we were created by God with a particular personality type and have unique gifts, and we have been accepted by God in spite of our faults, then we can better appreciate the strengths and the successes of others.
6. When someone who works with you or for you, or lives with you, has a great idea, do you support it or SUPPRESS it?
7. Do you celebrate other people’s VICTORIES?
8. When your team or family succeeds, do you give credit where credit is DUE?
IV. So how do we improve where our security is concerned?
A. First we realize that we have to leave our past failures at the CROSS.
1. When we can really accept the fact that God has accepted us and that he created us with the gifts, abilities, and personalities that we have, we can be secure in what we are and who we are.
2. When we can accept the fact that Jesus removes our sin, we can be at peace with who we are.
3. Listen to what God has to say, (Psa 103:11-12 NIV) For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
4. Our sin has been removed by God and all the baggage that we have from the past is to be laid down at the Cross, if we can do that, we can find security in who we are.
V. So what can we do to improve our security in life? Well we just talked about the greatest thing, and that is to convince ourselves that God loves us and wants to take away all those things that have happened in the past that drag us down.
A. But we also need to KNOW ourselves.
1. Take the time to learn about yourself.
2. Take a personality test, or better yet, come to a New Members Class and the class we do on personalities.
3. Ask people that you know well to name your three greatest talents and your three greatest weaknesses, then listen and don’t defend yourself when they answer.
B. Learn to give the CREDIT away.
1. Learn to give the credit for what is accomplished away.
2. Try building up the people around you, and acknowledging what they accomplish.
3. If you lift the morale of the people around you, you will improve whatever it is that you are leading.
C. Get some HELP.
1. If you can’t overcome feelings of insecurity, get help from a friend or a professional counselor.
VI. But above all else, realize that God loves you and accepts you, and take all the baggage that you carry about things that have happened in the past and lay them down at the foot of the Cross.
(John 3:17 NIV) For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
A. Make yourself come face to face with the love of God and realize that God does not intend that you carry the weight of your failures, but that he wants you to find the peace of knowing that you are accepted by the creator of the universe.
B. Bring all those things from the past that drag you down and make you feel insecure and lay them down at this altar, and let God show you His love, and give him the chance to lead your life in a different direction.
