[Applause]
all right Tech guys that’s strike one I got to be really careful about that
right now because we’re we’re fashion or cold like yeah like we can’t we can’t be letting any
volunteers go right now in fact if you guys are you guys familiar with I’m sure you are you’ve
experienced supply chain issues like supply chain broken down you go to
get some milk and they don’t have the the non-fat or the two percent or you go to get some
cereal and they say I’m sorry the Shelf is empty supply chain issues which
basically means that the people who are making it can’t get it to you
and we have some supply chain issues at Champion Center and
I’m really hopeful I’m asking I’m appealing many of you come and say Pastor that anything we can do let me
know and I know your heart’s right so I’m letting you know we have supply chain issues
which means we need we need you to join a team if you are not on a team we need
if if you if you appreciate what we are delivering at Champion Center for you
and for your children and what you experience on a weekend I’m going to ask you to go find even if you’ve been
through church Essentials and just go find the people that lead Church Essentials at your location and let them
know I’m here Pastor said we got supply chain issues so help me know where I can
serve because we want to help get the the the things that we’re cooking
that we now want to help get the kitchen over to the table okay and we want to
help serve the people that are coming to Champion Center
we have so many we have a lot of new people coming to church and for that we are grateful and we just want to we want
to serve them well we and then we want to ask them we’re going to ask them come be a part in some way shape or form uh the supply chain so that we can keep
this thing moving shout out to all of the men at Champion Center you know I’ve noticed uh I was in
Bellevue for rally night wow wow like Bellevue plush yeah rally night we prayed together we prayed over
businesses we prayed for healing man God was in the house many people were showing up at all locations last
Thursday night it was really really special but I looked across the the audience at Bellevue the location I was at and I I
would just my heart was just made uh glad by all of the men that were in the room
men of God men who I know had worked all day men I know who had busy schedules and yes ladies I appreciate you but I
don’t know we’ve made a call for men and men are responding men are stepping up men are coming to the table thank you men thank
you men for your faithfulness we’ve been in a series on living like a leader
and we’re calling this year the Year of the leader at Champion Center following Vision weekend we began a
series titled live like a leader for now this will be the um that this will be like the ending of the
series uh for now but next weekend I want to tell you real quick you don’t want to miss next weekend we have a
special guest speaker he is a communicator he is a pastor from the East Coast he is an author he recently
wrote a book called the Lord bless you and that’s the theme of next weekend it’s going to be really special bring a
friend you’re going to love it and the books will be available and so forth so um just look at somebody and say say
don’t miss it don’t don’t miss it like the primary thought
in this theme or this slogan or this concept is that everyone who is a Christ
follower is called to live like a leader like that that’s it in a nutshell if you
are a call to be a Christ follower if you are a Christ follower you are also called
to live like a leader there’s just no way you can not accept that or believe
that if you’re if you’re open and honest to the way Jesus came to the world and he called and then he sent
like like and here’s one of the the scriptures that I want to read to you in Matthew 5. everybody say I’m ready
everybody say Bring It On everybody say make me better Lord make my friends better God
in Jesus name here’s how it reads Matthew 5. you are the light of the world this is Jesus talking and it’s not the disciples
talking to Jesus as Jesus talking to the disciples and he tells them you are the light of the world everybody say I am
say it again I am it’s kind of hard to say huh like like me and then he says a city that is set on a
hill cannot be hidden he’s referencing the church the brightness of the church
he said nor do they light a lap put it under a basket they put it on a lamp stand it gives light to all who are in the house you could really substitute
the the word light in a lot of these phrases for the word influence
like you are the influencers of the world which is which is what a leader is
a leader is an influencer and and he’s saying verse 16 let your light so shine
like let your influence be bright before men
that they may see your good works don’t try to hide I think we mean well a lot of times as Christians when we’re you know someone
gives us a compliment we’re like no no no no no all glory to God like I get it
but we have to be really careful about that because you are the only Jesus some that
people are ever going to see and a lot of times we we don’t want that
but he said this is the way I want it to be he says let your light so shine let your
influence be bright before men that they might see your good works and glorify your father in Heaven
so we’ve been talking about leaders of the Bible and I want to I want to recap today I want to begin with and we’ll
we’ll go through the five that we’ve talked about but I want to recap and and first of all began with what we call The Reluctant leaders of the Bible
Chapter 2: THE RELUCTANT LEADERS OF THE BIBLE: SOME OF THE BEST LEADERS WERE RELUCTANT LEADERS.
and remind you that some of the best leaders were reluctant leaders
when God wants to do something he goes looking for a leader
or he goes looking for teams of leaders actually and I want to encourage you to be as
active for the kingdom as an activist is against the kingdom
now I’m going to talk about today like in the summary of all of this we’ve talked about it from different angles
I’m going to talk about current world and why we need to lead so I’m going to talk about some things in the world I’m going to make mention of some things that are going on in
ociety and why we need to be light right now
and the first thing I want to say is that in order to be as bold
as an activist is against the kingdom in order to be as bold on behalf of the Kingdom
we have to love God and hate evil
that might surprise some of you and I want to refer you to if it does I just
want to refer you to a Psalm and I want to tell you that Jesus quoted the Psalms more than any other book of the Bible
it next to that believe it or not was Deuteronomy like the the many who think that the Old Testament doesn’t matter you need to
think again the Torah matters which is the first five books of the Bible all of this matter
but let me let me show you what the psalm says Psalm 97 10 says those of you who love God must hate evil
and the greatest threat to biblical Christianity is not atheism
or or Islam the greatest threat is a weak
soft passive nice unstirred unprovoked Church
loving God means hating what God hates
the proverbs chapter 6 says these six things the Lord hates
seven that are an Abomination to him party eyes
a lying tongue think about right now the world we live in a lying tongue
hands that shed innocent blood a heart that devises we could imagine
National plants feet that are hasty to run to evil
a false witness who breathes out lies lies is twice in the seven
why because God is a god of Truth God hates lives
he doesn’t hate liars but he hates lies
and then the last one is is one who sows Discord among Brothers
in the past when I talked about sowing Discord I’ve basically thought of it in terms of church you know Petty stopped
but I’m going to talk a little bit before I get done about the divisive nature
that we have going on where where actual brothers are being divided because of
the world that we live in and being divided in places where God sees us United
so that’s a big deal is my point everybody say I don’t think I’ve ever asked a church to say this out loud but
just say hate I I’ve been called a hater
more in the last couple years than ever before sometimes you just gotta wear it
they might mean it differently but the reality is is those who love God
must hate evil a rabbi
quote that I want to share with you goes like this it says if you are kind to the cruel you will end up being cruel to the
kind I’m talking about leadership
I’m talking about whether we just follow along or whether we stand up
and stand out for God
so let me explain the kind and cruel thing this is an example if you are kind to
the thief who is stealing you are cruel to the store owner he is stealing from
if you are kind to those who are indoctrinating our children you are being cruel to the children who
are being indoctrinated
years if you are kind to the
abusers who are censoring information
purposely intentionally then you are cruel to the millions of
people who have not been given access to the truth
[Applause]
and this is why we need to live like leaders this is why we need to have courage to oppose evil and do good
most people don’t realize that some of the best leaders started out as reluctant leaders
might remind you of a guy named Moses who said Lord please send someone else and I know many of you feel that way
when I when I challenge you the way I am even in this moment
there’s a hesitation that I understand Jeremiah said
God I can’t do this I’m too young find somebody else Jonah just ran that’s all he just ran away
Gideon said I came from the wrong family and my question for you is what does
being reluctant sound like in your mind what’s it sound like in in your
narrative does it sound like well I don’t want to impose myself on people I don’t want to make
people uncomfortable like you are Pastor right now right
I don’t want to be pushy I don’t want to tell people what to do
I’m not the right person I’m just wondering is any of these hitting
I’m trying she’s yelling at me pre-shit I’m trying I I don’t know how
to do that I I don’t want other people to be depending on me
have I got anywhere close am I warm am I am I because I know I knew when I started
this series that I was going to be talking in many cases I was going to be talking to people who were set
in some of these sort of mindsets and reluctant
and had a reason why to not be more assertive to not volunteer
to not step in to the conversation but God’s called us to lead
to be a city on a hill to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world set aside our pride our hesitation our
fears our feelings of inadequacy and allow God to use us
and I think all of us identify in one way or another with The Reluctant leaders of the Bible at one time or another absolutely for
sure the other another one we talked about is the servant leaders of the Bible
servant leadership is leading with an attitude of serving and when most people think of serving they don’t think of leading and when
Chapter 3: THE SERVANT LEADERS OF THE BIBLE: SERVANT LEADERSHIP IS LEADING WITH AN ATTITUDE OF SERVING.
they think of leading they don’t think of serving and the truth is that great leaders never lose their attitude of serving
the leaders of our church for example were preparing for this weekend long before the rest of our church family arrived
the church kids leaders service leaders worship leaders media team leaders welcome me later just preparing getting ready having conversations getting on
the same page coordinating things so that the experience of a weekend could be everything that
you need and other people need in a spiritual way or even in a practical way a way that will help you
that will help your family an environment and atmosphere that will offset the heaviness of your your life
and your world creating moments of opportunity for the
Holy Spirit to work in our lives moments within the worship set moments where we pre-plan
and just say we’re just going to pause right there we’re going to linger there we’re going to allow In This Moment God
to work and God to do what God wants to do it it’s so fulfilling I can tell you as a
leader in any capacity to watch people arrive and as service begins tears to roll down people’s faces prayer moments
like we’ve had this morning where you know people are agreeing together in faith in prayer and believing God for
what the need is in their life it’s so rewarding like there’s nothing like there’s nothing like setting the table
in one way or another for those things to happen and so the only time that leading is
beyond us is when serving is beneath us third area we talked about is second
chair leaders of the Bible the second cheerleader the Bible amazingly people that lead from the middle not the platform
or not the main leader and and here’s what we’ve said everyone reminded everyone most leadership is not out
front 98 of leadership comes from The Middle
98 percent that’s pretty staggering isn’t it to just consider the fact that
98 let me tell you why because second chair or middle leaders give credibility to the church
in a way that I that I don’t as a as a first cheerleader see people expect me to be at church
every week because I’m the pastor and they expect me to say certain things and
you know they y’all you know hey get in church get involved in church it’s the best thing that can happen in your life get your families that they expect that
yeah yeah and so they discount it on yeah yeah sure you’re the pastor that’s why when I’m out sometimes in
you know in in public and environments where people don’t know who I am and they ask what I do a lot of times I will
tell them I’m an author of a book or I I tell the truth mostly you know but
um I’ve had great honestly I’ve had great success when the walls are down and then later on I circled around
oftentimes and tell them and and also I I didn’t mention I’m a pastor like because because something happens if you
understand what I’m saying so so they expect me to say certain things but when
when men hear men that are like them similar to them
saying this is why I love Jesus this is why me and my family go to church
like I this is why I’m all in like I’m all in and like Joshua you know as for me in my
house like you know you can do what you wanted for me in my house we’re going to serve the Lord that carries incredible influence and we call that second chair
leadership or middle leadership it’s very powerful it’s very powerful like if a member of
the worship team at your location today you know goes up and asks someone hey did you like our worship set today of
course you’re going to go oh oh yeah yeah it was great but if a person sitting next to you in the room goes man that was an amazing
song today like that carries a an unbiased strength do you understand what I’m
saying don’t overlook that God wants you to negate your in I’m sorry Satan wants you to negate your influence and your
power to be an influencer and a leader and make you think what you do what you
say doesn’t matter when actually what you do and you say oftentimes carries more weight than what I do and what I
say I I like to I like to remind our church family about think three and one of the
reasons why I would encourage you keep your kids close to the church plugged into the church is because parents will
you will arrive at a time where you are not the influencer of your children’s life and it might happen with some like right
out of the gate I don’t know just depending on your child but for many of you it’s around 12 14 you start to
realize they pay more attention to their peers and the ones just older than they are
15 16 17 they get around them and they’re like they’re so cool
like they love those those young adults those young high schoolers that’s why I say stay close
keep your kids close because your voice will diminish and it will either be young people at school or it will be
young people at church that carry influence with your children and then I come behind that and I say to
all the young people and the young adults I say make sure you pay attention to the 12 year old and the 14 year old
don’t let us down don’t let us parents down like be a positive
role model and an influence to those kids do you understand what I’m saying the the fourth area we talked about
is the courageous leaders of the Bible leadership requires a high level of selfless courage
Chapter 4: THE COURAGEOUS LEADERS OF THE BIBLE: LEADERSHIP REQUIRES A HIGH LEVEL OF SELFLESS COURAGE.
it requires you to be vulnerable and strong at the same time and the one thing that all vulnerability
has in common is that it doesn’t come with a guarantee there’s no guarantee
even something as simple as a smile feels vulnerable because there’s no guarantee they’re
going to smile back something as simple as a hey what’s up
feels vulnerable because you’re not sure if they’re just going to look at you or return the gesture
why do we feel that way like why does it bother us why is there that little bit of a like uncertainty before you make your
move of a smile a nod a hello what why because we know
there’s no guarantee that it will be reciprocated or that it will be returned young people
often wonder when they’re making decisions in their relationship with God what will my friends think
young people often wonder as they’re starting to mature and come into their own relationship with God what what will my my buddies even at
church think you know when if I worship right now if you go into our children’s centers or
they’re worshiping most of the really young children are you know if they if they’re if they can be focused enough most of
them are like they’re like this with worship no inhibition and they may even look at the person next to them
yeah like it’s a great peer pressure right
and and but as again children start to become adults they start to really be
influenced by peers and so there’s this hesitation sometimes that young men young women have
it could be worshiped it could be I’m waiting to date and a friend going what
or I’m making a vow to be sexually pure oh
and friends going oh my God you’re crazy and the point is there’s no guarantee
when you make a move what others are going to think or others are going to say
but many of us will say that’s where our leadership Journey actually began
and decisions of selfless courage
where we said this is my move even though I don’t know
what the reaction is going to be or the conversation that’s going to take place
and many of the adult leaders in our church can tell you story of somewhere back there family friends all of the
above decisions that were made that were courageous decisions
to follow Christ as the beginning
of their leadership Journey came out from the crowd
they differentiated themselves and as they did God
showed himself strong they were granted peace
they were granted new friendships they were blessed with new Pathways of
opportunity and the next time they needed to do that they had more strength and more courage
to actually do it and lastly let me let me I’ve been
I felt like God said to me to do this last week because last week we were I was teaching on the collaborative
leaders of the Bible which is the last one here I’m going to talk about for a moment and I just ran out of time as I always
do the collaborative leaders of the Bible um
the explanation for that is that leadership is a way of thinking and doing that brings people together in a common goal
now we’re living in a time where people are asking what’s the way forward to racial Unity
how do we find unity in the environment that we’re in right now
the answer is one that most people don’t want to hear
but anywhere that you see people of different color and ethnicity bonding and loving one
another you will see them practicing this one truth
that I’m going to share with you what I mean is if you see a an interracial couple
who fall in love and get married you will see this one truth emerge
because this is how we Bond this is how
We Stand Together this is how we have Unity
and this one thing is found in Galatians 3 28.
and it says this there is neither Jew nor Gentile
neither slave nor free nor is there male or female
for you are all one in Christ Jesus
many of you would say can you do a series on well I have and maybe you know
but I want to just go to the bottom line and I want to ask you to accept it
and that is there’s only one way forward and the only way forward is
there is neither dot dot
Dot there is neither
there is neither as long as people insist on keeping race
as a way to judge others we will always have division
along racial lines I don’t care what policy is passed
I don’t care what campaign there is I don’t care what some group organizes
and declares the way forward is to not judge any person
based on the color of their skin foreign
there there is neither the term social justice sounds really
reasonable but social justice has its own form of Reckless man-made
forms of Justice and it’s not the same as biblical Justice
and just remember man on his own outside of God can never create True Justice
and the reason I’m saying that is that social justice for example implies and imposes laws based on the idea that
Justice is different for people of different color ethnicity and social status and it categorizes people into different groups
and then it prescribes justice as something that applies differently to different people and by doing that it implies that God’s
justice biblical Justice is inferior to social justice social justice is
going to come up with this new way and God’s way is there is neither
there is neither and the man-made
forms of what it calls Justice will always divide Brothers you remember what I said at the beginning I read the scripture
these six things the Lord hates seven Abomination to him one that sows Discord
among Brothers the Lord hates them now if somebody is your brother and has
a different scholar color skin and you create any kind of division or stripe or conflict
with your issues God hates that and we’re called to hate what God hates she loved God
to love God is to hate what God hates
if you see how wrong and divisive the the world way is I I’m pointing you
today to the there is neither truth of the New Testament and I’m I’m asking
you in all of the ways that pertain to God’s way to be a voice to be an example
stand up to refuse to accept separation
to refuse to talk about laughs for example we would verbiage that would
be common would be well you know the blacks this the whites that the Asians this the Mexicans that we
get into we even do that like with gender I’m talking more about race right now but you know men are so unfair
anytime you take groupings of people and you just do blatant judgment
you haven’t helped the problem you are adding to the problem
[Applause]
and if you see and again I’m on just one topic of what’s happening in culture right now
but when you when you see it I
push this across the table to you today with an understanding that you are
an individual who gets to go go your own way and do what you are going to do but also with a an ask
that if you are if you love God if you are a child of God
you can’t just promote the one idea of well of course I love one another
and excuse yourself from the hating of what goes against and contradicts and is
contrary to the kingdom of God and what we have been taught by God
pertaining to Who We Are and what we are supposed to be which is a light
a city on a hill a place where the the surrounding culture says well they don’t do it our
way and they may say they’re a bunch of haters no we hate what God hates we’ll wear
that but if you come check us out we are lovers we love people of all different
backgrounds ethnicity skin color
we wear it with honor we wear it with courage this is Who We Are
we are Kingdom people
well just remain standing and at other locations stand with us if you are not on your feet yet thank you for thank you
for leaning into this series like you have many of you have have expressed that this has been beneficial and
helpful and I want to thank you for it and I wanna I wanna just call you in one
last connection I hope in your mind is that living like a leader
doesn’t mean a title it doesn’t mean a role
it means knowing you are where you are on purpose you are the color you are
on purpose you are the age you are on purpose
you are the gender you are on purpose
my ask is that you would represent God
with who you are and Right Where You Are and be a reflection
of his glory his dream for us and bring Heaven to Earth
by stepping up not hiding not backing up
by speaking up not shutting up obviously you know you have to have a little wisdom timing and things like
that but but I’m just asking will you please on behalf of Heaven where you live
like a leader in your space in your place and let your light shine
let others will see your works and glorify Father in Heaven amen amen
I’m going to ask you if you would to just raise both hands wherever you are around our locations and allow me to
pray over you father I thank you today for every person every man every woman
part of our church family today and and I ask you Lord to show us where and how
we can represent you well I ask you to give us the courage I ask you to
give us the guidance and wisdom to collaborate I ask you today God help us
beyond our reluctance to be who you’ve called us to be and to
be the church that you need us to be in this season of time
in Jesus name every head bowed and eyes closed if you’re here today and you say pastor Kevin I want a new beginning in
my life raise your hand whoever you are I want a fresh start pastor Kevin I want a relationship with
God I need God in my life I need more of his presence I need more of his power I want to walk in his will God’s drawing
me God’s God brought me to this point and I want to I want to give my life to him if that’s you wherever you are whatever location quickly just right now
come on be bold don’t hesitate just bully raise a hand up hi good good God bless you just raise your hand up high and hold it up if you would just hold it
up long enough not just so that I can see it I probably I won’t see every hand up today but Heaven Will and hold it high and just
say this with me say Lord Jesus I’ll receive you today your word today I ask you to forgive me
of all my sin and come into my life and make me the person
help me to be the person that you have called me to be
in Jesus name and every person said amen God bless you guys have a great day
[Applause]