Designer God: Designed for Leadership
[powerpress] People need leadership.
Purpose more than Private Spirituality
“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.” ― Mother Teresa
For the great things God wants to do to serve, reach and transform our cities, it's going to take the persistent initiative, creativity and leadership of the many, not the few.
Deuteronomy 1:9-18 “At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself. The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife? Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them as your heads.’ And you answered me, ‘The thing that you have spoken is good for us to do.’ So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and set them as heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes. And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. You shall not be partial in judgment. You shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God's. And the case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.’ And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.
Those who were appointed as heads from the tribes were not just the priests or Levites, but those who worked in agriculture, business, government, law, the military, construction and various other professions. It is no different today as God calls men and women from every sphere of society to help build His church and take responsibility for the people that Jesus has called to Himself.
If you have a burden for something or see a place in the church that we can advance, more than likely, God is appointing you to help develop something to improve it and lead it.
“The great people of the earth today are the people who pray! I do not mean those who talk about prayer; nor those who say they believe in prayer; nor those who explain prayer; but I mean those who actually take the time to pray. They have not time. It must be taken from something else. That something else is important, very important and pressing, but still, less important and pressing than prayer. There are people who put prayer first, and group the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer. These are the people today who are doing the most for God in winning souls, in solving problems, in awakening churches, in supplying both men and money for mission posts, in keeping fresh and strong their lives far off in sacrificial service on the foreign field, where the thickest fighting is going on, and in keeping the old earth sweet a little while longer.” -S.D. Gordon
God is interested in raising up construction workers, not critics.
1 Corinthians 3:5-13 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers. You are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
People more than Position
“A lowly knowledge of thyself is a surer way to God than the deep searching of a man’s learnings. Not that learning is to be blamed, nor the taking account of anything that is good; but a good conscience and a holy life is better than all. And because many seek knowledge rather than good living, therefore they go astray, and bear little or no fruit.” ― Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ
There's a difference between positional leadership and relational leadership based on love and trust.
The requirements for leadership should be your aspiration: Wisdom Understanding Experience
You need to be around different types of people for a balanced diet, like different types of food.
You don't choose your family. Nor do you choose the ones God has appointed you to lead.
Jesus over All
We have come to serve Jesus as Lord, who is the head of His church.
Romans 10:8-13 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” that is, the word of faith that we proclaim; because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Second City Church- Designer God Sermon Series 2015