Follow The Leader
During the children’s time, the pastor asked the children who liked to play “follow the leader”. No real fans of following the leader. At the end of the children’s moment they were to repeat the prayer. I sat close enough that I could hear one child repeating each line. When "help us to forgive others”, was said, I heard nothing. I thought I was the only one that noticed but someone mentioned it to me. I thought there’s the sermon for today.
Isn’t that like us adults? We want to follow Jesus but we don’t want to do it all! Can’t we pick and choose. I will love you. I will follow you. I will do what you say but don’t make me forgive so and so! But yet we want to be leaders to help enrich the Kingdom of God. Matthew 10: 25, “Students are to be like their teacher, and slaves are to be like their master.” We need to follow The Leader!
Many of us have been to leadership and team building workshops. We can go to all the workshops we want but until we love like Jesus we will not elevate our leadership skills. Jesus is the perfect example of being a Leader. He put others' needs before His own. He did not let ego or pride get in the way, He was humble and selfless. He did not desire accolades or positions of power. Jesus was a great servant, washing the feet of His disciples even during His most difficult time. He convicts while showing tremendous compassion. Jesus led with love, pointing people to the Truth!
Philippians 2: 3-4, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.” So how can we do this? We can make prayer a priority like Jesus did. Mark 9: 28-29, "And when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ So He said to them, ‘This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.’”
Jesus began his ministry by recruiting 12 men and I have never heard of any signing bonuses or benefits. They dropped everything and went with Him. A good leader will hire people who have more skill than they, themselves, do in particular areas and they will train people. It takes a lot of courage to hire someone who has more skill than you. I have always heard that the best teachers/leaders are those whose teams are effective when the leader leaves. Jesus has over 2 billion followers and has lasted nearly 2000 years. I would say Jesus is the greatest Leader of all time!