Dave Clayton speaks from Deuteronomy 8 about the importance of the wilderness for the people of God. What does God do in the wilderness? He works on our character. His purpose is clear, but will we press into it? Will we meet him there? The wilderness humbles, tests, and teaches us. Dave encourages listeners to create space, intentionally reflect on God, and sharing insights with trusted friends as you allow the wilderness to deepen your relationship with Jesus.
The thirty-seventh president of the United States was massively successful. He ended a very unpopular war and normalized relations with China. Domestically, he was equally impactful—so powerful that he was reelected by a landslide in 1972. Undoubtedly, he would have gone down in history as one of America’s greatest presidents had it not been for a tiny glitch called Watergate.
After Richard Nixon’s reelection, the country learned that members of his party had broken into the Democratic National Headquarters to steal information that would help secure his reelection. Though Nixon didn’t order the break-in, subsequent audiotapes revealed he was complicit in covering it up.
Rather than facing impeachment, Nixon became the first president in U.S. history to resign his office. His name is now synonymous with duplicity and ignominy. Leadership is more than what you do on the public stage. It begins behind the scenes with who you arewhen no one is watching. Integrity is the foundation of trust and is essential to a legacy that lasts.
Richard Nixon’s resignation is etched in my memory. I recall watching from a black-and-white TV at a public swimming pool in the summer of 1974. I was eleven years old and as imperceptive as one would expect a tween to be.
Even so, I remember thinking, Oh no! If we can’t trust the president, who can we trust? Nixon didn’t merely destroy his own presidency; he irreparably damaged Americans’ respect for the office.
From that day to this, the esteem of the highest office in the country has diminished precipitously. It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of integrity in leadership. As James Kouzes and Barry Posner say, “If you don’t believe in the messenger, you won’t believe in the message.”[1] So before I answer the question “Where did Jesus’ integrity come from?” I want you to hear from Jeff as he speaks to what it means for a leader to have integrity.
The following section was written by Jeff Osborne.
Sometimes we think of integrity as synonymous with morality. But it’s more than that. Integrity is not just doing the right things; it’s being the right person. Simply said, integrity is when the inside aligns with the outside. Ergo, as leaders, we must know what’s inside ourselves to have integrity.
What are we trying to model in and through our leadership?
Leading with integrity requires us to be crystal clear on the standards we want to uphold. And just as important, we must be aware of how our thoughts and actions are aligning to those standards.
As Christian leaders, we know to look to the Bible for the standards we should uphold. Though each of our leadership situations are nuanced and the Bible doesn’t always directly address our specific challenges, overarching principles of Scripture are relevant to any situation we find ourselves in. We must identify the standards of integrity we want to live out.
These standards will be a combination of attributes we know to be true from Scripture and the examples of what we’ve seen demonstrated through godly leaders—parents, teachers, coaches, etcetera. Let’s be honest: there are very few situations where it’s unclear if a leader is acting in ways that align with God’s standards.
Are we living out these standards?
To be certain, we must develop the muscle group of self-awareness. To do the right thing when no one is looking requires that we look honestly at ourselves first and be honest about what we see.
Over the decades of leading both individuals and organizations, I have realized that self-awareness is one of the most important skills to master. It’s also one of the greatest deficiencies in leaders today. Without strong self-awareness, we as leaders often find ourselves in a place of self-deception.
We want to do the right thing and truly believe we are doing the right thing, but due to our lack of self-awareness, we can easily fall into feeling like an imposter or poseur, that we are not being genuine to the values we believe to be true.
An example of this is when we act like a hard-nosed “tough guy” about a situation in a way we think will impress the leaders around us, but deep inside there is a caring person who wants to show compassion and empathy.
Self-awareness, though simple, is not always easy.
It requires us to ask for input, listen generously, and then have the humility to act on the input. In most leadership roles these days, getting feedback is not optional. It comes through performance reviews, one-on-one meetings, engagement surveys, and frank conversations with our leaders, peers, direct reports, family, and friends.
The challenge is not just asking for and receiving feedback but also leveraging that feedback into specific meaningful changes in our behaviors. These behaviors become the foundation of being a leader of integrity.
One of the most helpful tools for turning feedback into actionable change is a “blind-spot board.” This is nothing more than a list of our top five blind spots that can become liabilities if we don’t remain aware of them and counteract them wherever possible.
I created a blind-spot board for myself years ago. It is still displayed in my office for two main purposes: 1) to be a keen reminder for me of my blind spots, and 2) to allow my team to see them so they can hold me accountable. Blind spots can cause significant damage if we, as leaders, are unaware of them and do not find ways to mitigate them.
Here are a few examples of blind spots from my board…
Don’t get ahead of the team; listen, pause, respond—don’t react; don’t let perfection get in the way of progress (GETMO: Good Enough to Move On); spiking the ball on the five-yard line is a fumble, not a touchdown; and always finish.
Our leadership blind spots are not much different than the blind spots we encounter when driving a car. They keep us from seeing potential danger in our periphery. Blind spots cause collisions. The issue is not that we have blind spots (we all do); it’s that we don’t take time to check our blind spots.
As leaders, we tend to focus on our many strengths and not worry about our blind spots. Although we all should lean toward leveraging our strengths first, if we’re unaware of our blind spots, we can significantly diminish the effectiveness of our leadership to those we serve. It’s just too big a risk to ignore our blind spots.
Now that we are aware of how we are seen by others and of our blind spots, the key to maintaining integrity is to make sure we make the right next choice. Integrity involves knowing the right thing to do and then doing it.
When we lead, many of our daily decisions and actions feel isolated or separate from who we are as a leader, but they have a tremendous compounding effect when it comes to integrity. As Christian leaders, there are no small things, no insignificant decisions; there are all big decisions wrapped in small packages.
Jesus often focused on small and seemingly insignificant illustrations to help us understand that there are few decisions or behaviors that don’t matter. He reminds us of the significance of a small splinter in our own eye. If we have faith as small as a mustard seed, we can move mountains.
A couple of fish and a few loaves can feed thousands.
A simple deceit from Ananias about holding back money caused him and his wife to literally drop dead. Because each decision we make creates a ripple effect on those we lead, there are no unimportant or insignificant decisions as a Christian leader. We first must take care to ensure we know how we are behaving with heightened self-awareness and then be diligent to make sure we pay attention to make the right next choice, even in the small things.
Jeff’s perspective is invaluable as we turn now to the Gospels. No one questions that Jesus was a man of integrity. He lived his values. He was the same person in private as in public, with the wealthy as with the poor, with morally impeccable religious leaders as with cunning tax collectors. How was it that Jesus managed to have such integrity—to be so integrated in his values? It’s no secret. He talked about it frequently. His values, and his value, came from his Father in heaven.
Because Jesus talked so frequently about the Father, speaking about God as our Father feels normal, at least for Christians. In Jesus’ age, however, that was a radically revolutionary idea. It changed the landscape of religion. Until Jesus, no one imagined having a personal relationship with God. I would suggest that it is equally revolutionary today and never more needed.
Why? Because the greatest barrier to integrity is our fractured identity.
Our brokenness creates spiritual confusion when we try to meet competing and inappropriate expectations.
The good news is that Jesus provided a way for us to connect with our heavenly Father. We can find our identity in him as an antidote to the competing voices in the world around us attempting to impose a different identity on us. Therefore, as a starting point for integrity, leaders must find their identity and value in a Father who has already called, equipped, and approved them. That’s why we begin our investigation into Jesus’ leadership with his own identity.
Jesus’ Identity in the Gospels
Throughout the Gospels we see Jesus’ sense of intimate and personal connection with the Father. Look at the number of times he references his relationship.
The following chart is a summary of the data:
References to God as “Father” and “My Father” in the Gospels
Jesus Identified God As
Matthew
Mark
Luke
John
Total
“Father”
39
4
22
103
168
“My Father”
18
1
8
44
71
Why does it matter that Jesus perceived himself as God’s Son? Because that’s where his identity came from. He didn’t need the approval of religious leaders. He didn’t fear the contagion of sinners. He didn’t have to self-promote or fight to protect himself. He was secure in his Father’s approval, fully free to live his life and carry out his calling with perfect integration and integrity—personally, professionally, and spiritually. The same can be true of you. By imitating Jesus, your leadership can be freed from inappropriate expectations and demands from others and from yourself.
Jesus’ identity as the “Son of God” allowed him to claim his rightful and exalted role without an ounce of arrogance or pride.
It allowed him to be in full submission to the Father’s authority without fear of losing his own independence. He had both bold confidence and radical humility because of his connection with his Father.
For years I struggled with my identity and felt the impact it had on my integrity. My father is a good and godly man, but due to his own upbringing and a painful divorce, he struggled with expressing his emotions. I carried that wound for decades.
In my college years, I excelled academically, partially out of a desperate need for approval from father figures. In my thirties, I found my professional achievements filling an emotional need that should have come more naturally from my marriage and children. It wasn’t until my forties that I began to accept the approval of my heavenly Father. This began to free me from the need for approval, which liberated me for more humble service, transparent vulnerability, and intimate friendships.
This is but a brief glimpse through the window of my own soul that may serve as a mirror to your own. Hopefully, it’s a reminder of the impact your identity can have on your integrity. Powerful leaders can be driven by insecurity rather than divine responsibility. Many times I have witnessed how insecurity can jeopardize a leader’s integrity, putting their legacy at risk.
To lead with maximized integrity, we must follow Jesus’ example and find our identity in being a child of our heavenly Father.
As we do this, we can live under the Father’s authority, building both confidence and humility, which in turn, empower our integrity.
Below is a sampling of what being under the Father’s authority meant for Jesus’ ministry. Take a moment to circle or highlight two or three principles that you could implement immediately into your leadership practices to make the most impact most quickly.
Jesus delegated authority based on his Father’s revelation: “I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom, that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:29–30; see also Matt. 16:17–18; 18:19; 20:23).
Jesus prioritized people based on God’s priorities: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 18:10; see also Matt. 18:14; John 10:29).
Jesus submitted to suffering because of his Father’s will: “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will’” (Matt. 26:39; see also John 10:18).
Jesus was secure enough in his identity to submit to his Father’s will: “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Luke 10:22).
Jesus’ self-confidence empowered his endurance as he imitated his Father: “My Father is working until now, and I am working” (John 5:17; see also John 10:37).
Jesus was glorified only by his Father: “If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’” (John 8:54).
Jesus freely communicated what his Father shared with him: “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).
Each of these connections with the Father reveals Jesus’ integrity as a leader that flowed from his confident identity. Knowing who you are as a leader is of paramount importance. Warren Bennis and Robert Thomas make this observation: “When the 75 members of the Stanford graduate school of businesses advisory council were asked to recommend the most important capability for leaders to develop, their answer was nearly unanimous: self-awareness.”[2]
How does all this relate to our integrity as leaders? A common misconception of leadership is that leadership leads to freedom. As you probably know, it does not. Leadership is not “freedom from” but “freedom to.” We have the freedom to carry out obligations. It’s the people you feel obligated to who will determine your level of integrity. If you feel obligated to an unethical boss, you’ll lose integrity. If you feel obligated to your own pride, it will lead to catastrophic mismanagement. If you feel you have multiple competing obligations—family, lust, greed, reputation—you will lose integrity to multiple masters.
For example, leaders are often blinded by the sycophantic praise of their followers who hope to cling to their coattails for success and significance. Church leaders are certainly not immune to this.
We are often more vulnerable because the praise of men is in the shadow of the Almighty who has ordained us to lead—or so we believe. It’s easy to lose ourselves if we’re not connected to the Father and obligated first and foremost to him.
If your exclusive obligation is to your heavenly Father, he will not only endow you with his authority; he will also grant you his unmitigated approval. You can, therefore, be free to serve, free to obey, free to give, free to speak hard truths, and free to delegate.
It’s this “freedom to” that comes from God the Father and brings uncompromised integrity in our leadership.
Chapter Summary
Integrity is the foundation of leadership. It is not just doing the right things; it’s being the right person—aligning our actions with God’s values. This seems simple enough. However, without a clear view of the Father and close connection to him, the values we want to embody can become mere rules; and rules without relationship typically lead to rebellion.
As we come to know the Father, we sense his approval and love. His value of us allows his values to live in us, resulting in a life of integrity. It also develops a deep humility—a humility that enables us to serve others sacrificially. We’ll talk about this servanthood in the next chapter.
For access to “The Father Index: Uncover the Influence of Your Earthly and Heavenly Fathers” and “Personal Declaration: Create a Blueprint for Your Identity,” purchase The Master Leader here.
Notes
[1]. James Kouzes and Barry Posner, The Leadership Challenge: How to Make Extraordinary Things Happen in Organizations, 5th ed. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2012), 38.
[2]. In Bill George, Peter Sims, Andrew McLean, and Diana Mayer, “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership,” in HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Leadership (Boston: HBR, 2011), 168.
Consistency Is Key for Leaders
Consistency is key to leadership. Build trust and character through habits like prayer, rest, and follow-through. Learn practical steps to lead effectively.
Lance Armstrong won the Tour de France a record seven times. This alone would make him one of the greatest athletes in human history. He was a legend. Then add to that the fact that he accomplished this feat after beating cancer. However in 2012, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency found Armstrong guilty of using performance-enhancing drugs. He was stripped of his titles and banned for life from competitive cycling.
Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, a medical tech company, was once hailed as the youngest female self-made billionaire. But in 2015, the Wall Street Journal exposed her fraudulent claims, and her company’s lab was shut down. Theranos dissolved in 2018, and Ms. Holmes was indicted for fraud.
Ted Haggard was a nationally known pastor and president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He was a leading voice opposing same-sex marriage, until 2006, when allegations came to light that he had been engaged in misconduct with a male escort, compounded by drug use. Haggard’s downfall destroyed his leadership legacy.
Bill Cosby, once celebrated as “America’s Dad” for his role in The Cosby Show, faced numerous allegations of sexual assault spanning several decades. In 2018, Cosby was convicted of three counts of aggravated indecent assault. He ruined his reputation as a pioneering African American comedian and a moral voice for family values.
The most difficult leadership challenge is leading yourself. Whether in sports, business, religion, or entertainment, a lifetime of public success can be destroyed by private indiscretions. A Master Leader sustains trust through consistent private habits that build character over time. Jeff has some practical experience to share with us about how to build such habits.
Consistency Key #1: Build Habits That Grow Your Character
Healthy teams require us to be able to rely on one another, to know we can count on one another through thick and thin, and to create that reliability requires us as leaders to be consistent in how we lead. Leadership consistency creates a sense of security for our teams, a North Star if you will.
As leaders, we know we must exercise many important transactional habits to be successful, such as goal setting, time management, and meeting efficiency. Much has been written on these habits, but I’m focusing on three key habits that aren’t often talked about in today’s leadership material. These are a few habits we think are key to being dependable, consistent leaders: decision-making, follow-through, and feedback:
1. Decision-making.
Consistent leaders make clear and concise decisions. We make dozens of decisions each day. As leaders we have people watching and waiting for each decision so that they can take subsequent action. If we are unable to make clear and concise decisions, we risk paralyzing our team (and bottlenecking the project) as they wait for direction and clarity to avoid rework or the risk of moving in the wrong direction.
When I first became a CEO, I used to struggle with my team reacting too quickly any time I stated an opinion or view on a certain subject. I thought I was just brainstorming with them or helping them process out loud, but I came to find out they were hanging on tightly to every word I said. As Master Leaders, we must remember that our team has immense respect for us. They want to do great in their roles, and that means they are actively listening to not just what we say but how we say it. We need to be very clear when we are simply giving our opinion versus making a decision.
2. Follow-through.
For some of us, follow-through is as natural as breathing air. For others, like me, it requires intentionality and accountability to ensure it happens. Look, no leader is great at everything. We can compensate for our weaknesses by relying on systems, processes, and technology as scaffolding for areas that don’t come naturally for us. Notifications, alerts, and assistants can ensure we follow through on our commitments and keep the trust we worked so hard to earn.
If we make a decision and don’t execute accordingly, our team can quickly lose confidence in us as leaders. They may perceive it as an issue of integrity when, in fact, it’s often just forgetfulness or bad follow-through. We truly need to strive for a zero-gap approach to follow-through. If for some reason the decision or commitment needs to change, we need to be diligent and circle back with the team, letting them know both the change in direction and the “why” behind the change. Even though as leaders we are expected to be visionary, constantly looking at the future, if we don’t follow through on yesterday’s decision, we will create confusion and chaos for our team.
3. Feedback.
The other habit that creates consistency is the ability to be direct at giving and receiving feedback. Not surprisingly, just like follow-through, speaking straight to others is a habit that’s easy for some, but difficult for most leaders. The key to giving and receiving feedback is letting our teams know that, when needed, we will give them honest, meaningful feedback. As hard as it may be to make a habit of giving consistent feedback, it’s important that our team knows that they’re not wandering aimlessly—that they can count on us to give them the necessary feedback to help them stay on course and be successful in their role or project. The more we exercise our courage muscle, the stronger it gets, and the more consistent we will be at providing meaningful feedback.
Whether we are leading in the marketplace or in ministry, learning how to say what needs to be said is an attribute that will serve us well throughout our leadership journey.
I was fortunate to begin my career at a large Fortune 100 company that made speaking straight a survival tactic, not a luxury. If you didn’t get good at speaking straight in the feedback you gave to others and in receiving direct feedback, you quickly found yourself struggling and wondering if you would survive over the long haul.
As I transitioned into ministry from the corporate world, I found the situation to be quite different. Most people are filled with an abundance of grace and find it very difficult to speak straight with others. I believe we need honesty as much, if not more, in ministry. Jesus was very good at speaking straight, and he did it with love and grace. He set the example for us to do the same. Providing feedback is easier than receiving it. Both habits are required to be a Master Leader.
When you receive feedback, try this helpful hack: create space. Create enough space to allow yourself to respond—not react—to the feedback. We can immediately take a defensive posture to feedback and begin to justify or prove our rationale for our actions or position. Even the age-old idea of counting for a few seconds before speaking allows you to create space to give a more thoughtful response to feedback versus reacting out of emotion or defensiveness. When our teams know we will consistently and fairly give them feedback, and they can give us feedback that we will receive in a measured and consistent way, we provide a level of consistency that allows our teams to know they are heading in the right direction. We are there to make them successful.
Consistent character is always forged over time through the discipline of habits. As Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz say, “Look at any part of your life in which you are consistently effective and you will find that certain habits help make that possible.”[1] There is no magic wand to wave, no secret sauce. Character comes through the monotony of many small decisions stacked on each other. A leader’s habits in the shadows ultimately evolve into character in the limelight. As the old adage says, “Your competency will take you only as far as your character will sustain you.” Competency is seldom the leader’s lid; character is.
With Jeff’s advice in mind, let’s examine two of Jesus’ most obvious habits to learn how to build our character. This is not to say that your habits must identically match Jesus’ habits. But without character-forming habits, you will limit your leadership. We will begin with Jesus’ most predominant habit.
Consistency Key #1: Build Your Prayer Life
The more popular Jesus got, the more he retreated in prayer: “Now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray” (Luke 5:15–16). Why did he retreat as his popularity grew? Because popularity, power, and fame are seductive. Jesus knew that. It seems that prayer was his defense against the onslaught of leadership influence. Without the consistent practice of prayer, few of us will survive the seduction of power.
We can draw three key insights from Jesus’ well-documented prayer life:
1. Intimacy with God.
Topping the list is Jesus’ unprecedented relationship with God. In every recorded prayer of Jesus, he addressed God as “Father.” The only exception is the quote from the cross (Ps. 22:1): “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” His words show us the intimate relationship of Father and Son. In a sense, this takes us back to our very first lesson on leadership—our leadership begins with our identity as God’s children. Habitual prayer is a primary tool for building our identity.
2. Major Events.
A second insight we can learn from Jesus’ habit of prayer is his dependence on prayer before every major event of his life. He prayed before his baptism (Luke 3:21–22) and before feeding the 5,000 (Luke 9:16) as well as the 4,000 (Matt. 15:36). He prayed before walking on the water (Matt. 14:22) and preceding Peter’s great confession (Luke 9:18). He prayed all night before choosing the Twelve (Luke 6:12). He prayed when he was transfigured (Luke 9:29), before raising Lazarus from the dead (John 11:41–42), and before instituting the Lord’s Supper (Matt. 26:26–27). His most extended recorded prayer came before he went to the garden of Gethsemane (John 17), and he continued to pray in the garden before his arrest (Matt. 26:36–46). He prayed from the cross three times before his last breath (Luke 23:34; Matt. 27:46; Luke 23:46).
For Master Leaders, prayer should be our first response, not our last resort. Admittedly, I often find myself running to God only after I run out of options. But to truly imitate Jesus’ prayer life and benefit from intimacy with the Father, our prayers must be as robust in the mundane as in the chaotic. If I were to be honest, this is my least-developed spiritual discipline, with the greatest potential upside. Because leaders master self-reliance and personal responsibility, prayer is a commonly neglected habit for leaders. We want to depend on ourselves rather than on the Father. But if we could learn to depend on God as we expect others to depend on us, our prayer lives could flourish. And Jesus provided us a model prayer to do just that.
3. Modeling.
Jesus was so adept at prayer that his disciples asked him to teach them to pray (Luke 11:1). This model prayer, however, is not merely for us to get something out of God that we don’t currently have. Instead, it may be the tool God uses to get something out of us that he currently doesn’t have. With that in mind, what benefits can Master Leaders derive from imitating Jesus’ consistent prayer life?
A robust awareness of prayer’s pragmatic advantages would motivate more leaders to come to God first. Prayer is a powerful tool for seeking God’s counsel. It is a source to petition him for our needs. It empowers us to complete the mission God gave us. But you already know that, right? While all of these advantages should be sufficient motivation to practice prayer, in my experience, it is a radically underutilized resource for Christian leaders.
Our greatest creativity doesn’t come during activity. It comes in the margins. When I was a college professor, my creativity was shot in May at the end of a busy school year. After a couple of weeks of rest, however, I was able to write a half-dozen messages for the summer camps in just a few days. In my current role as teaching pastor, my day off is Friday. Saturday afternoon and Sunday are a marathon. If you were a fly on the wall in my home, you would be able to tell if I missed a day off. I’m less engaged with my bride and more irritated with traffic. Creativity, relationships, and triggers are not a bad barometer for how well we are doing with rest. This Sabbath principle is now widely accepted in secular leadership research. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz address workaholism as an addiction: “Unlike most addictions, workaholism is often admired, encouraged and materially well rewarded.”[2]
The biblical principle of Sabbath states that we will achieve more in six days with God’s rest than in seven without it. When we submit our days and dreams to God, it’s as if we’re placing them on the altar of his will. This weekly rhythm of consistent rest and worship marked Jesus’ life. Luke writes: “And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read” (Luke 4:16). Jesus knew he needed the punctuation of rest and worship in his week.
It’s interesting that Jesus ran afoul of the Pharisees more for “violating” the Sabbath regulations than anything else. Seven different times, he created controversy on the Sabbath (Matt. 12:1–8; Mark 3:1–6; Luke 13:10–21; 14:1–24; John 5:10–18; 7:21–24; 9:1–7). It wasn’t that he neglected Sabbath rest. It was that he didn’t submit to the Pharisees’ onerous rules of how one should rest. The issue was important enough to fight about because, in Jesus’ own words, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).
Part of the power of Sabbath is it puts us in a position to manage the stress of the work God has called us to. I see this most clearly in how I handle criticism. Jesus’ model, again, is incredibly insightful. He was criticized for all sorts of things: fraternizing with sinners (Mark 2:15; Luke 15:1–2; 19:1–10), not following proper protocol for ritual cleansing (Mark 7:1–23; Matt. 15:1–20), claiming to be divine (John 10:33), and being “demon-possessed” (Mark 3:21–22; John 10:19–20), as well as for threatening the temple, not paying taxes, sorcery, and allowing women to follow him. But more than anything else, he was criticized for not following Sabbath regulations.
I find this interesting because it was Jesus’ life of prayer and practice of Sabbath that empowered him most to deal with criticism. The brutal truth is that there’s no way leaders will avoid criticism. It just comes with the territory. But how we handle it can reveal to others the quality and consistency of our character.
Here are three practical steps to manage criticism in a way that cultivates consistency of your character—proven steps that work for me when I encounter criticism.
1. Recognize that seldom is the issue the real issue.
People who criticize and complain often are dealing with unseen pain that you likely have nothing to do with. In my first ministry, there was a woman who called me like clockwork every other month just to cuss me out for about thirty minutes. It was brutal on a young pastor. Around the third time, I called her back about a week after the incident and asked, “This seems to be a regular pattern. Am I really upsetting you regularly?” Her answer took my breath away. “Oh no,” she admitted. “It’s not really about you at all. I just have so much pain in my family, and sometimes I get so mad at God. But I can’t kick him. So I take it out on you.” Well . . . good to know!
2. People tend to criticize what they don’t understand.
When you explain the “why,” many can adjust to the “what.” Be careful here, though, because criticism often comes through email or social media. If we’ve learned anything over the last two decades, we’ve realized it’s just impossible to diffuse dissent online. Nor do you need to. The revolving news cycle and the pubescent attention span of social media are your friends. Online sparks seldom turn into flames unless you fan them. Occasionally, they will take on a life of their own, but that’s rare at the local level. Email is a slightly different story. Sage advice on responding to email is the three-sentence rule:
Thank you for sharing your perspective.
I have read your opinion and have taken it into consideration.
We are grateful for your reaching out to try to make us better.
Do not defend—whatever you do. The more words you write, the more responses you’ll receive. The cardinal rule is that email begets email. Unless you’re willing to meet face-to-face, email warfare is toxic.
3. The more a digitally delivered criticism triggers you, the longer you should wait to respond.
Twenty-four hours is the minimum gestation period for a response. If you realize you’re triggered, take two or three days. If someone replies with a secondary email of complaint, it will sit in my inbox for a week—if it ever gets a response. There will be no third email. If you’re wondering whether a delayed response will just push people away, the answer is yes, exactly. That’s the point. Your mission will grow by your consistently following a higher calling, not responding to a lower criticism.
Balance and consistent rhythms of worship, rest, and work are essential for the consistent life that marks a Master Leader. When one area of our life is out of balance, it will impact the consistent habits in other areas of our life. Rest and worship are the fuel for spiritual and emotional health.
Our day should be punctuated with work, home, and sleep. Our week should be punctuated with work, rest, and worship. Our year should be punctuated with celebrations. The Jews call(ed) them festivals; we might call them “holidays.” But the purpose is the same—devoted time to realigning the priorities of God and family above your work and career. With a biblical balance of rest and worship, we can work more productively.
Summary
Consistency is key to leadership longevity. That’s why the boring habits in the shadows are so essential to ensuring and securing our public legacy. Private practices such as prayer and Sabbath sustain the consistency of our character over time. Most of us can be great in a moment; few of us can be consistently good over a lifetime. That’s what differentiates good leaders from Master Leaders. If you’re wondering how you’re doing, how you handle criticism is a pretty good litmus test of the health of your habits. When you maintain your private disciplines, the public pressure of criticism is sustainable. The reason consistency is so critical is that without these “boring” habits, we will lack the bandwidth to care for our people. And that is really the heart of leadership, to which we turn in the next chapter.
Take Action on Consistency
Master Leaders come in all shapes and sizes with various gifts, personalities, and propensities. However, the one constant is that we are all creatures of habit. Our habits, especially the boring ones, make us most effective: Making the bed each morning. Answering emails each day at a specified time. Writing thank you notes. Working out. These kinds of “boring” habits reduce decisions, minimize variables, and maximize strategies. The following exercises are designed as a starter kit for cultivating effective habits.
For the “Consistency Metric: Weigh the Reliability of Your Habits” and “Keystone Habits: Measure the Habits with the Highest ROI” see the full book. Purchase The Master Leader here.
Notes:
[1]. Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz, The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal (New York: Free Press, 2003), 14.
[2]. Loehr and Schwartz, Power of Full Engagement, 40. They go on to cite a word in Japanese, karoshi, that means “death from overwork,” which is responsible for 10,000 deaths a year in Japan.
The Making of a Master Leader (from The Master Leader audiobook by Mark E. Moore)
John Maxwell says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”[1] I’ve tried to argue with that, since it is an absolute statement and absolute statements are seldom true. I’ve tried. But I can’t think of an exception to that rule in any organization, whether civic, religious, or business. Leadership is the fuel of human flourishing in families, churches, tribes, and nations.
It appears that this is by God’s design. It was a king who wrote, “The Lord is my shepherd” (Ps. 23:1). He led the nation; God led the king. In Romans 13:1, the great theologian Paul wrote, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.” God designed and designated leaders to care for the world he created.
When leaders carry out God’s will and shepherd his people, the flock flourishes. Not only does everything rise and fall on leadership, but all leaders are God’s leaders, even those who are not godly. Some attain power to guide and guard God’s people, such as David and Moses. Some are raised up by God for discipline or retribution, such as Nebuchadnezzar or Caesar. If you are in leadership, whether in a church, business, or government, it is because God put his hand on you and expects (even demands) you to carry out his will.
If it is your desire to lead on behalf of the Good Shepherd, then this book is for you. I have spent my professional career chasing hard after Jesus. For more than two decades, I taught a course called “The Life of Christ” at Ozark Christian College. Since 2012, I have been a teaching pastor for Christ’s Church of the Valley in Phoenix, Arizona, working with leaders in churches, businesses, and nonprofits. My purpose in writing this book is to introduce you to the leadership principles of Jesus and how they apply to your own leadership context. However, I have never been the point leader of an organization. So to authentically apply these biblical principles, I have asked a colleague of mine to join this project.
Allow me to introduce Jeff Osborne. He has worked as a C-level leader in multiple organizations and has coached hundreds of leaders in the business world. He came on staff with Christ’s Church of the Valley in 2020 as one of our executive pastors. Jeff’s career “crossover” makes him the ideal collaborator. In each chapter, I’ve asked him to address a key question from a C-level leader’s seat. His perspective will be invaluable as you apply the principles of Jesus. I invite you to hear part of Jeff’s story.
As Mark mentioned, my journey of leadership has been filled with successes, failures, and—most of all—lessons. As I share some of these lessons with you in this book, let me start by sharing one of the most important lessons, which is to have the proper leadership mindset.
It was an excellent operational model. I presented it with such conviction. As I sat back down at the intimidating, oversized table in our executive boardroom, the heads of our business division politely nodded and thanked me. Following my presentation, a colleague offered an alternative plan. He received a rousing round of applause.
I had a pit in my stomach. He won. I lost.
You can see the problem. We were on the same team. I chose a scarcity mindset over an abundance mindset. For years, that soundtrack ran on repeat in my head. I’m embarrassed to admit that more than a few times after that meeting, I wished ill on my colleague—that he would fail.
This scarcity mindset robbed me of collaborating with this leader and sharing ideas that would make both our divisions great. I could have celebrated his success and worked to raise my game. We probably could have done some great things together.
Since those days, I’ve worked hard to lead with an abundance mindset, to be a more mature and confident leader who believes there is room for all of us to be successful. Our mindset matters. That’s what this book is all about.
Before we manage others, we must first master the management of ourselves. And that requires a strong and healthy leadership mindset. We must determine the type of leader we want to be—a critical step in leading like the Master. Settle it now: What kind of leader do I want to become? One of the best ways to think about this might be to ask yourself: What do I want my leadership brand to say about me and how I lead others? What do I want to be known for as a leader?
Often, the problem with leadership isn’t that we don’t know how to lead, but rather, that we haven’t clarified the leadership brand for which we want to be known. We simply wing it. I think you’ll agree that when it comes to leadership, “winging it” isn’t a great strategy. Effective and influential leadership demands that we consider deeply the desired impact of our leadership.
We all know leaders whom we deem to be great or who have had significant impact on our lives. We just don’t often think about why they were able to make that level of impact and how we might be able to have a similar effect. Often, we are too busy focusing on the “doing” aspect of leadership and fulfilling our responsibilities to worry about who we are as a leader.
We need Jesus’ model of leadership. Leading like Jesus is not as difficult as it may seem! We have so many examples of both good and bad leaders from a myriad of sources—Scripture, the marketplace, history, and personal experience. Once we develop the values of a Master Leader and begin to act on the values and actions Jesus taught and showed us, we’ll be well on our way to becoming Master Leaders.
To adopt the right leadership mindset—the mindset of Jesus—we must think strategically about the attributes, styles, characteristics, and values we want to exercise in our own personal leadership. This all takes time, focus, and energy—valuable resources few of us have in abundance. What can we do? The first half of the battle of leadership is fought between our ears.
When I was a young, inexperienced leader and wanted to grow in my leadership, I would sit in meetings with high-level leaders and think about how they would respond to a question or a situation. At first, I would get about half the answers right. Over time, it was closer to 75 percent. Eventually, I was able to think like the leaders above me. This mindset training required me to be present in the moment and not merely half-listening to the leadership exchange taking place around me.
Being intentional about the mindset we want to possess as leaders is a helpful exercise for our “leadership muscles.” Our mindset ensures we have spent time thinking through how we want to lead before we find ourselves in the middle of a situation where we can easily be caught off guard. Ask yourself: Do I want to be a leader who’s known for getting things done, or do I want to be a leader who’s known for equipping and empowering others to do great things?Do I want to be a leader others fear or follow? Do I want to be a leader who always has the right answer, or a leader who listens generously to feedback? When you choose the type of leader you want to be, you create a mindset and a mental map to set the course you’ll follow as you lead others. As Christians, Jesus is our model for becoming a Master Leader.
Determining our leadership mindset requires us to be mindful of each situation, which simply means that our leadership style and approach will need to ebb and flow depending on the situation and the people we lead. Most church leaders strive to be servant leaders—providing encouragement, delegating well, or empowering their team. Though we all aspire to be this type of leader, many situations require us to direct, tell, and guide our team, spending less time on collaborating and coaching. Great leaders master servanthood, flexibility, and nimbleness. The best leaders know how to fly at different altitudes depending on the situations or challenges they are required to manage. Determine the kind of leader you desire to be, but remember that leadership is a journey—a muscle group, if you will—and that it will require constant attention, training, and investment to achieve excellence.
Jeff and I sincerely desire that the twelve Master Leader values and actions in this book empower you to be the kind of leader you are called to be as a disciple of Jesus. If you are leading people in any capacity, you likely have a voracious appetite for leadership resources: books, conferences, websites, and podcasts. Perhaps that’s why you picked up this book; you want to grow as a leader. But if you have a line of other leadership books on your shelf, you may be asking, “How is this book any different than the plethora of other offerings?” After all, a wise man once said, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9). Sure enough, the values and actions in these pages are well-worn truths. What makes them unique in this context is their juxtaposition to the life of Jesus.
Our goal is to tie leadership principles to the model of Jesus. After all, he is literally the founding father of servant leadership. Prior to him, there were no leaders who practiced servant leadership or philosophers who advocated for it. By tracing the teachings of Jesus, as well as his actions, we can sleuth the origin of the heart and habits of the Master Leader.
The title of this book, The Master Leader, goes back to the fact that Jesus was the greatest leader of all time. Starting with just a small number of disciples, Jesus made more of an impact on humanity than anyone else in history. He embodied the twelve leadership values and actions of this book better than anyone. Our prayer for this book is that these twelve leadership principles will empower you to have a greater impact than you ever imagined.
Your impact will be in direct proportion to your allegiance to the Master and alignment with him. He’s not merely our personal Master. He is the Master Leader, unmatched in history. Whereas one of my previous books, Core 52, focused on fifty-two Bible passages, this book focuses on twelve leadership principles. Both books, in different ways, point squarely to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.
Standard leadership books focus on core pillars such as identity, vision, mission, values, strategies, and stewardship. This book will filter these through the model of Jesus. Whether you lead a church, a ministry, a nonprofit organization, or a marketplace venture, if you want to lead like Jesus, this book will help you identify the original values and actions of the Master and apply them in a contemporary context.
I’ve broken the book into two main parts. Part 1, “The Values of a Master Leader” (chapters 1 through 6), looks at six characteristics of a Christian leader, and Part 2 looks at the actions of a Master Leader—how those values can be practiced in the rough and tumble of our leadership roles.
Leadership begins with integrity (chapter 1), not merely doing the right thing, but being the right person. Who we are comes from what we believe about ourselves. When we look at the life of Jesus, we discover that his integrity came from his revolutionary idea that God was his Father. His Father’s love, approval, and calling gave him the courage to live consistently according to God’s agenda. This can be you too. The second characteristic is servanthood (chapter 2). Jesus expressed this in his relentless and unique self-designation: “Son of Man.” His ability to serve and suffer as the Son of Man came from his confidence in his Father. Chapters 1 and 2 explore our identity as leaders, providing both confidence and humility.
Because Master Leaders are under God’s authority, they aren’t really masters, but servants. They are not rulers who wield power, but stewards (chapter 3) of what God has entrusted to them. Jesus demonstrated how to steward all the resources God entrusted to him. It went well beyond material resources to include people, time, and communication. But no one can steward God’s resources well without being consistent (chapter 4). That comes through habits, what the church fathers called “disciplines.” Though we have nothing like a comprehensive list of Jesus’ disciplines in the Gospels, what we do have is telling. He addressed two priority habits: prayer and Sabbath. While there are plenty of other habits leaders should master, these two are particularly important to Jesus for leading a life of balance.
In chapter 5 we’ll focus on Jesus’ primary value of love, which I am calling “caring.” It drove all his actions, up to the cross. It was the primary command that summarized all the Mosaic law. But values without behaviors are just plaques on a wall. The final character value of a Master Leader is nimbleness (chapter 6). By tapping into the shepherding practices of leaders in the Bible, particularly the ones we see through Jesus’ ministry, we can see how to move adroitly and adjust with agility to confront the challenges that face the flock.
In Part 2, “The Actions of a Master Leader” (chapters 7 through 12), we examine some tactical behaviors that will grow both the depth and breadth of your church or organization. After all, the health of the group always starts with its leader. We begin in chapter 7 with the specific actions that embedded Jesus’ primary value of love into real-world situations through practicing mercy and inclusion. This is precisely how organizations build culture.
Chapter 8 addresses casting vision. That is your main role as a leader—to cast a compelling vision of a preferred future. Jesus’ vision, in a nutshell, was to restore Eden. That is precisely what will happen someday in the new heaven and the new earth. But in the meantime, Jesus set out to bring a bit of heaven to earth as a precursor of things to come. In chapter 9 we look at how we develop strategy and how Jesus adopted the shepherding metaphor for his own role. The shepherd’s duties are still a good template of what we could (read “must”) do in our organizations. Leaders lead, feed, heal, and protect the flock. Developing strategies around those priorities keeps us focused.
In chapter 10 we examine what it looks like to focus priorities with Jesus’ vision of God’s kingdom. His focus models for us the importance of keeping our “main thing” the main thing. His effectiveness shows us the importance of doing less to get more done. In chapter 11 we observe that leaders prefer taking action over discussion. So did Jesus. In fact, his final words on earth were a proactive commission, sending his followers to establish his kingdom globally. That’s a task larger than any of us, which leads us to our final chapter.
We need to mentor leaders (chapter 12). This ultimately means we make our own disciples in order to carry on the mission. Jesus had his Twelve, and they passed the torch to those who traveled with them. Down the line it went, until here we are today.
You are a leader following in the steps of the Master. My goal in writing this book is not simply that you would become a great leader, but that you would be a Master Leader—leading like and leading for the one who initiated this whole thing we call servant leadership.
In each chapter, I offer three consistent building blocks, opening each with a tangible example of the principle we are addressing. This will pull the principle from the philosophical ether and ground it in our present reality. My hope is that you can use these stories or ones like them to help your team see the relevance of your training on these topics.
Also, each chapter answers a specific question that leaders face. I invited Jeff, whom I introduced above, to write these sections so you can hear from an experienced leader who has spent significant time leading in the marketplace. You will feel the significance of his contributions in these practical sections of each chapter. He speaks authentically and experientially to the issues you face at the top of your team.
Following Jeff’s contribution, I tap into my twenty-two years of Bible college teaching on the life of Jesus, mining for leadership principles. My goal is to summarize and synthesize the jewels of the Master’s leadership and present them to you, polished and ready to set in the gold studs of your own leadership setting. We’re not just looking for quotes and quips. We are finding patterns in Jesus’ leadership that are both repeatable and transferable. This is what sets The Master Leader apart from other excellent leadership books. I filter legitimate biblical scholarship through a leadership lens to give you an executive summary of the historical Jesus. Our hope is this approach will help inform and ground you in the values and practices of Jesus that most impact your leadership decisions and leadership style.
Your leadership is a gift from God and a responsibility to him. The marketplace is full of great resources and good advice. Like you, Jeff and I have used and benefited from them. As Christians, however, we have a Master who stands above all kings and CEOs. His path to achievement and success is different, sometimes counterintuitive. To lead like him—to become a Master Leader—doesn’t just encompass the highest stakes. It includes the highest privileges.
Okay, pop quiz. What do the following people have in common? Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, Michael Jackson, Princess Di, and Robin Williams. All of them were wildly successful and deeply depressed.
Like, how does that work? When you, when you are that good looking and that wealthy and that popular, how could you have that much mental stress? Well, I, I think, you know, just because someone is successful doesn’t mean that they feel significant that they don’t run on parallel tracks. And then I was researching for this talk.
I ran across a guy by the name of Clay Cockrell. He’s a psychotherapist that works with the Uber wealthy because early in his career, a billionaire came to him for therapy. Like, what would a billionaire need therapy for? Turns out a lot?
He comes to Clay and the billionaire circle is pretty tight. So when a billionaire friend said, hey, uh I need some therapy because, oh, I got a guy and then another billionaire said I got a guy. So before long, all he was doing was therapy for the Uber wealthy. And what he learned is that they have some very consistent and specific problems or you could probably guess part of the problem is that they, they have a mistrust of everyone because when you have that much money, you don’t know who likes you for you or who likes you for what you have.
And so they begin to draw their circles really closely and even they even mistrust their own Children. A dirty little secret of the uber wealthy is they don’t talk about money with their own kids now because our culture is uh growing with mistrust. You can kind of guess what the next problem that they have is isolation. They, they put up fences and walls to protect themselves, insulate themselves.
And that insulation becomes isolation, which leads to a third problem. When you isolate from people, you lose your significance because significance is not building a career, it’s building relationships. And what we find is that people who are trying to go for success, use people to build their career when people who are going after significance, use their career to build people. And if you insulate and isolate from people, you lose that significance.
And another problem added to the really wealthy is that that money is toxic and you probably have enough money to know that there’s a toxicity, especially with your Children because Children of the Uber wealthy become spoiled and entitled and mean and they spin off track, not always but often enough that it is a consistent problem with the Uber wealthy to have to deal with their kids. And some of you are sitting there, go, well, I don’t have a billion dollars. I got every one of those problems. Yeah, this is kind of a human problem, isn’t it?
It’s not a rich problem. It’s a people problem. So I wanna tell you about an encounter that Jesus had probably the wealthiest person he ever met. His name was Zachaeus is in the Bible in Luke chapter 19.
So I want you to turn in your Bible to Luke chapter nineteen. But before we get there, I just want to lay this question out: How will you measure your life? That’s the title of a book by a Harvard business professor.
He gives class lectures on how you will measure your life to the super smart, potentially super successful future business leaders because he knows that success and significance do not run on a parallel track. I’ve been thinking about that a lot this week because I had a birthday, and it had a zero in it. Unless I live to one hundred and twenty, I am no longer middle-aged, and he gets to thinking about how your life matters. This might surprise you, but I need this message as much as anybody in the room because when I look in the mirror, I don’t see myself as successful.
Now I recognize I’ve accomplished some things. But when I look in the mirror, I don’t see a teaching pastor of a church that I love, and I love this church. You know what I see?
I see someone else who’s an executive pastor or a senior pastor or a better speaker. Maybe someone who’s more educated. I don’t see success in the mirror. I have a book that’s published, but I don’t see my own work.
I see someone else who’s written a book that’s more popular. Someone else that has more likes on social media. Isn’t it strange? I don’t think I’m alone.
It doesn’t matter how much success you have; it doesn’t make you feel significant here, and here’s why: success is not a destination. Success is an aspiration. When you want success, what you really want is more. More what? Well, more money or more likes or more fame, more power.
If what you want is more, you will never reach it because more is not achievable. When success becomes the destination that you’re after, you never get there. We think that if I just get one more zero or one more bedroom or a little more horsepower, then I will have significance, and it doesn’t work that way because what we want is actually an aspiration, not a destination. That’s what this story really talks about: how you can move in your life.
From success to significance in the story is the story of Zacchaeus in chapter nineteen of Luke. Verse one says Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. Now I have to geek out on Jericho for just a second. Jericho is a super cool city. It is an oasis in the desert that has a natural spring underneath it.
So in the middle of this barren desert, the city pops up with all this fruit, vegetables, and greenery. And at one of the main wells of this ancient city, you can see this mosaic on the ground in front of the well. It’s the lowest place on the earth, 1,300 feet below sea level, and it is the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. Right in front of this well, where this mosaic is, is an archaeological site. You can go through it today, walk up that mound, and walk around the city.
That was the city that Joshua conquered. If you’re familiar with that story in the Bible, walk around the city, seven times the walls fell, you could walk in the archaeological site. The weird thing is when Jesus was there, that was an archaeological site as well because they would destroy the city and then rebuild the city and destroy it again and rebuild it again, destroy it again and rebuild it again. Why?
Because it’s an oasis in the desert. And what that means is if you have a city that is in the desert across all of these highways, of commerce. It has a lot of money. Think Chicago, think New York and one of the guys in the city that had a lot of money was this Zachaeus.
Here’s this bio, in verse two, a man was there by the name of Zachaeus. He was the chief tax collector and was wealthy. And yes, I read that correctly. Wealthy.
Here’s why tax collectors, of course, they were Jews and they were collecting taxes from the Jews, but they weren’t paying taxes to the Jews. They were paying taxes to the Romans who were in control. I don’t know what has to happen in your childhood where you get so hurt that you start being a, a traitor to your country. And if you’ve watched the chosen, you kind of see how they portray Matthew.
He was a tax collector that Jesus had called and they depict him as kind of a, the on the spectrum guy who is, uh at odds with his parents, at odds with his community. He’s just, you know, doing his thing to make money and Jesus called him. You should have been there if they had a con connection when Jesus called Matthew, because why would you wanna hang around with someone like that? Well, Zachaeus was not a Matthew, he would be Matthew’s boss’s boss’s boss.
He’s the chief tax collector.
And these dudes would go directly to the Roman government and they actually would bid for an area of commerce and say, I, I can get you so much taxes. And another one said, well, I can get you more taxes and I can get you more taxes. So, taxes were naturally the highest they could possibly be, by the way.
It is. April 15th is coming soon. Do you, you feel me now that we hate paying taxes? But imagine paying taxes, not to your government, but to a foreign government that conquered yours?
Oh, they were despised. And so Zacchaeus would bid for this area, and then he would have other tax collectors under him, and every tax collector got paid when they collected more taxes than they promised the Roman government. So you can imagine they got taxes by extortion, by violence, by cheating, by stealing. The Jewish Talmud, in fact, categorizes tax collectors along with murderers and thieves.
And for good reason, you might like this since April 15th is coming. But the ancient Jewish rabbi said it is ethical to lie to a tax collector because they’re cheating you. How about now? I’m not advocating that just for the record.
So, Matthew is this guy that nobody likes. He’s got a lot of power, a lot of success but no significance. Verse three, he wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short, he could not see over the crowd. Now, I, I can relate to this.
I don’t know why Zachaeus wanted to see Jesus because there are a lot of people that you go. I, I can’t imagine that they would ever be interested in Jesus but they are. Zachaeus was one of those like, I don’t know what was in his head or his past or his background that made him wanna see Jesus, but no one, no one ever would have guessed that he would want to see Jesus. But man, he was desperate to see Jesus but he couldn’t because he was short.
No, this may be in the category of irrelevant. But when I go and visit our campuses, the most common comment that I get is not. We love your sermons. Most common comment is we thought you were taller.
Well, I love you too. For the record, I’m 5 ft eight and, and 5 ft eight, the average male in the world is 5 ft six. So I’m actually tall. You abnormal Gargan?
I feel sorry for you on an airplane. So there actually if you go to the record, the, the burial records of skeletons in ancient Jewish cemeteries, the average Jewish man was 5 ft six. So I’m gonna put Zachaeus at maybe 52 and he wants to see Jesus and Jesus coming through the city. It was a major parade.
Everyone is going nuts because not only were they going up to Jerusalem 13 miles away, but Jesus has just healed. Two blind guys on the outskirts of Jericho. It was a party that broke out. And so everyone’s trying to see Jesus Zachaeus desperately wants to see him.
But when he tries to weasel his way to the front of the parade line, everyone’s going. Look, buddy, you can bully us in the IRS office but out here no way. And they elbowed him right in the forehead. What can he do?
He runs up the street and finds a sycamore fig tree. It says in verse four that he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree to see him since Jesus was coming that way. Now, if you actually look at a picture of a sycamore fig tree, they’ve got low-lying limbs and big old leaves. So it’s a great place to climb up in a tree and hide, and I’m pretty sure, well, I know Zacchaeus wanted to see Jesus, but I’m pretty sure Zacchaeus did not want Jesus to see him and some of you are here right now.
Maybe a friend invited you. And you’re just thinking, man, I don’t want anybody to actually see me because they’re gonna know, they’re gonna know about my past. They’re gonna know about my pain. They’re gonna know what I’ve done if we do.
We don’t care because like Zacchaeus, you are welcome here, Jesus accepts you and so do we. But what a sight here’s this guy in like a three-piece suit up in a tree. He’s going out on a limb for Jesus. He’s way up there way beneath his dignity.
I know. I know. It’s a dad joke. Hey, I just had a birthday, give me a break.
He’s way beneath his dignity up in the tree.
And there are people around you right now that you would assume would have no interest in Jesus. But they do. I mean, you take one look at him and you think there’s no way they’re interested in Jesus.
Let me just show you a picture. This is Lou Steele. Would you ever guess that Lou has any interest in Jesus? You probably judge him like the crowd.
Judge Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was an up-and-outer; Lou was a down-and-outer. Lou’s biography: He grew up in a Christian home but like many people, he lost his way and for a season was just a black sheep running around with women and drugs and drinking and violence. And Lou tells his story that at some point, Jesus gave him a second chance.
And so Lou said to Jesus, like, what can I do for you? Lou would always like motorcycles, like speed, and that is the speed of a motor. He probably liked speed too because he did a lot of drugs. But Lou decided that he was gonna buy a motorcycle, buys this Harley, and everywhere he went, it just opened up conversations for him about the Harley. And he’s like, now wait a second, if I can have conversations around Harley, maybe I could use that to tell people about Jesus.
So he just started evangelizing through his Harley. And then, then he said, Jesus, I want you to stretch me. I want you to take me beyond what I think is possible. And long story short, Lou began a ministry to outlaw biker groups.
Now, if you don’t understand that culture, like the outlaw biker group, they call themselves the one percenters. What they mean by that is 1 percent of the time they’re going to follow the law and follow culture. The other 99 percent the rebels. These are the most dangerous biker groups in the country and Lou somehow just gets them and they can see Jesus through Lou.
It’s extraordinary. If you want to hear more of Lou’s story, we’re gonna drop his story this Wednesday morning on our CCV missions podcast. You may not even know that we do that, but every other week we tell another story of one of our mission partners and this Wednesday in go 360 wherever you get your podcast, just look up, go 360 you could subscribe Lou’s story is gonna drop and you can hear how God is using a guy that you would never guess like he’s Zacchaeus. You would never guess God would use him.
You would never guess he would have any interest in Jesus and you might not even guess that Jesus would have interest in him. And if you were there this day, you would be off-put by Jesus’ interest in Zacchaeus. In fact, verse five says, when Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus come down immediately, I must stay at your house today. I want you to focus on two words, Zacchaeus and must Zacchaeus.
Jesus actually knew his name.
And there Zacchaeus is out on a limb trying to hide and Jesus just outs him, Zacchaeus. I see you and not only do I see you, I know you and not only do I know you, I really, really like you and I want you to feel the moment because Jesus knows you too. If you’re on one of our campuses, you’re sitting in a seat, there’s a crowd around you, they don’t know you. Jesus knows you.
He knows your name or maybe you’re watching online or watching on demand and there you are on a treadmill and Jesus knows he knows what you’re doing right now. In fact, he has known you not from the day you were born from the moment you were conceived. Jesus knew you. The Bible says in Psalm one hundred thirty-nine that he knit you together in your mother’s womb.
He knows you at the molecular level. In fact, he knows you at the synaptic level in your brain, all those synapses firing, he knows your fears, your dreams, your hopes, your loves, and he doesn’t just love you. He really likes you. And he’s saying to you today today, I need to come to your house.
I must, it’s an imperative I must come to your house because I need you and I know what you’re thinking. Why would Jesus need me? I mean, seriously, come on. Why would Jesus need me? The day Jesus met Zacchaeus was a Friday.
It was exactly one week to the day before he was crucified in Jerusalem. He needs Zachaeus because after he dies, he’s gonna send his disciples to go tell the world about him. And there are some people that Matthew that John, that James will never meet, but they’re in Zachaeus house and there’s some of you that you think there’s no way Jesus would love me. Oh, he loves you.
OK? But there’s no way Jesus would like me. I know he likes you. Yeah.
But there’s no way Jesus would need me. Oh, he needs you. Why? Because there are some people that you know that if you know Jesus that that would be their only chance to meet him before it’s too late.
He has to go to Zach’s house.
So verse six and seven say he came down at once and welcomed him gladly and all the people saw this and began to mutter. He’s gone to be the guest of a sinner. That word mutter is interesting.
It’s only used twice in the entire New Testament. Both times in this book once here and once in chapter 15 verse two where it’s exactly the same situation, Jesus was having dinner with a sinner and the religious people. They just muttered like, why, why would you fear you? Birds of a feather?
Flock together? Listen, there are gonna be some people that mutter about you. Not here, I hope but there be like if you bring someone here, this is the place that we, you all are welcome wherever you are in your spiritual journey, you are welcome here because we believe that Jesus doesn’t just love you. He needs you.
And there’s a place for you. Like what like what Lou found part of his past became his platform for making Jesus famous about people that no one else is interested in or talking to or feel safe with. And there are some people in your circle right now desperate to see Jesus and they can’t imagine that Jesus would want to see them, but you could be the bridge to bring them to the knowledge of the one who knows them. So Matthew invites Jesus to the house.
In verse eight, Zakia stood up and said, “Lord, look here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor.” Wow, because the dude was loaded, right? So he’s got 10,000 acres of property. He cuts it down to five.
He’s got $50 million in the bank. He cuts it down to 25. He’s got like he didn’t have vehicles, but he’s got like a bunch of donkeys. He cuts those in half.
Well, not literally, but you know what I mean? He’s giving half to the poor. And then he says this is extraordinary: “If I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
Why? Because that was the law; it was the law of Moses going back to Exodus chapter twenty-two. Let me just read that for you. Exodus 22.
Verse one: Whoever steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sells it must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. So why does Zakia just say, well, I’m gonna get back four times because you could have paid back four times or five times. Why did he pick four times instead of five times? Was he being cheap?
No, no, he just gave half his wealth away. He’s not cheap. He understands that if he’s robbed anyone, he’s not robbed an ox that’s going to a slaughter. He’s robbed a sheep that belongs to God.
He sees people differently. When you go after success, you see people, you use people to build your career. But when you, when you’re going after significance, you use your career to build people. Success gives the illusion that we are gods over others; significance gives the opportunity to see others as gods, and what you do with your time, your talent, and your treasure will tell whether you’re really after significance or success.
Because when you really want significance in your life, then your resources are tools. It’s not, it’s not a destination; it’s a tool to get to a destination of significance. And in verse nine, Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this house because this man too is a son of Abraham.” Now to be a son of Abraham, that means you belong like that’s as kosher as a dill pickle. Like you, Zacheaus, you’re in. But the reason Zachaeus was in was not because of what he had done.
It’s not like his deeds led to his salvation. It was his salvation that led to his deeds. And when you, when you grab a hold of Jesus, and you really see Jesus for who he is, you begin to see yourself in a different light because you see others in a different light. And Jesus finishes the story with a purpose statement in life.
Now, if you go to a life coach, they’re gonna tell you all, you should write a purpose statement for your life. What is your life really all about? Jesus is about to give you the purpose statement for his life. This is in his own words.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
That’s why he came. Let me ask you, what is your purpose in life? Because when your purpose statement aligns with Jesus’ purpose statement.
If you adopt his purpose statement to seek and save the lost, that will change how you see Jesus, it will change what you see in the mirror, and it will change what you see in your neighbor. Now, I realize just that idea that like Jesus’ purpose statement would be my purpose statement. Like he’s too big for me actually. No. Now if you adopt the purpose statement of Jesus in your life, it’s, it’s easier than you think to see people as God’s children, not as, not as tools to get what you want, but as children of God that God has given you something to help them find Jesus.
Now, I don’t wanna be super practical with it. How could you seek and save the lost? Don’t, don’t overcomplicate it because it’s, it, it’s not easy but it’s not complicated. It’s when you refuse to miss an opportunity to speak Jesus to someone.
Even when you can’t imagine they would have any interest. Would you invite people to be part of what God is doing with this community or whatever community you’re part of? One week from today, Zacchaeus will witness Jesus crucified and one week from this weekend, we’re gonna celebrate that event here.
What are you going to do in the next seven days to prepare for the easiest invite of the year? We’re actually gonna give you three opportunities to invite someone when, when it’s Friday night at the Good Friday Service if that works for you and your schedule and if you, if you want to bring someone who man, they, they may be interested in Jesus and you don’t suspect it, but, but would they be interested in hearing what Jesus did for them on the cross? That’s Good Friday. On Sunday morning, sunrise every campus, your campus pastor on every campus is going to give a message designed for you and the community where you are celebrating the resurrection event. And at our regular schedule services, our senior pastor is gonna talk about how the resurrection changes everything.
And if you know anyone who needs something to change, this is the event for you. And I’m just thinking, Zacchaeus went out on a limb to see Jesus and Jesus went out on a limb for him. Are you willing to go out on a limb for someone who’s already out on a limb? They’re looking for hope, they’re looking for help.
They’re looking for significance beyond success. Whether they’re an up-and-outer like Zacchaeus or a down-and-outer like Lou, there are people who will never hear the good news of Jesus Christ unless they hear it from you. So I just want to ask you, would you be willing to invite someone to one of our three Easter events? Would you be willing to go out on a limb for someone who is out on a limb so that you could adopt the purpose of Jesus to seek and to save the lost?
Because if you do, the people that you see will be able to see Jesus. And when someone that you see sees Jesus, you will see yourself in a whole new light. You can probably predict what I’m about to say. But this week it’s time to go make Jesus famous, holy Father.
There is no comparable person to Jesus Christ. There is no greater hope in this world to find significance than that we are your children, that you see us, you know us, you love us, and unbelievably, you need us to reach people around us for your glory and honor. So we just commit. And this week, we will share our faith in a way that will help someone see Jesus and perhaps for us to see ourselves through your eyes.
We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. We’ll see you next week for Easter.
Well, this might fall in the category of TMI, but we were married for four months, four months, and my wife got pregnant. I know I asked her the same question you’re asking right now. Why did you do that? The truth be told, she was way more prepared to have a baby than I was. Like, she has these amazing, natural maternal instincts.
Me, uh, not so much. I was still a college student when that happened. Like I didn’t even have a real job. And now I’ve got a, a kid coming along the way.
I remember taking a lot of long walks with God and kind of arguing with God. Why did you let this happen? I was like, well, you know, you were there, but the problem for me was not just that I didn’t have a job. The problem was I didn’t have a model of a healthy family.
So I wasn’t really sure that I could even be a husband. And now I’ve got to be a dad. It was one of those moments where I was just overwhelmed. I looked at what I had in my hands, my experiences, my finances, and I looked at what was ahead of me and I thought there’s no way that this can cover that.
You ever been there? I mean, we all have, we all come to these points in life where what’s in your hand isn’t gonna foot the bill for what’s ahead of you. For some, it could be a marriage.
You get married and you, you love him, you love her, but you suddenly realize that they brought some family dynamics, some baggage into the marriage that took you by surprise and you’re going, I don’t know that I have the ability to manage that. Or some of you, you’re entrepreneurs, you start a new business, good for you, and all of a sudden you realize the competition is bigger than I thought. The complexities are deeper than I thought. And I don’t know that with my experience and my resources, I can manage that. It happens to us in a number of ways with kids who are addicted, with parents who are aging, with spiritual trauma that we’re going through.
And I wanna tell you a story that comes from the Bible about when you feel overwhelmed when what is in your hand is insufficient for what you’re facing. The story comes out of the Gospel of John. So if you have a Bible, you can just look in the index and find John. We’ll be in chapter six the whole time.
What you should know is that John is Jesus’ best friend and he writes this biography about 50 or 60 years after Jesus died and rose again. So this is, he’s been thinking about this for a long time and he records a miracle in chapter six. That is the only miracle that John writes that all the others wrote too. But this is the only miracle in all four Gospels.
It was that important, cat out of the bag. It was the feeding of the 5,000. Now, before we read that story together, I want to make a confession. I was thinking through this message.
How many times have I really been overwhelmed in life?
Now, I shared one with you when my wife was pregnant; I didn’t feel like I could do it. I started going through my life. It’s actually been rare that I have felt overwhelmed.
Not because I’m awesome, but because when I see something in front of me that’s bigger than what I have in my hands, I chicken out. I take a different path. Now, that’s okay if you’re talking about business. So that’s okay.
But if you’re talking about some personal thing in your life, but when you’re talking about your spiritual life and you go, here’s the challenge. Here’s a path that I think God wants me to walk down. But I don’t know that I can do it with what’s in my hand, that is a problem. And this story is going to address when you feel overwhelmed, whether you feel overwhelmed because something has come at you or whether you feel overwhelmed because there’s an opportunity in front of you, a path that God wants you to walk down.
Here’s the story beginning that I want you to see if you can kind of visualize this because it took place on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, and it was on a mountainside right outside the lake. Here’s the way it says in verse three: Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover festival was near. Now, why would John tell you that?
Well, because John was a Jew, and the festival was important to him, and it should be important to the story too. Here’s why: Passover was kind of like our Fourth of July. It was a time when they remembered and even reenacted the exodus from Egypt. They slaughter a lamb and have that as a family meal, and they get in the house all together with a family and celebrate this meal in memory of and reenactment of their day of liberation. So all these pilgrims would, if you could, you’re supposed to go to Jerusalem physically to have the meal to make the sacrifice.
And so all of these people were passing through the area where Jesus was. It was actually a major highway of commerce where Jesus was. So thousands of people are making their way to Jerusalem. Ten, the large crowd.
And at this meal, they would honor and remember for over 1,000 years what God had done for them. The problem was, at this particular time in history, the Romans had conquered the Jews, and they hated that, especially at Passover when their patriotism was piqued because they loved their country and they loved their God, but they were being overwhelmed. They looked at what was in their hands as a nation. They didn’t have the military power; they didn’t have the economic power to free themselves. So every Passover, they’re looking for what the Jews called a Messiah, someone who would come in and save the day, throw off the yoke of the Romans, and help the people be free. And that’s why there are so many people here, and they’re so interested in what Jesus is doing.
In verse five, Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him. He said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. How about that?
Jesus gives a test, and for you math nerds out there, it was a math test. Why Philip? Why did he test Philip? Because Philip, fun fact, was the very first disciple that ever followed Jesus, clear back in John one. Philip follows him. You know what Philip does?
First thing he does. In fact, this is the only thing that Philip does. He went and got someone else and brought them to Jesus. That’s all Philip does.
We meet him three times, and each time he’s bringing somebody to Jesus, and with each time he’s got a buddy with him, his name is Andrew. And so Philip and Andrew, three times, we meet them all three times. They’re bringing someone to Jesus, and Jesus is testing him to see. I know that you bring individuals to me.
Can you bring a crowd to me?
Do you believe that I am enough to build the crowd? In verse seven, he says, if Philip answered him, it would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite. He was right.
I mean, this is a massive crowd, and the apostles, that is, Jesus chose 12 men that are kind of like his, his, his court or his cabinet members. There are 12 of them, and Philip was one of them, Andrew was another, and they, they have these funds. You know who the, you know, who the keeper of the funds was? It’s actually Judas Iscariot. How about that? And, and so he kind of knew how much money they had, they did not have enough money to write the check for this bill.
In fact, a half a year’s wages, they didn’t have that, but a half a year’s wages wouldn’t even give one person an appetizer, let alone the main course. So in verse eight, he says another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy,” he said, “with five small barley loaves and two small fish. But how far will they go?”
Among so many? The little kid came with his lunch box. I don’t know if it had an action hero on it. It was a little Jewish boy.
Maybe it had her, you know, Samson on it or something like that. And he, he has this lunch and it is just, it’s just a little lunch. Five little loaves. I, I don’t think like Wonder Bread.
It’s not Wonder Bread. Well, actually it was Wonder Bread but in a different way, they’re just little like they have dinner rolls and they’re made from barley. Poor people ate barley loaves, not wheat. That was for the rich.
So this kid is from a lower-income family and she, she got a little lunch. She’s got two sardines in it. The Greek word is actually a little fish. So it’s like a sardine.
So five little barley loaves, two fish. Perfect for one little boy. Not a crowd. The size of this one.
Philip has already done the math on the finances. We don’t have the money to pay for this. And Andrew does the math with the, with the loaves of fish. And so this is, this isn’t enough.
And the math problem and by the way, they failed the test, the math problem, they failed, looked like this. Five plus 25 loaves, two fish divided by 5,000. And that’s not 5,000 individuals. That’s 5,000 families.
When they counted the men, they were counting the heads of the household. So five loaves plus two fish, little sardines divided by 5,000 equals not enough. It goes like this. What’s in my hand is not enough for what’s in front of me?
It’s just not enough.
So I look at this formula and I think, you know, that’s exactly how I have managed my life. Now, I’m not saying I’ve never taken risks, but I am risk-averse. If what is in my control, what is in my ability can’t take care of what’s in front of me.
Again, if we’re talking about finances, that’s probably a good rule. If we’re even talking about risk in business, that’s probably a good rule. But when you’re talking about your faith and God is calling you out to do something for him, just because the challenge is big doesn’t mean you should not be bold because the problem with their equation is that they were missing something in the equation. For you math nerds again, there was an integral integer that was missing. You know what it was? Christ.
They only looked at what they had in their hands. They didn’t consider who had their back. And Jesus is going to insert himself into the equation. Verse 10.
And Jesus said, have the people sit down that there was plenty of grass in that place and, and they sat down about 5000 men were there again, heads of households. I, I’ve walked that ground if they could sit on the side of the hill and they could hear Jesus preach. It’s, it’s kind of an idyllic location for a sermon, but they weren’t just coming for a sermon. They, they were excited about anyone who could come and free them from the Romans.
They were excited by anyone who could feed their families who were poverty stricken. They were excited about anyone who could heal them. So Jesus, he’s dog tired like a sidebar. Jesus has just learned that his cousin John, the Baptist has been murdered.
If you’ve seen the, the series of the Chosen, I love how it’s depicted. I think it’s pretty accurate that John the Baptist and Jesus had this close relationship. So he’s hurting himself. And yet it says that Jesus saw these crowds like sheep without a shepherd and he taught them many things.
So he’s been all day teaching and all day healing. And now he’s gonna spend the afternoon and evening feeding. Verse 11, Jesus distributed to those uh or Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
Now you’ve gotta kinda hear with Jewish ears.
So put your yarmulke on and when it says that Jesus lifted up the bread he gave thanks for the bread. They call that Lehi. Aha.
So the bread of the earth, he lifts up the bread and he gives thanks for it. That’s exactly what the father of the family does around all the dinner tables. It was the dad’s job to pray and give thanks to God for the food. What is different is this is not a family, this is 5000 families.
Jesus is not merely the father of a home; he’s the father of an army, he’s the father of a nation, and they begin to get it, especially when he distributes them. And here’s an amazing fact: you have this resource, and you have something in your head. The little boy had it in his hand. The miracle doesn’t happen by what you have in your hand.
The miracle happens by what you hand over, and Jesus, by testing Philip, is inviting him into the miracle. He is inviting you into the miracle as well. If you will just hand over what you have, I can do—I can’t do a miracle with what’s in your hand, but if you hand it over, then I can do something extraordinary with it. And so it’s for me; I’ll let you look in your own mirror.
But for me, this is so convicting because I wonder how many miracles I could have been a part of, how many adventures I could have been a part of if I just had considered who had my back and not what I had in my hand. Verse twelve, when they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted. My mother would love that.
So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten. Twelve baskets. Hm. Why again, you Bible nerds are gonna love this. Twelve is the number of tribes of Israel; that was the nation of Israel, and Jesus didn’t just make enough for the crowd that was there. He made enough for the entire nation just through the leftovers.
It’s a beautiful story. It’s a beautiful miracle.
But the formula that it shows us is the formula that I have used: five plus two, divided by five thousand, is not enough. But when you put Christ in the equation, it goes from not enough to more than enough.
I’ve got to ask you, do you believe that? Because I think on all of our campuses, the Holy Spirit is working right now in the hearts of men, women, and young people. God’s been saying if you will step out in faith, if you will hand over what’s in your hand, I can make a miracle out of it, and your not enough will be more than enough. There will be leftovers.
I think about a couple who is struggling in your marriage, and you see the challenges that are before you. You see that what is in your hands—your own abilities, your skills, your resources—it’s just not enough, but you let Jesus into your marriage, and it will be more than enough that you can actually bless other marriages. You see your own child, and whether it’s an addiction they’re struggling with or some learning disability that they’re struggling with, or maybe it’s relationships they’re struggling with, and you think, as a parent, I look at what I have. It’s just not enough. I don’t have enough money for all the counseling that might take.
I don’t have enough wisdom for all the coaching that will take in my own home. But if you hand over what’s in your hand, your not enough will be more than enough. Some of you have a passion on your heart for some social injustice, and God has been encouraging you to do something with that. But you don’t have the education, or you don’t have the resources, or you don’t have the skill sets to pull something like that.
But if you’re really called by God, he can invite you; he’s testing you to get into the miracle and invite you to hand over what you have so that your not enough will become more than enough with that. That is exactly what they’re looking at here, except they look at Jesus and they’re enamored with him. You would be too. Look at verse fourteen: after the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the prophet who has come into the world,’ and that was part of the problem.
He’s a prophet. Verse fifteen: Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to the mountain by himself. We want to unpack what’s going on here. The people love Jesus. Why?
Well, because he fed them, duh. Yeah. And like them, so many of us come to Jesus for what we can get out of him, not for what he can make of us. There’s no miracle in that. I’ve been guilty of it too.
You come to church, you read your Bible, you pray your tithe, you do the thing and then you look at your life and you go, God, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m doing the thing. I’m doing what you asked me to do, but you’re not moving like I expect you to move. Why? Because we come to him for what we can get out of him, not what he can make out of us.
And so Jesus sends them away. I mean, it’s stunning that he wanted to be king of the Jews, right? But if he lets them make him king and they’re gonna do it by force, they’re gonna take him on the entourage down to Jerusalem, they’re gonna march on Jerusalem, put him in the temple. He is going to be king by force.
And if you all, if Jesus allowed them to make him king by force, he would be their king, not his king, not king on his terms. He doesn’t just want to be the king of Israel. He wants to be the king of the world and the savior of your soul, not the filler of your belly. And I think we’ve all had that experience.
We want more of God, but when we focus on what we can get from him rather than what he can make of us, he just kind of goes away and worse is he sends his apostles away.
They had to have been just thunderstruck. Jesus, what are you doing?
Like this is the moment we’ve been waiting for, we’ve been waiting for people to recognize you as king and, and that, oh they are and you’re sending them away and he goes, yeah, I’m sending you away too. Go down to the boat, get in the boat, go across the lake. What? And he just takes off into the mountains.
He starts to pray. I want you to, in your mind’s eye, visualize Jesus sitting on a mountain over this lake. The lake is nine miles north to south. You can see it from that mountain, the whole thing, six miles east to west.
And so Jesus spends hours in prayer and you know what the apostles are doing. They’re rowing against the wind in a storm. They are stuck. It says down in verse 16, when evening came, his disciples went down to the lake where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for cour num by now, it was dark and Jesus had not yet joined them.
A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough when they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus approaching the boat walking on the water and they were frightened. But he said to them it is, I do not be afraid what a moment he’s walking on the water. They never expected that you, you wouldn’t have either. And so as they’re like straining at the oar, so you gotta just feel it.
Your muscles are in agony, just burning and you’re no closer to shore than you’ve been. Now, those veterans in the boat, Peter Andrew James and John, they made their living in a boat. They knew exactly the danger they’re in. How could it get worse?
It’s storming. Jesus sent us away. We’re in the middle of the lake. We’re gonna drown.
Oh, it gets worse. A ghost shows up. They’re going, this has gotta be a guy like who else is it gonna be in the middle of the lake? I mean, they were in the middle, 3 to 4 miles in the middle of the lake and then Jesus says, don’t be afraid.
It is. I now I need to say that in Hebrew. So so get your yarmulke on again. Yahweh. It is Hebrew.
Yahweh Jesus is claiming to be God.
And if you put this miracle of the feeding of the 5000 and the walking on water right next to each other for you Bible nerds. And I, I love you Bible nerds like I am one.
So here we go. These two miracles side by side mirror the first two verses of the Bible. Genesis one says in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and Jesus created right there on the mountainside and the food to feed 5,000 families. But Genesis 12 says that the Spirit of God was hovering over the chaotic waters, and there he is, Jesus, walking on the waves of a storm, right to the disciples. If you think about what Jesus is doing, he is showing them who he is.
Because if you let that kind of Jesus into your living circumstance. The little in your hand is more than enough because the one who’s got your back, do you believe that? Now, this is where the story ends uh in John and he kind of moves on and uh talks about the sermon he preached the next day. But there was something else that happened that night and there’s only one gospel writer that records it, John and Luke and Mark, they just, they just go on but Matthew kind of puts a PS on the end of the story.
And I want you, I want to read that for you because for me, this is the most important event that happened that night for me to take a next step and take what’s in my hand and hand it over so that my not enough can become his more than enough. Uh You might have heard this story. Peter said, Lord, if it’s, you tell me to come to you on the water, come. He said then Peter got down out of the boat and walked on the water and came towards Jesus.
I was so moved by that even as a kid, I was moved by that. So I tried it. You wanna, you wanna hear about it? Yeah, it was ridiculous.
I was like in middle school 12, 13, I don’t remember but I’m standing on the edge of a pool and I thought how cool would it be? If I had enough faith to walk on water and I know I was like 12, I, how do you get faith? If you’re 12 or if you’re an adult? How do you get faith?
So I thought if I just kind of clenched my fists and gritted my teeth and just believed, like I believed, I would work it up in my own mind. And I believe, I believe so. I said there, oh, I don’t know if it was quoting scripture or praying or what I was doing. But I finally felt like, ok, I did it.
I got to the level I, I believe that I’ll walk out of water and I took that first step and got rebaptized. So I don’t, I don’t throw a lot of shade at Peter. He made it farther than I did. He steps out of the boat and it says when he saw the wind, he was afraid and beginning to sink, he cried out.
Lord, save me immediately, Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. You have little faith. He said, why did you doubt? And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down.
Two things I want you to see. Well, three things actually. When you step out of the boat, are you going to fail? Likely.
But Jesus is still gonna reach down and grab your hand. He still is the God on the waters. The, the other thing that, that I notice in this passage is that we all want Jesus in the boat. Jesus get in the boat, get my life to come.
Do life with me, Jesus…
but he doesn’t get in the boat with you until you get out of the boat and until you’re ready to respond in faith to his call, it’s not likely that you’re gonna have that experience of closeness with him that you really desire. The other thing that, that, that I notice is why do you doubt he asked the question is the same question that I think Jesus would ask me that Jesus would ask you. Why did you doubt? When has he let you down in your marriage?
When does he let you down with your kids? When does he let you down with you? When is he, when is Jesus not been there for you? Now, he might not give you everything you want.
He may let you strain at the oars in the middle of the lake, but he’s coming on the waters for you. And I just, I think about what kind of church we could be. If all of us took one step out of the boat, even if you sink, he’ll catch you. Would you hand over what’s in your hand so that he could make more than enough out of not enough.
And there’s a thousands of ways that’s going to happen. In fact, I was praying with a couple of our elders before the message and one of them reminded me this is what C CV has always done. The property of the Peoria campus was purchased in one day a million dollar offering. It was a miracle, what God has done to reproduce every one of our campuses.
All 15 has their own back story of the miracle of God. And so for some of you, this is, this is your biography. This is not a sermon for you to hear and respond like this is what you’ve always done. There have been some extraordinary givers and extraordinary servers and throughout all of our campuses, there are people in ministry doing things around the the city and around the world frankly, that are extraordinary sacrifice and risk stepping out on the water.
And I just don’t want you to get left behind when Jesus calls you out on the water. One of the things that we’re doing this year is leveraging our medical community to go on medical mission trips. So if you are a, a nurse or a doctor, uh if you are in health care of a dentist or, or ophthalmologist, whatever you do in the health care, we can use to serve the poorest of the poor in the world. And maybe you could step out of the boat.
Just talk to your campus pastor or associate pastor about it. There are ways to get involved for some of you. You feel like God is actually calling you into the ministry, that you would make your living by serving at the church. If God’s calling you to do that, get out of the boat.
But for the vast majority of us, God is not asking us to give up our occupation, but to give over our occupation, to use our expertise as a lawyer for justice, maybe human trafficking or some other injustice, to use your ability in schools to help the foster care system thrive with Christians who would take kids. You know what we’ve done around the city, but we can’t do it without you. CCV is where we are not because we’re so good, but because God is faithful when we hand over, and there’s been a legacy of people handing over to God and seeing miracles happen. Jesus invited Philip into the miracle by testing him.
Peter invited himself into the miracle by testing Jesus, and he failed, but he still holds the silver medal for water walking. I’m just wondering who’s next? Who’s gonna stand up and say, I’m gonna give my life to Jesus? That might be for you. Your next step is to get baptized to publicly confess your faith in Jesus.
If you’re ready to do that this weekend on all our campuses, we are ready for you. I don’t know what the Holy Spirit’s calling you to do, but I know he’s calling all of us to get out of the boat. And when we get out of the boat, he steps in. Holy Father, oh, how good you are.
There is no reason that we should ever doubt you. You have been faithful and good and kind. And so today it starts with me. I pledge to you.
I’m gonna get out of the boat. I’m gonna risk big and trust you to get the glory when I fail and you rescue me. Do in us more than we could ever ask or imagine. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
We have just started this series called The Way of Jesus. It kicked off last week with Pastor Ashley talking about the beginning of Jesus’ ministry when he was baptized and then immediately what happened?
He’s tempted, and some of you can relate to that. Like you got baptized, you thought, Oh, great. Now I’m a Christian; life will be awesome, and Satan is going, No, no, I don’t like the decision you made.
And so he attacks. That’s normal right after you give your life to Jesus to have opposition from the evil one. I want to talk about the other side of that coin this week.
It’s also one of the very early stories about Jesus’ ministry. And this story is actually told by one of Jesus’ best friends, John the Apostle, in his book of John. If you have a Bible, I would encourage you to look in the index.
Find the Gospel of John. We’ll be in chapter two, and I want to introduce the topic with a question: When you think about church, not necessarily this church, but maybe the church you grew up in, or maybe you didn’t grow up in church, the church you saw on television, or somebody invited you to church and you went—when you think about church, being in church, stand up, sit down, hear a sermon, sing a song—do you think about, is it closer to a funeral or a wedding? Is it a place that’s kind of somber and quiet and people wear dark clothes and like it’s very serious, or is it like people dancing and singing and eating and family?
You need to know around here, we tend to lean more toward the wedding side. That’s why we have the music we do. That’s why we have the food that we do.
We want to be a family place of celebration. Listen, that’s not the church I grew up in. No, I’m not being critical of the church that I grew up in.
They taught me to love the Bible.
They taught me to love my enemy. They taught me to love global missions.
But what my church did not teach me to love is the church. It was kind of a dark place. It honored judgment and don’t do this and don’t do that and don’t have any fun.
And it wasn’t a place of celebration for me. So imagine my surprise when I run into this passage at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. You know how it begins?
Not with a funeral. Now he went to funerals; he did miracles at funerals, but it begins at a wedding. And the very first sentence there is kind of a phrase you might consider maybe irrelevant.
It begins like this: On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Third day, what, third day after what? Well, in the first chapter of John, Jesus is down in the southern part of Israel.
He’s in the area of Jerusalem. And if you look on a map, you can see Jerusalem, southern part of Israel. Jesus is gonna travel north 80 miles through the hills to get up to Galilee and land in Cana of Galilee.
Now, if you’re in really good shape, you can walk 80 miles in about three days. Do you think Jesus or John is telling you the itinerary of their travel? Look, John is when he writes the book about AD 90, he’s had decades to think about the church.
All the other apostles have been killed for preaching Jesus. They’ve had their funerals, and John wants to remind us that it didn’t begin with funerals. It began at a wedding.
So they’re in Cana at a wedding. I gotta confess something to you. Don’t judge me.
I don’t like weddings.
My wife loves weddings, so you don’t need to judge me. She can for you.
It’s just the dressing up and the smooth and I just, I just don’t like it. The cake is OK. Butter mints are good, but the wet like the interview, I’m not even gonna ask you to raise your hand because I know you’ll lie because you don’t wanna be judged like I’m being judged right now for not liking weddings because who doesn’t like a wedding?
This guy. If you agree with me secretly, you need to know that Jewish weddings did not last for three hours like our weddings do; they lasted for three to seven days. Oy.
And the reason is it was this whole thing is not about a young couple falling in love because the young couple, these are arranged marriages, they may not have even met each other yet. So it’s not about their love. It’s actually about two families being united together.
And so the, the idea of the wedding for them was this allegiance of families, and the groom had to prove his ability to provide for the families and not just for one day, but for three to seven days. And if he fails, that is actually a litigated offense. He could be sued by the bride’s family for failing to provide for hers.
Well, this particular wedding took place in Cana. Now, Cana is a small village nestled in the hills of Galilee. It’s a beautiful place, and I had driven by Cana several times, but I’ve never been in Cana because the bus tours can’t get into the narrow streets of Cana.
But one year I took a hike with some guys, and we hiked into Cana and landed in this lovely church. It’s a little chapel that celebrates the wedding. Their chapel is just a little larger than our New Maryvale Auditorium or a little smaller than our Maryvale Auditorium.
And it’s, uh, it’s, it’s what surprised me is it sits on top of an archaeological site, and you could actually walk down under the church to a first-century home. You see where they lived and how they lived. And the first time I was there, I was up on the second floor looking down in the archaeological site, and I’m, I’m seeing this home and thinking, you know, the smaller a village, the longer their memory.
And the locals say, yep, this is the place going back to the fourth century. This is the place where Jesus turned water to wine. As I’m, I’m staring down into the ancient home, all the guys are wanting to ask me questions like, is this the place?
And I’m realizing, I think this is actually the place, and we have a, a rule on, on our, our hike that Jesus always speaks to people. I don’t know how to explain it other than just say, Jesus speaks to you personally. You don’t know when it’s gonna be or where it’s gonna be.
And if we’re, if Jesus is speaking to you and I say, hey, it’s time to go because we have a schedule to keep, you know, if Jesus is speaking to you just raise your hand and we’ll wait for Jesus to be done with you and then we’ll go. So all the guys are asking me questions and I just raised my hand and they backed off because I was having a moment and what was happening is I began to hear voices and the best way I can explain it is if you’ve been in a hotel and you hear people on the other side of the wall, you can’t know what they’re saying. But you feel whether it’s anger or sadness or joy, you just hear the tone.
I was hearing not through a wall, but through time. And people are pleading with Jesus, help my family, bring us healing, bring us celebration in life. I was just, I was speechless.
We went on with a hike. I still couldn’t talk. In fact, it was 30 minutes later, I came up beside my best friend.
I said, Larry, something happened to me back there and he goes, I know and he pulled out his iPhone and he showed me this picture. Jesus met me there. It reminded me that the church isn’t about a funeral, it’s about a wedding.
And the reason that this story is so important to me is not just for the moment that he spoke to me in Ka is for the life of the church where Jesus can speak to all of us. To remind you, if you thought of the church as a funeral, could you think of it as a wedding, as an invitation to celebration and family and future and hope? There was this wedding at Ka and here’s what happened: Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.
When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, they have no more wine. Now, Mary is in a special position at this wedding. She is the matron of honor.
There was a male counterpart who was the master of ceremonies. Now, he was to make sure that all of the events took place on time and kind of order the celebration. Mary’s job, and it was an honor, was to make sure the wine and the food were all up to par and lasted the entire time.
Now, as near as I can tell, Mary is a widow because we haven’t heard from Joseph since the birth narratives. And if she’s a widow, she has scarce opportunity to actually raise in honor or status. Her social security is supposed to be her oldest son, Jesus.
But for the last nine months, he’s been 80 miles away, making a name for himself, not a home for her. And so now that he comes back home, she has every right to ask him to help according to the Jewish culture. And this problem was not just a problem for the young man who could be sued if they ran out of wine.
There is a problem for Mary. And does Mary actually ask Jesus to do anything? She just states they have no more wine.
Now, listen, some of you have mothers and others have mamas and there’s a difference. When mama says to you, your room is a mess, it’s not a statement of the fact of the affairs of your abode. It is a threat to your existence on planet Earth.
She expects you to do something, and Mary expected Jesus to do something about this, and she had every cultural right to have that expectation. Now, I don’t think she’s asking Jesus for a miracle because Jesus hasn’t so far done any public miracles. No, she just notices you got 12 guys following you right now and when you have 12 guys in your entourage, you have funds that pay for housing and food and lodging.
And for the past seven days, you haven’t had to pay for housing, food, and lodging because they’ve been at the wedding. And part of the reason they ran out of wine is because these guys are thirsty, and Peter, he didn’t just catch fish, he drank like a fish. Now, I can’t prove that, but you can’t prove it wrong either.
So, we’re just gonna go with that. I’m sure he was fine. Yeah.
So we’ve got these guys who have drunk all the wine, and now it’s gone, and she’s got a problem, and she expects Jesus to help solve the problem. And that puts a problem for Jesus because at the very time that God, his heavenly Father, is asking Jesus to go into the world, she’s trying to draw him back into village affairs. How does Jesus honor his heavenly Father and show respect to his earthly mother when their goals are at odds?
That’s the problem.
And you sense that in Jesus’ response to his mother, verse four: ‘Woman, you try that with your mama.’ It’s not disrespectful, but it’s not warm and cuddly either. He’s not putting her in her place.
He is putting this in perspective: ‘Woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied, ‘My hour has not yet come.’ Honestly, I really don’t know what Jesus is talking about. This, I know, I don’t know exactly what it means, but this I know: Jesus talked about ‘my hour’ over a dozen times in the Gospel of John. ‘My hour has not yet come, my hour has not yet come, my hour has not yet come.’ And finally he says, ‘My hour has come,’ and he’s crucified.
His hour, the timing of his life, was about his sacrifice for the sins of the world. And we’re not there yet. But Jesus is reminding Mary, ‘I’m not on your timetable.’
I’m no longer in village affairs. I’ve got a world to take care of here, and my timetable is different than yours.’ And he tells Mary flat out, ‘Why do you involve me? Why do you want to pull me into your problem?’ And some of you know exactly how Mary feels because Jesus has not met your expectations.
Your life right now is more like a funeral than a wedding. You go out to dinner with your spouse and go an hour, and you barely say a dozen words to each other. You go to work, and some of you are at work right now, and you’re kind of at the tail end of your career, and you’ve hit a lid and there’s nowhere else to go, and you just feel stuck.
There are no open doors. Some of you are being ghosted right now by a person you love dearly. We’re on a way of life and this path with Jesus.
And sometimes it does feel more like a funeral than a wedding. We’re saying, ‘Jesus, why don’t you help me?’ And it feels like he’s giving you the stiff arm and going, ‘Why are you trying to draw me into your petty problems?’ Listen, if Jesus is, it feels like he’s saying, ‘Why are you involving me?’ it’s not because he doesn’t want to meet your expectations; it’s because he wants to exceed your expectations. And trust me, even in the midst of your pain, Jesus is well aware and he’s not unconcerned.
He did show up at funerals.
One of them was a good friend of his, Lazarus, who died, and he’s about to raise Lazarus from the dead. He knows what he’s going to do.
But Mary, Lazarus’s sister, is crying, and you know what Jesus does? He weeps. And right now, if you’re in pain, Jesus is right there with you; he’s weeping.
And if he’s not meeting your expectation, it’s not because he doesn’t care. It’s because he has something bigger and better for you to be a part of. And Mary knew that.
I respect Mary so much. I mean, she is, after all, the woman that God chose to give birth to his Son. And even if Jesus didn’t meet her expectations, she didn’t give up on her faith.
And don’t you either. You need to listen to what Mary is about to say because this is the only command that Mary ever gave, this is the only sermon she ever preached, and it is a single sentence. Do you have ears to hear?
Mary said, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’
That’s good advice. When Jesus doesn’t meet your expectations, what do you do? You do whatever he tells you to do.
Some of you, you know, need to confess this sin. You have a secret that you’re keeping from the very people who could help you overcome your temptation. You need to confess your sin.
Others, you need to repent. You’ve already confessed it, but you keep making the same mistakes. Some of you, even last night, did what you swore to God you would not do.
And it’s time to change. For some of you, you need to move out because the person you’re living with right now, you’re not married to them, and you know they’re not going in the same direction that you want to go to God. It’s time to make a change and do what you know Jesus is calling you to do.
He told you to be baptized. It’s a command. It’s not a request.
He tells you, what are you waiting for? He tells you that tithing is what he expects. What are you waiting for?
If you will do whatever Jesus tells you to do, He will not meet your expectations. He will exceed them.
Verse six: Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from 20 to 30 gallons. You want to see one of those water jars? You want to see it?
They’ve actually found one in the archaeological site. They are huge, and they hold—there’s six of them, right? You do the math.
Six of them hold 20 to 30 gallons each. How much are we talking? It’s 120 to 180 gallons of wine.
That’s not a blessing you can imbibe. That’s a blessing you bathe in. It’s unbelievable.
So Jesus says, verse seven, fill the jars with water. So they fill them to the brim. Then he told them, now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He didn’t realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink, but you have saved the best until now.
Some of you know how this works better than others. After the third glass of wine, you can serve your guest wine from a box. Oh my God.
That’s fantastic. But what you’ll find is that Jesus saves the best for last, and what you’re going through right now is not the end of the story.
He has a bathtub of blessing waiting for you.
He wants to pour out on you what you could only imagine right now, and you get a sense that this story is bigger than an event that happened in Cana. And it is. John gives you a clue in his little postscript in verse eleven: What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
Now, John has hidden in the story three Easter eggs, and if you find them, you will go, that is bigger than it first appeared. And I want to share the Easter eggs with you. Are you ready?
Maybe you’ve already found them. Easter egg number one: sign. He doesn’t call this a miracle.
He calls it a sign. What’s the difference? Well, a miracle makes you go, ‘Wow.’
A sign makes you go, ‘Whoa.’ A miracle points to the power of the person. A sign points to something in the future that’s bigger than what’s happening right now. And this wedding feast is not about a bride and a groom who had this great wedding gift.
It’s about you and it’s about me. It’s about your view of the church. It’s a sign that there’s something he’s calling us to: celebration, not to a funeral.
And in the book of John, there are seven signs. Now, if you’re a Jew, the number seven is significant. It represents the work of God in the midst of men.
And each of these seven signs is a next step. You take a step in your journey and then you have a next step. We talk about next steps around it and you take a next step, and, and, uh, the way of Jesus, you’re walking in the way of Jesus with each of the seven signs.
But it begins with an invitation to a celebration. And if you’ve never given your life to Jesus, we just want you to hear Jesus invite you. It’s not a funeral.
It’s a wedding and it doesn’t mean your life will always be easy. But it means that in the midst of the difficulties you can celebrate because the sign is pointing to something better that’s coming. There’s a second Easter egg.
I don’t know if you saw it: purification.
The water jars were for purification. And what’s that?
Well, the Jews believed in cooties. I’m not even kidding. You remember in the second grade when a girl touched you and she had cooties, you had to go wash.
The Jews believed that if somebody who wasn’t following God touched something, or maybe they were not a Jew and they touched something and you came along later and touched the same thing, their cooties rub off on you. That’s a problem. But it’s a simple solution.
All you gotta do is dip your hands in water and you wash off the cooties. You’re good. That’s why there were six stone water jars and people were coming in and, uh, washing themselves and cleaning themselves up.
What did Jesus do with purification? Some of the reasons, some of you, the reason you look at church as a funeral, not a wedding, is you hear preachers and I apologize. They’re telling you you gotta clean up and you gotta repent and don’t do this and don’t do that.
It feels so heavy and we think that we have to clean ourselves up for God to love us. What Jesus is showing is purification is not what you do for God; it’s what He’s done for you. And when He turned the water to wine, the water is what you do.
The wine is what God gives and it represents the blood of Jesus Christ. The wine of that wedding points forward to Communion. Where is the blood of Christ poured out for you?
If you’re thinking, I don’t know if I could be part of the church, like I don’t know if God would love me. You got it wrong. It’s not your job to clean up.
It’s your job to submit. And if you submit yourself to God, if you put your faith in Him, He will do all the work, the work through the blood of Jesus Christ. And you’re thinking, well, that sounds good.
But my life right now really is more like a funeral than a wedding. If this is supposed to be a celebration, I’m not getting it because I’m still desperately lonely. I’m still raising kids by myself.
I’m still being ghosted by the person I love. So how can you say that Jesus has invited me to a celebration because I don’t see the celebration. I like, I don’t, it’s not in my grasp, this celebration.
So how can you say he invites me to a celebration when I don’t have anything to celebrate? Hm. It’s the third Easter egg.
Three days. Go ahead and pull it out of your pocket and, and just look at it. Three days, three days in the Gospel of John, three days is not a travel log.
It is the resurrection of Jesus and you’re on your own journey toward your own resurrection. The reason you don’t have full celebration right now is because you haven’t gotten to the end of the three days. It’s still coming.
And John in his last book writes about the end of the third day in Revelation chapter 19. He describes when Jesus comes back again and the end is even better than the beginning. Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and the loud peals of thunder shouting, ‘Hallelujah!’
For our Lord God Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.’ (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of God’s holy people.) Then the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb.’ And he added, ‘These are the true words of God.’ There was a wedding in Cana 2,000 years ago, but there’s one coming that will eclipse that by far. And in between the wedding of Cana and the marriage supper of the Lamb stands this Communion. If you got these emblems on your way in, go ahead and peel back the bread, just hold it in your hand for now.
We’ll take it together. Christians are a strange lot because we don’t just remember backwards. We remember forwards.
This little piece of bread reminds us of the night before Jesus died. He said, ‘Take, eat. This is my body, broken for you.’ But it also points forward, not to a little emblem but to a massive banquet.
Can you see it?
Every tongue and tribe and people on earth will gather together around the table of the Lamb. We are his bride and he is our groom.
And when he comes again, there will be a celebration. If in the midst of your funeral, you can celebrate because Jesus at your funeral weeps, but he knows what he’s gonna do in raising you from the dead. So every week we come to the table.
And we’re just reminded, not just to remember backward to what Jesus did, but forward to the marriage supper of the Lamb that is coming. Take, eat, the body of Christ, broken for you. Likewise, he took the cup and he said to his disciples the night before he died, ‘This is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for you.’ The water that Jesus turned to wine represented the blood that he shed.
It is the gift that makes the wedding possible. And when he returns, that wine will flow. Not a bottle or two of Mogen David, this is a bathtub of blessing.
And the little sip that we take now reminds us of the immensity of the grace of God in the blood of Jesus poured out for you. That’s why we celebrate even in the midst of the difficulties of life. That’s why we are a people called to celebration.
The blood of Christ, poured out for you. Holy Father, it is not lost on us that your first miraculous sign was at a wedding. It is a promise that we receive; it is an invitation that we celebrate.
And even when you don’t meet our expectations, we know that on the third day, you will exceed them. For that, we give you our loyalty, we give you our worship, we pledge to proclaim you broadly so that this entire valley could know the love of Jesus, that our entire world would know the hope of God. We pray in Jesus’ name.
How can moms manage their emotions? MomsMentoring founder and author of Wise Moms, Linda Ruth Reeb, encourages moms to handle them from a Christian perspective.
First, learn to identify your triggers, she suggests, like your kids disobeying, or perhaps emotions stemming from unresolved issues from your past.
Then, she gives hope and advice about healing from a Christian perspective, as she points moms to God’s Word. Not only this, she emphasizes the importance of setting healthy boundaries and healing.
Reeb poses this to moms: Are you curious or critical when your emotions get the best of you? Get curious! How can we give negative emotions to God? Or should we just think differently? What’s the role of action to change our thinking?
Linda learned something about how to handle her anger from how her own mother modeled it that she shares with listeners.
Moms play a significant role in the home, and author Linda Ruth Reeb advises them to think of themselves as the “Chief Life Officer” as a way to take control of their lives. She advises moms of all types to take control of their time and their homes like a business. How will you spend your time? How will you manage your commitments? Your budget?
Thinking like an executive at home can help moms make decisions and get accountability at home, along with any other duties they have in the world.
Moms, listen to this episode to get practical advice and scenarios from Linda on this topic.
This content supplements her book Wise Moms, which has a whole chapter devoted to this topic.
Suffering or know a sufferer? Receive this treasure of a message from Josh Patrick as he gives these four pieces of advice on how to be strengthened for suffering. I can think of no one more qualified to deliver this message on 1 Peter 3:15–22.
Josh Patrick delivered this message on suffering in 2018, just months before he died of a years-long battle with stage four colon cancer. He knew suffering well. This sermon for me, which we turned into chapter 7 of the book Living Hope, is Josh at his best. He shares a story in this message that to me stands the test of time. He is humble, ardent, and so filled with hope.
In fact I would say, above all, Josh Patrick lived out the gospel of hope more than anyone I’ve known personally.
If you want to support us and the Patrick family’s desire to get Josh’s content out, grab a copy of Josh’s book we adapted into book format from this sermon series.
It’s called Living Hope, and you can purchase from our website here: https://staging.himpublications.com/product/living-hope/
Subscribe to our newsletter here: https://staging.himpublications.com/subscribe.
Become Who You Are: A Sermon on 1 Peter 2 (Josh Patrick)
This is a sermon from Josh Patrick on 1 Peter 2:11–17, which we used and adapted to make chapter 4 of his posthumously published book Living Hope.
In this message, Josh tackles hard yet liberating topics like doing hard things, abstaining from sinful desires, submitting to human authority, silencing foolish talkers, and living as free slaves. He ends with a call to show respect to everyone and to fear God.
What produces false hope? In this Easter sermon on 1 Peter 1:3–9, Josh Patrick Josh Patrick speaks into this question as he shares with us the five myths of hope for us to stop believing. Then he shares clearly and concisely the truth about genuine hope in Jesus Christ.
“The hope of God is anchored in a specific moment of history,” Josh says.
Josh helps to recognize five myths surrounding hope in order to place true hope. “God offers living hope,” he concludes.
Jesus’ dead heart started beating again, Josh says in the opening of this powerful message that was turned into book format: *Living Hope* (2024, posthumously published by HIM Publications).
Dave Clayton, lead minister at Ethos Church and author of Revival Starts Here, dives into Matthew 11, exploring how to navigate disappointment and unmet expectations when God’s plans differ from our own. This episode encourages listeners to trust in God’s timing and find peace amid life’s uncertainties.
Quick summary of his main points: Disappointment grows in difficult circumstances, unmet expectations, and limited perspective.
Some Favorite Quotes: “Isn’t it amazing what a little disappointment will do to your theology?” “John took his disappointment straight to Jesus with brutal honesty.” “Faith is like film; it develops in the dark.” “To doubt is a pitstop on the journey of faith; it’s not a destination.”
Questions to ask yourself in response: “Does God exist for my happiness, or do I exist for his glory?” “How have my circumstances distorted your character?”
