Leading Is Serving — Philippians 4

0:00 We did have a wonderful worship meeting this morning, and and Scott Scott read, you know, Philippians four eight. Right? So the last time I was up here, I had an acronym, planter with two p's. Right? Whatever is praiseworthy, pure, loving, admirable, true, excellent, and real.

0:22 What's the end? Noble. No. Noble starts with a k. Okay.

0:27 What what... Come on now. Whatever is pure, praiseworthy, loving, admirable, noble, true, excellent, and real, meditate on these things. Right? So it was it was interesting it was interesting that Scott read that.

0:42 And so I've with you a little bit about the tough time that I had in life. And part of that tough time was was losing my my sister and and later my dad. And this song that we... It it just amazes me. The song that we we sang today was such a blessing to me because I truly believed I truly believe that through the struggle and the pain that my sister went with...

1:15 Went through, she found the Lord. And I truly believe, and Abe is my witness. My dad, through his time, found the Lord as well. You know, when you when you have... When you're when you're there with, you know, the man that was your your your your mentor and your leader.

1:39 And in the last, I don't know, three months or so of his life, he couldn't even talk. But he proclaimed, I believe. I believe. So this song is so true. It is so true.

1:56 You know, nothing happens at all without either God allowing it to happen or making it happen. So whatever struggles we go through, God is in control. Right? And I know, because I've been there, that it's difficult to go through those periods of time. Right?

2:23 And so one thing that I mentioned last time I spoke was about relationships. Amy and I were talking about that that this morning. Relationships are so important to help us through our tough times in life. They're so important. And every day, I I I I list three things that I'm grateful for.

2:53 And one of the things that I wrote down that I was grateful for today was friends. If you come over to our house, it's an absolute disaster. We are doing construction. We have Luke and Tiffany and their two dogs and their cat moved in because they're working on the house that they're building. It's it's a disaster.

3:16 Right? We we have two soft chairs to sit in. I mean, we we actually have our couches outside underneath a tarp. Alright? But it was such a blessing with all of our friends that were

3:29 over and sharing time with us yesterday.

3:32 You know, I I could care less if I have nothing as long as I have relationships. And the most important relationship is with the Lord, and the next is with all of you. Right? So I thank everybody that came over yesterday because it was a blessing to me. It was...

3:47 It's it's... So a year from today, when I go through my list of things that I'm grateful for, I will see, and I will remember. It will be so good for my soul. I don't know

3:59 what's gonna happen a year from now.

4:01 I don't know what struggles I'm gonna happen... What what struggles are gonna happen and I'm gonna have, but I can look and I have it. Just like just like the memorials that the Israelites built, there it is. I have it. Man, I don't...

4:14 I have no idea what the next... What my... What the future holds, but I do know that God's in control. And if I can look back at a wonderful, happy thought, that that... That's grateful for me.

4:40 That's 2,500 to 3,000 thoughts per minute... Per hour. I'm sorry. Per hour. Alright?

4:50 And not all of those are good thoughts. Right? So so Philippians four eight is so good. Let me illustrate this. Picture a stoplight in your in your in your mind.

5:02 Right? Picture a stoplight. Right? I think it's... What is it?

5:05 Is it red on top? Red, yellow, green. So picture that picture that traffic... We'll call it a traffic light. Picture that traffic light as thoughts in your mind.

5:16 You've got green thoughts. You've got yellow thoughts. You've got red thoughts. Alright? Green thoughts are those good thoughts.

5:22 Right? Whatever is pure, appraiserly, loving, admirable, noble, true, excellent, and real. Those are the green thoughts. Right? Then you have the red thoughts.

5:30 Right? These are the thoughts that creep in when you don't want them to. Right? You know, Nancy and I can have an argument, and I'll walk out and and and I'm like, I gotta forget about it. I gotta forget about it.

5:41 And then about lunchtime, I'm go, I can't believe she did that. Right? Or I can't believe I did that and made her angry. Right? But whatever it happens to be, but all of a sudden I'm dwelling on that.

5:54 Is that pure? Is that praiseworthy? Is that loving? Is that admirable? Is that noble?

5:58 Is that true? Is that excellent? It's real, but it's not real in the same sense that verse tells us about. It's amazing, right? I'm missing the word here.

6:19 But we can we can actively take control of our thoughts if we choose to. Right? So neuroplasticity, that's what it's called. Neuroplasticity. We can rewire our brains.

6:35 Alright? I spent way too much of my life dwelling on the garbage that I cannot control and not enough time spending my thoughts on those things that are pure, praiseworthy, loving, admirable, noble, true, and excellent, and real. I would encourage everybody here to to turn those red thoughts off. Right? Green is good.

7:08 Red is bad. What's yellow? Those red thoughts becoming green thoughts or the green thoughts becoming red thoughts. Alright? So make all those yellow thoughts red thoughts becoming green thoughts.

7:21 I'm telling you, it is it is a blessing. It is a blessing. I mean, you know, Paul wrote it. Right? Praiseworthy, pure, loving, admirable, noble, true, excellent, and real.

7:38 He did it for a reason. Right? Okay. So that was my my sideline. So now now I'll get I'll get to the...

7:47 To what I have here. So first of all, I am grateful that I I have the ability to be up here today. Right? I went to the elders and said, I've got this idea. Right?

7:58 I'm... I consider myself somewhat of a teacher. I would actually consider myself a coach more more than a teacher. And I I also I also focus on what what I see in the Bible. I I I see a lot of a lot of dialogue.

8:18 Right? Teaching dialogue. So what what I wanted to do here was to create a dialogue. Right? Get get people involved.

8:25 Learning learning from that. It's called the Socratic method. It might as well have been called the Jesus method, because that's what that's what Jesus did as well. He got people engaged in conversation. So the last time I spoke, I listened to that message five times.

8:40 And I I learned more from what you all said than what I learned from the study that I did to be prepared for that message. So that was such a huge blessing to me to hear what your responses were and to be involved. All right? So I thank you for that. So I'm grateful to be up here and I'm going to encourage your participation.

9:05 Again, Devin, we're to start. We have a microphone and if we have the opportunity, we're going get that microphone to you because we don't record it really well. Some of the comments that were made weren't recorded really well. So I've got the first question. We're going to be we're talking about leadership today.

9:46 Right? So I kind of skipped ahead to do leaders are strategic. Today we're going to talk about what is a leader. Alright? So think about it.

9:53 What is a leader? What is a leader? So the first... The question I have is define leadership for me. Define leadership.

10:08 Leadership is somebody has followers. Okay. What else? What else do you see? Leadership.

10:16 Go ahead, Zach. Stand stand up and say it really loud so we can... Somebody who leads with actions, not just with words. Explain that a little bit.

10:26 I guess somebody that is not gonna tell other people what to do, but they're actually gonna do it themselves and not, like, kinda indirectly showing the way to do something, not actually just saying to... Telling people to do it, but doing it themselves. I don't know. You know what I mean? I do.

10:44 No. That's good. Who else? Go ahead. Go ahead.

10:46 Over here.

10:50 Someone who can recognize, a person's strength and help them to bring it out and develop it and utilize it.

10:59 Excellent. I think for leadership, you have to go back to lead, which is to have a destination or something in mind to bring someone to or direct to. Excellent. And and anybody else? K.

11:17 Scott? Go to Scott first. Scott, no. Serving. Serving.

11:23 Alright. Serving good. K. Hold that thought. Amy, did you say something you had?

11:31 Yeah. I was gonna say, what I learned from, like, the good shepherd in '23, the difference between a rod and a staff. Sometimes, you know, as a leader, we are always bring out the rod of discipline, but we tend to forget to bring out the staff of comfort, because that's the second part of being a leader. And I I think in a lot of the leaders that I respect, I've seen that quality. Not only the rod of discipline, but the staff of comfort also bring.

12:07 Very good. And Mason. I'll stop with Mason.

12:10 I would say that, like, a strong leader would be somebody who acts the same in private and, like, they're they're just the same person all around.

12:22 You're such a wise young man. You really are. I appreciate it. I do. So leadership is hard to define, isn't Leadership is hard to define.

12:35 Right? Every everybody had their own thoughts about what leadership is. It's hard to define, but you know it when you see it. Right? You you know when you see that somebody is a leader.

12:49 Right? I agree 100. Okay. What about... What what...

12:53 So so we we heard some of these. What what kind of what what kind of characteristics do leaders exemplify? So Scott said they serve. Alright.

13:07 Self

13:07 control. Self control. Okay. Bob said they had a destination. These are characteristics.

13:15 Yep. Initiative. Initiative. Very good. They set an example.

13:20 Set an example. Alright. So these are all characteristics of leadership. Now what roles do they take on? What roles do leaders take on?

13:35 Karen?

13:35 They serve.

13:36 They serve. Make decisions. Make decisions. Mentor. Mentor.

13:43 You guys are... Have you looked at my notes and my PowerPoint?

13:46 Come on. Take

13:47 responsibility. Take responsibility. Very good. Alright. Now let me ask you this.

13:55 Identify some leaders. Throw out some names of people that you consider leaders. Joey. Mister Meng. Mister Meng.

14:05 Like in Roger Meng? Alright. Mister Meng. He's a leader.

14:13 Trump.

14:15 The president of The United States.

14:20 Andrew Bryson, the gentleman had the courage to kneel and pray with the president.

14:25 Right. I don't know that story, but...

14:29 He was in a captive

14:32 Okay.

14:33 Turkey.

14:34 Alright. Thanks. Churchill. Winston Churchill. Right?

14:42 Got a quote for me from that one? Never never never never never give up. Right? Any anybody anybody else that you see as as a leader? Napoleon.

14:54 Why Napoleon? Because he was a leader. Alright. So alright. So so what we're trying to do is we're trying to identify with the word leadership.

15:15 James chapter one and verse one. James chapter one and verse one.

15:26 James, a servant of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes scattered among the nations, greetings.

15:33 So what did James say that he was? Said he was a servant. He was a servant. And so I I agree with I agree with Scott. Right?

15:45 I think that I think that leadership is is serving. Alright? We had a... We have a great example of that. Let's go to John chapter 13.

15:56 John chapter 13. I'll read these because I've got a couple of different verses here. John chapter 13. John 13, I'm gonna start with verse four. Right?

16:16 This is Jesus now. Right? So this is this is at the last supper. So he got up, Jesus got up from supper, laid aside his outer clothing, took a towel, and tied it around himself. Next, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet and dry them with the towel tied around him.

16:41 When you jump ahead to chapter... To verse 12, when Jesus had washed their feet and put on his his outer clothing, he reclined again and said to them, do you know what I have done for you? You call me teacher and lord, and you are speaking rightly since that is what I am. So if I, your lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example that you should do just as I have done.

17:18 Truly, I tell you, a servant is not greater than his master, and a messenger is not greater than the one who sent him. Important lesson that I learned, and I learned this from mister Pyle, was that the servant responsible for washing the feet of the people in the house was the lowest servant. That was the lowest servant. So Jesus... Alright.

17:47 We talked in in in... We're in breaking bread this morning. For god so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son. Jesus came down from heaven, and he washed the defeat the feet of the disciples. He gave this to us as an example.

18:06 It's an example to us. We're supposed to be doing that same the same sort of thing. So So what we're doing is we're taking this thought that leading is serving. Leading is serving. We have an example of Jesus, leading by serving.

18:23 So here we are in 2000 what's the year is it? 2018, Right? I get old, I forget numbers. 2018. So we we are two thousand years after Christ.

18:38 Right? And it's amazing it's amazing today. So we talk about leadership. Well, listen to this leader. This is called the incomparable Christ.

18:56 More than two thousand years ago, there was a man born contrary to the laws of nature. He laid aside his purple robe for a peasant's tunic. He was rich, yet for our sake, he became poor. This man lived in poverty and was raised in obscurity. He received no formal education.

19:18 He never possessed wealth or widespread influence. He never traveled extensively. He seldom crossed the boundary of the country in which he lived. But this man's life has changed the course of history. In infancy, he startled a king.

19:38 In childhood, he amazed religious scholars. In manhood, he ruled the course of nature, walked on stormy waves, and hushed the raging the the raging sea to sleep. He healed multitudes without medicine, made no charge for his service. He never practiced psychiatry, yet he has healed more broken hearts than all the doctors far and near. He never wrote a book, yet his life inspired more books than any other man.

20:20 He never wrote a song, yet he has furnished the theme for more songs than all songwriters combined. He never founded a college, but all the schools put together cannot boast of having as many students. He never marshaled an army. He never drafted a soldier or fired a gun. Yet no one leader had more rebels surrender to him without a shot fired.

20:57 Herod couldn't kill him. Satan couldn't couldn't seduce him. His enemies could not destroy him. The grave could not hold him. After three days, he rose again from the dead, alive forevermore.

21:13 He is the perfect one. He is the Christ, the son of the living god. This man stands forth upon the highest pinnacle of heavenly glory proclaimed by god, acknowledged by angels, adored by his people, feared by demons as the risen lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus was a leader. Jesus changed the world.

21:38 It says it all right here. Two thousand years later, we still meet remembering him like so many other believers do. When I was growing up, when I was when I was Mason's age, stores weren't even open on Sunday. Stores weren't even open on Sunday. Leadership by servanthood.

22:21 Servant. Alright? That's what we're gonna talk about today. We're gonna spend the rest of this time focusing on being a servant. The the next the next characteristic is living life on purpose.

22:31 Think about that, how Jesus lived his life on on purpose. And then the third one was casting a vision. Right? Bob mentioned that. Casting a vision.

22:39 He had a vision. So Jay Oswald Sanders, this is a quote from him. Leadership is influence. Leadership is influence. We all, everybody here, has an opportunity to influence.

22:56 Even the youngest ones of us here, we have the opportunity to influence. We can choose to influence positively. Right? And we can choose to we can choose to influence negatively. Everybody in this room, everybody out there, everybody that ever walked has and are leaders.

23:18 You will influence somebody. We all take on the role of leaders. Alright? We're not Westlake Bible Fellowship. These are the elders.

23:28 They're our leaders. We're we're Westlake Bible Fellowship. We're the leaders. Everybody here, we are all leaders. Let's take a look at Matthew.

23:40 Matthew chapter five thirteen through 16. Alright. Sermon on the Mount. Right? Here's Jesus talking.

23:56 This is one of those monologues. You are the salt of the earth. Alright? So he's talking with everybody that's there. You are the salt of the earth.

24:07 But if the salt loses its taste, how can it be made salty? It's no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel basket, but rather on a lampstand and it gives light for all who are in the house.

24:29 In the same way, this is to everybody, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to father, to our father in heaven. That is a responsibility of each and every one of us, to serve. Each and every one of us. Our job is to to serve. James chapter two.

25:03 James chapter two verse 14 through 16. Alright? What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if somebody claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? If a brother or a sister is without clothes and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, go in peace, stay warm, be well fed, but you don't give them what the body needs, what good is it?

25:38 What good is it? We're here to serve. So I have with me the greatest leadership tool ever created. The greatest leadership tool ever created. Alright?

25:54 This isn't my idea. We're gonna talk a little bit about a gentleman by the name of Dan Truett in a second. This is his idea. Anybody know who Dan Truett is? A.

26:06 Chick fil A. That's right. I had it... Did somebody take it? There it is.

26:15 Alright. So at Chick fil a, Chick fil a not only serves chicken. Right? Chick fil a also has a leadership academy. And they they serve, alright, they serve the leaders of top 500 fortune companies.

26:31 And they bring them they bring them to Atlanta and they have a meeting that talks about leadership. And if you know anything about Chick fil A, they lead all day long by serving. They're servants. You know? I I I can even tell you, a buddy of mine wrote a book.

26:57 All the great leaders in the world serve. The first thing that they do is serve. You ask them what they do for a living? I serve others by giving them milk. Whatever it happens to be, they look at serving first.

27:09 It is of the heart. It is of the heart that they serve. The last day before they leave, everybody gets a gift. And Dan Truitt stands in front of everybody and Dan Truitt says, this is the greatest leadership tool that I will ever give you. And then he goes on and and explains about the shoe brush that he has.

27:33 Alright. This isn't the same one that they use there. It's virtually close. It is made with hardwood. We have real horse hair.

27:40 This thing isn't going to fall apart. I can shine as many shoes as I want and this will not fall apart. That's why they use one of the most expensive shoe brushes and everybody in there gets it. Let me let me give you another example another example of being a servant. So Dan Cathy, a couple of years ago, was interviewed.

28:03 And during that interview, the interview process was going well and the person that was interviewing Dan Cathy had an objective. And the objective was for Dan Cathy to spill the beans about his his religious thoughts, where he was in his Christian walk. And so the conversation was going well. Dan Cathy got up being a servant and said, I'd like to get you some some lemonade. So Dan got up, went to get lemonade.

28:34 As he's walking out, right, the old Columbo tactic, the guy behind him asked him a question about homosexuality, and his response was something to... Something similar to this. Well, homosexuality isn't accepted through the bible. That's what he said. What happened the next day at all of the Chick fil As in the country?

28:57 Do you remember this? Do you remember it was during the summer? People were out picketing the Chick fil As. Alright? Out picketing the Chick fil As.

29:09 And what did the employees of Chick fil A do?

29:12 They went out and served them. Free.

29:17 Free. They took them drink. They took them food. And that isn't because they wanted to show them up. It's because their heart.

29:34 Their hearts were truly servant hearts. Their hearts were truly serving servant hearts. See, when you when you join Chick fil A, you get an opportunity to watch a video, And that video lasts about three minutes. Probably should have brought it here to watch, but... And what it does is it illustrates that everybody has a story.

30:02 Everybody has a story. Nobody knows what's going on with the person when they're in line. Nobody knows if that person just got bad news. Nobody knows if that person just got divorced. Nobody knows if that

30:20 person's child was... Had been killed. You you... Nobody knows.

30:26 So what Chick fil A does is make sure that their employees serve and that they understand that everybody has a story. You know, a good testimonial, my son my son Luke, right, couldn't make it today. But he said that when when they... He travels a lot with with rugby, with the rugby team that he coaches. And and he said we call ahead to order a 100 sandwiches.

30:55 They say it will be my pleasure. Right? When's the last time you sat at a restaurant and you said thank you and they say they return, that's my pleasure. And they really mean it. Right?

31:10 Luke said that you pull up, there could be a 100 cars in line, and they bring the food out to you with a smile on their face. They say it's a pleasure serving you. And it's real. It's from the heart. Right?

31:49 Right? It isn't. Right? Would you agree? I mean I can count on one hand the number of people that I actually see serving that are doing it because that's the way that...

32:05 That's inside of them. You know what I mean? Inside of them. Right? Krista Houston was Krista Doan.

32:13 She has a servant's heart. I mean it's amazing what... How she serves. Right? Growing up I always saw that.

32:20 Right? But but we can we can learn to serve. Serving isn't easy. It cost Jesus his life. Right?

32:41 Serving cost Jesus his life. Matthew twenty twenty five through 28. Right? Think about that for a second. Matthew 20 verses 25 through 28.

33:01 Remember I said serving cost Jesus his life. Serving isn't easy. Okay. So Jesus called them over and said... So he called the rest of the disciples...

33:14 10 disciples over and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them. It must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave, just as the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom to many. Serving isn't easy. Serving isn't easy.

33:58 I'll get back to the story. So Nancy and I were talking, and, you know, we we have we we have a marriage relationship. Right? Like most other marriage relationships, there's conflict. I was never raised to settle conflict.

34:13 I was always... I was I was raised to, you know, defend the conflict. I'm right. Right? But we sat there and we had a nice chat because if we were servants in our relationship with our spouses, that loving relationship would even have a greater value and would even have more enjoyment and more pleasantness.

34:45 Right? So I'm reaching out to those of you that aren't married, that will get married. I really think the number one type of training that you need before you get married is how to be a servant. It is, and I've not shared this with Nancy and I don't know who does it and I don't want to know who does it, but it's such a blessing for me. I get up, I'm the first one up most of the time, right?

35:12 04:35 o'clock. But the second one up, Sage, dog is the first one up and that's why I'm the second one up, right? Because I'm the one that takes the dog out for a walk. And so I make a pot of coffee every morning and there's been, I don't know, maybe a half dozen times over the last couple of weeks where there was water in the pot, there's a filter in the filter holder and coffee in the filter. And all I have to do is put the filter in and pour the water in.

35:36 It is small as that may seem to you. It is unbelievable to me. It is unbelievable to me. I had had had an opportunity to to to do some serving this week, and it was an absolute blessing to my heart. Something that I would normally not do, but I did it, and it was an absolute blessing.

36:03 Right? Now I'm not saying that to pat myself on the back or anything, but it was good for my soul to be able to help somebody and serve them in such a way that they could not do on their own. Without a doubt, no ups, they could not do on their own. They could not do it on their own. I'm gonna take another two minutes here because I think that this this part is important.

36:42 Right? Spark. I recommend anybody that has a chance to go to Spark to go. Right? Be a disciple.

36:49 Be a teacher. Be a coach. Be a mentor. This isn't easy. It's tough work.

36:56 It's exhausting work. So how do you how do you keep yourself fresh? Right? How do you make sure that you don't exhaust yourself by doing this? Well, the Lord...

37:12 What did the Lord do in the mornings? He went out and prayed. What's that? To a lonely place. To a lonely place.

37:24 I had a had a good time talking with Dave this morning, Dave Woodhams. And what he said to

37:28 me, he goes, Bob, I have so much of an opportunity to have devotions and spend time with the Lord now than I did. It's a blessing, isn't it? It's a blessing.

37:41 I I encourage everyone. I I I was that guy. Right? The alarm went off. I ran to work.

37:47 Right? I got some discipline. Now I get up and I've got a lot of time that I can spend in preparation for the day. And it is such a blessing. Right?

38:01 I'd always say, well, gotta go. No time for the Lord. From that point on, my my day was going downhill. His mercies are new every day, so we get to start all refreshed the next day. But I'm telling you, it's a lot easier if you spend time with with the Lord.

38:17 And I I I shared with you. One thing that I do every morning is I list three things that I'm grateful for. Alright? There's a there's a... My my morning routine is is unique.

38:27 I know Andy's got a great morning routine. I don't... We don't have time to share it. But another thing that I do is I ask myself, who do I need to seek forgiveness from? Who do I need to seek forgiveness from?

38:42 What have I done with somebody that I need to get forgiveness? Because if I'm thinking about that all day long, that's not pure, it's not praiseworthy, it's not loving, it's not admirable, it's not noble, it's not true, it's not excellent, it's not real, And it's taking my focus off of what the Lord has for me. So I encourage you, serve and then refresh yourself every morning with with time in God's word and time with the Lord in a relaxed pace. Alright? Let's close in prayer.

39:39 And we know that it's a it's a process. It's not something that we're... That we easily do. We we we care more about ourselves than we care about anybody else. But help us to...

39:49 Help us understand and learn how to serve each other. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.