LEADING IN LIFE - The Making of a Leader

THE MAKING OF A LEADER
We're going to start a series I'm calling "Leading in Life".
I want to begin with a verse out of Proverbs. Proverbs 28:2 "A nation will be strong and endure when it has intelligent, sensible leaders." Circle the words "strong" and "endure". Those are the two benefits of having good, strong leadership. I think you could apply this verse to your family. I think you could say, A family will be strong and endure when there's good leadership. And a business, and a church. In the Living Bible it says, "With honest, sensible leaders there is stability." There are few things that are needed more in life today than stability. We need it in our homes, our nation, our world. There are rapid changes and upheavals and we need stability. It comes from leadership.
(diff. in living and leading in life)
Today we're going to begin an exciting discovery what the principles of leadership are in the book of Nehemiah. That's going to be our textbook. For years all I knew about Nehemiah was the was rebuilding a wall. That's all I knew. But the fact is, this is the greatest leadership book ever written. By his examples we're going to learn principles of leadership.
Today I want to give you the background of the book. But before we do that I want to give you LAWS OF LEADER-- six principles of why we're going to even do this study.
1.NOTHING HAPPENS UNTIL SOMEONE PROVIDES LEADERSHIP FOR IT.
That is a law of life. Look at history. The Civil Rights movement was nothing until a man came along named Martin Luther King and said, "I have a dream" and he provided leadership. The NASA space program was nothing until a guy named John Kennedy said, "We're going to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade." A man by the name of Ray Crocks said, "I want fast food at a convenient price in a clean atmosphere" and he invented an entire industry called fast food. This church started because God said, "Joe and Cathleen, I want you to be leaders and get this thing off the ground." In your own family -- you have family problems... nothing happens until somebody in the family assumes leadership and says, "We're going to do something about it." Everything rises or falls on leadership. Most problems can be traced to a lack of competent leadership. The greatest problem today is a leadership shortage. The greatest need is trained leaders.

In the book of Judges there were seven cycles -- up and down, up and down. The last verse of the book Judges 21:25 "Every man did what was right in his own eyes. There was no king in Israel." Where there is no leadership, people do their own thing. There is instability.
2. LEADERSHIP IS INFLUENCE
If I had to summarize leadership in one word it's influence -- for good or for bad. There are positive leaders and negative leaders. Have you ever gone onto a playground at school and within five minutes you know who the leaders are? For good or for bad.(pic) Have you ever set with a group of teenagers and within five minutes you know who the leaders are? Have you sat in a committee meeting and figured out who the leader was, often not the chairman? It's the person everyone keeps looking to to find out what he thinks? Every time you influence somebody you're assuming leadership.
I Timothy 4:12 Paul told Timothy, "As a young man be an example in leadership." Age has nothing to do with leadership. You can be an influence at any age and you're a model whether you like it or not. Everybody here today is a leader, just in different areas. Anytime you influence somebody you're a leader. The issue is not Are you a leader? The issue is whether or not you're a good one. You are a leader -- in your family, at home, at work, at school. The issue is, Are you a good one or not?

Nehemiah is the outstanding example in the Bible. He
accomplished incredible odds in a brief time because
he was a leader.
3.THE TEST OF LEADERSHIP IS "IS ANYBODY FOLLOWING?"
If you want to know whether you're a leader or not, simple -- Look over your shoulder. Jesus said in John 10:27 "My sheep listen to my voice and I know them and they follow me." I Cor. 11:1 Paul said, "Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ." We all need human models. Sure we're to follow Christ but we need human models to follow.

John Maxwell's parable of leadership, "He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk."

Leadership has absolutely nothing to do with titles or position. It has to do with influence. This is a mistake a lot of people make. A guy thinks, because he has a title, people are going to automatically follow and that's not necessarily true at all. There is a big difference between having a boss and having a leader. It's not a position or a title. Many
people have authority but they don't have leadership.
Ever seen that?

If you have to tell people that you are the leader, if you have to remind people that you're the leader, you're not. Leadership is influence and if you're not influencing anybody it doesn't mater whether you think you're the leader or not -- you're not. It's all influence.

The same thing is true in your home. When you say to your wife, "We're going to do it this way, because I am the spiritual leader, " you ain't. You've just lost it. The truth is if you're really leading, you don't have to remind people.

How about if your kid comes to you and says, "Why should I do this?" and you say, "Because I say so". That is a very weak position to motivate from. It just doesn't work too good. The test of leadership is if you have somebody following. You cannot force people to follow you no matter what you do.
4. THE FOUNDATION OF LEADERSHIP IS CHARACTER, NOT CHARISMA
A lot of TV evangelists have had lots of charisma, but they've bombed out because they had no character. They had major character defects.
A while back on one of the children's quiz shows the question was "What do you call a person who speaks through a dummy without moving his lips?" The child said, "An evangelist?"
The foundation of leadership is character, not charisma. Charisma has nothing to do with it. You don't have to have charisma to be a leader. You do have to have character, credibility, because leadership is influence and if you don't have credibility nobody is going to follow you.

Reputation is what people say you are, character is what you really are. D. L. Moody said, "Character is what you are in the dark when nobody is looking." I Timothy 3:1-13, Paul lays out the leadership characteristics for church leadership. All those characteristics he laid out necessary to be in the ministry, not once does he mention you've got to have a seminary education. Leadership is not based on academies it's character, on who you are.

Leaders come in all types and shapes and sizes of temperaments. There is no one leadership personality. God wants to use your personality. Look at the four different temperaments: Paul was a choleric. Peter was a sanguine. Moses was a melancholic. Abraham was a phlegmatic. They are as different as night and day. God used them all. Leadership has nothing to do with personality. You don't have to be outgoing to be a leader. You don't have to be a sanguine to be a leader.
What you do have to have is character. All great leaders have character. Sometimes a person gets into leadership without character and then those character flaws cause their downfall.
As we look at Nehemiah, we're going to see a man of God who was a very ordinary type of person but did extraordinary things because he had character in his life.
The fact is you will burn out if you try to imitate somebody else's personality. If you want to be a leader, don't say, "I want to be like..." and pick a model. If you try to imitate their personality, you will most likely burn out. (didn’t figure out until came here) All leaders are very different, there is great diversity. What great leaders do have in common is credibility and character.
Hebrews 13:7-8 "Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith." This passage gives us three characteristics of good leaders:
They have a message worth remembering. When they talk, people listen. "Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you." Evidently, there is something worth remembering there.
They have a lifestyle worth considering. "Consider the outcome of their way of life." Does their walk match their talk? Does their life match what they say they are?
They have a faith worth imitating. "Imitate their faith."
If you want to be a good leader, you need to develop a message worth remembering (What is my life message? What does God want to say to the world through me?), have a lifestyle worth considering and have a faith worth imitating. That's all character.
5. LEADERSHIP CAN BE LEARNED
If I didn't believe this we wouldn't be wasting time on this
series. Every one of you can be a great leader. Philippians 4:9 "Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me -- put into practice." Leaders are made not born. There is no such thing as a born leader. They are made by the way they respond to circumstances. You can take two people in exact opposite situations, circumstances, one of them will end up being a leader, the other washes out because of the choices they make.
The priority of training leaders I think can be seen in the ministry of Jesus. Mark 3:14 "He appointed twelve that they should be with him and he should send them out." Jesus had a public ministry and a private ministry. His public ministry involved preaching, teaching and healing. His private ministry involved training the disciples. Even within the twelve He had an inner circle -- Peter, James, John -- who got to go to the Garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Transfiguration -- they got extra attention. In Galatians, Paul said Peter, James and John were the pillars of the church. Jesus invested the maximum time with those who would bear the maximum responsibility. He fed the masses but He spent most of His time training leadership. Leadership can be learned.
6. THE MOMENT YOU STOP LEARNING, YOU STOP LEADING
All leaders are learners. Every leader is a learner. The moment I stop learning, I stop leading. You must always be developing and growing and becoming what God wants you to be. Learning to be a leader takes a lifetime. We'll see it in the life of Nehemiah -- how God prepared him and God used him and how God used the lives of other people that Nehemiah taught.
Ecclesiastes 10:10 "If the ax is dull and its edge unsharpened, more strength is needed but skill will bring success." If you've got a dull ax and you're chopping wood, it takes more energy. But if you have a sharp ax it doesn't take as much energy. Work smarter, not harder. People say, Hard work brings success. I know lots of people who work hard, and aren't successful. They do hard work digging ditches every day, but they're not working smarter. You need to learn to be a leader.

I honor you for being here. The very fact that you're here says more about you than it does about this message. It says that you're interested in learning to be a leader. I honor you for that. The person who thinks, "I know it all" is going to be left behind. It's the person who says, "I need to learn. I need to grow." I want to challenge you to not miss any of this series. This will help you at work, at church, in your business, in your home. I believe God has a place for you to serve. I believe that the very fact that you're alive means God has a purpose for your life. That involves having an
influence on other people.

THE BACKGROUND OF NEHEMIAH'S STORY

In 586 BC the city of Jerusalem in Israel was destroyed. Jews were deported over to Babylon which is now Iraq. They were to be kept there for 70 years. But in 537 the first group of Jews were allowed to return. In 516 the Temple was rebuilt. In 458 Ezra led the second group of Jews back to Jerusalem. Then in 445 Nehemiah asked permission to return to Jerusalem with a third group to rebuild the city walls.
Where is it happening? Jerusalem.
The Problem is that the city walls needed to be rebuilt. Today we use other means to protect our cities -- like radar. We don't need walls. But in those days if a city was walled and an enemy came against it, it might take 2, 4, 6 months for the enemy to break in. The walls were very important. The Jews had been taken away in captivity into another country. They finally were allowed to trickle back in. Finally they were allowed to rebuild the Temple. But the city was still in ruins, rubble. All the walls were falling down. It was just junk and they were living in a heap.
The people were defenseless. They were vulnerable to attack and harassment because they had no protection. Because they were defenseless they were also discouraged and defeated.
Why were they in captivity in the first place? It was the sin of the nation. God said, If you guys don't get your act together I'm going to allow an enemy nation to come in, and He did. But now He's allowing the Jews to come back, the Temple has been rebuilt but the city is still in rubble, a big mess, and the walls are broken down. People are living in rubble, low morale, and they're defeated, discouraged, depressed. What do you do when you have that kind of situation?
You need a leader.

Nehemiah 1 "The word of Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year. While I was in the citadel of Susa, Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah and some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile and also about Jerusalem. They said to me, `Those that survived the exile are back in the province and they are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down and the gates have been burned with fire.' [It's very significant about the gates.] When I heard these things I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned, fasted and prayed before the Lord God. Then I said ..." the next verses gets into his prayer.

Notice: Nehemiah first says "I was in the city of Susa". First place, notice this was written in first person. Nehemiah wrote this book. This is his journal. We're going to get a personal account of a leader, not from third hand experience. This is his personal journal. We're going to get an inside look at the leader.

He was in the citadel of Susa. Susa was not the capital of the Persian Empire but was kind of like a summer palace. Nehemiah is there in the king's summer palace which is in modern day Iraq.
Last part of v. 11, he says "I was the cupbearer to the king." This tells us what Nehemiah did for a living, who he was, what his occupation was.
It says Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king. What was a cupbearer? If he was going to go back and try to rebuild the wall, obviously he's not a contractor, he's a cupbearer. A cupbearer was probably the second most important position in the kingdom. He was a combination Prime Minister, body guard, personal security agent and assistant to the king. He did all of these things. He was very well trusted. He was the person the most trusted by the king. He was the king's personal security agent, and prime minister. The reason he was called cupbearer was because part of his job was to taste the wine before the king drank it to make sure it wasn't poisoned. There were a lot of assassination attempts in those days. The king was paranoid and fearful so they would have a guy who would test all of the wine. If he keeled over they knew that was bad wine! It was a pretty dangerous job, considering in those days a lot of people didn't like the King.

The point I want to make here is that Nehemiah had to be absolutely loyal and trustworthy, a Jew brought over in captivity or actually he was probably born in Babylon because they'd been there 70 years, but he was not a Persian and he is second in command. Isn't it neat how God has a way of always getting His men in the right position at the right time? Nehemiah is really a major figure in the Persian government.

Verse 1 says in the month of Chislev his brother Hanani has been on a trip to Jerusalem and he comes back. Jerusalem is about 800 to 1000 miles from Susa. In those days that would take probably about two months travel on camel and it's all across the desert. It's major hard driving. His brother comes back and Nehemiah says, give me a report about all of our relatives, what's happening over there in Jerusalem? Hanani says, "It's all bad news, the people are in the pits, our relatives are discouraged, the walls have not been rebuilt. They've got the temple rebuilt but the whole city lies in ruin. All these guys are coming in invading the city and the people are discouraged, depressed, low morale. It's bad!"

Nehemiah's reaction in v. 4 "When I heard these things I sat down and I wept and for some days I mourned and I fasted and I prayed before the God of heaven." Nehemiah's reaction was four things: he wept, he mourned, he fasted, he prayed. He's really taking this thing seriously. He's saddened by this. He's embarrassed for the people of God. He says, I prayed and in the next few verses, 4-11, he gives us the prayer. Notice it says, "for some days". Circle that phrase. He didn't do it for just one day. How long did he do it? He tells us. In v. 1 he tells us this is the month of Chislev when he heard about it. In chapter 2, the very first verse, he says the month of Nisan of the twentieth year of the king he gets the chance to go. He's been praying all of this time. Nehemiah had been praying, weeping, fasting, mourning for four months. He took this seriously, very deeply in his heart. He prayed for four months straight. Nehemiah is a man of prayer. He has 11 prayers; there's more prayers in this book
than almost any book of the Bible. One of them we'll cover next week.

WHY DID GOD CHOOSE NEHEMIAH AS A LEADER? Of all the people why did God choose Nehemiah, the cupbearer to a pagan king? Three reasons:
1. NEHEMIAH WAS SENSITIVE TO THE NEEDS ABOUT HIM
Nehemiah's reaction is pretty incredible. Nehemiah has it made. He's at the peak of his career. Nehemiah is living on easy street, the second best position in the kingdom. He's got a great salary, he doesn't have to rock the boat. The problems in Jerusalem must seem like a million miles away. He's never even seen Jerusalem. He was born in Babylon because they'd been there 70 years. When he hears about God's people depressed, discouraged, defeated he takes it seriously.

In the following weeks I'm going to give you leadership insights from Nehemiah. Here's one of the first ones: Leaders are sensitive to the needs of people around them. That's the first principle of leadership I want to bring out of this book. Living in the Houston area, life is really so easy compared to the rest of the world. Most of the world would love to have your problems. Their problems are "Am I going to have food today?" and we're worried about "My shoes don't match my purse!" or "I've got on summer colors and it’s fall!" We live in the Houston area which is in so many ways insulated and isolated that all of the problems the rest of the world faces seem far away. You could turn on your TV any night and see all of these needs but become callused because we see them all of the time.

The point I want to make is this: The people that God uses are people who care about the things God cares about. And God cared about the fact that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down. Since God cared about it, Nehemiah cared about it and that made him a leader.

Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision, used to say, "Let my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God." That's the first step in being a great leader. A sensitivity to the needs around you.
2. NEHEMIAH WAS DEPENDABLE
He had a proven track record. We see that the king considered him so trustworthy he gave him the most reliable position of the kingdom -- cupbearer. He intrusted his personal security to him. There was enormous trust there. The point I want to make here is that God uses people who are trustworthy, reliable, dependable.

Luke 16:10-13.   "Unless you are faithful in small matters, you won't be faithful in large ones. If you cheat even a little, you won't be honest with greater responsibilities. And if you are untrustworthy about worldly wealth, who will trust you with the true riches of heaven? And if you are not faithful with other people's money, why should you be trusted with money of your own? "No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."

We see a couple ways God tests our faithfulness to see if He's going to use us or not. One of the ways He tests us is how we serve in another person's ministry before He gives us our own. Another way is what do we do with our money? The Bible tells us that the way you manage your money determines how much God can bless your life. Your giving determines to a great degree how much God can bless your life. If you cannot be trusted with this small amount of worldly wealth who's going to trust you with true spiritual riches?
3. NEHEMIAH WAS AVAILABLE
When the situation needed a leader, Nehemiah said, "I volunteer! Here am I, send me!" He had the job, the position that everybody else wants and the problem is a thousand miles away, two months away across the desert on a camel and he says, "I'll go! I'm not even a contractor but I'll go rebuild the wall!" God still chose him even though he didn't have the skills for that particular job. But he was sensitive and he was dependable and he was available.

God is not looking for ability in leaders as much as he's looking for credibility, dependability, and availability. Those qualities are a matter of choice. You may say, "I don't have certain gifts or talents or intellect." That doesn't even matter to God. What matters are, Are you credible? Do you have character? Are you growing in character? Are you sensitive to people? Are you dependable? Can God rely on you? Dependability is much more important than ability. Are you available?

Nothing happens until someone provides leadership for it. Everything rises or falls on leadership. God wants to use you as a leader in your home, your business, your church. If you'll stick with me over the next several weeks, I will teach you the principles from God's word on how you can be a leader.


Prayer:

As we close, let's do a little personal evaluation. How about these three reasons God used Nehemiah? Am I sensitive to the needs around me? Ask yourself that. Or am I so caught up in what I'm doing, my plan that I can't hear God's voice? Am I sensitive? That's why God chose Nehemiah. Am I aware of what my wife's greatest needs are? my husband's needs are? Am I sensitive enough to be aware of what my kids' greatest needs are? Am I aware of the needs of the people that I work with? Am I aware of the greatest needs in my church? Could I name them right now? Do I even care? What breaks your heart? Does your team losing on TV upset you more than people around you are going to die and go to hell unless we reach them with the good news? What breaks your heart?

How about dependability? Can I be depended on? Am I reliable? How about availability? Am I available to God? to be used in any way that He wants to use me?

As we close, I invite you to pray a one sentence prayer: "God, I want to be willing to be used by You anywhere, anytime, any way." If you say that and mean it, hang on for a fun time. If you get usable, God will wear you out and there is no greater thrill than to be used by God in the kingdom of God.

Father, may be we challenged from the life of Nehemiah as we look at this man. The principles are thousands of years old but they apply today in the rat race we live in. Lord, we want to be sensitive, dependable and available to You. In Jesus' name. Amen.