Jesus Is Our Leader

‘In those days Israel had no king.’
Judges 19:1
Did you know that both Chapter 18 and 19 in the book of Judges starts with “in those days Israel had no king”
In fact it is mentioned in the old testament several times.
But never in the new testament.
Ever wonder why?
It’s because when Jesus came we were given the best leader to follow.
Let’s back up a little bit. How would you explain what makes a GREAT leader?
It’s pretty easy for me. A GREAT leader is someone who I can trust. They listen to me and give sound advice. They don’t jump to conclusions or throw blame onto others. They are calm, and easy to talk to. They care not only about me but about everyone around them. They don’t get upset easily, but when they do there is a great reason. They teach every chance they get, not PREACH but teach.
Those are just a few of the things that make a GREAT leader in my mind.
Remind you of anyone, except for me of course (Just kidding).
Of course it does. JESUS!
Jesus was trusted at a young age. He was only 30 when he first started his ministry.
How many 30 year olds do you know that could lead the way Jesus did? Jesus took a group of people and talked to them in a way that they wanted to listen.
He did so good in fact that there was one time, the same time he walked on water. That the crowd literally ran around the lake to meet them on the other side so they could continue to learn from him.
People loved to listen to him because of the way he talked to them.
Sometimes as chirstians we forget to follow that example he set for us.
He listened. In John 8:1-11 he saved a woman’s life by simply listening. When they brought out the woman who was caught in the act of committing adultery they wanted to stone her, and they wanted Jesus to get behind their cause.
What did he do?
He listened to what they had to say. Then bent down and started writing in the dirt and told them, let the person who has never sinned be the first to throw a stone.
What happened then? They all reflected on their actions and left, slowly but they left.
Then after a while he looked up and asked her, Where did they all go? (like he didn’t know)
Sometimes the best leaders don’t speak, they simply listen.
I am 100% sure in my heart that those who wanted to stone her were looking to get into an argument with Jesus.
Can’t you just see it now.
If he would have agreed with them they would have said, “You said to forgive everyone, how can you condemn this woman to death.”
Or if he would have chosen to argue about forgiving her, “why are you not following the laws Moses set for us, are you above Moses and God?”
He couldn’t have won either way.
So what did he do? NOTHING! Ok well he did something, he wrote in the dirt. Lol Personally I would have loved to see what he wrote.
We can’t forget this one about trust and giving.
How about when he fed the 5000 men on the hill with just 5 loaves of bread and a couple of fish? Everyone ate and were satisfied.
He had to convince his disciples to believe in the unbelievable. Let me tell you that it’s a leader’s job every day. If you want to succeed you have to believe that anything can happen.
And Jesus did just that. He convinced all 12 of his disciples that 5 loves of bread and 2 fish could feed this massive crowd.
Once they believed in the mission, anything was possible.
You see God is amazing. When we believe that he can do it, he does it. But when we have doubt, any doubt at all, it might not happen. It usually doesn’t.
Jesus had no doubt in his body about God’s plan, ever. He trusted his leader with all of his heart and that’s what we need to do as well.
Trust Jesus, Trust God, Know beyond any doubt that what they tell us will come true. If we don’t then it will never happen.
Today we want to give you a goal. Our goal for you is to go out into the world and be the same quality of a leader that Jesus is to us every day.
Lead with Passion, Lead with Perseverance, Lead with Intensity, Lead with Love.
Become the person God DESIGNED you to be. Remember he knew all of us when we were in the womb.
Lead like JESUS DOES!
Prayer
Lord God, today we come to you to simply say thank you. Thank you for giving us your son as the GREATEST leader of all time. Lord, we pray that you help us to learn from him, and all of the other amazing leaders you have placed in our lives. We pray that you would help guide us to be more like him. Help us to grow in our relationship with you and him every day. Help us to lead others to grow in the relationship with you. Help us to become the people you designed us to be. We know that it won’t always be easy, but it will be an amazing journey when we look back on it. It always amazes me that when we are in the middle of the storm it seems almost too scary. And just after the storm we look at the damage it causes. But we forget that because we saw the damage we are able to build back even stronger then before so we can weather even stronger storms. God thank you for everything and everyone you place in our lives.
We ask all these things in Jesus’s name.
Amen
Will you pray with us?
Mankind throughout the world throughout our current situation
All Law enforcement and emergency response personnel
For all military personal serving our country and their families
Those in Leadership positions throughout the world
Prayer
Lord, today we come to you with HAPPY hearts. We are so grateful that you give us the opportunity to change the lives of those around us. We are grateful that you give us the wisdom to change our lives and the lives of those around us. And you make it so simple. We can do it with a single smile. God today I would ask that you help us to smile more. The next time we see someone down, help us to smile for them. The next time we are down, help us to remember that you gave us the best gift ever. The ability to know you, your son, and the holy spirit. God, we are so grateful for everything you give us.
We ask all these things in your Precious Son's Name
Amen
A Little More
The other day I got a call from one of our clients.
I love talking to our clients so I always smile when I answer the phone.
“Hey Dan, one of my drivers is pulled over and they are saying that our permit doesn’t cover what we weigh. Isn’t that why we hire your team to make sure that these things don’t happen!”
My smile immediately vanished.
I was shocked because my team is amazing. and it’s not like them to miss something like 20,000 lbs on a permit.
So, I asked him, “Who have you been working with, and who was the one who called our team to get the permit?”
To get to the bottom of the problem I needed the details.
They gave me the details.
My next call was to my team. Then after I got the details I got them started on getting new permits to get the problem fixed. I’m a solutions guy, not an excuses guy.
But I NEED to know the real reason why it happened so that we can fix the issue.
My next call was to the driver so that I could see exactly what happened.
I knew he was going to be upset. He was pulled over and they were going to give him a HUGE ticket. I wouldn’t be happy either.
so……
I made sure not to smile when I made the call. I had a serious look on my face. As we chatted I learned that he was the person who gave his weight to our team. I asked where he got the weights from and how in the world they were off by over 20K lbs!
That’s when he told me that he might have gotten the wrong scale ticket from the weigh station where he originally weighed.
Immediately my heart leapt with joy, this is NOT our fault!
Now to get the problem resolved and get this driver back on the road was my only goal. I was not going to assign blame or make anyone feel bad.
Hey, we all make mistakes. I do it multiple times every single day.
The owner of the company shot me a text. I'm getting permits from the big guys. They won’t make these mistakes that cost me time and $$$$$.
No problem. Let me know if you need anything. We are here to help.
Well……..
After they called the “BIG Guys” they called me about 30 minutes later.
Hey, we can’t get an Idaho permit until Monday. It’s Friday night. And we need to drop this load off tomorrow afternoon.
I told him that I would NOT make any promises.
But my team went to work!
Guess what????
We got the permits that the “BIG Guys” couldn’t get.
My team had the Idaho permit in less than 20 minutes. For the right weight this time.
Here’s the point of all this.
When things don’t go right, smile. I have taught my whole team this.
That right there is how we got the permits. They smiled as they worked and it didn’t take any time at all.
Ok, there might be a little knowledge that went into this too. Lol
Next time you need anything DOT, don’t call the “Big Guys” , call the team who can get it done!
Dan Greer