SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to be with you.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Mac.
SPEAKER_00: I'm one of the pastors on our team here at the church.
SPEAKER_00: Also, want to welcome all of you who are joining us from home.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for tuning in.
SPEAKER_00: Today's message should probably come with a warning label.
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be a little bit hard-hitting.
SPEAKER_00: It's an indictment of the church.
SPEAKER_00: But I want you to hear this.
SPEAKER_00: It's an indictment of people like me before it's an indictment of people like you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to preach today on the title Measuring What Matters.
SPEAKER_00: Measuring What Matters.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to submit to you today that there is a cancer that has metastasized within the American church.
SPEAKER_00: I told you it was going to be a little hard-hitting, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Like any kind of cancer, the key to getting healthy is to identify it, to get it diagnosed early, and then go undergo the necessary treatment, and of course, combine that with a lot of prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Today I want to name what this cancer is in the American Church.
SPEAKER_00: I want to diagnose it and describe it and then consider what the remedy for it is.
SPEAKER_00: Because here's what we're going to see is that Jesus was actually acutely aware of this cancer and spent a lot of time warning the church so they wouldn't contract it.
SPEAKER_00: The cancer I'm referring to is the tendency for churchgoers to get duped by bad leaders, by bad leaders, which has become an endemic, in my opinion, in our celebrity pastor culture where charisma is consistently prioritized over character.
SPEAKER_00: Dallas Willard put the problem this way: he said the greatest crisis facing the church today are leaders whose character can't bear their gifting.
SPEAKER_00: Just notice that.
SPEAKER_00: He says, this is the greatest crisis.
SPEAKER_00: The greatest crisis facing the church today are leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Leaders whose character can't bear the weight of their gifting.
SPEAKER_00: You guys, we Americans, we love celebrities.
SPEAKER_00: We love celebrities.
SPEAKER_00: We drool over them.
SPEAKER_00: Athletes and actors, right?
SPEAKER_00: Successful CEOs and business types.
SPEAKER_00: We we love celebrities.
SPEAKER_00: We love giving them attention.
SPEAKER_00: And even though we as the church are supposed to be distinct from our culture, we uh have come to mimic our culture.
SPEAKER_00: We're nothing, we're just like the ancient Israelites, who, even though they were to have one king, uh, namely Yahweh, they look at the surrounding nations and they go, God, we want a king.
SPEAKER_00: Give us a king so we can be like the other nations.
SPEAKER_00: And I think many churches have the same disposition.
SPEAKER_00: Give us a king to lead our congregation.
SPEAKER_00: Give us an impressive uh leader, give us a celebrity pastor so that we can be on the map, so that we can feel important.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and then when they get them, they ooh over the person, they they they have googly eyes, right?
SPEAKER_00: And they talk about, oh, how great this pastor is.
SPEAKER_00: He's so charismatic, he, oh, he's anointed, his his preaching is so deep.
SPEAKER_00: Did you feel what I felt when he was preaching last time?
SPEAKER_00: But see, far too often their charisma outpaces their character, and their integrity can't support the weight of their platform, and so you pull back the curtain and you discover um, well, who they are in front of crowds, adoring crowds, who inflate their egos with their applause.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that's not the same as who they are behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And there are just so many examples of this, you guys.
SPEAKER_00: So many examples.
SPEAKER_00: The examples are numerous, and the results are always disastrous, hurtful, and harmful to the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Whether it was uh Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart in the 1980s, those are the two big scandals there, and uh, or Ted Haggard in the early 2000s, literally the president of the National Association of Evangelicals.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Carl Lentz and Brian Houston from Hillsong Church, Mark Driscoll, James McDonald, Bill Heibels, Ravi Zacharias, Broxy Kavey, right?
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh Mike Bickle from IHOP.
SPEAKER_00: We could just keep going.
SPEAKER_00: Most recently, uh Robert Morris from Gateway Church in the news.
SPEAKER_00: Each of these scandals left a wide wake of damage, particularly for the victims, you guys, particularly those who are, they're still recovering from what they experienced under bad leadership.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's so confusing to have someone who is your pastor, someone who's supposed to be shepherding you, actually end up abusing you.
SPEAKER_00: Like the the distortion effect of that is hard to capture with words.
SPEAKER_00: Now, on the one hand, this problem isn't new, friends.
SPEAKER_00: This problem isn't new.
SPEAKER_00: There's numerous places in the Old Testament, most notably in Ezekiel, where God really reams out uh the shepherds of Israel, the leaders of Israel who weren't really caring for the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, if you look through church history, this isn't a new problem.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout church history, it's just common to human beings, those who have power tend to abuse their authority and power for self uh uh self-inflation, for selfish reasons.
SPEAKER_00: But uh it does seem to me, friends, it does seem to me that there's something in the evangelical water.
SPEAKER_00: Something has been put in our Kool-Aid and we've been drinking it.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to ask the question: what's going on here and how do we get here?
SPEAKER_00: What's up with this?
SPEAKER_00: There's numerous variables, it's complicated, but I'm gonna give you kind of a quick overview of how I make sense of it.
SPEAKER_00: I think one of the primary catalysts for this uh epidemic, this endemic that we're experiencing of bad leaders, uh, goes back to the church growth movement, which was started by two missiologists, uh, Peter Wagner and Donald McGavron, and they had some ideas about how to bring more people to Jesus, which is a great heart.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure their heart was in the right place, but they had some really crummy ideas about how to make that happen.
SPEAKER_00: And their ideas led to what was known as the attractional church or seeker-friendly model of ministry.
SPEAKER_00: You guys know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: Um, where the goal is let's try to attract as many people, let's try to get as many people to come to us to come to church as possible.
SPEAKER_00: So, how do you do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, obviously the answer is to make church as attractive as possible to outsiders.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: Well, how do you do that?
SPEAKER_00: The answer is well, you have to have the best religious goods and services for spiritual consumers in the surrounding community.
SPEAKER_00: And so all of a sudden, church becomes offering religious goods and services to spiritual consumers.
SPEAKER_00: Let's say you're in a community with lots of young families.
SPEAKER_00: Well, then you need a great kids' ministry because that's what people want.
SPEAKER_00: You need a thriving student ministry because that's what people want.
SPEAKER_00: People want to go deep in small groups, you gotta have a good community life, Pastor.
SPEAKER_00: And of course, quite frankly, a lot of people aren't willing to go beyond the weekend service, so that's gotta be top-notch.
SPEAKER_00: Like you need the best band in town, and you need good speaking.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I would tell you that the most important ingredient to the attractional model of church ministry is to have a really talented lead pastor.
SPEAKER_00: Without it, it doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: You need someone who has incredible gifting, filling the pulpit week after week, someone who can wow the crowds with their words, sort of a sage from the stage that can not only captivate people's attention, but keep them coming back week after week.
SPEAKER_00: Without that, it doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not against preaching, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm not against good preaching.
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, spend a fair amount of time every week preparing messages.
SPEAKER_00: I do care about that.
SPEAKER_00: But what happened over time, I just want you to follow the logic here, follow the follow the flow, is that the job description, this didn't happen overnight, it happened slowly and gradually, but the job description for pastors changed.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: And the simplest way I would narrate that change is it went from actually pastoring people to instead performing for people.
SPEAKER_00: You see that shift?
SPEAKER_00: It went from pastoral presence to stage performance.
SPEAKER_00: It went from caring for people to entertaining them.
SPEAKER_00: It went from feeding the flock to now trying to gather a bigger one.
SPEAKER_00: And so this pulpit, what I'm doing now, uh, was turned into a platform, and then the pastor became a performer.
SPEAKER_00: And with this shift, with this shift came also a shift in what the church looks for in a pastor.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, the qualifications for ministry began to morph and change as well.
SPEAKER_00: So as the shift from pastoring people to performing for people took over, the primary uh thing, the primary qualification people began to look for in pastors wasn't character, it was rather their competency on stage.
SPEAKER_00: You see that?
SPEAKER_00: And so instead of looking for leaders with strong character, the focus became finding the next superstar, the next impressive leader who can uh lead our congregation.
SPEAKER_00: I have a buddy who um there's like church uh search firms who will you can hire to help you find uh a pastoral candidate, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Just like the the business world.
SPEAKER_00: And uh he landed a job and he was recruited by this, the top one in the United States.
SPEAKER_00: And we were talking about this dynamic, and he told me, you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I had like three months of interviewing, not one time, not one time did they ask me a question to assess my character.
SPEAKER_00: Not once.
SPEAKER_00: It was entirely about my competency.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, now follow this.
SPEAKER_00: If you create a job description where the primary focus is standing in front of crowds of people performing for them in a spotlight, week after week after week, what kind of people do you think are going to be drawn to that kind of job?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is people with narcissistic tendencies, people who love the spotlight, people who crave it, people who can't get enough of it.
SPEAKER_00: And so here's where we are, friends.
SPEAKER_00: In an attempt to grow the church, we've platformed leaders whose character can't bear their gifting.
SPEAKER_00: We've created a job description that literally attracts narcissistic type leaders, and then we're sort of shocked and flabbergasted when these narcissistic leaders who we put our trust in aren't who they say they are.
SPEAKER_00: And here's where uh all of us are complicit.
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm talking about you for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: A celebrity isn't famous without us giving them attention.
SPEAKER_00: You know that?
SPEAKER_00: A pastor doesn't have a celebrity presence unless we give it to him.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's like this perfect codependency, this toxic synergy, where what we want from them, they need from us.
SPEAKER_00: And so we uh uh we uh want a pastor who's a hero, and they're hungry for attention.
SPEAKER_00: And so the pastor hungers for our attention, and we're hungry for a hero, and and lo and behold, the two perfectly fit together, but it's toxic, it does bad work.
SPEAKER_00: Michael Krueger, who wrote a book on this dynamic, said, Behind every celebrity is an adoring congregation that both loves and supports the celebrity atmosphere.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just them, it's we.
SPEAKER_00: We contribute to this.
SPEAKER_00: Now, as I mentioned earlier, um, this problem is not new or surprising to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Again, Israel had a long list of uh bad leaders, shepherds who were supposed to be caring for Israel, but did the opposite.
SPEAKER_00: And if you read again Ezekiel, you'll see God uh speaking to them very clearly and directly.
SPEAKER_00: What's more is that this was perhaps the most pressing problem in Jesus' day was corrupt leadership.
SPEAKER_00: This is why Jesus spends an enormous amount of time calling out and challenging the religious establishment of his day.
SPEAKER_00: If you want a good example of that, read Matthew 23, where he just like continually punches them in the nose time after time for the way they're failing to care for the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is not a new problem to Jesus, uh, but it is one that Jesus was aware of and he was concerned about and warned his disciples about at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, to be on guard against toxic leaders.
SPEAKER_00: So here's what Jesus says in Matthew 7, verses 15 through 20.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Watch out for false prophets.
SPEAKER_00: They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
SPEAKER_00: By their fruit you will recognize them.
SPEAKER_00: Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
SPEAKER_00: That's a hypothetical, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: Like, of course not, okay?
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
SPEAKER_00: A good tree can't, it's unable to bear bad fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And a bad tree cannot, it's incapable of bearing good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
SPEAKER_00: Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them.
SPEAKER_00: So let's break this down.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, watch out.
SPEAKER_00: Watch out.
SPEAKER_00: Be aware.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word here literally uh uh implies being on a constant being on constant guard.
SPEAKER_00: Being continually on guard for this thing.
SPEAKER_00: And what is this thing?
SPEAKER_00: It's false prophets.
SPEAKER_00: Be on guard, watch out for false prophets.
SPEAKER_00: This word false prophets in the Greek, it's a compound word.
SPEAKER_00: It's two words.
SPEAKER_00: It's pseudo-propheti.
SPEAKER_00: And you can just see it, like you hear it, right?
SPEAKER_00: Pseudo.
SPEAKER_00: What does pseudo mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means fake or false, counterfeit, deceptive, uh pretending to be what it is not.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus, the second word is prophetai, which means prophets, but don't think about prophets the way we think about prophets.
SPEAKER_00: We usually think of prophets as people who sort of predict the future.
SPEAKER_00: But in Scripture, prophets predominantly didn't predict the future.
SPEAKER_00: They were spiritual leaders appointed by God to call the people of God back into covenant faithfulness wherever they had strayed.
SPEAKER_00: And there were false prophets throughout the Old Testament who claimed to be appointed by God but who weren't, and claimed to speak on behalf of God but didn't.
SPEAKER_00: But prophets in and of themselves are spiritual leaders who were called to challenge and invite the people of Israel to be aligned with God.
SPEAKER_00: And wherever they were off track to get back on track.
SPEAKER_00: So prophets were more broadly, they were spiritual leaders.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus here is warning about fake leaders, counterfeit leaders, deceptive leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Leaders who are not who they say they are, who are pretending to be something they're not.
SPEAKER_00: Watch out.
SPEAKER_00: Be on guard against counterfeit leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that appearances can be deceiving.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, they come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly, inwardly, they are ferocious wolves.
SPEAKER_00: Watch out.
SPEAKER_00: Be on guard for what?
SPEAKER_00: For false prophets, pseudo-propheti, bad leaders.
SPEAKER_00: But notice that appearances can be deceiving because they'll come to you dressed in sheep's clothing.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, they'll look good.
SPEAKER_00: But inwardly, Jesus says, they're ferocious wolves.
SPEAKER_00: So on the outside, they will embody the picture of godliness.
SPEAKER_00: On the outside, they'll look like they have it altogether.
SPEAKER_00: On the outside, it will look great.
SPEAKER_00: But on the inside, it's a different story.
SPEAKER_00: The outside won't match the inside.
SPEAKER_00: The outward appearance won't match the inward reality.
SPEAKER_00: Who they are publicly doesn't match who they are privately.
SPEAKER_00: Who they are on their state on the stage doesn't match who they are off the stage in everyday life.
SPEAKER_00: Michael Kruger put it this way: he says, bullies in the church, and here he's talking about toxic leaders, bullies in the church often don't look like bullies.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Abusive pastoral leaders at first look like the hero.
SPEAKER_00: They look like the good guy until we discover they are the bad guy.
SPEAKER_00: This is what makes spiritual abuse so disturbing and hard to spot.
SPEAKER_00: It happens at the hands of those who are charged with care and protection of the flock.
SPEAKER_00: If you study some of the most prolific examples of pastoral scandals within the evangelical church in the last 30 years, as I have done, you'll discover this dynamic at play in every single one of them.
SPEAKER_00: Where on the surface of things, in terms of outward appearance, everything looked great.
SPEAKER_00: Impressive, actually.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, let's just take Bill Heibels as an example, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I remember in college readings, here's a guy who planted a church, it grew to thousands, multi-site campus, right?
SPEAKER_00: He wrote dozens of books.
SPEAKER_00: I remember reading some of his books in college, you know, even on integrity, by the way, who you are when no one is looking, too busy not to pray.
SPEAKER_00: It sounds good.
SPEAKER_00: Starts Global Leadership Summit, literally training Christian leaders around the globe.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we discover, well, those appearances weren't reality.
SPEAKER_00: And when the story comes out, it was never reality.
SPEAKER_00: There were signs all along, which is often the case.
SPEAKER_00: On the outside looks good, but people were actually in proximity to him saw troubling things the entire time.
SPEAKER_00: But because things were growing, because things were going well, they chose not to say anything.
SPEAKER_00: Outward appearance doesn't match the inward reality.
SPEAKER_00: And we get duped.
SPEAKER_00: We get duped because we associate fruit with outward things, and they that's not what Jesus is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: So let me just clear the clear the clear the debris a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: Good theology, good theology, if someone has good theology, that is not an indicator of spiritual maturity.
SPEAKER_00: You can have good theology and be spiritually immature.
SPEAKER_00: Being a competent preacher is not an indicator of godly character.
SPEAKER_00: You guys hearing this?
SPEAKER_00: A large following does not guarantee, it's no guarantee of integrity.
SPEAKER_00: Growing a large church, growing a large church doesn't mean someone is actually like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: An advanced degree doesn't instantly mean someone is trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, all of those, you guys, all of those are externals.
SPEAKER_00: And they're not bad.
SPEAKER_00: It's great to be educated.
SPEAKER_00: It's great to be good at preaching.
SPEAKER_00: It's fine.
SPEAKER_00: But what you need to know is that those can be covers for what's corrupt.
SPEAKER_00: They're externals.
SPEAKER_00: They're not, they're no indicator of what's on the inside.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus says, watch out.
SPEAKER_00: Be on guard for pseudo-leaders, for bad leaders, for toxic leaders.
SPEAKER_00: So here's the question.
SPEAKER_00: It's a question I'd be asking if I were you.
SPEAKER_00: How do you know who is the real deal?
SPEAKER_00: How do you know?
SPEAKER_00: How do you spot a fake?
SPEAKER_00: How do you sniff out a phony?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus tells us.
SPEAKER_00: Alright, so here's what he says.
SPEAKER_00: He says, by their fruit you will recognize them.
SPEAKER_00: Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles?
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
SPEAKER_00: A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: It's like kindergarten here.
SPEAKER_00: He's teaching basics.
SPEAKER_00: Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown to the fire.
SPEAKER_00: Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them.
SPEAKER_00: So how do you spot a pseudo-leader?
SPEAKER_00: How do you sniff out a phony?
SPEAKER_00: By inspecting the fruit.
SPEAKER_00: We need to inspect the fruit of our leaders.
SPEAKER_00: Scott McKnight says fruit inspection reveals true character.
SPEAKER_00: It's as you inspect the fruit that you will see the true character of a leader.
SPEAKER_00: And the character of the fruit reveals the character of the tree.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: A good tree is going to bear good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: When the fruit is good, you know that the tree is good.
SPEAKER_00: But bad fruit indicates a bad tree.
SPEAKER_00: A bad tree, an unhealthy tree, can't bear good fruit.
SPEAKER_00: This is the lesson that Jesus is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: The problem again, though, is that we're measuring the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: We're measuring externals.
SPEAKER_00: We're measuring what we think is effective leadership based on the cultural understanding of leadership, impact and effectiveness and things like that.
SPEAKER_00: Sky Gitani says this often we look at the wrong fruit.
SPEAKER_00: We're looking at the wrong fruit.
SPEAKER_00: We're assessing the wrong fruit.
SPEAKER_00: We're culturally conditioned to assess people, including ministry leaders like me, by their professional success.
SPEAKER_00: How effective is he?
SPEAKER_00: How many people has he impacted?
SPEAKER_00: How much has he or she achieved?
SPEAKER_00: We incorrectly assume that an effective leader, as defined by our culture, must be a godly leader.
SPEAKER_00: It is entirely possible to be a celebrated leader with a huge ministry and be diseased, be a diseased tree producing rotten fruit.
SPEAKER_00: We've got to measure what matters.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's the thing is in inspecting fruit requires getting proximate to that fruit.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever been to the grocery store and you have to buy some fruit, let's just say an apple, and you're like, oh, that one looks good, and you grab it and then you pick it up and you're like, whoa, wait a second.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you turn it over and it's like soft and gross on the other side.
SPEAKER_00: This happened to me a couple weeks.
SPEAKER_00: For some reason, I've been into strawberries, okay?
SPEAKER_00: I've just been liking strawberries recently.
SPEAKER_00: And a couple weeks ago, I go to the fridge, and there is a fresh carton of strawberries.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Josie.
SPEAKER_00: This is great.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for doing this.
SPEAKER_00: And I take it out of the fridge, I bring it to the counter, flip open the lid, and it looks great all on the top.
SPEAKER_00: Then I take one off, and what is it?
SPEAKER_00: The other side is all gross.
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, like the whole thing was bad.
SPEAKER_00: On the surface, it looked good.
SPEAKER_00: But then you lift it up, you inspect it, and you're like, nah, this is bad.
SPEAKER_00: Bad news.
SPEAKER_00: Well, the only way you know that is by actually getting close to it, examining it, looking at it.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same thing here.
SPEAKER_00: Part of the reason, you guys, why you all are getting duped by celebrity pastors, if we're honest, is because you've never met them.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know them.
SPEAKER_00: They have a platform and you're tuning in.
SPEAKER_00: So you listen to their sermon each week.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they've got a great podcast, so you tune into that, and you're like gobbling up everything.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, you guys send me their stuff.
SPEAKER_00: I literally have people that are like, hey, have you listened to this message by this guy over here?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, What what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: This is ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you outsourcing who your pastor is to someone you've never met across the country who doesn't even live here?
SPEAKER_00: That's ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00: I don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: Now, hear me.
SPEAKER_00: I listen to the occasional sermon.
SPEAKER_00: I have podcasts I listen to, I read books all the time, but I'm not entrusting those people with the formation of my soul.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus taught life on life discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: Those people can't disciple me because I don't really know them, and they don't know me, so they can't actually speak into my life.
SPEAKER_00: The type of discipleship that Jesus modeled, the type of shepherding that Jesus modeled was life on life, where you actually got to know the leader and see their character in daily life, and because they got an inside look on your life, they could speak to you, both affirmation and challenge.
SPEAKER_00: Is this making sense?
SPEAKER_00: We've we've got this celebrity culture where we're downloading all their, downloading all their sermons, we give them all this influence, and then the next thing you know, they have some sort of scandal, and we sit back and go, oh, such bad luck, what's wrong with the church?
SPEAKER_00: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_00: You're participating in it, you're complicit in it.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know I've been focused on leaders today, all right?
SPEAKER_00: And I I suppose it's a bit ironic because I'm a leader standing on a stage speaking to you.
SPEAKER_00: I get that.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to turn a corner here.
SPEAKER_00: Um because I think what Jesus is talking about in this passage actually applies to all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Like you all are leaders too.
SPEAKER_00: Um, all of you have some leadership influence in the lives of other people.
SPEAKER_00: We're all sheep to some and shepherds to others.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a parent here, you're a leader.
SPEAKER_00: Your job is to pasture your kids.
SPEAKER_00: If you work in a company and you have any managerial oversight, you are a you're a leader.
SPEAKER_00: If you got more than 10 friends on Facebook, you're leading someone, okay?
SPEAKER_00: We're all leaders, including me.
SPEAKER_00: And so I want to give this as a uh a bottom line, first and foremost, to spiritual leaders who are leading in church environments, but then secondarily to all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Here's our bottom line for today.
SPEAKER_00: Who we are becoming matters more than what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: All right, so we need to measure what matters, and what matters is who we are, our character.
SPEAKER_00: Your character matters more than your accomplishments.
SPEAKER_00: This is what Jesus is telling us to measure.
SPEAKER_00: It's the fruit of our character, which is transformed by the love of Jesus in cooperation with the Spirit of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: This has been Jesus' focus throughout the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: It's been on a renovation of the heart from the inside out, such that you become the kind of person who can actually do the things that he's saying to do, supremely loving your enemy.
SPEAKER_00: This is what it means.
SPEAKER_00: It's the fruit of character that allows you to embody the fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So that when people bump up against you, when when you're squeezed and under pressure, what comes out of you is love, joy, peace, patience.
SPEAKER_00: All of that is the fruit of character, and this is what Jesus says we should be measuring.
SPEAKER_00: We need to measure what matters.
SPEAKER_00: And what matters is the who, not just the do.
SPEAKER_00: Who you're becoming, not just what you're doing.
SPEAKER_00: And those are related, but the who needs to become before the do.
SPEAKER_00: The who matters more than the do, and when the who is in the right place, the do will fall into place.
SPEAKER_00: But if you only focus on the do and you neglect the who, well then you're gonna be off track.
SPEAKER_00: And I feel a Dr.
SPEAKER_00: Seuss book coming on.
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
SPEAKER_00: Like, you gotta put the who first, and then that who drives the do, it drives what you do.
SPEAKER_00: In your daily life.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to bear kingdom fruit, you need to prioritize your own formation.
SPEAKER_00: Producing kingdom fruit, it's the byproduct of your own transformation by surrendering to the love of Jesus in your life.
SPEAKER_00: The best thing you can do for those you have in leadership influence with is to attend to your own personal transformation.
SPEAKER_00: The best thing you can do for your marriage, attend to your own transformation.
SPEAKER_00: The best thing you can do for your kids, attend to your transformation.
SPEAKER_00: The best thing you can do for your extended family, attend your transformation.
SPEAKER_00: The best thing you can do for your friends, attend your transformation.
SPEAKER_00: Your coworkers, your neighbors, attend to your own transformation.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to be a change agent in the world, you need to be a changed agent.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be personally transformed.
SPEAKER_00: But when we focus on doing things for God, building God's kingdom, rather than our life with God, walking with Jesus moment by moment, we've neglected what matters most.
SPEAKER_00: Our focus, our primary focus needs to be on the person of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Walking with Jesus, staying attentive to Jesus moment by moment.
SPEAKER_00: This is what he says in John chapter 15.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Remain in me, as I also remain in you.
SPEAKER_00: No branch can bear fruit by itself.
SPEAKER_00: Once again, we're talking about fruit.
SPEAKER_00: It must remain in the vine.
SPEAKER_00: Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the vine, you're the branches.
SPEAKER_00: If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit.
SPEAKER_00: But notice this, apart from me, you can do nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Our job isn't to produce fruit.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we can't.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot produce kingdom fruit.
SPEAKER_00: You can't manufacture kingdom fruit.
SPEAKER_00: You can't squeeze it out.
SPEAKER_00: Our one and only job is to remain in Jesus, to abide in Jesus, to stay tethered and connected to Jesus at all times.
SPEAKER_00: To walk with Jesus and allow him to be the source of our life and nourishment every moment of every day.
SPEAKER_00: And when you do that, not only will you be transformed, but your life will become fruitful in a kingdom way.
SPEAKER_00: And not because you're squeezing it out, not because you're sweating, but just because God is at work in you, through you, and around you.
SPEAKER_00: I want to close today by providing some specific practices from my own life as a leader that help me stay focused on who I'm becoming and not just what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: I don't do these perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: They go up and down in my life.
SPEAKER_00: So don't just assume I'm crushing it all the time.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the case.
SPEAKER_00: But your homework for this week is going to be to pick one of these or some combination to try on in your life.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So here's some practices that have helped me put the who before the do.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, solitude.
SPEAKER_00: Regular time to be alone with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what this does, okay?
SPEAKER_00: When you pull away to simply spend time alone with Jesus, you're doing two things.
SPEAKER_00: You're separating yourself from the opinion of other people and you're getting alone with Jesus because he's the only person that really matters.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: You're living for an audience of one.
SPEAKER_00: So you're saying no to other people's attention, and you're also saying no to work, to efficiency and to productivity.
SPEAKER_00: So you're saying no to those two things that are uh so tempting to pull you off track, and you're just spending time with Jesus, going, This is the relationship that matters most to me.
SPEAKER_00: Now look, uh you your rhythms with Jesus are gonna change over the course of your life.
SPEAKER_00: You all have different responsibilities, and you have to figure out what space is Jesus creating for me to be with him in this season of life.
SPEAKER_00: I used to be able to spend like an hour to two every day with Jesus, then I had kids.
SPEAKER_00: Those will mess it up, alright?
SPEAKER_00: So, so there are a couple days a week where I get some long time with Jesus before the house wakes up, but some days I can't do that.
SPEAKER_00: Honor, honor your responsibilities.
SPEAKER_00: God knows what's on your plate.
SPEAKER_00: For me, I try to start.
SPEAKER_00: I try to have a touch point with Jesus when I start my day, some longer than others, depending on the day.
SPEAKER_00: And then there are a few moments throughout the day where I just stop.
SPEAKER_00: I stop working, I stop being around people, and I just pull away.
SPEAKER_00: And it's my way of pushing back and going, I'm not a human doing, I'm a human being.
SPEAKER_00: My job isn't to perform for other people or just work myself to death.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a human being loved by Jesus, and you want me to connect with you.
SPEAKER_00: Figure out what those rhythms are for you.
SPEAKER_00: Secondly, engage in self-reflection.
SPEAKER_00: Allow Jesus to examine you.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: The unexamined life is not worth living.
SPEAKER_00: As you actually look at the way you lived your day, you're gonna notice things you did that weren't the best.
SPEAKER_00: And you've got to ask questions like, what did I do?
SPEAKER_00: Why did I do it?
SPEAKER_00: What was motivating me?
SPEAKER_00: What was going on in that moment?
SPEAKER_00: And you're just gonna discover things that aren't great.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus already knows about it, and he loves you perfectly.
SPEAKER_00: So you already are in a loving context, just look at this.
SPEAKER_00: And then out of that, you begin to make some changes, learn how to surrender to God in new ways, and you're transformed in the process.
SPEAKER_00: Allow Jesus to do this with you.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's that Psalm 139, the way it ends, it's like, you know, search me, O God, and know my heart, test me, know if there's any, and then it says, see if there's any offensive way in me and lead me into the way of everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're inviting Jesus to do in this moment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, help me see what I can't see so that I can become the kind of person you want me to be.
SPEAKER_00: A third practice is accountability.
SPEAKER_00: Invite regular feedback from other people.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I was on a road trip this summer with my family, and our oldest son, Tig, he's 15, he's gonna get his license soon.
SPEAKER_00: So he was driving, um driving us.
SPEAKER_00: And we were on the freeway, so we were trying to teach him how to see the blind spots before you change lanes.
SPEAKER_00: And it's so funny how you have to break it down.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, okay, you're looking in the rear view mirror to see what's happening behind you, then you look in the side mirror and then you look over your shoulder, and if it's all clear, then you can go.
SPEAKER_00: Um, it takes some work to see our blind spots.
SPEAKER_00: That's my point.
SPEAKER_00: And we can't see everything in our lives, but I guarantee you, if you asked like your spouse or maybe some close friends, they'll probably name some things.
SPEAKER_00: If they feel like you're actually gonna hear them, you create enough safety, they'll actually tell you some things about you that you might want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you, in my own experience, it stings.
SPEAKER_00: Every time.
SPEAKER_00: Every time someone gives you critical feedback, it stings, it hurts.
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't last forever, and that sting becomes a gift.
SPEAKER_00: A gift that helps you keep growing.
SPEAKER_00: And then the final practice is humility.
SPEAKER_00: And what I have in mind here is serving others out of the spotlight.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: So if you're a leader here today, let's say you lead in your uh company or whatever, find ways to serve your employees without them knowing.
SPEAKER_00: If you open your eyes, there are countless opportunities every day to serve humbly in ways that that other person may never find out, but God sees.
SPEAKER_00: You can serve your kids, you can serve your spouse, you can serve the people you're working with, but just create, cultivate this character where you're humbly serving others, giving your life away, secretly blessing them without having to have anybody else notice or pay attention to it.
SPEAKER_00: It's a way to cultivate humility in your life.
SPEAKER_00: So your homework is to take one or some combination of those practices into your week solitude, self-reflection, accountability, or humility.
SPEAKER_00: And then our preaching team really wanted to press on me to give some prayerful questions regarding outsourcing our spiritual formation.
SPEAKER_00: So here's some questions for you this week.
SPEAKER_00: Who has influence in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Do an influence audit.
SPEAKER_00: Have you outsourced your soul formation as someone who actually doesn't know you?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's no bueno.
SPEAKER_00: All right?
SPEAKER_00: How well do you actually know the people who you're entrusting yourself to?
SPEAKER_00: And more specifically, who are you actually doing life-on-life discipleship with?
SPEAKER_00: Because that's the context we grow.
SPEAKER_00: Not by watching people from a stage.
SPEAKER_00: Yes?
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this has been fun.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I hope you enjoyed today.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's all I have for you.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to stand and I'll pray for us.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Jesus, we thank you for this warning.
SPEAKER_00: Again, you spent a lot of time challenging the religious establishment of your day, not just because, but because you care for us.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't want us to see, you don't want to see us get hurt, you don't want to see us get wounded, and you also don't want to see leaders live in self-deception, you want to see them transformed as well.
SPEAKER_00: So open our eyes, open our eyes, help us to measure what matters, and may it start with each one of us in our own lives focusing on who we're becoming in your loving presence.
SPEAKER_00: Help us to attend to the transformation you're inviting us into this week.
SPEAKER_00: For we ask it in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Have a great week, you guys.