Restoring Warriors Core Values | Leadership

Leadership isn’t about titles—it’s about responsibility.

This week’s core value is Leadership, and the truth is simple: a real leader doesn’t just hold the title—he holds the line. Kingdom leadership isn’t built on recognition or status, but on obedience, humility, conviction, and legacy.

Looking at the life of Joshua, we see that God doesn’t call the qualified—He calls the willing. From stepping into uncertainty, to leading people through the wilderness, to trusting God when the plan made no sense—Joshua’s leadership was marked by faith, not comfort.

This message challenges men to stop waiting until they feel ready and start leading where they are. Whether it’s in your home, your relationships, or your community—leadership starts with obedience.

You don’t need a title to lead.
But you do need conviction.

Big Question:
Where is God calling you to step up—and what’s holding you back?

Challenge:
Choose one intentional act of leadership this week: pray boldly, make the hard decision, confess and seek accountability, or lead your family with clarity and purpose.

Reminder:
You’re not leading alone—God is with you.

Prayer:
Lord, raise me up as a leader of integrity, humility, and conviction. Help me lead boldly, obey faithfully, and build a legacy that honors You. Amen.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Hello, men. Welcome to Restoring Warriors. And hey, really quick before we get started, I want you to I want you to know that what you're part of here isn't just another men's group, it's not just another gathering. Restoring Warriors as an organization, as a nonprofit exists to reclaim biblical masculinity and really raise up men who lead with courage, with discipline, and with Christ at the center. And your giving fuels that mission. So what it does is it sends men to retreats, um, it helps men go on mission trips, it provides uh daily devotionals and it helps us launch these new home groups, these expansion groups that you guys are all sitting in right now to change families, to change generations, uh, to create legacy. So uh if you believe in what God is doing here in this ministry, I want to invite you to partner with us, uh, whether that's a one-time gift, uh, a recurring commitment, or making this your place of tithe, um, you know, we just prayerfully ask that um you consider that. And together we can build something that outlives all of us. So, hey, let's get into it uh with some prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you so much. Thank you so much for your word. Thank you so much for the story uh of Joshua and especially uh under the lens of leadership, Lord, which is how we're gonna break this down tonight. And I just pray, as always, anything that's not from you, Lord, that that anything that's said just falls by the wayside. But anything that is from you, Lord, that is your word, we ask that it take root in our lives. Father, we love you. It's in the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. All right. So we are in our core values series, and we have hit the core value of leadership. And I truly believe that leadership is one of the things that really um separates a man, right? Um, good, solid leaders happen uh not by accident, but intentionally, and we're called to lead in our in our homes, we're called to lead ourselves, we're called to lead our communities in so many different aspects. Men are called and set apart to lead. So at restoring warriors, we have our definition of leadership when it pertains to our core value. And it is this it is a restoring warriors. We believe in leading with integrity and purpose, taking inspiration from the ultimate example of leadership, Jesus Christ. Our focus is on developing men who are not only capable leaders in their homes and communities, but are also rooted in biblical truth. We challenge each other to rise above societal expectations and embrace the call to lead with strength, humility, and unwavering faith. All right, so um I'm gonna start today by being completely honest with you guys. Um Restoring Warriors was something that was on my heart for about three years before it ever came to life, before it ever came into fruition. And I didn't know at the time when God placed it on my heart, I didn't know what it was supposed to look like. I didn't have any sort of curriculum, no curriculum whatsoever. I had zero launch plan, uh, but I did have a burden from God to do something for men, to serve men in some sort of a capacity. And I ran from this calling for a long time, for years. Um, and it was deep down because I felt unqualified. I felt like I wasn't qualified to lead to lead a men's group, and especially one uh that's rooted in biblical truth. I don't have a seminary degree. Um, I've failed at leadership before, uh not just in the sense of like church leadership or ministry leadership, small group leadership, but in business as well, in my family as well. Um I failed at teams, I've failed at small groups. Um, I've really failed at times at consistency. So if um, in fact, if you would have asked me, you know, three years ago, four years ago, when this was put on my heart, um, what I was good at, I could have given you a list of things that I wasn't good at instead. And maybe some of you are feeling that. That's where you're at right now, where where you know God is asking you to lead in your life, whether that's in your marriage, with with your kids, in your community, at your church, um, in your workplace, really the list goes on, right? But you're scared that you don't have what it takes. And and I want you to know that that I understand that, I get that way more than you've ever known. Like I've lived that out, and honestly, to this day, I still live that out in so many areas. But leadership in the kingdom has never been about being qualified. Most of the characters in the Bible were not qualified. It's about being called. And once you say yes to that call, God starts placing people in front of you, people in your path that help you lead, that make you a stronger leader. So when I launched this group, I had one consistent prayer. And it was something like this it was, God, surround me with godly men. I've done life with the wrong people leading up to this point, I've done it for too long. Send me warriors. And man, did he answer that prayer. He sent me so many warriors. You know, I between you and I, I always thought like, hey, men's ministry, hanging out with a bunch of Christian dudes. It was going to be like me and a group full of like Ned Flanders types. And while we certainly have some of those Ned Flanders types, we have so many other warriors too. We've got EMTs, we've got, we've got uh military veterans, we've got first responders, we've got cops, we've got so many just amazing, strong, masculine men. And and and God answered that prayer. So I look at all of the men in this ministry, every man who's who's watching this video right now, from the guys on the board of directors to to men in our leadership council and our prayer circles, to men who show up every single week in person, online, uh, to our online communities. Every single man in this ministry is an answered prayer from God. Every single one. And God began to teach me something radical throughout all this is that leadership isn't about doing everything yourself. It's not about doing everything yourself, it's about empowering other people to carry the vision with you. Good leadership empowers others to run with the ball. I I used to have, and I still do, all right. Let's be honest, I still do. I used to cling to this control. And I think that's why a lot of the things that I've tried to build in the past have failed. It's because I couldn't let go. All right, but with restoring warriors, God gave me this gift or this, he didn't give me the gift. The gift was already inside me, but he helped me realize it and tap into it. It's the ability to delegate, to discern, and to trust. Um, you it might also be known as surrendering or submitting to the process, submitting to the Lord in these things. And I can tell you that I don't have all the answers. All right, but I finally got a fire, I've got this choir in my belly now, and this calling from the Lord and and men who surround me who are more gifted in areas that I'm not. And these are areas where I used to try and white knuckle everything myself. And I've learned this is real leadership isn't about being the loudest voice in the room. A lot of times it's about having the humility to go first and the courage to pass the keys when somebody else can drive better. And that was that's what makes a warrior, that's what makes a leader. So I want to dive into the story of Joshua in the Bible. So so take out your Bibles. We're we're in scripture, we're in Joshua uh one, verses one and two here, where it says, After the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua, son of Nun, Moses' aid, Moses, my servant, is dead. Now then, you and all these people get ready to cross the Jordan River into the land I'm about to give them to all the Israelites, Israelites. All right, so Moses wasn't just a leader, he was the guy, okay? Like he was the man, he was the lawgiver, okay? He was the prophet, he was having the conversations with God, he was the spiritual father of all the Israelite people, and now God is coming to Joshua saying, You're up, all right? Star quarterback just went down, Drew Bledsoe just went down, and now it's Tom Brady's turn to step up, right? That's that's that's pressure. Talk about pressure, but but this is the first truth about leadership, okay? It's not about filling somebody else's shoes. Joshua wasn't called to lead the same way as Moses. Leadership, it's about stepping into your own assignment. Okay, so so put it this way: when I became a single dad, okay, I didn't just step into a new season, I stepped into a whole new identity. I mean, overnight, right? For years, my kids had their mom full time, and she she's a great mom, right? She's nurturing, she's very patient, she's so calm with them. Really, everything that I wasn't. And now they they were suddenly put in a position where they're going back and forth between homes, and they they didn't ask for that. My kids never asked for that, but that was our reality. And that was what I had to step into. That's what I got to step into. And I felt like Joshua. I felt like I imagined Joshua felt. I was called to lead without the luxury of easing into it. No training, just thrown right in, right? And what I've learned is this is God didn't ask me to be perfect. He never asked me to be perfect, but he did ask me to lean on him, and he asked me to show up, continue to show up, consistency in showing up. And and in that learning, I've built this bond with my boys, literally, that I never imagined was possible. And it happened within the first few months because I was able to show up with them completely different with a completely different hat on than I had been before. Okay, so now let's go to uh scripture, uh Joshua uh 5, verse 6, where it says this the Israelites had moved about the wilderness 40 years until all the men who were of military age when they left Egypt had died, since they had not obeyed the Lord, for the Lord had sworn to them that they would not see the land that he had solemnly promised their ancestors to give us, a land flowing with milk and honey. Okay, so so so what does this mean? It means Joshua, right off the bat, he wasn't leading ideal followers. Okay, he was leading a generation that was shaped by disobedience, disappointment, and distrust. And mind you, Moses was leading them prior to. And Moses was one of the most respected men out there, right? And and even still, he was inheriting this generation that just wasn't living the way that God wanted them to, right? So so I ask you this have you ever tried leading somebody who's bitter? Have you ever tried leading somebody who who's jaded, who somebody who's used to being let down, right? Just shows up like Ewar everywhere they go. Joshua had to be steady. Okay, he had to be extremely patient and full of perseverance. He had to keep coming back. Right? Leaders, oftentimes, they don't inherit perfect people, they inherit broken people, but then they lead them anyway. So I think of it this way after my divorce, all right, that my kids they were kind of thrown into the wilderness. They were in a form of wilderness where their lives were split. And there was, despite our efforts, there was some chaos. Okay. And I had the choice. I had the choice at that moment. I could be the fun, disconnected, weekend dad, I think they call it the Disney dad, right? Or I can be the consistent father who shows up, who brings structure, who brings safety, but most importantly, brings them God's word. And I chose to be the anchor, okay? I I borrowed routines from my ex-wife. I was like covert trying to figure out, okay, what time is bedtime? What time is snacks? Like all of these different things, right? I copied these routines. I did everything I could to build stability. I introduced prayer at dinner time. I brought them to church with me. I had them start serving with me at church. Um, and I did everything I could to create some sort of order in the season of wilderness for my children. And that's that's what I think leadership is, right? You don't just raise kids, you raise a standard of living. And through the process, I was able to hone in on my own parenting style, all right, which allows for an immense amount of fun and games because I'm just a big kid at heart. I'm pretty goofy, but doing it through structure and doing it through the instruction of the Lord. My kids get a fuller, much more well-rounded version of me now because of being thrown into the leadership position, right? So, so let's go back to Joshua. We're going to go back to chapter one, verses three and four. Right? It says, I will give you every place where you set your foot, as I promised Moses. Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon and from the great river, the Euphrates, all the Hittite country to the Mediterranean Sea in the West. All right, so so here's the thing is God promised it. God promised them the land, but Joshua still had to walk it out. Okay, and and that's the deal. Here is leadership, it doesn't remove the risk, it requires faith to move when the outcome is not certain. When you don't know what the outcome is, you still have to move. God doesn't just hand you your your inheritance either. You have to carve your path. You have to move step by step, inch by inch, brick by brick. All right. He he gives you a lamp for your feet. So so the promised land was promised. But it wasn't easy. They had to come up against fortified cities. They they they came up against fierce enemies. Joshua had to fight for what God had already declared was his. He had to take the courage and step into it. And leaders, they walk in confidence because they walk with God, not because they see the full map. All right, so some of the obstacles I was facing during those times, it looked like it looked like lawyers, all right, attorneys, custody battles. There was so much financial pressure. There, there was depression, there was anxiety, and there was this, man, this crushing self-doubt. I can kind of feel it right now, thinking about it. And I was trying to lead my family through what felt like a war zone. All right, and on top of it, I had a business that was tanking. And my soul at that point, it just felt like it was stretched so thin. But I learned what I think Joshua probably learned in these moments, is faith, it doesn't wait for clarity. It takes steps anyway, before it's clear. And I adopted what I call crazy faith, which is something I borrowed from Pastor Mike Todd in his book called Crazy Faith, which means I'm trusting God when absolutely nothing made sense. All right, when it seems so absurd that something would happen, you trust God anyway. And some days I picked up a sword and a shield in the spirit just to survive the day, just to get through that day. But but step by step, God kept providing for me. All right, if we go to chapter 6, Joshua 6, all right, we're gonna look at verses 2 through 5. And it said, Then the Lord said to Joshua, See, I have delivered Jericho into your hands, along with its king and its fighting men. March around the city once with all the armed men. Do this for six days. Have seven priests carry trumpets of rams' horns in front of the ark. On the seventh day, march around the city seven times with the priests blowing the trumpets. When you hear them sound a long blast on the trumpets, have the whole army give a loud shout, then the wall of the city will collapse, and the army will go up, everyone straight in. Man, so this is one of those iconic moments in the Bible, right? When the walls of Jericho fall. But but mind you, this moment didn't happen because of military genius. Okay, and Joshua, he was a guy that knew military strategy, but but this moment happened because of his obedience. Okay, so so God gave Joshua a plan that literally made zero tactical sense. It made no sense. I mean, imagine coming up to your army, okay? You've got a group of warriors who are trained to fight, trained to kill, trained to trained to stand the line, trained to conquer. All right, they're used to taking by conquest, by force. And you say this to them, hey, hey, we're we're not gonna fight, guys. We're not gonna fight. We're just gonna walk around uh the city a couple of times and we're gonna shout at them. Okay, we're just gonna shout at them. Oh, oh, yeah, and and and we're gonna blow some horns also. Just trust me, bro. This is what we're gonna do. All right, so so he received that message from God. I imagine relaying that message to his troops probably didn't go the way we think it goes here, right? It says that they just you know uh agreed with him, but I have to imagine that his troops were probably protesting what he had said, but but he obeyed, okay? Joshua obeyed. He he rallied the people, he led with boldness, and the walls fell, just as God said they would. Leaders obey even when it feels ridiculous, because they trust God more than they trust logic. So when I was going through the separation, the divorce, and I was dealing with their mom and her family, and it was it was all really fresh. Uh, there were times where I was thrown under the bus and I was painted out to be a demon, right? And and there were times where as much as I wanted to defend myself, I received a message from God. Don't retaliate, don't defend yourself, don't feed the drama, just lead your children towards me. And I'll be completely honest with you, that didn't feel like enough. That didn't feel like enough at all. I felt like I needed to step in, I needed to control this, and I needed to put my foot down, but but God said, no, shout when I say shout, and I'll bring the walls down. But in my case, I stayed silent when I wanted to scream. And and I stayed kind when I wanted to get even. And I trusted that that truth over time would speak louder than any defense. And here we are, several years separated from that, and it's worked out pretty well. Uh let's go to Joshua 7. Alright, Joshua 7, verses 1 through 5. Okay, it says, But the people of Israel broke faith and the anger of the Lord burned against the people. About 3,000 went up, but they were routed by the men of I, who killed about 36 of them. They chased the Israelites from the city gate as far as the stone quarries, and struck them down on the slopes. At this the hearts of the people melted in fear and became like water. Man, so leading up to this story, it's victory after victory, and then after victory, in this case, it comes defeat. Okay, and it's because the Israelites were unfaithful. Somebody broke faith. Okay, and in this moment, Joshua's leadership is tested in a new way, a brand new way. And he had to confront internal sin, internal sin within his own camp, not the external enemies that he'd been fighting beforehand. And this is real life, right? Sometimes the problem isn't out there, it's inside of us, it's inside our family, it's inside our circle. So, so leaders, they deal with the hidden sin. They don't hide from it, right? They they restore with truth and they hold the line. And Joshua had to account for the mistakes that he and his people had made in order to get restoration and regain God's favor at this time. All right, so that was me. I had to, man, I had to confront my own hidden sin, which which was my ego. Um, it was my my lack of emotional control, lashing out. Um, it was patterns that I had, um, oftentimes dissociation, numbing out. Um, I had to really take a look in the mirror and take ownership for the things that I brought into my marriage that helped destroy it. Okay. And once I acknowledged those things, that's where repentance can start. That's where repentance started for me. Then I made a vow. At that point, I sat there and I made a vow and I said, My kids will never see that version of me again. All right, that cycle stops right here with me. They're not going to learn how to be a man from that guy who was lacking accountability and who was idolizing his work. I made a choice right there that that generational curse will be broken with God's mercy. With God leading me, we will break that generational curse. Which brings me to Joshua 23. All right, flip over to Joshua 23, verses 14 and 16. Okay, this is Joshua's farewell to Israel. Okay. One of the most epic mic drop speeches ever, by the way. 14 through 16. Now I am about to go the way of the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled, not one has failed. But just as all the good things the Lord your God has promised you have come to you, so He will bring on you all the evil things that He has threatened until the Lord your God has destroyed you from this good land he has given you. If you violate Violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, the Lord's anger will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from the good land that he has given you. Man, so Joshua knew He knew that it was bigger than he was. Right? He wasn't just building a moment in time, he was preparing a legacy. He was ready to pass the torch off to the Israelite pe to the Israelite people. Okay, and that is the ultimate test of any leader. Are you building something that lasts beyond you? Okay, we we all have a choice. We can choose who we serve, we can choose how we lead. There will be a day when your leader's not around anymore, and you're placed in a position of making a commitment to stand firm or veer off. And I challenge you in this moment, Joshua talks about serving other gods. He talks about bowing down to them. How often do we make technology or money or our status or our image or any number of other things are gods that we bow down to? Just take that in for a moment. Joshua ends it with this in Joshua 24, 15. Here's what he says to them. He gives them a choice. He says, But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the God of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But for me and my household, we will serve the Lord. Man, Joshua knew his time was ending, but his legacy was just beginning, and he just made a declaration. Right here, we serve the Lord here. All right, and that's my battle cry, all right, in my house. We don't serve fear, we don't serve bitterness, we don't serve drama, we serve the Lord. In this scripture, I hung it over my dining room table as a reminder every single day of who we serve. And every night at dinner with my boys, we pray. I pray over my boys, and then they all take turns praying. And we read from a devotional book from Levi Lesco. It's called Roar Like a Lion. And we read from the action Bible, and then we have conversations about courage, about trust, about truth, and about faith. And I don't know what kind of influences my kids are going to face outside of my walls, but inside my walls, they know exactly who we serve. Men, this world doesn't need more influencers, right? It needs more men who lead, men who lead with integrity, men who lead their kids with conviction, men who lead with faith, even when it doesn't make any sense, right? And Joshua didn't step up because he was confident, he stepped up because he was called. And so are you. And you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to have it all together. You just have to say yes, and you have to keep saying yes, one obedient step at a time. And guess what? You are going to fail at times. But just come back to the Lord. Just come back to the Lord. All right, so we've looked at Joshua. We've walked through the weight of leadership, through uh leading through fear, leading through failure, leading when the plan doesn't make sense, and when people don't want to follow you. But I want you to hear this is God didn't choose Joshua because he was perfect. He should He chose him because he was obedient. He said yes, and he continued to say yes, no matter how obscure his directions were. And the same is true for you. You don't need to be the smartest, the richest, the most well-read. You don't have to quote every scripture on the planet. You just you need to be available, right? You need to be humble, you need to be submitted. And when God finds a man like that, a man who says, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord, when he finds that man, that's the kind of man that he trusts to lead something big. Right. And leadership in this world, right, it's often loud, it's often flashy, it's often about control, success, and ego. But leadership in the kingdom looks completely different. It looks like sacrifice, it looks like going first, serving first. It looks like choosing obedience over applause. Sometimes it means taking a less popular road. Oftentimes it means that. And men, your family's watching, they're seeing your behaviors. Will you serve the Lord? Will you will you lead from the front? Will you raise your hand and say, like, I don't have all the answers, but I'm willing to go first. That's what warriors do. And that's the kind of men we're raising in this ministry. Let's let's let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you so much for showing us what real leadership looks like. Not in position, but in posture, Lord. And not in charisma, but in conviction. Thank you, Joshua. And thank you, Jesus. Make us men who go first, men who don't wait for the perfect plan, but follow the perfect God. Father, raise up leaders in these rooms who will change homes, workplaces, friend groups, and legacies. And may we never forget that our strength comes from you, Lord. Our authority comes from your name. And in our house, we serve the Lord. Ah, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, men. I'm gonna hand this back over to your group leader who will go through the small group ground rules, go through the check-in and the group discussion questions. And for extra credit this week, men view your study guides. Uh, we have some self-led introspection questions that you can journal on and a weekly challenge for you to jump on over the next week. Hey, thankful to be on this journey with you. God bless.