We are often told to give 110% to our work if we want to be successful, but then we come home and have nothing left over to give to our families. The result is that our relationships with our loves ones become strained. How do we better lead in our lives so that we have energy leftover for the important things ? In this special Summit Weekend message from the 2015 Global Leadership Summit, Pastor Albert Tate shows us how God can turn our lives and leadership around.
We are often told to give 110% to our work if we want to be successful, but then we come home and have nothing left over to give to our families. The result is that our relationships with our loves ones become strained. How do we better lead in our lives so that we have energy leftover for the important things ? In this special Summit Weekend message from the 2015 Global Leadership Summit, Pastor Albert Tate shows us how God can turn our lives and leadership around.
[00:00:00] Well, as I love to say, I am peacock proud and high in the happy to be here with y'all today. I got a story. I was told as a little boy growing up in Mississippi, it's about two friends, one name lines, the other name truth. They decided they'd go swimming this time when they got to the swimming pool, they said, we'll do something a little different.
[00:00:16] So they went skinny dipping. They took all of their clothes off, jumped in the pool. Then they're just having a ball to two boys playing around. They're playing games that we play in the pool around here all the time. Again, we play around here called Marco polo where one person says, Marco, the other person says.
[00:00:33] You've played it before. There's this other game that it really doesn't have a name, but the idea of the game is to see who can hold their breath underwater. The longest live said, let's play truth set. Okay. Truth went down, line stayed up. Truth is winning the game. Live jumps. Out of the water, grabs his clothes and truths, clothes, and starts walking home.
[00:00:53] All the wild troop is under the water thinking he's winning the game. Truth jumps up, looks around and says what his [00:01:00] lies go, and then went over to the side of the wall and said, what am I close? Go? So now truth is forced to walk all the way home. Totally naked. He'd go straight to lies, house lumps on the door, bang, bang, bang.
[00:01:12] Lies comes down. Trump says, male, why did you leave me at the pool? Why did you take my, as a matter of fact, you got my clothes, you got my clothes on. I says, I don't know what you're talking about. I've been watching cartoons all morning, so they started arguing back and forth. Back and forth. This argument moves out into the streets.
[00:01:31] It gets hot style. People start gathering around. A crowd has gathered around lies is like, I don't know what you're talking about. In truth is I've mad. If you don't give me my clothes, I'm going to bus you in your eye. They go back and forth, back and forth, and the people standing around this circle are forced to ask themselves the question, and it's the same question that I want to ask you today.
[00:01:50] Who to believe lies in Truett's clothing? Or the naked truth.
[00:02:04] [00:02:00] today I want to take on this lie about leadership. This, this idea of this lady just got it. She does. Got it. This has got it. I want, I want to take on this lie about leadership. This idea, I want to tackle this idea that we're supposed to leave it all out on the field. Huh? Give 115% no, no, no. We're not supposed to leave it all on the field because we don't live on the field.
[00:02:29] We just play on the field. We live at home, and if I leave it all on the field, I go home with nothing. I want to talk about this idea. That we don't leave it all on the field. We can't give 115% how is it that we move away from that lie that's dressed up like the truth? Because it looks so noble still the nugget reality that we must have something left.
[00:02:53] How to lead and still have something left. How to lead our organizations, how to lead our choice, [00:03:00] our churches, not not living for our resumes, but living for our eulogies. So that we might have more than an accomplished resume. We might have a beautiful eulogy. This idea of not being held captive to the scarcity of this world, but living in the abundance that could only be found in Jesus Christ.
[00:03:24] That's where the lesson comes from. If you want to know how to lead with leftovers, Jesus teaches us. It's one of my favorite passages. It's found in the book of John chapter six. And it's Dan with his famous miracle happens two fish, five loaves of bread, and multiplies feeds 5,000 people. I want us to look at it today.
[00:03:42] I want us to look at how Jesus gives us insight on how to lead with leftovers. It starts the tension rising. The sun is going down and the disciples are starting to get stressed out because. They hadn't [00:04:00] fed the people yet. They hadn't eaten yet, and the people can't be traveling at night. It's too dangerous.
[00:04:06] So the disciples are on edge and then Jesus asks one of those, you know, roll Yas questions. It's a roll your eyes question. John chapter six verse five he says, when Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, where shall we buy bread for these people to eat? Now, this is the role you ask question.
[00:04:27] This is the role you're are. This is what the disciples would say. Privately is a dumb question because he's sitting here thinking, now Jesus, you know how much money we got in the treasurer? As a matter of fact, you pick the thief to be the treasurer, and he even still in the whole time, you know how much money we got, but I can't say that until you come to Jesus and you might kill me.
[00:04:47] So I ain't gonna say that. So, so he, he actually does the math. He goes over in Cal, but you can just see him rolling his eyes. Okay. Okay. This is, let me go and count and see how much money we got. Let me see. One, [00:05:00] two, three. Oh, Jesus. We got enough for everybody to get one bite. It's gone. Everybody got one bite.
[00:05:07] That's how much we got. I want to talk about the moments when Jesus asks dumb questions. You'll notice in the text he says he asked, but he already had in mind what he was going to do. He asked, you got to ask why? Why would Jesus ask a dumb question? Because he wanted him to do the math. He wanted him to add it up and see that logically this can't happen in what we have in our resources.
[00:05:33] This can happen in our own power. This can happen in our own strength. I need you to know the language and I want you to do the math early on. So then when we get on the other side of the miracle, if we had enough money, you would say, we did it. But now the truth, no, that it's an impossibility. When we get on the other side of the miracle, you're going to look up and say, if it had not been for the Lord who was on my side, I don't know how we would have made it through it.
[00:06:01] [00:06:00] I don't know how we would have made it through that times when Jesus wants you to do the math, just so you can come to the conclusion, it's not in my power. It's not in my strength. I can't do it in my power. But I love it. Jesus has dumb question, gives way to a, to a dumb idea. Andrew walks up and he, he comes up with this little boy and he, has anybody in here ever had a dumb idea?
[00:06:29] Am I ever had dumb idea? Am I call him? Right? Raise your hand if you had it done. I didn't have nobody. If you had a dumb idea and, and you knew it was a dumb idea, but for some reason. You still felt like you had to say it, although you knew it was a dumb idea. But before you said that out loud, you wanted everybody else to know that you knew it was a dumb idea.
[00:06:51] So you start off by saying this. Okay, so I found this little boy. I know, I know. It's a dumb idea. He finds this little [00:07:00] boy that has two fish. Five loaves of bread. He brings him up and he just stopped. He says, I know what you're thinking. It's a dumb idea. I know. What is it? A month? So, so little, so many. I know.
[00:07:11] It's a dumb idea, but I found this little boy, two fish, five loaves of bread. Okay, I'm done. And it was dumb idea, but I had to say, I have to say, he brings this dumb idea and he's not kicked out of the room. He's not laughed out. Jesus says, bring me the little boy, bring me the two fish. Bring me the five lows.
[00:07:33] I want to talk about the power of a dumb idea. I want to talk about creating cultures where as leaders, as pastors, as organizations, we leave room to ask dumb questions to bring dumb ideas because you never know when God's going to use a dumb idea to bring transforming power in the lives of his people.
[00:07:56] He allows this dumb idea to fish five [00:08:00] loaves of bread. It's insufficient. It's not enough. It's a dumb idea, but a dumb idea. Plus God's hand equals life transformation.
[00:08:12] What would that mean for us. It's a build our organizations. When we created a culture where it's okay to bring a dumb idea some, you're like, Albert, we got that down Pat. We know this is the easiest section of us. We got dumb ideas all the time. That's no problem. We got it. There's a whole role for the dumb ideas right here.
[00:08:28] We got, we got a whole lot of, that's not a problem at all, but. It's amazing to me. When you look at who Jesus is and what Jesus does, he oftentimes will specialize in using them. I did just ask Moses. Moses had ever had a problem with speech. He had a problem with speaking clearly and articulately, so you can imagine the crazy how crazy it was for God to say, Hey, Moses, I need somebody to go talk to Pharaoh and tell him.
[00:08:56] To let my people go, blue buck, buck, buck, [00:09:00] buck, buck, buck. It's still putting me off,
[00:09:08] but you never know when God's going to take his hand and put it on a dumb idea and bring about transforming power. I'll tell you about another dumb idea that happened in Los Angeles, California. Father Greg Boyle. The Jesuit priest known there in Boyle Heights in the mid eighties got thrown into the hood and in Hedda had a love and a passion for, for the homies there in the community.
[00:09:33] Homies, I'm sorry, homies. The young lads there in the community who unfortunately had the proclivity of being distracted by gangs and violence. The homeys. He said, he said, we've got to do something for our community. So father Boyle comes up with this idea, let's, let's start off. Let's start a bakery for the gang members.
[00:09:54] Yeah. Let's have the gang members make puff pastries. Yeah. [00:10:00] I can sell pastries in the neighborhood and revolutionize the city. Fast forward, homeboy industries now employs hundreds of gang members transforming cities and communities, and it's amazing the work that God has done through father Boyle
[00:10:22] Don't underestimate the power of a dumb idea. God adds his hand to a dumb idea. It can turn into life changing transformation and powerful impact in a city or community. You celebrate dumb ideas. You create a culture where it's okay to say it out loud regardless of how, how crazy it may sound. Create a culture with dumb ideas.
[00:10:47] Get attention on the floor. Second thing that happens. He, he comes out with the little boy, he's got these two fish and he's in it, and the two loaves of bread. Can we come at us? Talk about this little boy for a minute. I know we usually talk about the miracle here and we talked about how powerful the [00:11:00] miracle is.
[00:11:00] Can we just talk about what this little boy, why did this little boy come from? Who is this and get me to tell me out of all of these people, he's the only one that.
[00:11:13] What hit all one and got some food, like we're talking 5,000 people. As a matter of fact, it's 5,000 people. That's just men. They didn't even count the women and the children. So if every person had at least one booth in a shouting, and we talking about 15,000 people, I'm sorry, boo and shorty. A significant other and biological offspring.
[00:11:33] Yeah. Wait, we're talking 15,000 people and he's the only one that brought him lunch. Why does he have a lunch? Just have a lunch. I couldn't see him. Was he, was he at home that morning and I could have seen him in the kitchen making, making decisions, watching stuff at his mom's saying, what are you doing?
[00:11:50] He says, I'm going to be with Jesus. Yeah. And I'm just packing my lunch and I can imagine. She says, you don't need to pack a lunch and go be with Jesus. He's gonna provide, he's gonna do something, man. But [00:12:00] you know, you're ain't Agnes went to a wedding last weekend. He turned water into wine. So that was some of the best stuff she ever have to worry about.
[00:12:09] Just go, I'd imagine. He said, no, no, no, no, no. I want to pack my lunch. I want to bring what I have. And he packs his lunch. He brings what he has. Jesus uses what he brings. To create a miracle. What if Jesus is going to do the miracle? But what if he's going to do the miracle by using what you bring? What if nobody brought anything, what the miracle happened?
[00:12:32] What we'll be talking about this story today. What does it mean for you to pack your lunch? Not assume that Jesus is going to provide everything. What if Jesus is going to use what you bring for the miracle that he wants to bring forth? What does it mean for you to pack your lunch. This little boy, he, he comes as a dumb idea.
[00:12:52] He, he packs his lunch and then watch this. He gives his lunch to Jesus and he gets out of the way [00:13:00] he brings, he packs his lunch, he gives them to Jesus, and then he moves out of the way. You look in the passage, we don't see the boy anymore. I think one of the most key things we can do as leaders is to pack what we have.
[00:13:14] Insufficient at all. It's not enough for all of us. It's not enough, but, but it's my offering and I'm a bring what I have and I'm going to give it to Jesus, and then I'm gonna get out of the way. See, he could have, he could say, no, Jesus, you're going to do what you want. Well, I never had 15,000 people with it before, but.
[00:13:33] Maybe if you cut the crackers this way, maybe you broke them all the piece. No, no, no. He didn't see some of us. We give it to Jesus. Then we try to instruct Jesus along the way. Now Jesus, now I'm gonna give it to you, but now here's the best way to get the best results with my kids. And he's like, really?
[00:13:51] You wanna talk to me about your kids? Come on now. He gives it to Jesus, but he doesn't stick around and try to give instructions. He gives it to Jesus and then he [00:14:00] gets out. Of the way, and when he gets out of the way, he's able to discover the awe and wonder of God's amazing hand. Imagine being the little boy.
[00:14:14] I know we talk about Jesus in the mirror, but just imagine, keep the camera lens. Focus on the little boy. Imagine being the low boy watching Jesus with your lunch bag. He gives it to Jesus. Jesus reaches in and pulls it out, reaches in and pulls it out. Jesus starts feeding 5,000 people. Imagine me and a little boy watching
[00:14:40] he discovers in that moment, but all and wonder of God. The awe and wonder of what happens is when you pack your lunch, you bring what you have, you give it to him, and you'll get out of your way and you say, Lord, have your way with what I've brought. Some of you are right here right now, and you're [00:15:00] frustrated because you've given it to Jesus, but you hadn't moved out of the way.
[00:15:04] You're still carrying it. You're sitting up, you're sitting up watching the summit, going back to the hotel, going back to your villages, going back to your meeting, and you're still worried. You're still trying to do the strategy sheet that you brought. All you have now, get out of the way. You're not going to come up with nothing else.
[00:15:21] Brilliant. Get out of the way. You're done. Stop having an extra means. They're like, we meet about this again. Get out of the way. Get out of the way so that you might experience for all the wonder of God. What was the last time your neck had to turn because you were amazed at what God did with your, with your scarcely what he did when, when he, when your scarcity went into his hands and became his abundance, what was the last time you were blown away by what God did in your church by what God did in your company with what God did in your book?
[00:15:59] What [00:16:00] was the last time your neck had to hurt because you were in awe and wonder of the power of God.
[00:16:12] Okay. The warden of Angola prison. I've been there. You won't talk about a dumb idea that's bringing a seminary in the prison. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't get bachelor of divinity degrees. Yeah. That'd be fit to do the work of the Lord and to serve him for the rest of, yeah. Right. Well, they do it. He gives it to him.
[00:16:38] He sets the seminary up and I love Warren cane. He was humble enough to give it to Jesus, and he got out of the way and says, all right, Lord, it's yours. And he just began to watch. They graduated from seminary and when they graduated, they began to give themselves away from the work of the gospel.
[00:16:54] Murderers became missionaries. Dope dealers became deacons. They begin to [00:17:00] tell of the goodness of Jesus and the bloodiest prison in the nation became the most blood wash prison in the nation. Got out of the way and watch
[00:17:13] what would happen if you'll get out of the way. I don't forget. Flunked out of high school. I got my Geb. Never thought I could be smarter than the trap Satan set for me. You'll never be smart enough. You'll never be good enough. You'll never learn. You'll never be able to put anything together. So on January 23rd, 1994 when the Lord saved my soul, he blew me away cause he says, Albert, I want to use you.
[00:17:35] I want you to start preaching the gospel. And I started pastoring and I went to college and I went to seminary. And. Planted a church three years ago and it grew to over 2000 people in the matter of three years, and look at me now, I'm faculty on the global leadership summit of 2015
[00:18:01] [00:18:00] awe and wonder of God. Where are you given what you have? Get out of the way. You might see the on wonder. Where on your business, where in your leadership do you just need to step back? It could be a dumb idea just sitting around the corner. Two fish, five lawns could be sitting right in the room. You're so busy with your spreadsheets.
[00:18:30] That's your missing spreadsheets are great, and I love them. It was great. People have done spreadsheets and survived many things in life.
[00:18:41] but if you've got a spreadsheet, but you don't know how to spread on the floor and pray and culture, the almighty God, then you've missed the best part of being a follower of Jesus Christ.
[00:18:57] Got out of the way a little. The boy [00:19:00] saw the miracle. The next thing the text says is they were, they ate to their full, they were full. Um, I'm from Mississippi. My momma can cook. I know what it's like to be full. Yeah. I'm talking about a good meal. I'm for my one of those meals. Well, your stomach when you just got to scratch your stomach for no reason.
[00:19:20] I'm talking about, I'm talking about full, this idea of full away. One time I was so full for y'all. I laid down in the bed and you know how you lay down and you wake up and kind of from a nap and you'd be like, woo. My shirts so tight, my shirt is so tight, and then I looked down and I ain't have no shirt on.
[00:19:39] It was like, that's, that's you. That's you. You just tight. That's it. That's all you, that's you. That's, that's. That's how they were. The Bible says they ate, they were full. They were filled to capacity. It's the picture [00:20:00] of abundance. It's the picture of more than enough. As a matter of fact, everybody was walking everybody by full.
[00:20:05] Imagine a little boy watching all these full people just walk away and then the Bible says they have leftovers. There's a gather it all up and it counted, and then was one, two, three, four. Perhaps 12 baskets leftover. That's the picture of the abundance of God. I don't know what happened to the baskets.
[00:20:32] The text doesn't, doesn't give us any details, but I'd imagine automatically they gave them to that little boy. Can you imagine that little boy walking home with 12 baskets. Mama, you ain't going to believe this. You don't believe in mama.
[00:20:54] I believe at the end of this miracle he had something left. [00:21:00] What would it mean at the end of the day for you to have something left if you don't have something left for your spouse, for your family, for your children, for your community. For your God, for your church, what would it, what would it mean for you to not leave it all out on the field, but for you to have something left?
[00:21:22] Some of you are in this summit right now. Some of you are watching right now and you are sitting here on empty, and I'm here to tell you that is not a sign of a great work ethic. That is a sign for missed opportunity for you to experience the abundance of God's provision in your life. It's not about you sitting here on empty, on the verge of quitting.
[00:21:49] You've missed it. You've missed the beauty of giving it to Jesus. Insufficient and all don't, don't. It's not [00:22:00] enough. What I bring is not enough Two fish, and five loaves is not enough Not to anybody. So don't, don't think that you're supposed to get it all. But that I have God I'm bringing it to you. But I'm not so arrogant to think that this was all you need to complete your work.
[00:22:15] So I humbly submit it I get out of the way and I posture, my soul, so that I might see the awe and wonder of you moving in my life, in my church, in my business, in my family, in my marriage. What would it mean for you to live in a way, lead in a way where you had something left. It's a picture of the gospel.
[00:22:42] It's the picture of the, of the, of the abundance of God. This idea that we're not limited to the scarcity, this idea that we are called to live in the abundance of God. We're not, we're not limited by what's in our hands when we are called to surrender what the limit in our heads into the. Limitless power of an almighty [00:23:00] God.
[00:23:00] We're not limited by the, by the power and the influence that we have, where we need to surrender that to the power and influence of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We're not limited by the power and the influence of our name, but we have to surrender to the name that has full access to the kingdom of God.
[00:23:15] That is the name of Jesus Christ. It's not about my name being great. It's about the greatness of his name, which allows for me to have full access. My name can only do so much. His name gives me full access to the kingdom of God. Reminds me a story of when I was traveling. I love to, I was walking in lax, flying there in Los Angeles, California, and I was getting on a plane and y'all, I was walking through the airport and all of a sudden I noticed these glass frosted doors.
[00:23:52] And these glass flush the doors they opened and when they opened, the fresh of fresh air just came and grabbed me and I felt the, I smelled the aroma [00:24:00] of a free food.
[00:24:05] The smell. It's not the aroma of fresh music and showers. And I walked in and I was just looking into the lady at the desk. She said, sir, what's your name? And I said, Albert Tate. And she, she said, she said, sir, you're not in my database. I said, I could have told you that lady. I don't know what this is. She said, she said, well, how can I help you?
[00:24:23] I said, man, I want to go in. She said, well. Sorry. This is the sky club. It's a, it's a club for members only you. I said, well, I want to be a member. She said, well, sorry. In order to have membership here, you have to have a certain amount of miles. You have to travel so much with it. I said, well, I travel every now and then.
[00:24:40] Just hook me up. See if I got me miles in there. She looked it up. She says, sorry, you don't have enough mouse to use our bathroom.
[00:24:50] she said, I'm sorry sir, you can't go in, so I'll never forget hearing. Rejection.
[00:25:02] [00:25:00] That's a go stay with the people in coach.
[00:25:09] I never forget. I was traveling another time, and this time I'm traveling with a mentor of mine, dr Greg Waybright, who's the former president of Trinity evangelical divinity school, just here in the Chicago area. And we were walking and we were traveling, and he makes a right turn and he turns and the glass frosted doors open up and he goes into frosted doors and I stopped and I say, what meat is this?
[00:25:35] He goes in and he stops and he looks back and he turns and he says, Albert, come with me. And I said, no, I've been rejected here before. I can not, I can't go in. And he says, he says, no, no, no, Albert, come on in. Come on in and let's enter with great hesitation. I come in and dr Waybright as a member, they pull him up and he signs my name [00:26:00] on the document and then he allows me to go in and y'all, I walked in and.
[00:26:05] What's that call number? Tata? What a wonderful phrase. You'll just, it was just abundance, just food everywhere, and it was free. You know, at the airport you can go broke trying to get a bagel, you know? It was free. It was amazing, I guess. I guess. Leaders. What I want you to hear is that we don't have to live outside of the promise of God and the scarcity of this world.
[00:26:36] For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son and he came here to die on Calvary's cross. He, he hung, bled, and died. He came all the way from glory to live here on there. That means he got most sky miles in anybody. He came here to dwell among us and he, they marched him up a Hill called Calvary.
[00:26:55] He hung, bled and died. He was in the tomb all night. [00:27:00] Friday night, Saturday, but early Sunday morning he got up with whole
[00:27:08] to you and I, you don't have to live in the statue. Come on in where the table is spread and the face stuff a lot is going on. That's powering here. Open here. Does joy in here? Does peace in here? This is the place where you can have something lap. You don't have to leave it all out on the field because your father is rich and how does it land?
[00:27:31] He has plenty for you. Come in where the sufficiency of Christ has made a way for you to experience the abundance of God. You ought to thank him for the abundance you. What provided for you. You ought to sack him. You ought to worship him. You ought to give him Lauren because he has
[00:27:57] for more than a month
[00:28:03] [00:28:00] leaders. You don't have to go home on empty. You don't have to leave it all on the field. Christ's left it all on the cross. It is finished. The work is not about your name. It's about his name, not about troll power. It's about his power. It's about you bringing what you have, gum ideas and saying, Lord, what I have.
[00:28:33] It may not be much, but that that it is. I give it back to you. And I get out of the way and I trust you so that I might find and experience the all in wonder of God. Would you bow your heads with me and close your eyes? Those of you that are watching,
[00:28:58] I want to pray for [00:29:00] us. You're a leader in this room. If your leader watching, okay, where you are in the world. You say, Albert, I'm on empty. Albert, I'm on empty. I want to experience the abundance that the Lord has for me. I want to experience the fullness that's promised to me in God's word. If that's you, I want to do something a little different.
[00:29:28] I want to pray with you. I want to pray for you. If you're here and you say, Albert, I'm on empty and I need the refilling and the freshening of the power of the Holy spirit in my life. If that's you, would you just stand up right where you are? Just stand up right where you are. Say Alberta came to the summit on empty and I need the Lord to fill me if that's huge.
[00:29:46] Just stand right where you are. If you're watching right where you are, just stand up right where you are. Stand up right where you are. Maybe you don't know Jesus at all. Maybe the religious side of this thing is something that's unfamiliar and new to you, [00:30:00] but you know it would empty his and you know what you're doing isn't working.
[00:30:05] I want to give you an opportunity to try Jesus Christ. He's been filling empty vessels for thousands of years and he can feel you today. Okay? Where you are, where you're watching from. If you're standing here, if you're sitting under the sound of my voice and you're sitting on empty, you just stand up right where you are.
[00:30:24] I'm empty and I want the Lord to fill me. Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters. Now I pray that you would restore. Redeem, renew father, would you revive to a new thing? The hearts and the souls of my brothers and my sisters father, we pack our lunch. We bring what we have to you. And we get out of the way.
[00:30:53] Jesus, some of us, our biggest leadership mountain is us. We need to get out of the way so we can [00:31:00] out of the way so that we might rediscover the all and the wonder, the miraculous work that happens when your sons and daughters surrender to your divine will. So father, we get out of your way. Have your way.
[00:31:15] Father. We stepped back so that we might rediscover the on wonder. Thank you for the abundance that we find on the cross now made that abundance be hours in our day to day life. Maybe we've learned to lead from a place of overflow, not from a place of emptiness. Father. Philips flood us. May we learn to stay here and we learn to live here.
[00:31:44] Maybe we learned them lead here because when we leave from this place, we will always have something left for your glory. In Jesus name. Amen.