WEReveal

Leaders often have rather mem­o­rable say­ings. In fact, all too often, we choose a leader purely on their charis­matic per­son­al­i­ties and not on what they are actu­ally say­ing. But we need to choose lead­ers on who they are, what they say, and what they believe. This is the mes­sage we received in Sunday’s ser­mon. It was an impor­tant mes­sage we need to hear. But, silly me, my mind wan­dered and I actu­ally got con­victed about some­thing totally different.

First, my ser­mon notes:

What qual­i­ties do we look for in a leader? Which are the most impor­tant? What kind of leader are we going to be (am I going to be)?

Leaders can fail us ter­ri­bly. Matt 24:4 [show]Matthew 24:4 [4]And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. (ESV)
there are going to be a lot of false lead­ers out there.

The “super apos­tles” at Corinth were not only teach­ing false doc­trine but they were also tak­ing advan­tage of the Corinthians.

How can we keep from being deceived?

• Godly rely on the power of God and let God get all the glory.
• Worldly fake it that they get the glory.
• For when I am weak, I am strong.
• Follow lead­ers who spend their lives for us. False lead­ers ask for us to give up all and give it to them.
• Follow lead­ers that chal­lenge us. False lead­ers will tell us what we want to hear. God wants us to think and not for lead­ers to tell us how to think.

Now, I am not sure exactly when Pastor Bart men­tioned that the next ser­mon series he is going to preach is going to be on time man­age­ment but he did. And that got my mind to wan­der, espe­cially dur­ing the wor­ship time. Let me explain.

Worship time is the time to con­nect to God and ask Him to apply what we heard from the pul­pit to our hearts and lives. It is what I do, ask God to touch me. And that is exactly what He did. Since I am spend­ing time co-authoring the devo­tional mate­ri­als that the Flatland Research Team is putting up on Flatland Church’s web­site, I have already worked through what the pas­tor is now preach­ing on Sunday dur­ing my study for the Research Team. Apparently, God knew I have been strug­gling with time man­age­ment and made sure Pastor Bart said some­thing so I would wake up and focus on what God wanted to say to me.

God I believe spoke to me to bet­ter man­age my time. I have been neglect­ing what He would want me to do because I have not really been feel­ing well. Paul in 2 Corinthians, espe­cially in chap­ters 11 and 12 really goes off, talk­ing about all the prob­lems he had to face. He really went through all kinds of prob­lems, exter­nal and within. Yet he was still focused on doing what God called him to do. And so, God is say­ing to me, “Get back to the time plan I want you on.”

• 1 hour for phys­i­cal well being, i.e., get to the exer­cise facil­i­ties and get my health under bet­ter con­trol. This includes time to get there and back as well as tak­ing a shower etc.
• 1 hour for per­sonal Bible read­ing, study, and prayer
• 2–4 hours for var­i­ous min­istry out­lets: Flatland Research Team, this web­site, small groups, and for 6 more weeks New Testament Survey.
• 2 hours to work around the house — I am a “house hus­band” and this in and of itself can be a min­istry to my won­der­ful wife.
• 2–4 hours to do web devel­op­ment for clients when needed

We shall see. I have exer­cised today. I have spent time in the Bible, writ­ing for the Research Team and on this web­site, I have cooked lunch for my wife who is home sick and as soon as I post this, will do some work for my clients. One day down, the rest of my life to go,