Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: how will you follow Jesus in trusting God through suffering this week?
Main Points
In this lesson shaped by Calvary Boise's teaching on WISDOM: Wisdom in Leading, Christ invites us to receive truth with humility, practice repentance, and walk in faithful obedience.
Grace and Justification
for the past three weeks the past three Sundays while I've been away we've been blessed and I've been enjoying just being fed by the word with a particular topic which is wisdom and we started a series three weeks ago to look at what the Bible says about being people who use God's Word and reflect God's character as we go through life with wisdom and we looked at wisdom in life we looked at wisdom and culture we looked at wisdom in transition and now to end that four-week journey in discussing and thinking about what it means to be wise God honoring people I'm gonna talk about wisdom in leadership and that's a topic that I have to continually go back to because in this season of my life God has given me the opportunity to serve this church as the lead pastor so I need to know how to make wise decisions and I know that there are among us right now others that are called into this church specifically to be leaders in a lot of different capacities but the audience isn't just for leaders within our church I do want to answer the question of what kind of leadership we are gonna have in the character of our leaders in this church but I also want to invite you who I know are many who have leadership roles given to you by God in many different ways and as I've thought about what wise leadership looks like and how to convey this to the appropriate people I realize that God has put most of us in some sort of leadership capacity whether or not it is the way that you are called to lead your household or mothers and fathers the way that you are called by God to lead your children if you are a believer this Sunday you are called to lead the non-believing world to Christ and that is what leadership as we look at will accomplish is how can we take people in our church and in our households in the professional setting that we get leadership and bring them a little bit closer to God that's where we're bringing people and that's what our goal is and what is wise leadership look like in that to answer the question we're going to go to John chapter 21 and we're gonna study may be the most important leadership lesson between Jesus and one of his disciples because in John chapter 21 Jesus is ready to give his ministry his ministry that he led for three and a half years of preaching teaching and healing bringing the kingdom he's gonna transfer it to Peter and the Apostles to bring in the church age which we are now still a part of a very important lesson in leadership that Jesus is going to have with Peter something I think all of us can learn from when we answer the question what do we do with the god-given influence he's given us to lead people to him we're gonna look for some wisdom principles in that but before I go further I also want to extend the audience one step farther because sometimes we hear the word leadership and you're not in one of those obvious roles in the church leadership or in professional leadership because you're a manager or a business owner or you're a teacher or you're a coach maybe you don't have the household leadership yet because you're not married you don't have a family I want to remind you that leadership is probably for you too and if you're thinking this message isn't for you may have just proven that it is because the Bible says in 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 26 when talking about wisdom that God gives he's actually looking for people that don't necessarily look very qualified he looks for unlikely leaders to convey his wisdom look what it says starting in verse 26 for you see your calling brethren that not many wise according to the flesh not many wise according to your natural ability and not many mighty not many noble are called God has this narrative throughout the Bible this theme where he's usually taking things that don't seem obvious and using them for his glory in ways that surprised us because it says God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty if you are here listening to a sermon on leadership and thinking to yourself well I'm just gonna sit tight until the worship begins again so that I can get back to my role in the service I want to remind you that God calls the unlikely God calls people to have influence and leadership over the non believing world and over people in your life that you can bring closer to him in ways that even might surprise you and I'll share my own story my own version of that the first year that I became the pastor the lead pastor of this church I had a couple come up to me and to encourage me about six months in to me as the lead pastor they said hey we you just want to say you're doing a great job we want to encourage you we are here for the long haul we're being blessed by your willingness to take on the responsibility of this church and also want to let you know that we told our daughter who's in town that you had taken over for the pastor that was here and we told her who you were and she said actually I think I went to high school with that guy and if it's the guy I'm thinking of there's no way in a million years he could be the lead pastor of a church it was the guy she was thinking of and she's right in my natural thinking and my natural ability I'm not as someone who thought of myself as the lead pastor but God calls the unlikely and God will use you if you'll let him give you wisdom to do things in your life that will surprise people and if you let him give you wisdom towards leading people to him in ways that you may not think of this morning not only will he surprise you but he'll bless you because in Psalms it says those who are leaders and rulers that rule with wisdom it is a blessing for your life and that's what we want to get to this morning how can we be a church and households of God within this church and people who have influence in the non-believing world that bring people closer to God with wisdom and how can we find the blessing in that and so I want to read this passage of Scripture because Jesus is gonna have a leadership talk with Peter that I think is a leadership talk that all believers need to have with the Lord from time to time starting in verse 15 he says this so when they had eaten breakfast jesus said to Simon Peter Simon son of Jonah do you love me more than these and Peter said to him yes Lord you know that I love you so he said to him feed my lambs or take part in the shepherding of the flock of God leading the Sheep he said to him again a second time Simon son of Jonah do you love me and Peter again said yes Lord you know that I love you so jesus said to him tend my sheep Shepherd oversee the ten of the flock of God and in verse 17 it says he said to him a third time Simon son of Jonah do you love me and at this point it says Peter is grieved because he said to him a third time do you love me and he said to him Lord you know all things you know that I love you so jesus said to him feed my sheep in the leadership conversations that Jesus has with Peter and the leadership conversation starts it has a lot to do with where your heart is at but we continue to read the rest of the exchange because we're going to look at three aspects of this here's the second part most assuredly I say to you when you were younger you girded yourself and walked where you wished but when you are old you stretch out your hands and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish this he spoke signifying by what death he would glorify God and when he had spoken this he said to Peter follow me now the three parts of leadership that is going to be broken down in this conversation that Jesus has with Peter that are three wise aspects of leadership are simply this you have to lead with love that is Jesus's talk to the extent that the lesson is given do you love me lead with love and then you gotta love to learn as a leader that God has appointed to lead with wisdom you have to be someone who actually wants wisdom and it's not your default setting to be naturally wise you have to have God's wisdom which is something that you have to learn and then finally we're gonna look at this last aspect of the conversation which is you have to learn to let go you lead with love you love to learn and you learn to let go now the beginning of this is really if you don't get this part you don't need the other two you have to be someone who actually loves God to lead with wisdom and that is why in the three-part sermon that Jesus gives to Peter there is really just one point it is a question that every leader of God must answer and it is a question that if you don't get it right that you will fail miserably and the question is this do you love me with the responsibility to pass or be an elder or be an overseer of a ministry the number one question you have to ask is do you still love the Lord in your calling and as you go out from here in the household that God has called you to the question is are you leading your family as an extension of the love that you have for God and in your influence in this world are you taking people from not knowing God to knowing a little bit more of the revelation of the mighty and living God that we serve because you love him or are there ulterior motives that's something we have to continually ask ourselves time and time again and be refreshed in all the time what is the motivation of our leadership now as we study the Bible this is the lesson of leadership there's a thousand books written on leadership and there's a thousand sermons given on leadership and you can find a thousand leadership conferences and all of them are good to an extent because there are a ton of different leadership styles and leadership styles vary in this sanctuary right now leadership styles vary in the Bible the Bible really is an expose of leadership because it gives us stories of God given God using people to lead his nation or lead families of God or leave lead the kingdom to him so we see all examples of leadership and the expose has to do a lot with style there are different styles of leadership that can be that can be categorised one of them that we see in King David who's one of the great leaders of the Bible is the hands on warrior leader King David was a from the very beginning of his call to be part of the leadership of God's people he was always in the battle he started famously with David and Goliath fighting in the battle to help overcome and bring victory to the people of God and that really set the tone for his leadership style continually battling to take new ground for God and some of you are those kind of leaders that's your style you like to lead people hands-on you like to get in the battle with people and break up new ground take new territory in your leadership now the style is can vary the substance of what David led in is why he is a great leader because throughout the battles David always had a heart of worship and in his successes it came from an overflow of his love for God and that's why so many of the Psalms or the worship songs of the Bible come from David loving God and then allowing that love to extend into what God has called him to do so for you who are the ground-breaking type leaders the style is fine but the substance has to be loved and then there's an example right after the story of David and the season of the nation of Israel that he was a part of to really set the boundaries and begin to have the nation of Israel unified ground-breaking warrior-type work and then what do we find the leader right after David totally different style in fact it was his son Solomon who would take the throne as the third king of Israel and he didn't do a lot of warrior type stuff he didn't really break up the ground but you know what he did he built he was a visionary builder leader he took the nation of Israel and the unified kingdoms and then he brought in the temple and he did it in a way that was visionary he did it in a way that would created a temple that was one of the glories of the world at the time people came from all over to see it and he was he was an amazing builder he worked with the Masons and he brought in the wood and he figured out the budgets and he had overflow of money and he figured out how to make it an adorned it with gold and silver and sacrifice all of the sacrifices were a total visionary but what made him great in his day was the substance was that he loved the Lord when we see in the in the book of first Kings his leadership heart it says that he had something he could ask God for and he chose to ask him for wisdom and it says that God granted his wisdom because he didn't ask for riches for himself and he didn't ask for the lives of his enemy but he asked for wisdom so that he could just Li judge he wanted to take care of people and that is the substance of wise leadership and then you get another example that some of you might fit into and that's the strategist the leader that can see not only the groundbreaking work and not only what needs to get built but how to sustain the building how to strategize for five ten years out maybe you're the kind of person that likes to work with the youth and say listen if you get on this track you're a coach that says if you do this you're gonna succeed later in life you can pour into younger people and help them see the big picture of life and we have an amazing leader example of that in the Bible and the person of Joseph remember Joseph was someone who was despised by his brother because he knew he had the heart of a leader at a young age and his brother sold him off to slavery because they were so jealous of his leadership capacity and from slavery in Egypt he rises all the way the ranks to second-in-command Prince of Egypt and while he's there he has the wisdom to long-term strategize and he has the grace of God to interpret a dream that said there's gonna be years of blessing and there's gonna be amazing abundance of grain but there's a famine coming and you better be ready and set things aside for that year that the famine comes so that you will have plenty even when the land is dry and God gives wisdom for that type of leadership for some of you but what make Joseph great was his heart for love and when the famine came and his brothers were without food the brothers who sold him to slavery he said you know what I'm gonna provide for you and I'm gonna forgive you and I'm gonna reconcile with you and wherever there is a successful leader given to us in the expose of leadership in the Bible there is always that one constant substantive thing that is love and we can look at every one of these leaders in the Bible and see the negative example just as fast as we can see it in our own lives if we lose the answer to the question that Peter had to answer three times to get it right if we don't answer the question do you love me and if you do then you can lead if we love if we lose our love for God we will love something else and the Bible is full of examples of what happens when we love something else as well the nation of Israel would go through times of blessing when they honored God and they were blessed by God and then they would go through times of absolute tragedy when they took their focus off that primary thing in their life they started loving idols when they started loving pagan worship where they started loving they're the lining of their own pockets and if you lose your love for God you will become a leader who takes people away from God and into some sort of folly of sin and so the wisdom for our church leadership and the wisdom for your family is make God your primary love and lead others with that motivation and the temptation can be this to lead in another way and I speak of myself here we have the example of Peter who is not always perfect and in leading with love even in the book of Acts if you're not leading with love you will lead with something else and oftentimes you try to lead with logic you try to lead by just telling people what's obvious to you that they should obviously be doing the challenge of that and I found this out in the last four weeks because leading with logic in a household with a five year old a three year old a 1 year old and a newborn will bring them no success in life they don't logically think like their adult dad and when I try to just tell them the obvious answer and have them do it and they fail when I'm leading with logic they're illogical decisions frustrate me and they and eventually my frustration hurts them and if you try to lead with logic if you try to logically lead a church by saying this is clearly what the low though the word says about loving God and loving people now go do it you'll be disappointed at the results why wisdom and leadership is needed because the people you're leading oftentimes a wise leader are not as smart as you they need help and they need you to go slow love is patient and love is kind and there are people in your life that God wants you to influence that need help to get to the wisdom that he has given to you if you don't believe me let me share with you a couple of incredible examples of the reality that there are people in your life that need wisdom because they don't have it we live in a world where people are foolish a lot my three favourite warning labels of all time I'll share them with you so that we can remind ourselves not to lead with logic number one the warning label of an iron it says do not iron your shirt while wearing it that warning labels on their because people do that because people are rushing out the door and they have the shirt on and they notice the wrinkle and they start ironing their ribs if you ironed your ribs this morning we have compassion on you we have grace for your folly warning label number two do not hold the wrong end of a chain saw while it is running why is that warning label on the chain saw because people fire up the chain saw and they realize they need to grab it really quickly and they start grabbing it by the chain and eventually they cut their hand off if you are here with marred hands from that folly we are here to say it's okay we've got compassion and grace for that and my favorite one for the morning for the season of life that I'm in and I know so many of my fellow parents are in just reminds you this morning to remove your child before folding your stroller sometimes you just forget put that child in there and throw it in the back of the minivan and you drive off and you think oh that the crying is that the child is trapped inside of the stroller right now we're full of folly these are silly ways sin is folly sin is someone not making wise choices and what do we need when we don't make wise choices we need loving and gracious God-given wisdom in leadership to say it will be okay and we're gonna be patient and we're gonna be kind with you now where does that motivation come from where does the motivation to go slow and to go patient with your children come from where does the motivation to go slow and to be patient with your employees that keep messing up time and time again it comes from the gospel the gospel is this you are a fool apart from God and you are like a sheep that goes astray and it falls into the pit of sin and you can't get yourself out but the gospel says there is a loving God who is infinitely more wise than you but he doesn't expect you to understand him logically always and he doesn't expect you to just reasonably come to him what does it says in Romans chapter 2 verse 4 don't despise the riches of His goodness his forbearance and his long-suffering God is good and he is kind and he has long-suffering slow to anger for all of us who are like sheep gone astray fallen into our pit it says do you not know that the goodness of God the kindness of God the love of God this morning leads you to repentance it is the kindness of God that takes us from people who are far off and it takes us away from foolishness and it brings us into the wisdom of his perfect plan for your life with the born-again spirit living inside of you it's his kindness not his logic that saved you and it's his kindness not the manual of theology that he gave but he wants to have a relationship with you and he leads you by love into relationship with him and now from the day that you met him from the moment of your salvation until you see him face to face he is the good and kind shepherd who wants to gently lead your life to joy and peace and life more abundant and then he says go and do likewise if you know me as your Good Shepherd lead with love he says it to Peter he says it to the pastor's that he's called to pasture churches of this generation he says it to the husbands that he's called to lead the households he says it to the parents that he's called to lead children I am your Good Shepherd now show the people in your life what good Shepherds do by leading with love it brings us to the second aspect of this which is this radical and sometimes difficult desire to learn you have to love to learn if you are going to be a wise leader it says in the book of Proverbs that you must in fact want wisdom it's something that you should ask for it's something that you should listen to and be instructed by but it's also important specifically for leadership that you would allow God to continually teach you and this is exactly what is happening in this interaction that we're studying this morning between Jesus and Peter starting in verse 17 this is the third time that Jesus gonna ask the question do you love me 1 do you love me too and another time he says Simon son of Jonah do you now look at Peter's response to the third time the third time it says Peter was grieved this is something that is almost burdening Peter because he says you know the answer why do you keep asking me well there's a couple reasons that we're gonna look at this morning why he asks him three times the first is this to learn something sometimes you need the lesson more than once in fact if you're anything like me you probably need it five or six times and Jesus wants Peter to get this so right that he's gonna ask him enough times for him to really remember and Peter not showing and displaying the perfect wisdom in this moment is like many of us when the Lord is trying to teach us something do you know how the Lord is trying to teach you know in the moment that you're probably going to the classroom with the Lord your first reaction may be that you're grieved you don't love always new situations and sometimes most of the time the Lord teaches us in ways that when we initially hear it can be a burden to our hearts many of us come to church and it can be a burden to hear preaching not because it's not the truth and that's be good not because God doesn't want to bless us it's because it is grieving to learn and to change our ways and so when God wants you to be a wise leader what you have to be willing to do is say lord give me a heart to continually learn the lesson and the lesson of wisdom and leadership is this the two main ways that you learn in leadership in life are ways that you don't necessarily like and that's why it's grieving you learn through the uncomfortable and you learn through utter failure the uncomfortable is when you have to do something brand new you have to lead into new territory you have to lead a stage of your family that is brand-new to you and you don't know the answers and it's uncomfortable you have to lead through tension and drama and difficulty and your the God appointed person to take that uncomfortable position and say teach me what to do here that's challenging it grieves you the second way is that you learn through utter failure and this is the way that we see in Peters example these second answers to why Jesus says t
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.