More Principles of Leadership

Nehemiah 2:17-20

Nehemiah:  “I’m gonna build a big beautiful wall…and make Persia pay for it!  It’s gonna be huge.  Believe me.  If you don’t want to help, you’re fired!  We’re gonna make Jerusalem strong again / proud / great!”

I admire strong leadership.  It’s inspiring to see it in action.  It gets things done.  It builds great followers.  It generates enemies as well.  Biblically, strong leadership is loving in nature…even if sometimes it has to be tough love.  A good leader is faithful [present].  He is a team builder and a team player.  He is hated by some who aren’t on the team.  But he is respected by many because he earns it.

God uses human leadership.  He gets the glory, and yet His way to accomplish His work is thru leadership.  Would Israel have ever crossed the Red Sea if not for Moses?  Would they have taken the Promised Land without Joshua?  Would Jerusalem ever have become what it still is to this day if not for the warrior King David?  Would the gospel have ever penetrated to Asia Minor and on into Europe if not for the Apostle Paul?  No way!

I love Nehemiah because he is a great leader.  Everyone else saw obstacles and he saw opportunities.  Where many saw problems he saw potential.  Even today engineers marvel at what was accomplished in Jerusalem in just 52 days w/ all volunteer labor and no modern equipment.

Last time we saw the first 3 principles of leadership:

The value of solitude, preparation, and seeing the big picture.

4.             Leaders carefully choose their words.

v. 16        They don't speak until it's time.  Ever said something and knew you’d come to regret it?  Well, leaders don't run off at the mouth until they know what they are talking about.  I used to think I had to share every thought that popped into my mind.  "Here's everything I know on that subject!"  And even as I spouted off I revealed that I often don't know what I'm talking about!  I thought I was impressing folks w/ my knowledge but they were rolling their eyes saying, "There he goes again!"  

"It's better to keep your mouth closed and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."  Mark Twain

Share all the details too soon, before people are ready to receive them, and you can start a groundswell of discouragement before you ever start, because human nature is for us to think of reasons it can't be done.  Remember, this same project was attempted a few years before and it was shut down.  And Nehemiah knows that the #1 thing he's gonna hear once he shares the details w/ his workers is, "We tried that before, it won't work!"

Back to v. 12           You don't jump up and tell everything you know immediately.  You wait for God's time and place like Nehemiah did.

I promise you folks, God has really big plans for this place.  I can't tell you all the details, and I don't have it all crystal clear myself, but if I did share what I know it might just scare you, or overly excite you to where you couldn't focus on what God has for us to do right now!

5.     Leaders know how to share their vision.

When the time is right, they know how to get people on board.

v. 17a      He pointed out what was right before their eyes.  They saw it but they didn't see it.  They had grown so accustomed to it that they needed their vision restored for how things were supposed to be.  Worse, they had accepted that things couldn't be different.

v. 17b      "let US" - "that WE"

No matter how great a man Nehemiah was he knew he couldn't do this job himself.  There is strength in numbers and he would need a lot of help.

1 Corinthians 3:9
⁹ For we are labourers together with God:

When God's people work together we can accomplish so much.

ill.--Geese fly in a V formation.  And one side is always longer than the other.  Know why?  There's more geese on that side!  Seriously, it's because the lead goose is splitting the air, cutting the wind, making it easier for the others, and when he gets tired he falls back and another takes the lead.  People smarter than me have determined that geese can fly 72% further that way than any one of them could have by themselves. 

God programmed that into nature, and He wants us to operate that way too. 

Deuteronomy 32:30
³⁰ How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?

As I look across our crowd my heart leaps at the thought of what we will accomplish once we all decide to get on board and do it together.  Not half of us, or the 10% who do it all.  I mean all of us.  We are sitting on a spiritual powder keg and I'm just waiting for God to light all the fuses!

In v. 17 Nehemiah shared the vision, and in v. 18 the people said, "Let us rise up and build!"

Henry Ford, "Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress, thinking together is unity, and working together is success."

Leaders know how to share their vision.  Know how to determine if you are a leader?  Turn around and see if anyone's following!  If not, you're not leading, you're just taking a walk.

6.     Leaders know how to strengthen their followers.

Leaders are encouragers by nature.  They focus on why it CAN be done.  They help people believe in themselves and in what God wants to do thru them.

v. 18a      Nehemiah understood that the people were discouraged at an all time low.  He knew they had failed at this project before.  He gave them a powerful, positive message.

        In v. 18 he says, God is in this!  And once God's people are convinced that God is in something, they always rise to the occasion and meet the challenge He has put before them.  When something fails around here and I know it was God's will, I blame myself.  I believe I must not have effectively communicated and sold you on the fact that God is in something or else you would have got on board and made it happen.

For not just decades, but centuries, when this church would step out on faith and get behind something God used them to do mighty things that still stand as a monument today.  A monument is a proud item…and it encourages us that the same God who did it before can do it again.  I like a monument!  But God doesn't need a monument.  He has left us here at this crossroads, at such a time as this, so we can tackle higher ground and move mountains we've never dreamed...are you with me?

Do you believe God is in it?

v. 18        He tells them about what the king said.  Why?  To encourage them!  To show that progress has already been made.  People don't want to be a part of something that is destined to fail.

Sometimes I share blessings with you about what God is doing in our online ministry.  These things aren't brag reports.  Actually, they are.  I'm bragging on God!  He has permission to bless that ministry and is doing so.  And I want you to be encouraged!  Once He has full permission to do so here, we can all be a part of it!  If God be for us, who can be against us?  What is working around the world will work right across the street!

7.     Leaders know the value of determination.

You cannot be a leader unless you have some bulldog in you.  You can't be easily discouraged.  You must forge ahead!

v. 19        When God's people want to build, the devil will cause people to blast.  The door of opportunity swings on the hinges of opposition.  There is no easy way, lazy way, or cheap way to do the work of God.

1 Corinthians 16:9
⁹ For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.

These 3 men are demon inspired, and they are in every church!  Just their names tell the story:

Sanballat means thorn, Tobiah means Jehovah is good, and Geshem means rain.  These are the devil's 3 musketeers.  Anytime you want to do something for God you'll run into these 3. 

"Thorn" is a pain in your side.  He's critical and throws cold water on all your plans.  He questions your judgment and your motives.  [19b-will ye rebel against the king?]  "You just want to be a big shot!"  Christians are bad about judging motives, and it hurts badly.

ill.—a man in a former church criticized our hymn racks and offering envelopes.  The racks were down low under the seats but the envelope pockets were up high.  “You gotta break your back to get a hymnal…but I see them offering envelopes are right convenient!”

"Jehovah is good" walks around all the time saying, praise the Lord, and we love you preacher, and God is so good...until the first time you make a decision they don't like!

"Rain" walks around w/ a cloud over his head.  He's always gloom, despair, and agony on me!  He brightens up a room, by leaving it!  He's the Eeyore of every cartoon.  And sadly, they don't recognize that that's who they are.

ill.--Barney Fife asked his friends to go get something to eat.  They asked, where?  "Oh, it don't matter to me, I'm easy to please."  How about the diner?  "No, the special is tuna casserole, I hate that." How about the drugstore?  "No, everything tastes like medicine."  Let's go to the Italian restaurant.  "Nah, I just don't like my main dish concealed in a heavy sauce."  So, where do you want to go?  "It don't matter to me!"

        The negative person has trouble recognizing themselves that way.

Leaders understand the value of determination.

That's their names.  Now here's their methods:

        They lean against the wall and laugh.  And that peer pressure causes many to falter...they can't take the ridicule and they bow to the pressure.

There is always a resistance.  Just ask Trump.  The other side has made it their main plan to convince his cabinet and other leaders to stand against him and minimize his influence.  But a good leader is determined to plow forward and go forward with those who are pulling the nets in the same direction.

The only way to escape criticism is to do nothing and be nothing.  Anything moving forward will cause some friction.

If you make decisions, they will be criticized.  Just ask referees…

ill.—The Chiefs have done a lot of winning in recent years.  And there’s a growing belief that the refs are on their side.  It’s not true, but many believe there’s a conspiracy.  And it’s that way on some level in all sports in all ages…coaches argue w/ referees and umpires even though the call cannot be overturned.  Why?  They are trying to intimidate him.  And some umps have what coaches call 'rabbit ears.'  If an ump has rabbit ears he is very tuned in and sensitive to what people are saying, what coaches and players are hollering, and the boos of the crowd.  When the coach argues w/ an ump he's hoping that on the NEXT close call he will lean in their direction.       

A good ref lets the chips fall where they may, and makes decisions based on his own conviction, and so do good leaders.

v. 20        Nehemiah says, we will do the work of God, and we're not listening to you, and you're gonna miss out because you're not on board.

You are a leader, and you are a follower.  Me too.  God help us to be the leaders and followers you deserve!