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The Leadership Calling | Pastor Dwain Wolfe

New Horizon Church Sermons

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  1. Holy Spirit. We're so thankful for you and for your presence and your testimony

  2. of Jesus. Thank you that you're here. Thank you that you're making good

  3. on all that He's said and all that He's promised. We honor you today.

  4. We honor you today, We honor the revelation of the Word. We

  5. ask, Holy Spirit, you will come with revelation, wisdom, conviction,

  6. faith, courage, be present in our midst. Holy Spirit. Thank you

  7. that you edify, that you build up, that you name us as we

  8. are in the Christ, that you speak royalty and life and kingly authority and

  9. grace overs We give you the praise for it in Jesus' name. Everybody said,

  10. Amen, you may be seated. Exodus chapter three. Exodus chapter three,

  11. I want to talk to you a little bit about the call of leadership,

  12. the calling of leadership on our lives, on every single person. And

  13. we'll just start with a little bit of stuff out of Moses and dive into

  14. this Exodus three. I'm going to start at verse seven, but before we

  15. get to verse seven, what's happening is and some of you know the story,

  16. So Moses led the people of God, the Jewish people. He led

  17. them out of captivity, led them out of bondage in Egypt. Maybe you

  18. know that story, but for the sake of those who were newer to the

  19. faith, Moses was that leader that led the people out of bondage. They

  20. had been in Egypt for four hundred and thirty years, and so God's getting

  21. ready to do something. The cry of these people in slavery is coming up

  22. before the Lord. And what happens right before verse seven, the first part

  23. of the chapter is that God shows up in a burning bush. So Moses

  24. is I wouldn't say he's really hiding from God, but he's hiding from Egypt

  25. because forty years previously he was very passionate about the Israeli people, the Jewish

  26. people, and he saw them being abused, and so he stood up on

  27. behalf of a fellow Hebrew and took the life of an Egyptian. So from

  28. that moment on, the Pharaoh wanted to take his life. So he escapes.

  29. He runs out to what we know in the Bible as Midian. He's

  30. out in the middle of this, you know, kind of this area called

  31. Midian. He gets out there, he finds his wife, and therefore he

  32. found his wife's family. The father in law we're told about quite a bit.

  33. His name is Jethro. And so he gets out there, and it's

  34. while he's there for forty years hiding from Egypt that God finds him, right

  35. and so, but we know he's out there. He's out there. He's

  36. not against the Lord, he's not running from God, because his influence on

  37. the family that he married into brought a shift and a change to them.

  38. Insomuch that Jethro is later called the priest of Midian, So that means Jehovah

  39. is now being worshiped in Midian, and there is a troop of people following

  40. after Yahweh Jehovah God. And he's out there making an influence, but he's

  41. still hiding from the Pharaoh. And so it's in that setting that this bush

  42. catches on fire, and he's like, and he sees the bush. The

  43. bush is on fire, but the bush isn't consumed, and so he,

  44. you know, heads over to take a look at this bush. And then

  45. a voice comes out of the bush. Right, you're familiar with the story.

  46. So verse seven, the Lord said, and this is the voice coming

  47. out of the bush. Indeed, I have seen the misery of my people

  48. in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers,

  49. and I'm concerned about their suffering. So I've come down to rescue them from

  50. the hand of the Egyptians, to bring them up out of the land,

  51. out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with

  52. milk and honey. The home of the Canaanites, the hit Heites, the

  53. Amorites, the Parasites, the high Bites, and the Debucyites. And these

  54. are a bunch of like bad folks, right, and so God's going to

  55. give that land to them. But part of the thing that we don't realize,

  56. and you know, just thinking about Israel for a moment, is that

  57. this is also the land that Abraham saw when he lifted up his eyes and

  58. God made him the promise of land. And so Abraham hasn't possessed the land

  59. yet. Now there's bad folks living in the land, idolaters, people that

  60. sacrifice their children to the demonic realm. But this is the land that was

  61. promised to Abraham four hundred and thirty years previously, or even longer than four

  62. hundred thirty years, because it was four hundred and thirty years that Jacob went

  63. down to Egypt. It was even before that that the land was promised to

  64. Abraham. And so he says, I'm going to give them that land.

  65. And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen

  66. the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. Verse ten. Here's the funny part.

  67. So now go. So now you go. I am sending you to

  68. Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites out. Now this is the way

  69. leadership works. God gets stirred up about something. God sees something happening.

  70. God hears the cries of people. God observes what's happening in culture. God

  71. is aware of what's happening around us. God sees all of this stuff where

  72. people are held in captivity. They're not in the blessing that he has desired,

  73. ordained and wants for them. And so his heart is moved, his

  74. heart is moved to come and rescue them. He comes down to rescue them,

  75. and then he says to you, now go, because this is the

  76. way God rescues people. The way God rescues people is he comes and he

  77. calls you though he's moved. He calls you though he hears them. He

  78. calls you, though he wants something better for them. He calls you,

  79. though he is going to move to set them free. He calls you.

  80. He's not going to do it on his own. He's going to call you.

  81. He's going to call you. He's going to empower you, he's going

  82. to enable you. And that's what we say happening here, and that's the

  83. leadership call. The leadership call comes upon Moses, and Moses does what all

  84. of us do. Typically, Moses does what so many in the Bible do.

  85. Be it, Gideon, be it. You know, we could just

  86. go on with the list. He does. He does the the not me

  87. God thing. Right, I didn't know demons appeared in burning bushes? Okay,

  88. right, I resist you in the name of Jesus. Right, this

  89. can't be God. And so Moses, you know, he's the reluctant We

  90. see him, you know, kind of acting out as this reluctant leader.

  91. And so he, for you know, first like no, thank you,

  92. and then he's like, who would I say he sent me? And why

  93. would they listen to me? And so he's got all these questions for God

  94. in chapter three, and God spends chapter three trying to convince him that he

  95. will be with them, that he will strengthen him. And he shows him

  96. some several miracles. Right, he says, what's in your hand? Okay?

  97. And he says my staff, and he says, throw it down.

  98. He throws it down, it turns into a snake. He says, pick

  99. it up. He picks it up, and it turns back into his staff.

  100. So there's several convincing miracles going on. By the way, he's asking

  101. you today the same thing. This is a parable as well as it's a

  102. real story. It's a real story, but it's a parable. He's asking

  103. you today what's in your hand? Because you're saying, who am I to

  104. go? Who am I to lead? Who am I to rise up?

  105. Who am I to act like I know anything? Who am I to influence?

  106. Who am I to touch anybody? Who am I to start something?

  107. Who am I to assert myself? And even if I did, what would

  108. I say? Who has sent me? And what would I do it with?

  109. And what power would I go with? And he's saying to you,

  110. what's in your hand? What's in your hand? Use what's in your hand,

  111. and I'll put supernatural on the natural. I'll put my power on what's

  112. in your hand, and so he continues to be reluctant. We get through

  113. all the way through chapter three with his reluctancy, and then we get to

  114. chapter four, and this is his last excuse, his last excuse. Chapter

  115. four, verse ten, the Lord says, pardon your servant, Lord,

  116. but I've never been eloquent. This is the I'm reading out of the New

  117. International today. The King James is a little more dynamic. It's just it.

  118. It's got, you know, the Shakespeare Macbeth language, and so I'm

  119. sparing a view of that. But you know, he's like, pardon your

  120. servant, Lord, I've never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since

  121. you've spoken to your servant. I'm slow of speech and tongue. Now we

  122. know that Moses stuttered and he had a hard time expressing himself, and so

  123. this is his way of saying, I can't do this, Lord, I

  124. can't even talk. I can't even talk. Why would you send me?

  125. How could it possibly be that I could do this when I can't even talk?

  126. And that might be you evaluating yourself today, that might be you evaluating

  127. the passion within you. And even as the passion is present, you might

  128. disqualify yourself because you're looking at your natural abilities. And so God fires back

  129. real quick, and God says, hang on here, who gave man his

  130. mouth? Right? Who can make them a death or mute? Who can

  131. give them sight or make them blind? Is it not the Lord? Now

  132. go and I will help you speak and teach you what to say. Here's

  133. something we can immediately learn from this. And this is not the sum total

  134. of the sermon, but something we can immediately learn is that God's calling on

  135. your life. God's calling also means his enablement on your life, right.

  136. It means his enablement to overcome whatever barrier, whatever hurdle, whatever boundary,

  137. whatever, whatever you've used, whatever history's used, whatever your sin has used,

  138. whatever the enemy's used, whatever perfection has used. Education is used to

  139. disqualify you. God has qualified you. And if God's qualified you, nothing

  140. can disqualify you. This is huge that we that we get this. And

  141. I want you to notice the common thread with every single leader in the Bible,

  142. every single leader, every single person that I know. The Bible's kind

  143. of iconic. So we're really hearing about the high points. We're hearing about

  144. the real icon leaders. But you got to know that under every icon leader

  145. are many also who had to be called. Just like Bezeleel in chapter thirty

  146. one of Exodus, who was anointed and called to fashion all of the art,

  147. all of the gold, all of the bronze, all of the decor

  148. for the tabernacle. He was a necessary leader. He was an anointed leader,

  149. He was a selected leader. And no matter how he saw himself,

  150. God saw him as anointed and set apart, and so God empowered him as

  151. he yielded and embraced the calling. And also, what I want you to

  152. see with every single one of these iconic leaders. You know, we've got

  153. all these names, you know, be it Gideon, be it Samson,

  154. be it Samuel, be it whatever it is. I want you to see,

  155. the most important thing is not their leadership quality, their leadership abilities.

  156. It is the passion burning within them. Passion means grace, and grace means

  157. the faith, the power, the enablement, the help of God will be

  158. present when you rise up and assert yourself with a passion to make a good

  159. Godly influence on others, to inspire them toward their land of milk and honey.

  160. Leadership is not I'm not just thinking about me anymore. I'm thinking about

  161. others. And with the passion within me and the passion you know, the

  162. passion within you, it's there's different, you know, realms of leadership.

  163. And I want you to realize this and think about this. Is that because

  164. today you're sitting here thinking I'm not a leader. I'm not a leader.

  165. The person with the most passion is always the leader in every sphere, in

  166. every circle. If ten of us get in the kitchen, the one that

  167. emerges to the top is the one with the most passion. If ten of

  168. us are building a shed, the one that emerges to the top is the

  169. one with the most passion. If ten of us are building anything, we're

  170. putting anything, to anything we're doing, If ten of us are cleaning apartments

  171. or whatever we're doing right, it doesn't matter. Whoever's got the most passion

  172. is going to lead that project. Passion is leadership because passion is connected to

  173. God's heart. God sees passion within you, and he grazes it when you

  174. come up under him and say yes to lead and influence those around you,

  175. getting them to a better destination, a destination of milk and honey, So

  176. passion is a huge deal, and every single person in this room has passion

  177. in a of life, and that passion is what God it's actually, it's

  178. actually, you know, a calling means, a calling means to be called

  179. out, and it used to be that even our names bore witness of the

  180. calling on our life. So if your last name was Carpenter back in the

  181. days, it's because you were called to be a carpenter. And then there

  182. were families who their last name was Butcher's because the whole family carried the calling

  183. of those who thank you. So the name of a person the etymology of

  184. a name in the Bible as well. Right, God says to Jacob,

  185. your name has been Jacob. It means supplanter, trickster, usurper. But

  186. I'm changing your name to Israel. What's Israel mean? Prince with God,

  187. I'm changing your name. So it used to be that our name, and

  188. aren't we glad that mine doesn't. Actually, you know what, there was

  189. a prophetic word over me. There was a prophetic word over me. So

  190. actually, for the first time in sixty five years, I've realized my name

  191. has a godly value. It's true, it's true, it's true. I

  192. can't remember the passage, but my perfect memory is working. It'll come back

  193. to May. But we were at the revival town Outreached a couple of weeks

  194. ago, and this prophetic guy who's the father of Jason, the pastor in

  195. the Spirit Realm, came up and he said, the Lord gives me a

  196. word over you, and he says that you are like Benjamin. Now this

  197. is the prophetic word that Jacob spoke of for Benjamin. And he said,

  198. you are like Benjamin. And he said that you are like a wolf.

  199. You rise up in the morning and seize your prey, and in the evening

  200. you distribute the plunder. For the first time, my name had spiritual meaning.

  201. All of this time, everybody's been asking you, why do you go

  202. to a church where they have a wolf in sheep's clothing? But finally you

  203. know why. It's because of Benjamin. All right, back to the sermon.

  204. The name, the etymology of a name, it used to apply to

  205. our calling. And the word calling means literally to be vocally called by God.

  206. It means that God called you for something. And what I want to

  207. submit to you is that your passion, the passion in you is indication of

  208. God's voice over you, the passion in you, and you can't make up

  209. a passion you can't like, Oh, I want to be passionate about cooking,

  210. good luck, I want to be passionate about cars. No, no,

  211. no, no no. If it's not in you, it's you can't

  212. make it up. You can't pay money for it. You can't go buy

  213. passions, you can't get them online. The passion in you is an indication

  214. of God's calling for you. And God's calling for you is an indication of

  215. the leadership that He's desired to erupt out of you, to bring an influence

  216. over others, to carry them from where they're at in their wilderness into a

  217. better place of milk and honey. So here's the thing is that that means

  218. when you recognize a passion in you, if you do nothing with it,

  219. Yah, you're in sin. Oh why did you say that, Pastor if

  220. you do nothing with it, if you listen to if you listen to perfection,

  221. if you listen to your history, if you listen to distraction, if

  222. you listen to the enemy, if you listen to how busy life is,

  223. if you listen to others around you, if you listen to the critics,

  224. you will do nothing with your passion if you look in the mirror and you

  225. look at yourself. One of my favorite passages on God's selecting leaders is for

  226. Samuel, let's just go to that verse. I'm gonna skip around. We're

  227. not gonna hit every verse during this message today that I've got, So I

  228. just need the team to bear with me. But for Samuel sixteen six and

  229. seven, this is when this is when Samuel was called because Saul. Saul

  230. saw himself as too small to lead. But he didn't get under the anointing

  231. and stay under the anointing. But Saul's confession was, I'm from the least

  232. tribe, and I'm the least family from that tribe. So he always was

  233. striving because he feared the people. He feared the opinions of the people.

  234. So he was always striving like up in pride and up in right. And

  235. so because he feared the people, he missed God. Instead of fearing God

  236. and serving the people, he feared the people right. And so Samuel is

  237. called to go anoint the one that will follow after Saul. And so he

  238. goes to the House of Jesse. God's into the house of Jesse. He

  239. goes there, he takes the flask of oil with him. Jesse pulls out

  240. all of the sons, you know the story. All the sons come out

  241. and this is where and they're all handsome. They're like, just like a

  242. hair better looking than Pastor Dwynn, all right, two hairs, two hairs,

  243. three hair, three hairs better. Okay, So all the sons come

  244. out and they all line up, and Samuel's there with the oil, and

  245. you know when the first one comes out, this is first Samuel sixteen six.

  246. When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed

  247. stands before the Lord. So he sees the first one. He's like,

  248. oh my word, this guy is tall, dark, and handsome in the

  249. world. This this has got to be the Lord's anointed. And the Lord's

  250. like, nope, I've rejected him. And this goes on right, Son

  251. after son after sun. One comes out. Surely this is the Lord's but

  252. look what, look what? Look what the Lord says to him, This

  253. is what I love because it's so valuable to all of us. Then the

  254. Lord said to Samuel, do not consider his appearance or his height, for

  255. I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look

  256. at. People look at the outward appearance. But the Lord looks at the

  257. heart. The Lord's looking at the leadership gift within you. He's looking at

  258. the passion within you. He's looking at the heart. It's not just a

  259. heart toward the Lord, but it's the heart of fire. It's the fire

  260. of passion over something. And it doesn't matter. You could be you could

  261. be doing what what Samuel. Samuel had his natural lenses on, and so

  262. he's trying to adjust his natural lenses and he's looking at the outward appearance.

  263. And this is what we do many times. I believe when we look in

  264. the mirror, we look in the mirror with Samuel limbses on, and God's

  265. saying, take off your Samuel limbses and put on my limbs. Put on

  266. my limbs. Quit looking at your dimples, Quit looking at your your SAgs,

  267. Quit looking at your gray hairs, Quit looking at the balding spot,

  268. Quit looking at your pimples. Quit looking at your height or your stature.

  269. Quit looking at your converse or your all stars, or your your blue jeans

  270. or whatever. Quit looking at all that stuff. Quit looking at your education.

  271. Quit looking at your sin, Quit looking at your failures, Quit looking

  272. at your family lineage. Quit looking at everything that everybody else has used to

  273. disqualify themselves. I've qualified you. Put on put on your God limbs.

  274. Put on your God limbs, Rise up, give place to the passion,

  275. and put on your God limbs. This is huge. Otherwise what happens is

  276. we end up good, ends up with a bunch of spectators. He's never

  277. meant The New Testament Church is not Moses two point zh. The New Testament

  278. Church is not Moses two point oh. The New Testament Church is. Every

  279. person is a priest and a king. Every person is a priest and a

  280. king. Every person is a cultural influencer, a body of Christ's influencer,

  281. every person, every person. Somebody pray for me this morning. Somebody had

  282. a word over me. Who are they to have a word over me,

  283. have a word over you? Are you kidding me? Ef? He's ins

  284. five twenty one. Submit to one another as unto the Lord. Submit to

  285. yield to one another as unto the Lord. Give place to one another.

  286. We're all kings and priests in the body of Christ. Amen. Where were

  287. they going? What would they saying, what is the sermon? Help us

  288. Jesus? All right, So here's what I want to talk about a little

  289. bit. Is I want to talk almost out a time. I'm going to

  290. talk about that there are five talent leaders, Yes, four talent leaders.

  291. Three talent leaders, two talent leaders, one talent leaders. I'm going to

  292. read the NIV Matthew twenty five. It says bags of gold ESV. King

  293. James says, talents. But the idea is that we are given the responsibility,

  294. according to a grace that's downloaded to us. We're given our responsibility to

  295. invest our lives into those around us, to be fruitful and to be productive.

  296. Right. And he didn't talk about four talent leaders. He didn't talk

  297. about three talent leaders. He didn't need to. The story was for brevity.

  298. He talked about five to two. And one doesn't mean there aren't.

  299. Four doesn't mean there aren't three. He didn't say there aren't. We can

  300. assume there are. He says, A five talent leader is the ones who

  301. get to work the hardest, the five talent leaders, the one who gets

  302. to work the hardest. Don't think of it like the five talent leader.

  303. Oh I just wish I was a five talent leader. If I was the

  304. five talent leader, boy, then I could get something done, and then

  305. i'd have the microphone, then I could be We live in this goofy iconic

  306. world where everybody wants to be a star. You are a star when you

  307. shine with the gifting God's given. You forget the praise of man and start

  308. thinking about the praise of God. So there's different levels of leadership, right.

  309. So Matthew twenty five, and this is all about the Kingdom of Heaven

  310. on earth. This is all about the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Everybody

  311. say Kingdom of Heaven on earth. It starts in verse one. That way,

  312. at that time, the Kingdom of Heaven will be like And then I'm

  313. going to jump down to verse fourteen because that's where we're focusing again. It

  314. will be like a man going on a journey who called his servants and entrusted

  315. his wealth to them. The one he gave five bags of gold to another,

  316. he gave two bags of gold to another, he gave one bag of

  317. gold each according to his ability. Now his ability doesn't necessarily mean his education

  318. or his background. His ability. This is very interesting I wanted to know

  319. what that word means, so I looked it up. The word for that

  320. in the Greek is each according to his dunamus. It's the same word used

  321. in Luke twenty four forty nine Acts, Chapter one, verse eight. After

  322. this time, the Holy Spirit will come up on you and you will recevedunamous.

  323. So this is interesting. He's saying. The Kingdom of Heaven on earth

  324. is like this. God distributes dunamus into the hearts of people, and he

  325. distributes certain levels of dunamus passion, power, grace, enablement upon the people

  326. who are in the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, and they are to invest

  327. that dunamus into others. Right, So that's what the word is. Then

  328. he went on a journey. The man who had received five bags of gold

  329. win at once and put his money to work, and he gained five more.

  330. So also the one with two he gained two more. The one with

  331. one he went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's

  332. money. This is a parable. It's a story about what are we to

  333. do with how God has graced us? And what God has grace you with

  334. is very much connected to the passion within you, because that passion married to

  335. knit two Holy Spirit in intimate submission means there's nothing that can't be accomplished according

  336. to the passion that's in you. That God will bring it to pass.

  337. He'll turn what's in your hand into something that would be powerful. After a

  338. long time, the master of the servants return and settled accounts with them,

  339. and the man who had been in received five bags of gold, brought the

  340. other five. We know he was blessed. Right, the man with two

  341. bags of gold came and he was blessed. You entrusted me with two,

  342. I've gained two more. The master replied, well done, good and faithful

  343. servant. You've been faithful with a few things. I'll put you in charge

  344. of many. That's interesting, too, is it the us within you grows?

  345. Because why would he put them in charge of more things when in the

  346. beginning he only gave them what they had the dunamous to manage. He didn't

  347. give them more than they had the dunamus to manage. But suddenly, when

  348. they did the right thing with what they were given, the dunamous increased.

  349. And now the one who only had two before had the ability now to manage

  350. four and the one who only had the ability to manage five had the ability

  351. now the dounamous to manage ten. But the one who did nothing with the

  352. dunamus within them, according to that which had been given them to increase,

  353. did nothing. And so they're Donamous shrunk. They're doing the US shrunk.

  354. I can't figure out why I can't get answers, why I'm not getting breakthroughs.

  355. I can't figure out why things aren't going better for me. I can't

  356. figure out why. I just feel like I'm struggling. I can't figure out

  357. why I'm up against stuff. I can't figure out why things just won't get

  358. out of the way. Because your whole life's focused on you, your whole

  359. life's focused on you, find some empty vessels to pour some oil into the

  360. Donamous. I'm still passionate about that. I'm still fired up about that.

  361. What have you done about that? Well, just you know, I haven't

  362. done much about that. I'm you know, I kind of stutter, and

  363. I have a hard time, you know, And then I don't look very

  364. sharp. I don't have any money. I don't have you know, and

  365. I come from this messed up family, and you know, and then I

  366. got so much sand that do something with that passion, and all at wants

  367. to donamus increases, do nothing with that passion, the donamous discreases, and

  368. then you're like, what's going on? And you're up against stuff and it

  369. could simply be solved by you partnering with Holy Spirit. What in the world

  370. you put this in me? What do you want me to do with this

  371. fire? What do you want me to do with this thing? What do

  372. you want me to do with this you have it? I'm fired up about

  373. money, and we know that's evil. Really, you know how many people

  374. in the church need good money management leadership and money management skills. Yet,

  375. but I'm fired up about this or that or the other thing. I don't

  376. know if that's really what God's excited about. He's excited about everything. Are

  377. you kidding me? There's nothing he's not excited about. And he put that

  378. deposit in your heart because he needed somebody to be excited about that stuff.

  379. I think what happens so many times is we see ourselves as a one talent

  380. person, and so we think of one talent person that's not much of a

  381. leader. There. We compare ourselves in this star minded culture. We compare

  382. ourselves often and always, and if you've got a media machine like a phone

  383. or television, you're constantly drawn to compare yourself subconsciously to all the stars,

  384. all of the five talent people. So if you're not careful, you're like

  385. hopelessness, despair, self loathing, discouragement, it'll just come over you.

  386. You'll just allow it to take place because you're like, who am I compared

  387. to all that? Ye? Right? I can barely get up on my

  388. surfboard. I'm behind the boat. I'm trying to ride that wave on the

  389. surfboard. I got to hang on to the rope still, right, But

  390. man, if I go to the club, they play this stuff on the

  391. TV with these guys doing flips, and you know that it's like my surfing

  392. compared to somebody else? Are you kidding me? So? Should I stay

  393. off the board? Should I what should I do? Should I just count

  394. myself out? Or is there some joy for me? Can I get in

  395. the game? Can I get in the water? Can I get on the

  396. surfboard? Maybe? Could I improve a little bit? Right? Do I

  397. need to be like somebody else? Do I need to be somebody else?

  398. Can I ever be honored if I'm not as good as somebody else. Oh,

  399. come on, the Lord needs every one of us. The Lord needs

  400. everyone. The Lord honors, he says, he honors the least more than

  401. the honors the greatest. He says, this is why we have to be

  402. so careful when we come together in our churches. We tend to do the

  403. same thing. We tend to put all the acloids, accolades, and all

  404. the praise on the five talent people. But Paul writes to the Corinthians,

  405. and he says, oh, it should be just the opposite. We should

  406. all run back to the children's ministry this morning and hug them who weren't in

  407. here, who laid down their morning to serve children. We all should be

  408. hugging Albert and his team who come and spend their Wednesday here loving on our

  409. young people, in our youth. We should be hugging those that are in

  410. the broadcast room who don't get to see the service. They got to listen

  411. on ear muffs so they can get the message out to hundreds of others who

  412. are listening across the world. Today. We should be hugging those don't give

  413. the stars all the praise realize every single person is worthy of honor, and

  414. God needs every person serving, leading in their passion, and acting out of

  415. their passion with the fullness of faith. The same Jethro who became the priest

  416. of Midian Moses father in law in Exodus, Chapter eighteen, Moses gets two

  417. million people out in the middle of the desert. He leads them out there.

  418. They're out in the middle of the desert. They've crossed through the Red

  419. Sea, and he's spending all of his time caring for these people. And

  420. the people there's not enough time in any day to get to him. There's

  421. not enough time for him to manage what's happening. So Jethro, the father

  422. in law, comes out and watches this thing, and he's like, hey,

  423. mo, can we talk. Come here, meet me at the tent

  424. where they serve the cactus caffeine. Just go over there and get a little

  425. cactus caffeine and have a little chat. So they meet over at the cactus

  426. caffeine cafe, and this is what he says, Chapter eighteen Exodus, what

  427. you're doing is not good. This is verse seventeen. You and these people

  428. that come to you, they're going to wear out the work's too heavy for

  429. you. You can't handle alone. Listen to me and I'll give you some

  430. advice, and God will be with you. You must be the peoples representative

  431. before God and bring their difuse to him. Teach them his decrees of his

  432. instructions. Teach him the way that they live and the way to behave.

  433. But select capable men from all the people, men who fear God, trustworthy

  434. men who hate in disnas gain and appoint them as officials over thousands, hundreds,

  435. fifties, and tens. Have them serve the judges for the people,

  436. and the people will come to them, and the people will have all of

  437. their problems answered. He will make your load lighter because they'll share it with

  438. you. If you do this, and God so commands, you'll be able

  439. to stand the strain and the people will go home satisfied. This is a

  440. model for leadership. This is actually the global model for leadership. Came out

  441. of these words of Jethro to Moses. Now, how'd you feel that day?

  442. How'd you feel when Moses selected you and he called you out, and

  443. some of you said, kam here, Camara, I want you to lead

  444. a thousand of priss. God I'm coming. We'll be right there. Okay,

  445. good and you you, I need you to lead a thousand. You

  446. know, the word prime minister means chief servant. Prime minister doesn't mean hot

  447. shot. It means yeah, you that are all excited that you get to

  448. lead a thousand, come over here. That means you get to work a

  449. thousand times harder than the other guys. Just come up here and keep smiling.

  450. But the way we think of things, you know, we want to

  451. poor storedom stardom on those folks. Right, and how did the guy feel

  452. when it got down here and you, Bob, Bob, I need you

  453. to come up. You're gonna lead ten. Okay, all right, I'll

  454. take that on. Thank you, Dave, I need you to lead ten.

  455. Okay, ten? All right? Thanks? Oh he believes in me.

  456. Wow, I'm special. No, No, it's not that way.

  457. Every leader was important, Every leader was key, Every leader was called,

  458. every leader was honored, every leader was selected. Every leader enjoyed the same

  459. blessing. The blessing of God was coming on every leader. Some of us

  460. never graduate out of we never graduate. It's like it's not supposed to be

  461. that way. We're not supposed to be like, Yeah, I'm gonna grow

  462. up. I'm gonna be leading fifty. Yeah, then I'm gonna well,

  463. when I get to be a real, i'm mature person, I'm gonna be

  464. leading hundreds. What if there's a grace on you to lead ten all of

  465. your life? What if there's a grace on you to lead fifty all of

  466. your life? You don't have to climbate wrong of success. You don't have

  467. to graduate out of a lower calling. Are you kidding me? Because we

  468. have these ridiculous, carnal and stupid thoughts, we won't even embrace the ten

  469. that we're called to. We won't even rise up to the ten that we're

  470. called to because I thought I'd be called to a thousand, And if I'm

  471. not called to a thousand, I'm not doing nothing. We'll just set it

  472. out. This is carnal thinking. God needs us to embrace those empty vessels

  473. before us. God needs us to embrace the passion burning within us. God

  474. needs us to welcome his dunamus to flow through us. God needs us to

  475. rise up and lead send with me this morning, heads bow's eyes closed all

  476. across the auditory of just for a moment or two because this morning, as

  477. we've come together, I want you to I want you to shake off comparison.

  478. I want you to shake off pride. I want you to shake off

  479. the need to be seen. I want you to shake off the fear of

  480. man. I want you to shake off the love of praise. The praise

  481. of man is deception. Forget about it. Shake it off, Shake it

  482. off, Shake it off. Shake off the need for money. The need

  483. for money can be deception. The love of Mammon is deception. It will

  484. turn your heart away from the calling God has for you. Shake it off.

  485. Shake off the fear of failing. Shake off the fear of responsibility.

  486. Shake off slothfulness and distraction, the fear of trying something new, the fear

  487. of trying something, the fear that you are not enough. I just I'm

  488. going to tell you right now, whether you're called to ten or one thousand,

  489. you aren't enough. That's the whole idea. You aren't enough. It's

  490. the do you and with God with you, it is the two of you

  491. that are enough. It's only the two of you that are enough. I

  492. guarantee today you aren't enough. You aren't enough, But with Him, you're

  493. more than enough. Pray with me, and I'm going to open the front.

  494. I want the team to come and prepare to pray. Some of you

  495. are giving your life to the Lord today. And you got in here and

  496. you've hesitated and you've waited, and you're coming to him for the first time,

  497. or you're recommitting your life to him, and I want you to know

  498. you haven't missed it. We're going to open the front. Do not let

  499. the enemy steal the word from your soul. God wants to restore you.

  500. God wants to bring you into the milk and the honey He's ordained for you.

  501. Others of you, This word is to jar you. God wants to

  502. jar you. The one who receives one talent and did nothing with it.

  503. The words of the Lord over that person are not good words. He said,

  504. you, wicked and lazy servant. Wicked and lazy servant. God is

  505. calling us away from a focus on our own lives and our own endeavors and

  506. our own stuff so deeply that we were not looking up. He says.

  507. Lift, He says today, lift up your head, Lift up your head,

  508. Lift up your head. Look around you. Others need what's in you

  509. and on you. Others need your passion to burn to inspire them. Others

  510. need your influence. So he's calling new and afresh today, and I want

  511. you to respond. I want you to come forward. I want you to

  512. be prayed for. I want you to be strengthened. I want you to

  513. get something broken off of your life. Today. Let's say this together,

  514. Father, I shake off the fear of failing. I shake off the need

  515. to be seen. I shake off the praise of man. I shake off

  516. the fear of trying something new. I shake off comparison with others. I

  517. shake off the need and the care of wealth or finance or money. I

  518. shake off the excuses of weakness. I take off the lens of Samuel and

  519. I put on the lens of Holy Spirit today. And I ask you,

  520. Holy Spirit, rekindle and refresh the passion, the calling, the awakening that

  521. you have for me and my generation in Jesus' name. And everybody said,

  522. God, bless your church. Let's pray as we go, let's worship as

  523. we go, Let's respond as we go.