Ep 409 | Transformational Leadership - Frank Brancato 8-22-21

It's good to be here with all of you this morning, we appreciate

your presence. So very much.

It is a privilege to worship God together and I am honored as

always, to be your speaker. I'd ask you to bear with my

voice. I don't know why I woke up so

hoarse today, but I hope I don't lose my voice during the course

of his lesson. I'll do my very best, please

bear with me as an introductory text.

I've chosen the book of Acts the 27th chapter and beginning there

in verse 1. And when it was decided that

they should sail to Italy, they delivered Paul and some other

prisoners to one named Julius a centurion of the Augustine

regimen, so entering a ship of a dream idiom.

We put to see meaning to sail along the coast of Asia

aristarchus a Macedonian of thessalonica was with us.

This morning, I want to talk on a very important subject.

I want to talk on kle leadership and the characteristics of a

true leader. And you might think that it's a

strange place. The book of Acts chapter 27, to

Acts 27 · chapter mention

discuss a subject like leadership.

But in this narrative, there are great things that we can learn

from the great Apostle, Paul a prisoner the Bible says, and on

his journey to Rome becomes a tremendous and terrific leader.

Now, one of the most critical challenges, I think that face

the church today is the lack of strong effective leadership.

In fact, leadership remains, one of the glaring needs.

I think in the church people are often willing to follow God's

Vision but too frequently. They have no exposure to either

Vision or true leadership. And you know this is not just in

the Lord's church. This is also in the world of

Christian professing religions in fact statistician George

George Barna, panting some sobering conclusions based on

his research of Christian professing religions and he

wrote The Following after 15 years of digging into the world

around me. I have reached several

conclusions regarding the future of the Christian church in

America. The central conclusion is that

the American church is dying due to the lack of strong leadership

in this time of unprecedented opportunity and plentiful

resources. The church is actually losing

influence. The primary reason is the lack

of leadership. Nothing is more important than

leadership. Now, my goal today, my goal is

to discuss some things that would encourage us to practice

transformational leadership. In other words leadership that

makes a difference in the life of other people.

I'm going to tell you, you may think of this and say you know

what, this sermon is for the men that lead, so I'll just kind of

check out this would be good for them.

But I'm going to tell you this applies to every single one of

us. You might think I'm not a

leader. Surely, I'm not.

I'm a follower. I've actually heard from people

that have said, you know, I don't really have a role.

I just kind of sit. I occupy my seat and I'm not a

leader to anyone, but that's not true.

In fact, you have an influence over somebody in your life that

nobody else does and if that's the case, it's very sobering.

If somebody is watching me in my life.

And I am a leader in their eyes. It is tremendous that I

understand what it means to be a strong effective leader.

Well, I want to talk on the subject that Corporate America

brings up and it's called the SNL or the strong natural

leader. This is actually things that

they look at in the corporate world.

A strong natural leader is characterized by the following

ways. Number one, a strong natural

leader, is a visionary. That's somebody that.

Looks to the Future and plans, for the future.

A strong natural leader is one who is action oriented, somebody

that gets things done. Number three, a strong natural

leader, is somebody that's courageous.

He's a risk taker. Number four, he is energetic.

In other words, he's a type A personality.

He's the guy that is extremely driven.

Also objective oriented and not people-oriented.

I'm going to get back. To this in just a minute because

while this sounds like a really good idea, there are faulty

aspects of the strong natural leader theory in the corporate

world. Here's another one

paternalistic. In other words he's the father

in charge. Have you ever known the guy that

was large and in charge as to paternalistic guy also

egocentric. He is someone that is

self-absorbed. What else?

Intolerant of incompetence. I mean actually Absolutely, we

got to keep the level of Excellence going on, right?

And view self as indispensable lives with the illusion that the

whole system that they are part of will come crashing down,

without them. Now, here's some problems with

the theory. It denies the primary requisite

of biblical leadership and that it is that you can only

accomplish God's goal through God's people and not by doing it

yourself. What else?

The difficulty comes because I like one man said you have to

organize and lead a whole bunch of people who are all

volunteers, none of whom you can command, all of whom, you have

to say, oh, please and none of whom you can fire and many of

whom when you make a mistake, are eager.

Sure to let you know about it. I think all of us can relate to

that. Now I'm going to tell you

something, there's something about being a leader and I might

go back to these this chart here.

It's true that we need to be Visionaries.

Absolutely. We have to have a vision or you

can't move forward. We need to be action-oriented.

That's true too. And courageous and energetic and

all of those things but understand that we have to be

people oriented over objective oriented And I think great

leaders somebody they can get every aspect of all people,

doing their very best. I remember all the years that I

coached football and coach football for 12 years and one

thing that I learned when it was all said and done that, if an

effective coach is not someone that can get the most out of the

star athlete, you know, it's easy to get the most out of a

star athlete. In fact, if you're a coach and

you got to start, he makes you look good.

And sometimes in spite of you a star athlete or Star team of

athletes can make a coach look better than he really is.

But if you want to be really effective, get the most out of

that little guy over there, the third-string guy, it doesn't

play much, but he does have a role and effective coach gets

the most out of every single person.

And so does an effective leader objective oriented know.

We want to be people oriented, all right, problems with Theory.

And when move forward, acts 27 verse 1, as we begin, we're

Acts 27:1

talking about something that happened when Paul.

Who had been a prisoner in caesarea for two years?

He was taken prisoner during his third missionary journey and

Paul had enjoyed great success. Among the Gentiles preaching,

the gospel and because of that, the Jewish opposition was great

against him. He was guilty of absolutely

nothing. He was arrested by authorities

and for two years he was in prison.

Now please make this. If you taking notes, write it

down. But don't forget this.

Have you ever noticed that Paul never said, I Paul a prisoner in

Rome, never He never said that. You know why?

Because there were no sustainable charges against him.

He was guilty of nothing. You know what Paul said, when he

wrote to Philemon he said I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ.

In other words, he was a prisoner because of what he

preached and when he took the gospel to the Gentiles and the

Jews that rejected Jesus, they absolutely hated him for it so

what they do they drummed up ridiculous charges.

So he's imprisoned where Ever, you want to call it jail or

prison, but he is imprisoned in caesarea for about 2 years.

Now, as a Roman citizen, he could exercise his, right?

And that was to go to Caesar and make his appeal.

And that's where this entire narrative begins and ends on the

journey to make that appeal, appealing to Caesar.

Now, I got to tell you when you think about all the people there

on the ship. Okay, there's 276 men.

And when Paul got on that ship, he's the lowest of the low

everybody that was on the ship ranked higher than Paul.

Let's talk about some of those that would have been their

number one. There would have been a man that

was a centurion. You know who sent turians were?

They were a man that was in command.

Over 100 soldiers, there would have also been ranking officers.

There would have been soldiers there.

There would have been a First mate.

If there's a captain there's always a first mate and there

would have been Sailors there too and Paul is at the very

bottom of all of that. But you know what happens is we

find that he emerges and he rises to the top, he comes from

a position of weakness, he rises to the top because he emerges as

a leader and people follow Don't ever think that there's anything

in the world. That resembles a born leader.

Have you ever heard people say he's a natural-born leader?

No, he's not. Let's talk about how you are

when you're naturally born, you're an ultimate follower,

you're in need, you're a taker little children and it should be

that way they need, they take their, the ultimate follower,

they're not a leader, so you are not born into this world, a born

leader, what you are, you come into the world as a follower and

in need and self-centered and all of that.

And what happens is in life things change.

And sometimes out of the ashes, Rises a man, or a woman in a

position of leadership in life, that you least expect, you know,

why? Because leaders emerge, they are

developed and they emerge, and that's exactly what happens to

be. A great Apostle Paul.

Let's go to verse 1 of Acts chapter 27, and when it was

Acts 27 · chapter mention

decided that we should sail to Italy, they delivered Paul and

some other prisoners to one named Julius, a centurion of the

Augustine regimen. Now we there, I think is

referring to Paul obviously, but the other we has to do, with

Luke wrote the gut wrote, the book of Acts.

And so in this narrative and when it was decided that we and

Luke is referring to himself and Paul, we should sail the Italy.

They A delivered Paul. And some of the other prisoners

to one named Julius, a centurion of the Augustine regimen.

Also in verse 2, so entering a ship of a dream idiom.

We put to Sea, meaning to sail along the coast of Asia

aristarchus. Macedonian of thessalonica was

with us. All right, Adrian medium was a

city of Asia Minor on the coast of miss.

You look at verse 3 and I must sum up some things and just a

Let's go to verse 3 and the next day we landed in sidon.

Now this is very significant, siding was 70 miles off the

coast of Israel not very far at all so they hadn't gone very

far. Now watch this in verse 3.

Also, it says and Julius treated Paul kindly and gave him Liberty

to go to his friends and receive care.

Have you ever stopped to consider why it was that Julius

when Paul had not been On the ship very long.

All of a sudden he says something like this as I might

paraphrase. You know what, Paul you've been

on the ship all day. You had kind of a long day so

you can just leave, you can get off the ship.

You can go to your friends and gave him Liberty to do that to

receive care in other words to refresh yourself.

Think of it this way. Paul was one of the most highly

resented men in Jewish population in Jerusalem.

Can you imagine what it would've?

What could have happened? If Paul is released to leave the

ship, if he's running loose and really as they came to side and

Julius. Let's Paul do that.

In other words, Paul you've been on the ship, you can go refresh

yourself. I think what this shows is Paul

was extremely trustworthy or worthy of trust.

What an example, he's a prisoner, he is worthy of trust

and that really brings up principle number one of

principles of leadership and that is to be trustworthy.

I'm going to get to these two things in just a minute, but

let's talk about being trustworthy in this particular

narrative, all right? Why is it such that all of a

sudden Paul being trustworthy is allowed to do it.

I don't know what all that he did or said, we know in the

narrative later, a lot of things he said, But all I know is this

when Julius looks to Paul, he recognizes him as somebody I

can, trust him, I guess in prison, they call it trustees.

And the people that are allowed to have Liberties because they

trust that they won't get in trouble, they won't do anything

wrong. And they'll come on back.

If you trust him to go out, I remember Lizzie live in Ojai to,

but there was an honor Farm in Ojai and I remember that, that

was a place that people that you trusted.

It and it was very minimum, minimum security.

There was no fence or anything, no big, barbed wire.

These were people that could serve their time at the honor

Farm. They were trustworthy or worthy

of trust. I think there's something

similar to the mindset of Julia's that written realizes

and recognizes that Paul was worthy of trust, but there's

something else too. He was in prison for two years.

He's allowed to go to his friends, okay?

So his Julius trusted him but have you ever considered so did

his friends? early this morning, I was

sitting in my office looking over this very early this

morning, And I thought of something.

How many times? Do people that are accused of

something. Whether they're found guilty or

not but just when they're accused of something really -

their friends jump ship. I know of a man I know exactly

of a specific instance of that. He's a friend of mine and within

the last two years he was accused of doing something that

he vehemently denies. And I'm going to tell you,

there's a difference, some of his friends and myself.

Included are still his friends. Let it play out.

Not just all of a sudden have no more trust in the man even

though he's been your friend for a lot of years and bail on him

because he's accused of something, that's very serious.

How many times do people do that?

These friends of Paul could have done that very thing, a wait a

minute what Paul do now. He's been in prison for two

years after all. He must be guilty of something.

They didn't do that. He was trustworthy to Julia's.

He was also trustworthy to his friends and he was able to go

and be refreshed by them sometimes people doubt, because

and lose confidence because of circumstances.

And, you know, I think about this idea to I think about All

the people in my life perhaps that may be better if I'm if I

have any kind of influence over them.

How many people could be better or worse based upon my

confidence in them? And my trust in them.

Now listen trust is earned we get that, right?

But having confidence in, someone will spur people on to

be better than they've ever been before.

When you constantly doubt people, it causes people not to

try. If you want to get people to go

and strive for greatness, you have to have confidence in them.

You have to demonstrate that confidence in them.

Now, respect is earned absolutely but when they have

earned it you give it and just maybe it raises the bar in their

mind of the status that they want to shoot for to be better

in the future than they've even been in days gone by I'm going

to tell you something, when it comes to being a good leader,

leaders are servants. And one man said this leaders

who fail to practice, servant leadership become self-serving.

And by the way, nobody likes the guy that just bosses everybody

around. Nobody likes that guy.

And I'll just tell you if you are a boss and you are boss over

anyone, I will tell you this, you can be a boss, you can be a

coach, you can be a leader of all manner of things, okay.

If you're in a position of authority over anyone, I will

guarantee you this, you will get more out of that person if they

love appreciate and respect you than if they're afraid of you.

You get a whole lot more out of that person.

Out of respect. I'm going to talk about being a

servant here. You don't Paul said Paul

referring to the apostles. Now, the apostles were the

greatest leaders ever. They were the ones that Jesus

left on the earth and the early church.

When the church was established, they had to be walking Bibles

and preach the gospel. We have Apostles doctrine.

That was preached because the word of God did not exist.

The New Testament didn't exist. So those things had to happen.

They were the great leaders in the Lord's Church.

You know what Paul said in first Corinthians chapter 4.

1 Corinthians 4 · chapter mention

He said we are under rowers. You know what that is?

That's the third-level galley slaves.

As the guys all the way down in the bottom, by the way, that's

where the raps lived. And these guys were under,

rowers, servant leadership. This is the picture that Paul is

saying, we are under rowers. We are down there in the third

deck, we are rolling all the way down the bottom.

We are rolling rowing, so the ship can move under Rose.

This is one of my favorite stories in the Old Testament.

One of the greatest greatest examples of servant leadership,

and it was Nehemiah And historically speaking.

In about 400 44, BC the situation in Israel and

Jerusalem was terrible. The city was in destruction, and

laying in that condition. For over 150 years, the Jewish

people have been outside of their captivity now for 80

years, but they still couldn't build or hadn't built the wall.

A man had to come to the rescue and take initiative.

He just happened to be over there in Babylon and his name

was Nehemiah and Nehemiah said I got to do something and then

there's five principles for taking initiative and weíll get

to the sixth thing in just a moment.

Five principles notice what he does, number one, he identifies

with the need. I think that's has to happen

regardless of who we are and what we're trying to accomplish.

If there's a need, we got to identify with the need.

In other words, I see the need a lot of people saw the need they

couldn't do anything, but I can identify with the need.

I can do something about it. You know, what he does, he came

up with a solution now, sometimes we just sit back and

think of the problem, but we don't come up with a solution.

Okay, and I got to tell you I'm going to step on my toes a

little bit here too. Okay.

Sometimes as we flow through this now, identifying with the

Nate, I can do something about it coming up with a solution.

That's all great. He decided, you know, my do, I'm

going to go to The King and I got a plan.

So what does he do? He takes action, and he doesn't.

Okay, I'm going to tell you something times, this gets all

of us. We may identify with the need.

We may even have a solution but we never take Action.

It's kind of like the guy that always has a whole list of

things we should do. But does nothing.

We should do this. We should do that.

We should do this. We should do that.

Or what are you going to do? Oh, nothing.

It kind of gets all of us sometimes come up with a

solution and he took action. And then this is the one right

here that I've had to work on and I'm still working on.

I think it's a weakness of mine and that is he delegated

responsibility? You know, sometimes we look to

someone doing something and maybe they're green at it, maybe

they're new at it and we think we can do a little bit better.

So we want to take the task away from them.

It's kind of like you remember when your kids were little and

where they're sweeping something up in the backyard, you know,

you can grab that broom and do better than they can.

Absolutely. But they need to learn, they

need to know. So in time, they'll be as good

as you are at it. That's a hard concept.

Well, let me tell you about my shortcoming.

What I've always done is I've neglected Delegate

responsibility. That is not a good quality in a

leader. We have to delegate

responsibilities, so everybody else is involved.

Everybody else is getting better, too.

But I love this when he put together the entire thing, he

came up with this plan and he worked alongside the people in

this plan though, when he delegated the responsibility, he

said to this family, you just build this section right here

and this family over here, you just build what this section

right here and this family over here, this section right here.

But it wasn't the boss. No, he got down there with them

and he worked alongside the people.

Oh, that's a great leader. Somebody that will do just that,

a good leader folks is not someone that just bosses

everybody and lines them all out.

And then notice don't you think that people would have saw

Nehemiah? And said, man I want to great

job Nehemiah know. He was resented.

He was hated and there was tremendous opposition.

But do you know what happened? This is amazing to me. 80 years.

They couldn't build the wall. Couldn't do it Nehemiah with

proper leadership. Identify with Annie come in a

solution, taking action delegate responsibilities work alongside

the people, you know what happened?

They built the wall in record time in 52 days.

They could they did what they couldn't have done without him

for 80 years and they did it in 52 days.

So yeah we have to have leaders like that there are trustworthy.

But number two, We need leaders that have good judgment.

I'm talking about being cautious and careful and those that seek

wise counsel, you know, there's a lot of things that we all have

as shortcomings, perhaps one of which is not mine, this is not

my shortcoming, but I have a lot of shortcomings, but I was

always raised to go and respect those that are older than we are

and be able to accept their wisdom, and their knowledge, and

their guidance. And I try as I go through The

out and preached all over the country.

I try to encourage young people to look to these precious older

folks that have silver hair and wrinkles on their face as life

swarm apps and go to them and listen to their wise counsel,

like Proverbs talks about Hardy Council.

It's wonderful, a good leader. Could be a young person, but a

young person that uses good judgment.

Being cautious, careful, and seeking wise counsel, asking,

for advice, you've heard me say this before so it's not new.

But I will tell you this every bad decision I ever made in my

life. Usually every one of them there

was always somebody there dumber than I was telling me.

I got a great idea. It's great idea.

That's not your friend. One that is wise will seek wise

counsel and we'll use good judgment in verse 11 listen to

this. Nevertheless in Acts 27, the

center Ian was more persuaded by the Helmsman and the owner of

the ship then then the things which Paul spoke you know, why?

Paul was just a prisoner. He was just a prisoner.

He was of the lowest. 276, man, and he was at the very bottom,

but leaders emerge. Number one, number one, be

trustworthy number to be of good judgment.

And number three, a good leader, strengthens others.

A good leader makes everyone around him.

Better makes everyone around him stronger and more effective and

so by speaking with confidence and Authority, a leader can

strengthen others. I want to note something here,

too in a negative way, you know, Hitler was a man that spoke of

authority but it was a it was a tyrant.

Just because you speak of authority.

Doesn't mean a tyrant. Okay.

It's not what that's not what I'm talking about.

But when you speak the truth and love you speak at bowling, you

speak the word of God boldly and a good leader is somebody

strengthening others speaking boldly, the truth of the word of

God, a good leader will strengthen others.

Now there's three kind of people that leaders in the church have

to work with. I don't like the term deal with.

I like to term work with first Thessalonians.

1 Thessalonians 5 · chapter mention

Chapter 5. And first Thessalonians, chapter

1 Thessalonians 5:14

5 verse 14. What Paul said, now we exhort

you Brethren, warn those that are unruly Comfort the

faint-hearted, uphold the weak and be patient with all unworthy

or unruly, by the way, unruly means to walk disorderly so that

they need some fences, built some parameters.

Now, sometimes we have to do that from a negative standpoint,

we have to warn people. Okay.

That are Unruly. But I want to talk about the

second one and that is Comfort or encourage the faint-hearted.

You know, some translations say feeble-minded and that's doesn't

mean mentally. Irresponsible Thayer says, these

are those who are inclined to be easily discouraged in the

presence of Trials. And they need to be pushed

along. You know, the third one is, the

third one, is those who need some special attention,

upholding the week, some have less ability than others.

And Paul said in Romans 15 and 1 we would have the stronger ones

to support and encourage them. In verse 1 of Romans chapter 15,

Romans 15 · chapter mention

we then who are strong ought to bear with the Scruples of the

weak and not to, please our self.

What else? What else?

We have to be optimistic. now, you know that I believe in this,

you know, I've said this many times but I'm going to give you

a quote here Optimism within the bounds of Reason creates energy

excitement and Hope. Now, I clarify that.

Do you see that optimism within the bounds of Reason creates

energy excitement and hope I'm not saying optimism regardless

of the circumstances. In other words, the guy that's

rose-colored glasses and is naive.

I'm talking about within reason based on fact, it's about

perception. On the other hand being

pessimistic. We don't want that guy.

Pessimism literally debilitates everyone.

It Literally sucks the life out of others.

Paul said to them, be of good cheer.

Let's get excited about this. Paul would say And I have lost

some slides. So that brings us to our Final

point. and that is, Paul said, in Paul's case, he's an example

of someone who never compromises obsoletes things that are

absolute in Acts chapter 27, beginning in verse 22.

Acts 27 · chapter mention

Now, I urge you to take heart for there will be no loss of

life. This is the encouragement here,

but you only of the ship for there, stood, by me, this night,

an angel of God, to whom I belong.

And to whom I serve saying do not be afraid.

Paul. You must It brought be brought

before Caesar and indeed God has granted you all those who sail

with him the next verse therefore take heart men for I

believe that God I believe God that it will be just as it was

told to me verse 26. However we must run aground on a

certain Island. We must run aground on a certain

Island in other words, these are absolutes.

In verse 27, and verse 27. It says, now when the 14th night

had come as we were driven up and down the Adriatic Sea about

midnight, the sailors sensed that they were Drawing Near some

land and they took soundings and found it to be 20 fathoms.

And when they had gone a little further, they took soundings

again and found it to be 15 fathoms.

Then fearing, lest we should run aground on the Rocks.

They dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for the day

to come. And as the say, Sailors were

seeking to escape from the ship when they had let down the skiff

into the Sea Under pretense of putting out anchors from the

prow. In other words, Paul gave me

absolutes, got to stay in the ship, right?

Got to stay in the ship. You know what they did?

They pretended, as if they were going to do just that and cast

The Anchor off the prowl, or off the front, But they were trying

to get the dinghy, the skiff and get it out of there because they

were bailing out. And Paul knew it.

Now Paul said it's going to be okay, it's going to be fine.

The only damage in the only danger is the lost to the ship.

Your life is going to be fine. It is, as God has told me great

encouragement, but it took faith on their part to didn't it.

So what they said is no we're going to bail out.

We're going to act like we're throwing the anchor out the

front, but we're getting in the dinghy and we're taking off.

You know what Paul said? In verse 31?

Paul said to the Centurion and the soldiers, unless these men

stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.

Now, I'm going to tell you something.

It's really bad when the crew jumped ship.

It's really bad when the crew leaves you know how many times

you've heard. They're saying that when a ship

is sinking, it's the wraps that jump first and all that let me

tell you it's really bad when the crew bails out.

I thought about this this morning, I remember a coach one

time and it was in Bakersfield and we were on the sidelines and

man it was hot and Lompoc High School came to Bakersfield to

play us that night and it was very, very, very hot and we were

used to the Heat In Bakersfield, we were okay, we were properly

hydrated. But all these people that came

from Lompoc where it's beautiful all year long weren't really

ready for that. Okay, one by one.

They're dropping. And then the medic that they

brought he went down to and I'll never forget a coast and they

speak with man it's bad when the Met it goes down you know it's

really bad when the medic goes down.

It's really bad. When the crew jumped ship.

Paul knew that Paul says, no, you got to stay, you got to stay

in the ship. Here's the rule, here's the

condition he says. Leadership never compromises

absolutes. Never compromises absolutes.

When we have the truth of the word of God, we have to stand on

the truth of the word of God and not compromise its absolutes.

Sometimes people do and that's how digression starts and that's

how things progress. And when I think about how all

of us have a job to do, remember this, okay, remember the

conditions, remember the absolutes?

The absolutes for them was if you don't stay on the ship you

cannot be saved. Isn't there a picture there of

something else? Can't you see the picture before

I even say it? Paul said you got to stay on the

ship to be saved and the word of God is telling us.

You got to stay in the church to be saved.

You got to stay in the Ark of Safety.

You got to stay there. You got to be grounded there.

You can't quit, you can't bail out.

You can't get the dinghy and Chuck out the back door.

You can't do it. Now, what about some absolutes

for us? That's not the topic for

concern. I'ma say this in closing, just

some absolutes. I'm going to be 3.

These are things that we cannot compromise, okay?

And there's a difference to, by the way, about Traditions that

we do in our life. And sometimes people look at

traditions and they think what we do in the church, it's just

tradition as traditional know what we follow is and there's a

difference, we follow. A Apostolic tradition.

In other words that which is given by the apostles.

That's from the word of God, can't change any of that.

Gotta stick to that. Those things are absolute.

Like what worship? Can't change that.

We have to do the absolute the items of worship that we

participate in can't be changed. Those are absolutes one loaf and

one cup in the Lord's table, they are absolutes.

We cannot change that. Can't do that.

We can't bring instrumental music into the Lord's house and

have that in our worship service.

That's an absolute. We sing with the melody in our

hearts to the Lord, all of those aspects of worship.

Can't change it. Can't change the things that are

given to us in the word of God. Also, something else to We Can't

Change. How we spend the Lord's money?

Can't change that. The treasury is for God's

people. It's for widows orphans.

And needy Saints is for the preaching of the Gospel.

It's not to set up orphanages, all of those wonderful things

that people do. Please get me here, all of the

wonderful things that people may do to people or four people in

the world. That's a wonderful thing.

It's just not a work of the church.

It's the work of Chris Osborn. Terry Osburn Wade, Branch Frank

brancato. It's the work of us personally

to take care of all those other things.

But absolutes, we can't change that absolutes.

The word. Teacher specific things that we

must do with our funds. So these are things that we

can't change folks. And may I say this to a good

leader on effective leader, is somebody that understands that

there's a need is positive about the need gets the most out of

everybody and is trustworthy and those are the kind of people

that we want to follow. I think sadly today.

So many times people progress and drift in areas because they

don't know any better because they didn't have effective

leadership. Now I'm going to say in closing

this final thing. And I'm going to praise the

congregation here. I've been around here for well.

I've been married for 30 years plans, Road has been my

Congress. My home congregation for, I

don't know. 20, maybe perhaps and one thing that is always

constant over the years about this congregation was this

congregation was always always represented with good strong

leaders. Now folks, we don't have Elders

here because we don't have a plurality of men that are

qualified yet. But in the absence of Elders,

we've had to have leaders rise up, men.

Rise up, be leaders. Be the kind of leaders that they

need to be. And the congregation has

benefited greatly over the years because of that.

Let's keep that going. Let's be strong, effective

leaders. We thank you for listening to

our podcast, put on by the Church of Christ at 22:15 plans.

Road in Bakersfield, if you would like any additional

information, or you would like to receive a free Bible

correspondence, course by mail. Please email us at info at her

Church of Christ Bakersfield.com.

Our service times are on Sundays at 10:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and

Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. Please make plans to join us.

We would love for you to be our honored guest.