Digging Ditches - Servant Leadership

Boom.

Let me open all this up.

Alright, so everything's good.

Let's rock and roll.

Alright, so Sundays, what we talk about Sundays, more on the conceptual side, theological side of things, and then these Tuesday nights, working on what does it look like practically.

So Sunday, we talked about, we talked about the leadership of the Lord's building.

So we're going to talk about that practicality, you know, just things that we can do to live that out in each and uh every day.

It's great to talk about things in big concept and big ideas, but until we break it down to just a smaller step or one thing we can do at a time, uh oftentimes we just we hear it and then we end up not doing it.

Sunday we talked about the leaders of the order building.

So we discovered that God's kingdom leadership isn't about position, but it's about becoming the kind of person that God can entrust with people.

And so we're not talking about how to become better managers.

Um we're talking about becoming better servants.

And because leadership isn't the water that flows in the ditches, it's one of the ditches that God actually fills.

And so uh I'm not gonna read that section from uh 2 Kings again.

Um but when the when when Elisha told them to dig the ditches, uh nobody was promoted before they actually started digging them, right?

Uh the preparation came first.

So the prophet told them to dig, um, that the Lord would send the rain, enough for them, all their animals, all their all their livestock, all their crops, everything that they needed.

It was the preparation came first and the blessing afterwards.

And so again, principle-wise, God develops a leader long before he actually enlarges their influence.

God develops leaders through practices before he develops platforms.

Uh, influence is entrusted to those who are faithful in the ordinary.

And I think a lot of times we miss that.

We get bogged down and we think the ordinary is the mundane, the ordinary um is the stuff, the minutiae that we get lost in.

But it's oftentimes it's in the ordinary that God forms us and he shapes us and develops us uh into the men and women and the leaders that he's calling us to be.

Ooh, excuse me.

So every week um uh that we've on Tuesdays, we we've kind of taken it from uh digging these ditches out and kind of like a three-step approach.

We we talk about digging the ditch, cleaning it out, and then expanding it.

So in digging this one out, we've got to practice some hidden faithfulness.

Uh pull up, can you pull up Luke 16 and 10 for us?

One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in very much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

The kingdom doesn't begin with crowds.

It's oftentimes unseen obedience.

Those that are faithful with little can be faithful with much.

Integrity is often often defined as who are you, not when you're around everybody else, but the character you exhibit behind closed doors.

That's those small things that when we're behind closed doors, do we do we still do the same things, even though uh it we in our leadership ability behind closed doors, when it's nobody else when we're not in front of other people, then when we're with people, the Lord's always watching.

I know that's how oftentimes we tell our kids so they don't lie or you know the the focus on make sure they're doing everything good.

But at the end of the day, we're all God's kids and he's still watching.

So he's still watching if we're doing the right thing when we're in front of people, or we're, hey, I'm not in front of it, so I'm gonna cut some corners, or I'm just not gonna do this, this way, or that.

If he can trust us when we're not around anybody else, that means he can trust us with people, and then as that grows, he'll keep trusting us with more.

Uh the Lord, again, the Lord's always watching what we do when no one else is.

So some things to think about.

Where are you being faithful that no one notices?

And again, that's probably a question that only you can answer.

Where are you being faithful that no one notices?

Because that's usually where God is shaping you.

Um I think one of the things that I find that God speaks to me most is is when I'm like cutting the grass.

Um it's not one of those things that people really uh see doing, but it's one of those things that that that somebody from the very get-go, uh, when when I felt like God was calling me to something more, that's the first thing my youth pastor did.

He handed me a weed eater.

And I don't know if it was just just because of that, but I just I love I I love weed eating or mowing grass because I feel like I could talk to God during that time.

And you'll find that in those moments when you're doing the things uh and you're faithful and no one else is noticing, God's noticing, and usually that's when he'll start to talk to you.

So, what are those places?

What are those things?

Um covenant practice that we can we can do with this, show up consistently.

Faithful, uh faithfulness uh is in spiritual formation, it's not in flashy moments, but in consistent obedience.

Small, consistent deposits over time will grow that leadership ability and grow uh what God can trust you with.

And so that's digging the ditch out.

Now cleaning it, we've got to remove the pollutants of leadership because oftentimes leadership comes with a whole lot of uh other other stuff.

Leaders rarely fall because they lack gifting.

Let's just be honest.

Leaders rarely fall because they're not because they lack gifting, they can't do how they don't have these talents, they don't have abilities.

People usually fall because the channel becomes polluted, they get prideful, ego gets in the way, um, they take on too much, they don't know how to learn how to say no, they don't learn how to balance, um, they don't learn how to balance the responsibilities at home and the responsibilities of church.

I mean, you could think of a million different things, and usually it's just not about gifting, it's about the other stuff.

So, what are those pollutants?

Pride, comparison, control, uh, recognition, offense.

That's probably one of the biggest ones.

Self-promotion, on the other side of it, isolation, burnout, jealousy, needing credit, and using people instead of loving people.

Uh let's go to Philippians 2, 3 through 8 here.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you uh look not only to his own interest, but also the interest of others, and have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.

Who though in uh he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself by taking the form of a servant, say a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even uh even a death on a cross.

Jesus never grasped for position, he never exerted his authority for a position here on earth.

And I think that's why a lot of people missed him and what he was doing, but Jesus was presenting leadership in a different way.

Remember, we we talked about Sunday when Jesus went to wash the disciples' feet.

Um he told him, like, I've got to do this or you have no part in me.

And because the disciples were saying, We should be washing your feet, Jesus.

Um, but he was trying to lead by example.

He was leading from a servant position.

He emptied himself.

Leadership in the kingdom always moves downward before it moves upward.

And so a practice here, practice hidden service.

Do something that nobody knows about.

Don't tell anybody else about it.

Let the Father see it, and that forms a shepherd's heart.

Um, oftentimes you notice that when God calls people, and we said that referring to that shepherd's heart, usually it's oftentimes that they've had a, they've had a, I don't want to say a season, they've they've served in a capacity where they're not always around people.

Think about David.

David spent a lot of time around sheep.

Um Abraham was on the back side of the uh was on the back side of the desert attending to his his uh father-in-law sheep.

Same with Moses.

Um you see these great leaders is that they were doing the small things in faithfulness.

They were taking care of whatever they were assigned to do before God elevated and exerted them uh to great things.

And so keeping that as the as the center, as the focus, as the goal, will keep those other pollutants out of the way.

Not to say pride won't raise its head, not to say if um we you know your mentality, you know if you like to you like to have control over things, and you know what those pollutants get to you the most.

You know if you have a tendency towards burnout, you have a tendency, but and and and you're really you're really competitive.

Um, you know what those things are.

Uh as a uh it usually you can tell pretty quick what those things are in your leadership.

And so when you focus solely on serving in hidden practice, oftentimes God will work that stuff out of you and also help you to keep it in check.

Again, pride's always gonna rise up, um, comparison's always gonna rise up.

These things are always gonna be there, they're always gonna be present, but it's what we do in spite of those things that matter in leadership and in growing and growing other leaders as well.

And so when we dig the ditch and we we we we clean it out, the when we want to grow and we want to expand that is we got to practice multiplication, 2 Timothy 2 and 2 for us.

And what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses and trust of faithful men who will also be able to teach others also.

Paul isn't wasn't building followers, he was building builders.

Paul wasn't building followers because the platform for Paul didn't matter if he built followers.

Everything would have just went away and it would have been useless.

We wouldn't even be sitting here today had Paul only built followers, but he was building builders.

The goal of leadership isn't just to gather around people around yourself, it's to prepare people to outgrow you.

And that's what scares people when we get in that mindset of real Jesus leadership and building those kind of leaders.

Because in the workplace, that's not what we do, that's not what we're taught.

We're taught to lead people and grow them, but when they're be naturally what happens in the workplace when people begin to grow, outgrow us or excel us, there's a competition because it's where am I gonna lose my job?

Am I gonna lose my pay?

Am I gonna lose that?

Here in the kingdom, we don't have to worry about that.

Sometimes you just need to work yourself out of a job because God's got another assignment for you.

He just wants to know that you'll be faithful enough in this assignment to raise somebody up even greater than you are so he can put you in another role.

Don't worry about positions or titles in the kingdom of God because he always has it lined out.

Oftentimes, if you feel like you're stuck where you're at, it's because God has you stuck, has you stuck there till you learn the lesson of promoting somebody else.

And that's not, again, it's I'm not, I know it sounds easy in concept, but in practicality is one of the hardest things to do.

Sometimes we love what we're doing.

Sometimes we love the assignment that God gives us, and we don't necessarily want to raise that up so fast to hand it off.

But again, the one of the first things that we should be looking for when we're we're in that role, when we're leading, when we're serving, is who around me is already doing it, who's capable of doing it, and begin to call that out and begin to raise that up.

Again, we're preparing people to outgrow us.

So again, we go back to the question: who are you intentionally investing in?

Not managing, not correcting, but developing.

Who are we intentionally developing?

And so in practicality, think of one person.

Oftentimes we want to do grandiose, one.

Think of one.

Think of the person, and I'll just Keller just pick on you.

Who's in your mind?

Who's the next person to do this, to take care of Sunday school?

Across the room, Troy, who's the next person that can that can do sound?

And you can go all the way down across leadership, across the building.

Who's the next who's the next person to take care of youth?

Um, and so we have to start thinking like that because that's kingdom-mindedness, that's eternity-mindedness.

Not because they're ready, because God won't often hand you somebody who's totally ready.

Um, but because remember we have to oftentimes remember someone did that for us.

Someone trusted us and handed us responsibility.

And sometimes we can hand people some responsibility with some oversight because that responsibility will help them take that final push to growth.

Uh sometimes it's that little extra push uh as we're developing people that will do it.

Again, um we're we're focused on growing, outgrowing, uh, people outgrowing us and outgrowing what our capabilities.

Uh oftentimes uh in managing things, we we we like to say, you know, if they could do it better as like an 80% capacity of what I can do, I need to hand it off and I need to trust them to do it.

Because what you'll have what you'll see will happen is once they hit that 80% and you hand them off, they'll excel and they'll run and they'll grow.

Um and again, it's not always easy.

We get we we love we we love what we do, we we get attached to it, but again, God is growing something eternal here, and he may have a different assignment for you that you may even love even more than the first.

So again, pray about it.

If you've already got that person in mind, then pray about how you're gonna be intentional about it.

And if you don't have that person right now, ask God to show you and make it clear.

Pray that directly.

God, show me the one person that I need to be discipling right now, and I need to be pouring back into that cup of leadership.

Who can who around me can do what I'm doing right now and can excel and outgrow this?

Uh this this this is this is what we gotta kind of keep in mind.

Again, more is reproduced than instructed.

More is reproduced than instructed.

We talked about last week that more is caught than taught.

This week it it the idea is more is reproduced than instructed.

Again, it's gonna be proximity that matters.

It's gonna be people watching what you do, not just telling them how to do it.

They see how you speak to people, they see how you how you you serve in excellence, they see how you prepare, they see all those things, and that seeing is what reproduced, then there's the instructions.

You can hand them the head, you can hand them pamphlets, you can hand them instructions, you can hand them guidebooks, SOPs, all that stuff.

Not that any of it's bad, but again, that's not gonna reproduce what we need in leaders.

What's gonna reproduce what we need in leaders is they're gonna see what's in our hearts, and what's in our hearts is gonna be on display by what we do.

Um people don't become what leaders say, they become what leaders consistently model.

What they consistently model.

Doesn't mean you have to bat a thousand.

You're gonna have some weeks that you're off, you don't get it right, but if they see that you show up, whether you're feeling good or you're not, whether they know you've had a great day at work or you haven't had a great day at work, if things at home are rough or they're not, uh whatever's going on, and they see you consistently show up, consistently pour out, consistently um do things in excellence, consistently prepare.

Just consistency, consistency, consistency, it'll build something in them.

Uh John 13 and 3 for me.

And so the going back to that, Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, that he had come from God, and he was going back to God, he rose from the supper, he laid aside his outer garments, he took the towel and he tied around his waist, and then he poured the water into the basin and he began to wipe the wash of the disciples' feet in the towel that was wrapped around him.

And this is where, again, the disciples say, Noah should be washing your feet, and Jesus corrects them.

But again, he didn't begin with the lecture.

He just picked up the towel, he started filling the basin, and he met leadership begins where pride ends.

Leadership begins where our pride ends.

And so here's some things to think about as you start developing.

Who invested in your walk with God?

If you could go through and think through your Christian walk in your life, um who were people that intentionally invested in your walk with God?

Sunday school teachers that you remember the name of, youth pastors, pastors, um, just people in the church, um, spiritual mothers and fathers that that invested into your life.

And then with that, what do they model that changed your life?

So who invested in your walk with God?

And what did they model that changed your life?

And oftentimes in that reflection, we'll we'll we forget we we when we don't think about these things intentionally, we forget about that.

And we forget about the feeling of what it of of how it how it felt for somebody to speak into our life like that, to spend the time with you, to go to the coffee with you, to sit down with you.

Um and and and and when we keep that in a fresh perspective, it helps us to do that for other people.

When we keep that fresh perspective in our mind, then we can constantly put ourselves back in the shoes.

It is hard sometimes to think back that we weren't always the leader that we once were.

We didn't have the capacity that we have uh now.

We we we weren't always able to do the things that we do now.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the work and the responsibility of now, we forget about the people who brought us into that.

And so if we can keep that at the forefront of our minds, then we'll be able to do that for someone else.

And so if someone served beside you for one year, would they become more like Jesus?

Or would they just learn how to be more busy?

If somebody were to follow you starting today, and then we came back and revisited this on August, what is it, the 4th of 2027, would they be more like Jesus, or would they just have learned to be a busier, a busier Christian?

And so we have to think about in that what kind of culture are we are we reproducing?

Are we are we are we are we making consumers?

Are we just making Christian consumers that show up Sunday to events, things just take, or are we making disciple makers they show up and they're intentional about what they're doing, they're intentional about serving, they're intentional about connecting with people, they're intentional about taking what they've been given and turning around and handing it back to someone else and pouring out from that vessel.

And so practical covenant practices in this.

I'm not I'm not I don't want to do the whole leadership tips thing.

Again, there's there's plenty of leadership books you can read, but think about rhythms.

We've talked about rhythms quite a bit the last couple weeks.

Know your people.

Don't just know your responsibilities.

Know your people.

Don't know just your responsibilities.

You gotta practice presence.

Okay, so we've got to practice presence.

We gotta practice prayer.

Pray for people by name.

Um if you're leading a team, you should have everybody serving on your team and we pray over their names every day.

Um you gotta shepherd before you strategize.

People will follow you into hell if they know that you care.

And if you're praying for them by name, if they know that when they're talking to you, that they have they have your attention, um, then then they'll be willing to do whatever.

If if they're if if it gets really hectic one Sunday or an event and things go go astray, you'll find that they won't run away.

They'll say, Okay, let's do this.

Um, because they know that you're invested in.

Practice humility, take the lowest seat.

Take the lowest seat and whatever the the event is and whatever the service is, offer to do the job that, lack of better term, sucks the worst, then then take the take the easiest job or the most uh well-seen role in it.

Um serve before serve before you're seen.

Um so if it's if it's as you're organizing event um and it and it comes time for it, if you're if you primarily organize things and then you're on cleanup afterwards and you let people do all the things that are at the door, um, they're helping with whatever the kids are doing and all that kind of stuff, and you're really just you've been doing all the stuff behind the scenes beforehand, and now you're gonna do all the stuff behind the scenes and that there's somebody there's people watching.

There's people watching that that'll see that that you're willing to serve and not and not at the and not at the not at the expense of having to be seen by other people.

And that in that that again, that's taking that that what's been poured in our vessels and pouring it to other people.

That kind of humility can only be shown.

It cannot be it cannot just be you know taught orally.

Um again, going back to what Jesus did.

Uh practice encouragement.

Call out uh call out what God is doing in others, even if they don't see it in themselves yet, and even if they're not great at doing it yet, speak life over them.

Hey, you did fantastic this week.

Hey, I noticed that you actually spent time talking to such and such person, um, and you made a you made a real effort to remember names and remember their kids and remember that.

And they actually, you know, they may not have done the best of job during the week, but if you continually are putting those deposits in, um, they're gonna turn around and God's gonna bless it, and God, and they're gonna trust that person's gonna trust you more as a leader, and you're gonna be able to speak into their lives when they really need it.

Develop confidence in them and uh not not just dependence, okay?

Um work with people, um, show them how to do it.

Do it, let them do it while you're watching, and then let them fly.

People are gonna mess up.

Remember, say remember leaders, trust uh not just people that just spoke into your lives, but the people that trusted you at stuff, and when you messed up, they helped you, they helped you fix it and they helped you get better at it.

So let's let's again speak in encouragement to them, develop that confidence, not a soul dependence on us being there.

And then practice multiplication.

Always we should always be raising someone who could eventually do what we're doing.

And I think one of the one of the best ways that I've experienced doing this, not um, and and I've I I've turned around this way, I've done it a life, it's because people have done it for me.

Is uh pastors and leaders that I've worked with, they never they never were I never found them doing stuff alone a lot.

Um even if they could have done it alone and got it done faster.

Um done it done if they could have they could have done the job faster if they were alone, they invited me along for the process.

Um there are many times I understand there's things that have to be done, and we just want to we want to you know just get through the work and get it done.

But when we invite somebody into that work, when we invite somebody into that labor, God begins working in their lives.

And you don't again, there's just some things we don't know till after the fact, or either eternity is gonna tell us of what those moments did.

Again, I know I re I I've said it quite a few times, but just just the idea of um I I used to I used to drive, I used to drive my pastor a lot to to the different um speaking to the different uh revival services and youth rallies I did.

And he didn't have to do that.

He could have drove, he could have drove.

I know, I know a lot of times um, you know, traveling out, it was just easy.

It it um I I I I kind of like this, I kind of like the quiet.

You know, I could turn on some worship music and and finish uh, I'm gonna say finish prepping, but you know, just get in the zone, get ready, that go in, gotta do what I gotta do.

But instead of doing that, he would he he he had to spend the time make sure he was ready on before we ever got on the road, you know.

So he couldn't use that road time just for getting ready.

And and he would he would speak into my life.

And those those car rides did a lot for me.

Those car rides changed me.

Um and again, he didn't have to do that.

He could probably save a lot of headaches and um a lot of a lot of um a lot of moments um in in his preparation.

Um but he but he drove he he he he had me there.

And um I I can think of uh stuff at camps, stuff at uh uh uh other leadership things that people could have got done a lot faster, but they had me there.

Um and then so I I just I adopted that model.

Um and anytime that you can do that, whether again, I know it's I know it sounds distasteful, but like even if you're cleaning the bathrooms, have somebody there.

Um because you can laugh and cutting up while cleaning the toilets, you can speak into somebody's life.

Usually when you're there and it's just a couple of you, you're they're able to share and they'll open up and you can pour into them.

Um and you know, you won't be talking about cleaning toilets, but you'll be talking about what's going on in the world, and God will be able to use you to speak into their life.

Practice multiplication.

Someone always should be around you, um, whether it's for the case of what you're you're serving in, or um just just have them around.

Again, healthy leaders aren't indispensable, they're intentional.

We've got to be intentional, gotta be intentional.

So this week, don't look for a platform, look for a towel.

Find one unseen way to serve, find one person to encourage, find somebody, one believer to invest in, and a responsibility to carry without recognition, because every shovel of dirt deepens that channel.

And so imagine an irrigation ditch.

The water doesn't stop because the ditch wants attention.

The ditch simply carries what life uh carries life to where it's needed, and that's what leadership is.

Healthy leaders don't draw attention to themselves.

That's saying they don't take care of themselves.

That's two vastly different things.

They just don't draw attention to themselves, they quietly carry the life of God to others.

This is why we're digging the ditch.

Because the Lord isn't just looking for talented leaders.

You can find that anywhere.

You can find people that are talented, that have natural charisma and all those things.

He's forming trustworthy servants.

He's forming trustworthy servants.

Every unseen act of faithfulness, every hidden sacrifice, every prayer prayed over another person, every quiet investment in someone else's growth is another shovel of dirt, and that's another foot of channel.

And when the Lord chooses to send living water to this church and pour out that that that that what we keep talking about, he'll look for leaders whose channels have already been prepared.

Again, we're working for we're we're working and we're waiting on God to do uh God God to pour this out.

And on the other end, God's saying, it's coming.

What are you doing and were you intentional about it?

Again, small things.

Small things, small things, small things uh matter.

Um scripture says it small foxes, it's the small foxes that spoil the vine.

So if it's the small foxes that spoil the vine, that means it's the small intentional things in our lives that make all the difference.

If the small foxes spoil the vine, those small things with intentionality and care on our part are things that will take us to greater elevations in God, but also that will elevate us naturally in leadership and to raise other people.

So that's all that I have.

Let's pray real quick.

God, thank you so much for every person that's in the room and the leadership they already exhibit and the leadership they're already carrying.

And so help them, um, honor them for that, God, but help us to grow, um, grow beyond what our capacity is now.

Not that we would just be busier.

That's that's not the goal.

And I know that's not your goal, but God, we'd be effective with our time, we would be effective with people, and we would be effective in ministry.

We want to be disciple makers.

I don't want to be we don't want to be, we don't want to be just doers.

We want to be disciple makers that that help grow people who faith who are faithful, who serve without need for recognition, and who are just motivated to move the kingdom forward.

And so help that to be our heartbeat and teach us how to replicate that heartbeat in other people.

And God, as we go through the week, help us to be intentional.

Who's the one person I need to be investing in?

Um, what how do how do I do that, God?

Uh, how do I bring them along for this journey and help me to remember the people who did that for me so that way I can turn around and what you've given me, I can give back to others.

In your name we pray, Jesus.

Amen.