The Leadership Secret Nobody Talks About | Pastor Chris Kouba

Hey, I hope that you have been in joining with us as we've been continuing in the season of prayer.

Uh, we're in the middle of 21 days of prayer as a church.

We are on day 10.

Amos led us this morning on praying for the harvest.

Hope that you have been a part of that with us and are joining with us as we walk through a journey, just really preparing our hearts for what we believe and what we hope and what we expect God to do in the life of our church this coming fall.

Uh, I if you don't know what I'm talking about, that means you don't receive the emails that we send out uh as a church, and we would love for you to be able to do that.

There's a lot of information that gets sent out, that's some really good, helpful dates and things like that.

But in addition to that, is these 21 days of prayer.

You can take a picture of that QR code.

You can sign up for that email list.

There's also a link that is there as well that will lead you to the various days that you have missed so far.

We'd love for you to join back with us and continue as we go into uh this next 11 days and we're asking for God to move.

I read this quote that I thought was really appropriate that I want to share with you by Oswald Chambers.

It says this we tend to use prayer as a last resort, but God wants it to be our first line of defense.

We pray when there's nothing else that we can do, but God wants us to pray before we do anything at all.

Folks, the real work is this 21 days.

This is where we believe and pray and ask that God's going to move in a big, big way in our church, and we hope that He will do that in and through you.

I had an opportunity last night uh to be sitting right up there, and I had the opportunity just to watch and to see and just to reflect on what it looks like whenever God answers prayer.

Uh, we're talking last week about having a God-given vision.

And a couple two and a half years ago, I've been praying about this for a while, but two and a half years ago at a service, I flippantly threw out a comment and I basically said, I believe that God wants us to have the largest, most thriving Spanish-speaking ministry in all of Northeast Houston.

Uh and last night, over 800 people were here for a concert that our Espanol ministry hosted, uh, worshiping in a different language and being able to see how God is moving.

And I just simply tell you this: whenever you align with what God wants, he does more than you could have ever asked.

God allows you to see things that at the end of the day may be a flippant comment to you, but are right on the bullseye of his heart.

And I believe that's the case in every way with this opportunity.

And as we pray and as we just begin to walk through this leadership series that we're in right now called Rise from the Pit, looking at the leadership life of Joseph and learning from him, I pray that you will just find yourself aligned with the Lord and allow him to be able to reveal himself to you as you pray and as you seek him.

We are in Genesis chapter 37.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

I want to invite you to grab your Bibles and open up with me to Genesis chapter 37.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

Uh, if you were not here last week, then you don't have one of these.

We want to make sure that you can get one.

If you are need a journal, would you raise your hands and keep them up?

We're gonna make sure to get these to you.

Uh, just keep them up.

We'll it'll take us a little bit, but we'll get them all to you.

We're encouraging you to make sure that you bring these journals with you every week and that you use them as a way to help take notes and for you to be able to write down reflections, not only things that we prompt you to write, but also just things that the Lord may be speaking and talking to you throughout the week.

And this is a perfect opportunity for you, if you are not involved in a small group, to get into one because all ages, preschool, kids, youth, and adults, we're all walking together through this series in the book of Genesis, looking at the life of Joseph.

And so this is a perfect time for you to know exactly what you're gonna be talking about as you jump in one of those groups.

If you're an adult here, we've got all the life groups that are listed out in the lobby.

Would love for you to go by, take a look, and talk to somebody there and figure out what it looks like for you to join in a group.

We've got groups that meet during the hour here on Sunday mornings.

We've also got midweek groups that will be meeting.

They start back August 20th, and we'd love for you to be a part of that.

Just keep your hands up, I promise you, we will get those to you here in just a moment.

We are in this leadership series looking at the life of Joseph.

And today we're gonna be talking about something that all leaders universally can respond to and say that they hate, and that is opposition.

That is opposition.

You ever experienced opposition before?

You ever had a good idea?

You ever had a good thought?

You ever had a good moment where you're gonna be a leader and you're gonna step up and you're gonna do something in your company, in your life, in your in your house, in your church, whatever it may be, and then all of a sudden, bam, resistance hits.

And we don't we don't like it, and and uh it's amazing though how it happens so often.

It's also even shocking why we're surprised by it.

I mean, it's that moment when you're trying to do something good, you got a God-given vision, and then you actually try to go pursue it, and then boom, something hits.

Uh, for those that are in uh some of our districts this past week that have already started back, and then Umble ISD is starting back this week, uh, you're gonna be able to experience both parents, administrators, coaches, teachers, everybody, uh, the tension that is gonna exist because this Texas state legislator passed a law that bans use of all personal devices during the school day.

It's anarchy at our house right now, all right?

The kid is on.

And I think it's the greatest thing I've ever heard.

I am so pumped for this in every way, but I feel so bad for all of the parents having to tell their kids, I promise you you will live.

I promise you it's gonna be okay.

And I also feel bad for the the all the teachers and everybody who's gonna have to enforce this thing because it's gonna be a radical shift.

It's a great idea that sounds really, really good, but guess what?

Despite how good of an idea it is, it's gonna be met with opposition.

I can assure you of that.

How about the business leader who's got this idea of what he needs to do in his company?

And so he begins to put all the things in place.

He puts the presentation together, he rolls it out to the different departments, then he does this the company-wide presentation of where they're gonna move to and where they're gonna head.

And half the people in the company think he's an idiot, right?

He experiences opposition.

It doesn't matter how eloquent his presentation was, it's still met with opposition.

How about the situation that we all know what it feels like whenever you feel like God is leading you to do something, you feel like God may be directing you and nudging you and pushing you in a certain direction to do something for him, and then people start having concerns about your leadership.

This opposition comes up all the time.

And it's interesting we get surprised by it because our assumption and our hope would be if I decide I am gonna be a leader, which remember, last week we wrote down, I am a leader.

All of you in this room are leaders.

You're either leaders in a position or you are leaders of your own lives.

All of you are leaders, and we assume that if we've got an idea, if we've got something we want to change, if we feel like God is leading us in a certain direction, that we're gonna be met with claps and people bringing us coffee, telling us how great of a leader that we are.

And that's not all how it happens.

Instead, it's more often like Michael Scott on the office, who's so always amazed that people don't think he's as good of a leader as he thinks that he is.

It's fascinating.

I mean, you got this character who assumes he's the greatest leader that has ever been given to business.

Yet the company, the people in the company look at him like he's an idiot, or they look at him like he's crazy, or they wonder, what in the world are you doing?

And Michael Scott, instead of dealing with that conflict, what does he do?

He avoids it, he plays games and just ignores it.

He does everything he possibly can other than face it head on.

The whole idea of the office and Michael Scott's character is to create this tension between what he thinks that he is, what he thinks leadership is, and what it actually is, which is what makes it so funny.

But here's the thing they use that as a way to make a plot twist in a sitcom, but we know life is not lived in a sitcom, it's lived in real life.

It's lived leading real people with real problems, with real circumstances that require a lot of you.

And when that happens, you know what's going to take place?

You're going to experience opposition.

God doesn't develop leaders in a classroom, he develops them in a crisis.

God doesn't grow people through comfort, he grows people through opposition.

And can I just be real with you?

If you are a leader and all of you are, and you are not facing opposition, it either means that you're not actively leading or you aren't paying any attention.

Because I promise you it's gonna come no matter what.

I want you to write this down on page seven of your journal.

I want you to write this main bottom line down today, which is this leaders expect opposition.

Leaders expect opposition.

From the text we're gonna look at in Genesis chapter 37, in the life of Joseph, we're gonna look at three different forms of opposition, which come from three different directions.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

Opposition can come from above you, those people who are supposed to be supporting you and have your back, but they don't.

Opposition can come from around you.

This is people that your friends or your peers or your family, they begin to turn against you.

And opposition can come from within you.

Your own character issues create the very problems that you're trying to solve.

But what I love about God's word and why I believe the greatest leadership book that has ever been written is found in God's word because it shows us that in the midst of the opposition above us, in the midst of the opposition around us, in the midst of the opposition within us, God uses that opposition to be able to prepare us for what he ultimately wants to do in and through our lives.

Let's pick up the first one, which I mentioned to you, which is opposition can come from above you.

Opposition can come from above you.

In the case of Joseph, it was the leadership failure of his dad Jacob.

If you remember the context, Joseph is 17 years old.

He's living with his brothers, and he's living with his dad.

And right from the beginning, we're gonna see what can very easily cause there to be some problems in the midst of you exerting your leadership, and that is a leadership failure above you.

That's when people who are supposed to be in charge make bad decisions, but you're still supposed to lead.

I'm gonna read for you, Genesis chapter 37, the first four verses.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

But as I do, I want you to think about every time somebody has put you in an impossible situation because someone above you made a terrible decision.

Let's begin reading in verse 1.

It says, Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings in the land of Canaan.

These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers.

He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives.

And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his sons, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a robe of many colors.

But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably, peacefully to him.

If you know your Bible, you know that Jacob, Joseph's dad, was a piece of work.

Like this guy was a mess.

Like from the very get-go, he had problems with his brothers and he had all these different issues, and he colluded with his mom to be able to trick his brother.

And it was just, it was crazy this guy's life.

I want to just talk to you, though, about his leadership as a father.

Forget all the other baggage he dealt with, just as a father.

Genesis chapter 34, it says that his daughter, Dinah, was actually raped.

Genesis 34 · chapter mention

And what we see, you want to know what Jacob the father did as a result of that incident?

Absolutely nothing.

It's a clinic for passive leadership.

Genesis chapter 35, it tells us that Reuben, the oldest son of Jacob, actually goes and sleeps with one of his concubines, therefore defiling the whole family.

Genesis 35 · chapter mention

You want to know what Jacob did to deal with this reckless son?

Absolutely nothing.

Passive leadership on display.

Two chapters later, in verse in chapter 37, we see that he's finally trying to do something, but this something is really dumb.

He is he looks at his youngest son, his son there, uh Joseph, who is the son who was born to him in his old age by Rachel, his wife, his preferred wife.

He has multiple wives, and we see here that he decides to anoint him and play favorites by giving him a coat of many colors.

I want you to understand what exactly he's doing here.

He's not just giving him a gift card, all right?

He's instead it's the equivalent of naming him the CEO of a company, giving him the preferred parking spot, giving him the corner office, and giving him all of the authority at 17 years old.

You can imagine how this wouldn't go over very well.

In addition, it says that he gave him a coat of many colors.

In the Hebrew, the idea there is that it's a long coat.

You see, people in those days, whenever they were working out in the field, they would have shorts and they would have short sleeved shirts, and they would use those to be able to go into work out in the field.

You see, Joseph now given a long coat that's very elaborate and they're multicolored, and that's essentially saying, Hey, Joseph, you no longer have to work in the field.

You get to be in charge of everybody else who's in the field.

This is literally trying to set your son up for disaster by saying, Good luck, son, go out there and go get him, you know?

And here he is in a situation to where his father doesn't realize all of the damage that is being done to him.

This is literally how to mess up your family 101, right?

But it's like some promoting someone to manager while ignoring the fact that half your team is ready to quit.

Sometimes those who are supposed to be over you end up causing opposition for you.

This is the boss who says that you're due for a promotion.

It ends up promoting the college kid who just graduated because he's friends with some of a one of your other friends, and so therefore you put him in a position of leadership that he had no business being a part of.

This is like the parent who constantly compares you to the perfect sibling.

Why can't you be more like your brother?

Why can't you be more like your sister?

This is the leader who talks about unity publicly from the stage but practices favoritism all the time behind the scenes.

Here's what Joseph learned that day.

Sometimes the people who are supposed to protect you are unfortunately the ones who put you in the most danger.

Opposition from above can happen when people in authority make decisions that affect your ability to lead underneath it.

And when it happens, you can't control it, you can't fix it, you can't escape it.

Some of you are living this right now.

Your boss doesn't know what he's doing.

Your boss has no clue.

Yes, guess what?

You're still expected to perform.

Your parent was absent or your parent was abusive.

Yet, guess what?

You still gotta live your life.

And so, therefore, you're trying to figure out how to do this with no model and no example.

Some of you find yourself at a place where your church made decisions that put you in an impossible situation.

You feel hurt, you feel betrayed, you feel neglected.

But guess what?

The Bible says you're still supposed to serve, and so you know what?

You gotta figure out how to do it.

You gotta work past and through those things to still become effective.

What I need you to know is this is that the opposition that you're experiencing isn't disqualifying you from leadership, the opposition that you're experiencing is developing you for leadership.

But man, opposition from above is just the beginning.

Besides the fact that it had these implications for Joseph specifically, the leadership failures of Jacob permeated in the way that his entire family interacted together.

And so, because of that, what I want to show you is sometimes opposition can come from above you, but second, opposition can also come from around you.

Opposition can come from around you.

Joseph has these dreams, these God-given dreams.

And from his dad issues, and now his brothers are about to make his life a living nightmare.

You got this combo of his dad's a mess, but now his brothers, they kind of amp up their intensity of their disapproval of what they're hearing from Joseph.

Pick up with me in verse 4.

It says, But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.

Let me let me translate what this is saying.

This isn't open warfare.

This is the passive aggressive stuff.

This is the group text that you don't get included on.

This is the meeting that you don't get invited to, the petty stuff, right?

But it still stings and it still hurts.

And then look at what it says in verse five.

It says, Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

This is getting more intense.

Like this is antagonistic, like this is awkward.

Then read what happens in verse 8.

His brothers said to him, Are you indeed to reign over us?

Are you indeed to rule over us?

So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

Do you feel the intensity rising?

It starts out as an annoyance and it's growing full-fledged.

Skip down to verse 18 into something much worse.

It says they saw him from afar, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him.

They said to one another, Here comes this dreamer.

Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits.

Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.

It started by annoyance, it ended with a murderous plot.

They wanted to get rid of him.

The Bible tells us at the end of Genesis 37 that ultimately they didn't go through their plan to kill him, but instead they actually killed an animal and they put the blood of that animal on the coat.

They ripped the coat up, they went back to their dad and they said, We found him like this, and basically tried to show his dad that essentially that he had been killed by a wild animal.

The reality was what they saw was an opportunity to make some money on their problem.

And so an Egyptian slave route was going by at that time.

And so what happens is they ended up selling Joseph to these Egyptian slave traders for 20 pieces of silver.

What could lead people to act this way around Joseph?

Maybe for the brothers, it was the fear of being irrelevant.

Hearing that they're gonna have to be bowing down to Joseph made them think, What about me?

What's gonna be look like, look, what's this gonna look like for me?

Are they just gonna be forgotten?

The brothers may have thought that Joseph's promotion meant their demotion.

They didn't realize that God could actually bless two different people at the same time.

They just assume it meant it wasn't gonna go well for them.

They didn't understand God's blessing on one person doesn't mean that everybody else is gonna get cursed.

Folks, you need to know this kind of thought process that's shown by the brothers happens at different levels all the time.

Like this is social media psychology 101.

You post about a blessing in your life, and then all of a sudden, people on the side start throwing shade at you for the fact that you're posting your blessings.

You're in a situation to where uh you your marriage is thriving and your single friends start saying, you know, marriage changes people.

This is when your business is growing and your peers start questioning all of your motives.

Here's what's happening your success is highlighting their insecurity.

And instead of dealing with their own stuff, they're dealing with you.

And opposition from around you hurts the most.

Why?

Because these people are supposed to be on your team, these people are supposed to be for you, these people are supposed to be your ministry partners or your colleagues or your friends or your family, and when they turn on you, it can feel like betrayal.

But here's what Joseph didn't know yet.

God was going to use their opposition to get him exactly where he needed him to be in order to be used by God to see his God-given vision fulfilled.

Opposition from above hurts.

Opposition from around devastates.

But make no mistake about it.

The most dangerous opposition of all is the third one.

Opposition can come from within you.

Opposition can come from within you.

Joseph had a lot of problems here.

But you want to know what Joseph's biggest problem was?

Joseph.

Sometimes the person who's gonna sabotage your leadership isn't your boss, isn't your haters.

It's you.

Look at Genesis chapter 37, verse 5.

Genesis 37:5

Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

He said to them, Hear this dream that I have dreamed.

Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright.

And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.

Skip down to verse 9.

Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, Behold, I have dreamed another dream.

Oh, we can't wait to hear it.

Please, please tell us.

Behold, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars were bowing down to me.

But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream that you have dreamed?

Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?

And his brothers were jealous of him.

But his father kept the saying in mind.

Do you hear the language that I emphasize?

That's how I envisioned this thing went down.

This family is already fractured.

The brothers already hate him.

And Joseph decides this is a great time for me to share my dreams.

Read the room, right?

Like you kind of want to shake them.

Remember, Joseph is 17 years old.

He has not learned the wisdom that tells us that just because God shows you something doesn't mean you need to post it on Instagram.

Wisdom comes when you know when to speak and most importantly and most often, when to keep your mouth shut.

We have all known people like this.

Maybe you even are a person like this where your ego is your biggest obstacle.

This is the dad who coaches Little League but treats it like it's the Major League Baseball World Series, and he gets so into it, and he gets so instead of just teaching fundamentals to the kids and instead of making sure that he can teach them life lessons, he instead acts like it's the childhood baseball career that he never had.

This is the dance mom who puts their kid in dance and pushes it on and on and on and signs them up for all the different things.

Why?

Because they weren't a good enough dancer going up and they never dealt with it themselves.

Whoa, that's a little harsh.

Let me just tell you something.

Your greatest enemy may not necessarily be the boss, may not be the market, may not be your classmates, may not be your co-workers, may not be those who work for you.

Your greatest enemy, your greatest opposition is most likely you.

And one of the things that we've got to understand is that leaders realize I may be the problem here.

Yes, these are external circumstances that are real.

Yes, these are situations, but that's what leadership is.

When those things happen, you go and you deal with those things, but if you feel like you're hitting a cap, it's not because of all the things around you.

It could be because of your own attitude or your own thoughts or your own mindset related to the situation, and you're not really asking the right questions, which is not how can I fix all these other things?

But instead, God, what do you want to fix in me?

What do you want to reveal in me?

Sometimes the biggest threat to your leadership is an external opposition, it's internal character issues, it's your pride, it's your insecurity, which just screams out at everybody else.

It's your immaturity, it's your selfishness.

Let me just tell you something.

Things will take you down.

You may not realize it, but your lack of dealing with your junk is keeping you from being the way that God wants you to be and leading the way that He desires you to lead.

Well, I don't really have any junk.

I promise you that that means you've got junk.

It takes a humility that says, God, would you see if search me and see if there's any grievous way in me and lead me in the way everlasting?

So I think about our staff team, one of the things that just haunts me is the thought that I'm the cap.

My leadership is the cap.

Why?

Because I'm trying to do everything else for everybody else and instead of realizing that no, God, what do you want to do in me?

What do you want to reveal in me?

Can I tell you how what that looks like?

That doesn't mean that basically you go and you you you you demand and bark louder.

It means you repent before the Lord.

It means that you get honest and you say, God, if you want to change nobody in this organization, but you want to change me, I promise you I'm okay with that.

Because ultimately, that is what leadership looks like, and you gotta expect that opposition is gonna come.

So here we are.

You got opposition from above, you got opposition from around, you got opposition from within.

Joseph's 17 years old, his whole life seemingly is falling apart in front of us.

But folks, this is where the story actually gets good.

Because God has a plan that nobody sees coming.

Look back at verse 11.

And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.

Everyone's losing their minds.

Jacob's quietly wondering what God might be up to.

Maybe he's doing something here.

Sometimes the people closest to you can see what God is doing even when you can't.

But fast forward 22 years.

Joseph is now second in command in Egypt.

His brothers are bowing down to him just like the dreams had predicted.

And here's what Joseph tells them in Genesis chapter 50, verse 20.

Genesis 50:20

It reads like this As for you, you meant evil against me.

But God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

God didn't cause the sin, but he used every piece of opposition to accomplish his purposes.

Joseph thought the dreams were about him becoming important, but the dreams were actually about him becoming instrumental.

Joseph was not getting these dreams so that God could make him feel special.

Joseph was getting these dreams so that he could be positioned to save others' lives.

The pit wasn't punishment, it was preparation.

The opposition wasn't an obstacle, it ultimately was an opportunity.

We've seen all three types of opposition in the life of Joseph.

Here's the question What do we do when we face these types of oppositions in our lives?

I want you to write this down on page seven.

Let God use opposition to prepare you.

Most of my prayers look like this.

God, would you get this opposition away from me?

But God isn't trying to get you through opposition.

God instead is trying to get opposition through you.

So the prayer doesn't need to be how can I remove this?

The prayer needs to be how can I learn from this?

What do you want to do in me as a result of this?

Because we may feel like it's pointless, but with God it's never pointless.

He's gonna use even the bad things to bring about good.

He's gonna use it to develop character that you're gonna need for the future that he has planned for you.

Here's what I want you to do this week.

Write these down.

These are three practical applications for you to do this week, whether in your small group, but also in your own personal time with the Lord.

Number one, identify one current opposition in your life.

Identify one comp current opposition in your life.

I want you to think, how is God using this?

Some of you, you're like, I know exactly what it is.

But it's been the same thing for the last few years, it's been the same thing for the last few months, been the same thing for the last few days.

Write it down.

But I'm gonna encourage you to remember this the problem is never the problem.

What you think is the biggest opposition may just be the indicator light for you to do some checking to see what's going on in the engine.

Because what I've discovered is that a lot of times I'm blaming this, and the reality is it actually goes back to something back here that is way deeper and that it's way more difficult, and it starts with somebody out there and it ends up with something in here.

I want you to do a little soul surgery.

God, what is it?

Why am I so frustrated about this?

Why am I so angry about this?

Why am I so mad about this?

Why am I so disappointed about this?

Press into those feelings and just begin to write down, God, what is it that you want to reveal in me that I the opposition that I'm experiencing?

It doesn't.

I'm not saying it doesn't mean that there's not something above you.

There may be that that's the case, but you got a choice how you respond to that.

It doesn't mean that there's not real things going on around you and you have been betrayed and you feel that.

I'm not suggesting that those things aren't true, but I am saying God gives you an opportunity though to respond to it.

What is it that God is ultimately revealing that you are experiencing in your life?

Number two, instead of defending yourself or fighting back, ask one trusted friend to pray with you about it.

Maybe you share this in your small group.

Hey, this is my thing.

Man, I feel like I'm really getting in.

I I I've got this, I've got this state legislator that said I'm supposed to tell kids they can't use phones, and this is a nightmare, all right?

No one's going for it, all right?

Maybe that it could be something real above you.

Ask somebody else to come into it.

It does two things.

One, by articulating it to someone else, it allows you to experience wise counsel.

It also allows God to enter into things that you've just been trying to wing yourself.

And so we want to invite God.

What do you what do you want to tell me about this?

What do you want to show me about this?

What do you want to teach me in this thing?

Number three, serve someone else who's facing opposition.

Serve someone else who's facing opposition.

What I've found over and over again is that whenever I go and I serve someone else, it does two things.

One, it helps me to begin to get the focus off of me and my situation so that I'm not just like Joseph talking all about I and my.

And what it does is that it puts my situation into greater perspective.

It's obviously again to see that God is working in other people's lives, and God may even be using me to be a source of encouragement in their life, and I can see that God is doing the same thing.

I'm just too fixed on my situation to be able to recognize it.

Instead of asking why me, maybe ask what is God trying to teach me through this?

What quality is he developing?

How is this preparing me for something greater?

You look throughout the pages of scripture, what you see is that God over and over again used opposition in the lives of leaders.

And I've seen in my personal experience God continues to use opposition in the lives of leaders today.

You may not know how it's all going to end or what God's ultimately gonna do, but right now you stay faithful to what's right in front of you.

How you handle small opposition will determine how much God can use you for bigger opportunities.

Twenty-two years after his brothers threw him in a pit, Joseph stood before them as the second most powerful man in Egypt.

And in that moment, instead of getting revenge, he chose to show grace.

Instead of holding grudges, he chose to see God's plan.

That's the kind of leader that God is developing through your opposition.

Someone who can take a hit and they can keep serving, someone who can be betrayed and they can still love, someone who can be misunderstood and still trust God's timing.

Your opposition is not the end of your story, it's the beginning of God's bigger plan.

The pit is not your destination, the pit is your preparation.

So expect opposition.

Don't be surprised by it, don't be discouraged by it.

Most importantly, don't waste it.

Let God use it to make you into the leader that He's called you to be.

Would you bow your heads and would you close your eyes with me?

Father, we don't like opposition.

But we trust your plan.

We don't understand why leadership has to be hard.

But we believe that you are working through every single difficulty that we face.

Would you help us to respond with grace, to learn from our failures, and to trust your timing?

Would you use the opposition that we're facing right now to prepare us for the future?

You have plans.

Keep your heads bowed.

Let me just ask you some questions to reflect on, and I want you just to do business with the Lord.

What opposition are you facing that God may be using to position you?

Are you fighting it?

Are you learning from it?

What character quality is God developing in you through this trial?

You just take a moment and answer honestly before the Lord.

You ask God to reveal things in you that you've either avoided, distracted yourself from, you've denied.

But God hasn't changed his opinion on any of them.

Maybe some of you are like a jar.

The reason why you feel stuck, your leadership, your life, your influence, is because you're a dirty vessel.

You're already a believer in Jesus Christ.

But what you need is a fresh cleansing.

Bible says if we confess our sins, He is faithful, He is just to not only forgive us of our sins, hear this, but to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What we need is not louder leaders, what we need is holy leaders.

What we need in order to have influence in our community is not better positions or roles.

What we need is to fall before the holiness of God and say, we are not worthy.

God, would you do a work in me?

And what we need is people bold enough to say, God, would you do it to me?

You change me.

You cleanse me.

For some of you, your problem is not around you, it's not above you, it's in you.

It's your sin, it's your separation from God.

Can't fight spiritual battles with physical things.

You instead need to give your life to Jesus.

Let me encourage you to do that today.

He fought your battles when he died on the cross, when he claimed the victory, when he rose from the dead, and he now invites you to give your life to him and let him be the Lord and the Savior.

Your heart.

You want to do that today?

Right now where you are, we just ask Jesus to forgive you.

That he rose from the dead.

Ask him to save you, to change you, to come into your life right where you are.

If you've got questions, you want to talk to somebody, I want to encourage you in just a moment.

If you are praying that prayer even right now, we're all gonna stand up, and I want that to be your cue, just to come forward and tell them, tell someone, man, I want to give my life to Jesus.

Let us pray with you today.

There are other people here that need to join the United City Church.

God is leading you to make this your church.

I want me to leave your family.

By doing so, you're gonna encourage others.

There are others here that need to be baptized, like this one that we just saw in the service.

What a beautiful testimony.

God's mercy and grace, so proud of you, so thankful to see you visualize and showed us what it looks like.

Step in obedience.

That's you today.

You know that's your next step.

I want you to come.

If others need prayer, maybe you're up against it and you don't know what to do, you feel overwhelmed, you're fearful, you feel uncertain, whatever it may be.

Let us pray with you.

Let us come alongside and lift your need up before the Lord.

We'd love nothing more than the honor, the privilege of doing so.

Father, I pray you'd move in these moments we have left.

Let this be a sacred time where we get to do business with you.

In the name of Jesus, I pray.

Amen.

Thank you so much for joining us this morning.

We can't wait to see you next week for any of our services at 8 30, 10, 11 30, or Espignol at 1 o'clock.