A Better Leadership - October 11, 2026

It is my privilege to invite you to today's sermon podcast. I have made the

Apostle Paul's prayer request my own.

When he states in Ephesians 6, 19, pray also for me, that whenever I open my

mouth, the words may be given to me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.

May today's sermon come alive to you and aid you in your understanding of God's

plan for your life. But I got to ask you a question.

And the question is just simply this. Have you ever followed a leader that made

you feel more lost than found?

You don't have to raise your hands, especially if it's me. But if it is me, I got a story for you.

1992, I know, oh, so last century. I was in Hanford, California,

and I had my first youth pastorate.

I was still in Bible college at the time. And so, you know, I was still very

much learning what it means to serve people. But I was excited for this very

first big youth trip that I had planned.

Man, this was going to be so awesome. It was going to be like a two and a half,

three, three and a half hour drive down to Magic Mountain in Castaic.

Man, we were going to ride the rides and eat all kinds of junk food and have

fun and had about 20 teenagers going with me. And I was excited.

Now, this is pre-Melanie, so she can't verify any of this. You just got to trust

me that it's true, okay? And it is. It is.

We had a great trip down. Man, we were just vibing and just enjoying each other's

company and excited to go and to ride the roller coasters. And we got up early

so we could be there right when the park opened.

And we had fun that day. So many memories of riding these roller coasters,

trying not to vomit, riding this other roller coaster and trying not to vomit,

and riding the carousel and really trying not to vomit. Isn't that weird how that works out?

The slowest ride in the park. Nevertheless, there we were, and we were just

having such a good time. And pretty soon it came time. The announcement came over the loudspeakers.

Magic Mountain will be closing in 15 minutes. Please proceed to the exits.

We're like, oh, man, this has been great. Gathered the youth group together

outside the gate, and I gave them this instruction.

I said, okay, guys, we're going to powwow. We're going to meet.

I know we drove in separate vehicles, but we're going to meet down at the Carl's

Jr. That's just down from the park.

So make sure you go there. And when you go there, I'll be waiting and we're

just going to kind of carpool back home together, make sure there's no issues.

Because this was a Saturday. Mistake number one. You don't plan a big youth

trip on a Saturday, expect everyone to be back in church Sunday morning.

But that was me and that was my gusto. Let's go.

Well, everyone went to their cars, and we started going home,

and I discovered something tragic.

There was not a Carl's Jr. just down from the park.

It was a Wendy's.

The Carl's Jr. was several, several miles down the road as you entered back

down the grapevine to the Central Valley.

Oh, my heart dropped into my gut.

And I just said, oh, Lord, please deliver me from this big mistake.

I had led people astray, given them the wrong instruction.

Thankfully, everyone made it home safely. Now, you got to understand,

this was pre-cell phone days.

So it's not like I could have sent a text and said, hey, everyone, you know, meet up here.

I had to live by faith that my mistake in leading my folks astray would be smoothed

out. And the Lord did. He smoothed it out. I stayed at that church another year or two.

But man, sometimes we aren't led in the right direction, sometimes by mistake, sometimes by deceit.

And so we need to be wise about that. Wise as leaders, but also as people that are following leaders.

How often do you kind of wonder that same question, if you're following the

right path and following someone?

Are you on the right path following God? And are you moving in the right direction?

As we look to the scripture today, we're going to continue in Hebrews.

We're almost done with this book.

We're in chapter 13. And I'm just going to read two verses today because it's

these two verses that show us that even the early church, especially these Hebrew

believers, struggled with who they were to follow and what they were to be about.

So as we delve into Hebrews 13,

I just invite you, if you're willing and able, would you stand with me?

And we're just going to read verse 7, 8, and 9 of Hebrews chapter 13 together.

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you.

Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. do not be carried away

by all kinds of strange teachings.

It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial

foods, which is no benefit to those who do so.

Father, thank you for your word. Lord, we have a bite-sized morsel today that packs a punch.

And so, Father, I pray that you would speak to us, that your spirit would speak

to our hearts, God. Draw us closer to Jesus, we pray, Father.

And it's in his name we ask this. Amen.

Thank you. You could be seated.

I want you to know that as we're getting started here, this is not a sermon.

About defending leadership, mine or other people's. This is not a sermon demanding loyalty.

This is not a sermon about elevating pastors.

No, this is a sermon about better leadership, the kind of leadership that keeps

you looking for Jesus, the kind of leadership that points you to Jesus, our Savior.

And so this morning, really quickly, I just want to talk about four things on

this better leadership topic.

And the first one is this, a better leadership begins with remembering faithful guides.

The scripture says again in verse 7, remember your leaders, those who spoke

the word of God to you, consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith.

The word remember here is not just nostalgia.

You've probably got some pastors in your life that you can remember so fondly.

There are several that come to my mind, one of which is 90-something years old.

I think he's 91. He lives in Twin Falls, still goes to Sunday school.

As a matter of fact, he was still teaching Sunday school not too long ago.

Pastor Jesse Dunn is one of the leaders that I remember.

Really, what this is about, it's about evaluating those leaders.

It's about doing what the Scripture says here. Look at the leaders whose lives ended with faith.

Whose lives ended fruitfully, who stayed faithful even when it cost them something.

Those same leaders who always pointed to the finish line and their finish line

as being Christ-likeness or being like Jesus.

That's what the scripture is talking about. Now, what did these leaders do,

especially as they're saying to the listeners here, the readers here in Hebrews,

to remember their leaders that had come before them?

The leaders didn't just build platforms. We have a lot of people doing social

media today, building a platform.

That's great as long as they build up people and point people to Jesus,

because that's what these pastors did. They built people up.

We have an evidence of it in Scripture as you think about Paul.

Think about the Apostle Paul.

Many of the letters we have, there's a little man, a younger man named Timothy.

He's giving advice to Timothy. He's trying to build Timothy up to be the leader

that points others to Jesus.

These leaders didn't gather fans and followers. They gathered people that they

could cultivate faith within them.

They didn't make the church about themselves and about, look how great of an apostle I am.

Look how great a disciple that I am. No,

they made it about Christ and Christ crucified and the power that Christ would

bring to them in their lives, the transformation that Christ would wrought in

a whole community as the gospel was preached.

Hebrews says, remember those leaders who led you toward Christ, not toward themselves.

And that's what these leaders were. They were a compass, pointing north to Jesus Christ.

And so I just ask you today this simple question, who are the leaders whose

lives helped you see Jesus more deeply, to help you trust him more deeply?

They don't have to be perfect, flawless leaders. After all, they're human beings, right?

We all have flaws. That's why we all need Jesus.

And even in Jesus, We just want to see people that are faithful.

Faithful through the thick, faithful through the thin.

It leads me to my second point this morning and that's this about better leadership.

Better leadership anchors you in the unchanging Christ.

Did you catch what it said in verse 8?

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

That's not just a catchy Christian slogan. No, that's a truth.

It's the anchor, I think, of this whole passage.

Jesus is unchanging the immutability of our Savior. The writer isn't saying, hey, imitate leaders.

Whose life may have pointed to Christ. No, it's saying imitate leaders whose

lives were shaped by the one who never, ever changes.

Those leaders who trusted Jesus, those leaders who, whatever Jesus said they

did, whatever Jesus pointed to, they went after that.

Imitate them. Be a copycat of them. Hey, we know in this day and age that leaders change.

Two and a half years, you had a leadership change. 22 months before that,

you had a leadership change. You know, leaders change.

On our district, we recently had a new district superintendent.

Perhaps in your job, you've noticed that there's been leadership changes.

So leaders change. We know churches change.

Churches change all the time. Maybe locations, maybe makeup,

maybe composition based on how the community around them has changed.

So there's change that happens. Circumstances change. We know that.

After I turned 50 here not too long ago, I've realized that there's a lot of

things that are changing and I don't like it very much.

Nevertheless, we can always point to a Christ that does not change,

that will still be there for us.

As we said last week, the week before, he will never leave us nor forsake us.

Never will he take us for granted.

Better leadership is leadership that disappears into the faithfulness of Jesus.

That's my desire for you. As long as God has me here at this church,

that you'll forget about me, and you'll think about Jesus.

Let me just fade into the background.

There's a meme that goes around. Maybe you've seen it before.

Homer Simpson. I don't watch The Simpsons, never really have,

but the meme is kind of funny because it shows Homer, and it's animated,

so he's just kind of disappearing back into some shrubbery.

I don't know what it's all about, but I was kind of thinking about that meme

when I thought about this.

As leaders, we should just disappear into the background as we exalt Christ.

And that's what we're called to do. Jesus never changes. I'm going to change.

Think about a lighthouse. I know we're not really near lighthouses here.

But when you've been to the Oregon coast, the California coast,

maybe even Washington, and you've seen the great and mighty lighthouses,

especially on those days where they're really needed, those lighthouses have

been around some of them for hundreds of years.

And it's amazing, even with technology today, there's still a need for those lighthouses.

They've been there. They've been stalwarts. But I got to tell you,

the same lighthouse keeper is not there that was originally there.

Those ones that would first start to stoke the fires when it was made out of

actual burning logs to then whatever gas was used and then electricity.

And now, of course, they're automated.

The lighthouse keeper may have changed, but the lighthouse still remains and

still is there to save lives. And, you know, the light that still goes out,

the light of Jesus is still so necessary for us.

So think about this. Your faith does not depend on the stability of leaders.

It should not. If it does, then you've got to transfer that loyalty,

that dependence to Christ.

Hey, I hope I never let you down, but chances are I'm going to let you down.

Chances are I'm going to make a mistake. I'm not going to do things the way

you would like them to be done, or even say things the way that you would like them to be said.

And I hope that we can repair that relationship if that ever happens.

But don't let your fidelity to Christ, your fidelity to God,

be based on me, because it really should be based on Jesus.

He's the one that died on a cross for you. He's the one that gave up his life

so that you could live and truly live the abundant life that he promised.

So trust Jesus.

Trust the stability of Christ. A third this morning, as I just want to tell

you that a better leadership protects you from interesting and unstable teaching.

If we look again just briefly at verse 9, do not be carried away by all kinds

of strange teachings. I love that.

It is good, it goes on to say, it is good for the heart to be strengthened by

grace. Man, that's powerful.

Let your heart be strengthened by the grace of God, that unmerited, undeserved favor.

The danger in Hebrews is not obviously false teaching, but we flag that quick.

We say, no, that's not what the Bible says.

But how about that interesting teaching that takes a morsel of truth from the

Word of God and adds to it or twists circumstances or tells you a tale,

and that's enticing and that draws you in.

That novel teaching. Well, I've never heard anyone teach like this before. Wow.

It's that kind of teaching we've got to be careful about.

It's that kind of teaching that looks and feels spiritually impressive,

but maybe quietly it shifts the center away from Jesus onto something or somebody else.

I think if you were to do a study of cults and different kinds of things,

you can see this kind of interesting teaching being used there.

The author of Hebrews says, watch out, don't be carried away by that, the sensational.

Better leaders don't chase trends, they don't build ministries on novelty.

They don't really. What they do is they guard the flock from these kind of strange

teachings, these teachings that seem to make Jesus insufficient for people.

When Jesus is all-sufficient, he's all that you need.

He is your all in all.

Several churches of the year, some that aren't in existence anymore,

unfortunately, they chased after the fads.

They chased after the this or the that. That was the new and the popular thing.

And they were so watered down, if you were to go there, you wouldn't recognize

who Jesus was, because instead of Jesus being front and center of worship, it's other things.

It's other good things, but it's not Jesus.

Got to be people that are looking to leaders that help ground you more firmly

in Jesus Christ, ground you in the Savior, and then help you to live up to who Jesus wants you to be.

I wrote a question. I think it's in your notes today, too. Whenever you hear

any kind of teaching, whenever you hear any kind of book, I'll say podcast or

spiritual trend, ask this question.

Does this make Jesus bigger or smaller?

Is this elevating Jesus Christ in my life, or is it kind of putting him away

in my back pocket only for when I really need him?

We've got to watch out for that. That's called discernment, discerning the teaching,

asking God for wisdom to really understand.

And not only that question, but a second question to go with that.

Does this strengthen the heart by grace or performance?

Is this helping me just to look like a Christian and just to do Christian things?

Or is it really starting at the heart of the matter, my heart?

And is it transforming my heart by the grace of God so that the things I'm faking

it, trying to show that I'm doing good, I'm really going to do good because

my heart's been transformed?

Is it building up your heart?

There's many things, and I could give many examples this morning that would

probably offend each and every one of you.

I'll do that privately with you later on. No.

Think about the power of this statement, good leaders are going to protect you.

In other words, for a pastor is a shepherd.

I'm not going to let things happen to you or put things in this pulpit that

I don't think would help to grow you up in Jesus and point you to Jesus.

And I challenge you all, as always, check my word. Make sure I'm in line with what the Bible says.

I'm okay with that. It helps me be the better preacher that I need to be,

and it helps you be the better believer that you need to be as well.

Well, fourth, better leadership produces people who look like Jesus, not just their leader.

Someone should say amen because you don't want to look like me.

When we think about what this passage has said to us, especially starting out,

the writer does not say, imitate your leaders.

It doesn't say, hey, imitate Paul.

It doesn't say, imitate Peter. It doesn't say imitate Barnabas or Timothy.

The author says, imitate their faith. Why is that?

Well, I think first and foremost, faith is transferable, but personality is not.

You can transfer your faith onto your children, your grandchildren.

Now, it's not something where you put a letter in the will and then magically

they have faith in Christ.

But when you have faith in Christ, you model it. You speak about it.

You live it out. That's how faith is transferred. That's how faith is caught.

Don't know if you've ever experienced a very successful church or pastor,

and then every other pastor comes along, tries to do the same thing as the lead

pastor, and tries to personality-wise be like them.

That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about faith that encompasses

the personality of the person.

You see, what this does when we understand that it's about faith,

imitating the faith of the leaders that have gone before us,

it frees us all, especially pastors, from performance pressures.

I don't have to act like or do the things that the most popular and successful

Nazarene pastor is doing in the world.

I just have to be me, and that's all I can be, because this is how God's created me.

The same is true for you. You don't have to be like me, or your favorite Sunday

school teacher, or your favorite church member.

You need to be you and have the same faith that your favorite Sunday school

teacher, that your favorite Sunday school leader, that your favorite relative had.

You need to imitate their faith that was faithful to Christ that stuck it out.

See, everything must be centered on Jesus Christ. And there's three things I

just want to share with you on this point.

Better leadership creates disciples, not clones.

You don't have to be exactly like any other Christian. You just need to imitate

their faith, have the same faith that they have that they found in Jesus.

Better leadership creates maturity, not dependency.

What does that mean? That means your whole faith and your whole walk this week

is not dependent on what I just share with you this week, this morning.

Can you imagine if you only ate one meal a week on Sunday morning and it was

an hour-long feast, but that's all you had for the whole week?

Man, you'd be hungry. You'd be starving.

Maturity comes about when you get to feast here, but you feast multiple times

a day on the Word of God. You build up your person from the inside.

You build your faith because you spend time in God's Word.

And that's how you grow, and that's how you mature. If you just show up and

wait for me to tell you to do something, that's dependency, and that's not going to work.

Plus, I don't have enough time in the day to guide you through every step of the way every day.

If you call me tomorrow and say, Mike, what should I do about this?

I'll probably be kind and say, hey, I think you ought to do this.

But if you call me at lunchtime and then at dinnertime and then Tuesday during

staff meeting and you keep calling me because you're dependent on me to tell

you how to live the life that Jesus wants you to live, that's not healthy for me or you.

Plus, I don't have enough phones or enough time in the day to do that.

What we need as leaders, not just the pastor, but as leaders.

We need that maturity that we grow up in Christ. Why? Because we're imitating

the faith of our leaders.

Third on this same point, better leadership creates followers of Jesus, not just fans of Jesus.

I don't know if you notice in the scripture, a lot of people showed up to hear

Jesus preach. Isn't that awesome?

Thousands on a hillside, not just once, but more than once.

And they all showed up to hear Jesus and to see what he would do because he

would go and he would heal people because he would preach a word that was meaningful

to them that hit their heart directly.

But then something happened we see in the scripture.

As soon as Jesus started talking about sacrifice, as soon as Jesus started to

talk about people losing things if they followed him, then the crowds kind of dissipated.

And I believe there's a point in scripture where Jesus looked at his disciples

and said, you guys going to go too? Are you out of here too?

And his disciples said, man, where would we go? You have the words of life.

See, fans are fair weather fans many times.

Boise State, Fresno State last night, man.

Wants followers. Good leaders help you to be followers of Jesus, not just fans of Jesus.

So as we come to our conclusion this morning, if the stability of our faith

rests in a constant, never-changing Jesus,

then how can we shift our focus away from leaders that will change,

methods that will change, circumstances that will change?

How do we shift that focus back onto Jesus in our everyday life.

Well, I have taken up the challenge to be a leader who leaves you looking to

Jesus. I want you to look to him.

And so think again of the leaders who shaped your faith, the ones who whispered, Jesus is enough for you.

Jesus has all that you need. You don't need to look anywhere else.

Think about how they finished their race, how they kept their faith,

how they made Jesus believable to you.

Because Hebrews says, remember them, consider their lives, and imitate their faith.

So what was it about them? I think because Jesus is a better leader.

To pay attention to what Jesus has shared with us.

And at best, human leaders are signposts that should point to Jesus Christ.

Man, if I had had a signpost back in 1992 that said there was a Wendy's instead

of a Carl's Jr., I could have avoided a big, big mistake.

We need leaders who are signposts that will say, Jesus is this way.

Follow me as I follow him.

So I got something I want you to do this week. If you're willing to take up

the faith challenge, then do this.

Spend some time with your family. Hopefully you do that already.

But some concentrated, meaningful time.

And share stories about the leaders in your life who pointed you to Jesus.

Whether it was an old pastor you remember, maybe it's the one who was there

when you accepted Christ as your Savior, if that is the way it happened.

Maybe it's someone that, boy, they just meant so much to you because they made

how to walk with Jesus so clear.

Share them with your kids, with your grandkids, with your husband,

with your wife, with your friends. Just take time to remember them.

And then after you've had that, have a time of prayer together.

And what I want you to pray for is pray that you can be the kind of influence

on others that they were on you.

I mean, tangibly imitating their faith in that way.

See, what happens is if we skip telling stories of those who've influenced our

faith, We risk leaping those deep connections that we had with Jesus from the get-go.

Not only that, we fail to connect the next generation with the faith that has

maybe been carried down in your family.

Authentic, genuine, life-transforming faith.

The danger is we get lost in culture, we get lost in all the changing, and we begin to drift.

As we read at the outset of this service, we drift to and fro with every change of doctrine.

We don't want to be people like that.

And so this morning, remember this this week, pass on stories of faithful people,

who led you to Jesus because a remembered faith can steady a future generation,

and you can be the ones that help to steady that.

We've come to the time where we're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper together.

We have open communion in the Church of the Nazarene. I'll invite Adam to come down.

I don't know if you knew, my son's a district licensed minister.

He's going through the process of ordination, and so he's going to assist me today.

We think about what this represents. It does represent a remembrance. It's a memorial.

We remember what Jesus has done for us. We remember that Jesus Christ died on

a cross, that his body was broken for us,

that he took upon himself the punishment for our sin, the punishment for our

brokenness. He took our brokenness upon himself.

Know that when we drink of this unfermented grape juice that's in these little

containers, they may still be unfermented.

I don't know how long that stuff lasts, but that's the goal is that it will

be unfermented because the lack of fermentation in there represents the pure

blood of Christ without any sin because that's what Jesus had.

He had no sin and his blood was poured out for us, poured out for the remission, covered our sin.

And so it is a remembrance.

And this morning, if you've not accepted Christ as your personal Savior,

I want you to know you can.

Your brokenness can be taken upon Jesus even today.

You can be healed of that sin.

Jesus' blood will blot out your sin. It will be no more, and you can start over

in this new life that Jesus has for you.

And maybe this morning, this is your step of faith to take of this.

We do celebrate open communion in the Church of the Nazarene.

What we do ask is that you have faith in Christ, but if this is your first step

of faith, are you believing that Jesus did that for you?

You see, it is past, but it is present in this moment as we consider our lives.

Are we on track? Are we centered around Christ?

But then there's the future element to it as well. And that future element says.

Boy, my next step tomorrow, I'm going to follow Jesus.

The next step on Tuesday, I'm going to follow Jesus. Wednesday,

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, till we get here next Sunday, I'm going to follow Jesus.

And so as we follow Jesus and we remember him and what he has done for us,

may it encourage us as we go throughout this week.

I don't want you to concentrate on your sin. Hey, Jesus took care of that once and for all.

Lay it down at an altar and don't ever take it back.

Trust God that He's going to take you the next step of the way.

I want to thank you for joining today's sermon podcast.

You can find a copy of today's sermon, as well as other sermons,

and the sermon outline from today on our church's website, www.mvcnaz.org.

It is my prayer also that you will seek out a church home that recognizes the authority of the Bible.