Video Transcript: Like Jesus

Being an effective manager. Qualification number three, be like Jesus. I mean,  of course, why not make Jesus of the model for almost anything you do if you  want to be a manager? Certainly, the example of Jesus is a good one. We're  going to we're going to look at Jesus is sort of a case study, some of the things  that he said, some of the things that he did, and then extrapolate that to being a  manager. So one thing to be like Jesus, ask people to follow you. Matthew 4:18.  As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon  called Peter and his brother, Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for  they were fishermen. Come follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people. At once, they left their nets and followed Him. Jesus boldly came to  people. Now, did he know them? Some argue that maybe he had met them  before, that maybe he had some kind of relationship with them. But whatever  the case, Jesus was bold enough to say, Follow me. Join the thing that I am  doing. If you're planting a church, you have to be bold enough to ask people to  follow. Will they follow? You don't know. Just yesterday, I was golfing with the  president of Christian leaders Institute, Henry Reyenga, and we were golfing,  and one of the guys that we were golfing with was from our background in terms of not only ethnically, but also church wise. But he is someone who gave up  church long ago, and we had this banter going back and forth. He would poke  the church a little bit and God a little bit, and we would laugh and try to poke  back a little bit. But finally, probably about halfway through the golf, Henry just  mentioned, hey, I'm preaching in the local church here this Sunday. I think you  should come, you and your wife. And he said, Well, yeah, maybe, you know, I'll  talk to my wife, which means I'm not coming, right? But Henry, you know, left  that for a while, but then he came back to it and said, Hey, so if you come this  Sunday, why don't we go out to eat? We'll find, I know, a really cool place. I'll talk to my wife. You talk to your wife. So he's like, you know, you can invite people,  and people will say maybe, which means no, often, but you have to be bold  enough to keep coming to invite in such a way that they almost can't say no.  When I planted a church in Vancouver, you know, I'm not as outgoing as some  people are, and I wondered, how am I going to plant a church if we don't have  any people? How are we going to get people? Well, I reached one neighbor, and this neighbor was not only outgoing, but she was bold. She would tell you know  neighbors about our church, and then she would say, and will pick you up for  church at 9:30 I mean, she just wouldn't give them a no. She personally  probably got eight different families from our neighborhood to come to our  church because she was bold enough to just simply ask people to follow,  patiently deal with those you lead. Matthew 8:23, then Jesus got into the boat,  and his disciples followed Him. Suddenly, a furious storm came on the lake, so  that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went  and woke him, saying, Lord, save us. We're going to drown. And he replied, you  of little faith. Why are you so afraid? Then he got up and rebuked the winds and 

the waves and it was completely calm. That phrase, you of little faith is, is a  phrase that Jesus used often of his disciples, if you if he wanted to, he probably  could have said, Oh, you of no faith, because the disciples often exhibited no  faith at all. But Jesus recognized the little faith that they had. And in another  place, Jesus said, If you have the faith of a mustard seed, which is the smallest  seed there is, if you have the small faith, you can say to the mountain move, and it will it will move. So Jesus, in the one way, is saying, you know, your faith isn't  as strong as it could be. But on the other hand, Jesus was very patient with His  disciples. He kept saying this over and over and over again, and kept  encouraging and encouraging them. And. So that with your own people, build  them up when they're hurting, when they're weak, lift them up. They're not  always going to be the kind of employee that you really want. Sometimes they're going to exhibit all kinds of brokenness, and you need to be there to lift them up. Eat with the down hearted and the proud alike. That's what Jesus did. Luke 15.  Now the tax collectors and the sinners, okay, so those were the down hearted.  Were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of  the law muttered, this man welcomes sinners and eats with them. Well, he  welcomes Pharisees and people who think they're better than other people as  well. Jesus was comfortable in with both groups. Both groups have their own  problems and issues, but Jesus didn't discriminate against any particular group  of people, and as a manager, you don't want to do that either. People are  people. You accept people as they are, or you take people as they are. When  you're dealing with customers, when you're dealing with vendors, when you're  dealing with people, it doesn't matter who they are, whether they're high or low,  whether they are wealthy people or they're just getting by. People matter to God, they've been made and created in His image, in that culture to eat with someone was like saying, You're my friend, or I accept you. And the reason the Pharisees  and the teachers of the law were muttering and complaining that Jesus was  eating with these sinners is because, in that culture, when you did eat with  someone, it's like you accepted them and the Pharisees and the teachers. Well,  how can you accept tax collectors? Tax collectors are our own people, Jewish  people, who collect taxes for the Romans, and the only way that they do it is  because they collect more taxes than the Romans demand, so that they  themselves get rich off their own people. So who in the world is going to  associate with someone like that? Well, Jesus did doesn't mean he approved of  what they did, but Jesus' goal was to influence everyone that he met, whether  they were proud of whether they were sinners or troublemakers. Challenge the  proud Mark 10:17, as Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on  his knees before Him, good teacher. He asked, What must I do to inherit eternal  life? Why do you call Me good? Jesus answered, No one is good except God  alone. You know the commandments. You shall not murder, you should not  commit adultery, you should not steal, you should not give false testimony. You 

shall not defraud. Defraud. Honor your father and honor your father and mother.  Teacher, he declared all these I've kept since I was a boy, and Jesus looked at  him and loved him. One thing you lack, he said, Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. At  this the man's face fell. He went away sad because he had great wealth.  Challenge the proud. Jesus wasn't afraid. Now here's a wealthy person. This is  a person that could probably contribute to Jesus and his cause. I mean, Jesus  and his disciples. They were running around, teaching and, you know, healing  people and doing all this. They had to eat, they had to sleep. They needed to  some kind of ministry support. Here's this wealthy person, and Jesus challenges them. You know, challenges them. In front of all these people, this person was  proud. I've done all the right things. And, you know, this person really came to  Jesus to be to be honored. And so Jesus sees the real need. He sees the pride,  and so he goes right to it. He just tells the truth. And sometimes, as a manager,  that's what you need to do. You need to tell the truth. It doesn't matter whether  the person has a lot of influence or not, the truth sometimes has to be told  encourage the disbelieving Mark 9:20. So they brought him, brought a father,  brought his son, who was demon possessed, to Jesus. And when the Spirit saw  Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into convulsions. He fell to the ground and  rolled around, foaming at the mouth. And Jesus asked the boy's father, how long has he been like this from childhood? He answered, It has often thrown him into  the fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help  us. If you can, said, Jesus. Everything is possible for him who believes.  Immediately, the boy's father exclaimed, I want you to listen to this. I do believe.  Help me overcome my unbelief. When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to  the scene, he rebuked the impure spirit, you deaf and mute spirit, he said, I  command you to come out of him and never enter him again. The father said, I  believe. Help my unbelief. I think this is the most encouraging, or some of the  most encouraging words in Scripture, because a lot of times we do believe. We  do believe. We do believe in God. We believe that God is in control of  everything. We believe in the business that we're doing. We believe in our  church. We believe as a manager, as you're trying to lead and get people that  you believe in what you're doing. Part of you believes it, but part of you doubts it, and people wonder, well, how does how does belief and doubt go together. It  seems like you either believe or you doubt. This one passage shows you that  belief and doubt actually fit together. In fact, when we believe something, we we  don't know it. We believe it, but we don't know it. We were willing to go in that  direction. We believe in something, and so we give our money to it. We believe  in something, and so we give our time to it. But that doesn't mean we don't have any doubts. In fact, belief, by its very definition, has some doubt, because if you  didn't have any doubt, you wouldn't believe it. You wouldn't know it. Belief  already suggests that it could be improved. I believe something, but I could 

believe it more, and so if I can believe it more, there must be a little bit of doubt.  There belief and doubt can go together. So your people are struggling, they do  believe in what they're doing. They do believe in your leadership. They do  believe in God, but there's doubts there too. So knowing that, as a manager  going in, knowing that people both believe and doubt at the same time, what can you do to help them overcome their doubts? See knowing that you can get  people to admit their doubts. Most people don't want to admit their doubts,  because if they admit their doubts, it looks like they don't believe. But if you can  assure them, look talking about your doubts doesn't mean that you don't believe. Talking about your doubts, in fact, is going to help identify those things that are  that are hurting your belief, and we can actually maybe do something about it  and give you a stronger belief, meet your people's needs. Mark 1, a man with  leprosy, came to Jesus and begged him on his knees, if you are willing, you can  make me clean. And Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the man, I am willing. He said, Be clean. Immediately, the leprosy left him, and  he was cleansed. Now a leper. In those days, people thought that leprosy was  contagious. It's this it's a disease of the skin. It's actually a disease of the nerves that the feeling in your extremities goes away. And people don't know that their  hand is in the fire, or they don't know when something is pinching the hand, so  they don't move it. So gradually all the extremities fall off. So it's a horrible  disease. And 2000 years ago, people took the leper and they put them in their  own colony. People thought you could catch leprosy, so they isolated these  people. So here's this leper. He's been isolated from people. He's been isolated  from his family, and he calls out to Jesus, and he wants to be clean now Jesus  could heal him. You know, from 30 feet, there's the man, here's Jesus. He's  calling out. He wants to be clean. Jesus says, Okay, I'm willing to, willing to heal  you. All right, be clean and then go, come over and give him a hug. But in the  text, it says, Jesus was indignant. He reached out his hand and touched the  man. I am willing. He said, Be clean. So he touched the man before he was  clean. It's probably the first non leper person that has touched this man in years. Jesus, I think, saw the real need. This person needed to be touched. He needed to be accepted as he was before he before he was clean. So with your people  too, it's, you know, people don't, people don't say what their real need is. Maybe, maybe one of the people that you're trying to manage, maybe their real need is  to just be encouraged once in a while, but they're not going to say it. They're not  going to go around and say, Well, you know, I really need a hug today. People  aren't going to say what they need. You need to see it. Or this person over here  that you're leading, what he needs is to be challenged. He feels encouraged  when when you recognize that he has some gifts and abilities, and you  challenge him to go do something so know your people's needs, what is driving  them, what is motivating them, and how can you meet those needs? Disciple  your people, like Jesus did Matthew 11. After Jesus had finished instructing his 

12 disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the town of Galilee.  So Jesus spent time. He did all this stuff. He was out healing people and  preaching to the crowds and sitting in a boat and speaking to people, feeding  the 5000 feeding the 4000 but you'll see throughout the Gospels Jesus spending time with just his 12 disciples, teaching them going over, you know, I told this  story, but did you get it? And then he would go over it and explain it to them.  Disciple. Jesus did this for three years. And after three years of being in the  Jesus discipleship school, he set them out. You disciples are going to change  the world, build something called the church that will become the largest  organization the world has ever seen. Disciple your people, teach your people,  send your people out. Luke 10, Jesus had only been working with his disciples a short period of time, and these are these are not even just the 12. After this, the  Lord appointed 72 others and sent them, two by two ahead of him to every town  and place where he was about to go. He told them, the harvest is plentiful, but  the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers  into his harvest field. Go. I'm sending you out like lambs among wolves. I'm  sending you out. It's going to be really rough. I remember the first time I got sent out. I was on a mission trip to Ogden, Utah. Utah is a Mormon sort of  stronghold, and I remember the pastor said, we're gonna we're going to go out,  we're going to knock on doors. We had learned how to share our faith. We're  going to go out and we're going to knock on doors. So he sent us two by two. I  had another partner, and we had to go to random doors, talk with them, share  Jesus with them, and then leave and then report back. So first door, we knocked on, and as I'm knocking on the door, I'm like praying, Dear God, please, please  don't let anyone be home. I didn't want to talk to somebody. So anyway, some  lady opens the door says, Come on in. Real friendly person. So we sit down in  the living room, and we were taught that you should talk about just stuff, you  know, like, you know, there's a picture on the wall, well, it's a nice picture, and I  see you're into needlepoint, and you find some common thing to talk so that's  what we did. We talked about the needlepoint, we talked about the color of the  walls. We talked about the carpet, you know, we talked about whatever we could think about. We did that for about 45 minutes, and then we left. We never  shared our faith. That night, I felt so bad. I felt like such a failure. Here. I went on this whole thing, this mission trip, because I wanted to learn how to share my  faith. Here's my first opportunity, and I did nothing. The next day, I said, Lord,  give me another chance. I will do it. So the next day, we knocked on a door, and  it was a lady that had like, three little kids. She was in the kitchen refrying The  refried beans. We were in the kitchen with her. The kids are running around,  jumping on things, on the table, on the chairs, and she's doing the beans. And  you know, it's just pandemonium. But I shared my faith. I was going to do what I  was told, and I was going to do it, and I did it, and then we left, and I remember  thinking, Okay, what did I do? I didn't know who this person was. I didn't know 

what their problems were. I don't know if her husband just left her the night  before, and here I am coming with a prepackaged view of Christianity, and your  problem is that you don't understand grace. And so I'm going to tell you all about I had no idea what her problem was. So what I learned? I learned two things. I  learned, number one, that you really need to reach out and listen to people.  First, don't tell them a solution to a problem you assume. They have. You need  to listen long enough and know someone, long enough to know what their issue  and problem is, and then gently try to do something about it. But I tell you what I  learned about just being sent out. I learned all that stuff because someone sent  me out. I wouldn't have known that. It wouldn't have stuck with me. I you know,  that whole story just sticks with me, because someone sent me out. You got to  send your people out, you know, is it the right thing? Is it the wrong thing? I don't know. People need to get out of their comfort zones. If you're a manager, you  can't have just people sitting behind their desk. Send them out. I don't know  what that means make everyone in the office. Make some cold calls if you sell  something. Take everyone canvassing in the neighborhood if you're, if you're a  church and you want to grow a church, take, take the whole church you no one  is exempt. Get people off the couch, getting out there. Because no matter how  they do, no matter what happens? Some good thing is going to happen. Trust  your people with the mission. Matthew 16, and I tell you you are Peter, and on  this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.  Now, Peter, Peter, you know, he would speak before he thought he was very  rash. He was sort of self absorbed sometimes, and yet Jesus says, on you, I will build this church. It's not, it's not a perfect thing. You don't have to be perfect.  Trust your people with the mission. Are they? Are they trustworthy? Do They  Have all the gifts and abilities? Probably not, probably not, but the gates of hell  will not prevail against what God does through them. The church is the most  amazing thing in the world. If you go to any specific church, they have the pastor isn't that good? They got some debt. Their music maybe isn't that great. Oh, that church is really good. But then they had a problem with their pastor, and so they  had a I mean, every church has all kinds of problems, like, how in the world  does the church just keep growing and building that church really boring? A lot  of churches are boring, and yet they keep going. Churches expand all over the  world, and they're run by average, mediocre people. It's because God is going  to build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. So trust your  people. Jesus trusted his disciples with the mission. They were a ragtag group,  so you need to trust your people with the mission. Love your people. John 10,  I'm the Good Shepherd, Jesus said, and the good shepherd lays down his life  for his sheep. He is a hired hand, and not a shepherd who does not own the  sheep. Sees the wolf coming, and he leads the sheep and flees, and the wolf  snatches them and scatters them. Don't be a hired hand. If you're a hired hand,  you're just you're just doing a job. You only have one life. Why spend the one life

that you have just doing a job? We're here to accomplish something. I don't care what your job is. I don't care if you're in a secular organization. It's not a job. It's  a calling. You are there to make a difference. Make a difference in the lives of  the people you interact with. Make a difference in the lives of the people, the  vendors, the seller. It doesn't matter whoever you come in contact. You're here  on the planet for 70, 80, who knows how many years, and your goal is to make  a difference in the lives of people and the eternal difference. Don't be a Don't be  a hired hand.