Video Transcript: Lesson 33 Modeling

Hello, welcome back. Lecture 33. We're talking about leadership. And  specifically, we are talking about modeling, modeling as really the expression of  leadership, a very powerful tool that you and everybody else has. So, let me  pray for you. And then we're gonna hop right back into I Peter 5. Lord, thanks for this day. And thanks God that we have the perfect model in you. In your Son,  Jesus Christ. Lord, let our eyes on never stray far from him, but to be focused  on Him, Lord, to pattern our lives after him and so Lord, others might be able to  live as we do. God give us great influence. For your kingdoms glory, we pray this in Your name, amen. Okay, so if you recall, in the last lecture, we we looked at,  we introduced that there was three, really kind of biblical aspects of leadership  in I Peter 5:2-3, and one was the calling and willingness. The second one was a  service. And now we're getting into the third one, which is modeling leadership  as modeling. And so the end of that verse is not rewarding. The authority not  lording it over those, to those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock.  So really, I think, a good question is, what is what's the best way to lead people? I think it's, it's by modeling. I think that is by far, the most effective way to be a  leader, we think about Harry again, Harry's definition about how do you influence people? You lead them? How can you be effective? How do you do it the right  way? You model like any model, I mean, so how do you how do you influence  people you model for them? How do you do it the right way? You do by  modeling the right way? For them, we think of Blackaby, how do we get people  to move on to God's agenda, because by we move on to God's agenda first. So  again, this is so much is going to be predicated upon you as a leader of setting  the tone and setting an example for everyone else to to follow. Now, there's,  there's so I guess, I guess, some human psychology involved in this, because  people are natural imitators. I mean, just think of like, when a baby is born, you  know, a baby learns how to speak, they learn how to do live life by just imitating  and, and following others. I mean, we can think of as soon as there's like, you  know, a style of dress, or a kind of music or a way that people talk. And it  becomes like the in thing, and there's just, you know, tons of people who start  doing that, because we naturally we imitate, and I'm sure there's lots of reasons  why we do that as humans. Not this isn't really to time or the place to get into  that. But people are a natural imitators. And so I can say I, as a father with three  children, I see that in them. Seeing things that they do behaviors that they do,  ways that they kind of views that they have, they're just in so many ways  copying myself and their mom, in that it's interesting in the church, I see the  same thing is I start using a certain kind of language, or I start painting a kind of  a word picture for vision or something. And then, given enough time, other  people are starting to use the same vocabulary or they're starting to think about  the same things. So modeling is really going to be I think, your most effective  way to lead your ministry. So just starting out, I would say if you're doing  something, your people will probably follow suit, okay. In the same way, if you're 

not doing something, it's unlikely Your people will. So if you're not, you know,  actively inviting other people to come to your work, church worship service or  you're not actively sharing your faith. Your church is probably not going to do  

that either. Right? People aren't going to like go beyond you. They're not going  to do things you're not doing so For better or for worse, the things you do, they'll  do. If you don't do it, they're probably not going to do it either. Okay, so let's talk  about some scripture examples where we see this, and we're actually even  commanded to be models. So Hebrews 13:7, says, Remember, your leaders  who spoke the word of God to you consider the outcome of their way of life, and  imitate their faith. So right here, we're given a direct command to imitate leaders. Remember your leaders, okay? Remember the people who taught you the  gospel. Remember your spiritual, you know, mothers and fathers. And then it  says, Consider how they lived their life, how it paired with their faith, how it was  a reflection of their faith, and then imitate it, like be like them, try to copy them,  they've set a good example for you. And isn't it interesting, it says, Remember,  your leaders. That's who you're supposed to imitate, that's who you're most  naturally going to imitate. It's those who are in leadership. Now we see this  certainly played out in the Gospels. And then later in the book of Acts, because  what we see happen in the Acts in the book of Acts is just a really mere  reflection or a repeat of what goes on in the Gospels. So Jesus is doing ministry  in the Gospels and the disciples, for the most part are watching. They do  participate, but they're watching, and what is Jesus doing? He's, he's preaching  the gospel. He's, he's praying, he's teaching, he's traveling. He's doing ministry  of mercy. You know, all these kinds of things. You You know what Jesus's life  looks like? Okay. So when we get to the book of Acts, Jesus is now ascended  into heaven, the Holy Spirit's fallen upon the apostles, and now they're doing  ministry, what did they do? The exact thing that they saw Jesus do the three  years, they were following him around, they're just imitating the very same thing  that they saw. So you know, and it makes sense, you know, they're gonna do  what Jesus did. And so why would you know, and I think that's an important  process to us to keep going back to the Gospels and seeing what did Jesus do  in ministry and us to, you know, try to imitate that, right? I mean, he's the one  that we're supposed to be imitating, ultimately, let's talk about that. And because  somebody who believes heavily, heavily, heavily in this idea of leadership, as  modeling was Paul. And Paul writes about this a number of times, and you might not be aware of how often Paul gives us command to imitate him. Now, Paul  doesn't have this great ego trip, right? But he sees what people you know, this  pagan world is like, and he's trying to live for Christ. And so he's like, you have  two examples. You can live like the pagan world, or you can live like me, he  goes, live like me. Again, Paul doesn't say he's perfect. And many times Paul  says he's not he's the chief of sinners. And he's, he struggled through his sin  yet. But he he points himself as an example. So let's look at some in I 

Corinthians 11, Paul says, follow my example. As I follow the example of Christ.  So we've kind of got this three layers of modeling, Jesus. And Paul says, I'm  trying to follow Jesus as closely as I can. And so Paul then says to the people in  Corinth, follow me as I follow Jesus, right. So he's got this, you know, Paul is  learning from the model of Jesus. And then he wants the people to learn from  the model that he then is doing, okay, I Corinthians 4. Okay. He says, Therefore, I urge you to imitate me. For this reason I have sent to you, Timothy, my son,  whom I love who is faithful to the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in  Christ Jesus which agrees with what I teach everywhere in the church. Okay,  let's break this down. Again. He says, Therefore I urge you to imitate me. Okay?  Be, you know, like me follow my example. And so he goes to help you with that.  I'm going to send you, Timothy. And Timothy will remind you of this, of how I live. Okay? And then you can follow. Timothy, Timothy is going to be a good example  for you. So you follow me? Follow Timothy. Well, where did Timothy learn? You  know what the Christian life looks like? He was Paul's, you know, as Paul's  apprentice. He was Paul's protege. So now we've got, you know, Jesus, and  then Paul is under him. And then he says, you know, teaches Timothy. And now  there's all the people in Corinth. So if you've got Jesus as an example, you have Paul as an example, you have Timothy, as an example. And it says, because we live in a way, again, he's not saying he's perfect. He's not saying that Timothy is  sinless or anything like that, because we live in a way where our faith matches  our practice, that what we say, matches who we are, and what we do. So this,  this whole idea of leadership is so much on modeling. That's what Paul is, is  banking on, you know, this whole idea. So let's keep going on Philippians 3,  Paul says, join together in following my example, brothers. And just as you have  us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. Again, he goes, join  together and following my example. Okay. Paul was banking heavily on this  modeling business. But it's not just me, he goes, and keep your eyes on those  who live as we do. So he goes, I'm not the only model. There's plenty of models  out there who demonstrate what the Christian life looks like when it's livede.  Well, when it's lived in faithfulness, when it's lived in obedience to Jesus Christ  against, again, Paul's not elevating himself above the whole world or above the  whole church. He's following Christ. He's trying to teach other people to follow  Christ in a similar manner. And, and he goes, I'm not the only one, there's plenty out there. So again, we see leadership is about modeling. It's just about leading  kind of almost without trying, I just live my life a certain way. And I'm leading  because other people are natural imitators. They're going to look at me. Now  let's look at this one. Again. This idea of looking, you know, Paul, setting the  example and the impact it has. So he writes, in I Thessalonians 1, You became  imitators of us and of the Lord, for you welcome the message in the midst of  severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a  model to all the believers in Macedonia and the Achaea, the Lord's message 

rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaea, your faith in God has  become known everywhere. Okay, let's break it down. Paul says You became  imitators of us and the Lord. So again, when Paul's saying, You're following our  example, you're following Christ, you're following the kind of life we lead. And so  what it says in verse 7, then, and so you became a model to all the believers.  Okay. So by watching Paul's model, they became then a model to all the other  believers, that where it says, And then, and it goes, and now you're faith has  become known everywhere. So now they're there, their influence, let's use some leadership term, their influence has now gone beyond just their local areas. But  now Paul says, people everywhere throughout Asia Minor throughout the  Christian world are talking about the people in Thessalonica and how they're  living. So the model of Christ goes to the model of Paul, It goes to the model of  church leaders. It goes to the model of the whole region. And now the whole  world is talking about this. See, see how this this idea of Modeling is such an  incredibly powerful tool. And so a few really good, I think, questions for us to be  thinking about here. We're gonna wrap this up in a moment. But there was one  more verse here from Philippians 4:9 where Paul says, Whatever you have  learned or received or heard from me or seen in me, put it into practice. So he  goes, whatever you've heard, or seen or learned from me, I want you to do it. It's the same message he said all along. And as I as I think about this, I think there's a really, really significant challenge for us. And that's this, am I worth imitating?  Am I the kind of leader? Am I the kind of person? Am I living the sort of way that  I can say, in good faith, Imitate me on this journey to become a healthy church  Imitate me in this process of becoming revitalized. Follow my example, follow  my lead. I find this to be just a really hard question to answer. Because there's  parts of me that I think yes, like, Absolutely, I feel like I'm living on point for the  Lord. And there's things that I would definitely want my church to imitate. But  there's other things in my life that I would say, I don't really want them to imitate  that. And I could say, I've seen that in my kids, they'll say something, or they'll do something. And I'm like, Ah, like, I know, where they got that they got it from me,  and I didn't want them to I hate that they got that from me, or that they're  following in that. So this goes back to a much earlier lecture we had on  leadership, when we were just really talking about character, if you recall, when  Paul outlines the qualities of a leader 15 of the 17 leadership qualities, he  elevated, they were character driven. Now we can see why because so much of  modeling is character related. So am I worth imitating I just want to just have us  sit here for a minute. And it just keeps having you think about that, and when  this lecture is over, you know, or you can hit pause now and just really think  about this. Am I worth imitating? What am I modeling for other people, right?  What What am I modeling? Am I modeling good spiritual disciplines? Am I  modeling a gracious ways to handle conflict? Am I modeling effective  leadership? Am I modeling discipling? Others? Am I modeling? You know, just 

dealing with grace, in difficult situations, all these kinds of things, how am I  modeling family life? All these sorts of things, you know, because we all want to  get to a point where we can say I built my life on Christ. And I would like you to,  you know, follow in my footsteps. Okay, so and then the last one, kind of a  similar sort of question is, what would ministry, what would your ministry or your  church look like, if you were multiplied? Instead, if, you know, we could, we  could make copies of you, we could, let's say, we could run you through a copier machine somehow. And we could populate the church with multiple versions of  you. What would that ministry look like? How would it be different from it is now  and just thinking sort of about something like that, I think really pushes us to like, just go down deep. recommit, just, you know, the life that we're living for the  Lord. And just following him, and just sincerely and humbly and as passionately  as we possibly can. Not that we're ever going to be perfect. But I think when  people see something special in us when they think, and by that I mean not like  we're super wonderful, terrific. But when they see a work of God in us, when  they see surrender in us when they see obedience in us, and they see the joy  and the peace of Christ in us, and that's modeled and and I think I think that's  when we were at our best as leaders, I think that's when we're, we're, we're  making the biggest difference. And so whether you're in a ministry and you have like 20 people there, or you have like 5000, like, it doesn't matter, people are  looking, people are going to imitate you, and to take that opportunity and make  the most of it truly to make the most of it. All right. So that is, that's my final  challenge for you on modeling. And I'm gonna pray for you because, boy, you  and I, we need prayer on this, right? Because there's, like I said, there's plenty  of things I don't want, modeled after me. And I want God to work in those areas  in my life, so that I would be just just a wonderful example for for my, for my  family, and for my church family. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this wonderful  calling to ministry. And God, we do confess, oh my goodness, we are not always worth imitating. But God, just as Paul did to help us to fix our eyes on you, that  everything we do is flows from your example. And we are empowered by your  Spirit to just yield to that and to submit to it and God that others other people  would see, would see your presence in us and want to be just moved by that.  God I pray that through modeling, churches might become healthy, they might  become wonderful, beautiful places where the gospel is known and lived out.  Because Lord, we're the real leaders who were committed to following you.  Lord, bless all those listening to this. God help them be everything you designed and called them to be. I pray this in Your name, amen.