What can we learn from the Bible about what it means to be a good leader—even during our teenage years? How can we learn from the mistakes of others, using their faults to fuel our journey to becoming effective guides in our homes, schools, communities, and youth group? This 3-week series examines three biblical leaders, detailing how each experienced acute failure at specific points in their lives. Each week’s message contrasts that leader’s shortcomings with Jesus’ redemptive role as the perfect leader. Touching on the topics of responsibility, endurance, and discipline, ‘Level Up’ both explores what Godly leadership is, and what it isn’t. Students don’t become leaders when they get older, they are leaders now who can be empowered to help others know and serve God better.

Week 2

Text: Numbers 20:8-12; Hebrews 12:1-3

Topic: Moses, Endurance

Big Idea of the Message: Leaders understand the part that patience plays in the process.  Moses ran out of patience and lost his great reward. Conversely, Jesus endured to the end and will receive us as His reward.

Application Point: As godly leaders, we must follow God’s instructions even when it is not easy.

 

Discussion Questions:

• What is one thing that stood out to you from this week’s message?
• What was Moses’ mistake? Why did it keep him from entering the Promised Land?
• How does the passage in Hebrews describe Jesus’ feelings about the cross?
• Why is vision for the long-term necessary to make it through short-term hardship? Have you ever experienced this?
• Are you needing strength to endure anything specifically right now?
• How can I pray for you?

 

Texto: Números 20: 8-12; Hebreos 12: 1-3

Tema: Moisés, Resistencia

Gran idea del mensaje: Los líderes entienden que la paciencia en parte del proceso. Moisés se quedó sin paciencia y perdió su gran recompensa. A la inversa, Jesús resistió hasta el final y nos recibirá como su recompensa.

Punto de aplicación: Como líderes piadosos, debemos seguir las instrucciones de Dios aun cuando no sea fácil.

Preguntas de discusión:

• ¿Qué es una cosa que se destacó del mensaje de esta semana?
• ¿Cuál fue el error de Moisés? ¿Por qué le impidió entrar en la Tierra Prometida?
• ¿Cómo describe el pasaje en Hebreos los sentimientos de Jesús sobre la cruz?
• ¿Por qué es necesaria la visión a largo plazo para superar las dificultades a corto plazo? ¿Alguna vez has experimentado esto?
• ¿Necesitas fuerza para soportar algo específicamente ahora?
• ¿Cómo puedo orar por ti?
  

 

 

SERMON SUMMARY

LEVEL UP LEADERSHIP – Part 2

A leader understands the importance of being patient

Patience is not simply the ability to wait – it’s how we behave while we’re waiting. Joyce Meyer

Too many people are expecting a lifetime’s worth of results by only putting in a day’s worth of work.  The pace of life is getting faster and faster.  This is a great thing if we can learn to be more efficient with our time.  But for many, this is not their approach.  Having so much just a click away is warping our view of time.  There are just some things that we can’t just fast forward through; dreams, goals, life stages, relationships, etc.  This is where patience comes into play.

After grasping a better view of responsibility, the next challenge that a leader must face is how to be patient as we obey God and serve others.  Patience is a keystone habit that has the potential to develop or derail a leader’s potential unlike most attitudes.  Many people struggle with embracing the process because people want to see huge results with little effort, and many others give up too soon because they either get frustrated by the things they can’t control or get overwhelmed by circumstances or people.

An effective leader understands the part that patience plays in the process.  Time is a key factor, and there is a balance that must be mastered between how we view today vs tomorrow.  Ineffective leaders move slow daily, not investing or maximizing each minute of their day, and expect to see fast results.  This is like someone who wants to be a millionaire by 35 but wastes their 20’s playing video games all night and their money on expensive clothes that will go out of style in six months.  Effective leaders are those who move fast daily, looking for ways to invest in and maximize each minute of their day, while understanding that results tend to take time, even if it’s longer than we’d like.  Dave Ramsey once said, “Live like no one else so you can live like no one else.”

Having this approach to life is important because we only have one life to live.  We get one shot at this.  Impatient people tend to waste opportunities that end up keeping them from accomplishing their goals, robbing them of God’s blessing.  This happened to Moses on one very hot day in the desert.

The Book of Numbers in the Jewish Scriptures is the fourth of five books that Moses wrote which makes up the Torah.  This one book contains a lot of data of the people of Israel regarding who they were, what they did, and how they were to do things.  Much of the accounts shows how impatient the people were and how they failed to trust that God would act on their behalf in conquering the Promised Land.  Because of their lack of faith and patience, God made them wander the desert for 40 years until that generation had died off and a new one would rise and place their confidence in God.  Impatience doesn’t lead the blessings.

Moses was to lead this family expedition.  As a parent, I tend to lose my cool with my kids in the hour or so long car ride from my house to Disney World, as they consistently ask, “Are we there yet?”.  I couldn’t imagine what Moses had to deal with for 40 years!  Instead of asking, “Are we there yet?” they would complain about being hungry or thirsty (again, just like my three boys).  One day, God told Moses to hit a rock with his staff and that from that rock, water would flow and be enough for the million plus people that were with him.  Moses did what God asked and God did what He promised to do!  Some time later, the people complained again about being thirsty.  This time, God made a difference request, but unfortunately for Moses, he lost his patience with God’s people which caused him to lose something very important.

 ⁸ “Take the staff, and assemble the congregation, you and Aaron your brother, and tell the rock before their eyes to yield its water. So you shall bring water out of the rock for them and give drink to the congregation and their cattle.” ⁹ And Moses took the staff from before the Lord, as he commanded him. ¹⁰ Then Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock, and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels: shall we bring water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹ And Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock with his staff twice, and water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their livestock. ¹² And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”  Numbers 20:8-12 (ESV)

Moses became impatient, failing to honor God by the way he treated his people.  I’m going to have a problem with anyone who yells at my kids, even if they deserved it.  Apparently, God feels the same way.  He was not happy with how Moses reacted because He expected more of him.  Leaders are influencers that can alter people’s beliefs and behaviors.  Moses decided to walk by feelings instead of faith in this moment.  He lost his patience with God’s people and with God’s process, which caused him to lose his opportunity to lead his people into the Promised Land.  When it comes to our faith-walk with God, success is not measured in the results but by our obedience.

12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  Hebrews 12:1-3 (ESV)

Here we see how Jesus approached patience in His life.  He had a long-term vision that enabled Him to endure His short-term circumstances.  Jesus lived with the bigger picture in mind, seeing the “joy set before Him” which inspired Him to suffer on the cross until the end.  His patience on the cross produced eternal life!  Serving God isn’t always easy.  Sometimes we might feel funny living in a way that is different than others around us.  Sometimes things get worse before they get better.  But just like Jesus, our success is not measured by results but by our obedience.

The cloud of witnesses that the author of Hebrews mentions are those heroes of the faith who have gone before us.  They are not watching from a stadium in Heaven, cheering us on.  Rather, their lives stand as an example of what to do and not do.  But our most important cue for living comes from us looking to Jesus and living in response to what He has done.  Runners in a race never look down or around at other runners.  Rather, they run looking ahead.

Christians should live in the same way, not looking down at our failures or looking around comparing ourselves to others.  We should lay aside every weight that is causing you to run less effectively than we could.  We should lay aside your sins and our poor attitudes and place our eyes on Jesus.  This is how we can have a long-term vision that enabled us to endure our short-term circumstances.  Jesus will give us patience, peace, and power to keep running, serving, living, and leading which will end up producing a meaningful legacy.  When we understand the part that patience plays in the process, we can level up and become a more effective leader.