- Hi everybody, thanks
so much for tuning in
and I sure look forward
to being together again.
But until then,
thanks for joining us
from wherever you
are joining us from.
And for those of you who have
allowed us to be your church
while your local church
is gearing up to reopen,
we've enjoyed having you.
And we hope that you
will continue to join us
from time to time, we will be
here as long as you need us.
Now, let's jump in
to today's message.
We're actually in part two of
a four part series entitled
Leading Through, Leading
Through Three Essentials for
Navigating Uncertainty.
As we talked about last time,
the past several months have
been challenging for all of us.
They've been brutal
for most of us, right?
Financially, socially,
mentally, relationally.
So consequently,
there's a sense in which
we're all picking up the pieces,
trying to move forward
the best that we can.
But many of us, perhaps you,
many of us are responsible
for helping other people
move forward as well, right?
Family members,
employees, team members,
maybe some students,
members of the community.
So if you're a parent,
a manager, a business
owner, a coach,
a mayor, maybe a member
of the city council,
people are looking
to you for direction.
They're looking to
you for inspiration.
And most importantly, they're
looking to you for hope.
And here's what we know
as leaders. (chuckles)
Leading under normal
circumstances,
that's tough enough, right?
But leading folks through
what we've just come through,
not for the faint of heart.
And I won't tell if you won't,
but the people who are
looking to us for leadership,
they have no idea.
They have no idea how
unprepared we really are, right?
We said this last time.
We don't have all
the answers, right?
And we don't always
know what to do.
And there's a sense in which
we're all just kind of making
this up as we go along,
at least I know I am.
So there's no point
in kidding ourselves
and there's no point
in kidding the people
who are looking to
us for leadership,
that uncertainty makes
leadership uncertain.
But uncertainty is a
permanent part of life.
In fact, it's a permanent part
of the leadership equation.
Uncertainty is why the
world needs leaders.
Uncertainty is why your
family, your company,
or your city needs you.
So here's what we're doing.
In this series, we're
discussing three essentials
for leading through times of
uncertainty and disruption.
These are non-negotiables.
I think they're
irreducible minimums.
These are always important,
but in times of uncertainty,
they are more
important than ever.
So last week we kicked
things off with a narrative
from the Old Testament
that presented us
with the big picture, as
it relates to our role
as leaders and influencers.
And we were reminded of this,
that leadership
is a stewardship.
Leadership is a
stewardship, it is on loan.
It's an opportunity,
it's a responsibility.
We don't have people, we
are responsible to people
and for people, leadership
is a stewardship.
And remember the
second part of this
and it is temporary, right?
The clock is ticking.
Time will eventually run
out on our influence,
on our authority.
Eventually we either give it
away or it'll be taken away.
It's temporary because
well, we're temporary.
And knowing that there's
an expiration date
should inform our
posture and our tone
and our humility as leaders.
Leadership is a
stewardship, it's temporary,
and then here's the third
part of our equation.
We are accountable.
Every leader is
accountable to somebody.
Every leader is
accountable to somebody
for how they steward or
manage their influence.
So if you're a theist or more
specifically a Jesus follower,
here's what we know.
There's actually a divine
component to this as well.
So with that as
the broad context,
I want us to dive into the first
of our three
non-negotiables for leading
in times of uncertainty.
So here we go.
Every leader, every
leader exercises authority
on two levels, two levels.
One level is
immediately apparent.
One level becomes apparent.
One level determines
the leader's influence
within a defined context,
and the other level
determines their influence
beyond that context.
Now immediately apparent
is what we're going to call
our positional authority.
Positional authority is like
father, mother, a manager,
owner, boss, executive, police
officer, teacher, coach.
We pay attention to those people
because they have a position
or a role in our lives.
The second level of authority
has nothing to do
with a position.
It has everything to
do with influence.
In fact, the people who
have the most influence
on our lives often
they have little to no
actual official
authority over us, right?
It's something, well, it's
just something about them
that gives them
influence in our lives.
They have an authority
that extends beyond
a title or even a timeframe.
They have what we're gonna
call moral authority,
moral authority.
They have moral authority
because there's a
line that you've seen,
there's alignment between what
they say and what they do.
There's alignment between
what they expect of us
and what they expect
of themselves.
Moral authority is the
credibility they've earned
by walking their talk.
It's the alignment between
who they claim to be
and who we discover
that they really are.
And moral authority, this
is why this is so important.
Moral authority
equates to influence.
When there's a
difference, you know this,
when there's a
difference between
what somebody says they're
gonna do and what they do,
what they expect of us
and what they expect of
themselves, what happens?
What do we lose?
We lose respect.
And consequently, when we lose
respect, they lose influence.
We are far more
easily influenced,
we are far more easily
influenced by people we respect.
And moral authority, moral
authority creates respect.
It makes a person
more respectable.
It makes you more respectable.
And when someone lacks moral
authority, let's face it.
It's hard to hear
what they're saying.
Not because of
what they're saying
but because of who's saying it.
For example, and this
may be a bit painful.
If you grew up with a
parent who struggled
with substance abuse,
or maybe you grew up with a
parent who had a gambling habit
that undermined the
stability of your home,
you understand this, right?
It was hard to
take their advice.
It was hard to take their
discipline seriously.
Not because of what they said,
but because of the
decisions they'd made.
So the bottom line
is simply this.
Positional authority,
positional authority
provides a person with influence
within a specific context
for a limited time,
supervisor, coach, boss,
parent, officer, right?
But moral authority, moral
authority provides a person
with influence in a
variety of contexts
for an indefinite
period of time.
Moral authority or the
influence that we get
from walking our talk is
always important, right?
But it is more
important than ever
during times of
uncertainty and disruption.
Now the Jewish scriptures,
what we call the Old Testament
provides us with a ringside seat
to the story of a leader well,
whose moral authority gave
him extraordinary influence
during a time of national
instability and uncertainty.
Nehemiah, who you're
familiar with.
Nehemiah was a Jewish exile
who was living in Persia
in the fifth century BC.
He was the personal
servant or attendant
to King Artaxerxes of Persia,
King Artaxerxes the first.
And by this time when
this story takes place,
Israel had been a vassal
state for about 250 years.
They had had no independence
as a state for over 250 years.
First, it was under the
Assyrians, then the Babylonians,
and now they're paying
taxes to the Persians.
And about 130 years
before the incident
we're gonna look at today,
about 130 years before this
incident Cyrus the Great
who conquered Babylon
and you'll remember Cyrus
the Great from last week.
Cyrus the Great,
when he took over,
he actually encouraged
all the Jews
living in Babylon to go
home if they wanted to.
He just said "Hey, you can
go back to the homeland."
And a lot of them did but
a lot of them chose not to,
and here's why.
The Jews that had
grown up in Babylon,
this is two or three
generations they'd been there,
they just didn't feel much
connection to the homeland.
And Nehemiah's family was
actually one of those families.
So many decided to stay
put in what was now Persia.
But those families that
did return to Judah,
they had a terrible time.
The nation had
struggled economically
and militarily for decades.
The walls around the
city hadn't been repaired
since Nebuchadnezzar
invaded the city
like a hundred
plus years earlier.
Israel's neighbors
constantly took advantage
of their weakness.
They did everything in their
power to stop Israel from
becoming a superpower
once again.
And if you're familiar
with Nehemiah's story,
you'll remember that
his heart was broken.
His heart was broken over
the plight of his people
back in Judah.
And so he began to pray,
even though he had this
very prestigious job,
he began to pray for an
opportunity to go back
and to do something
for the people of Judah
and eventually an
opportunity presented itself.
Actually he presented his
opportunity to his boss,
King Artaxerxes the first.
And he asked the king for
permission to travel to Judah
to restore the
economy specifically
in the city of Jerusalem.
And the king not only
granted his request,
the king actually funded it.
He even gave Nehemiah
an official title.
He would go back to Judah
as the governor of Judah.
Now, if you grew up in church,
you know that
Nehemiah is best known
for how quickly he was able
to get the people of Jerusalem
to rebuild the wall
around the city.
And he certainly gained a
measure of moral authority
in the process, because
if you'll remember,
he actually worked
on the wall himself.
He didn't expect
other people to do
what he wasn't willing to do.
But that's not the aspect
of his story that I want us
to focus on for the
next few minutes.
The broken down walls around
the city of Jerusalem,
that was just one
of many problems
facing the citizens in the city.
After Nehemiah was
there for several years,
he discovered something
even more insidious,
even more dangerous than
a few gaps in the wall.
It took a while,
but he eventually
uncovered the root cause
of the city's economic woes.
Here's what he discovered.
Before he got there, wealthy
landowners and merchants
from the region surrounding
Judah had loaned money
to the Jews at exorbitant
interest rates,
exorbitant, this
decimated the economy.
So when Nehemiah shows up, he
actually used his own money
to purchase and
cancel and pay off
almost all of those loans.
So suddenly the
people of the city,
they've got money to spend,
and it kind of jump
started the economy.
These impoverished citizens
had cash on hand, right?
But as time went by,
Nehemiah began to hear
disturbing rumors.
Disgusting rumors.
And after some investigating,
here's what he discovered.
Wealthy Jews, many of
them living in the city
began doing the very same thing
that the outsiders had done.
They began to do this
to their own people.
They were making high
interest loans to the poor,
and then they were requiring
the poor to put up wives
and children and farms as
collateral for the loans.
And then they would
foreclose on the farms
and then they controlled
the grain prices.
And when all of this came
to Nehemiah's attention,
he was furious.
In fact, the Old Testament
book of Nehemiah,
which is kind of his diary
describes exactly
how he responded
when he found out what
had been going on.
Here's what he wrote.
He said, "When I heard,
when I heard their outcry,"
the outcry of the poor,
"and I heard these
charges, I was very angry.
And I pondered them, I
pondered them in my mind."
He didn't respond or
react immediately.
"I pondered them in my mind
and then I accused the
nobles and officials,
the most wealthy
people in the city.
And I told them, you
are charging your
own people interest?
So I called together, I called
together a large meeting
to deal with them and
here's what I said."
He said "As far
as possible, we,"
talking about he and the folks
that had come with
him from Persia.
"We have bought
back our fellow Jews
who were sold to the Gentiles."
He said, "When I got here,
the people of this city
were in so much
debt to outsiders
I used my own money to
get them out of debt.
I used my own money to do this.
And now I find out that you
are selling your own people?
You're selling your own people
only for them to be
sold back to us?"
He'd already spent a fortune
buying Jewish citizens
out of slavery to foreigners.
And now he's having to do the
same thing all over again.
But this time he's having
to pay off these loans
that had been made
by Jewish citizens,
people right there
in the community.
He goes on and he says this
and this won't
come as a surprise.
"They kept quiet",
I bet they did.
"They kept quiet because they
could find nothing to say.
So I continued."
He went on, he said,
"So I continued.
What you are doing is not right.
Shouldn't you walk in
the fear of our God
to avoid the reproach
of our Gentile enemies?"
He said, "Do you not
realize what you've done?
Our neighbors are
laughing at us.
You've made us a laughingstock
in the region surrounding us.
We're not even
keeping our own laws.
We're undermining
our own economy.
We're undermining
our own security."
But he's not done.
He said, "I and my brothers",
the people that came with him,
"and my men are also
lending money and grain,
but let us stop
charging interest."
Now, according to Torah,
Jews were actually encouraged
to loan money to other Jews,
especially to the poor,
but they couldn't
charge interest.
And they were not allowed
to take important property
as collateral, like
land or work animals.
But these wealthy Jews were
guilty of doing all of that.
So Nehemiah points his finger
and he says, "Look,
give back to them,
give back to them
immediately their fields
and their vineyards, their
olive groves and houses.
And also the interest that
you are charging them."
They were basically just
taking everything they could
from these citizens.
And how did they
respond? (chuckles)
Well, here's what they said.
"We will give it back
and we will not demand
anything more from them.
We will do as you say."
Now, Nehemiah is no fool
and he does not trust them
so here's what happened next.
He says, "Then I
summoned the priest
and I made the nobles and
officials take an oath."
Basically he made them
swear on the Bible,
that's kind of the modern
day parallel to this.
"I made them take an oath to
do what they had promised."
And he said, "I also, I shook
out the folds of my robe.
And I said, in this way, may
God shake out of their house
and possessions anyone who
does not keep this promise.
And the people did as
they had promised."
Just like that.
They returned
everything they'd taken,
everything they'd stolen,
canceled all of those loans.
Now, if their response seems
a little bit unrealistic,
a little bit
idealistic, like yeah,
that's what I would
expect from a Bible story,
you would be correct.
But when you know the backstory,
what was going on
for all the years
leading up to this encounter,
their response makes
a lot more sense.
The reason Nehemiah's words
carried so much weight
was the way he had
conducted himself
for the 12 years he'd been
back in the city of Jerusalem.
His reputation preceded him.
And his reputation
stood in stark contrast
to all the previous governors.
Here's the reason his words
carried so much weight.
"Moreover" he says,
"moreover from the 20th year
of King Artaxerxes,
when I was appointed
to be their governor
in the land of Judah,
until" he says, "until his
32nd year", that is 12 years.
This is the way he's helping
them understand the context.
"For 12 years, neither
I nor my brothers
ate the food allotted
to the governor."
Now this is important.
As the governor of Judah
and as the governor
of the city basically,
Nehemiah actually
had a legal right
to collect taxes
for personal income.
Plus he was guaranteed
a free allotment of food
from the farmers in the regions.
And in his 12 years
as governor, get this
in his 12 years as governor,
he never once
exercised those rights.
He never once exercised
that entitlement.
He paid out of his own pocket.
And this again was
in stark contrast
to the governors
who'd come before him.
In fact, this is what he says.
He says, "But the
earlier governors,
the governors before
me, those preceding me,
they placed a heavy
burden on the people
and they took 40
shekels of silver",
which was a fortune,
"from them in addition
to food and wine."
And not only the governor,
their assistants,
"the assistants to the governors
also lorded it over the people."
That the previous,
the previous governors
had abused their authority.
And the wealthy citizens of
course had taken their cues
from who, from the
previous governors.
But I love this next statement.
He says, "but out of reverence,
out of reverence for God,
I did not act like that.
Instead, I devoted myself
to the work on this wall.
All my men were assembled
there for the work"
that is, I didn't
ask anyone to do
what I wasn't
willing to do myself.
"And we did not
acquire any land."
Now, why does he throw this in?
Property ownership, in those
days it was a sign of power.
And Nehemiah saying, look,
I didn't go there either.
I did not enrich myself at
the expense of the people.
He did exactly
what he came to do,
rebuild the wall and
restore the economy.
He says, "I never once,
I never once demanded
the food allotted or
entitled to the governor
because the demands were
so heavy on these people."
So, 12 years of walking his
talk added weight to his words.
12 years of expecting of himself
what he expected of
others gave him influence
he otherwise would not have had.
The life he'd lived,
the decisions he'd made,
his genuine concern
for the people,
his lifestyle, his
lack of entitlement,
all of this shamed the
nobles into submission.
Now that is good leadership.
And that's the kind of leader
we would like to follow.
And that's the kind of
leader we should all become.
And it really goes back to
this one idea, moral authority.
Moral authority.
It's a tricky thing.
It's a tricky thing because
it takes years to acquire,
but it only takes one
unguarded moment to lose.
We're always one
decision, one word,
one reaction away from
damaging the thing,
well the thing that
gives us influence.
The thing that gives us
influence beyond our position.
It's always important, moral
authority is always important.
But it is an essential, it
is absolutely an essential
during times of
disruption and certainty.
And here's why.
Because the people who look
to us, especially right now,
they wanna know
they can trust us.
And you know this.
Trust is earned and
trust is influence.
Now to bring this into sharp
and perhaps uncomfortable focus
I want you to think about this.
You don't respect your parents
because of what they
required you to do.
Your respect or your lack
of respect is determined
by what they required
of themselves, right?
The life they live, and
the same is true for you.
And the same is true for me.
Our lives, our lives always
speak louder than our words
and our lives add
weight to our words.
So with all that in mind,
I wanna give you three
gauges to keep your eye on,
three gauges to keep your eye on
that will help you
protect your influence,
that will help you protect and
guard your moral authority.
Three areas that may indicate
you're on the verge of losing,
losing what is
virtually impossible
to regain once it's lost.
Number one, pay close attention.
Pay close attention
to your internal
and external response
to authority.
How do you respond to authority?
How do you respond
internally and externally,
a lot of people have lost
their moral authority,
have lost their entire
reputation by how they responded
or responded inappropriately
to authority.
And here's why I say that.
If you consider yourself,
if you consider yourself
too important to be under,
then you are probably
too immature to be over.
So pay attention, pay
attention to how you respond
to authority.
The second thing to keep
your eye on is this.
Your sense of entitlement,
your sense of entitlement.
Listen to the excuses you
make to justify behavior,
behavior that you would not
approve of in other people.
Imagine, imagine
someone you respect,
imagine someone you
respect doing or saying
what you're contemplating
doing or saying.
That has stopped me in
my tracks more times
than I can remember.
And honestly, more times
than I even want to admit.
Along these same
lines, many years ago,
probably 30 plus years ago,
author and financial
advisor Ron Blue,
some of you are
familiar with Ron Blue.
He gave me some extraordinary,
extraordinary advice.
Here's what he said.
He said, "Andy,
never do anything,
never do anything you wouldn't
want people to find out about
or that you wouldn't
want to have to stand up
and explain to
your congregation.
Never do anything you wouldn't
want people to find out about
or that you wouldn't
want to have to stand up
and explain to
your congregation."
I'm telling you that
one piece of advice
has caused Sandra
and me to walk away
from numerous opportunities
and investments.
None of which were illegal,
but here's the thing.
I don't want to do anything.
We don't want to do anything
that undermines our influence.
Our influence with our children.
Our influence with you.
Our influence to our
broader audience.
All of which is a stewardship.
And here's the thing about
entitlement, you know this.
Entitlement is a slippery slope.
Maybe, think about it,
maybe you do deserve it,
whatever it is.
Nehemiah deserved it.
But here's the thing.
If taking, if taking what
you deserve, don't miss this.
If taking what you deserve
undermines your influence,
your moral authority,
think twice.
Because odds are whatever
it is that you deserve,
whatever it is that
you think you deserve,
the day may come when
you would be willing
to return it for the
influence and the respect
you surrendered in
order to get it.
Last thing, last thing
to pay attention to.
Pay attention to those
imaginary conversations,
your imaginary conversations
that are an expression
of frustration and anger,
your anger and
frustration with people.
It only needs to leak one time
for you to lose your
credibility forever, right?
Because come on, I'm sorry.
I'm sorry doesn't
erase anybody's memory.
And when you do mess up,
fess up quick, own it.
That's the only way to rebuild
moral authority, come on.
We trust people
who make mistakes.
We do not trust people
who make excuses.
We don't trust them
because we know
they have their own
best interests in mind.
Moral authority.
It's an essential during times
of disruption and uncertainty.
Now, to be clear,
this is important.
Moral authority is not an
essential for leadership.
You can lead without it,
you can parent without it,
you can manage without it.
But you can't be a leader
worth following without it.
You will not maintain
your influence without it.
Never forget this.
People are usually defined, we
talked about this last week.
People are usually defined
by their final chapter,
not necessarily
their finest chapter.
And here's why, because people
are generally celebrated
and remembered for
their moral authority,
not their positional authority.
And the same will
be true for you.
Now to help you remember this,
here's a prayer that I've prayed
for again, 25 or 30 years.
I bet I prayed this prayer
at least once a day,
sometimes multiple times a day.
I just made this up,
these are my words.
But maybe this is something
you wanna carry into the week.
Here's what I pray all the time.
Heavenly Father, give me the
wisdom to know what's right
and the courage to do what's
right, even when it costs me.
Heavenly Father, give me the
wisdom to know what's right
and the courage to do what's
right, even when it costs me.
Your accomplishments,
your accomplishments
may make your name known.
But your character, your
moral authority will determine
what people associate
with your name.
So guard it at all costs.
And we will pick it up
right there next time
in part three of
Leading Through.
