The Call to Leadership — Stephen Olford

Count to the Lord and man, mountains bow down at the feet of the sun. Sing for joy at the work of your hands, for nothing compares to the promise of God. We'll sing the chorus of the first song. Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face.

Things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Again we're focusing on the blessed Lord himself. Just the chorus we'll sing together as Gary leads us into that. It's been a privilege to have with us Dr. Stanley and his first trip.

But of course it's also a special pleasure for us to have Dr. Stephen Alford. Now Dr. Stephen Alford is a name that many of us know, some perhaps don't, but he's a name that many of us associate with over the years.

My own association goes back through the years of Filey, the Filey Christian Holiday Crusade. Ah, somebody does that wonderful, that's lovely. And what wonderful days they were. Well we're just thrilled that he's been able to join with us over these few days.

We had a wonderful day yesterday and we're going to have a blessed time again today. We already have been blessed but we're going to be doubly blessed now as in a moment or two we ask Dr. Alford to come and speak to us.

His ministry is such a powerful ministry. We won't go into all the details but his ministry in Memphis of Tennessee where he's training and teaching pastors and preachers and encouraging them back to the Word of God.

What a ministry that is. And God is blessing and using him in that ministry. We're so thrilled that he's been able to spare the time to come. So I'm going to pray for him and he's going to come and speak to us.

Let's just pause in the Lord's presence. Father we thank you this morning that already you have touched our hearts and blessed us through what we have heard. And we pray that you will now just meet with us again in a special way.

Father speak through your servant. We thank you for him. We thank you for his years of ministry. But we thank you too that you're still speaking through him, a true Caleb in the gospel. Man who Lord just brings your word to our hearts and we thank you.

And in anticipation we look forward to what we are going to hear. We pray that you'll anoint him and touch him and bless him as he speaks to us this morning. Open our hearts Father. Perhaps we're still feeling a little tired from the travelling in this morning, a little ragged from the day already.

But Lord we pray that you will now just bring to our hearts a sense of peace and receptiveness and an acceptance and a willingness for your word to penetrate to our needs. Lord speak to us we pray through your servant and give him great peace and joy and confidence in you as he ministers the word to our hearts now.

Lord we commit him and ourselves to you in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Dr. Stephen Alford. We have a thrilling subject to pursue these few hours together. You've heard it already from Dr. Charles Stanley, the secret of leadership at any level of life.

Character, Conduct, and Counsel in Christian Leadership

Whether you're a housewife, a Bible class leader, an evangelist, a preacher, a pastor, leadership is absolutely essential not only because it's biblical but it's practical and it's part of life. May I just say that in the sixty years of ministry I do not recall a time when there's been such a crisis in leadership.

From the presidents and kings and potentates around the world today down to the man in the street. Leadership. There are three qualities I look for in a leader. One is character. One is character. If a man hasn't any character, any integrity, any purity then I don't want to follow him.

I want a man of character, one to whom I can look up. One who is in every sense of the word an example. Number two, conduct. What kind of behavior has he? As I watch what he looks like, as I listen to what he speaks like I want to know whether he has a conduct worthy of my emulation.

I don't want to copy a person whose conduct behavior belies the true principles of the Christian life. Character, conduct, and then counsel. To me, a leader is a man to whom I want to go a woman to whom I want to go and seek counsel.

Because I know that when they speak they're going to speak the word of the Lord they're going to give me what God has told them. I want counsel, wise counsel. In a day when so much loose talk is the norm I want somebody who can speak wisdom.

Wisdom from above. With that as a background, I want us to turn this morning to the greatest leader who ever walked this earth. Our Lord Jesus Christ. And I want you to turn to the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of Mark, and chapter three.

Mark chapter three. And even though I want to bring an exposition of God's word I want to expound God's word this morning I want you to remember those three words because you're going to find that they really proliferate the passage that we're going to talk about.

Mark chapter three and let's look at verse thirteen. Verse thirteen. Mark chapter three and verse thirteen. Dr. Stanley already referred to this occasion when he took us to a similar passage in Luke to which I'll make reference in just a moment.

Verse thirteen we read, And he, that is our Lord Jesus Christ, the great exemplar, he went up on the mountain and called to him those he himself wanted. One version reads those who he himself desired.

And they came to him. Then he appointed twelve. Listen carefully that they might be with him. Number one. Secondly, that he might send them forth to preach. With him send them forth to preach. And to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons.

Simon to whom he gave the name Peter. James the son of Zebedee. John the brother of James to whom he gave the name Bonerges. That is sons of thunder. Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alpheus.

Thaddeus. Simon the Canaanite. Judas Iscariot. Who also betrayed him. And they went into a house. This is the word of the Lord. May he bless it to our hearts. The Lord Jesus had reached the midpoint in his ministry.

Very soon he was going on to Calvary and he was going to shed his precious blood for us men in our salvation. He was going to rise from the dead. He was going to ascend to heaven and pour out his Holy Spirit.

And in so doing take the men that he had trained as leaders and scatter them to the far corners of the earth in worldwide evangelization to be followed again and again by that same principle because the words we have read in these verses in Mark are in a sense reproduced and quoted by Paul when writing to Timothy his final epistle he says the things that you have learned of me among many witnesses commit these to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

That's true apostolic succession. Teach others also who will teach others also who will teach others also until Jesus Christ comes back again. But there are principles in this little pericope this paragraph here that to me are absolutely mighty in this subject of leadership.

And I want you to know there's three movements that I want to underscore. Number one like our Lord Jesus Christ if we're going to produce leadership and we are going to communicate that leadership to our kids and I'm talking to mothers here to our Sunday school class to our Bible class through our pulpit ministry if we're going to produce leaders number one we must invite people to be leaders.

We must invite people to believe us to be leaders. Notice the initiative is divine. He went up on the mountain and called called to him those whom he himself desired wanted. The initiative was on his part.

He did the inviting. A true leader always invites others to produce leaders. That's a divine principle. And there's a crisis in leadership today. That's why we have such trouble in the churches because we've never really taught leaders and we have a bunch of deacons for instance who are not even regenerate.

That's why you'll find an amazing verse in Hezekiah Hezekiah 3 .5. Of course you won't find Hezekiah but Hezekiah 3 .5 and it reads like this Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Resist the deacon and he'll fly at you.

We need to teach leaders. I want to make a statement here that you'll be absolutely surprised at and it's simply this 300 pastors are rejected from the churches of the United States of America every single week.

And it's mostly because of untrained leaders. People called deacons or elders or officers. So what I have to say is tremendously important here this morning based on that tremendous message from my beloved brother Charles Stanley.

But in inviting leaders notice we must act prayerfully. That's where he left off. That's where I start. We must act prayerfully. He went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he himself desired or wanted and they came to him.

Luke in a parallel passage records Jesus went out to the mountain to pray and he continued all night in prayer. That's before he invited men to be leaders. I wonder how many of us spend prayer days of prayer before making a decision of this quality.

How anyone can challenge that statement after this morning's message is hard to understand. He went up to a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. This insight into our Lord's prayer life is both challenging and convicting.

It's challenging because it shows the standard that God sets for a true leader. It's convicting because it exposes your prayerlessness and my prayerlessness. And I'm not hesitant to say the weakest point in your life right now as I look across this audience this morning is your prayer life.

When did you last spend a solid hour in prayer? Or several hours in prayer? The average time a preacher prays today and I come now from the United States of America in terms of my ministry is ten minutes.

God have mercy on us. God have mercy on us. The prayer life of the Lord Jesus is beautifully exemplified in John 17 and you're going to discover that I'm going to take John 17 to expound this passage in just a few moments.

But remember that that prayer represents the essence of His prayer life. We call it the high priestly prayer of our Lord Jesus. We must act prayerfully. But He prayed. He prayed for His disciples even after He had chosen them.

Do you recall that time when they were nearing Calvary and Peter made a great boast that he was going to stand by His Lord even though everybody else would flee out of fear. And Jesus said to him, Simon, Simon.

He didn't call him Peter, Peter here but Simon, Simon. His old name Sandman before he became the rock man. Simon, Simon. Satan has asked permission to take you and I've given him permission. And he's going to sift you as wheat.

He's going to shake you to your very foundations. But when you are converted when you are turned around you're going to be a rock man. You're going to be a leader. You will lead your brethren. But Jesus prayed for Peter.

And what did He pray for? Peter, I'm going to pray for you that your faith does not fail. I'm going to pray for you that your faith will not fail. And isn't it interesting that when Peter begins to write his first epistle he talks about that precious faith.

Precious faith. We're going to talk about Peter in our second session. My message this morning is the call to leadership. This afternoon it's going to be the cost of leadership. And we're going to come to Peter once again.

But Jesus prayed for him. And what a lesson this is for you and for me. How we need to pray for the leaders of our churches as well as our members. I wonder how many pastors are here this morning and right in your pocket right now in your wallet right now you have the names of your leaders.

You have the name of your elders. You have the name of your officers. And you pray for these men. And you demonstrate that prayer by the friendship and fellowship and interaction you have with your men week by week.

Notice we must act prayerfully. We're inviting people to be leaders. Number two we must act personally. He went up onto the mountain and called to him those he himself wanted. In the Greek the pronoun is emphasized.

He called unto him whom he himself desired. After reading that I understand how personal Jesus was. He knew these people's names. He knew these men's names. As a matter of fact he knew them so well that he had the liberty of giving some of them nicknames.

Simon he called Cephas. The Sandman became a Rockman. He called John and James Boanerges meaning Sons of Thunder. He not only knew their names but their natures and their needs. And he knew that these were fiery couple.

A fiery couple. Both John and James. Because if you read the Gospels a little later on it was John and James going through a village called Samaria. They said to the Master Lord they haven't welcomed us here.

Let heaven open and let judgment fall upon this village. They were Sons of Thunder. Sons of Tumult. You remember they wanted to storm the throne. Their mother came and said Lord Jesus would you do something for me?

When you come into your kingdom will you make John and James right and left of you on the throne? What a request. That's the kind of men he was dealing with. As a matter of fact they were quite an assortment.

And if you go through them and we had time to analyze every one of them which I love to do because I gave a series of messages right in Duke Street Baptist Church when I was pastor there for some seven years entitled God's Men.

Meet God's Men. And I went right through those disciples' names. A wonderful study. He knew their names. He knew their natures. He knew their needs. And he studied these men. He studied these men. And he went up and spent a whole night in prayer inviting each one of them including Judas Iscariot.

Judas Iscariot. You ask me the question why Judas? For Jesus knew that he had a demon a devil. He knew that you'd betray him. He knew that he was the son of perdition. I want to tell you quite frankly after 60 years of ministry it's a ministry and a mystery.

A ministry because he ministered to Judas right to the very end. A mystery because I never know why he would ever invite a man like that. My simple explanation is that he wanted to teach for all time that Jesus never gave up on anyone.

He never gave up on anyone. Having loved his own he loved them unto the what? The uttermost. The uttermost. He went all the way. And at that last supper he dipped that sop of bread in the vinegar, in the wine and handed it as an act of love to whom?

Right to the very end. So there's our first point friends. We must invite people to be leaders. We must invite people to be leaders. A leader always looks for leaders. Always looks for leaders. And that is God's principle for the perpetuation of his kingdom.

Purposeful Formation and Instruction of Leaders

Number two I want you to notice very importantly that we must act purposefully. Not only prayerfully not only personally but we must act purposefully. He appointed the twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.

I emphasize that in the reading but I want to underscore that. You can't be a leader and you can't train leaders as a Sunday school teacher yes even as a mother in your family as a father in your family and especially you preachers to whom I'm addressing this especially.

You can't train leaders unless you have them around you. He wanted to be with them that he might send them forth. Jesus always says first of all come before he says go. Come before he says go. All right.

We invite leaders. Now I want to go deeper and notice the second great principle which I share with you today. We must instruct people to be leaders. We must instruct people to be leaders. Remember a leader is a man of character of conduct and of counsel all rooted in the word of God.

We must instruct men to be leaders. He appointed the twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them forth. Of course he taught them formally because they sat and heard him speak those gracious words we call the Sermon on the Mount those mighty utterances that were publicly declared but he also taught them informally adopting the great principle of Socrates yes and the rabbinic teachers of the day he got them around him he got them around him.

I would love to have been with him on that boat I would love to have been with him on that mountainside. I would love to have been with him when they quietly sat and listened to him teaching and challenging Nicodemus as those like breezes floated through the trees and the shadows of darkness came down on those two he was ever teaching them ever teaching them but now I want you to notice something very interesting.

Bible interprets Bible Scripture interprets Scripture try and recall because we haven't time to read it through right now that high priestly prayer of our Savior and you'll find that the word with the preposition with is used again and again and again and again in John chapter 17.

Dr. G. Campbell Morgan who once had a great pulpit here in London as you know Westminster Chapel made this amazing statement. He said it is unsafe to build doctrines upon prepositions but if there is one exception it would be this preposition with and I want to take that 17th of John to interpret what happened in the life of our Lord as he taught and trained and tested his leaders.

Number one. We must teach leaders in the word of God. We must teach leaders in the word of God. Listen to these words from John 17 verses 8 and 14 jot those down 17, 8 and 14 father he says I've given them the words which you have given me.

And they have received them and have known surely that I came forth from you that they have believed that you have sent me. And again verse 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world.

In those two amazing statements we have an insight into our Lord's teaching the teaching of these leaders, the teaching of these disciples, the beggars description. We could spend the whole of the morning just on that alone.

Let me jump into the second chapter of the Acts where we read that mighty explosion on the day of Pentecost when Peter preached that God conceived Christ-centered spirit-controlled sermon. And some 3 ,000 people responded and we read that they were all baptized and they were added unto them about 3 ,000 souls.

And they continued steadfastly. Finish it with me in the Apostles' Doctrine. Let's stop there a moment. What doctrine? What doctrine? Sure the Apostles quoted the Old Testament. That's the only Bible.

They had the Old Testament. But it doesn't say that it says the Apostles' Doctrine. Where did they get that doctrine? Where did they get that doctrine? During those three and a half years he taught his leaders the Word of God as a matter of fact if you want to extend that that doctrine eventually became the New Testament.

The New Testament. The New Testament in our church at Duke Street right here in London and especially at Calvary Baptist Church which is something completely new. The first thing I ever did as I went to Calvary from Duke Street having learned my experience there was to invite men to become leaders.

And I cancelled all the deacon boards all the trustees. We hadn't an officer in the church. On my arrival I explained why I did it. I said nobody's going to serve as an elder, as a deacon, as a deaconess in this church until they've been through the school of leadership the school of leadership and I broke down into studies 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1 Peter 5 all those wonderful passages but particularly Timothy because Timothy is the pastor of Epistles.

And more teaching is given on leadership in 1 Timothy 3 and the associate passages than anywhere else in the word of God. And I gave a whole month a whole month of teaching on what are the qualifications of a leader.

What are the qualifications of a leader. Now if you read those qualifications they're the most searching searching challenges to human character human conduct and human counsel. You'll find anywhere. And I want to tell you there was a dropout a number of dropouts and of course those dropouts could continue to come to the church but they couldn't serve.

Never allowed to serve never allowed to serve. Only those who went the whole course and did an examination as a matter of fact and then met me personally were eligible for election to either elder deacon or deaconess positions in our church.

You know what happened. We had heaven on earth heaven on earth. The verse in Hezekiah 3 17 I quoted was scrubbed right out. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. Resist the deacon and he'll fly at you.

I can honestly say to the glory of God that in all those 14 years of ministry at Calvary Baptist Church we never had to take a single vote. Never a single vote. All deliberations came to this one point.

Are we all of one mind. Are we all of one mind. And everybody say amen. And we closed and went home after a meeting. If somebody said no there's a problem. I can't see this. I'm not prepared to go with this now it's alright, let's look at the word of God.

Our authority is the word of God not your opinion, my opinion. I'm an elder just as you are. I happen to be a preaching elder but I want to tell you something. It's the word of God that must settle it now.

Then phone your wives tell them you won't be home for night. And we hit the floor and prayed through the night until we were of one mind of one mind. Tell me anywhere where they took a vote in the New Testament outside of casting lots for Matthias who never appears again in Scripture.

Do you think they take a vote between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And yet Paul said that unity which exists between Father, Son and Holy Spirit is to be fleshed out down here. God, the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

And that word God is draw swords, draw swords. Hit venus, fight anything that spoils the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The church isn't supposed to be the center of conflict and battles and fist fights.

I'm afraid it's true. And you're going to hear a lot about that this afternoon. So make sure you phone all your friends to be here because Dr. Charles Stanley is going to talk about conflict. He's going to talk about the real rows that occur in churches because we haven't followed Jesus Christ's teaching of leaders.

Yes we must teach leaders in the word of God. Secondly we must train leaders in the word of God. Now the difference between teaching and training our educational institutions Oxford, Cambridge, all the universities in London here and schools are absolutely wrong.

They believe in education. Teach, teach, teach, no no no we want train, train, train as well as teach, teach. You can send a bunch of students out with their heads at the chalk block of knowledge. And the Bible tells us knowledge puffs it up, holy love, edify it.

And I want to tell you the toughest people you have to deal with are people who are a bunch of know-alls that can't do a thing just like Isaac Walton who wrote an absolute classic on fishing. Fly fishing, fly fishing.

A classic on fishing a book that thick, I read it the first time he went out the fish had got seasick and couldn't fly. Set his line out at all. There are people full of knowledge today who don't know how to do the job.

Jesus not only taught them he trained them. We must teach leaders the word of God, we must train leaders in the word of God. Listen again, I'm quoting now from John 17 verses 18 22 to 23, listen very important.

Jesus prayed, as you have sent me you have sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world and the glory which you gave me that is the outshining of your deity. I have given them the outshining of your deity that is to say, through his humanity that they may be one as we are one that the world may know that you have sent me boys, what a training.

They watched him in personal work, they watched him in public ministry they watched him in his quiet times, they watched him in intimate situations like that time in the boat you remember, you remember and the storm began to roar, lightning flashed, the waves began to beat in that little Tiberius Sea of Galilee and the boat began to take in water and Peter shook him and said master, wake up, wake up wake up, don't you know we're all going to perish.

Jesus stood up and he said, cool it boys, that's the Orthodian translation here. Cool it boys. What's the problem? You mean to say that that boat could have sunk with me in it. Now I'll teach you a lesson.

When? Muzzle yourself, use your faith. Let me give you a lesson on faith, let me give you a lesson on faith, I went to sleep trusting my heavenly father. I've got a job to do, I won't finish until I cry on the cross, finish in the meantime I'm in his hands, can't you remember that?

And just as I am trusting my father you to trust you to trust the father. And he hadn't finished talking when the boat already landed they didn't even notice it, the boat landed, they were already at shore, he taught them a lesson that's how Jesus taught, that's how Jesus trained trained his disciples.

Dr. David is the president of the Stephen Oldford Center for Biblical Preaching and does major part of the training we've brought on board a young man who is to help us in training, his name is Reverend John Balmer.

It just happened that David and he were at Wheaton College, they did their undergraduate work and their master's work, David came over here to do his Ph .D. John went to Dallas Seminary to do his postgraduate work or graduate work but young John Balmer came to me one day and he said all this academic stuff in a theological seminary isn't making much impression upon me, I need some training I need some training may I impose upon you for a whole summer or as long as it takes to train under you.

I said listen, this has been my life, this has been my joy all through the years to train young men join the bandwagon, I'm going to make you drive me everywhere he came into my room to pray, he watched me preach, he watched me prepare my messages, I discussed them with him, in fact God made such an impact upon him that he went back to Dallas and wrote his thesis for his Master of Theology on my life and when I ordained him, he gave me a bound copy of that book The Man The Method and The Message of Stephen Alford, David and I rejoice in a young man in India right now, his name is Edgar Sataluri, he came to the Stephen Alford Center for Biblical Preaching he went right through our courses and then we had an internship course where David and I poured our lives into him and trained him and trained him and trained him now he's just a little way out of Madras in India he has so mastered my preaching that even though he's talking to illiterates 85 of the people the population of that area don't even know how to read or write but he's teaching them little by little but he's training leaders and do you know how he does it?

He actually preaches my sermons preaches my sermons because he so memorized them into the dialect while a tape recorder is going and then with those messages in that tape recorder all ready to be listened to, he gets these leaders, these potential leaders to come and listen to those tapes and they've got to preach back those messages to him and he's got to critique them and when they've mastered him, mastered the message he sends them out and do you know what's happening?

Churches are being born all over the place, churches are being born all over, they call them prayer hearts and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds are being converted. There's a young fellow in Italy right now, his name is Gaetano Sottili.

He's been in this country he has spoken at a number of meetings in this country and the British people just love him. He was converted with his brother and his father and his mother in a crusade in Sicily, when I preached by interpretation, all of them were converted the same night but I knew from the very beginning that Sottili Sottili was an unusual fellow and I coached that young fellow, I knew that he was an evangelist from the tip of his head to the sole of his feet.

He's married a beautiful American girl who's a wonderful singer and he has established the greatest work in Italy today called Italy for Christ Italy for Christ, he's on television now, they've got their own magazine.

The wife is teaching women and year 2000, 60 million Roman Catholics are going to converge on Rome. 60 million Roman Catholics are going to converge on Rome for the great jubilee and Sottili has networked that whole work in Rome with other organizations to win these men who come for that celebration.

David and I have been there, we've been in his training center and we've given everything we can give. I trained him he's now training others. I trained him, he's now training others. David, our son here went with his Sunday school class to Kenya just a little while ago and these guys who had never been out of Memphis suddenly landed in the jungles of Africa and they built a stone church with a corrugated roof for a wonderful little guy called Paul Ndungu, Pastor Paul Ndungu he's about this height not even as high as I am, and I'm as high as I can said suddenly this man with his spear standing right there, he said may I help you, I actually can speak quite good English.

I got my PhD at Oxford. That's the kind of people these Maasai are. Do you know that he's won the heart of the Maasai chief land has been given and he's planted churches all over Maasai country. You train a leader you make leaders.

You train a leader, you make leaders. That's only by way of illustration and it's been the joy of my life always to have young men around me training, training, training not only teaching, but training not only teaching, training.

Remember the three C's, character, conduct counsel, they're watching they're watching and listen. Mother, all your kids are watching you you're making or breaking leaders in your home right now, you're making or breaking leaders in your home right now is your prayer that your kids are going to say when you are old and ready to go to heaven, oh I thank God for mother, I thank God for mother, didn't a tear come into your heart when my friend Charles Stanley said, I thank God for my grandfather, one week with him changed my life one week with him changed my life and he's still living out and fleshing out and preaching out the principles he learned from his grandfather leaders leaders, leaders.

Testing Leaders Through Victory, Purity, and Unity

But now I come to something very sensitive sensitive and very important we must not only teach leaders in the word of God train leaders in the work of God but certainly we must test leaders in the will of God.

We haven't finished with John 17, we haven't finished with John 17, listen to these words. I do not pray that you should take my disciples my leaders out of the world but father, keep them from the evil one, keep them from the evil one, listen again sanctify them by thy truth thy word is truth and again I pray that all may be one as you father are in me and I in you, that they also may be one in us, John 17 verses 15 17 and 21, listen folks, you all know the Keswick Convention, you're a London crowd here and you know that great convention takes place in Keswick up there in the Cumbrian Hills year by year over that tent are the words all one in Christ Jesus, but you know the message the heart of the message that is preached there and expounded there from the word of God, it's summed up in three words I want to leave with you here they are, number one, victory.

Number two, purity. Number three unity, they're all in the verses there, father keep them from the evil one, keep them from the evil one, I'm sending them out into a hostile world, father keep them from the evil one, victory victory, no leader can leave unless he lives in victory.

Victory over the flesh victory over the devil victory over the passions victory over the temptations victory over those things you were hearing about earlier on that's the will of God that's the will of God for you and me but not only victory, but purity, this is the will of God, even our sanctification, you know what that word sanctification is separated from sin separated to God it's a life of purity, most important of all, a life of unity.

Father make them one as you are in me and I in you Lord bind them together bind them together, make them in one and you know what our prayer is in the church today is that we as evangelicals may be one in Jesus.

Why? Listen to the prayer, make them one that the world may believe that you have really sent me all our factions, all our rows, all our denominationalism all our labels, you know what drives us unsaved away, by the time we learn that labels are only for two reasons if we go up, they blow off, if we go down, they burn off and what we need is not only victory, not only purity but unity, and he tested them on these issues, he tested them on these issues, because he praised about it in John 17, he praised about it in John 17.

Inspiring Leaders to Proclaim and Demonstrate the Gospel

I must hurry, my time is gone, one last great principle, we must invite people to be leaders. We must instruct people to be leaders. And thirdly we must inspire people to be leaders. We must inspire people to be leaders.

Listen carefully to the reading he appointed twelve that they might be with him that he might send them out to preach and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons. Now don't blur that, that's exactly what the Bible says and that's the message.

For today it is true that these twelve men disappointed the Lord Jesus especially as he faced Calvary and the darkness of the cross. Judas betrayed him. Peter denied him the rest forsook him. But forget Judas for a moment despite their failure there such was the depth of instruction and inspiration that these men received from the Lord Jesus that once he was alive from the dead the Holy Ghost came upon them and upon the shoulders of those men was the entire responsibility of the evangelization of the world, teaching others to teach others, and every one of them was martyred for the Lord Jesus Christ, except John who was exiled to the Isle of Patmos everyone stood firm right to the end.