 Alright, good morning everyone. Welcome to the session. Let's begin this time with a word of prayer and continue that session. Let's play. Father we thank you so much once again for giving us this beautiful day, this beautiful opportunity to come together, to learn from your word. We pray God that everything that we learn will minister to our hearts. It will be deeply rooted and grounded in our spirit of God that we will apply it in our lives. God we thank you so much for this opportunity in order to just build your kingdom here on earth. Thank you God. We submit this day the sessions into your path. Jesus thank you for it. Amen. Okay, alright. So last class, let me just present the notes. Good morning. Okay, last class we did up to chapter 21. We talked about counselling, various aspects of developing counselling skills. And it's very important to understand that we are all a work in progress. You can never say that okay, I know how to counsell everybody. That's where the wisdom of God comes in. So even as we learn, we develop skills, we ask God for his wisdom. Right, and then we also use these practical tips that we learned in chapter 21. Okay, let's get into chapter 22. Chapter 22 we're going to talk about, you know, the central leaders, values and disciplines. We looked at a little bit of this in section one where we talked about the heart of a leader. And you remember that, you know, the heart of being a leader. And so we're just going to narrow it down this class. We're going to talk about values and disciplines of a strong leader. Now, the moment we talk about values and disciplines, the first thing that comes to our mind is our life. Right, I say, hey, sometimes we say it very nonchalantly. We just say, hey, get your values right, or your parents say, hey, be disciplined. And these are values and disciplines are something that is developed, right? And it can be changed. So for example, if somebody is by nature very lazy, it's a value or a discipline that can be changed. The person can become very hardworking if he puts his mind to it. So always remember, disciplines is something that is developed can change over time. Again, you can have good disciplines, you can have bad disciplines. So let's look at a few of them, right? Number one value is a life free from habitual set. Now we read through the scriptures all through the New Testament as well. Especially in Paul's episodes. He talks a lot about sin and what sin does to us, right? He says, hey, I'm crucified with Christ. There's no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me. Then he goes on in Romans in chapter one, two and three. He talks about what sin does and the judgment of God on sin. Chapter four, he talks about God's righteousness. And he says, okay, we by nature would say, but we have God's righteousness through the blood of Jesus. We can stand righteous, we can stand justified, right? So sin will come knocking. Satan is not going to look at how many years of experience we have or are we a pastor? Are we a apostle? Are we working in a marketplace? It doesn't matter to him. Sin will come knocking. And as believers, we need to be able to count a sin. And temptations will come. And Jesus did this. He set a beautiful example for us. He looked at scriptures when he was tempted. He just defended all his temptations through the word of God. And so right now, you and I have the word of God that we can rely on to overcome habitual sin. Some of us may say, okay, I don't have an habitual sin, but I just have this small thing in my life and it's not a habit. I go once in three months to, you know, maybe with my friends or I go with my office colleagues once in three months. And once in three months, I drink a little bit of alcohol. It's only once in three months, right? Now, here's the thing. The scriptures also say that if you give the enemy a foothold, he will be able, he will, you know, don't give the enemy a foothold unless he take the entire house. Right? So number one, as leaders, get away from habitual sin. If you know that is something that is tormenting you or there's something that could treat them as a sin and become habitual, stay away from it. Protect yourself. Cover yourself by the blood of Jesus. Use the word as a weapon. Have you ever thought about this Ephesians chapter 6? It says, Paul is writing, he's talking about the armor of God and every weapon in the armor of God is a defense but the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness with the helmet of salvation, these are defense. But then he says, you also have the sword of the spirit and a sword is not only used as a defense, it's also used as an offense. And so you use this word. And so God has given us the word of God. His word is more than enough to overcome temptations. More than enough. You don't need anything more. All we need to say is, hey, devil, this is what you are. This is what the word of God is saying. And so I will stand on what God says and whatever temptation you are bringing and nullify it. I use the shield of faith. I quench every fiery dark of the wicked one. That's just those two verses will enable us to live free from something. This is quench every fiery dark of the wicked one. I have the sword of the spirit. That is the word of God that will destroy every temptation that will nullify the works at the end. So if you look at it, we don't have an excuse. I'm not saying that temptations won't come. They will come. We don't have an excuse. Because when Jesus was on the cross and he said it is finished, it is finished. He paid the price. He said, I'm not leaving you as offense attending to the Holy Spirit. So we have the Holy Spirit inside us. And as believers, as we grow into maturity or rise to the Corinthians, he says, you know, if you read Corinthians, it's a stern book, but it's also a book which all is very third by what's happening. You guys are all flowing the gifts and you have all these wonderful things happening to you. But I think I still have to give you milk because the solid food is not going in. Though you are flowing the gifts of the Spirit, but you are behaving like children who drink milk. And so even as we grow into levels of leadership, put away things that are childish. It's different between childish and childlike. We have childlike faith, but we don't behave childish. Right? So very, very important. Free from habituous. And then there are a lot of practical ways that we can do that. Probably one way is this, get up, morning, whatever time you feel like, have a regular prayer. Have regular times of reading the Word of God. Right? Sometimes we make it busy and we say, okay, I'll do that later. No, do this first and then do the other things later. For that, you begin your strength. Time alone with God, you just sit and think. You know, you receive from Him, open the Word and read His Word. This morning I was reading a very simple, calm chapter, a Psalm that we always read. I mean, saying it, you may say, hey, that's a common Psalm. This lady sounds like anyone this morning. And the end portion is so beautiful. It says, they will call upon me and I will answer Him. I will be with Him in trouble. I will deliver Him and honor Him. With the wrong life, will I satisfy and show Him my salvation? I just thought about that. Just a couple of lines. With long life, I will satisfy. I will show Him my salvation. Hebrew there is so-and-so. I will show Him the things that I can do. I will show Him prosperity. I will show Him healing and deliverance. I will be with Him. Give Him that salvation. As part of the Word of God, it destroys, it completely disarms the devil. Number two, a fully developed prayer life. As a leader, we talked about this. The heart of a leader, you can only give what you have. If we don't have it, we can't give it. If we don't have it and we try to give it, it's not going to be of any use. It's not going to be effective at all. So a fully developed prayer life is very important. You might say, I'm working Monday to Friday. I'm not a full-time ministry. On Saturdays, I lead a life full. That doesn't matter. One day to Friday, or all seven days of the week, develop a prayer life. Spend time praying. I can say this. Many are dying. I usually wake up early in the mornings. I like to wake up early in the mornings for prayer. Many a times. I've just woken up. You take the first 10 minutes to get your sleep off. Many times. Just been overwhelmed by the presence of God. There's no words. It's just being still in His presence. It's not saying anything. It's gone. You just lost for words. You don't know what to pray. It's happened many times. So prayer is not always you talking. It's not always giving out a list. I'm sure we all know this. Sometimes it's just being in His presence. Especially when you're in the storm. Maybe you're in a storm in your life. The boat has been dropped. We have this whole prayer list. God, do this. It's natural. We do pray for whatever issue or problem we see. But many times. I love the book of Exodus. It's just the Exodus from Egypt to Israel. It's a whole study for a year. Because the people, they've come to the Red Sea and what does God tell them? Stand still and see the salvation of the God. God tells Joshua. Joshua is going to part the sea, the river of Jordan. He says, Joshua, tell the high prince, get into the water and stand still. Don't do anything. Just get into the water. Let your feet touch the water. Then the moment you go in, little by little, our part the seas. Sometimes it's not only about giving a whole list of prayer points, but you hear from Him. He just rests in His presence. When it comes to prayer, why do we say a fully developed prayer life? It's because you want to have time alone with God. Then you have it with your spouse and family. And then you have it with your cell members or your church members. Why is this important? Now we cannot say, okay, I had prayer with my family, so that's done. No. You've got to spend time alone with God as well. You balance it out. Normally, since I wake up early, by 8 o'clock I want to sleep. 8 p.m. I'm sleeping. The kids are all running all over the place. They are fully active. So what do I do? What do we do? Let's get them all together. And we have a prayer family. Get the kids to pray. Get them to read a couple of verses. We get them to sing a couple of songs. Make them read a few verses and tell them, okay, what do you understand from this verse? They may share a few points. And then we hold hands together, pray and close. It may not be as intense as when you are alone with God. But what you're doing is, again, you're being an example to your spouse and to your family. And your children are watching you more than listening to you. So develop a fully developed prayer life. And remember this, when you spend time alone with God, that will reflect in public. The time in private will reflect the ministry in public. Always remember that. So develop a good prayer life. Three, the earned respect of certain members. That means a lot of servitude. Meaning, just be normal, just be with them. Don't feel like you've got the upper hand or you're better than them. And that is just being normal. And that earns a lot of respect from others. Then faithful involvement in the local church, leadership training. Get involved as a light group leader. You must be involved. Only watch you. It's not like only being involved in the church on Sundays. Sorry, in the cell groups, but also in the church. Involve your cell groups to attend meetings, conferences, fasting prayers. Everything that the church is doing, get them to be involved and you yourself be involved. You can't tell somebody in your cell group, go for the prayer. You may have certain, you know, maybe a few things that we need to get down. We may not be able to be there every day for a fasting prayer, but they got to see you at least once a while. Come, let's go for the prayer. I was there. It was good. It's a good time to learn and grow. Another aspect is to a strong desire to share Christ's love with anyone who will listen. This is something that is very natural for leaders. It's natural. It will come if we don't have it. Ask the Lord to give you that desire or help me to share Christ's love with whoever you bring me in contact with. And it becomes a natural. It's just an overflow. If God has done this for me, God can do it for you. And then determination to help fellow cell members reach their friends to Christ. Meaning you help your cell members to reach out to people. Encourage them to take a step. This is important because we talk about this in a life-side event. Many times there could be many inhibitions that we may go through. Sometimes it's fear, it's shy. What will people think? What if they don't believe? What if they don't really have a problem? We may have many inhibitions, but as a leader we must help people overcome inhibitions. Teach them, train them, give them opportunities. Go with them whenever needed, whenever it's possible. Go with them. And enable them to... Many times they may feel, it's not my responsibility. I'm a believer. I'm a part of a cell group, but it's not my responsibility to go and share. Sometimes it's like I may not have that appointing or maybe God has called me for that. God has called all of them. It doesn't matter what gift or grace that God has given us, all of us have been called to minister to people, to evangelize the gospel. Because whether it's coming from a man, from a woman, from a child, the gospel is the gospel. We talked about this, right? It is the power of God. You can have a 6-year-old boy or a girl minister to a 60-year-old and share the gospel and that 60-year-old can accept Jesus. Why? Not because the 6-year-old is because what we say is powerful. It is the power of God unto salvation. It's the gospel. So you teach them. Let them know. It's not about... Of course we have practical ways of sharing it. That's where you come and you teach them. But then the whole basis is saying God will do it for us. It's God's will. So let's go into the next portion. Church leadership. When we talk about leadership in the church, it's a vast subject. It's a vast subject. Leadership is something... We also briefly talked about leadership can come in three ways. Number one, leadership can be achieved. Can achieve and become a leader. Two, leadership comes through as a successor, through an inheritance. If your parents are leaders in the church, sometimes you become the leader. Or if your parents are CEOs in the company, next you become the leader. So first one is leadership is achieved. Second is leadership is come through an inheritance. And thirdly, leadership is given to people without any hard work. It's given and they grow in it. So these are three primary ways. It's not in your notes, but leadership in the church is very important. Now remember this. Especially when you look at a church, there's many aspects. Now with the church, with all the things that are happening within church, it's no longer, I would say maybe 15, 20, 30 years back. Church was okay. You get a room, you start off one guitar, one keyboard, you start off. Of course it does happen now as well. But now when you look at church, it's more of ministry and organization. You got the ministry aspect, but the organizational aspect. So in church leadership, there are many, many, many different aspects that we may learn. Now God may have called you only for the ministry aspect of leadership, but may have called you only for the organizational aspect of a ministry. For example, pastor, associate pastor, like the leaders of the ministry. And then here we've got administration. We've got events and services. We've got the media team, IT team, our fix team with different teams. That's the organizational aspect. And sometimes God may give us the skills to be involved in both. So let's look at a few principles of church leadership. This is what Peter Wagner says. A pastor who is a possibility thinker and whose dynamic leadership has been used to catalyze the entire church into action for dynamic growth. Great leaders will build great churches. Great leaders will build great churches. Now if we as leaders are able, good leaders are able to do things in the right way with the anointing of the Holy Spirit with godly principles, your foundation is strong. Then we'll end up having great churches. On the flip side, average leaders will build great churches. Now remember that average leaders can always become great leaders. That's God's design. That's what God wants us to be. So this word here, average, is our choice. God said, I will put on you the spirit of excellence. Joseph was not an average leader. Paul was not an average leader. Peter was not an average leader. Peter was not an average leader. He was an average man. When I was reading the book of Acts, it was very, very interesting. The same man, Peter, Peter and John, and 3,000 people believed in his message. Have you ever thought of it? Sometimes we just say it, right? 3,000 people believed in his message. But 3,000 people believed in his first sermon. What is he doing? He is quoting from Joel. The Bible does not say that he had those scriptures open there and quoting from Joel. He knew it. It was the Holy Spirit who put it in him. He said, listen, they're not drunk. They're never at the morning. But this is what the prophet Joel said and he's quoting the whole scripture. I was reading it. I was thinking, this Fisherman on school is quoting from Joel like four or five scriptures. And he's sharing this message with such authority. 3,000 people believed. Now that's not average. That's great. Right? And so all through the scripture, we see that, you know, leaders, leaders were really great churches. Look at this. Anti-leaders will harm and bring down churches as well as church leaders and their vision for God. I think this is the most disheartening thing that can happen within the body of Christ. But there can be people, pastors, leaders who can harm, break down churches, who can break down church leaders, who can speak. You know, even the world wouldn't speak about them in that way and there are, you know, ministers of God who can criticize and bring so much of hate for other church leaders. This is something that is not right. Now, it's not like everyone is perfect. Remember Moses? When his sister and his wife said, you know, Moses did this, Moses did that, they accused Moses. What did God tell Moses? They were stuck with leprosy and God told Moses, God told them, how can you speak about myself and Moses? Because I talk to him face to face. All the others I talk with riddles and, you know, dreams and visions, but not so with Moses I talk face to face. Now, as believers, as leaders, we must be very careful on who we speak about and what we speak about. The best thing is don't speak about anyone. Let's do what God has called you to do, focus on your track. We are running a race. Maybe there are some people overtaking you. You don't look at them and be discouraged, but you focus on your track. This is the track that God has laid out for me, so I'm going to go on this track. Why is leaders know that they must utilize all the available leadership to the maximum? Therefore concentrate on equipping and mobilizing them as function effectively. So as leaders, we must know how to utilize all available leadership. And this is something that we see all through the scriptures. We see Moses did that. We see Joshua. We see David. David was powerful in terms of building leadership and building teams. He did it so successfully. He was only 32 or 33 when he became the king. He was able to, he raised up leaders and he raised up the strongest army that could have ever laid was led by David. He mobilized his people. He knew how to equip them. He knew how to focus on both the ministry and the army part of Israel. So mobilize. Maximize your strength. Maximize your potential. Maximize the potential of your other leaders. Success in ministry is based on the availability to raise up successes. Therefore success without raising successes is a failure. I hope you got that sentence right. Success in ministry is based on the ability to raise up successes. I'm sure, how many of you have heard of William J. Seymour? I think you would have learned that in revivals, solicitations and books of God. The Azusa Street Revival. Powerful ministry. Powerful anointing. God just used him so powerfully by that street, that small street, Azusa Street at the corner of that place. It was firstly, he was a black and black was, during those days in the black world were not allowed to even mingle with the whites and they were downcast. They were looked down upon. But when he started the ministry, he started growing God just super naturally. This multiplied this ministry, those healings, miracles, people were waiting at 5 a.m. with umbrellas to get into the church. And then what happened? William J. Seymour missed one thing. He missed the raise up successes. And when we look at the ministry, at one point, all the other things that happened between, it ended up around, I don't get the exact number, but somewhere around 300 or people. Why? Because he could not maximize potential. What could have he done better? I believe if William J. Seymour had raised, you know, maybe about 200, 300 leaders and maybe selling groups, just raising up leaders, really the ministry would have grown. It would have grown. And it was single handed, a powerful ministry, but it was single handed. The moment he had to go out, he was on a break, the entire ministry came from crumbling down because there's nobody else who could take it up. So success in ministry is the ability to raise up successors, Moses, David, Joshua, Paul, Ray, Timothy. He must be able to raise others. Great leaders understand how to get everyone to participate, especially when it comes to a selling group or a church, get people to participate. Now, for example, your church is small, you have about 100 people in that church. Get people to participate. How are you going to do that? Get a feel of the people. That's where your inbuilt leadership qualities come alive. Talking to somebody, the Holy Spirit may say, hey, why don't you give this person a chance to make a prayer? And so, you know, you share with them, can we do this? Do you think you want to spend time in prayer? You know, lead the church in prayer, 8 a.m. to 8.30 a.m. Or why don't you give this person an opportunity to do the exhibition? Or this person can lead a team because I remember this happened with a church where this young couple, but this couple was attending our church. I got to know that they are senior managers. They are high-level managers in their organization. But what I noticed was they were coming every Sunday, depending on church and growing. Because they would meet with people and all of that. And they were good. Talking to myself, they are in the workplace, they are leading teams of 200, 300 people. So they have the potential. Their potential is not to come sit at church and go back. So I just knew that I had to give them something. But I didn't know what to do. So I said, how do I do it? Because we already had teams in place. So we just came up with something where we, you know, meet and greet teams. So they meet a great team who just come and welcome everyone. And after the church, they would go and talk to the first-time residents. And they would make them feel comfortable. So I said, okay, can you lead this team? So first of all, there was no team. So we made that team. And they were very happy. Yeah, sure we can do it. They were very confident to speak. They are used to building teams and I said, why don't you just build a team so that when you're not there, somebody else can take your place. So they immediately started building a team. They made a roster and they would be there at 7.30 a.m. at church and everything. They just knew that that's a gift that they have and they can use it in the church. So we must develop this ability to get everyone involved. See their skills, their talents. And now it could be in any team. There were many folks who encouraged them to get into the sound and setup team. They were interested in it. Get them to participate. Along with the pastor, the rest of the leadership must be totally committed to the church group. Now when we see church growth, sometimes the understanding about church growth is only numbers. It is not numbers. When you talk about church growth, who's the church? We are the church. So church growth is us growing from a place of immaturity or from a place of being dames in Christ and growing into leadership. So we need to get this out of our mind that it's all about numbers. It's not. Now of course the Bible also says in the book of Acts that the Lord added numbers to the church. So the Lord will add people. The Lord will add families and people into the church. But the responsibility of a pastor and the rest of the leadership is to develop people. Remember we talked about this. Ministry is about people. So even if you have 100 people, develop those 100 people. What you're doing is church growth. When you say 10 years and still no 100 people, that's okay. Because we're praying for church growth. That's important. But it's also about taking a person, growing people into the things of that. That is the greatest comfort of strength that we can find as leaders. A leader's effectiveness is greatly influenced by those closest to him. That is his leadership team. When people follow a leader because they want to, he or she is on the way to great achievement. And people follow a leader because they want to. Not because they have to. They want to. Remember this. Every one of us will one day have to move on. Right? But the ministry will have to continue. The work of God will have to continue. So how do we do this? Always remember that the ministry, you and I may be the pioneers of the ministry. You always remember that you're building God's kingdom. God has used you to build his kingdom. So it is not yours, nor is it mine. Of course we make decisions, we do things. God has given you that responsibility but there will come a time that responsibility will be taken and given to somebody else. To the succeeding generation. If you and I need a good leader in the succeeding generation, we must deposit the word of God, the things of God into their life. Right? And we must do that. Intentionally we must do that. Right? And you know, God can choose some of the most. We may have 10 people in our mind, but God can choose people who we may feel is not good enough. Perfect example is David. Why would God choose the shepherd? Have you ever thought of this? You've got seven of them who are already in the army. They already know. They have the skills. They are big and strong. You don't need to train them. But that's not what God wanted. God said, I need somebody who doesn't know anything. Who's one big trace in silence who has who's much braver than these seven boys. They look strong on the outside but when a gulayit comes they are weak. But I know David. I've seen him kill a lion. Nobody's seen him. I've seen him kill a bear. I know that he's brave. All he needs is a little bit of help. So if you anoint him I will help him become the leader. You see how God thinks? He doesn't work according to our plan. He doesn't work according to our time schedule. He doesn't work according to our time schedule. He doesn't understand that. And so our responsibility is to speak into people's lives, deposit into them that David can in turn become great leaders. So how do we train cell members to sell leaders? Let's look at a few steps and we have a few minutes left. Let's look at a few. Step one, develop relationships with members. Now remember we talked about this? Ministry is about people. So if you develop relationships I cannot speak into a person's life if I have not developed a relationship with them. So this developing relationship can take months, can take years. Now, how do we know that? See, for example I remember this at our church location in August, we restarted after COVID, August 22 and during that time a young couple came I think somewhere in September see a young couple came, just newly married they've come from another city they've come here, they've got a job in just probably couple of months in Bangalore. So they came up to me I remember meeting them, they said we just married and they're looking for a house as well we helped them get a house some of our church folks but something clicked I remember the first time we spoke to them I felt that I knew them for years it's this feeling I knew them for years it was so it was such a connect and then they came next Sunday they said see we've been serving in the church in our city so we cannot come and sit and go that's not possible for us we have to do something so they give us something to do and they just the second week of their coming they don't know anybody the second week they started serving they started of course it was just the sound and setup welcoming people but they developed such a relationship with the church members they had to move house so right now they are about 25 or 30 kilometers away they come every Sunday 30 kilometers driving they're there at 6.45 in church because the husband and son have set up that wife is ushering and so sometimes these kind of things happen and it's beautiful to watch but sometimes you've got to get people hold them and say hey, why don't you start serving why don't you think of becoming a leader but even as you do that do it in love look for those who have the heart for God spend time with them the things that they enjoy especially if it's cellar group just be friendly just enjoy with them Jesus's disciples were his best friends I'm sure they were because Jesus didn't have any other friends apart from disciples but he never let go of that and he was always with them and we learn a lot and we're able to spend time together relationship is a foundation stone to obtaining the best out of people you have to win their house before you can make their house whatever kind of work you know, sentences you have to win their house before you win their house you speak into their heart you speak into their lives and then they will do the rest they will do the work they will be willing to serve with all their heart in the church if you speak in their life win their house you will have a good relationship with them and over time you will be available even if you ask them ready and predictable things sometimes you don't even have you don't even have to ask them because they just know they have to do something for the church just have one get them to become leaders somebody has a question somebody raised their hand I'm presenting the notes yes I just posted a question you can feel free to answer whenever sure sure, thank you I'll answer it now how can one understand if and when God has called them to be a leader so one of the ways is see what is the call of God for example you know that you want to be a pastor example I'm just taking it in the ministry side talking about the corporate you know that God has called you to be a pastor you want to teach you want to preach and all of that that's one secondly notice that God is opening doors for you and these may be those that we didn't really pray for right and certainly this door is open so you step into those doors now remember that power becoming a leader is a journey right now sometimes leadership may just come to you as we talked about it but sometimes leadership God takes you to stages and you start small you go up so how can you understand understand that God wants us all to be doing something for him something for his kingdom and as you keep doing it faithfully God will begin to open doors and there are doors that he will also shut and when he opens a door you step into it faithfully and then you you just step in you ask God to lead you now if you feel so for example the way you feel that ok now God has called me only to be a member of the sacred to serve now it's very unlikely that God will want you to be in the same place for 10-15 years because scriptures it's not God's design scriptures say that he will build you up line upon line so it is by nature that God's nature is to raise up people into being better and getting them into leadership roles so I would say they will let me share this example I never thought I'll be a pastor I've shared all this I always thought I'll be a worship leader I always needed but all of a sudden I remember I think it was 2012 I said you go and preach in this place in one of our locations so how can I preach in it I used to go lead worship in all these locations preach and I thought God will go preaching is something very different I said ok I was a little weary but then I had no choice to do it because I was already put in, my name was already put in then I had a lot of questions what am I a worship leader or a pastor or what am I but as I just stepped into the door that I said but God begins to you know open many more doors and we realize it doesn't matter whether we are a worship leader pastor or a pastor or a lot of the different what matters is as a leader we are able to do what God called it to do and also to minister to others and our goal is to raise up other people's so sometimes we just got to step into the doors open doors and we've got to sure pastor thank you thank you so much thank you everyone we will meet next class and we will continue from step 2