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stooping to serve -- leadership pt.3

Continuing notes on Leadership with Howard Hendricks...

One thing I learned from my father was this saying: "Your word is your bond." If you ever read The Greatest Generation, you'll see this statement. That was the mark of their generation. They tell you they're going? They're going. The biggest embarrassment during World War II is that you never went overseas.

Recruit people to a cause, not an organization. People are looking for a cause that is bigger than they are. That's what I want to invest my life in – worth giving your life for, worth the cost. And I'm so embarrassed when people say, "You make such sacrifices." I don't know that I've made any basic sacrifices. Whatever I gave up was peanuts compared with what God has given me. Man, I cannot believe that He would ever choose me to be one of His representatives. I hope you never get over that. It's the most exciting thing in the world that God appointed me to do what he gave me to do, and gives to me.

We all believe that there are only two things God's going to take off the planet. One is His Word; the other is people. What a secret. What a clue to how to invest your life. Spend your life building His Word in the life of people. They're the only things that are going to outlast you. They are the things that are going to give you a legacy that will last.

Three characteristics of servant leadership (Christian leadership):

--Submission to authority

--Attitude of love

--Courage

I'm not constantly asking, "What am I getting out of it?" but, "How well am I serving those God has called me to serve?"… I'm always asking that basic question. Is this a manifestation of my love for Christ, therefore my love for you, my student, my parishioner, my friend, whoever it happens to be?

Of course, it's always sensitive leadership – so sensitive to the Father that I am constantly in touch with the characteristics that He alone can reproduce in my life, so that it delivers me from myself, so I'm free to flow into the life of others.

Jesus proceeds to wash the disciples' feet. Why? Well, it was the normal task of a slave to do that, but there's no slave present, and none of the disciples is willing to bend and stoop to become a slave and wash the disciples' feet. So the King stoops to serve.





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