The Leader Within

  • Matt Payne
  • Aug 26, 2008
  • Series: New Message Series

Leadership Within

God has placed within each of us the potential to help connect people to God.  We are looking at the story of Nehemiah and how he went from a person in a foreign land to the key leader in the re-establishment of the city of Jerusalem and the renewing of the covenant with God. Everyone has a leader within them which is meant to help people find their way back to God.

September 7th:  The Heart of a Leader. 

“As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”  Nehemiah 1:4

In God's kingdom, leaders' hearts break for the things that break the heart of God. We will help you  take a fresh look at the needs of the people that you know, the people whose lives are broken down and need repair, and the people who need to be connected to God.

September 14th:  The Vision of a Leader.

“Then I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in, how Jerusalem lies in ruins with its gates burned. Come, let us build the wall of Jerusalem, that we may no longer suffer derision." And I told them of the hand of my God that had been upon me for good, and also of the words that the king had spoken to me.”  -Nehemiah 2:17-18

Each of us need a vision for our own lives and the lives of the people around us: that they need to be connected to God and that God has called us to help that happen.  God's hand is on our lives and on our church to help connect people to Him and it is the ultimate good God could bring from our lives.  What's more important than being a part of someone's life being changed now and forever?  That's the vision of a leader.

September 21st: The Struggle of a Leader.

“When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite servant and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they jeered at us and despised us and said, "What is this thing that you are doing?”  -Nehemiah 2:19
"Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes." -Nehemiah 3:14
“And I sent messengers to them, saying, 'I am doing a great work and I cannot come down.”
-Nehemiah 6:3

We may or may not face open opposition to helping people connect to God.  But most if not all of us are afraid of offending people or being labeled a religious fanatic if we do all we can to reach out to people spiritually.  Our greatest struggle may be with our own fears of what “outsiders” will think of us.  Other of us will have family members and friends who think we are taking this spirituality thing a bit too far.  And there are always forces at work within a community of faith that have to be dealt with if we're going to be who God wants us to be.  Our external focus on connecting people to God cannot be pursued to the exclusion of the needs of people within our community.

September 28th: The Legacy of a Leader.

"The rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the temple servants, and all who have separated themselves from the peoples of the lands to the Law of God, their wives, their sons, their daughters, all who have knowledge and understanding, join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord and his rules and his statutes.”  -Nehemiah 10:28-29.

Nehemiah's leadership wasn't just about building the walls of the city: it was about creating a community of people dedicated to living in covenant relationship with God.  The legacy of a leader is to get to see God's kingdom come and God's will be done in their lives and to know that that their lives send out ripples that change other lives.