* Jim Collins said the highest pinnacle of leadership is when a person arrives at the intersection of Professional Will and Personal Humility.

* Very few people can get to this place - it’s a delicate balance.

* One seeks for the front seat and the other seeks for the back seat.

* As believers, we have an advantage because of the Holy Spirit.

* We are “kings and priests” at the level of identity (Revelation 1:6).

* As king we take dominion, rule, authority, and walk in power.

* As priest we show mercy, grace, and honor.

* Vs 33-36 - when the disciples argued about who was the greatest, they were only operating at one level (the king - Professional Will).

* So He brought out a kid to show who they should be like.

* In the Aramaic language, “child” and “servant” were the same thing (Wiersbe).

* The greatest leaders, Jesus shows them, were servants.

* They don’t forfeit their positions of influence and authority - they simply walk in those positions humbly as servants.

* Humility has four components (adapted from Wiersbe):

* 1) Knowing Yourself - spend time with God - He’ll show you who you are.

* 2) Accepting Yourself - the best way to say “thank you” is to accept the gift given.

* 3) Being Yourself - don’t try to be someone else.

* 4) Giving Yourself - you weren’t put on the earth for yourself, but for others.

* EX: David in the Bible - he was a king with a heart of a priest.

* The key is to let the priest lead!

* As believers in the marketplace, the way we do our job reflects the character of our God.

* If we do a good job, it speaks well of God.

* If we do a bad job, it damages His reputation.

* Case in point - notice the events that took place in this story (vs 17-22):

* 1) A man had a problem - his son was demon possessed.

* 2) The disciples had a solution - they could cast out the demon.

* 3) They failed to do their job - they weren’t properly prepared (not enough time spent in prayer and fasting).

* PAUSE - read vs 22-24 - the man said “IF you can do something…”

* Can you see the doubt in his statement?

* Certainly he had faith before he showed up, otherwise why would he have come in the first place?

* He probably heard Jesus was coming to town and he showed up as a ready, willing, and able customer full of faith and hope.

* But now, because the disciples failed to do their job, the man began to doubt.

* It shook his faith.

* This is what was at stake if the disciples didn’t do their job - Christ’s reputation was at stake.

* So what do we do?

* Vs 25-29 - We spend time alone with God, and He will give us the insights we need.

* EX: when I built our franchise system my best ideas came early in the morning when I was praying.

* This system allowed us to gain the reputation as the best in our industry, and opened the door for us to share our faith with lots of people.

Our focus as business owners should be to honor God with our process, not just to honor Him with our profits.

As Christians in business our focus should be on obedience over sacrifice – switching these around makes God an enemy not an ally.

Balaam – Numbers 22

- Moab

- Balaak (king) was afraid

- Balaam was from Pethor, a city on the River, probably the Euphrates. Possibly Pethor was not far from the great city of Mari, discovered in 1933 in the Euphrates Valley. The discovery of a vast number of cuneiform tablets at Mari, beginning in 1933, revealed among other things the existence of a complex cult of prophets and seers whose activities precisely resemble those of Balaam. The fact that he undoubtedly represented the prophetic customs and practices of Mari and vicinity makes possible a better understanding of Balaam’s narrative in Numbers.

One power attributed to these prophets was that of pronouncing curses on intended victims. These curses would of course be couched in such qualified language that they were bound to come to pass one way or the other

Numbers 22:12 “God said to Balaam, ‘Do not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”

NUMBERS 22

BALAAM blessed the people – but lost it all (Sin of Balaam – Numbers 23)

Our focus as business owners should be to honor God with our process, not just to honor Him with our profits.

As Christians in business our focus should be on obedience over sacrifice – switching these around makes God an enemy not an ally.

* As a biz leader we need to see our people as more important than our profit.

* So we take stands that may make us look bad but we do it for the good of others.

* This is what a fatherly (motherly) spirit is about - you do things for your kids regardless of the cost to yourself.

* Vs 21-23 - Here’s a leader, throwing himself down in front of a man who was most likely much younger than himself.

* His name was Jairus and he was a synagogue leader.

* In the middle of Jesus speaking this ruler didn’t act like a ruler - he was acting like a FATHER!

* He didn’t care what people thought because he was doing it for his daughter.

* This is what a true leader does - he places his people over his platform or profit or whatever.

* EX: Chick-Fil-A - backed out of supporting the Salvation Army but wrote a check to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

* All because of image.

* We talked with one of their marketing officials on a plane and she said they were all hoping the leaders would stand strong, but they caved.

* Only a working man can experience rest.

* There’s a big difference between sleep and rest.

* Let’s look at the difference between Jesus & Peter.

* Vs 36-38 - Jesus slept in the boat.

* When the storm came crashing down, He was able to rest secure.

* Why? Because He had just finished the work God had given Him to do.

* He delivered the message He was supposed to deliver and now He could rest.

* Peter, however, slept in the Garden.

* His sleep, however, was void of rest.

* A man at rest would’ve never tried to cut someone’s ear off.

* He wasn’t able to rest because he didn’t do the job he was supposed to do - “keep watch.”

* If he would’ve kept watch he would’ve been prepared for the enemy.

* Peter was sleeping / Jesus was resting.

* The difference lies in the completion of the work God has given you to do!

* Completing the work is not a DESTINATION, it’s a DECISION!

* It’s not about ACCOMPLISHING, but ACCOMMODATING!

* When you link up with God in His work you will find your rest!

* Worry weakens your Work!

* In the parable Jesus is sharing He shows us three things that hinder our faith:

* Worry

* Wealth

* Widgets

* Worry is a matter of FOCUS.

* EX: Peter walking on the water.

* How do you get over worry?

* The two-question grid (taken from a book called “Life’s Amazing Secrets”):

* Do I have a problem? If not, then WHY WORRY? If yes, then…

* Can I do something about it? If not, then WHY WORRY? If yes, then DO SOMETHING!

* Key - you shouldn’t worry about things you can’t control.

* And if you do have a problem but you can do something about it then you don’t really have a problem - you have an OPPORTUNITY!

* Peter could control whether or not he got out of the boat.

* He couldn’t control whether or not he floated.

* So long as he did what he could control and focused on Jesus with what he couldn’t control, there was no worry.

* But then he took his focus off Jesus and started worrying about what he couldn’t control, so he began to sink.

* EX: testimony of writing my fourth book.

* The workplace reveals your character as much as anything else in your life.

* Character - doing what’s right, as God defines right, even when nobody is watching.

* In work, it’s easy to cut corners when nobody is watching.

* Do you?

* Vs 16 - notice how Jesus “watched them as they were casting their nets into the sea.”

* They didn’t know they were being watched.

* Jesus saw something about the way they worked that intrigued Him.

* He may have thought, “If they fish for fish like that, they’ll fish for men like that - and that’s what I’m looking for!”

* Vs 19 - He saw two brothers “mending their nets.”

* They were making the most of their tools for catching fish.

* The very instrument they used to be good at their job, they took good care of it.

* The goal of the net is to hold firm to catch as many fish as possible.

* Our net for catching souls is the net of LOVE.

* And we have to be careful to mend our hearts so we always stay in the position of love toward others.

* Jesus saw them doing this and He knew these were His kind of guys.

* None of these guys knew they were being watched - but their character landed them positions that we’re still talking about 2k years later!

People cannot truly enjoy the external benefits of a free market without the internal restraints God gives us to keep it in check. (free market).

* Faithful in little leads to faithful in BIG.

* Jesus could’ve come at any time in history.

* But He came before books, newspapers, telephones, internet, media, etc.

* He came at a time when word about Him would spread slowly - very slowly.

* Vs 4 - John was stationed in an “uninhabited region.”

* This would be like God’s main spokesman for what He’s doing in the world having a Twitter following of 17 people.

* But if that person was simply faithful, as John was, then he would fulfill God’s role for his life.

* Just about the time John’s audience began to grow, he was removed from the picture.

* Now, 2k+ years later we’re still talking about his faithfulness.

* Testimony of Bible study - at the height of our business I started doing it with hardly anyone there….

* In vs 46 Jesus poured out His heart to God.

* This was an emotional cry - He felt toward God what John the Baptist must have felt toward Him when he was in prison and Christ never came to visit.

* But in vs 50 we see something happen that’s very important.

* “He GAVE UP His spirit” - this was an issue of the will.

* Nobody could take Christ’s spirit from Him - He had to give it up.

* His last act on the earth was an act of the will - shear willpower.

* He didn’t let His emotions keep Him from doing what He knew He had to do.

* This is a beautiful picture of taking the emotional to the transactional.

* Psalms 22 - Jesus certainly had this memorized (vs 3 David said, “Yet…”).

* So what do we do?

* Feel It - when you’re going through something, feel every single emotion.

* Pour It - pour out your heart to God, holding nothing back.

* Do It - whatever the next thing is, do it. Do the next step in the process - finish the assignment.

* Jesus on the cross, although things looked like they were out of His control, was in full control of the situation.