Message

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S.E.R.V.A.N.T. leadership

What every Pastor wants in a youth leader

 

 

Matthew 25:21

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.  Come and share your master’s happiness!’”

 

 

EVERY  PASTOR  WANTS  A   S.E.R.V.A.N.T.  LEADER.

 

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Support the Vision

Proverbs 29:18         

“Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint…”

                       

This literally means that where there is no vision, the people wander around aimlessly, with no direction. 

 

Three Ways to Support the Vision:

 

1.    Know the vision

You must discover the vision by asking your youth pastor to share with you the vision God has given them for the youth ministry.

 

2.    Grow the vision

You must take your part in making the vision come to pass.  This means getting involved rather than sitting on the sidelines watching everything happen.

 

3.    Show the vision

You must show the vision to other students and get them on board the team so that the vision can be reached.  Reaching vision is a team thing not a solo thing.

 

Illustration:  Vision

 

About 350 years ago a shipload of travelers landed on the northeast coast of America.  The first year they established a town site.  The next year they elected a town government.  The third year the town government planned to build a road five miles westward into the wilderness. 

In the fourth year the people tried to impeach their town government because they thought it was a waste of public funds to build a road five miles westward into a wilderness.  Who needed to go there anyway?

Here were people who had the vision to see three thousand miles across an ocean and overcome great hardships to get there.  But in just a few years they were not able to see even five miles out of town.  They had lost their pioneering vision. With a clear vision of what we can become in Christ, no ocean of difficulty is too great.  Without it, we rarely move beyond our current boundaries.

Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching from Leadership Journal, Edited by Craig Brian Larson, p. 276

 

Key Question for Pastors and Youth Pastors :

Are you willing to see as far as your youth pastor is able to see?

 

 

Eager for the Things of God

Isaiah 55:1-3

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat!  Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.  Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?  Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.  Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.  I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.”

                       

Key Question for Youth Leader:

How passionate are you about the Lord?

 

                               

Respect His Leadership and Authority

I Thessalonians 5:12, 13

“Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you.  Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work.  Live in peace with each other.”

                       

 

Your youth pastor’s ministry should be a joy.

 

 

Three Ways to Demonstrate Respect:

 

1.    By your attitude

 

2.    By your actions

 

3.    By your affirmation 

 

 

Values based on Absolute Truth

 

Absolute Truth Defined:

Truth that never changes.  It’s the same for all people, all cultures, and all times.  God’s Word is absolute truth.

 

Characteristics of Absolute Truth:

 

1.  Absolute truth is truth regardless of how you feel about it.

 

John 6:41-59, John 6:60-66

Jesus speaks about being the “Bread of Life” and that everyone must eat his flesh and drink his blood.  The Jews were angry.  But Jesus was talking about receiving eternal life through him alone.  This was a difficult teaching for the Jews to accept.  They would not recognize Jesus as the Messiah. 

 

Notice the response:

“On hearing it, many of his disciples said, ‘This is a hard teaching.  Who can accept it?’  Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them,’ Does this offend you?  What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before!  The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.  The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.  Yet there are some of you who do not believe.’  For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him.  He went on to say, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.’  From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”

                       

 

Key Truth:

Truth does not need your permission to be the truth.

           

Illustration:

“Only 38% of Americans believe in the absolute Truth” – Chuck Colson

 

2.    Absolute truth never changes because it is rooted in an

      unchanging God.

 

Why is God’s Word true?  It is true because it is rooted in the unchanging character and nature of God.

 

 

3.    Absolute truth confronts our comfort zone and calls for change.

 

Isaiah 30:9-11

“These are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.  They say to the seers, ‘See no more visions!’ and to the prophets, ‘Give us no more visions of what is right!  Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions.  Leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel.”

                                   

Key Truth:

Truth Must not only be Recognized, but must also be Lived.

 

John 8:32

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

                       

           

John 14:6

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.’”

 

Your youth pastor wants you to live in absolute truth so that you can receive absolute freedom.

 

From Dewey Bertolini

 

“Our corporate credibility has landed upon some hard times.  I bemoaned this fact as I stood before over 1,600 students during chapel at a prominent Christian university.  I asked them to raise their hands if they could answer yes to any of these questions:

 

·         How many of you have a Christian friend who is currently involved in an immoral sexual relationship?

·         Have any of these resulted in an unwanted pregnancy?

·         Have any of these ended in abortion?

·         How many of you have a Christian friend who abuses alcohol?

·         How about a Christian friend who uses illegal drugs?

·         Have any of them become addicted?

·         How about Christian friends who cheat on their schoolwork?

·         How about a Christian friend who has stolen someone else’s property?

·         How many of you know of Christian marriages that have ended in divorce?

 

Needless to say, in response to every question, hands went up throughout the auditorium.  My words that followed shocked some of the students into the raw reality of our contemporary state of compromise:  “I have been a Christian for 21 years.  I know what I believe and why I believe it.  But if today I was a non-Christian searching for the truth, based upon your raised hands I would reject Christianity as a fraud.  No other intellectually honest conclusion could be drawn.  Talk is cheap, men and women.  If Christianity doesn’t work to keep us out of bed with one another, out of abortion clinics, off of drugs or out of divorce court, then Christianity simply does not work.”

 

 

Key Question:

Are your values grounded in God’s Word to the point that they influence your life without compromise?

 

 

Attitude of Excellence

Philippians 2:5-8

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:  Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross!”

                       

Four Attitudes to Model:

 

1.    Humble attitude

 

2.    Servant attitude

 

3.    Correctable attitude

 

4.    Teachable attitude

 

 

Nourish Your Gifts

I Timothy 4:14

“Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you.”

           

Be honest with your gifting.  Don’t function in someone else’s gift. 

 

 

Total Commitment

Matthew 25:21

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant!  You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.  Come and share your master’s happiness!’”

 

Be Committed to:

 

1.    The Lord

Your relationship with Jesus Christ is your first and greatest commitment.

 

2.    The Vision

Committing yourself to the vision moves you from simply being a spectator of your youth ministry to investing in your youth ministry.

 

3.    The Leadership

Commit to serve your leadership.  What you sow you will reap.

 

4.    The Ministry

If you were to receive a grade for your participation in ministry in your youth ministry, what would you make? 

 

           

FINAL THOUGHT:

What do you need to do to become a greater S.E.R.V.A.N.T.?

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