What is Your Leadership Battle

References for This Lesson  1 Samuel 8  Hebrews 11:4

There is a popular book entitled Every Man’s Battle. It is a book about the sexual aspects of men, about their bodies and minds. Those of us men who have read it understand the battleground. Why? Because there is a common thread of sexuality found in most every man, at least in the most of the world. Thus, there is something about this battleground that is the same, no matter who you talk to.

Are you in the middle of a battlefield?

The same can be said of the battleground of leadership—it doesn’t change, even when you travel across the world. I have had the honor of taking four overseas leadership teaching trips to West Africa. Prior to my travel, I was trained to guard against bringing my Western culture into the teaching. However, what I have found is that the battleground overseas looks just like the battleground here in the United States. While I find variances in political structure, government, and the church, the most prominent world view of leadership still reigns: whoever has the fame, fortune, power, or position is in charge.

I realize that from a theological standpoint, what I just wrote is not very profound. We should not be surprised that the Devil and our own sinful nature share the same side of the battleground. What I am surprised at is at how many of us try to find some righteousness in every aspect of the world’s most prominent view.

Please bear with me for a moment. Can you find any righteousness in a desire for power? We could try to justify a desire for power by saying, “I could do more for God if I had more power.” Does that statement make this desire righteous? If God really needed our help, maybe. 

However, since God does not need any help in accomplishing what He has in mind, what righteousness can we add to what God has credited to us? Is it not by faith alone we are commended as righteous? Can we get more of it by holding on to a desire to get power to help him out?  I think not.

We Cannot Call Sin Righteousness

We must look past the pretty picture of the world that
sin sometimes create

Friends, please, we can’t take an attribute of the sinful nature and make even a fraction of it righteous.  When the Israelites demanded new leadership in the form of a king, they were hiding their rejections of God’s leadership by painting a pretty picture of what the world was doing in comparison to what Samuel’s sons were doing. It was a smoke screen. They were trying to justify their sinful desires, and when we seek power, we do the same thing.

I John 2:15-17 says, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of what he has and does –comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever” (NIV).

Painting a Picture that Looks Like Jesus, Not You

One might ask, “How do lead people toward a righteous but Big Vision but still attain righteousness? How do I develop a righteous Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) when I know it might result in a bit more power, a lot more fortune, or a higher position?”

My suggestion is this. Start by painting a picture of the end result or write a description of your preferred future. Share what you have drawn or written with some close, godly friends who can be honest with you. Then ask them this question, “What and who do you see in this?” The goal here is to paint a picture that looks like Jesus and not like you. You may say, “Come on, Ron, how can I do that if my BHAG is to build the tallest building in the world?” To that I say, trust me, for I and everyone will see who resides in the building, at what level, and for what purpose.

Food for Thought

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What are your Leadership Battles? (If you are a leader and a man, I know of at least one, probably two.)