Transcript

Don Hawkins is author of Master Discipleship Today

>> Don Hawkins: It m welcome to encourage Encouragement Live providing biblically based encouragement and insight on a wide range of practical life issues. Now here's your host, Don Hawkins, author of Master Discipleship Today. Thank you, Steve. It's so good to have you with us. As live for studios located in First Christian Church of Wy Texas Encouragement Communications presents Encouragement Live. Our mission is to provide biblically based encouragement and insight on a wide range of topics. Leadership is a very important topic. It's what we're talking about tonight and I'm delighted.

John Red is a licensed minister and certified intrinsic Life coach

Welcome back to Christian Life Coach John Red to encourage life. Tom, great to have you with us and good to be here again. Always a joy. Tom holds a BS degree in health education. He's a licensed minister, certified intrinsic Life coach. John, talk about what life coaching is, why you're passionate about using this tool. Don I've been there many times and I just have to keep repeating. I love using life coaching as a tool to help people become all God's created them to be. You know, coaching helps us all really. I m mean all of us by revealing some of our blind spots maybe to help us move forward and get past those things that can really distract us from becoming all of God. If somebody tells you they don't have any blind spots, you would say they're in denial, they're patted down path either. We all have blind spots. We need that. In fact you could call that the concept of encouraging out of scripture and we desperately I heard through it Kathi once said founder of Chick Fil a you can tell perversities encouragement text, see if they're brief and if you could use coaching as well be a very helpful thing. Is also the founder and director of Renewal Ministries. Jim, tell us about what renewal does for people in ministry. Yeah, my wife Lisa and I are really blessed because we are able to enter into relationships with ministers and pastors around the world to do exactly what we're talking about tonight. To help them as an encourager but also as a resource for anything they might need to be fully capable in their ministry calling and the renewal concept out of renewal. certainly there's a need for that on the part of stressed out people in ministry. Absolutely. Yeah. Very important. Our toll free number as we Talked tonight about leadership. 855-865433 and I would be remiss if I did not mention the fact that tomorrow is a very important and special day. John.

John Piper: I think mothers have a role in leadership, John

Yes, it is. It's time for us to celebrate our moms happy mother's Day mothers to all you mothers. And you know, I think this is a very difficult time for people who want to be mothers but who perhaps not been able to conceive in their child or maybe they've had my good friend Dr. Frank Benner and his wife had several miscarriages but then they wound up give them five daughters. And that's an amazing thing that God does, that sort of thing. I was talking with one of the people at the network tonight and she said yes, I have two foster children. And I thought, you know, you are mothering those foster children. What a wonderful thing that is. We want to pray for our mothers and I'm certainly thankful for my godly mother who's now with the Lord many years. She was a pioneer. She and a friend first started at Christian kindergarten when nobody was doing that sort of thing in the early 60s if you can imagine. Nobody was. Now I think mothers have a role in leadership, John. Oh, absolutely. You know, think about a lot of times, especially back when you and I.

>> John Red: Were growing up, the dads were out.

>> Don Hawkins: Of the house a lot and mom was at home and she was truly the home leader, at least during the day. And they had moms just have this innate ability to code and lead their children. If maybe tonight somebody'd like to talk about how your mom has been a leader, that may be something you want.

>> Don Hawkins: To talk to us about.

>> Don Hawkins: Our toll free number is 855-586-5433. That's 855-586-LIFE and you can check out hopespeaks.com what we got. We are 100 years old theological Seminary Creston. But on the seminary mother teach truth, love. Well that is what we do. That's our slogan that we use obviously is preach the word for all of us. We are called to teach the reason. Live it out. To learn more about how Dallas Theological Seminary can equip you for biblically based Christian surveys, visit DTS Edu. That's DTS Edu. Are you looking for family friendly television or biblical studies with informative programming? Let me introduce you to crossfix. From children's cartoons to death studies to inspiring music, crossplix is an ever growing community of broadcasting developed for the family. Now available for Roku, Apple TV, Firestick, Apple iOS and Chromecast. Search through our on demand library with a free trial prospect. Entertain, educate, inspire.

>> Don Hawkins: Foundation of of being able to accomplish anything for the Lord because we don't understand who the baby. So she will be a mother. It would be frank would have Another grandchild. And, he has several. He's in heaven now, not able to be with us. He was with me many, many years on radio. now Jesus, was the ultimate leader. And there are all kinds of definitions, John, of leadership today, and a lot of definitions of success, zeroed in on one particular kind of leadership as the mark of real success. Talk about that.

>> John Red: We call it, and we've heard before, servant leadership. I mean it's, it seems very basic, but it's truly, it's near and dear to my heart. Because if we will operate in that methodology of being a servant leader, we can literally change the dynamics of the areas we are living in, whether it's work or family.

Some of you may be in leadership roles tonight. Leadership is not always easy

>> Don Hawkins: Some of you may be in leadership roles tonight. You have questions about that. Leadership is not always easy. Problems come up. many times you're trying to lead and the followers don't want to follow. I've heard if you're one step ahead, you're a leader. If you're 10 steps ahead, you may be going the wrong direction. You may be a martyr. Right, Now Jesus was a servant leader. He created a culture of servanthood model that throughout his ministry and in every role we have in life, a spouse, parent, certainly a mother, a friend, a coworker. Each of those include some level of leadership. And John, who we live for, will determine how we. Would you elaborate on that a little bit?

>> John Red: Oh yeah. This is like I said before, this is near and dear to my heart because, we've had the opportunity to coach senior leaders and, and even down to like coaching young people on leadership. and as you mentioned, there are so many different roles that we have in life and at whatever age we are that we can assume a role of leadership.

>> Don Hawkins: 855-586-5433 is the toll free number. And we're so glad to have you with us on the program tonight. And as I earlier, maybe your mother was a leader. I talked about my mother being one of two people who helped found a Christian school back in the 60s. So it's very remarkable. We'd love to hear from you. Or you have a question about leadership. Maybe you aspire to be a leader or maybe you're a frustrated leader. There are some of those. The number is 855-586-HOPE a, life. That's 855-586-54333. And if you'd like to learn more about the Hope Speaks clinic and you can even sign up for online therapy or coaching that's hopespeaks.com and we'll be right back. Crossflix, a complete multimedia platform at your fingertips featuring faith based movies and shows for the whole family. Plus an amazing library of interactive online Bible courses such as Jerusalem the Eternal City and Revealing the Secrets Secrets of the Hebrew Bible.

>> Dr. Rex Rogers: You'll have access to your own community and join others on their spiritual journey. You may join as an individual or as a church and develop connections like never before.

>> Don Hawkins: Crossflix has partnered with the Seal Future foundation and Blessil to support brave American and Israeli military veterans and their families suffering from trauma. The relationship between the US and Israel is a long standing one of strength and divine connection and one that must continue to be nurtured.

>> Dr. Rex Rogers: When you join crossflix, you'll see firsthand the amazing work you'll help support providing encouragement and hope to American and Israeli veterans and families.

>> Don Hawkins: Crossflix.com educate, entertain and inspire.

>> Caroline: Sat7 is satellite Christian television.

>> Dr. Rex Rogers: Dr. Rex Rogers, President of Sat7 we.

>> Caroline: Broadcast throughout the Middle east and North Africa every day 24. 7 In Arabic, Farsi and Turkish. Farsi is Iran. So we're speaking in the people's home and heart language. We're sharing the gospel.

>> Dr. Rex Rogers: To learn more or support this ministry visit sat7usa.org that's S A T the.

>> Don Hawkins: Number7Usa.Org Toni King on her book the Maze of Medicare.

>> Toni King: I looked up on the Internet how many books have biblical in regards to Medicare and there was zero. And then God brought you into my life and you helped me write the Maze of Medicare because we took Medicare and put scripture with it because people are stressed, they don't know what to do, where to turn.

>> Don Hawkins: You can order the Maze of medicare@tonysays.com that's T O N I tonysays.com we're back on encouragement live and our technical people assure me that now everything is loud and clear and we appreciate the good work that Danny and Rodney and Nayeli have done. Nayeli out at amboss working with their technical people, getting things squared away and our apologies for the, the distortion that some of you had to deal with during our first 10 minutes.

Give us a definition of leadership if you will

So John Red, I'm going to ask you to do what a good life coach does, a good communicator does. The three laws of learning are repetition, repetition and repetition. Yeah, the third one is that ah, give us a definition of leadership if you will.

>> John Red: Yeah, leadership is really how we take ourselves and look towards other people. If you think about it from a standpoint, of intrinsically looking at it. And it's how we take what we'd have inside and present it and utilize it for the benefit of other people in an organization.

>> Don Hawkins: Now there's a difference between leadership and lording it, some lording it over someone. I think a lot of people have the idea of the hard driving executive who's, you know, sort of like Donald Trump used to be before he was elected president and had a TV show and his favorite words were, you're fired. that, that's not exactly kind of leadership we're talking about, right?

Our topic tonight is servant leadership, how do you operate as a leader

>> John Red: No, that really our topic tonight is, for those of you that might have missed it is servant leadership. And that may be something you've never heard before, is how do you, how do you really operate as a leader, being a servant at the same time.

>> Don Hawkins: And one of the greatest examples of that happened in the upper room. You know, we recently had Palm, Sunday and we had the upper room the night before crucifixion happened, Good Friday, and the resurrection, we celebrated in the upper room. Jesus was there with the disciples and the disciples were having a debate. You remember that debate. I know you do.

>> John Red: Who's going to be first?

>> Don Hawkins: Who's going to be the leader? Who's going to be. And in fact, James and John had signed up their mother and gotten her to politic for them.

>> John Red: Right.

>> Don Hawkins: And of, course, Peter was in the middle of all that. And then Jesus was doing something really remarkable. Talk about what he did.

>> John Red: I just have to really take a step back, Don, and think about how he humbled himself.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah.

>> John Red: And he washed our feet.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah.

>> John Red: And he just brought himself to that place. He'd already been leading them and they knew who he was. But yet his example was to serve at the basic level.

>> Don Hawkins: And back in that society, people were walking around in sandals and it was dirty. There were livestock walking around. We know what that means. And so when you come in to dinner, the lowliest of servants would be appointed to wash people's feet. And that was more important than hand washing in one sense. And guess who did that? The Lord Jesus. And then he said to them, I have done this as an example, as a pattern, so that you would do, not just washing physical feet, but literally serving, give us the essence of servant leadership, John.

>> John Red: Oh, it's, it's so, it's so wonderful to see when it happens. It's really looking out for the best interest of others. it's taking the focus off of ourselves and, and looking at how we can best serve others. As we lead. And when we do that, it changes the entire perspective from our personal self, but also how people see us and how they will want to follow us.

>> Don Hawkins: You've talked about a process of becoming a servant leader. Give, us a little thumbnail, sketch of how that process works.

>> John Red: Yeah. You know, it's interesting because if we will talk about creating an environment of service, then we will, in fact, be the one that leads that whole process of serving others. And there are certain attributes that we have. You know, there's. And Don, I know you have done this before. You've seen it in many situations. And in your book you talk about, you know, and leadership under fire. You know, would you share some of those qualities?

>> Don Hawkins: Well, you know, again, we look at Nehemiah. Sagi Lucas and I had the privilege of writing that book together. It was the outgrowth of a conference on leadership that we did in. In Nagpur, India. And, Sagi said, we need to write a book on Nehemiah. And I told him, we don't have time, neither one of us. And as I've told you before, about 10 months later, the book was published, by the grace of God. But, Nehemiah was a great example of a leader. He not only was a servant leader in the mold of the Lord Jesus Christ before Christ came along, but he also was a godly leader. He constantly was seeking God's direction in his leadership. Rem. He heard how badly things had gone back in his home city. It had been burned with fire. The people were under great pressure. And he put his life on the line and went to the leader, literally the world, the emperor, right. And said, I need to go back to my people. And he had prayed to the God of heaven, and God gave him grace. And he was able to go back and. And literally in 52 days, organized people. And, he had, surveyed the land. He had looked at it. He dealt with opposition. You remember, they had a lot of opposition. Sanballat, Tobias and those characters and others. And then they had internal problems as well. They had people who were actually selling people's children into slavery. And he had to deal with leaders, have to deal with some tough things, by the way, Jesus had to deal with some tough things. Well, I remember when Jesus said to Peter, get behind me, Satan.

>> John Red: Yeah, yeah. You know, it's interesting because Jesus created a culture.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah.

>> John Red: He didn't just disciple the disciples. He didn't just lead them. He created a culture that they were. He was really counting on for them to Emulate for them to continue on in their process of leading.

>> Don Hawkins: I love your phrase creating a culture and I think think that's so important. You, we think of that in terms of athletics, you know, right. College football, Dallas Cowboys, who have not created a culture of winning Super Bowls in the last 25 years. We're in the suburban Dallas area so we do mention that on occasion. and we can always hope. But, but, but the bottom line is a culture of leadership, of servant leadership is so critical. Now some of you may have questions or comments on this and we would love to hear hear from you. Our toll free number is 855-586-5433. Again that's 855-586-LIFE.

John, you have talked about creating a culture of leadership. Can you give us an example of how this might work for parents

John, you have talked about creating a culture of leadership. Can you give us an example of how this might work for a parent leading, say a mother for example?

>> John Red: Absolutely. You know, think about how you've, you've probably we've all experienced leaders, good leaders and not so good, both kinds we have. And so from a standpoint of a parent, a mother, you know, if you share openly with your children and you don't have a demanding, demeaning attitude, your kids will be more likely to be open with you. But the counter that is also true if you're very demanding, demeaning, and they may feel intimidated, they may feel like they can't speak and, and what happens, they can isolate and shut down and truly it's the same thing that happens or can happen in the workplace if you've seen demanding leaders. We've had people that have been really hard nosed and the opportunity to speak up is really squashed.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah, a lot of that happening in the business world and in companies and that type thing, servant leadership leaders. Listen carefully. That's one of the things we've talked about. They listen to the ideas, the concerns, the hearts of those they lead and they do something else that life coaches do. They ask those cultivating questions and Jesus did a lot of this. In fact this is very important. And, and I guess the third thing we would say they are really engaged. They take a personal interest in the people they lead, find out about their families, their likes, their dislikes, what causes their spirits to soar, what troubles their hearts. And you know, to listen to somebody, you have to give them that opportunity to speak. You've talked about that a lot.

>> John Red: Absolutely.

>> Don Hawkins: The importance of that.

John gives examples of times Jesus demonstrated servant leadership in John's gospel

John, take us into a couple of those one on one settings with Jesus in John's gospel where he demonstrated those servant Leadership qualities.

>> John Red: Absolutely. You think about the, the story of the, the time he spent with Nicodemus. you know, Nicodemus was really a Jewish leader and knew a lot.

>> Don Hawkins: In fact, he was called the leader in Israel.

>> John Red: That's right. that's right. And what's so interesting, I love these interactions as we read it in John, that Nicodemus had a lot of questions and he asked a lot of questions and Jesus listened. He let him express his questions. Even though Jesus already knew what he was going to ask and how he was going to answer.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah, that's great.

>> John Red: He took the opportunity to listen and then answer every one of Nicodemus questions.

>> Don Hawkins: Very important to remember. Now the next one on one that John recorded, really, Jesus was talking with a totally different individual.

>> John Red: Yeah. We go from Nicodemus the Pharisee or the leader of leaders in the Jewish, faith to the woman at the well.

>> Don Hawkins: Yes.

>> John Red: Who was a, Samaritan woman who was not even supposed to be associated with, with by the Jewish people. But yet Jesus came, he sought her out and he knew what she needed.

>> Don Hawkins: He even asked her a question. Yeah, yeah, give me to drink.

>> John Red: Yeah, give me water.

>> Don Hawkins: Water.

>> John Red: What you have to give me. And she was surprised because of who he was. But then as they began to have the dialogue, he kind of read her mail. He told about who she was.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah.

>> John Red: But he didn't just talk at her. He listened to her responses and then he shared his heart with her.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah. And I love the way he drew her out.

>> John Red: Yes.

>> Don Hawkins: And even ask the question, call your husband and come here.

>> John Red: Right.

>> Don Hawkins: She says, I don't have a husband. He says, you've told the truth there and we know the rest of that story.

We're talking about leadership tonight on Renewal Ministries

we're talking about leadership tonight. Maybe you have a question, maybe a leadership challenge you are facing. Maybe, the people you are leading are not following as well as they could and you need some help, and how you can get them to follow your leadership. John and I would love to talk with you about it. Our Toll free number is 855-586-5433. Maybe you're a pastor in a leadership situation and you're having some frustrating time. I want you to reach out to Renewal Ministries, John. Give us the website where people can contact you. There it is.

>> John Red: Renewalministries.org and Don, let me spell it out for our listeners, please. It's R E N E W e l l ministries.org that's renew well. Right?

>> Don Hawkins: Renew well, yeah, very well. R E N, E, W, E, L, L. Two W's or one W. Two.

>> John Red: W's, two W. Renewal, two L's, one.

>> Don Hawkins: W, two L's, one W. I want to be sure because I was looking at it the other day and thinking, now am I supposed to put, you know, because renew and well begins in a W. But you've just pulled those two together. All right. And number is 855-586-5433.

John: Thinking ahead is really important because we're already behind

Ah, John, another characteristic, and we have time just for a little tease on this, of good leaders. You've identified four sides, and I'm not sure everybody thinks of that as a characteristic of a good leader.

>> John Red: It's really important because we're not thinking ahead, we're already behind.

>> Don Hawkins: If we're not thinking ahead, we are already behind. Yeah, good thing to keep in mind. want to tell you too about Hope Speaks Clinic tonight. Maybe you're going through a period of depression, maybe a little anxiety. maybe things, just in the world situation, the marketplace, maybe your financial situation, work relationships. the folks at the Hope Speaks clinic have a variety of people who can help you. Dr. Tom Shoaff is a great Christian psychiatrist who loves the Lord and, and believes in God's word. The therapists there committed to biblical approach. And you can find out more about them@hopespeaks.com. that's hopespeaks.com and you can check them out. In fact, John, the people there, some online counseling and coaching.

>> John Red: Absolutely. We do a lot of our coaching and counseling, virtually.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah. Very good thing to keep in mind. And we'll be back right after this time out.

Free webinar will discuss wills and trusts after you pass away

>> Steve: There are only two ways that your affairs will be settled after you pass away. Your way or the government's way. For anyone without a will or trust in place, the government will settle it through probate. So we must all ask ourselves, do I want the government to decide how my minor children get their inheritance and where my assets. Assets go and then charge my heirs probate and court fees to make that happen? Or do I want to protect my family from probate and steward the resources that God has entrusted to me by determining how the assets that I leave behind will be used? Find out what you need to know and do to protect your heirs at a free webinar with his faithful stewards. This free webinar will discuss wills and trusts and help you understand it all. Go to hisfaithfulstewards.com and find the link for webinars. There's a place there under webinars where you can sign up. That's his faithful stewards.com and the link to webinars his faithful stewards.com when you need.

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>> Steve: Restorationsl.Com for over 30 years, Don Hawkins has provided radio encouragement with a variety of gifted guests. Now you can be encouraged by these interviews with guests like Greg and Erin smolley, Dan, Cathy, Dr. Frank Mine, Josh McDowell and more. Subscribe to the weekly encouragement for your podcast dropping Wednesdays@lifeaudio.com or at your favorite podcast app.

Don Hawkins: John Red talks about foresight and leadership traits

Welcome back to Encouragement Live. Our Toll free number is 855-586-LIFE. Here again is your host, Don Hawkins, author of Master Discipleship Today.

>> Don Hawkins: Now, we do know that Mother's Day is coming up today, tomorrow, and if you want to talk about your mother as a leader, we'd love to have you talk about that or ask a question about it. 855-586-5433. Well, we're also talking about leadership traits. John Red is back with me tonight. He is with Hope Speaks Clinic, Christian life coach, also the head of Renewal Ministries. R E N E W e l l ministries.org get that right, John?

>> John Red: That's a mouthful. Yes.

>> Don Hawkins: Oh, yes. Thank you, Lord. let' Foresight, John, how does this work?

>> John Red: Well, foresight is a very interesting thing because it's almost counterintuitive. We have to look backwards in order to have foresight. And what I mean by that is good leaders take what they've learned from the past, their experiences, good and bad, and use them to apply decisions for the future.

>> Don Hawkins: How did Jesus demonstrate this trait with his disciples? Foresight, you know, it's.

>> John Red: It's very, it's very soft, actually. He talks about warning the disciples about what the future was going to hold. You know, they'd already been with him and been through some pretty rough things.

>> Don Hawkins: And they thought the future held a kingdom and they were going to sit on some thrones.

>> John Red: Yeah, he was. He. He sort of burst their bubble, I think. But he clarified that he was going to be with them.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah, I think, of John 16:33, I've said these things to you that in me you may have peace, and in this world you will have tribulation. But take heart, I have overcome the world And John, no matter how old we are, we can learn from the past, can't we?

>> John Red: Yes, absolutely. You know, at some point, the consequences of our decisions and our actions are going to lead us into what we're going to be. As a leader, you know, as I coach people, I remind them all the time to take the best and learn from that and then use the experiences of not so good experience experiences to not repeat the same thing.

Cornelius shares his story about his mother about servant leadership

>> Don Hawkins: All right, talking about leadership tonight. And, 855-586-5433 is our number. Cornelius is joining us from Louisiana tonight. Good to hear from you, Cornelius. Go ahead.

>> Caroline: Yes, sir, John. And John. And God bless both of y' all. And remember, May 14th is Israel's birthday. They'll be 77 years old.

>> Don Hawkins: That's a great, great. Glad you remembered that. That is good. In fact, on May 31, I'm going to have Gil Ilotovich on. And, he is from Tel Aviv and he, was in town. We recorded a program with him. We're going to use that, that, that weekend. You'll want to be sure tuned in on that one. It'll be pre recorded. But, what, what do you have for us tonight? You have something about your mother?

>> Caroline: Yes, I, I was going to go to that too. And it's also Military Appreciate Appreciation Month. So thank you you to all the military.

>> Don Hawkins: Yes, right.

>> Caroline: My mom, Don and John, she was a great leader in our church here. She was Southern Baptist, my dad was Methodist. So I, I don't know how they.

>> John Red: Got together, but they got together.

>> Caroline: Yeah, but she, she would always cook for the church. And then she was a sorority. She found the Deltas here of Alexandria, Louisiana. She was a founding member. And she brought this. If you look up Anna Bonton, he was a great, black writer.

>> Jane: And he.

>> Caroline: She brought his house here to Alexandria, where he was from, and restored his house. She showed great leadership as a Christian. And she was also a school teacher for 20 years here in the Rapids Parish school system. So she led by example. And she always hated when the Supreme Court took out prayers. She believed in prayer pledge and the Negro. We had the Negro national anthem and the national anthem. So she really believed in the Lord. And I used to always read her, Proverbs 31. A great proverb.

>> Don Hawkins: Yes.

>> Caroline: So happy Mother's Day to all the mothers in the audience. God bless you, John and Don.

>> Don Hawkins: Thank you, Cornelia. John, would you lead us in prayer for Cornelia? Yes.

>> John Red: Yeah, you bet. Lord. I just thank you so much, my brother. Lord. And it's just his exuberance and his desire to serve you and, be a beacon of light. Lord God and I just pray blessings over him right now, God, and the things he puts his hand to that they will flourish. God, I thank you for his heart and his love for you and God. So we just send him off in this call, so to speak, with you, covering him and leading him in the name of Jesus. Amen.

>> Don Hawkins: Amen. Thank you. All right. God bless you. Cornelius. Great testimony about his mother there, too. That was outstanding. Maybe some of you have a mother who demonstrated the leadership qualities that the lord Jesus Christ had. 855-5-8, 6, 5, 4, 3 3. John, another trait of servant leaders that we need to explore a little bit. Good leaders make a commitment to build people up and not tear them down by being overly critical.

>> John Red: Absolutely. You know, as being a servant leader, the first thing we have to recognize is that putting others first really is building them up. And it's not just giving them accolades for the sake of accolades. It's really knowing your people, knowing the people around you, and looking for opportunities to give them a compliment and to build them up in the faith.

John: Jesus used object lessons to teach Peter about leadership

>> Don Hawkins: A couple of weeks ago, I, wrapped up a series of three messages on Peter and I preach on John 21. And I believe Peter did, Jesus did this very thing with Peter. You remember, Peter had denied the Lord. He had boasted that he never would, but he did three times. And in that passage, Jesus used a failed fishing trip. Remember, they fished all night, and they hadn't caught anything. And that reminded Peter of his original calling in Luke chapter five. They toiled all night as the King James said. And we caught, bought nothing. And then Jesus had built a charcoal fire. You know, it's amazing. Jesus using object lessons to teach. there was only one other place in the New Testament where there was a charcoal fire, and that was where Peter was warming his hands while Jesus was on trial. And Peter was telling the servant girl, I never heard of him. I don't know who you're talking about. So, you know, all of this really, kind of demonstrates, and Jesus asked him three very important questions. take us into that setting and the questions that Jesus asked and why you think he asked those.

>> John Red: You know, he asked Peter three times, do you love me?

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah.

>> John Red: And if you do, here's what I want you to do.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah.

>> John Red: And I don't think Peter at the moment really understood what he was asking.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah.

>> John Red: But the, the thing that's amazing to me is it's an Excellent opportunity and examination of how Jesus took what Peter had just done to build him up, to look at him for who he was, not what he had done.

>> Don Hawkins: And to ultimately tell him, you are going to be a shepherd, you are going to be a servant leader. And he certainly, demonstrated that in a lot of ways. There were times that he stepped out of bounds, so to speak, and had to be corrected. Paul did some of that. but boy, think about the career he had. And then eventually in First Peter, chapter five, he said, I'm an elder and I'm telling you elders to shepherd the flock. Yes, it's exactly what Jesus had told him. Feed my sheep, shepherd my lambs. And and he did that. And those who aren't servant leaders would have probably told Peter, you're fired. Out of here. No future. Jesus didn't do that. In fact, he gave him a clue about how things would turn out in the future.

>> John Red: That's right. And you know, at this point in time, Peter's back and forth thinking these things, having these emotional, these emotional times with Jesus. But then look what happens. Ah, you know, he preached to Pentecost. 3,000 people got saved.

>> Don Hawkins: Wow.

>> John Red: He began to state the gospel clearly when he was called before the Jewish leaders. He was strong. He didn't deny his father at that point in time. You know, he worked miracles. He wrote, and he brought us the truth of the gospel in such a unique way.

>> Don Hawkins: You know, the last verse that Peter wrote in Second Peter three, he talked about what I believe is really the key for all of us, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And the word grow is in the present tense. It's the identity idea. Continue to grow, keep growing. I think John, one of the most important things for any of us as leaders is that we keep growing. I, I don't ever want to get to the place where I, feel like I've arrived as a leader, that we're learning. I'm in a Wednesday morning men's Bible study here and our leader was out having some medical tests run this past week. And so, so our group leader, ah, basically facilitated a discussion in which we talked about the whole idea of, you know, where are we in terms of leadership? And I think that was really the consensus of all of us is that that's sort of where we were. You know, sometimes, we, we have to think about the future and we look at details. But Jesus didn't give Peter all the details. My experience has been he doesn't give me or you or any of, us all the details about the future and our role as leaders.

>> John Red: Absolutely. You know, sometimes. Sometimes God does this miraculous thing of laying out everything before us. But most of the time, we have to pray for wisdom. We have to seek Him. You know, in James 1:5, it tells us to ask for wisdom. And as leaders, we should be continually asking the Lord for wisdom. And wisdom sometimes comes from. From other people.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah, sometimes.

>> John Red: Yeah, go ahead, Doc.

>> Don Hawkins: No, I'm just going to say, you know, I. Many times, saying to other people, I don't know the answer to that, or I, you know, what can you tell me about this? And. And, learning from that. And then I've been so grateful for people that God has put in my life that have communicated truth to me. And, sometimes it's been hard truth for me to take.

>> John Red: Right. Well, you know, what you just said is so true. It's humility. It's being humble to be able to receive, information correction and accolades as well. and to not take it, real personally, but take it as a tool, a learning tool.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah. You know, Peter could very well have been embittered by the fact that he had failed and said, well, you know, when he heard it was the Lord, he could have jumped in the water and swam the other direction instead of swimming to shore. But the reality is he, was willing to listen to the Lord Jesus. And, it's interesting, the juxtaposition of those words there. Do you love me more than these? Because he had said, I love you more than the rest of them. I will never deny you. They're probably all going to deny you, but not me. But ultimately, Peter needed to learn that lesson in humility. Absolutely.

Good leaders make the commitment to encourage those they lead

Now, John, you've got another very important attribute of good leaders, one that's close to my heart.

>> John Red: Yeah. You know, good leaders make the commitment to encourage those they lead. In referring back to what we talked about, building people up.

>> Don Hawkins: Right.

>> John Red: Yeah. Servant leaders really create a positive culture by encouraging the personal, professional, and spiritual growth of everyone they lead. Now, even if you're a young person, I want young people lead. Listen, if you're in school and you are part of a group, then, and you may be part of just a regular team group, and y' all are doing a project together, but you have the opportunity to lead and to encourage and build people up.

>> Don Hawkins: I was talking with one of the people at Starbucks the other day. I'd stop in there occasionally for a cup of coffee, and she, had just been promoted to a shift leader. And I was talking about, well, you know, how are you going to look lead? And I've had a chance to share the gospel with some of the people when I've stopped for coffee and, and she is a believer and, and I was talking about this very thing that, you know, to lead the way Jesus leads. And, and I, think that's one of the critical things to look for ways, to encourage those that we lead. I want to come back and unpack that word. I've got a little example, encouragement and, and how that word word is put together. It's a fascinating thing. I think I learned this from Truett Cathy. I didn't come up with this myself, but we'll talk about it and if you'd like to give us a call again tonight, maybe your mother was a leader. 855-586-5433 is our toll free number.

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The older people grow, the more important it is that they have savings

>> Jane: The older people grow, the more important it is that they have savings that are not at risk in the stock market.

>> Don Hawkins: Here's an important warning from Roxanne Endermule of his faithful stewards dot com.

>> Jane: I've seen many people in their 50s that have all their savings still in a 401k or some other market based account that is fully at risk of loss.

>> Don Hawkins: Roxanne and her team offer practical financial counsel to, people from all age groups.

>> Jane: It could be that they need to start saving for the future in retirement, or maybe they've already done those things and they just need to, be good managers of what God's given them and get their money to where it can grow well but won't be at risk of loss. In the stock market. Or maybe they need to get a will or a trust in place to protect their family from the cost and stresses of probate.

>> Don Hawkins: You can schedule a free and confidential time to talk with Roxanne at her website, his Faithful Stewards.com. just follow the links on the website to set a good time to talk. Or you may call the office to set a time. That's his faithful stewards dot com. Was your mother a leader? If so, you might want to call us and tell us about it. We'd love to hear about that. 855-586-5433 is our number. And John, Red is with me tonight. Christian life coach. extraordinary, I would say, John, thank you. And folks, always enjoy hearing you on the radio. And again, renewal ministries ministries.org r e n e w e l l ministries.org and also hope speaks.com we have a call. Lisa is listening tonight here in Texas. Go ahead, Lisa. You are on the air with us.

>> Jerry: Hi. It is great to hear you guys and to be a part of the show.

>> Don Hawkins: Thank you.

In order to be great leader, you've got to be a servant first

>> Jerry: I wanted to share. You're having people call in because of maybe their mother was a leader. But I wanted to call in and share about my mom being a servant. And of course, in order great leader, you've got to be a servant first. That's why it's called servant leadership.

>> Don Hawkins: Right, Right.

>> Jerry: So my mom had a mixed family. She was a widow and remarried and had five children. And she taking care of us and, feeding us and nurturing us and, and being everything that she needed to be as a mother and served us and served her husband. And then she served in the community and helped the elderly at a home. And she was always serving, and she did it with a good, positive attitude. I never heard her complain. she didn't, have a grudging spirit or anything. And to me, that was a good model. Of course, divorce as a daughter and to be raised up as a servant myself. And that that's what we're to do. You know, the G serve, not to be served. So I love that analogy. I love that scripture.

>> Don Hawkins: Well, you just, brought to mind, Lisa, Mark 10:45, Jesus said, the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. So. And, and the gospel of Mark. Mark, I would say, John Red is probably the ultimate example of servant leadership. Because throughout the book of Mark, Jesus is demonstrating that servant leadership, that servant quality that Lisa's talking about.

>> John Red: Absolutely. You know, think about all the different stories, the woman with issue of blood and all those things are in how he took the time to. To be engaged with every single person that came into his body, his being around him and did not with the one with issue of blood. He's like, wait a minute, we got to stop. I know we're on a mission to go here.

>> Don Hawkins: Right.

>> John Red: But we are going to serve this person right here where they are.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah, great example there. And again, being interruptible, you know, sometimes we do not like interruptions. But, that's another thing that leaders need to be willing to be interrupted now. They need to be discerning as to when to be interrupted. Because sometimes you can lose track of where you're going going.

>> John Red: Right.

Jerry: Lisa shares how her mother modeled servant leadership

>> Don Hawkins: But, Lisa, is your mother still living or she with the Lord?

>> Jerry: She is with the Lord, yes. She's no longer.

>> Don Hawkins: Well, I know that you have great memories of her, and I suspect that you are probably also a mother.

>> Jerry: I am.

>> Don Hawkins: And I suspect that you have had opportunities to lead your children and, others as well. And so we want to thank you for that. And let me lead in prayer for you. Okay. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for Lisa. What a joy to hear from her tonight and to hear how her mother modeled the servant part of servant leadership. And Lord, help us not to lose track of the fact that that's where leadership really starts, with a servant's heart. And Lord, give to each of us, men and women, and especially mothers, that heart to be servants. And we thank you, Lord, in praise you, you for the opportunity. And we pray this in Jesus name, Amen. Thank you, Lisa. So good to hear from you.

>> John Red: You too.

>> Jerry: You guys have a blessed night.

>> Don Hawkins: You too. God bless. Bye bye.

>> Jerry: Uh Huh. bye bye.

>> Don Hawkins: 855-586-5433. Jerry is listening in Louisiana tonight over American Family Radio. Jerry, good to hear from you. Go ahead.

Jerry shared some miraculous experiences with us about his late mother

All right.

>> Caroline: Yeah, I wanted to share, miraculous. A couple of miraculous things that happened with my mom. Mom, she had tmj. And, I, I went. When I took her to the house and went down and talked to my dad and, you know, give him the update on it. My mouth filled up with blood. You know, that was the first time that happened.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah.

>> Caroline: But when he. She passed away, which was, very miraculous, I sent a sparkling light and, in the room. And my, aunt was a, minister's wife. And I said, hey, Francis, did you see that sparkling light? And she looked at me with a knowingly way. She had miraculous experiences herself, you know, so your soul can be connected. You can be connected to your mom.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah. Well, I suspect that your mom had trusted the. The Lord Jesus as her personal savior. Would that be right, Jerry?

>> Caroline: Yes. Yes, she did.

>> Don Hawkins: And I bet she was a testimony to you and maybe played a part in your coming to faith. Would that be true?

>> Caroline: Absolutely. Absolutely. That was very meaningful to me.

>> Don Hawkins: And now your mother has gone to be with the Lord. Is that correct?

>> Caroline: Yes, she has.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah. And John Rhead, you probably have some words of encouragement for Jerry and what he shared with us tonight.

>> John Red: Yeah. You know, Jerry, it's great to think about those miraculous experiences that we have from the Lord. But you know what? Hang on to the beauty of who your mom was.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah.

>> John Red: Because that'll always live in your heart. And the things that you saw her do, the things you experienced that were encouraging and affirming to you, I just encourage you to pass those on to other people as well.

>> Don Hawkins: Would you lead us in prayer for Jerry?

>> John Red: Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you for Jerry. Thank you for him calling in tonight, Lord, and for taking the time to share about his mom and the experiences he had, with you, Lord. And I just pray, God, that you would use those experiences through Jerry to affirm, and edify and encourage other people.

>> Don Hawkins: Lord.

>> John Red: And I pray blessings over Jerry and the things that you put his hand to in Jesus name. Amen.

>> Don Hawkins: Amen. Thank you, Jerry. Good to hear from you tonight. God bless.

>> Caroline: I thank you and bless y' all.

>> Don Hawkins: Bye bye.

Life coach John Red talks about the importance of encouragement in leadership

855-586-543. 3 is a number that will connect you with Christian life coach John Red and me and, John, we talked about encouragement. And whenever I think about encouragement, I think about the word itself. Now, years ago, I was involved in teaching junior high English. Okay. Parts of speech. and. And in a word, in many words, you will have a prefix and a suffix. A prefix comes at the beginning, the suffix comes at the end. Now, if you'll visualize in your mind, and of course, the radio, it's theater of the mind. You envision the word encouragement. The en on the front is the prefix. And that tells us it's something on the inside. Because en e n actually implies something on the inside. Night. The ment M, as I remember from my previous studies, has the idea of a process, something that's going on, taking place ongoing. And if you take the en off the front of encouragement and the ment off the back of encouragement, what do you have left?

>> John Red: Courage.

>> Don Hawkins: You have courage? Yeah. And why do we need courage?

>> John Red: We need. We need courage to live this Life effectively.

>> Don Hawkins: We sure do. We have a lot of fears, don't we? In fact, in the Bible, I've been told that there are 365 times it says fear not.

>> John Red: Right.

>> Don Hawkins: One for every day of the year. You've been told the same thing.

>> John Red: Right.

>> Don Hawkins: And. And encouragement is such an important trait for a leader. It is because many of the people that we're leading, whether it's leading a home, leading a church, leading a Bible study, leading a small group, leading a business, whatever it is, you have to have courage.

>> John Red: Absolutely.

>> Don Hawkins: Such a critical part, truly.

John Red: Leadership can be boiled down to a matter of influence

Now we're back to those two foundational Christian life coaching skills that we talked about earlier. These go along with encouragement, listening and asking, cultivating questions. So, give us a little thrust here. Tie this together with a couple concept of influence. You've probably heard, as I have, that leadership can be boiled down to a matter of influence.

>> John Red: Yeah, it's basically we are as leaders or even just anybody Don. That's in any kind of situation. If we keep our Christian walk in mind, the question is this, am I influencing my culture or is the culture influencing me? We truly as believers, want to create a culture that's the fruit of the spirit, the love, grace, mercy, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, long suffering. But all the other things as leaders, our time, how we invest our time with people, how do we, our fellowship, the spiritual gatherings we come together with, you know, and as a servant leader, we want to help people identify their strengths and to develop their gifts by our modeling and our teaching and our coaching. Yeah, and sometimes coaching is correcting, you know, as you've experienced.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah. And. And again, I think about, there's a verse in First Thessalonians, chapter 5. Her Paul says, Now we encourage or exhort you, brothers. Confront those who are out of line, cheer up those who are at the point of giving up, and encourage or support those who are weak, and be patient with Everybody. Years ago, Dr. Frank Minerith and I were doing a radio program on this verse. And basically, we talked about the fact that this is really a summary of how we are to lead and encourage and coach and lift, people up. It does involve the fact that this is, these are the steps we take. Somebody's out of line. We need to gently help them understand how they can get back. Just like Jesus Christ did with Peter.

>> John Red: Yes.

>> Don Hawkins: somebody's at the point of giving up. We want to reach out to them and help them. Thomas was kind of at that place, and Jesus did that with him. And then providing that support for all of those disciples from their various and sundry backgrounds. John, bring this plane to a landing. We've got about a minute to go.

>> John Red: Yeah. You know what you just shared from scripture, truly, and I'd like to for you to speak it again, because that is the summary of everything that we have talked about tonight. it's the encouragement, it's the listening, it's the looking for, the opportunities to serve people. It's all of the above. even correcting.

>> Don Hawkins: Yeah, all of that. Again, as first Thessalonians 5:14, we exhort you, encourage you, brethren, confront, lovingly confront those that are out of line, unruly, provide support and cheering up those who are at the point of giving up, and then provide support for those who are weak.

>> John Red: Amen.

>> Don Hawkins: And, that's where we'll land this airplane tonight. John Red, always a joy to have you with us on the program.

>> John Red: Thanks, Doug.

>> Don Hawkins: Again, renewell ministries.org if you are in ministry, find out more about how they can be of help to you. And if you need a counselor or life coach, hope speaks.com that's H O P E speaks.com for all of us who are part of this program. Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers and mothers wannabes. Good night from Encouragement Live.