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All right, Hebrews chapter 13 verse 7. The Bible reads, Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Now, brethren, I love this verse. I love it. Okay. And when I was a church member, I really, really love this verse. I really love thinking that I have a man that God has put to have the rule over me in the house of God. I like that idea. I like the idea that God has set, Godly man, Godly examples that I can look to, whose faith I can follow, who I can learn from, and all those kinds of things, right? And I love that thought as a church member. But now that I'm a church pastor, this verse gives me great fear. It gives me great fear, because what this is saying is that I need to be someone that you can follow my faith. I can set myself as a good example that you would consider the end of my conversation, that you would consider my lifestyle, that you would consider my behavior, you would consider my Christianity, my faith. And that brings me great fear, right? It gives me great humility to think, wow, you know, God, thank you for the position of authority. Thank you for giving me this position to rule other people. But wow, God, you know, I need your help. I need your help to be an example. I need your help to be a good leader, to set a good framework for people to follow after my steps as I seek to follow after the Christ. You know, people are going to be looking at my family, they're going to be looking at my wife, they're going to be looking at my children. They might even be looking at my past and the churches I've been at in the past. And you know, was I a good example back then? What kind of person will I be? There's so many things to consider. But I also thank God that He's also given me personally, He's given me a lot of experience as a leader, a lot of experience as a leader. Now, when I think of a leader, I would not immediately think of myself. All right, when I look at the kind of personality that I am, the kind of character that I am, I wouldn't naturally consider if I'm just thinking, man, this would be a leader that God has in science, I wouldn't put myself in that category. Okay. Now, I'm not saying that I'm not a leader, I'm just saying that I personally wouldn't look at that. And I thank God that He's given me a lot of experience, you know, I've got the experience of being a leader, you know, for over two years now in a church, but not just in this church. I've also served in leadership positions in some of my previous churches. And I thank God for that experience. I've also served as a leader and a manager and overseer, a supervisor, all these kinds of things in my workplace. I thank God for all the opportunities that I had to oversee people, that I had to manage people. And I thank God also for my family, because God has made me the head of my home, He's made me the head of my wife, He's given me authority, He's given me the role of leadership in my own home. And I thank God for all the different experiences that I've been able to have as a leader. And one thing I learned very early on is that the qualities or to be an effective leader is the same no matter where you go. You know, to be an effective leader in the church is the same things that makes you an effective leader in your family. It's the same things, you know, that makes you an effective leader in the workplace. And so the title for my sermon tonight is effective leadership. You know, I want you guys to be leaders, I want you to be effective leaders. Now, of course, this sermon is tailored around the church. But these qualities, these principles that we've been looking at, will work in the workplace, they're going to work in your family home. Okay, wherever God has given you a position of authority, these qualities are something that you need to strive to have in order to be an effective leader. A lot of people can be leaders, but I want you to be an effective leader. You know, anybody, you know, a lot of people are pastors. There are a lot of people that have the office of a pastor or a bishop, but they shouldn't be there. They shouldn't be behind a pulpit. Okay. People can ordain individuals as pastors, but they're not necessarily effective leaders. They're not essentially effective pastors. And so my desire is to be an effective pastor, right? My desire is that I can have an effect on this house of God. I can have an effect on these people here. And that you guys will benefit, that it actually profits you for having you, having me as your pastor. And that if you desire to take on an office, a bishop, a pastor, just a good leader, just a good right-hand man that leads, you know, in the house of God, these are qualities that you need to have. Okay. Now, again, I said this even works in the family home. First Corinthians 11 three says, but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God. You know, even Jesus Christ as a leader, that's God the father, you know, and men, we ought to have a leader, you know, and that is Christ. And for our wives, our wives ought to look at husbands as their head, as their leaders. Okay. Now, I say that because I've often heard it said that there are not many people made out to be leaders. You know, there aren't many leaders. There are a lot more followers than leaders. And yes, I agree to that when we talk about the local church. I agree with that when it comes to the workplace. Okay. But I also believe that men are created to just be natural leaders, that all men, all men have the ability to be a leader, even if it's just the wife and the children. It's your household. That's a great place. It's a great institution. The first institution that God has created, you know, for a man to take ownership of people. Okay. And if that's all you are, you know, you get married, you have children, you've been given a great responsibility. God has made you the head over the woman. Okay. So I don't care. You might say, I never want to be a church pastor. I never want to be a church leader. That's fine. But you may already be a father. You may already be a husband or you're desiring to be that. So this sermon should help you. Now let's go to Proverbs 29. Let's start there. Proverbs 29 verse 18. I've got a lot of verses. So I'm not going to get you to turn to all of them, but Proverbs 29 verse 18. I've got seven attributes that will make you an effective leader. Proverbs 29 verse 18. And it's quite interesting. When I was starting to put these attributes together, I did a quick Google search, like what makes you an effective leader in the workplace. And many of these things that I listed with biblical principles are also things that make you good leaders in the workplace. You know, by unsaved, by the world standard. They also recognize what makes a good leader. Proverbs 29 verse 18. Proverbs 29 verse 18. The Bible says, where there is no vision, the people perish. By he that keepeth the law, happy is he. Where there is no vision, the people perish. If you want to be an effective leader, point number one is that you need to be a visionary. You need to be someone that has a vision. Okay? You have a vision. You have some set goals. There's something you want to achieve, and you're able to communicate. You're able to tell people what that is. Okay? You need to have a vision, or the Bible says the people will perish. Okay? Now, I'm going to read to you very quickly from Ezekiel chapter 7 verse 26. The Bible only has the word vision, like in that sense, the word vision, only twice in our Bibles. And it's quite interesting. The second time it comes up in Ezekiel 7 26, it says, speaking of Judah, who had been in a backslidden state, it says, mischief shall come upon mischief, and rumor shall be upon rumor, then shall they seek a vision of the prophet. And so what the Bible is saying here is that Judah will get to such a bad state, right? That there's going to be mischief, there's going to be rumors, there's going to be these fears of the people, and then when things are so bad in the nation, then they're going to go to the prophet and ask for a vision. Then they're going to go to the prophet and ask, hey, what do we do? Where do we go from now? It says they seek a vision of the prophet. But then it says this, but the law shall perish from the priest and counsel from the ancients. You know, we can get to a point where if we have no vision and the people are perishing, there comes a point when you're like, where's the vision? And it can be too late. Destruction's already at hand. You know, it can be too late. And many times when churches fail, it's because the vision was not set. People weren't aware of the vision. And then when you sought the vision, it's just too late. You know, it said there that the law shall perish from the priest, the counsel from the ancient. There's nothing you can do to rectify. Once something is destroyed, it's very hard to build it up once again. Okay? And I don't want this church to be destroyed. I want you guys to know that I have a vision for New Life Baptist Church here on the Sunshine Coast. Okay? Say, what is that vision? We'll get to that soon. Okay? And why is this important? It's important because all the great men of God in the Bible had some vision, had some purpose for life. Why am I here? What am I trying to do to serve God? You know, for Joshua it was to cross the Jordan River, right? For Joshua to get into the promised land and to defeat the enemies and take that land as inheritance for the children of Israel. But I just wanted to read to you what Jesus said. When Jesus came in His first coming, Jesus had a vision. Jesus had a purpose. In Luke 9 56, by the way, you guys go to Matthew 28. You guys go to Matthew 28. Well, I read to you from Luke 9 56. Jesus said, for the Son of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village. See, Jesus had a vision the first time He came. He said, I've come to save man. Okay? I've not come to destroy men's lives. But here's the thing, we know when Christ comes in His second coming, He's coming to destroy the wicked, right? He's coming to destroy them. But when He came the first time, He had a purpose and He didn't deviate from the purpose that He had, which was to save men. And of course, the climax of all of that was His sacrifice, His death, burial, and resurrection. You go to Matthew 28, verse 18. Matthew 28, verse 18. Say, what is the vision of our church? I didn't know we had one. We've had one from the very beginning. I just didn't call it a church vision or anything like that, right? It's the Great Commission, right? It's the Great Commission, the task that Jesus Christ has left us to do. Matthew 28, verse 18 says, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. Now, you might say, well, you know, when you started this church, you know, what were you aiming for? My aim was to make sure, you know, why did I come to the Sunshine Coast? Because I found out there was no church at the time when I was seeking one, right? There was no church with the right gospel going out there and preaching the gospel. They weren't teaching the Sunshine Coast. When I asked God, where do you want me to go? It became very clear to me it was the Sunshine Coast that we needed to come and plant this church. Preach the gospel, get people baptized, right? And then verse 20, teach them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you. That's my goal, brethren, is to teach all things, right? We open whatever passage of the Bible, whatever chapter, whatever verse, and we're going to teach on those verses without ignoring them, without ignoring them, okay? And that's been my primary goal when I started this church. I did not have this huge vision and some people make these crazy thoughts and they say, you know, my vision is to be the biggest church in all of Australia. That was never part of my vision because I know that the independent fundamental Baptist will never be the biggest church in Australia, right? It's always the ones that are worldly. It's always the ones that attract wilderness or unsaved, the ones that attract another Jesus, the ones that attract another gospel, a false gospel. They're always going to be the larger churches. Look at the Roman Catholic Church, right? It's huge. It's rich and it's all false, right? It's not built on the word of God. And so, you know, I never thought my goal is to be the biggest church, you know, in Australia because that's not the Great Commission. It's not be the biggest church you can be. The Great Commission is just do what God says. Christ asks, he's got the power of all power in heaven and earth. And because he's got that power, he's given us. I don't have to come up with a vision. He's given us the vision, right? Preaching the gospel, baptizing, teaching to observe all things. Now, brethren, when I started this church, I just thought, you know, as a new pastor, recently ordained, you know, a little nervous, not completely confident, you know, not sure what the future has. I didn't set any real long-term goals. I just had some short-term goals that we need to make sure we get this in place. If we get these things in place, then I know we'll do well. And those short-term goals was to have a minimum of two services per week, right? We started with a Sunday service and a midweek service. Whatever day, we were always changing, right? Thursdays, and then Wednesdays, I think Fridays, sometimes we had some. But we had that purpose, right? And to have at least one minimum time of soul winning per week, you know, minimum, and if not more than that, right? To get out there. And the great goal that I have for this church, when it comes to sort of a bigger vision, is that we ensure we can get the gospel to everybody that lives on the Sunshine Coast. You know, the Sunshine Coast is a place where, you know, people are spread out. There are some concentrated areas, but there's a lot of people, you know, that live further out. My goal is as a church, we get the gospel to every door. You know, we have an opportunity to knock on every door on the Sunshine Coast. But here's the thing. I did not set a timeframe on that. You know, I couldn't tell you if we could do that in five years or 10 years. It might take the next generation in this church to complete that task. But that's our goal, to get the gospel, to at least offer the gospel to every door, knock on every door, and have the opportunity for them to receive the gospel. That was really my short term goals. I didn't really have any other long term goals. You know, I did obviously carry with me from the near beginning to start a church potentially down in Brisbane. But then things have changed and we started one down in Sydney instead. And I'll share some other things with you later on as I go through the next session after this sermon. But I wanted to make sure these were goals that were achievable, that we all could do, and that we could all remain focused. Okay, it's important when you set a vision that you remain focused on that vision. Okay, I'm not against changing the vision as long as the vision that if you change it slightly, that it's still on the right path. It's still on the same path that we initially set. Okay, now when you set a vision, the next thing you do is you set milestones or you set goals that will help you get to that vision at some point in time. Okay, now go to John 21, please go to John 21. And I just want to show you the focus that we need to have as a church. John 21 verse 17. John 21 verse 17. And this is after Jesus Christ says to Simon Peter three times, you know, do you love me? You know that one. And then look at verse 17. He's safe unto him the third time. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things. Thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus safe unto him. Feed my sheep. There's a, there's, you know, for a leader, for a pastor, there's my goal set by Jesus Christ right there. If I love Jesus, I'm required to feed the sheep. I'm required to preach the word, right? Let's keep going. Verse number 18. Verily, verily, I stand to thee. When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest. But when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not. And so the common understanding, which is my understanding as well there in verse number 18, when it says there that Peter, when he is old, he will stretch out forth his hands, is a reference to how he will die. And the common traditional understanding, you know, of history is that Peter was crucified upside down. Now I can't tell you if that's a definite truth because it's not in the Word of God. But that's what tradition teaches us. That's how he passed away. That's how he died. And so that may very well be a reference that Peter would live a long life and that he would die at an old age by crucifixion. And look at verse number 19. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. So you can definitely see it's associated with the death of Peter, right? Look at verse number 20. Then Peter. So Peter's just been left the job. Feed my sheep. You're going to have a long life, Peter. You're going to have a long time to do this. And he says, Follow me. Okay, so follow after my steps. Feed the sheep. There's the goal set for Peter. And we then see Peter lose focus immediately, right? As soon as the goals are set, he loses focus. Look at verse number 20. Then Peter, turning about, see if the disciple whom Jesus loved, that's the disciple John, following, which also leaned on his breast at supper and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Simon seen him save to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? He says, All right, God, you've given me instruction. You've given me goals. I know what I need to do. But what about John over there? What's he going to do? What's happened with Peter? He's lost focus. All right, Peter, you go and do what Jesus asked you to do. Don't worry about what another Christian is doing. Don't worry about what another person is doing. Verse number 22. Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. What's it got to do with you, Peter? What does it matter what John's doing? You know, if I'm going to keep John alive till I come back, that's none of your business. I've given you a task. I've given you a job. I've given you goals. You go and follow me. You do what I've asked you to do. And brethren, when you set a vision, you can't lose focus. When you have goals, you've got to do what you can to accomplish those goals. Okay? And it's easy to be distracted. It's easy to look. What's that church doing? What's that church doing? What's that church doing? What's that brother doing? What's that brewing? Oh, they're doing that much. Let's try to beat them in soul winning. Let's do more than that church over there. Oh, that church is not doing. Oh, why aren't they out there doing soul winning? Why isn't that church preaching on reprobates? Why isn't that church? Listen, don't get distracted. God's given us a job. God's given us a vision. He's given us goals. We need to do what Christ has asked from us. And He's asked us to follow Him. He's asked us to follow Him. And so my goal is to make sure we stay focused as a church. We don't get distracted by all the slack Christians that are out there. Okay? There's a lot of slack Christians. And I don't want you to be distracted because when you get distracted by others, that's when we become slack. That's when we become slack because we've lost focus on what we're required to do. So point number one, guys, is that if you're going to be an effective leader, you must be a visionary. You must have a vision and follow after that set goals, sets our targets to be able to accomplish that. The second thing that I've got, please go to Romans chapter 14. Go to Romans chapter 14. The second point to be an effective leader. Well, let's go to Romans 14 verse 10. Let's read that first. Romans 14 verse 10. It says, and this follows through with being distracted, right? Romans 14 verse 10 says this, but why dost thou judge thy brother? What was Peter doing? He was judging John. What about John? All right, why are you judging your brother? Or why dost thou set at not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Okay? We're all going to stand, all believers are going to stand before Christ and be rewarded. Okay? For the work that we did. Okay? Don't get distracted by the lack of work of others because they're going to get what's coming to them. Okay? And you're going to get what's coming to you. Hey, focus on doing more work because you're going to stand before God. Don't judge another man when that man ought to be judged by Jesus Christ. Okay? That's a distraction. And then it says here in verse number 11, for it is written as I live, say of the Lord, every knee shall bow to me and every tongue shall confess to God. You know, your brothers and sisters of the Lord, they're not going to bow the knee to you. Okay? They're not going to bow the knee to you. They're going to bow the knee to Jesus Christ. Verse 12, so then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Okay? We all have to give an account of ourselves to God. And so the second point that I have here to be an effective leader is that you're accountable. And I know I've already covered this in some in my previous leadership classes, but you need to take accountability as a leader. You know, if you're a father, you take accountability for your wife and kids. If your wife and kids mess up, you're accountable. You put your hand up and say, well, I should have taken charge. I should have taken control of that situation. Okay? When a church fails, if a church crumbles, whatever, there's major problems in the church, there's infighting, the pastor should put his hand up and say, well, you know, I should have done better. I should have tried to preach on these things or whatever. I should have, you know, stepped in and tried to fix certain things, whatever. You know, pastors need to put their hand up and say, well, you know, I'm accountable for what I've been given. Okay? And if you're in the workplace, and I'll never forget this, you know, I had promoted a person to a supervisor position that was working under me, right? And we were so busy in the workplace, there was so much going on, where I kind of neglected their training. Okay? I couldn't train this person to the extent that I wanted to. And so they weren't, they weren't a very effective supervisor. Okay? But they were doing the job that I needed them to do. I was satisfied with what they were doing, but I knew that we were kind of limited by the amount of work that we had. And I'll never forget when I had some employees come up to me, and they wanted to talk to me confidentially and say, look, that supervisor, that newly appointed supervisor, you know, we've got some concerns, you know, they're not doing this, not doing that, they're not doing this. And the reason they brought that to my attention is because they didn't like that supervisor. Okay? And they had found some weaknesses, they had found some lack of training in that supervisor, and so they wanted me to do something about it, right? Something like that. And I was like, you know what? I just took it on board. I said, you're right. You're 100% correct. You know, the things that they brought up that were legitimate concerns, I said, you're right, they're legitimate concerns. I'm the boss, I'm the manager, I own up to that. Okay? That person is doing everything that I've asked them to do, but I've not been able to train them up, I've not been able to mentor them the way that I wanted to because of the workload. Hey, that's my fault. That's my business. You know, sorry, I apologize. I should do better. And immediately, it surprised them. Okay? Because they wanted to find faults with that supervisor. Okay? And instead, I'm the one saying, no, I'm accountable for that. I'm accountable for that person. Okay? But I'm satisfied with what they're doing. You know, I take it upon myself, and that stopped the criticism immediately. Because they liked me. They liked me, they liked my management style. And they said, well, if we keep criticizing, we're going to be criticizing Kevin. You know, and they felt, you know, well, that's what a leader does, right? You take that burden away from others. And you say, well, these are legitimate issues. These are legitimate weaknesses. And therefore, we need to address those weaknesses. I need to be accountable for what we need to do to effectively correct that. So if I see issues within the church, then I need to preach on those issues within the church. I can't ignore those issues, right? I can't ignore those things. I need to make sure those things are covered. And if you see weaknesses in your wife and your children, then fathers, you need to step up and say, yes, you know what? I'm not going to complain about my wife. I'm not going to complain about my kids. I'm going to take ownership. I've got to correct that. I've got to find a way to fix that situation. Please go to James chapter three. Go to James chapter three. While you're turning there, I'm going to turn to you to Hebrews 13 verse 17. You guys go to James three one. I'll read to you from Hebrews 13 verse 17. It says, Obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls, as they must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. All right. So yes, you know, it's the pastor's job to give an account for his church. Okay. Oh, that means I'm just going to mess up and I'm going to ruin, you know, his reputation. No, you got to strive hard also to, for me to give, be able to give a good account, because if I can't give a good account of you to God, well, that's not going to be profitable to you. Okay. That tells me that looks like Jesus Christ has rewards for being a faithful member of church. All right. By being a positive, influential blessing in the church. Hey, you can get blessings. You can get gifts in heaven or rewards in heaven because I can give a good account of you. But if I'm like, Oh, that brother so-and-so, you know, I kind of wish you never turned up God, you know, and every time he turned up, there was turmoil. There was always disputes, you know, that person's not going to obviously receive rewards. Okay. And I'm not sure what kind of effect that will have on me as a pastor. Maybe I will be affected as well for allowing that kind of situation to go on. So you've got to take ownership. Go to James chapter three, verse one. I think you're there already. Look at this. James chapter three, verse one. It says, my brethren, be not many masters. That's just another saying a leader. Okay. It's saying here, don't take on too many leadership responsibilities. You know, why? Why is that? Knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. Why? Because you're accountable, not just for yourself. You're accountable for those that are under you. You say, man, I really want to be a pastor. Well, you know, there's a greater condemnation if you're a failure. Okay. So these qualities as a leader, you need to start working on these things. Okay. And I said to you, I believe all men are able to be leaders. All of you are able to find a wife, get married, and God expects you to lead that home. Okay. And like I said, the same qualities in the family to have a successful family, same qualities to be a successful pastor. Okay. And look at verse number two, verse number two, James three, verse two, for in many things we offend all. Okay. Now let's break that up a little bit. It basically says here that when it says we offend all, like as masters, as leaders, we're going to make mistakes. Okay. God knows that. That's why it's pretty here, right? For in, not just a few mistakes, it says for many things we offend all because we're flesh and blood where we've got a sinful nature, right? We're not perfect. We're not Jesus Christ. And so we, as masters, if you take on many responses, you can actually make a lot of mistakes and, you know, upset a lot of people, offend people. But then it says this, in contrast to that, if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body. Okay. So what it's saying here is that in order to be a perfect man, this is about leadership, the many masters, right? So in order to be a successful leader, you ought to be someone that does not offend others. Okay. Does not offend, right? If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man. Okay. So what makes a good leader, okay, you're accountable and you're not making many mistakes. Now you will make mistakes. Okay. But as a leader, you should grow and you should develop so that you're not offending one another. Now I'm not saying that as I preach, I skip the things that may offend the brethren. That's not what it's saying. It's me personally offending you. Me personally trespassing against you. Me personally sinning against you. Okay. A poor leader will make bad mistakes. Okay. Will hurt fellowship. Will hurt friendships. Okay. I'm not talking about offending with the word of God. I'm saying offending by sins that you commit to one another. No, a leader should be someone that has good behavior and does not strive to offend one another. Okay. I'm not trying to do wrong to you. Okay. If, you know, if you're always making mistakes, if you always have broken relationships, broken friendships, you're not an effective leader. You're gonna mess things up. You're gonna really mess things up. And so it's just saying here basically, own up to your mistakes. You know, work on your mistakes. Make sure that you're that perfect man so that you're not sinning against other people. Now let's go to the third point that I have for being an effective leader. And I might get you to turn to Psalm 119 please. Go to Psalm 119. The third point, and this is a very important, this is something that I've sort of been learning in recent years. Okay. Especially as a pastor. The third point to be an effective leader is that you're decisive. Okay. Decisive. What does that mean? You make a decision. You stick by the decisions that you make. You know, you're not constantly, oh, do I do this or do I do that? You know, five years later, I still don't know what I'm doing. Right. I still don't know what decisions to make. And you meet people like this. You know, you meet people, you know, men that you're trying to encourage and they're like, man, I've got to go find a job. I've got to, you know, settle down and get a wife and be in church. And they're like, they're motivated. I'm going to put this in practice. And you're like, yes, brother, you know, you can do it. I'm praying for you. Two years later, they're still not working. Two years later, they're still not in church or faithfully attending a church. And it's like, well, what's going on? Oh, you're right, man. I've got to settle down. I've got to get into church. I've got to get work. It's like, they're indecisive, right? They're never doing what they say they need to do. You can't be that way as a leader. You can't. Man, you know, and here's the thing about making decisions. We all know that if we make a decision, you're taking a risk, right? You're taking some type of risk. I'm going to do this. And there's potential risks that there could be, you know, it could cause, you know, a negative response somehow. You know, you may not even be aware of it. A lot of people are indecisive because they don't want to take risks. They're too afraid, okay? And that's not an effective leader. Proverbs 3 5 says, Proverbs 3 5 says, Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. And this is what I love about verse number six. In all thy ways, acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Here's the thing. If you want to make the right decisions in life, it's very simple. It's not complicated, actually. It says here, in all thy ways, so whatever way you go, whatever decision you make, whatever way you go, it says, acknowledge him. Acknowledge God. God, I'm going to make this decision. I'm going to take this woman as my wife, or Lord, I'm going to go over here and start a church, or whatever it is, Lord, I'm going to take this job, you know, whatever it is, you know, acknowledge God. You know, give God praise and give him thanks and say, God, I need you to help me in this decision. And then it says here, and he shall direct thy paths, okay? Meaning you're already on your way, but now that you've made that decision, now God's going to direct to make sure you're walking in the right ways, okay? And I asked brother Jason for this passage in Isaiah 30 verse 21. It says, and thine ears shall hear a word behind thee. And by the way, this word behind is the voice of God saying, this is the way, walk ye in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left. You know, God sometimes gives us options. You can walk to the right, or you can walk to the left. Many times I ask God, can you just give me one answer? Just which one's the best one, Lord? I pray for that usually, right? But sometimes God's not going to give you that one direct answer. Sometimes he might say to you, well, you can go right, or you can go left, because they're both within his will, okay? They're both within his will. Obviously, we don't want to make decisions that are outside the will of God, all right? But God may give you the freedom of choice, and he does give us the freedom of choice, right? He does many times, and it's simply, well, this is the way I'm going to go, God. It's within your words, so I'm going to take that step, and God will guide you. God will give you direction. You're in Psalm 119. Look at 104, please. Psalm 119, verse 104. So how do I know, and I've already kind of mentioned this, how do I know that the decision that I'm making is the right one? You know, Psalm 119, 104 says, through thy precepts I get understanding. That's how you know. God, I need to make a decision. If I make this decision, what's, well, actually, God, before I make the decision, let me check your precepts. Let me check your word. Is this consistent? Does this line up with your word? And if it does, I'm going to go that way, right? Through thy precepts I get understanding. Look at this. Therefore, I hate every false way, and I know we can take this, probably the primary application here is false doctrines, things like that, but I just want to tie this into our decision making, all right? You can go a false way. You can make wrong decisions. You can, okay, but what's going to prevent you, what's going to cause you to hate those false decisions, not make those false decisions, if you line up your decision with the precepts of God, first of all, and look at the next verse, 105. Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. A light unto my path. What a praise God. You know, you're making decisions. Take the word of God. See what you can find. Does this line up, God? Is this consistent with what you want in my life? God, do you want me to marry a blonde or a brunette? Free choice, brethren, right? If you can choose one, make a decision, all right? Neither against the will of God, all right? You make a decision, and if it's consistent, yeah, God says for a man to find a wife, awesome, I'm going to do that. I'm going to make a choice. I'm going to be decisive in my decisions, and brethren, as a pastor, as a leader in church, you have to be decisive. Just make decisions. Otherwise, the church is not going to move forward, all right? Otherwise, people will lose trust and confidence in you if you're not making decisions. Now, look, there's been times that I've decided to do something in this church that I've not carried through because I've reassessed and I thought, well, no, it's not going to actually profit us at this point in time, you know? And then I've made decisions for other things, right? But, you know, you need to learn. You need to grow. I'm not saying that as a pastor, I'm perfect, you know, these things. I'm saying I'm probably good at many of these things, but I can still keep working on those things, right? And if you want to be a leader, you want to be a part, you got to keep working on. You got to keep working on these things and be a decisive person. No one likes indecisive people, you know? Your wife's not going to like you if you're constantly indecisive. You know, honey, we're going to live in Queensland or we're going to live in Sydney or we're going to live in Melbourne or, you know, we're going to go overseas, actually. We're going to go to America and join. Just decide, right? Be stable, you know? You've got to be that rock of stability. Make a decision and just follow through. Follow through. You know, if you line it up with the word of God, you'll be fine, you know? And the next point that I have here to be an effective leader, and I'll get you to turn to Acts 28, please. Go to Acts 28. Is you need to have confidence. You need to be confident as a leader, okay? Now, brethren, am I always confident? No, not always. You know, sometimes I prepare a sermon. I'm not even confident necessarily about the sermon. You know, I don't know if I've prepared well enough. I don't know if I've, you know, when I get behind the pulpit, I'm going to remember all those, as I'm always asking God, can you help me remember? Can you always, you know, help me preach, right? But here's the thing. If you're a leader, even when you're lacking some level of confidence, you've got to show people that you have confidence, okay? You've got to lead with confidence, okay? Because if you don't have confidence, neither will the people that are under you. And I'm going to read to you from Philippians 3, very familiar passage. It says, for we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. The first thing I want to talk to you about is, and again, I compare this to leadership qualities in any workplace. And they also had confidence. But you know what they viewed as confidence? Self confidence, right? Find confidence in self. But as Christians, as Bible-believing Christians, as saved people, we are to have no confidence in the flesh, okay? No confidence in yourself. Because when you have confidence just in yourself, in your own strength, that's pride. You know, you're relying on your pride. You think you're able to accomplish things. And this is why it's so important that one of the qualifications of a pastor is not a novice, all right? Not a novice says, less being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. That's a novice, that's new. A new believer, or just lacking knowledge, you know, in the Bible, they're going to be fueled on their own self-pride, on their own self-confidence, you know? And it's going to bring them the condemnation of them. They're going to be lifted up with pride and brought down low, humiliated by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so if we don't have confidence in our flesh or in ourselves, self-confidence, you know, we get our confidence from where? From the Lord, okay? Our confidence from the Lord. Psalm 118 says, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. What a great thing. It is better to have your trust in the Lord. Verse number nine, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes. Even people of a high reputation, of a high status, it's still better to have your confidence in God than in some man, okay? Praise God. You guys are in Acts, look at Acts 28, verse 30. Acts 28, verse 30. It says here, this is the end of the book of Acts and sort of the last that we get of Paul's ministry, but I love how it ends. It says, and Paul dwelt two whole years in his own hired house and received all that came in unto him. And by the way, Paul is like under house arrest, all right? He's kind of still as a prison, as it were, of the Romans, okay? But does this stop him? Look at verse number 31. What's he doing to those that come into his house? Preaching the kingdom of God, look at this, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at this. With all confidence, no man forbidding him. If you want to be a teacher, a preacher, a pastor, a leader, you have to do it in confidence. Confidence, you know? And if you're a soul winner, go soul winning in confidence. Be confident about the message you're bringing. Be confident about salvation. Don't be soft. Don't be weak. Don't let people push you around, okay? Don't let people push you around. There's always people that just want to show, you know, like basically tear you down. You know, that they want to make you feel afraid, okay? They want to discourage you at the door, and you just got to have the confidence. You know, I think I can probably think of many people that I've seen saved at the door, and part of that, that God saved, yes, the faith in the word of God, yes, but the confidence by which the message was preached, right? The boldness, the zeal by which the message was preached. You believe, you really believe this, right? You believe that if I put my faith in Christ, I'll be saved, and that's giving them the encouragement, the motivation, right? The persuasiveness to put their faith in Jesus Christ as well. We need to be confident people, you know, and again, I'm not talking about pride. Pride is different, right? Pride is different. Pride is confidence in self. No, we need to get our confidence from the Lord, and another way of saying confidence is like courage or courageous, right? Being courageous about the things that you preach and believe. You guys are in Acts. Go to Acts chapter five for me. Acts chapter five verse 27. Acts chapter five verse 27. This is when the apostles were brought before the chief priests in the temple for preaching about Jesus Christ, and they were trying to stop them from preaching the gospel, right? Acts 5 27. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council, and the high priest asked them, saying, did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? Right? That's like when you knock on someone's door. Hey, can you not come to my house ever again? Can you take my house off the list? You know, didn't I tell you before? I don't know who they're talking about, right? Didn't we tell your people before not to come to my house? Same thing, right? Didn't we tell you not to come, not to preach? And behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than man. You know, someone's saying to you, why are you preaching? And I get that from time to time. Hey, I don't come to your door. Why are you coming to my door? You know, this is something you shouldn't do. I've had Christian, so-called Christians say, hey, this is not what we should do. We shouldn't, you should let people believe what they want. Yeah, we let people believe what they want. They don't want to believe the gospel. We let them not believe the gospel. We move on, okay? You know, but our response ought to be the same way they responded. We ought to obey God rather than man. You know, and I've never backed down. I've had people call me trying to discourage, say, hey, we're going to call the cops on you for littering on our doorstep with your tracks or whatever. I'm like, call the police, all right? You got to have confidence. You got to have bonus and say, look, nothing's going to stop our church from preaching the gospel. Nothing's going to stop that, okay? They're expecting that weak, that weak reverend, okay? For lack of a better word, that weak reverend, you know, the soft voice and the little white collar on his neck to just cave in and ask for forgiveness. No, they're not going to get that, okay? And I love responding to these people because they haven't faced real Christians before, people that have the Holy Ghost, that have the confidence, that believe in the message of salvation, that just can't help but get out there and preach the gospel. They haven't met those people before, right? And so when they meet you, they're surprised. Hey, look, that's good. You're planting a seed just by your testimony, okay? They might wake up and say, well, man, I got rid of him, but why was he so confident? Why didn't you back down? I might look into this. I hope so. I hope that's the, you know, so I don't mind people calling me because it gives me an opportunity to give them the gospel if I can do that, but if you drop down to verse number 41 in the same chapter, look, drop down to verse number 41, and I love how they react to all this. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. That's what they're trying to do. They're trying to shame us from going door to door. Well, let's count ourselves worthy to suffer shame for his name. Let's rejoice when that happens. Verse 42, and daily in the temple, in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. That's how we ought to be, okay? Nothing should cause us to cease and to teach and preach the Lord Jesus Christ. Confidence, we need confidence. We need courage. You know, that's what's going to help us to be leaders. And if you're not a leader with confidence, with courage, you can't expect those that are under you to have that, you know, to have that integrity, to have that courage, or that confidence in the Lord. Okay, so let me just quickly summarize the first four points. You've got to be a visionary, you've got to be accountable, you've got to be decisive, and you've got to be confident, okay? Confident in the Lord. Now, if you guys can go to, go to Romans 12 for me, Romans chapter 12. The next point that I have here is influential. To be a leader, you have to be influential. Now, I kind of wanted to call this manipulative, okay? The problem with the word, I can't even say it now. If you know, the problem with being a manipulator, you know, if someone says you're a manipulator, it carries a negative context, right? That's kind of the thought there. And because some people say, well, you're a manipulator if you take advantage of someone's situation, right? Like they're sort of ignorantly doing something that you've made them to do, and you're taking advantage of them at their expense. But that's not actually what the word manipulative means, okay? To manipulate means to be skillful with the tools that you have, okay? And so I know, I realize it carries a negative context. That's not what I'm trying to, I'm not trying to say that as leaders, we take advantage of people's misfortunes or something like that. I'm saying that we ought to be influential, okay? We ought to be, leaders ought to be someone that can cause someone to see things in a different light, in a different way. Now, if we have a vision and someone's not in lockstep with that vision, as a leader, you need to be able to influence them to get on that program, to get in line with the vision of that church. And yes, it takes a bit of manipulation, okay? And again, I'm not using that in a negative sense. Where did I ask you guys to turn? Romans 12. Romans 12 verse 17. I just want to read a few passages before we get into this. Romans 12, 17. And actually, before I read this, I've been criticized more than once of saying, oh, that Pastor Kevin, you know, he just wants to be well-liked by everybody, okay? He just wants to be well-liked, okay? I've heard that criticism to me. It doesn't bother me because I'm not, well, let's read. Let's read Romans 12, 17 first. It says here, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. Look at verse 18. If it be possible, as much as life in you, live peaceably with all men. Hey, that's a command, right? If it be possible, as much as life in you, live peaceably with all men. Listen, brethren, everybody that I've come in contact with in my life, you know, whether it's schooling, workplace, my churches, other acquaintances, whatever it is, you know what, I've always tried to get along with those people. Yeah, I've always tried to be liked. Do you think it's my goal in life to be hated by everybody? I mean, you know, that's my goal, just to be hated by everybody. No, my goal in life is to be liked, to get along with people, right? I want to help people. I want to try to open up opportunities to give them the gospel or whatever, right? If they're not saved, or if they are saved, to help them, to motivate them, to live a faithful Christian life. There's nothing wrong with you striving to be peaceful with all men. But it says, if it be possible, right? There are times when it's not going to be possible, all right? And when it's not possible, it's not possible, all right? And here's the thing, when people say, oh, he's trying to be liked by others. Well, yeah, I am, okay? But I'm not trying to be liked at the expense of God's word, all right? I'm not trying to sugarcoat God's word. I'm not trying to hide passages. And if I'm preaching something that causes someone to dislike me, so be it, right? Then it wasn't possible to live peacefully with that person. It wasn't possible to be liked by that person if he gets offended by the word of God. But besides that, you know, in my regular life, you're not trying to get along with everybody. Even if they believe a false gospel, I hope to get along to be friendly, you know, to be peaceful. Who knows the opportunities that might open up in the future, all right? And I'm going to, if you guys can please go to, I want you to turn to John one, go to John chapter one. And this is the thing that we need to have a balance of, guys. Living peaceably with all men, but also having the truth of God's word and not, like I said, watering down God's truth. We've got to have these two things in life, okay? It's not live peaceably and get along with everybody at the expense of God's word. And it's not like just, you know, we'll have a look. Sorry, where did I ask you guys to turn? John one? Look at John 1 14. John 1 14. We see the balance that Jesus Christ had here. It said, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of God, full of grace and truth. What was Jesus Christ full of? Truth, yes, but also grace, undeserved merit, undeserved favor, okay? Did Jesus compromise the truth? No, he did not, okay? He always preached, in fact he is the truth, okay? He is the word of God, but he also was full of grace, okay? He didn't just have the truth and say, okay, we're the truth. I'm just going to offend everybody that I possibly can, okay? No, he knew he's facing sinners. He knew he's coming to a place to seek and to save that which was lost and so he had grace about him, okay? For those, you saw how he manages, you know, how he deals with prostitutes and publicans. He would eat with them, okay? He would get along with them. He strived to get along with them, but he would not neglect the truth either. We need to be balanced, brethren, in these two things. We see Jesus, truth, grace, grace and truth, all right? Grace is how you get along with others, right? Giving people grace, finding grace in your eyes for other people at the same time having truth. You know, if I wanted to, I could criticize every family in this church, every family down in Sydney. I could just sit there and just with the truth of God's word, look at everybody's problems and just shove it in their faces, you know, and say, well, it's the truth. Yeah, but I wouldn't be doing it with a lot of grace, all right? I wouldn't be doing it with, I wouldn't be balanced in these two things and I'm afraid sometimes that we have Christians or Christianity which is full of truth, which is amazing, which is awesome. We need the truth, but lacking the grace or no grace whatsoever. That's not a balanced Christian. That's not a leader, all right? That's not a leader and you're not going to be influential. If you're just Bible beating someone with the truth, you're not going to be influential to help that person live in that truth, to change that about them, okay? That's where the grace comes in. That's where the living peaceably with all men come in is that you're trying to be influential to other people. Proverbs 3 says, look at this, let not mercy and truth forsake thee. What's the instruction? Let not mercy and truth forsake thee. Two things together once again, right? Mercy, being merciful to other people, but also truthful. Mercy and truth. Don't let it forsake thee. Bind them about thy neck. Write them upon the table of thy heart. Look at this. So shalt thou find favor and good understanding in the sight of God and man, okay? Are we trying to find favor with man? Yes, okay? But we need to have the mercy with men because we're all sinners. We're all failures. We all have mistakes, right? And truth, to help them to get past those issues, to help them, to teach them, to guide them, and also for yourself. I mean, I'm sure you want people's grace. I'm sure you want people's mercy when you make mistakes, all right? But you don't want people to compromise the truth because without the truth, you're not going to be able to undo the wrong things that you have in your life, okay? The last thing that I want to read to you is 1 Corinthians 8.1. It says, and as touching things offered unto idols, we know that we all have knowledge. So let's substitute knowledge with truth there. It's the same kind of idea. You know, knowledge, knowledge of the truth. And it says here, knowledge puffeth up, but charity edify. What do we have? What's important? Knowledge, yes, but knowledge on its own puffeth up. Knowledge on its own fills you with pride. That's why we need to have charity which edifies, that lifts up other people. And if any man think that he knoweth anything, he knoweth nothing, yet as he ought to know. It says basically, those that have a lot of knowledge, those that have a lot of truth but have no charity, he says they know nothing. They're unprofitable to other people. They're full of truth. You're great, but you don't have the charity. How are you going to use that truth to edify other people? How are you going to use that truth to influence other people? And then it says here, verse number three, but if any man love God, the same is known of him. Okay? And that's why you need the mercy, the grace, the charity. Because when you have those things, then others that you're trying to influence will know whether you love God. If you don't have the mercy, you don't have the grace, you're not trying to edify one another, you're not trying to lift each other up. The conclusion is this man does not love God. He's full of truth, he's full of pride, he's being filled up with his knowledge. Okay? Nothing wrong with the knowledge, but it has to come hand in hand with the truth, hand in hand with grace, mercy, and charity. Okay? That's how you influence people. That's how you influence people. Okay? It's not about forcing someone. And this is what the cults do. If you don't believe like we do on some secondary issues or you leave our church, you're going to lose your salvation. That's manipulation. That is manipulation in a negative way. Right? I mean, there's no truth and there's no mercy there. Okay? Influencing people is giving people what they need, the resources they need, the love they need, the knowledge they need to make changes in themselves. All right? You want people to grow as a leader, you need to make sure you're influential to other people. Okay. Point number six that I have here. And I think this is so important. This is such a basic one, but I think it's very, very important. They're all important. They're all important. This one's very important. If you guys can go to 2 Corinthians for me. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, because you're in 1 Corinthians, aren't you? Oh, no, maybe not. But anyway, go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Before I read that, I'm going to read to you from Ephesians 3.1. It says here, for this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. So here we start with Ephesians. Paul is a prisoner for Christ, right? He's in prison, a prisoner of the Romans. But then in verse number 13, he says this. He goes, wherefore I desire, remember, he's writing to a church, to the Ephesians church. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. What's he saying to the church? Yes, I'm in prison. Yes, I'm in persecution. But I don't want you to faint. Okay. You know, I will I rather, so it says here, which is your glory. He says, I want you to glory. I want you to glory at the persecution that I'm going through. I want you to glory that I'm in jail. I don't want you to faint. I don't want you to get discouraged. I don't want you to become negative. The sixth point that I have for you to be an effective leader is that you're positive. You're positive. You have a positive outlook. Okay. Even in the face of being in prison, even in the face of persecution, you are positive minded. Okay. Second Corinthians chapter 12, you guys are there. Second Corinthians chapter 12, verse nine. Second Corinthians chapter 12, verse nine. And he said unto me, and by the way, the reason I want to read Ephesians to you is because Paul realized as a leader in his suffering, he could cause those that were under him to faint, to give up. Okay. And if you are negative as a leader, you can cause those that are under you to give up to say, well, what's the positive outlook. If my leader's negative, you know, what's the point of continuing in this project or whatever it is that you're accomplishing to do. Second Corinthians 12, nine. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I love Paul. Look, I glory, right? I rather glory in my infirmities. He's sick. I'm going to glory. I don't care. I'm not going to be negative about being sick. I'm going to glory about being sick. Why? Because I'm going to find the strength that comes from God. Verse number 10. Sorry, glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Verse 10. Therefore, therefore, I take pleasure. Hey, this is a positive outlook. I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong, he says. Hey, Paul's very positive, even in the face of very negative or trying times, okay? In trying times. And he's doing this to encourage the churches. He's a leader. God's put him in place to lead, be an apostle to these churches. And he's trying to encourage the brethren in the face of persecution, in the face of trials. And brethren, I mean, I'm just saying this, even not being a leader, just being a regular church member, a regular believer, you need to have a positive outlook to it. There's a lot of things to be negative about, but are you in prison? Are you being persecuted like Paul? You know, you've been stoned outside of the city, being put to death and these kinds of things. No, but we still get negative. We still get upset. We know we go through things. Now, is there ever a time to get upset? Of course, there's a time for these things, okay? In fact, I think I've got the passage here. Ecclesiastes 3, one, to everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Verse number four says, a time to weep. And then it says, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance. There is time to weep. There is a time to mourn. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that, okay? When you're suffering, when people are suffering, you need to weep. You need to mourn. You need to pray for one another, have a heavy heart for other people, right? But you can't stay in that state. As a leader, you got to say, well, this is where we find ourselves. We're weak means we can get the strength of God. We can be stronger than we've ever been before because we can rely fully on the strength that comes from God. That's been positive. That's having a positive outlook to life. And that's what's going to cause you to be a great leader is when you can turn things around. I'll just use my wife as an example. She's heavily pregnant with number 11, 10 kids. And sometimes she's like, I couldn't finish what I wanted to finish today. I couldn't get through all the schooling today. I couldn't get everything done. So it's true. She's looking at it. She wishes she could do more. But then as a husband, I don't want her to be downcast. I want her to be positive minded. I say, well, honey, you've got 10 kids, honey, they're all fed, right? They're clothed. You know, you got through, look, you be thankful for what you've been able to get through today. And tomorrow's a brand new day. The things that you couldn't accomplish today, you've got all of tomorrow to accomplish. Praise God for that. You know, but as a leader, you've got to be that positive influence. You know, you've got to, yes, there are times when things are hard, but you've got to turn that around and be positive. Paul sets such a great example for the churches there in Ephesians and Corinthians for us. And then I've got my last points here. So much to my last point now, guys, if you guys can turn to, I'm not sure. Go to Colossians 4, please. Go to Colossians 4 for me. Colossians 4 verse 6. Colossians 4 verse 6. The last point, the seventh point that I have of being an effective leader is that you've got to be a communicator. Communicator, okay? You've got to pass on information. I'm not just talking about preaching, just keeping everybody up to date with how things are going. Whatever it is, right? Whatever goals you set, keep people up to date, communicate to one another. The Bible says in Colossians 4, 6, let your speech be all way with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man, okay? As a leader, you need to give an answer to every man. I try hard to in church announcements to give you guys an update, whatever's going on, if there's something important to let you guys know. One thing, this has come sort of, this is something that hasn't changed yet in Sydney, because in Sydney, I'm down there just one day a week, right? I'm down there on Tuesdays. I give the announcements on Tuesdays, but sometimes there are people that aren't in church on Tuesdays that are there on Sundays, for example. And I don't really, I'm not there every, I'm not there often. I'm there for that one service. At least with the church up here, I'm here for free services. We might fellowship in soloing. We have the men's Bible study, and we have other times that we catch up, right? And so if I feel like I need to communicate more, or maybe someone missed out on something, I have a lot more flexibility to be able to communicate that to people here. But down there, I realized that when people are missing out on information, then there's confusion. There's confusion. Is this happening, or is that happening, or whatever? And so what I had to change down in Sydney was, as you guys know, is create a leadership team down there with some men, okay, that are actually there every service, that are there faithfully attending church, and for them to have meetings every two months, and that those meetings need to be documented and passed to the rest of the church. So whatever's decided in the church, that then also gets communicated to everybody in the church. And so everybody can read those minutes. Oh, this is what's been decided. This is what we're doing. This is the building we're going for. We're not going for a building, or whatever it is, you know. We have these expenses. We have these costs, whatever it is that gets communicated to them, so everybody's on the same page. You know, we need to, as leaders, be communicators. People need to know what's going on. You need to give them information, because when they don't have information, they're going to naturally think you're hiding something. They're going to naturally think you're trying to hold back information, when you're probably not trying to. You're just not communicating well enough. And I found being a communicator is such an important element of being a good leader. All right. Now, if you can please go to Proverbs 15. Go to Proverbs 15. Proverbs 15 verse 28. Proverbs 15 verse 28. I just love the principle that we have here in Proverbs. It says, the heart of the righteous studieth to answer. Okay, so it's not just communicating for the sake of communication. It's not having meetings for the sake of having meetings. Okay, because that's just, if you're just talking, you can be wasting time. You know, time is a precious commodity that God has given us, and so it's important that we go and study, then we answer. You know, we prepare. We think, what needs to be communicated? What do people need to know? You know, I don't want to waste people's time. I don't want to waste my own time. You know, and then pass on the relevant information. And then the rest of the prophet says, but the mouth of the wicked pour out evil things. Okay, so someone that, yeah, there's a lot of wicked people that communicate, but they just communicate vain, wicked nonsense things. If we're going to communicate as leaders, we make sure that it's effective communication. It's profitable. It makes sense. It's given us knowledge. It's given us clarity of mind. And now go to Proverbs 26, please. Go to Proverbs 26. And while you're turning there, I'm going to read to you from Ephesians 4 25. And when it comes to communication, again, the reason why we want to communicate, because it's important for a leader to be transparent. Okay, people need to feel like I can go and ask Pastor Kevin, whatever I need. You know, I need a clarification about what we're doing in church. I need to be comfortable to be able to go to that person and ask them a question. Okay, you need to be transparent. Okay, because the Bible says in Ephesians 4 25, wherefore put in a way lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. We're members, we're one body, we're one church of one another. So it's important that we speak truth. Okay, we're transparent. Anything you need to know about me, or I guess my sins that I have, you know, that I confess to God, that's between me and God, right? But you know, the running of the church, right? Whatever it is that you need to know, maybe you have some Bible questions for me, I don't know, I need to go back and think about that. I need to be transparent, especially with the running of this church, okay? Especially with the finances. This is why I give you guys a report every six months, right? Because I take down what comes in, I take down what goes out, I build spreadsheets on that. And then I report to you guys what's going on. That's important for any church that we communicate those things. And it's important to be transparent. Now, something that I've had to learn since being a pastor, though, is that it's good to be transparent to your church members. But you don't need to be transparent to everybody. Okay, you don't have to be transparent to everybody. Look at Proverbs 26 verse four. Proverbs 26 verse four, it says, Answer, not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. You know, I wasn't expecting this when I became a pastor. But I get foolish people, I get fools calling me, asking questions for me to be transparent. Now, they're not members of my church, I don't know who they are. They asked me things to try to trip me over, try to find something to come out of my mouth, to potentially accuse me of. Nothing new. Jesus Christ went through that, okay? Many people that are righteous believers will go through that. And I realized just going through the experience, that there are times that I'm just not going to answer the fool. Okay, I'm just not answering. He asked me a question, he sends me a stupid email, I'm just going to chuck in the spam or whatever, right? Chuck it in, delete, delete. I'm not even going to respond. I'm not going to. In fact, that's how I'm going to answer, right? The instruction was that you may know how you ought to answer every man. Well, I'm going to answer this fool by not answering him. Okay, we have the instruction as well given to us in Proverbs 26 verse four. But then in verse 25, you can also use your wisdom, which says, answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit. So there are fools that you can actually answer and have an influence on, okay? Otherwise, they're going to be wise in their own conceit. They're going to think they're right when you can actually correct them and show them they're wrong, okay? So there are some fools like that, just lacking knowledge that you can help. And there are fools that aren't looking for an answer and or trying to find something to accuse you of, then there's no point of you being transparent to that person because they're just trying to trip you over. They're just trying to fool you. All right, guys. So those are the qualities and look, I can come up with more, but I'll leave it at that. So I'll just go through those seven things once again. Effective leadership. I want to be an effective pastor. If you guys ever take on leadership positions or if your fathers, your supervisors in work, please take these things into consideration. How to be an effective leader? Be a visionary. Number one. Number two, be accountable. Number three, be decisive. Number four, be confident. Number five, be influential. Number six, be positive. And number seven, be a communicator. Let's pray.