Leadership 1 Identity

Question from last week: Is leadership something you’re born with or something you learn? Hebrews 13:7 To consider a way of life and to imitate a faith means that there is intentionality and purposeful choices in actions. Leadership requires putting something into practice, not something that just naturally occurs. To imitate means an expectation and possibility for a person to follow and to accomplish what the leader has accomplished

Hebrews 13:24 A difference between leaders and the Lord’s people Set apart, not more important or better or worse or even superiority, but simply a difference Distinguishing factor between two groups of people

Romans 13:1-5 God has established authority God ordained leadership People are placed in positions outside of effort or skill or ability Divine appointment of leadership

Is leadership something you’re born with or something you learn? Both - leaders are born AND made We can all become better leaders Natural born leaders have a limit to their leadership – their personalities Learning leaders have no limits Romans 12:8 – gifts of leadership, but does not exclude growth in our gift

What is self? What makes up a human being?

BODY SOUL Mind, will, emotion SPIRIT

Body Physical vehicle and vessel that we inhabit What we use to sense and interact with the world We are more than our bodies, but our bodies are part of us, ownership Haircuts don’t make us feel like we’re missing a part of us

Soul Made up of our mind, our will, and our emotion What we REALLY think, how we perceive the world and other people Our thoughts make our decisions and determine our values and morals Our will determines our strength of convictions and our desires We resist temptations with our will Emotions are how we feel Feelings change all the time, depending on mood, situations, circumstances, outside influences Sense of self does not change even when our ‘soul’ changes (our thoughts, our desires, how we feel)

Spirit 1 Cor 14:14 Spirit is supernatural and communicates with God even outside of our soul Hebrews 4:12 Spirit and soul are divided by the Word of God Spirit is eternal – the part that lives on even after we die, when our minds are gone, the ‘self’ still exists John 3:8 – being born again is being born of the spirit. Not just physical or emotional, but spiritual

- Learned behaviour/values - man/environment effected Body // Personality - Mask - Self made - Changeable Soul // Character - Learned behaviour/values - man/environment effected - Changeable with effort Spirit // Temperament - In born - God created - Unchangeable - NOT AUTOMATICALLY EXPRESSED

Body/Personality Personality is an outward expression Personality traits include (but aren’t limited to): friendly, shy, outgoing, confident, polite, etc Personality can be a mask that we change when convenient (e.g. meeting your CEO vs family dinner) Put on different masks when required Easy to change Self created

Soul/Character Soul and character are aligned because it is our honest self (what we really think and feel about people/ourselves/situations) Easy to hide from others using masks, but aware of our own honest thoughts and feelings Defined by external influences (childhood, school, environment, life experiences, church, teaching, friends/people, etc) Change takes time and work (Rom 12; Eph 5:26) Slow and gradual change in character, renewing and washing of mind

Spirit/Temperament The nature that you’re born with Innate traits that you have but have not been learnt Beyond personality, but expression of temperament influences character and personality Who you REALLY are, outside of environments that you’re born with and outside of the masks that you put on Temperaments are often masked Can be suppressed We are at our best when we are true to ourselves Good leadership depends on being real and not being what people(including yourself) expect you to be

Spirit/Temperament Jer 1:5 God knows us before we’re born God sets us apart before we’re born God appoints us before we’re born Born with something to be known, not blank slates Our goal is to live according to the temperament, the spirit, that God has created us with

Spirit/Temperament When we go against our God given temperament, we develop coping mechanisms (not all of the symptoms are exclusive to misaligned temperaments) Less harmful: worry, anxiety, stress, need to be in control, complaining, addiction to TV/entertainment, shopping, etc More harmful: addiction to sex, pornography, gambling, alcohol etc Can even use church, ministry, recognition within Christian circles as compensating factors Solution it to live aligned with a true sense of identity and who God created us to be

Spirit/Temperament Does not mean we give in to every whim and do whatever we feel like DOES mean that we discover who God has created us to be and live according to His original plan for us Eph 4, 5 – list of standards of living Eph 4:24 – reason is not by effort or being untrue to ourselves Can only live up to the standards when we discover who God has created us to be – ‘true righteousness and holiness’ Putting off old man and putting on the ”new self, created to be like God” New self is the created self, the original plan. Old self is the one we created