Be Blessed, Build Teams, and Change the World
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Be Blessed, Build Teams, and Change the World
Be Blessed, Build Teams, and Change the World
Be Blessed, Build Teams, and Change the World
Here is the bottom line: people can’t be successful if they don’t first get out of their own way. Most of us have to learn to empty ourselves in order to serve others. Once we are free of our own needs we can lead and effectively participate on teams and help others at the same time.
The opportunity to be successful is all around us. The opportunity to build successful organizations, lead great teams, and to solve major problems in the world is right in front of us, but we must first get out of our own way. You might argue we have to empty ourselves of us.
Great leaders and great team members have one thing in common: they are confident enough to know that the organization's goals are not about them. This comes from being sure about their strengths and sure about their weaknesses, and having convictions about what should be done next. Effective leaders align all of their work around the mission of the company, because they are secure with who they are and why they are doing the work.
Conversely, someone who is unsure of where they belong, unaware of their contribution, unclear about how to deploy their gifts and not confident in their destiny, tend to repel others. In their insecurity, they are constantly wondering, “What about me? How does this impact me?” They doubt the good of the team effort because they worry how everything affects them personally. They see other people as means to serve their goals — they can’t get past themselves.
Here is the bottom line: people can’t be successful if they don’t first get out of their own way. Most of us have to learn to empty ourselves in order to serve others. Once we are free of our own needs we can lead and effectively participate on teams and help others at the same time.
The Starting Place
If the key is to get out of our own way in order to be a successful contribution to the world, how do we do this? Jesus, the greatest leader and team builder in the history of the world offers Himself as the Answer to what we are missing on our own and our inability to perform righteously.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus outlines nine blessings for those who follow Him. Many people refer to them as The Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are the character gifts of The Gospel that are bestowed on those who follow Jesus. They are gifts that come with deep belief in the Gospel of Jesus. These blessings for a successful life are a free gift to be received. These blessings cannot be earned through hard work or performance. Jesus starts His most famous sermon with this simple and deeply profound blessing.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” - [.no-reftag]Matthew 5:3[.no-reftag]
Let’s take a look at this profound truth in two essentially momentous parts.
Empty to Be Full
“Blessed are the poor in spirit…” - this is the starting point for everyone who believes in Jesus.
We are all spiritual beings living in temporary bodies. Our spirits — like our souls — are the most important thing about us because it's our spirits that last forever. We are poor in spirit because we realize our spirits are empty without Jesus.
We must know that we are nothing without Him. We must understand that we have no ability to guide our lives in the right direction. We have no ability to love or understand the attributes of God and we have no ability to extend our lives past this current world. We can not accomplish anything good without Jesus. Faith in Jesus is a free gift of God, and cannot be earned so that none of us will become boastful (Ephesians 2:8-9).
In his sermon on this Beatitude, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains what it means to be poor in spirit this way, “It means a complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self-assurance and of self-reliance. It means a consciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God. It is nothing, then, that we can produce; it is nothing that we can do in ourselves. It is just this tremendous awareness of our utter nothingness as we come face-to-face with God. That is to be poor in spirit.”
Our inability to do anything on our own is certainly a spiritual truth, but it's also a daily practical reality because every moment we live and work is spiritual.
Jesus understood that He was nothing without God the Father. He said He could do nothing without the Father (John 5:19). Jesus later said we can do nothing good without Him and that anything we do without Him is worthless (John 15:5).
Believe Your Destiny
“…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” As children of God, we are heirs of the kingdom, the kingdom that Jesus ushered in when He came to earth, and the kingdom of God that lasts forever.
Our initial life on earth is a gift from God and so is our eternal life. Jesus is true life. He offers His life to us as the core of who we are (John 1:4). He calls anyone who receives Him to become a child of God (John 1:12). This is incredibly Good News!
As heirs of the kingdom of God, everything that lasts is ours! The kingdom of God which is here now (Luke 17:21) and will last forever. The reality is incredibly impactful on us now because we know who we are and where we are going. And, forever is unfathomably glorious — we will live in glory with Jesus forever.
We lack no good thing (Psalm 23:1)! We know where we are headed and this leaves us with exactly what we should do.
Mission Alignment
As children of God we follow Jesus and do the very same work Jesus did wherever we go.
Mission Alignment Practice
As a follower of Jesus, we have a distinct advantage when it comes to building purpose focused organizations and cohesive teams because we have been given the advantage of having a mission that is bigger than ourselves and we are incredibly confident in our destiny.
This propels us to move into the world and build organizations made of cohesive teams with incredible clarity and systems that reinforce clarity in a way that allows us to bless the world.
*Image courtesy of The Table Group
Patrick Lencioni says that the difference between a team of people that work together and a leadership team is that the true leadership team takes collective responsibility. “Collective responsibility implies, more than anything else, selflessness and shared sacrifices from team members.”
You see…once we know our greatest mission on earth, once we’re sure of our final destiny we are equipped to build organizations, great teams, and to serve the world one opportunity at a time.
Resources:
Article: The Answer to the Performance Trap | Howard Graham
Article: You are Called to New Work | Howard Graham
Book: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business
Video: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit| Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
The opportunity to be successful is all around us. The opportunity to build successful organizations, lead great teams, and to solve major problems in the world is right in front of us, but we must first get out of our own way. You might argue we have to empty ourselves of us.
Great leaders and great team members have one thing in common: they are confident enough to know that the organization's goals are not about them. This comes from being sure about their strengths and sure about their weaknesses, and having convictions about what should be done next. Effective leaders align all of their work around the mission of the company, because they are secure with who they are and why they are doing the work.
Conversely, someone who is unsure of where they belong, unaware of their contribution, unclear about how to deploy their gifts and not confident in their destiny, tend to repel others. In their insecurity, they are constantly wondering, “What about me? How does this impact me?” They doubt the good of the team effort because they worry how everything affects them personally. They see other people as means to serve their goals — they can’t get past themselves.
Here is the bottom line: people can’t be successful if they don’t first get out of their own way. Most of us have to learn to empty ourselves in order to serve others. Once we are free of our own needs we can lead and effectively participate on teams and help others at the same time.
The Starting Place
If the key is to get out of our own way in order to be a successful contribution to the world, how do we do this? Jesus, the greatest leader and team builder in the history of the world offers Himself as the Answer to what we are missing on our own and our inability to perform righteously.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus outlines nine blessings for those who follow Him. Many people refer to them as The Beatitudes. The Beatitudes are the character gifts of The Gospel that are bestowed on those who follow Jesus. They are gifts that come with deep belief in the Gospel of Jesus. These blessings for a successful life are a free gift to be received. These blessings cannot be earned through hard work or performance. Jesus starts His most famous sermon with this simple and deeply profound blessing.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” - [.no-reftag]Matthew 5:3[.no-reftag]
Let’s take a look at this profound truth in two essentially momentous parts.
Empty to Be Full
“Blessed are the poor in spirit…” - this is the starting point for everyone who believes in Jesus.
We are all spiritual beings living in temporary bodies. Our spirits — like our souls — are the most important thing about us because it's our spirits that last forever. We are poor in spirit because we realize our spirits are empty without Jesus.
We must know that we are nothing without Him. We must understand that we have no ability to guide our lives in the right direction. We have no ability to love or understand the attributes of God and we have no ability to extend our lives past this current world. We can not accomplish anything good without Jesus. Faith in Jesus is a free gift of God, and cannot be earned so that none of us will become boastful (Ephesians 2:8-9).
In his sermon on this Beatitude, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones explains what it means to be poor in spirit this way, “It means a complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self-assurance and of self-reliance. It means a consciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God. It is nothing, then, that we can produce; it is nothing that we can do in ourselves. It is just this tremendous awareness of our utter nothingness as we come face-to-face with God. That is to be poor in spirit.”
Our inability to do anything on our own is certainly a spiritual truth, but it's also a daily practical reality because every moment we live and work is spiritual.
Jesus understood that He was nothing without God the Father. He said He could do nothing without the Father (John 5:19). Jesus later said we can do nothing good without Him and that anything we do without Him is worthless (John 15:5).
Believe Your Destiny
“…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” As children of God, we are heirs of the kingdom, the kingdom that Jesus ushered in when He came to earth, and the kingdom of God that lasts forever.
Our initial life on earth is a gift from God and so is our eternal life. Jesus is true life. He offers His life to us as the core of who we are (John 1:4). He calls anyone who receives Him to become a child of God (John 1:12). This is incredibly Good News!
As heirs of the kingdom of God, everything that lasts is ours! The kingdom of God which is here now (Luke 17:21) and will last forever. The reality is incredibly impactful on us now because we know who we are and where we are going. And, forever is unfathomably glorious — we will live in glory with Jesus forever.
We lack no good thing (Psalm 23:1)! We know where we are headed and this leaves us with exactly what we should do.
Mission Alignment
As children of God we follow Jesus and do the very same work Jesus did wherever we go.
Mission Alignment Practice
As a follower of Jesus, we have a distinct advantage when it comes to building purpose focused organizations and cohesive teams because we have been given the advantage of having a mission that is bigger than ourselves and we are incredibly confident in our destiny.
This propels us to move into the world and build organizations made of cohesive teams with incredible clarity and systems that reinforce clarity in a way that allows us to bless the world.
*Image courtesy of The Table Group
Patrick Lencioni says that the difference between a team of people that work together and a leadership team is that the true leadership team takes collective responsibility. “Collective responsibility implies, more than anything else, selflessness and shared sacrifices from team members.”
You see…once we know our greatest mission on earth, once we’re sure of our final destiny we are equipped to build organizations, great teams, and to serve the world one opportunity at a time.
Resources:
Article: The Answer to the Performance Trap | Howard Graham
Article: You are Called to New Work | Howard Graham
Book: The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business
Video: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit| Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones