Okay, now guys, the recorders going so if you're talking a lot, you'll be on the radio there recording. Okay, thank you very much. And it's great to see everybody here. And first of all, Our most kind and gracious Heavenly Father, I thank you for these men who've come out to hear your word. And I ask you, Father, please take me, this vessel, this man that only relies on you for the words here. Use me as an instrument of your peace. And just guide me in what I say, and let this be edifying for the brethren here. refreshed and motivated to do your work. Guide us in all ways, in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Okay, I've been asked to first start off to let you know a little bit about myself because some people might be looking at me and saying, who is this yahoo that's up here talking? I'm not originally from North Carolina, just to let you know. And I'm not originally from Texas, much to my chagrin. I was born in California, but we got to Texas as soon as I could at three years old. So I'm a transplant Texan. So there's some good and bad in me. A lot of bad. But I went into the military. I'm a retired lieutenant colonel. I retired in December 2009. And since that time, I've been working as a GS civilian from 2010 to this time. That's my work life. In 2000, when I came back to Fort Bragg, a gentleman from this church, Mike Brochu, some might remember him, some might not. But he invited me to a friend's day here. And I came to this church and it reminded me of a church that I grew up in. And that year is when I became a member in 2000. And so I've been a member here since 2000. Off and on being deployed, different locations, both as military and civilian. And I've grown up with this. Because prior to that, I was not very dedicated to the church. And the Lord has convicted me of that and has allowed me to grow. And I thank the Lord for Pastor Sean, for your leadership, and for the church and the men here that have helped me to grow. Let's go the word, and then we'll talk about, am I a leader? And that's just to help everybody understand, I'm not giving you how to lead. Because you can read books on that all over the place. The military tries to teach you how to lead. Your different organizations teach you how to lead. That's what we're going to get into. And so we're going to go to Ephesians 5. If we can go to Ephesians 5.22. We're going to read through 6.9. In 522, it starts, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by washing of water with word. so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. The mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the Church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother. This is the first commandment with a promise that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. As we start the new year, this is a great time to reflect on our lives and a good time for commitment. And we should examine ourselves. First, are we in the faith? And second, are we growing in that faith? How's that sanctification going? Are you growing in the Lord? representing is, am I a leader? Are you a leader? That's the question we should ask in ourselves. And this question is relevant to anybody. If you're married, if you have a fiance, if you're single, if you're a young man, if you're an old man. If you are just out in the world and living as a Christian, it applies to you. Are you a leader? And so I'm going to start this with a basis, and then I'm going to go into three different areas I'm going to take from and hopefully expound in the leadership side on what Pastor Mike brought on New Year's Day. We're going to discuss this with the prayer, the word, and serve. And I'm also going to do that in, am I a leader in my own life, in my personal life? Am I a leader in my family or in my relationships, close relationships? And am I a leader out in the world? But I can't start this without first saying, if you have not placed your faith in the gospel, in the death of Jesus Christ for our sins in accordance with the Scripture, He was buried and rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scripture. What I'm going to say today is not going to have any effect or is not really going to apply to you. That's the first step. You cannot be the leader that the Lord wants if you are not a believer. If you have not placed your whole hope I'll start by giving you a short basis. And with that, we look back in what we have read in Ephesians, that the man is the head of the family. Paul also went on and described that some in 1 Timothy 2, verses 12 through 14. Paul explains why that has been done. Man was made first. And he was not deceived in the garden. And speaking of that deception, and it was in the garden in Genesis 3.16, when God talked to the woman, he said to her that her vision, well, let's go there. I'm not going to try to, let's go to Genesis 3.16. the first. To the woman he said, I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you. And then all of a sudden said, yeah, I'm in charge. I'm the man, you follow me and I'll lead the way. I don't think that's the attitude we should have. Because again, if you go back to Ephesians, we're supposed to love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it. And oh, by the way, as Pastor Sean said before, leadership is about people. And are you focusing on your wife? Are you focusing on your children? Are you on the people that you lead and being a servant and giving yourself up for them in your life? When I received my first platoon as a second lieutenant, I was in charge. I was responsible. Everything that that platoon did or did not do was on me. If it failed its mission, it was my fault. If it didn't do exactly what the company commander wanted it to do, it was my fault. If somebody messed up and got out of line, it was my fault. Do we take that responsibility in the family? If you're the head, you're the lead, that is a responsibility. Now, as a lieutenant, was I supposed to go out there and run roughshod over the platoon sergeant, the squad leader, the team leaders? Was I supposed to micromanage and nitpick and throw them out of the way? No way. One, I'm going to use the S word, that would have been stupid. All you NCOs know that. And you officers who know a few things, you know that too. But they had knowledge. It's not like they're just pawns to move around and neither is your wife and neither are your children. Just pawns to push over. They had knowledge. Your wife has knowledge. I'm glad I don't see any surprise looks on you. And thirdly, that would have been the quickest way to get fired as a platoon leader. Because how many of you who have been in a following position and having a leader that didn't believe in you, didn't trust you, didn't work with you, and tried to run roughshod over you, how many of you really followed them really hard? If there was a question on something, you have a tendency to let it go and say, yeah, go ahead and let them fail. That's just how things happen. So are you causing your wife, your children, or am I causing my wife and my children to think that way? Well, it's on him. So how do we go about doing that? How do we work on this? it's by, again, putting people first. One thing my dad told me, he told me a lot of things, but one thing on leadership that he told me was, people will not follow you unless they respect you. And notice in the first that we had, it's had women to respect their husbands. Am I living the life that is respectable, that is something she can look at and respect. Am I leading a life that my children can respect? That's something we need to work on. And in working on that, what I will hit on is, again, going through the word, through prayer, and serve in our personal leadership, our familial leadership, and leading in the world. So let's start with prayer. Are you a leader in your own personal prayer life? Well, what do I mean by that? Do you take time, do you dedicate a time, do you identify a time when you will pray? And I'm not talking about before meals. Do you have a personal prayer time, a personal time with the Lord? you make that time. Now I could get from people, well, you know, I'm a believer. I am a Christian. I have the Holy Spirit inside me and he will lead me. Well, he's not going to lead you not to pray. And if you go back to Job, he says, I will make a covenant with my eyes. That is Him making the decision. This is the tension there of being led by the Holy Spirit and man's responsibility. One of your responsibilities is to seek God and go after Him. And are you making time to pray? You place importance on prayer. Paul said, that we should be consistent in prayer, constant in prayer. In Romans 12.12, he says, be constant in prayer. In Ephesians 6.18, he says, pray at all times. Colossians 4.12 says, continue steadfastly. And let's go to 1 Thessalonians 5.17 and 18. I've got a question. How do you get the variable to turn so quickly? Oh, okay, that's it. So first vessel onions, 17 and 18. Well, let's go to 16 first. Rejoice always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. That middle thing in there says to pray without ceasing. And it's hard to get started on anything without making a plan and doing it. So my recommendation on your personal side, in your leadership, dedicate a time to pray. And I can tell you from that time it will build and you will be in the constant prayer attitude of you don't have to have your eyes closed or anything, but if something comes up, you can talk to the Lord while you're driving, while you're doing something like that. But this needs to be a priority in your life. That's personal. Let's go to the familiar. Does your family know that you do pray? And again, I'm not talking about just at mealtime. Do they know you as a prayer? Do they know your routine and know that you do have this time of prayer? Do they know that when something comes up, you are praying for them? Do you have a prayer partner? For those who are married, is your wife a prayer partner? How about with any fiancés? Do you have a prayer partner with a fiancé? Is a friend your prayer partner? A mentor? A mentee? That's the person who gets mentored. Do you have a prayer partner? Do you have a group that you pray with on a consistent basis? Let's go to Luke 9, 28. We have a good example in that one. Now about eight days after these sayings, he, that's Jesus, took with him Peter, John, and James and went up on the mountain to pray. Jesus took time to separate from other people and took the three closest Do you have somebody with whom you can pray? I can tell you in my life, that is one area where I have to work. I need to dedicate myself to praying with somebody. And could it be, again, a mentor, mentee, maybe it's a partner who you've gotten with who will keep you accountable, an accountability partner. He'll hold you accountable to pray. And then if we go out on life, does the world know? The people at your work, if you don't work, the people that you associate with, do they know you're a prayer? Do others know that you pray? In Jeremiah 37.3, King Hezekiah, I believe it was, well, let's go there. Jeremiah 37.3. That's why I wrote it down so I could go there. It was one of the ayahs. Jeremiah 37.3, King Zedekiah sent Jehuchal, the son of Shelemiah, and Zephaniah, the priest, the son of Messiah, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, please pray for us to the Lord our God. The king knew that Jeremiah prayed. Does your boss, does your leadership, do the people you work with know that you pray? There's a guy that I work with in, I work at JSOC in the J7, that's the exercise division. I write after action reports. One of the exercise leaders' name was Charlie Salinero. He's got to be with the Lord. I think two years. People knew that he prayed. People knew that he loved the Lord just by his lifestyle. Every time we had to get together. Every time the J7 got together and they wanted to have a special occasion, he was asked to pray. the Lord. And I can tell you, after he died, he had cancer and he died. Even non-Christians would always talk about that he loved the Lord and that he prayed to the Lord. Are you known for that in your work area? Are you known for that in your daily life? That's what I should aspire to be. To be known as a prayer and someone they can count on to pray. What about the Word? Let's go to the personal life again. Same line as with prayer, you dedicate time each day to spend time in the Word. Have you made a decision and made a covenant in your heart that you will spend time with the Lord each day in His Word? Are you studying it? Like in Acts 17, 10 and 11? Anybody know what I'm talking about there? What is it? Yeah, the freeing. Were you studied and you checked. Go back and check what I'm saying. Don't just take what I'm saying for true. As Bereans, we should study and make sure that what that person is saying is true. So study the Word. Are you storing His Word in your heart so that you might not sin against God as it says in Psalm 119.7? Do you know God's Word and the narrative? Can you speak from Genesis to Revelation? Can you tell the narrative of God? As in 2 Timothy 2.15. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth. If you can't do that, if you can't say the narrative, Elder Mike Germany is doing the 30 days to understanding the Bible. Jump in his class, that helps us start. And you can get the narrative down, and you can be a leader in your personal life, and then as we go on, into your family. Are you a leader on studying the word in your family? In Deuteronomy, Let's go there. Deuteronomy 6, and it's 6 and 7. And I made sure I did six, because I wanted to show you there's a certain word in here that is, for me, kind of important. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. That sounds like somebody who is taking the Word to their family and also in their work life. So, is the Word of God important to you and your family? Do you have a family devotion time? Okay, I'm stepping on my own feet here. When I first got married to Natanya, we were lucky enough I started a family Bible study with us. That lasted all about two months. Because I allowed it to become overcome by events. That's on me. That's that lieutenant who failed in that task. If you don't have one, now is the time to repent. and to start up. It's the beginning of a year. And it's starting a new day to start up. And if you don't know how, I'm gonna embarrass them, but two people I know of, Marcus Lewis and Austin Quintero, do have family Bible studies. If you know somebody else that already does that, get with them and ask them how they do it, what they do. And here's the extra. This is for free, for what you paid for it, the sidebar. Are you leading by example in studying and praising the Lord? I brought this up actually when I first talked to Pastor Mike about this. This was the area I was going to talk about today. But then I found out, you know what, Jeff, that's your personal problem. And probably we wouldn't be able to speak very long on that. But are you praising the Lord? Are you singing to the Lord? In all the Psalms, or not all of them, in many Psalms, such as 102.18, it says, praise the Lord, 106.1 says it. Let's go to Romans 15.11. Paul says, and again, praise the Lord, all you Gentiles. I don't think there's any natural born Jews here or Hebrews or anything. We're all Gentiles. Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples extol Him. You know, that's not a request. That's a command. And we should be praising the Lord. In 2 Samuel 6, what's happening there? David is bringing the ark into Jerusalem. He is dancing around. Michael, his wife, says, you are embarrassing yourself dancing in front of everybody and letting the ephod show. And he said, I'll make more of a fool of myself. Because it's the Lord who is bringing the ark back into Jerusalem. He has blessed me so much by making me a king of Jerusalem. I will extol Him and praise Him with all my heart. Now let me tell you people, If the Lord has blessed you by allowing you to be saved, if He has called you to be His son, saved by His grace, you've gotten a whole lot more than what David ever got by being king. So why aren't you praising the Lord? And I'm sorry, but that gets my heart when I'm up in the choir loft And yes, I'm trying not to judge, but it's kind of hard. It's sort of like a jumpmaster. You're taught to do the jumpmaster parachute inspection, and you're given perfect jumpers to check. And when you find something wrong, it pops out like that. When I'm up in the choir singing, Everybody is singing and then that one person or two people are standing there like this That pops out like Like a bad Part on a JMPI and So maybe think about that for yourself But I don't I don't sing well so says Do those that work with you see that you study the Word every day? Are you living it out? Are you known by them, such as Pastor Mike brought up before in Exodus 34, 29, When Moses came down off the mountain, his face shone and people could see that he's been with the Lord. Can people see that you've been with the Lord? Or are you just like everybody else? Do you have that sour puss? Do you blame it on, well, I haven't had my coffee yet so I can be grumpy and everything. Or I haven't had my monster drink so I can be grumpy. Praise the Lord with how you live, and they should see the Lord in you as you live. Do you share the gospel? We kind of have a command on doing that. Sort of like in Matthew 28, 18 through 20. It says, go, as you are going, as you are living life, at the opportunity, spread the word. And that gets into serving. Do you have a mindset to serve? Do you have a heart to serve? Or do you expect others to serve you? How about in Luke 22, 24 through 27? Anybody know why I'm going there? It's Luke 22, verses 24 through 27. As a dispute also arose among them, this is the disciples, as to which of them was regarded as the greatest, He said to them, the kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them, and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you. Rather, let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For who is the greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? but I am among you as the one who serves. Jesus said this right after he washed the disciples' feet. Now, if the God of this world, if our Lord and Savior can wash dirty, nasty feet, I think we should be able to have the mindset to serve, to follow His example. How about your family? Does your family see you as serving them? Or do they wait on you hand and foot? Do you come home, sit on the couch, and wait to be fed and nurtured? As we saw in Ephesians, as your loving As you are loving your wife, you are putting yourself out there for her. And you are not to grieve your children, making them your slaves. Do they know you as someone who serves? And in that, have you taken time to know your wife? to know what is good for her and what you can do to help her. Just off the cuff, or not off the cuff, but one example. For the last two years, my wife has bought me on Christmas and my birthday some gifts that I never even talked to her about. I didn't know about it. But they were perfect. They were exactly what I wanted. You know what I do? I buy her stuff that she puts on Amazon. Okay? I need to know my wife better. I need to be able to understand what she likes and what is important to her without her having to put it in the Amazon cart so that I can buy it. Do I know my wife that well? No, I need to get to know her better. How about you? How about your friends, those that don't have wives? Do you know them? Do you know them well enough to serve them, to do something for them without them asking you that will be benefit to them? Are you serving? And finally, at work. or at church. What is your service here at church? What do you do here at church? Well, I fill the seat. Well, great. You're keeping that cushion warm. But what's that doing for the Lord? Are you serving the church? We don't all have the same gifts as it says in Romans 12, 4-8. But are you using yours? Are you using what the Lord has given you? And let's go to work. Do you serve others? Are you known as someone who can be counted on? The go-to guy? Or are you just filling a space and collecting your paycheck? I agree with some terminology of you're an oxygen thief at that point. Are you benefiting others? Are you serving others? For a matter of fact, do you even work? Paul said in 1 Thessalonians that if you don't work, you don't eat. You are not a leader if you're not willing to work. Leadership is work. In closing, the main question I ask of myself and hopefully you'll ask of yourself is, am I a leader? Am I a leader? of me, am I a leader in my family and friends, and am I a leader at work or out in the world? If you can't say yes to that, make today the day you repent Let this year, 2023, be the year when people can say, Berean has men that are leaders. And let this be the year that we start doing that. Let's go to the Lord. Our Father in heaven, I just ask you to please take the words I ask you to please let them go to the heart, let them wash out those that weren't good and take the ones that you want. And let this be a time to change us, the need changing, to edify those that are doing what they're doing to keep on doing. And again, Father, we ask that we men at Buran be leaders so that your light can shine through Fayetteville. through Cumberland County, through the rest of North Carolina and the world, that you receive all the glory. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.