Lead Up | Jan 8, 2023
• “You can't really know where you are going until you know where you have been.” Maya Angelou (American Poet)
• “Knowing where you are going is the first step to getting there.” Ken Blanchard (Leadership Author & Coach)
• “If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” Yogi Berra (Yankee Catcher & Coach)
“There are no shortcuts to worthwhile destinations. The destination dictates the journey.” Charlie Weir
“There are no shortcuts to worthwhile destinations. The destination dictates the journey.” Charlie Weir
Lead Up Anchor
Psalm 78:70-72 He chose David his servant and took him from the sheep pens; 71 from tending the sheep he brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. 72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.
To Lead Up is to Lead in Circles.
Circle #1 Self
Circle #2 Family
Circle #3 Church
Circle #4 Community
Circle#5 Workplace
“Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”
3 Main Lead Up Hurdles.
1. Satan opposes all God movement.
2. The leaders with the most potential rarely realize it.
3. It’s easier to go with the flow than lead a movement.
Fasting puts aside a personal preference for a spiritual purpose.
Fasting is a “planting your feet” spiritual move when all your body wants to do is to run away and hide.
We don’t fast out of ritual, we fast out of trust, longing and frankly desperation.
We don’t fast to get God’s attention. We fast because God has our attention.
On a spiritual and practical level, fasting leads to breakthrough and it creates space for God.
“In a culture where the landscape is dotted with shrines to the Golden Arches” and an assortment of “Pizza Temples”, fasting seems out of place, out of step with the times.” Richard Foster, The Celebration of Discipline (1978)
Matthew 6:16-18 16 “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 17 But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, 18 so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
On the surface, giving and fasting seem to deplete us and yet they complete us.
3 Rewards of Fasting
• Intimacy - Draw more closely to God.
• Clarity - Hear more clearly from God.
• Courage - Move more courageously with God.
The closer I am to God, the clearer I hear from God, the more courageously I move with God.
4 Results of Fasting
• Fasting breaks the spiritual opposition to God’s movement in my life.
• Fasting breaks up my self-focused routine.
• Fasting increases my dependence on God’s strength.
• Fasting at the beginning of a year reorients the year around His purposes not mine.
“There are no shortcuts to worthwhile destinations. The destination dictates the journey.”
Matthew 5:3 (Message Version) "You're blessed when you are at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and His rule."