Leading A Team With Love by Pastor Sam Adeyemi: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Leadership Is Your Calling

As a Christian, influence is your calling. Leadership is your calling. The last words recorded from Jesus Christ in Matthew 28:18-20 — what we call the Great Commission — is actually a leadership mandate. He said, go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life. That automatically positions you as a leader, as a mentor, as a coach. Wherever you find yourself — in your profession, your industry, your neighborhood, your family — Christ has put the responsibility on you not to be a victim, not to be the one influenced by others, but to be the one influencing.

The first principle for being a good team leader is the same principle for being a good team member. The way God designed our world, he designed for us to operate in communities, and the first community he built was the family. Every investment that you make into improving yourself is an investment into improving the quality and effectiveness of the team.

Luke 2:52 shows that Jesus grew in four dimensions: wisdom (mental development), stature (physical development), favor with God (spiritual development), and favor with man (social development — building relationships). Christ devoted a whole lot of what he said to improving the quality of relationships between us. The goal should be to aspire to lead a team. That is how you change the world.

The Power of Sacrificial Love

Love. That is the most powerful principle. When they asked Christ which is the greatest commandment, he said, love God and love your neighbor as yourself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets. Galatians 5:14 says the whole law can be summed up in this one command: love your neighbor as yourself.

Christ so loved his team members — the disciples — that they loved him back fiercely and were willing to take a bullet for him. That is rare. How do you produce such loyalty? Many leaders want to use force, coercion, manipulation. In the Jesus system, it is not like that. It is built on love.

John 10:11 says, the good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep. The love being spoken of is sacrificial love. John 3:16: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. 1 John 3:16: this is how we recognize love — he laid down his life for us. Every single one of the disciples sacrificed their lives for him and for his assignment because he had first given his life for them.

Some leaders sacrifice themselves for their team members. Others sacrifice their team members for their own comfort and success. The leaders that love genuinely and sacrificially are the ones that spread positive values.

Leaders Who Love Create Freedom

Leaders that don't love slow down progress everywhere. In studying why nations fail, the pattern is clear: a small elite class hijacks political power and channels economic resources to benefit only themselves. The countries that advanced economically were those where the elite class sacrificed their power to allow everyone to be prosperous. Leaders that love create freedom and impact. They create freedom for people to flourish and to fulfill their potential.

The Family as a Leadership School

Let's go back to the first institution God set up: the family. Ephesians 5:25-27: for husbands, this means love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave up his life for her — so that she will be holy and without fault. That is the template.

Settle this once and for all: the best way to get the best out of anybody is to love them sacrificially.

Love your wife. Love your husband. Love your children. Someone said God gives you a family to prepare you for an enemy. There is hardly anything you will meet outside with people that you won't experience first from home. Use home as practice for love. You will meet people of other gender, other temperament — all of it starts from home. The family is the most powerful leadership institution in the world.

Love Your Team in Every Sphere

Love your team members in church. Love your team members at work. Love your boss. Leadership doesn't have to be only top down — it can be bottom up. Love your colleagues. Do not get drawn into dangerous political games in the workplace. The Holy Spirit's counsel: stand on the word. Walk in love. Even the people that are betraying you, love them. That is the only space where nobody will be able to hurt you.

If you are in government, love your citizens. Loving people is going to get harder and harder without the help of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 24:12 says sin will be rampant everywhere and the love of many will grow cold. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 describes the last days: people will love only themselves and their money, be boastful, disobedient, unloving, unforgiving, cruel. Stay away from people like that. Do not join leadership circles that enslave people and destroy lives.

A Love Revolution

We need a love revolution. In the book of Acts chapter 2, the proof that people were filled with the Holy Spirit was love in action — people began to sell their lands and houses to make sure nobody went to bed hungry. That is the proof of love.

In the business world, the word love is a strange word in the boardroom. But for followers of Jesus, we know there is a higher level — the John 3:16 level. That sacrificial love, not romantic love, is what we are talking about. If you discover you don't have the capacity to love, take a sabbatical from that leadership position. Go and find the capacity and come back, because your failure is guaranteed without love.

Developing the Capacity to Love

That capacity to love is not natural. It is the Holy Spirit that gives it. To have the Holy Spirit, you need to receive forgiveness for your sins, have the nature of sin removed, and have God's nature put inside you. That new birth is the starting point for walking in love. Proverbs 11:24: there is one who scatters and yet increases; there is one who withholds more than is necessary and still results in poverty.