? When was the last time you embraced criticism & correction in your life? How do you even know which voices to listen to and let speak into your life? Join Kent as he dives into this important topic looking at the book of Proverbs. Let’s grow together! ?? #SermonTime. IT’S EASY TO GIVE at Harmony, text any amount to (859) 459-0316 to get started (or give online @ my.harmonychurch.cc/give ).
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OPENING ILLUSTRATION:
Years ago, when I was a youth pastor. I was at this camp and we had a “morning show” it was basically a way to wake up all the kids and get them excited for the day. We would get up there and do gross games and make jokes and make it super fun and set the expectation for the kids. Every day I would have the kids turn to their neighbor and say, “best camp ever…” in a derogatory and negative way. The kids would do it and I would laugh and get them to laugh and we’d move on. Finally, my buddy Jason Schmidt pulled me aside after a few days of this and he rebuked me. He said, “Kent, all the kids love you and follow you and when you make it like camp is no fun, you set the attitude for all of them… you’re a leader, you need to lead them better…”
Man, that hit me hard…
If I’m honest, his words stung me a little bit.
But, as I sat back and looked at it
Most of my growth as a leader has come from the hard truthful things and the people who risked telling them to me rather than through the easy things of life.
don’t you find that to be true?
ILLUSTRATION:
Years ago I tried my hand at making knives. The thing that shapes a knife from blank steel into an instrument you can cut with is heat, pressure, and friction.
The process of producing a tool requires the removal and reshaping of material – it takes heat, pressure, and friction
SCRIPTURE:
This week, we are taking a breather from Basecamp because I want to challenge you to expand your thinking to be willing to embrace a concept that our world has in some ways lost.
Your growth as a human is partially a product of the heat, pressure, and friction in your life – so stop running from it.
Let me explain.
I’ve told you the culture of the Kingdom of God is not the culture of the world we live in.
One of my biggest worries is that over the course of Basecamp, you are going to hear certain concepts and ideas and because they challenge the status quo, you are going to reject them instead of being willing to consider them.
b
They will feel like Rebuke, and our culture is scared to allow anyone to tell them they might be wrong.
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Let’s look at some of what the book of Proverbs says about Rebuke to give us a pattern to use for personal growth.
1. Restructure your thinking about discipline…
Proverbs 12:1: “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid.”
Discipline is not the same as punishment.
-Discipline is the means to course-correct
-Discipline comes from a desire of what is best for a person
ILLUSTRATION:
Good parents know how to teach this concept to their children. The reason you are correcting them is because you love them, not because you hate them. I tell my kids all the time if I hated them, I would let them do whatever the heck they want. It is my love for them that puts me in a position to do the hard things and bring correction.
What keeps people from loving discipline/correction [have the bullets appear one at a time]
- Our Ego (if you operate out of pride or fear, you will innately reject discipline.)
- Our Past Experience (you’ve carried wounds that keep you from being able to hear the discipline as a loving interaction)
- Our Culture (so many of us have bought into the cultural idea that you should be able to “live your truth” that we ignore when our truth needs to be reshaped)
This brings me to a good point…
How do you know which rebuke or discipline to listen to?
2. Tuning your ears for Wisdom
Proverbs 15:31: “Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise.“
ILLUSTRATION:
One of the weird things about being a pastor is you have hundreds of people who all have an opinion about how and what you should do and feel like it’s their biblical mandate to let you know those things. Harmony actually is a very uncommon church and I don’t get tons of this. But I’ve had more rebuke than you can imagine from the style of music a church uses, to the temperature of the thermostats, things I’ve said in a sermon, the way I dress, to a million other things. I’m sure I’m not alone in that
You’ve got the same thing… the over-opinionated employee, that parent of your student who wants to tell you how to run your class,
How do you know what to listen to and what not to listen to?
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I love this proverb because it doesn’t tell you to listen to ALL correction, it tells you to heed “life-giving” correction
Learn from what is life-giving and discard the rest…
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How do you know what’s “life-giving” correction?
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Here are the personal metrics I use to determine life-giving (I want at least 2 out of 3 of these to consider the correction):
-Does the person bringing correction love Jesus?
-Does the person love/want what’s best for me?
-Does the person love/want the best for the organization or mission?
There are certainly other metrics you should use, but these will help you get where you need to go
The key is to realize you don’t have to take all corrections – but you can be wise in what you invite and who you invite to give you corrections..
ILLUSTRATION:
If you tell me my sermon was a stinker I might listen. But if my wife or one of our elders says that to me, I’m going to for sure listen. Their known proximity to me, to Jesus, and love for this church would dictate that for me. Make sense?
3. Good leaders look for the person who grows from adversity
Proverbs 19:20: “Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise.”
ILLUSTRATION:
Early on in my career, I thought I had to be a know it all. I thought I had to have an answer for every problem. I had to always be on top of every situation. This unintentionally put me in a position of pretending and not being open to feedback.
I’ve known a pretty large group of talented people who never progressed in their field simply due to their inability to take feedback and correction.
How do you change that attitude?
it takes two things:
- Take the pressure off: realize no one, including God, needs you to have everything together
- Address your ego: change from Edging God Out to Exalting God Only
CLOSING ILLUSTRATION:
You know, one of the little talked about things that Jesus did was to rebuke His disciples. At one point, He said to them, “are you still so dull?” like, “are you not even getting this stuff I’m talking about?” Another time, Peter said something that sounded SUPER spiritual and good and Jesus responded with “get behind me Satan, you don’t have in mind the things of God, but of man” I want to bring this up to you at the end of this sermon not because I think I’m in some position to correct or discipline you or rebuke you, but because Jesus is still in the business of rebuking us – it’s really a means by which He turns our hearts back to Himself. The scripture is clear that God uses hardship to discipline us – turn us back to Him. God cares way more about your discipleship than your comfort – He cares that you are looking more like Him than looking like what you want this life to look like.
What would it look like for you to intentionally take a step to be willing to let God offend your modern sensibility?
Because I promise you, the longer you follow Him, the more you will find the beauty of being seated with the wise and accepting the Lords discipline and rebuke!
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