Outline: A Godly Leader motivate others

Note: This is the sixth installment in our series on biblical leadership.

 

A Godly Leader motivate others

Selected Verse

Establish the need: Do you motivate others to do what needs to be done?

Purpose: Today we shall three points so that we would be intentionally decisive as a Christian and foundation to be a godly leader.

• The importance of motivating others
• The examples of motivating others
• How to cultivate the skill in motivating others

Quick Comments about meaning of motivation:

• The dictionary’s first definition: “enthusiasm for doing something:”[1]
• The dictionary’s other definition: “the need or reason for doing something.”[2]
• From the dictionary of motivation my definition of “motivate others” is the ability to encourage others to do what needs to be done, with the emphasis of the word “encourage” as opposed to force, threats, etc.

The importance of motivating others

Even if you are not a leader it is important to motivate and encourage others:

1. Believers must motivate and encourage others to do good: “and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, 25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:24-25)
   1. This is an exhortation for all believers to do.
   2. Scripture says “encouraging one another” (25)
   3. This encouragement has a goal: “let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds” (24)= It is to encourage them to do what is good and loving towards others!
   4. Thus all believers are to motivate other believers to do good.
   5. Notice this task isn’t for the early church but especially as we get closer to the End: “and all the more as you see the day drawing near” (25b)
   6. If God gave you a grade on your report card of how you motivate others to do good, what grade would you get? Does that convict you?
2. Believers must motivate and encourage others to fight sin: “But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” (Hebrews 3:13)
   1. Sin is deceitful and can hardened one’s heart towards God and others.
   2. Here there is the command to encourage one another to encourage people not to be hardened by sin!

Why is it important for leaders? (2 Reasons)

1. Reason 1: The very definition of a leader from part 1 in our series is that a leader is one who influence people to do what is required. So if one does not motivate others then by definition he’s not a leader.
2. Reason 2: Failure to motivate well as a leader means having less on the team and you are weakened in the pursuit of your goal and objective: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: 10 If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. 11 Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? 12 Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12)
   1. Notice different tasks and goals are mentioned:
      1. “return for their labor” (9)
      2. “help the other up” (10)
      3. “keep warm” (11)
      4. “defend” (12)
   2. Given the various objectives mentioned the point of the passage here is not about only one sphere but a general principle of the importance that in many things we do “Two are better than one” (9)
   3. But it is not just only two is better than one but a team: “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (12)
   4. Thus good leadership means being able to motivate them to stay and also retain people to accomplish the task at hand and accomplish it well.

The examples of motivating others

2 examples: Nehemiah and God Himself!

Nehemiah:

1. Recall from our previous lessons that Nehemiah wanted to build the city wall of Jerusalem.
2. Nehemiah divided the wall into small, manageable portions.[3]
3. Nehemiah appointed portions of the wall in a matter that showed he was trying to motivate them to do a good job with their portion[4]:
   1. “Then Eliashib the high priest arose with his brothers the priests and built the Sheep Gate; they consecrated it and hung its doors. They consecrated the wall to the Tower of the Hundred and the Tower of Hananel.” (Nehemiah 3:1)= The priests and high priest would obviously have interests with the Temple and near the Temple they were assigned of building the gate and doors of the Wall.
   2. “Next to them Jedaiah the son of Harumaph made repairs opposite his house. And next to him Hattush the son of Hashabneiah made repairs” (Nehemiah 3:10)
      1. Notice that Jedaiah did repair opposite his house, nearby to where he lived.
      2. If the city wall was meant to protect the city from foreign military invaders, then the resident would have a strong incentive to do a good job repairing the city wall near their residence.
   3. “After them Benjamin and Hasshub carried out repairs in front of their house. After them Azariah the son of Maaseiah, son of Ananiah, carried out repairs beside his house.” (Nehemiah 3:23)
      1. Here several individuals are named and stated as carrying out repairs in “in front of their house” and “beside his house.”
      2. If the city wall was meant to protect the city from foreign military invaders, then the residents would have a strong incentive to do a good job repairing the city wall near their residence.
   4. Other passages that prove this point is stated in Nehemiah 3:21, Nehemiah 3:28, Nehemiah 3:29.

God: “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2)

1. Motivating others to do something also mean that you live it out as an example.
2. God requires us to be holy and yet notice here that God Himself is wonderfully Holy.

How to cultivate the skill in motivating others

Be an example: “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1)

1. We must follow Christ and imitate Him. Paul does that.
2. Yet Paul in imitating Christ Paul can also tell the church in Corinth to imitate Him.
3. That means Paul was an example even as he’s in a leadership position responsible for their spiritual growth.
4. Likewise as leaders let us also set a good example.

Don’t be afraid of “getting your hands dirty:”

1. Nehemiah as the leader wasn’t afraid of doing the hard work of building the wall too: “I also applied myself to the work on this wall; we did not buy any land, and all my servants were gathered there for the work..” (Nehemiah 5:16)
2. Nehemiah also wasn’t afraid of also taking off his clothes to do the hard work of the wall while also being armed with a weapon himself!: “So neither I, my brothers, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us removed our clothes, each took his weapon even to the water.” (Nehemiah 4:23)
3. As a leader we have to lead but sometimes we have to be “in the front with the grunt” and not “in the rear with the gear” to motivate people to do their task!

Be sincere:

1. Note: If you are not sincere, those under your leadership will resist your desire to influence and motivate them to do what is required of them.
2. “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.” (1 Timothy 1:5)
   1. Paul as an apostle was a leader.
   2. Here in 1 Timothy he writes to another church leader about church leadership.
   3. Yet here Paul states that the goal of why Christian leaders give instructions include a sincere faith.
3. “For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.” (2 Timothy 1:5)
   1. Leadership role here described is that of a mother and grandmother.
   2. Notice Paul acknowledge that Timothy’s grandmother and mother had sincere faith.
   3. That would of course have an impact on Timothy and his eventual salvation.

Care for those you lead deeply

1. Know the person’s name. [5] Address the person by their first name when appropriate.
2. Learn about the individuals underneath your leaderships.
   1. Every individual is different and different in what motivates them! It is worthwhile to learn about those you are leading!
   2. So ask the following questions[6]:
      1. What motivate this person?
      2. What makes this person lose motivation?
      3. What could you do to help motivate this person?
3. Empathize with those you are leading.
   1. The duty of Empathy: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in [a]any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are [b]ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; 7 and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.” (2 Corinthians 1:3-7)=Paul says we get comfort from God and thus comfort others; sometimes as a leader it is not just rebuke but comforting the other person!
   2. It is hard to show empathy? How? Remember the example of Christ and also how He is our sympathetic high priest!: “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)

Give credit for achievement

1. Recall Nehemiah in Nehemiah 3 lists names of who did what with the city walls!
2. Encourage with something specific[7]

Be Loyal!

1. This should not be confused with blind allegiance.
2. Often people think of loyalty going only one way, subordinate to someone higher ranking. But it goes the other way too: Leaders to subordinates.

Use the Word of God to encourage and motivate, that’s what it was design to do: “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4).

Also a reminder from brother Gersom Clark: Christian leaders before they start planning, delegating, and working with their team or group, it is important to pray!  Pray before, during and after a mission, work, operation, etc!

 

[1] Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/motivation.

[2] Source: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/motivation.

[3] John MacArthur, Paul in Chains: Leadership in Action (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004), 23.

[4] John MacArthur, Paul in Chains: Leadership in Action (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2004), 22.

[5] Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aljb6ZXBwV0

[6] Reworded from this source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB1OYYi1Ll8

[7] Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aljb6ZXBwV0