Grace-Awakened (Grace-Awed) Leadership Mark Bair

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Grace-Awakened (Grace-Awed) LeadershipMark Bair
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Redeeming love has been my theme and shall me
until I die William Cowper, There is a
Fountain And now I commend you to God and
to the word of his grace, which can build you
up." (Acts 2032).
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• Christians never completely understand grace
  So we have to constantly teach it, repeat it, and
  work it out in practice. For anyone who does not
  understand this righteousness or cherish it in
  the heart and conscience, will continually be
  buffeted by fears and depression. (Martin
  Luther)

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• You must have the gospel firmly in your heart so
  that you are not ministering out of a need to
  convince yourself of your competence or worth
  but out of love. Otherwise In your own personal
  ministry you will tend to over work, deal poorly
  with criticism, worry too much about attendance,
  giving, and signs of success, and be less than a
  good and gracious model of a gospel-changed life.

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• You must have the gospel firmly in your heart so
  that you are not ministering out of a need to
  convince yourself of your competence or worth
  but out of love. Otherwise In your own personal
  ministry you will tend to over work, deal poorly
  with criticism, worry too much about attendance,
  giving, and signs of success, and be less than a
  good and gracious model of a gospel-changed life.
  In your preaching and teaching you will be
  creating a lot of 'elder brothers' (cf. Luke 15)
  people who are very good and committed to
  serving God as way of procuring his blessing.
  This makes people (like the elder brother) very
  grumpy, condescending to 'sinners', and
  unforgiving. In other words, you will create a
  church that can't win people to Christ. (Tim
  Keller, from Planting Churches in the City)

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I. What is grace-awakened?

• Other terms qualifications
• Grace Gods lavish and undeserved free gift of
  eternal life, and his ongoing generosity his
  ongoing generosity, affection, goodness,
  initiative, faithfulness to you because of the
  sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

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II. What does a grace-awed leader discover?

• That the gospel is not ABC, but A-Z
• The gospel is infinitely deep. We do not simply
  learn it when we are converted and then move on
  from there. Many people can live around the
  truth of the gospel and not really "get it". We
  do not really understand all the vast
  implications and applications of it.

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II. What does a grace-awed leader discover?

• That the gospel is not ABC, but A-Z
• Only as the gospel is applied more and more
  deeply and radically only as we think out all
  its truth does it bear fruit and grow. So the key
  to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and
  revival is the continual rediscovery of the
  gospel

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• The gospel is not the first in a series of steps

X
Christian Work
Spiritual Growth
The Gospel
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The Moralistic life
Service to Others
Bible Study
Prayer
Family
Friends
Work
Things I must do to be spiritual/successful/respec
ted I never rest, I am stressed out. Im
worried, scared, and angry
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Family
Prayer
Christian Work
Bible Reading
Evangelism
Desire
Discipleship
The Gospel JESUS
Emotions
The Gospel-Centered Life
Urban Passion Social Justice
Work Rest
Art Music
By grace through faith for the glory of God
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II. What does a grace-awed leader discover?

• That I am more sinful that I thought, and more
  loved than I dared imagine.

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The Wonder of Gods Grace
The Glory of the Gospel
Rebirth
Awareness of the Depth of My Sin
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Bigger Self
Loss of Wonder of Gods Grace
The Ho-Hum of the Gospel
Rebirth
Growing Self-Righteousness
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II. What does a grace-awed leader discover?

• That I am more sinful that I thought, and more
  loved than I dared imagine.
• That there is a lot of legalism and idolatry in
  my ministry.

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II. What does a grace-awed leader discover?

• That I need to embrace repentance as a way of
  life
• Most churches make the mistake of selecting as
  leaders the confident, the competent, and the
  successful. But what you most need in a leader is
  someone who has been broken by the knowledge of
  his or her sin, and even greater knowledge of
  Jesus' costly grace. The number one leaders in
  every church ought to be the people who repent
  the most fully without excuses, because you don't
  need any now the most easily without bitterness
  the most publicly and the most joyfully. They
  know their standing isn't based on their
  performance." (Tim Keller)

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II. What does a grace-awed leader discover?

• That I need to nourish my soul with grace often.
• There is no commitment we will make as church
  planters of greater importance than living close
  to Jesus. For church planting can become an idol
  factory a prostitution ring a cruel taskmaster
  a breeding ground for addictions we need church
  planters who will love Jesus with abandon, and
  who cultivate a lifestyle of growing in His grace
  and knowledge. Churches planted with the DNA of
  the gospel will be led by those who live a life
  of gospel astonishment." (Scotty Smith)

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I need to nourish my soul with grace often.
When you see something as true and beautiful and
valuable, you savor it. That is, you treasure it.
You cherish and admire and prize it.
(Piper) Example On the move in Utah
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I need to nourish my soul with grace often.
When you see something as true and beautiful and
valuable, you savor it. That is, you treasure it.
You cherish and admire and prize it.
(Piper) Example On the move in Utah
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I need to nourish my soul with grace often.
David gazed at the beauty of the Lord
(Psalms 274) worthshape
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I need to nourish my soul with grace often.
It is a pondering of the word of God that asks
God to reveal not only his beauty, but your
self-righteousness, over-desires, and lack of
love.
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I need to nourish my soul with grace often.

• Examples
• The Bible good books
• The Cross of Christ (Stott)
• Songs Hymns
• Marshillchurch.org media library
• See the back of this handout

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In evil long I took delight,Unawed by shame or
fear,Till a new object struck my sight,And
stopped my wild career. I saw One hanging on a
tree,In agony and blood,Who fixed His languid
eyes on me,As near His cross I stood. Sure,
never to my latest breath,Can I forget that
lookIt seemed to charge me with His
death,Though not a word He spoke. My conscience
felt and owned the guilt,And plunged me in
despair,I saw my sins His blood had spilt,And
helped to nail Him there. A second look He gave,
which said,I freely all forgiveThis blood is
for thy ransom paidI die that thou mayst
live. Thus, while His death my sin displaysIn
all its blackest hue,Such is the mystery of
grace,It seals my pardon too.
In Evil I long took Delight John Newton
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I need to nourish my soul with grace often.

• Examples
• The Bible good books
• The Cross of Christ (Stott)
• Songs Hymns
• Marshillchurch.org media library
• Prayers from The Valley of Vision (Arthur
  Bennett)

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Valley of Vision Prayers The Precious Blood Lord
Jesus, Before your cross I kneel and see the
heinousness of my sin, my iniquity that caused
you to be made a curse, the evil that excites
the severity of divine wrath. Sin is my malady,
my monster, my foe, my viper, born in my
birth, alive in my life, strong in my
character, following me as a shadow, intermingling
with my every thought, my chain that holds me
captive in the empire of my soul. Yet your
compassions yearn over me, Your heart hastens to
my rescue, Let me walk in the depth of
humility, bathed in your blood, tender of
conscience, triumphing as an heir of salvation.
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Valley of Vision Prayers The Awakened Sinner O
MY FORGETFUL SOUL, Awake from your wandering
dream, turn from chasing vanities, look inward,
forward, upward, view yourself, reflect upon
yourself, O GOD, You neglected benefactor, When
I think of your greatness and your goodness, I am
ashamed at my insensibility, I blush to lift up
my face, Break the fatal enchantment that binds
my evil affections, and bring me to a happy mind
that rests in you. Let your spirit teach me the
vital lessons of Christ, for I am slow to
learn Hear my broken cries.
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I need to nourish my soul with grace often.

• Examples
• The Bible good books
• The Cross of Christ (Stott)
• Songs Hymns
• Marshillchurch.org media library
• Prayers from The Valley of Vision
• Journaling Discussion

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II. What does a grace-awed leader discover?

• Grace enables me to take risks and deepen in
  gracious love toward people.

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III. How does being grace-awed affect the way you
lead?

• It raises my confidence in the Gospel
• It affects how I define leadership and measure
  success in leadership
• It affects what I prioritize and focus on
• It affects how I teach the Bible
• It affects my view of sin and how to help people

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IV. A structure that helped facilitate
grace/renewal the worker team
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• See Resources on Grace Awakening or Spiritual
  Renewal