Leading with Love
Philippians 2:19-30
October 14, 2018
preached by Doug Cooper
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Time of Reflection Quotations
“The beginning and the end of all Christian leadership is to give your life for others.”
“Who can save a child from a burning house without taking the risk of being hurt by the flames? Who can listen to a story of loneliness and despair without taking the risk of experiencing similar pains in his own heart and even losing his precious peace of mind? In short: ‘Who can take away suffering without entering it?’”
~ Henri J.M. Nouwen (1932-1986), Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer and theologian
“To experience brokenness and humiliation, all you have to do is lead.”
~ Dan B. Allender (1952-present), Christian therapist, author, professor, and speaker
“The first and most important choice a leader makes is the choice to serve, without which one’s capacity to lead is severely limited.”
~ Robert Greenleaf (1904–1990), Writer, consultant, teacher and founder of the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership
“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
“People do not care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
~ Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), American statesman, writer and the 26th President of the United States
“No wound? No scar?
Yet as the Master shall the servant be,
And pierced are the feet that follow Me;
But thine are whole. Can he have followed far
Who has no wound nor scar?”
~ Amy Carmichael (1867-1951), missionary to India in “Hast Thou No Scar”
“Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.”
~ St. Francis of Assisi (c 1181-1226), Italian friar and preacher
Sermon Passage
Philippians 2:19-30 (NASB)
19 But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly, so that I also may be encouraged when I learn of your condition. 20 For I have no one else of kindred spirit who will genuinely be concerned for your welfare. 21 For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus. 22 But you know of his proven worth, that he served with me in the furtherance of the gospel like a child serving his father. 23 Therefore I hope to send him immediately, as soon as I see how things go with me; 24 and I trust in the Lord that I myself also will be coming shortly. 25 But I thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my need; 26 because he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick. 27 For indeed he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 Therefore I have sent him all the more eagerly so that when you see him again you may rejoice and I may be less concerned about you. 29 Receive him then in the Lord with all joy, and hold men like him in high regard; 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me.