EHL Chapter 8

This week we are looking at the last chapter of EHL.

A review of last week’s devotional.

A quick review of the six types of power a person has.

All proper use of power builds others up.

Chapter nine of Emotionally Healthy Leader looks at the rhythm of endings and new beginnings. We do not want to admit that good things come to an end (especially in western culture). We may also have a hard time leaving behind difficult trials. Regardless of our attitude towards endings, they are an inextricable part of our world and everyone will encounter them during their lifetime. The redemption of endings, however, appears in the beginning of new things. If we are unable to accept when things end, we will not be ready to receive new things when they begin. Integrating a healthy view of endings and new beginnings into our worldview is essential to spiritual maturity.

Solomon expounds upon the rhythms and seasons of life in Ecclesiastes. While Ecclesiastes is sometimes labeled as a, “book of laments” it shows that the author had no issue addressing the tragedies, futilities, and disappointments of life. Neither should we.

When Christ resurrected from the grave, He also showed that He has power to bring that redemptive process to any other area of our life. However, in order for something to resurrect it must really, truly, die.

When things end, we must accept that they are truly over. Death is final. There must be a grieving process after the death of a passing thing before we can be ready to accept the new thing. This grieving process can be disorienting, heartbreaking, and confusing. But if we refuse to go through the process then tragic endings can turn into catastrophic losses. Christ is with us when we go through losses so we do not need to be afraid of them.

The process of grieving- of laying dead things to rest- can take a long time. It will usually take longer than we are willing to admit or endure. But that waiting period is where Jesus does His transforming work in us.

Endings and new beginnings are an unavoidable and necessary part of our Christian faith. They are often the doors through which God invites us to new growth.

God’s promise is to do more through our suffering than we could ever imagine. Even in death. Let us welcome each ending in our lives, great and small, with an anticipation of what God will do next.

EHL Chapter 7

EHL Chapter 6

EHL Chapter 5

Note: Audio for this presentation is unavailable.

In chapters 1-4 of EHL we looked at inner practices that root us deeply in God’s love for us. Chapters 5-8 will show us how to operate in our external lives in a way that will lead to emotional health.

Now that we have established the roots of Emotionally Healthy leadership, it’s time to look at the, “branches.”

Review of previous chapters.

Review of previous chapters.

As we turn the corner to out practices, we must not forget to nourish our roots in the process.

These are basic markers of health in the first sector of outward life- planning and decision making.

These are markers of emotional unhealth in planning and decision making.

These are practices that can lead us into great emotional health in the arena of planning and decision making.

These, “canaries” are signals that you may be tending towards emotional unhealth in your planning and decision making.

EHL Chapter 4

EHL Chapter 3

Slowing Down for Loving Union

EHL Chapter 2

Lead Out of Your Marriage or Singleness

Emotionally Healthy Leader: Intro and Chapter 1

Intro

BridgePointe’s Worship-Arts team is journeying into a book called, “The Emotionally Health Leader.” We are only able to offer a very cursory overview of the material presented within the book. This devotional series is meant to familiarize you with the material contained within the leadership book. It is very dense; in order to get the most out of it, one would ideally have a small group to walk through it with, time, and prayer. It has impacted the BridgePointe staff as well as staff and congregations around the world. We would encourage you to step into the Emotionally Healthy series yourself. Begin with Emotionally Healthy Spirituality and then there are many other specialized versions of the material.

Emotionally Healthy Spirituality on Amazon

We will be tethering this material back to Vision Sunday 2021’s four main points:

• Unity in the church is essential and it takes everyone to protect it.

• Spiritual growth is a matter of personal responsibility.

• Everyone in the church will be cared for when everyone cares.

• This world needs Jesus and that’s why we’re here.
  
  

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Chapter 1

Team Values: Gritty Determination

The ninth BridgePointe value is Gritty Determination.

This is how we define Gritty Determination.

Jesus provides the ideal picture of Gritty Determination.

In this passage, we see that as Jesus approached the time of His death, burial, and resurrection, even He needed to draw on a deeper level of resolve than He had during His day-to-day ministry.

While we live on mission we need to imitate Jesus. It will take Gritty Determination to face the obstacles of life while on mission.

Jesus does not apologize for the difficulty of serving in The Kingdom of Heaven nor does He lower the standard for commitment when it gets difficult.

Our mission has many facets. But they all require Gritty Determination.

We can be inspired and challenged by Paul who even refers to his dying physical body as a, “light and momentary trial.”

Pray and ask the Holy Spirit where you need Christ’s Gritty Determination in your life.

Team Values: Constant Improvement

The eighth BridgePointe value is Constant Improvement.

This is our definition of Constant Improvement.

In the U.S., we are obsessed with personal improvement, especially the millennial generation. However, it is important to consider for what or whose end the improvement is.

In John 17:1-5, Jesus prays, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.”

Everything we do and every reason we strive to improve should be for the glory of Jesus.

In Colossians, Paul exhorts the church to commit all their strivings to the Lord. This applies to all areas of life: work, marriage, singleness, finances, church life, social life, and community.

Gratitude is a key aspect of constant improvement. We are thankful to God for the gifts that He has given us. We use our gifts to express our gratitude to Him for the works that He does through us.

Pray and meditate on these questions. Allow the Holy Spirit to show you how you can improve for the glory of Christ.

Team Values: Innovative Solutions

The seventh BridgePointe value is Innovative Solutions.

This is how we define Innovative Solutions.

Jesus does not command us to go into the world and be righteous and naive. Rather, He commands us to be righteous and shrewd, cunning, sharp, and creative. He does not apologize for the danger of the World or the craftiness of the Evil One. He exhorts His disciples (read: us) to outwit our Enemy in pursuit of righteousness and seeing His Kingdom come on Earth.

The word, “Innovative” has the root, “Nov” or “Nova” meaning, “New.” Therefore we are not being Innovative if we look to see how someone else did it, if we look to maintain the status quo, or do not expect things to change in our pursuit of a solution.

“Solutions,” has the same root as, “solve, solute, dissolve, and solvent.” In housekeeping, if something, a solute (dirt, grease, a stain), is dissolved, then it has become a part of solution (water which washes it out) something else by the force of a third-party, a solvent (soap, and etc.). The solvent turns the solute into the solution. Similarly in mathematics, when we solve an equation, we are re-arranging the structure of the equation to reveal the desired information. In either case, the Solution to a problem must first become part of the problem itself.

If we are to have Innovative Solutions then we must find new ways to make the problems that we face part of the process that accelerate us toward our goals.

Every believer has at least one primary goal in their life- Christlikeness. Every believer has at least three enemies that oppose that goal- their own sin, the broken reality we live in, and Satan and his followers. Since we are commanded to pursue this purpose and guaranteed to face these enemies, we must then make a choice about how we will strive against our obstacles, enemies, or problems.

There is no apology for the fact that we are in a war if we are believers. Thankfully, God is referred to as a Man of War (Exodus 15:3) and His very Spirit flows through us. So then we are to assume that when we face problems, God- the Man of War- will work through us (and we must work with Him) to redeem those problems and use them to His own purposes and our good and glory (Romans 8:28).

When God works through us, He will not always rid us of the problems in our lives.

God WILL always make the problems in our lives accelerate His purposes.

Through the course of the Bible we see that God had a goal, problems, and a solution.

His goal- be all in all.
His problem- sin, broken world, Satan.
His solution- become a part of sinful humanity to reclaim legal authority over all creation.

Note that Jesus did not simply kill Satan and wipe out sinful humanity. Jesus was as shrewd as He commanded His disciples to be and brings us closer to The Father through all the things which used to keep us away.

God promises to use our problems, enemies, and even our sin to accomplish His purposes in and through us. However, that does not mean that we get to sin wantonly. Read Romans 6 to see how Paul addressed this exact line of thinking over 2,000 years ago.

Reflect on one problem area in your life that you need God’s supreme creativity and power to solve. Then pray that God would bring His creative power to the fore on that issue and use it to accomplish His goals.

Team Values: Open-Handed Generosity

The sixth BridgePointe values is Open-Handed Generosity.

This is BridgePointe’s definition of Open-Handed Generosity.

Solomon writes this verse in Ecclesiastes. “Bread” was synonymous with the essence of life in many ancient cultures- including ancient Israel. It’s place in society was equal to money. We see this paralleled by Christ who refers to Himself as the, “Bread of Life” (John 6:35). Even in modern times, we use “bread” or “dough” as slang for money. Ancient Hebrew artistic tradition used, “waters” to symbolize anything vast and/or mysterious. We see this in Genesis 1 when the Spirit of God, “hovered over the waters.” The waters in Genesis symbolize the vastness and mystery of the pre-created universe. So when Solomon says, “cast thy bread upon the waters…” he is encouraging us to be generous by giving away our money, even if we don’t understand how or when it will come back to us.

Generosity is never marketed in the Bible as a way to leverage your finances to meet your own financial goals.

Generosity in the Bible primarily applies to finances. We can be generous with our time, talents, and relationships. But God primarily encourages us to be generous with our money.

There is no need for rose colored glasses. Giving away your money, even for a good cause, will leave you with less money than you started with.

Even so, God says that we should be generous with our finances.

Generosity does not have an impersonal rational behind it because it is an act of self-sacrifice. Therefore we do not need to ask, “why should we be generous?” Rather, we need to ask, “who is calling us to be generous?” This is because our financial habits ultimately declare who is Lord of our life. If we follow Christ’s commands to be generous then we declare Him to be Lord. Generosity is part of our testimony.

Reality is harsh in that many people have no money. Even more, many of us face seasons where money is a struggle. We cannot easily claim that financial hardship keeps us from being generous because Christ even highlights the widow who even gave away her last $0.02 (Mark 12:42). However, when we truly are unable to be financially generous we can still be generous with our testimony and the gifts that God has given us. Notice that when both the apostle Peter and Paul had, quite literally, no money they still glorified God and used their talents (healing in Peter’s case, shrewdness in Paul’s) to edify others.

Pray and invite God to develop generosity in your heart in these two areas.

Team Values: Relational Intentionality

The fifth BridgePointe value is Relational Intentionality.

This is BridgePointe’s definition of Relational Intentionality.

The Trinity is three people in an eternal relationship. If we are created in God’s image then we are, by definition, created for relationships.

This key verse about our origin shows God referring to Himself in the plural tense. He says “us” and “our.” This is because the Hebrew word translated here as the english singular, “God” is “Elohim.” “Elohim” is actually a plural Hebrew word. The original Hebrew writer refers to God not as a single being, but as a plural being (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). We can understand this reference somewhat like a family family- a single unit with multiple members. This familial language is all throughout The Bible when describing Jesus’ relationship to the Father (the “Son of God”) and our relationship to Jesus and The Father (“children of God”). Therefore, since God or “Elohim” is like a family, since a family is a relational unit, and since we are made in their image, we too are made to be in relationships.

Relationships do not develop accidentally. We must invest time and energy into them to sustain them. We cannot be transformed as Jesus calls us to be (Romans 12:2) without a relationship with Him. Since other Christians are the Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:7), it is necessary that we pursue and develop Relational Intentionality with other believers.

Being in relationships with each other strengthens us against the Enemy and against our own weaknesses. If we are isolated or alone then we become vulnerable.

(cont. below)

Christine Hoover has written a book called, “Messy Beautiful Friendship.” In it she illustrates the nature of christian friendships and how we can support each other throughout the messiness of life.

Read Messy Beautiful Friendship by Christine Hoover.

Prayerfully go through this questions. Ask God for His perspective on your relationships.

Once you have finished reflecting, pray through theses two questions regarding Relational Intentionality.

Team Values: Unguarded Authenticity

The fourth BridgePointe value is Unguarded Authenticity.

This is our definition of Unguarded Authenticity. See the post on, “Killer Love” for the importance of trust.

These Bible verses speak to the importance of being Authentic with one another. “Owe no one anything…” If you see something praiseworthy, tell them! If you are in a trusting* relationship with someone and see something that is off, tell them.

*If you have not been invited to give constructive feedback, don’t. If a friend has not invited you to speak into their life, don’t. If something is seriously wrong then approach the situation humbly.

Please watch from 43:00-48:55 in Bishop T.D. Jakes’ talk on “Crushing” to hear how Unguarded Authenticity is especially necessary for those who are gifted.

A key takeaway on the importance of Unguarded Authenticity for those who are gifted.

Unguarded Authenticity serves to refine and protect us in our giftedness.

As Christians in artistic disciplines, we are gifted on many levels. The first and primary gift we have is salvation. The next is our community of believers. Lastly is our musical or technical talents.

Humility is a popular word for Christians. It is necessary to have a correct definition and understanding of the term.

Take a moment and ask God to reveal where you need to be refined through Unguarded Authenticity and where you need to be protected by it.

Team Values: Evangelistic Hunger

The third BridgePointe value is Evangelistic hunger.

This is how we define Evangelistic Hunger.

God’s image of evangelism is Jesus. Jesus continually turns his attention to those who are lost rather than favoring those who are already found, even if only one person is lost.

One of the most succinct statements of Christ’s mission on Earth.

We live out Evangelistic Hunger by praying for One more person to share God’s love with.

Praying for One epitomizes our role in seeking and saving the lost. Praying for One is a great expression of our Evangelistic Hunger.

Praying for One tells God that you are on-board with His mission.

If we are committed to Jesus, we express our Evangelistic Hunger by seeking the lost.

Be real about the state of your Evangelistic Hunger. Ask God to search your heart and show you if you are on track or if you have become complacent in your Evangelistic Hunger.

Team Values: Killer Love

The second BridgePointe value is Killer Love. We have unconditional love for one another that squelches insecurity, uncertainty, doubt, and fear. We are committed to praying for one another because we care. We always assume the best and are quick to give grace.

This is how we interpret Killer Love.

This is the Bible’s interpretation of Killer Love. It’s much better.

If there is no trust there can be no love. A loving relationship can only go so far as there is a trusting relationship.

Please watch Andy Stanley’s teaching on Trust Vs. Suspicion from 0:56-4:24.

On the worship arts team, we trust each other because we want to bring out the best in each other. Whenever there is a gap in communication or expectation, we assume the best.

We want to grow in our own trustworthiness and our capacity to trust others. To grow in our trustworthiness, we must combat obstacles that stand in the way. To grow our trust in others, we must practice Biblical principles of love.

Pick one obstacle to trustworthiness to combat this week and one principle of love to practice this week.