This weekend I rode for ten hours with 33 other men to attend the Johnny Hunt Men’s Conference in Woodstock, Georgia. We left at 5 a.m. from Wilmington, North Carolina.
We actually rode the bus for about eight hours. The other two hours were spent in restaurants…
There were 7,500 other guys at the conference, so when we worshiped it was pretty amazing.
I’m pretty sure this was the first time I was not the slightest bit self-conscious about my singing. (I wonder sometimes if God holds His ears so He can just hear my heart when I’m worshiping Him in church.) I sang as loud as all the other guys, and didn’t give a hoot about the terrible noise I was making.
In addition to worshiping we heard some awesome teaching by Dr. Johnny M. Hunt and other men. Johnny is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church Woodstock (FBCW), and the current president of the Southern Baptist Convention. (He used to live here in Wilmington, North Carolina, before he became famous. He was born in Lumberton, NC, and he’s a member of the Lumbee Native American Indian Tribe.)
My Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) helped me decide to attend the leadership session entitled “The Adventure of God’s Will.” I’m glad I did. Allan Taylor, the minister of education at FBCW, was the speaker, and he was exceptionally good. Allan has written several books, and he also leads Ember to Blaze Ministries.
About 600 men attended Allan’s teaching sessions on Friday and Saturday. He based “The Adventure of God’s Will” on Joseph — Mary’s husband — in Matthew 1:18-25. As Allan said, we call this the Christmas story and we usually read it about once a year. As a result, we don’t often hear much about Joseph. Allan captured some interesting things from this scripture passage about Joseph’s decision making and leadership…
Leadership is based on adventure — the ride and the journey.
Like Joseph, the God-centered man must leave his security and go where faith is required. Often it is insecurity and instability that is the very center of God’s will for us. God’s call drags us from the comfortable and calculated into the adventurous.
God’s plan has many twists and turns in the road.
When things don’t go as we expect, like when Joseph found out his fiancé was pregnant, we must believe that our adversity has God-given potential. Rather than change our plans or direction, we may need to change our perspective, like Joseph changed his after his dream. Even though it may seem quite bizarre, we must remain open to the will and plan of God.
God’s adventure has greatness in it.
Because He is so great and good, God often leads on paths that look disastrous, only to provide a divine outcome for His glory. However, He requires faith — belief that God 1) is sovereign and in full control; 2) has thought it through beyond our comprehension; 3) knows the why, how and what is next, even when we don’t; and 4) will always be with us and do what’s best for us.
God’s plan asks for our obedience.
Like most people, Joseph wanted status, security and stability. But God wanted Joseph’s submission — one of the greatest signs of respect and honor we can offer Him. We cannot be compelling leaders until we are complying followers of Jesus Christ. Our greatest privilege is also our greatest responsibility — obey. We cannot fully understand, but we can fully obey, just as Joseph did.
The reason for gaining Bible knowledge is so we can learn to do God’s will and obey Him. If our will is to do God’s will, and we make it our business to do God’s business, it then becomes God’s business to do our business. And He will take care of those who do His will.
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.
But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” — which means, “God with us.”
When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
For more of Allan Taylor’s insight into fanning the flame of your heart, leadership, ministry and church, visit his web site at Ember to Blaze Ministries.
