[intro video about International Justice Mission (IJM) rescuing children from abuse]

• South Africa: the Christian leaders (black and white) were the reason Apartheid was dismantled without war. Leadership matters.
• We want our leadership to matter. We need to lead in areas that matter to God.
• Some times we lead in areas that don’t matter
• The Pharisees
• The church leaders in Lawanda where 80% of people claimed to be Christian, but corpses piled up in churches during the genocide.
• Do Jesus and I have the same values?
• Two unfamiliar things:
• God loves the world
• God cares for the poor
• The most difficult thing for people is “is God good?”
• So many children died of starvation, die of abuse. So many genocides. Diseases.
• What is God’s plan for showing that He is good?
• We are. “Let your good deeds shine before men that they may glorify your Father in Heaven.”
• Another category: injustice
• Injustice is taking from others what God has given to them. It is intentional and evil.
• Injustice is an abuse of power.
• David: Drunk police officers extorted his $1.25, tossed him out of the police car and shot him. He drags himself to the hospital where they save his life. When police find out he’s alive, come and throw him in prison. How is he supposed to believe God is good?
• How is the family in India forced to be slaves in a rice mill where they are beaten, raped, forced to work 12 hrs/day, believe that God is good?
• How are the girls who are tricked, kidnapped, and sold into brothels where they are beaten and forced to service 30-40 people/day, going to believe that God is good?
• We are God’s answer. God doesn’t have another plan
• Isaiah 1:17. Hosea (?)  "Love justice, mercy...”)
• Leading about injustice is scary, hard, hopeless. We’d rather lead people in things that are fun, exciting.
• 1. How do we lead when it seems hopeless?
• Despair comes from looking at what we can do. Hope comes from refocusing on what God can do.
• If it’s God’s passion, then it’s God’s responsibility.
• Ex: the Disciples when Jesus asks them to feed 5000 people. The Disciples say “we can’t do that!” So Jesus says, “what do you have?” 5 loaves, 2 fishes. Andrew says “that isn’t enough!” But Jesus used just that.
• Jesus doesn’t ask what is needed, he asks what you have.
• IJM in Kenya took up David’s case, but nobody in their community had ever seen the police brought to justice. So they offered what they had (persistence) and just prayed.
• 2. How do we lead when the task seems scary?
• IJM colleagues have been threatened, beaten, etc. But they have experienced God do great things and save people from slavery, and they wouldn’t exchange it for anything.
• Jesus didn’t come to make us safe; he makes us brave.
• If our Christian life does not feel dangerous, maybe we should check to see if we are following Jesus.
• Ex: Gary’s father took him and brothers to Mt. Rainier. Gary was the youngest and he was always last. He saw the sign warning about the bad things that might happen if you climbed the mountain, was scared (but insisted it would be boring), so convinced his father to let him stay at the visitors center. Father and brothers came back with excitement, adventures.
• Was on the trip, but missed the adventure.
• 3. How do we lead people when it is hard?
• Effective leaders make four choices:
• Choosing not to be safe
• Dependent on prayer. Mother Theresa couldn’t imagine doing her work without prayer for 30 minutes. If our work doesn’t require prayer, maybe we are doing the wrong work, or need to do the same thing a new way.
• Choosing to seek deep spiritual help
• People can do safe spiritual things without deep spiritual help. They do it all the time.
• But when you are on the mountain, devotional stuff is no longer something to do to get it done, it has a desperation. We seek God’s joy, hope, etc. because we aren’t sure we’ll make it if He doesn’t answer our prayer.
• Lead people on a journey requiring God.
• People will either become more devoted or stop pretending.
• Has discovered that nothing effective is going to get [incomplete]
• Choosing to seek excellence
• Our culture does not associate Christianity with excellence, but it was not always so.
• As we moved into more climate controlled settings, something moved out: beauty, excellence. We spiritualized mediocrity.
• Excellence is a matter of life or death if IJM’s lawyers do accurate and thorough research and argument to combat the high priced lawyers of the opposition.
• Study effectiveness. Evaluation by outcome.
• Choosing to seek joy
• The first thing to disappear when deep spiritual health departs is laughter (Dallas Willard)
• It should make us laugh that God uses people like us for His work
• Something is wrong is Jesus’ yoke is light but mine is heavy.
• Jesus enjoyed life so much he was accused of being a glutton.
• Joy is the antidote to despair.
• When Joti (Indian brothel slave) was rescued, brought police to other children, who then brought them to more children. Her joy caused others to be saved.
• Conclusion: Would try to work out as a kid and would see the body builders at the gym. But what was that strength for? Posing. And opening jam jars. My prayer is that God would deliver us from such mediocrity.