Brian Taylor Online

In the Bible, King David is known almost as much for His staggering defeats and failures as He is for his victories and triumphs. Yet in all of this, God described Him as a “man after My own heart.”  What was it about David? What are some of the qualities that he possessed that put Him in a position to be used by God?

In my previous post, we talked about the fact that David was a servant that shepherded God’s people with “integrity of heart”.  In this post, we’ll talk about a second quality found in Psalm 78:

70 [The Lord] chose David His servant and took him from the sheep pens; 71 from tending the sheep He brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. 

72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.

Quality #2: God is looking for servants that desire to serve and lead skillfully.

“With skillful hands he led them.” God is looking for servants that will lead with intentionality, wisdom, and grace. He is looking for those that literally have “intelligence, understanding, [and] insight”. Notice however, that He’s not necessarily impressed by nor concerned with formal education or training, though those are valuable resources. David didn’t develop his skills in the classroom, he learned them in the “sheep pens.”

The kind of skill God requires can only be obtained in the “sheep pens” of life — knowing and applying God’s Word in our daily walk and circumstances; learning valuable lessons from triumphs, but also from mistakes and failures; and engaging in serving and loving people! Without a “sheep pen” there can be no throne room! David’s experience with real sheep made him the perfect candidate to be a shepherd of God’s people!

Until we are willing to “get our hands dirty” when (we think) no one is watching, we will never be able to serve in area where everyone is watching! God wants skillful servants that serve with integrity of heart!

How do these two qualities apply to you? Think of some of the ways you can apply them in your home, ministry, or area of service!

If asked the question, I believe we all would say that we want to be used by God to do great things for His kingdom.  There is a desire within us to be effective in our ministry, our leadership, our homes, our workplaces — and the list goes on.  If that is our desire, we also must understand that nothing happens by chance.  There are principles, based on His word, that God uses when searching for an “honorable vessel.” Today, I want to look at the one of two of those qualities.

Psalm 78

70 [The Lord] chose David His servant and took him from the sheep pens; 71 from tending the sheep He brought him to be the shepherd of his people Jacob, of Israel his inheritance. 

72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart; with skillful hands he led them.

The Bible says that the Lord himself chose David and decided to use him to be the shepherd of Israel.  The way it says David chose to lead shows us the qualities that he possessed, the qualities that God was looking for:

Quality #1: A servant that will shepherd (feed, care for, protect) people with “integrity of heart”. 

What does it mean to have “integrity of heart”?

“Integrity of heart” or an “upright heart” does not indicate the absence of sin, but rather the presence of:

• Humility
  We must recognize that without God we have nothing to offer, and understand that without His grace and power our best effort will be fruitless! Ask God to show you where you stand and be ready to hear what He has to say!
   
• Repentance
  Once we’ve humbled ourselves before the Lord and seen the damaged, dirty areas of our hearts, we must take the appropriate action to turn away from those things and turn to God, to draw closer to Him. Knowing is only half the battle!
   
• Sincerity
  We finally choose to lead, love, and live as an offering of sincere worship unto the Lord.
   

Leading with integrity of heart means that we are 100% invested in the work that has been assigned to our hands. It means that there are no hidden motives, agendas, or ambitions. Our goal is glorifying God and leading others to do the same. This kind of servant lives a life of integrity and is therefore able to lead the same way.

Awesome video from Acts29Network.org. Elliot Grudem on Balancing Marriage and Family with Ministry.  Some really good stuff! Watch it.

2 Corinthians 9
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has made up his mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

One of the things that God has been working with me on is the concept of being generous. I’m a driven man. I’ve also been trained growing up to be a good businessman. I was always taught if you want something you work hard until you get it. These ideals have served me well in my life, but they have always accentuated what I’d consider an area of weakness in me. I wouldn’t consider myself as someone who “loves money”, but I am someone who likes to keep the money that he has.

Additional factors, besides my business sense, include a fear of uncertain times and a fear of not being able to support my family when they need me the most. This often results in things like freaking out over the $5 purchase when there was a $4.25 option or having to unexpectedly pay a babysitter. Those fears in particular were magnified when we had Judah, and we made the decision for Lauren to stop working full-time with a previous employer to be a full-time mother. This resulted in a lot of stress and tension.

As I’ve asked for wisdom, God’s response has been simple, “You know, you’re right! You should hold onto the 90% you have left.” Okay…That’s not what He said, but that’s what I was hoping for. The real response was, “You need to be more generous with everything, not just your money.” At first that didn’t make sense to me, then it hit me. The more generosity I could infuse into life, the easier it would be to be generous. (Profound, I know.)

Here are a few of the areas I’m trying to be more generous in.

1. Time. My priorities are not what I write down, they’re what I give my time to.  I’ve tried to make sure there is consistency between the two.  I’ve also tried to spend more time doing things that I do not necessarily want to do will be good for me to do, especially in areas of serving. This has not only produced generosity, but is also working humility in me.  
2. Grace. I tend to be judgmental and dismissive.  I also tend to think the worst of people and situations. Being more generous in offering grace to people and circumstances has helped me to avoid conflict, stress, and anxiety.  It’s also protected some relationships that may have been irreparably damaged.
3. Communication. Though I love to talk, I don’t love to talk. This is something my wife would attest to.  I’m attempting to be generous in graciously communicating my thoughts, motives, hurts, and appreciation without prompting. That’s been hard, but I’ve already started to see major benefits!
4. Love. Speaking of appreciation, though I think it, I don’t always communicate love. I’m trying to make sure the people I love know it and that I show it in the way they best receive it. I’m trying to make sure that I’m loving the people that don’t “deserve it” in my book (When you think about the fact that God loves you when you deserve the opposite, it makes it harder to justify that.).
5. Money. This one deals directly with my fears, and I thought it would be the hardest. Believe it or not, it has not been as hard as some of the others. I’ve found that this and all of the other areas are about making a conscious decision as to what you will and will not do. I give “as [I have] made up in my mind. All I will say on this is the principle is true, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”

Since I’ve started this life-changing experiment, I’ve been reminded that God is true to His promise.  His grace is abounding in our life.  We have had all sufficiency in all things. Our work has been exponentially fruitful. God has really blown our minds as we’ve let things go, and there is no way I’m going back!

If you have a closed-fisted mentality in an area in your life, try asking God to show you how you can be more generous. You won’t regret it.

The chief motivator of change in an entrepreneur-led company is the leadership. ‘The willingness and desire to make personal changes themselves will radiate out in the business,’ says Peter Bregman, a corporate culture consultant and author of Point B: A Short Guide to Leading a Big Change. ‘A corporate culture is incredibly strongly linked to a leader’s personality.’

Creating a Culture of Excellence – Entrepreneur.com

This is a great article!

1 Samuel 3

11 And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.12 At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end.13 For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible,and he failed to restrain them.

If you know anything about the story of Eli in 1 Samuel, you know that his sons served in the house of the Lord, and they did some pretty terrible things.  Eli confronted them but never really did anything when they didn’t listen.  This caused the Lord to judge Eli’s house and lead to the death of Eli and his sons. It ultimately resulted in his lineage being removed from the priesthood. God promised to “judge his family forever because of the sin he know about…”  The generations after him were cursed all because he didn’t take his responsibility as a father seriously.

As I’ve been studying this passage, I’ve realized that there is a very important spiritual principle for us fathers, one that is many times neglected. It is one that I have realized I must grasp now, while my firstborn son is still young.

Here are some things I’m realizing are vital to my responsibility as a father:

• To love. A father’s love cannot be replaced. The security and comfort that only I can provide to my son is invaluable. I’ve got to let nothing keep me from loving my son, as the Father has loved me.  It is an all-encompassing, all-surpassing love and commitment to seeing Judah develop into a man that honors the Lord.
• To discipline. This is really an element of love, but one that I felt needed to be drawn out.  Eli’s problem was that he failed to discipline or restrain his sons.  I am responsible to the Lord for how I love my son through disciplining him.  The choice I make in how I handle my son’s missteps has the potential to alter the course of His life and the life of the generations to come.  I must be unwavering in my stand for righteousness in our home and in his life. I must be uncompromising in our commitment to raising a godly man. 
• To love God more than I love my son. This is a hard one to swallow.  What God revealed to me as I was reading this passage is that it all boils down to this question, “Who do you love more?”  Am I willing to sacrifice integrity, honor, effective ministry, and the Lord’s favor in an effort to shelter my son? If I identify unrepentant sin in his life as he grows, will I continue to let him serve as if nothing is wrong? That’s what Eli did and we saw the result. It is my love for Judah that will make me remove him from any platform, position, or function. Though my hope is that things would never get to that point, and that he would receive my correction, I must be willing to make the hard choices or face the direct opposition of God. I will honor the Lord at all costs.

There are more things that I’m drawing out of this passage, and I’ll probably share some more over the next few days.  To all of the fathers (even spiritual fathers) that are reading this don’t be an Eli.

If I could show you what my dream home office would look like, it would look much like this…

Work Space (via Jason Schuller {theSevenFive.com})

Nothing is worse to me than a person who always has excuses.  If you make a mistake:

• Own up to it.
• Apologize for it.
• Explain what you learned from it and how you’ll prevent it from happening again.
• Move forward!

Leaders take responsibility for their actions — good or bad, right or wrong! Always trying to shift blame is an indicator of a lack of maturity and potentially a lack of integrity. Every time that I have made an excuse or wanted to make an excuse, it was a direct result of pride that was revealed to exist in my heart. It often leads us to say things that “aren’t quite the truth”. In other words, most times it is a lie.

It’s so easy for us to come up with reasons “why we couldn’t” or “why they didn’t”. Don’t fall into that.  It always leads to capped potential and decreased responsibility. People who own their actions, gaining the necessary wisdom and experience from the good and bad, are people who will go far!

“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.” Proverbs 11:2

The trailer for our Easter services this year! Get your FREE tickets at http://www.theone2010.com!

Link: “Women Who Dare To Believe”

This is going to be an incredible musical TONIGHT. DON’T MISS IT! Our team is co-sponsoring the event, and we’re also doing worship. Our dance team will be performing live as well!