Why Are Some Leaders Resilient and Why Are Some Not?

Leadership Lessons from Kings

Why Are Some Leaders Resilient
and Why Are Some Not?

Rough Transcript

Khayree Pender

Khayree Pender:

Hello, man in a mirror. I’m Khayree Pender and we’ll be doing another lesson from leadership lessons from kings. On today if you have your Bibles, if you could turn with me to Second Kings chapter 20 and I read a few verses and your hand on today. It says this, “In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amos went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says. Put your house in order because you are going to die. You will not recover.” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. “Remember Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and was wholeheartedly devoted and have done what is good in your eyes.” Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him, “Go back and tell Hezekiah the ruler of my people this is what the Lord, the God of your father David says, I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add 15 years to your life and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David.” In these leadership lessons of kings. I just want to continue and talk about that and today it is simply be a question from what we’re learning today. Why are some leaders resilient and why are some not? Why are some leaders resilient and why are some not? When we begin to look at resilient, it really means this. The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties.

If we’re thinking about any type of leader or leadership, one thing that they have to have is the ability to bounce back quick. If you’re a leader, you have people under you that report to you or look to you for guidance and even certain types of ways to tailor their self or actions after they want to make sure that they can look to you. One thing you can’t do is show them that you don’t have that ability to bounce back. One wise man told me this, “Never let anybody see you sweat, I want you to be like a duck.”

I looked at him strange. He said, “Let me tell you something, a duck is moving smooth on top of the water but his feet are paddling like crazy.” That’s one thing about a leader. You have to stay smooth and stay consistent and resilient not let them see you sweat, because if you being the leader, when they look to you, they want to make sure that if they see you panicking, it’s going to cause them to panic as well.

Well, here we have Hezekiah and Hezekiah has a unique story. He has a unique story such is because he’s the next king that followed up and before him his father was king. Let me tell you something Hezekiah dad as king was known to be an evil ruler. He is the son, which makes him a prince under a king and he’s seeing the leadership that his dad is possessing and what he’s doing. It’s one thing about being a leader but it’s one thing about being right in leadership. His dad was known to be a evil ruler and it said he did all types of things that his dad led in all types of wings.

There were about pagan gods, there were all types of things that when you under a leader or a king that you wouldn’t want to resemble or do or even submit under those things. Here it is, that Hezekiah as time has turned for him to be able to come at leadership, he understood and saw what was going on with his father and how his father was able to lead the people and practices and things that he had in place. Hezekiah thought those things weren’t right. It said here that he had a special relationship in previous chapters that Hezekiah put God before everything that he was doing before and after he consulted and had a solid relationship with God.

In that standpoint it said that when Hezekiah came up to rule and be a king, he cleared all those things out that his father had already had in the forefront of him as walking into leadership.

Now you would think that even when there’s things that… or kings they are… even if you’re other… so let’s remove it. Not only is he his own king but that’s his father. If you think about it, we have always heard those quotes “You just like your dad” or “you do things just like your father” in this case Hezekiah took a stand and you know what, he said, “I am not going to do what my father did.” Hezekiah got into that position of leadership, of being a king and he said he was going to make some ultimate changes, which shows me here that Hezekiah, which brings us to our first bubble, Hezekiah is a cycle breaker.

HEZEKIAH IS A CYCLE BREAKER

Hezekiah is a cycle breaker and as we begin to look at that, there are some cycles that we know that he was a part of.

There was some things that he was connected to with his father. So I want to ask you a question. The question today is this. What are some cycles that you find yourself operating under, that you need to break from? Then let me ask you something. What are some cycles that you have already broken from? How does that make you feel doing the process? What are some things that you know you need to break while moving on and moving forward or that may be hindering you and what are some things that you know that you have already broken yourself from that you see that it gives you a type of freedom or a type of growth. It brings us to our Big Idea. Resilience doesn’t mean you “man up”, it means you “got up”. Resilience does not mean that you man up, but it means that you got up.

What does that mean? As we began to look at that, we can think about it. We’ve all accepted challenges. We’ve accepted all types of challenges during the course of our life. Here it is with Hezekiah. He accepted the challenge to be the reigning king but it wasn’t the acceptance, it was the action. His action is what it is. That’s what I’m saying to you today men. It’s not that you manned up to it. Yeah, you could say, I’ll do it, I’ll stand up but the fact is that you got up. This here it is with Hezekiah. Hezekiah accepted it. Hey, I’m going to be king but the man of position. That’s what it was but he got up, he got up into position and he made changes. He made the proper and necessary changes that were needed to be met.

He knows that being that his father was the reigning king and the things that he did were not right and he did not want to continue to lead people under that type of leadership. He could have very well accepted it and been affected by his father’s leadership who was king and took on those attributes but he stood up and said, “No, you know what? I will not do that.” He will not take on those things. Hezekiah began to move on. As we begin to move on, we begin to see that Hezekiah began to become ill. He became ill during the course of his reign and word came to him. The word came to him and said, “You know what Hezekiah, I want you to go ahead and get your house together because you’re going to die.

You’re going to die. We can look at it and say, you know what well, at least thank you for the warning and letting me know, let me get some things together where a courtesy of death came. It tells us this that Hezekiah began to receive that and then he said, you know what? He turned himself to the wall. I didn’t completely look at the messenger but he turned himself to the wall and he began to speak “Lord remember how I walked before you devotedly? Do you remember how I did what was right in your eyes. Do you remember how submitted… he began to speak based from a standpoint of the relationship or the things that he’s done to honor God, he didn’t get into that king or leadership position. He walked straight into it and devoted God in that leadership, he showed it on it.

So he was able to pull equity out of a relationship. He was able to do that. Which shows us to the second bubble. It says this, humility and his illness made him stronger.

HUMILITY IN HIS ILLNESS MADE HIM STRONGER

He felt humility in that. He received the word that he was about to die, but you know what he pulled from it and said, “You know what God no, do you remember what I’ve done? Do you remember what I presented before your people? Do you remember how I turned away ways that could have ultimately made me wicked but I honored you in everything that I’ve done, do you remember?” Hezekiah was able to speak on that he was able to pull from those words and begin to tug on God’s heart, even in that timeframe. Are we able to do that? He was able to speak and what I love about resilience, it says, “You have to have the ability to bounce back.”

We look at that as a leader, we have to be able to do those things. You can’t just give up, you can’t just fold in that time. One thing about a leader which I love is, just because someone says it to you don’t make it so. You have to realize and know that, he said it. The word came, I hear what you’re saying but I’m going to have to go back to the forefront and look at this. Just because someone says something to you, it does not make it so. You have to understand that you being in that leadership position, I love that you are able to speak and say certain things and command things and they have to abide by it. Those are some of the principles and some of the things that comes along with being a leader with comes along with being a king.

I don’t have to accept what’s being said to me, I don’t have to do that. You are a leader, you don’t have to believe something is true just because somebody says it. Someone in the past may have said some things to you that you’ve been living out. Some people have said some things, you have to use it as fuel. In my line of work I’ve come in contact with people. Sometimes I really just try to get to the root of the problem even though there’s a situation. The situation, it may not be as big as the room. Their situation may seem big and magnified but it’s the root that’s causing it to look big. When I got to the root of some of the situations it was rooted from someone telling the person that I’m talking to what they weren’t going to amount to what there weren’t going to be and what they’ll never accomplish.

They accepted it and guess what? They lived it out. Here in this Bible verses Hezekiah turned and he cried. That’s one thing that some of us may not want to do but he turned and it said he wept bitterly. In those tears and in those words, the word came back. It came back and said, “You know what? The word of the Lord spoke to him.” So here it is in our Big Idea, we have to understand it again and know this, that resilience does not mean you “man up” it means you “get up”. That’s what we have to do. It does not mean that you man up but it means that you got up. Look at this in this part from him with his sickness, it shows us that he did not accept it. It doesn’t mean he just manned up with it, he got up.

Because some of us would say, you know what? Yeah, he lost that manned up part when he started crying but guess what? He got up because he was able to rely on those things. He was able to recover. He was able to rely on the past things that he’s done that were pleasing in God’s sight. As we begin to further move on, I have a question. I want to ask you guys a question on today and I want you to really ponder on this. When leading, what are some things that may seem as weaknesses but to others they may seem strenth. For us like I told you, he didn’t accept it in leadership. I want to ask you this inside of you, what may seem as a weakness to others, what is a strength to you? How do you use that thing that may torment you, or may seem as a weakness as strength to strive and go and push and move and execute what it is.

I know that there’s some things that I know I may not be as efficient in but you know what? I know that so it makes me work harder. What are some things in leadership with yourself that you know what, I may not be at tip top shape with it but I’m going to use it as a strength with inside myself to keep all going. Hezekiah displayed that for us. This is a man doing it from his death bed. He was laying down at the point of time he received this news and he didn’t even have enough strength just to get up just yet. But he got up within his spirit. He turned his face. He began to quote and speak those things. I love what the word said and before the messenger even made it to the courtyard, he came back and spoke to him.

At least as men to our last bubble, here it is, it says his relationship allowed him to stay rooted. His relationship allowed him to stay rooted.

HIS RELATIONSHIP ALLOWED HIM TO STAY ROOTED

As we begin to look at Hezekiah, he was able to speak on those things as I said earlier. Some relationships don’t really have value in them, let’s just be honest. There are certain people that you know that you can call at three in the morning that, you know that will be there for you and they wouldn’t think twice about doing things for you. Being in a king position or leadership, let’s just be honest. We have to make sure that we’re focusing and that we really pour into relationships. We have to make sure when you’re in leadership and you’re treating people right and you’re doing right, they wouldn’t have any type of thought or doubt of doing anything for you because of the way that you’re leading and what you’re doing.

I want to tell you this, that in here Hezekiah’s relationship with God, it allowed him to stay rooted. It allowed him to stay focused. He didn’t pull on other resources but he was able to focus and pull back and stay rooted in the relationship that he had. Sometimes when people get into leadership positions and they find themselves in higher points, they feel as though that they may not need anybody and that’s where we fail as leaders or leadership. He knew that there was still, even though he was at the position that he was king that people had to ask him for permission or people had to act out things that he sent out as word. He knew that he still had to go back and draw from a relationship. He had to do that and in that position, I think that helped him.

Even before then show them in the humility that he had as well. I want to ask you a question man. I want to ask you another question. Taking a look inside yourself, what value do you bring to connecting relationships? What type of value do you bring? You can have all types of relationships. Relationships quoted as close relationships, or distant relationships or even associate relationships. We think about those things. We have the close relationships where we know that we can really call on people at any time the ones that we trust and believe in them and know that they’ll be there for us. Then we have distant relationships that I’ll keep you close enough to give you things and work on with you but far away to not allow you to really hurt me or do anything like that. These are leadership positions.

Then you have what Hezekiah showed and displayed in here. What type of value man do you bring to relationships? What are you doing? You can be a leader but not bring any type of value. He’s a king that brought value. We don’t want to be a useful leader. We don’t want to be a wasteful relationship. Are you bringing value to your relationships? What are you doing? Taking a look inside yourself, what value do you bring to connected relationships? What do you bring? It’s a question for us. So here we ask and men, I want to remind you again and again, with our Big Idea, we want to make sure that we state this and keep it there. Resilience does not mean you “man up”. It means you “got up”. I want to tell you this men. Resilience is telling us just having that strength to bounce back in any type of climate trial or situation, you can accept it but that’s not enough.

You have to get up. You have to be willing to give it your all and work towards it. Why do some leaders have resilience why some don’t? We see it here, even on Hezekiah’s deathbed he still showed us what resilience look like. He didn’t accept what people said. He didn’t count it as being true but he pulled from what it was that he knew that was inside of him. I’m telling you right now man, as we continue to go on, we have to make sure that we do it. You’re able to recover and you’re able to rely on those things and you’re able to remain rooted as well in those things. Don’t just man up, make sure that you get up. That’s the part of our resilience on today. Men, if you’ll allow me go ahead and bow your heads and close your eyes and let’s just go ahead and have a word of prayer.

Dear Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for allowing us to really have a microscopic view and look at our own personal selves. We thank you right now for letting us know that the leadership and kingship resides inside of us. We ask on today that this lesson allows us to activate what it is that you have inside of us. We may have been living out some type of words that’s been given to us or just accepting the call but not really living up to it. But you were showing us today God, that we are able to do it. We thank you right now for the resilience that’s being activated in today.

Lord we ask right now that as this resilience is being activated, that you allow us to go back and even reconquer some of the things that we probably folded to. We thank you and were not accepted things that were said in the past and things that we were living out that were probably spoken over our lives we are going to bury them today. We thank you Lord for what you’ve done and what you’re going to do in our lives. In your name we pray Jesus. Amen.