SHOW NOTES
Lessons Learned, pt7
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 167
Lesson #1: Anger is a manifestation of selfishness.
Lesson #2: Slow down.
Lesson #3: Become a listener.
Lesson #4: Be a giver.
Lesson #5: Always be submitted.
Lesson #6: Cherish people.
Lesson #7: Follow and feed your convictions.
We should all have biblical convictions. We should also have deep and abiding personal convictions that we do not make dogma to other people. Hebrews reminds us to set aside the “sins and weights” that easily trip us. What might be a weight to you might not be a weight to someone else.
I remember watching boxing when I was younger. While I was watching it, the Lord convicted me, telling me that I was done with it. I turned it off and have never watched another boxing match since. I don’t go around telling people they can’t watch boxing. It is a personal conviction that the Lord breathed into my life. God is smarter than me, and maybe He was trying to avert me from a potential disaster. Boxing is a gambling-oriented sport, and I was involved in that aspect of it, too. It’s not hard for me to imagine that the Lord was saving me a lot of grief. It has become a personal conviction.
I look for people who have personal convictions—things they do or don’t do. Not just lifestyle adjustments or preferences, but deep, abiding convictions.
You have to feed your convictions. If you believe strongly about something in the Scripture, it’s important to feed it because the enemy will attack that very point. We see so many people deconstructing their faith. I guarantee you that those people did not feed their convictions. They were running on yesterday’s fuel.
A conviction can turn into a preference if you don’t have something to support it.
Preference is great, but a preference doesn’t work on a windy day. A preference is good on a sunny day. There are a lot of people who have preferences about not getting divorced, but they don’t have a conviction because they have never really looked at the Scripture to see how God looks at marriage.
Conviction is a legal term. It is applying evidence to the point of having your life affected by that conviction. Scripture tells us that the love of God constrains us. Our convictions control us. If there is an area in your life where you feel out of control, it’s probably because you have a lot of ideas but not a lot of convictions.
Where do you need to develop convictions? What about your thought life, financial life, health, serving, etc.? Do you have personal convictions? Could someone bring evidence against you that would support your convictions?
Part of feeding your convictions is feeding your intellect. Romans 12 talks about the renewing of your mind, not the removing of your mind. Christian people should be sharp.
What are you feeding your intellect? What are you thinking about? What’s important to you? Let’s take politics as an example. I think we have a lot of Christian parrots. They are saying the right thing, but do they really know why it is the right thing?
Often I get asked for books I recommend. When I think about the books I read when I was a new Christian, I’m surprised at how I was developing my thinking and feeding my intellect.
The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell
These are books that develop your thinking. I guarantee that I didn’t understand a tenth of what I was reading the first time I read them, but my mind was being renewed.
What are your convictions? What is the evidence of those convictions? How do you feed those convictions? We should be leaders who follow and feed our convictions.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
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