Everyone Can Lead with Courage and Conviction

You don’t need a title or a platform to lead well. In this episode, Pastor Chris walks through 1 Peter 3 and 5 to show how every believer can lead with courage, conviction, and quiet strength. You’ll hear practical encouragement on pursuing peace, standing firm without fear, giving the reason for your hope with gentleness, and living out humble leadership in everyday life. 

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/18159510

Key Points:
 • Anyone can pursue peace and do what is right, even when facing pushback.
 • You can stand firm in your faith and refuse to let fear silence your witness.
 • Every believer can be ready to explain their hope in Christ with gentleness and respect.
 • Humble, integrity filled leadership is something God grows in anyone who is willing.

Notable Quotes:
 • Sometimes your most effective leadership shows when things are hard.
 • Do not let fear silence your faith.
 • Share the reason for your hope with gentleness and respect.

Personal Stories:
 • A Hardee’s job where a manager disliked Chris becomes a lesson in perseverance and peacemaking.
 • Listening to John Maxwell in the garage during late night work projects shaped his leadership journey.

Actionable Takeaways:
 • Identify one strained relationship and take a step toward peace.
 • Prepare a short testimony and a couple of questions for spiritual conversations.
 • Pray for courage to speak for Christ this week.

Scripture References:
 1 Peter 3:8-18
 Psalm 34:12-14
 John 14:6
 Colossians 4:6
 1 Peter 5:1-5
 Jude 23

Keywords:
 Christian leadership, courage, everyday discipleship, hope, evangelism, peacemaking, humility, 1 Peter

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

Chris T 0:16

Now we're going to look at how to lead with conviction and courage. And so I wanted to read the Bible passage before we get started. So in the NIV, 1 Peter chapter 3, I'm going to start in verse 8. It says, suffering for doing good. Has anybody ever suffered for doing good? Have you ever done the job the best you can and you still suffered because somebody didn't like you or they didn't like it that you were a Christ follower? Finally, all of you be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called, so that you may inherit a blessing. For whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil, and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good, they must seek peace and pursue it, for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Who is going to harm you if you are eager to do good? But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats, do not be frightened, but in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to every one who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body, but made alive in the Spirit. So Peter is encouraging the persecuted church, the dispersed church, the lonely Christians, the ones that are seen as awkward and weird by the Romans who worshipped a lot of different gods, but didn't really appreciate this worshiping of Jesus. I guess what they didn't appreciate about it the most is that Christianity, that Jesus in John 14, 6 says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Jesus is like, I'm the only way. There is no other way. Your other religions don't match up. Your other religions don't matter. It's not like God hears the goodwill of all the religions around the world and said, Oh, their intentions are right. That's good enough. Nope. The only way to be made right with God, the only bridge to eternal life is Jesus Christ. And that can cause you a lot of persecution, cause you a lot of trouble, cause you a lot of difficulty, and you could suffer even if you were doing good. But I'm talking about leaders, and I love leadership stuff. Once again, I was in my garage working on stuff with the TV playing, John Maxwell stuff. And so John Maxwell has a lot of free videos that you can watch. And so he was a pastor who became a leadership expert, who has written a ton of books on leadership, who continues to offer in churches and play people pay him tons of money to speak about leadership. But I've noticed as he's gotten older, once again, he is very clear about his call for people to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. So the other stuff that's been recorded in the past, maybe he did, but it wasn't part of the recording. But yeah, you can listen to John Maxwell, the leadership expert and the evangelist nowadays, and it is encouraging. But I'm talking about leading, and you might say, I am not a leader because I don't have the position. I don't have the role. I'm not the coach. I'm not the overseer. I'm not, and I'm not these things, but you are a leader because you can lead the people around you. You can lead the people in your home. You can lead your friends, you can lead your neighbors, you can set the tone in your home. You can work with integrity. You can exemplify your leadership to your friends by the choices you make and the things that you do and don't do. Your children and your grandchildren look to you to see the way that you think, the way that you respond, the way that you even handle difficulty. And Peter's writing to these people who are going through a lot of difficulty, and he is trying to encourage them to stay faithful. He's not telling them to run away. He's not telling them to not participate. He's telling them to, in the face of persecution, in the face of difficulty, to be super kind, to be super godly, to be super helpful, to be super faithful. And by that, they can win lost people to Christ. Sometimes people will look at you and your life and notice that you're different, and they might even come up to you and say, What is it that makes you so different? In which you can respond, Well, you know, my parents brought me up, right? I was born in the Midwest and lived in northern Minnesota where we all do what's right. No, that's probably not it. No, Jesus Christ got a hold of my life. I've learned a lot from the scriptures that he's given us on how to live a life that makes a difference. And while I'm not perfect, he is changing me and making me into the person who created me to be. Would you like to hear more about that? In which maybe you can talk about how we're all plagued with the sin disease and that Jesus is the cure, and how you heard about the cure and applied it to your life, and how it didn't just cure you, but it transformed you and made you a different person with different motives, with different desires and different values. And those are good things. So here Peter's going to tell us, in the midst of all of the difficulty, to pursue peace, to stand firm, to share your hope, to accept suffering when it comes, and to lead with humility. Sometimes your most effective leadership is when things are difficult, when things are hard, when things aren't going the way that you hoped they would go, you have an opportunity to lead and also to show Christ in your life. So, number one, Peter tells them to pursue peace and do what is right. To pursue peace and do what is right. Have you ever tried to pursue peace with people? Have you ever been in situations where for some reason people just don't like you? So once in my life, somebody said, Oh, you look like somebody I used to know and they caused a lot of trouble. So yeah, I won't be going to your church. It's like, what? I look like somebody that you used to know that caused trouble, and therefore, wow. So maybe people don't like you because you look like someone they used to know. Or maybe somebody doesn't like you because you're just so fit and handsome or beautiful that you intimidate them and they don't like you. I don't know. But people will just not like you. So when I was in high school, I worked at Hardy's. And so I kind of liked working at Hardy's. It was a good place to work. Interesting thing, though, is that my grandparents owned two Hardy's restaurants. So when I moved here from Colorado, we were ended up in St. Paul for a bit, and I got trained up at the Hardee's on Rice Street, one of the Hardeys my grandpa owned. So I was like 14 and I got trained up in everything Hardy's. I read through the franchise manual, got trained up in everything, and then my parents found a house, and we moved over by Lake Minnetonka. And my grandpa called his friend and he who owned the Hardee's there, and he said, My grandson's all trained up, ready to go. Would you like to have him? And he's like, sure, bring him on over. And then I started a job there. And so the manager at the Hardee's restaurant there did not hire me, nor did he approve of my hire. He was just told by the owner that he had to hire me. And I tried to work hard. As far as I know, I did everything possible that I could do right and tried to pursue success in every way. But for some reason, this manager just, no matter what I did, he didn't like me. And I tried to do everything I could to make him happy. And no matter what I did, he didn't like me. And it was tough. But I didn't tell the owner and I didn't tell my grandpa. I just endured it and did the best that I could. And then eventually he was gone. No, not of any fault of my own. He just went and got a different job. Maybe he was unhappy in the job. Maybe it wasn't me. But I felt like he didn't like me. So I tried to pursue peace. I always tried to do what was right. I tried to exceed his expectations. And one thing as a young Christian that I knew is that even if it wasn't well received, that God sees and God can reward. He knows my intentions. He knows my desires. He knows what I'm trying to do. And even if somebody else doesn't see it, God sees it and God can reward. And I think that's how we make the world a different place. I think that's how we influence the people around us, is we just try to do what's right because God sees and God knows. So Peter, like I read, had started out, they must turn from evil and do good. They must seek peace and pursue it. So David is quoting from Psalm 34. In Psalm 34, it says, Turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it. Peter's bringing this into his message. Did you notice actually that Peter brings a lot of other scripture into his letter? That there's lots of cross-reference and quotes from things that Peter is quoting, which is totally fine. It's like a good pastor given a good sermon of Scripture, not just his own words or ideas. And his is direct from the Holy Spirit, so we can trust it. But we need to know that it is easy for us to get entangled in evil, to give in to temptations. We need to do everything that we can to turn from evil. So it is so prevalent all around us. So it comes across the screens on our computers, on our phones, and the music that we hear, the stuff that we listen to, the stuff in the library or the bookstore or just people around us. There's just so much evil around us, and we are told to not just walk away from it once, not just repent once, but to continually turn away from it, continually walk away from it, continually move away from it. If we fall, to confess it quickly, to get up and to move forward again. It is so sad when pastors, especially pastors that are leading large churches and making a big difference, fall some temptation, some sin, and then they are disqualified from ministry for a season or for a lifetime and to turn from evil and to do good. To do good. So Christian leaders should do all that we can to do good. We should be honest, we should care for others. If we have the opportunity to lead other people or be responsible for people, say we have a staff or we have people working for us or whatever. We should do everything that we can to help them be successful, to train them with the skills that they need, to give them the tools that they need to be successful, to protect their time and their family, to help them to see how they can succeed even more, to reward them verbally and even financially for the good things that they do and to help them experience success and to do good as a leader, to do good as a parent to do good, as a grandparent to be good, as a friend, as a neighbor to do good. And again, God sees. And sometimes when we are, when someone talks against us, when someone does things against us, maybe it's just somebody I know, but sometimes you can think in your mind diabolical ways to set the person up so that you'll get revenge. And but remember, God sees. So revenge isn't on the menu because it said to seek peace and pursue it. To seek peace and pursue it. Pursue is not like you're just looking at it. Pursue means you're chasing after it. You're chasing after peace. You're looking for an opportunity to share with wise words or a timely apology. Romans 12, 18 says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people. And so we need to do everything we can to be at peace with our neighbors, to be at peace with those people who have decided that they don't like us. All right, number two, we need to stand firm and don't let fear silence our faith. There's nothing that can shut down a leader, a Christian, more than fear. When you don't share your faith because you're afraid you'll be rejected, when you don't stand up for Christ because you're afraid of what people will say or what they will do, and it's very possible that if you're going to live for Christ, that you might not receive their promotion from the boss who doesn't like you because of it. You know what's weird is that sometimes when people are living in sin, when they're living in darkness, when they're living in rebellion against the Lord and they see a sincere Christ follower come, not only do you challenge their values, but you make them feel extremely guilty because they know that they're living wrong, they're doing wrong, they're not walking in the way that they should, and they say you, they see you doing what they know they need to be doing, and it makes them feel uncomfortable, maybe even angry. But to stand firm, don't let fear silence your faith. So here Peter says, Who's going to harm you if you're eager to do good? Actually, some people might. I mean, if you're just gonna go out and do good and you're gonna care for people and you're gonna do all that, that's fine. And even with Samaritan's First, Franklin Graham's organization, I don't know if it was a hurricane or a tornado, but all their trucks showed up to help feed the people and help the people in need. And they're giving out food and giving out all this stuff, and they're also sharing the gospel message because that is what they were about. So there were people angry. People were saying, Oh, terrible. You just give us the food and give us the stuff, but don't share any of that gospel with us. So you should only be allowed to give out stuff. You shouldn't be allowed to speak at us or tell us about Jesus or tell us Jesus is the only way. So they were doing good, but some people wanted to harm them, shut them down for sharing the gospel message. And maybe you even experience things like that too. But again, verse 14 even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear their threats, do not be frightened, but in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Blessed by who? Blessed by God. God can reward you for doing the right thing the right way. How would God feel if you just distributed the food, distributed the disaster supplies, and were afraid of the people and said, Well, the people don't like us to share the gospel message about Christ, so we're not going to. We're just gonna hand out the stuff and be quiet. Because if a few people pushed back, if a few people protested, I think in even one spot they were told they couldn't come if they were gonna share the gospel, and then maybe you just take your trucks and go down the street or go somewhere else, or go to the next town over, where whatever. But God sees and God cares. What if you don't share the gospel message? What if you don't live for Christ? You won't be blessed. You won't receive special favor from God, you won't receive reward. God will not smile upon you if you are living in fear, not doing what he wants you to do. I mean, he's giving you the Holy Spirit to empower you and even give you right things to say. He's helping you to be successful, to do those works. All you need to do is to be faithful to show up. And sometimes, if we're an immature Christian, we need to be faithful to grow up and live for Christ. That can be a good thing. So don't fear the threats, don't be frightened, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord, honor Christ as Lord. To know that Christ is, He cares, He sees, He knows, and He can help you even through the hard stuff. Have you ever done things that are that scare you, that are kind of scary, and you pray through it and you do it, and then you're it worked out pretty good and you'd be willing to do it again? Maybe public speaking is one of them. Maybe you're terrified to share in front of a group and you did, and it didn't turn out as bad as you thought, and it's actually pretty good, and now you're gonna do it again, and you're so glad that someone encouraged you to step out in faith and do that. Maybe standing up and sharing your testimony. Maybe you were afraid to connect with someone, introduce yourself to someone, show yourself as a Christ follower to someone. Maybe you're terrified to really tell your boss about what you believe about Christ. But you did, and it turned out much better than you thought. It's because you put Christ first. It's because, like I said before, you're trying to please the audience of one, and even though some other people might push back, you're gonna do what you know, what is it that's right, because that's the priority. And so do not fear. So that's easy to say, but it is easy to be fearful sometimes. But you just need to trust that whatever it is that you're fearful is gonna happen. Like you might be fearful you're gonna lose your job, but if you're doing something for Christ and you're doing it in the right way, and you're doing it in a way like Peter's gonna talk about in a second, you need to trust that God is gonna help you to get a better job and to move forward. But so many things we could talk about that. But let's go to number three, share your hope respectfully, share your hope respectfully, share your faith respectfully in the Lord. So sometimes, like I mentioned in the beginning, people will just come out and ask you what is different about you. And other times, you need to do spiritual fishing, you need to, while you're saying you're driving somewhere together in the car, or you're on the plane with somebody, or on a bus with somebody, or you're fishing and somebody comes along, or I don't know. Actually, boats are a great place to hold somebody as a captive audience. You can say pretty much whatever you want to them, because unless they're really good swimmers, they're gonna stay in the boat until you're done. And to share your hope, to share your faith respectfully, spiritually fishing, spiritual fishing, asking questions like, oh, what do you think about the Bible? Or, oh, did you go to church anywhere? Or I like the open-ended question ones like, have you ever come into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ? Or are you still somewhere along the way? Have you ever prayed for anything and felt that God answered it? How do you think this world, this earth, got here? Do you think really it came from a big bang or if there's a creator? Just spiritual fishing, just asking open-ended questions, just trying to see if you can get them into conversation and then leading them along and asking more questions and then trying to give spiritual answers. And sometimes you'll be absolutely amazed at the responses that you have. When I was a young Christian, I was amazed sometimes. I'm like, I can't believe I'm saying all this. This is great. And I that's when I realized the Holy Spirit will empower you and help you if you're faithful to show up. But Peter says, 1 Peter 3 15, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. Why are they ashamed? Because everybody starts to figure out that what they're saying against you isn't even true, that you are honest, that you are upright, that you are a good worker, that the things they're saying that you're doing or did aren't true. And so in Peter's day, people would talk against them because they weren't worshiping the false gods or Caesar like the Romans were used to doing, or they were taking part in communion, which some people thought misunderstood was cannibalism and all these things. But prepared, to be prepared is apologetics, to give a reasonable explanation. So everybody thinks apologetics is like just saying, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I'm a Christian. But no, it's giving a defense for your faith, a reasonable defense for your faith. And it doesn't mean that you have to be an expert in apologetics, though it would be great if you were able to be that, but to be able to give an answer for your faith. Colossians 4, 6, let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. So to give to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. The why, why why are you different? I already mentioned some of this, but to share Christ with people, to know what to say. And so if you don't know or remember what to say, in 2024 we did a series called Tell Someone, you can share the good news, and that is in video and on audio from April 7th, 2024 through May 26, 2024. But it talks about how to be secure in Christ, how to experience freedom in Jesus, how to worship in spirit and in truth, the rewards of working with Jesus for an eternal harvest, how God can use your life story, how to share the greatest news ever, and how to live a life of honor and integrity. The five things to remember about what you're trying to share is that one, all are sinners and therefore lost. Two, God loves the sinner but must punish the sin. Three, no one can save himself by any means, for Christ has provided for our salvation. Five, the sinner must personally accept by faith God's provision of salvation. Those are some things that are in there. So again, and what you would hear in that series is to share your testimony, to prepare to share your testimony, to write it down, maybe something as simple as what your life was like before you came to Christ and what your how you came to Jesus and what your life has been like since, or the things that you were going through and experiencing before you found faith in Christ, and then how you found transformational faith and how you've been growing after that. Maybe you could practice saying it, talk to your phone or something, practice presenting it to someone, figure out a two-minute presentation. There's even, I have a video link somewhere, of taking Romans 6 23, just one verse and using a napkin to easily share the gospel message. Romans 6 23 is the one verse you can use to do that. Or you can use John 3 16 or so many others. But who in your life has shown curiosity about your faith? How can you clearly explain to them why you? You follow Christ? Is there a place where hidden sin in your life is eroding your confidence? And when you talk to people, does your tone reflect kindness and care? Or does it express anxiety? Do this with gentleness and respect. I've seen people do it before. Sometimes they're like, oh, okay, okay, so you want to tell me, you want me to tell you why you're a Christian? Okay. All right. Because everybody's a sinner. You're a sinner for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. That means you for sure. Yeah, I used to be that way too. And you have a harsh tone and it's really more antagonistic. And the people can tell you're like really nervous about it. And what people want to hear is that you truly believe this, that you're truly sharing this, that this is not something that you felt the church wanted you to do, but something that just overflows out of your love for Christ that you want to share that with others. Number four, accept that suffering for good is better than compromise. Accept that suffering for good is better than compromise. Verse 17, it is better if it is God's will to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. God might allow you to go through a difficulty. It might strengthen your faith. It might break some really hard ground among you, among the people around you. God can allow you as you endure that suffering to become better, to become even more committed, to become even more focused. It's really strange how, if you look through church history, how persecution and martyrdom does not destroy the church, but it strengthens the church. And sometimes God allows you to go through hard things so that you can be more effective in your faith. And then I've got one more lead with humility and integrity, and we're going to go to 1 Peter chapter 5, verses 1 through 5 for that. And we're going to talk about elders, which I think is kind of weird to talk about, since currently, well, since I've been here, this church doesn't have any elders besides me. So the church constitution lays out that the form of church government is that the pastor and the elders together are the spiritual shepherds, and together we lead the church. We shepherd the flock. We provide spiritual stability and accountability. Currently, all we have is the pastor. And that is okay. There are thousands of evangelical and Baptist churches around the world that have a solo pastor as the leader, and then the church congregation votes on things like pastors and elders and all those different things. Sometimes there's confusion as to what we're looking for in elders, and these are some things that we can pray about. So scripture says that if a man desires to be an elder, that's a noble thing. So that's the first thing is the man has to desire to be an elder. You can't force your husband or a person to be an elder and say, we don't have anybody, so you got to do it. They should have the desire to do it. And then character requirements in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1, and what we'll look at in a minute here, is to be above reproach, a life marked by integrity, not perfect, but trustworthy and consistent. So faithful in marriage, a one-woman man, loyal, pure, committed, self-controlled, not impulsive or easily provoked, sober-minded, sound in judgment, not driven by extremes, respectable, his life earns the respect of others over time. Hospitable, open-hearted, welcome, willing to care for people, not given to drunkenness, disciplined, not enslaved to substances, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, argumentative, not a lover of money, not greedy, not driven by financial gain, not arrogant, but he's humble and teachable. He manages his own household well with order and love and consistency. He has believing, respectful children, which reflects his spiritual leadership, not chaos. He's able to teach. He must know scripture well enough to explain it faithfully and defend sound doctrine. He's grounded, not drifting or chasing trends as he holds firmly to sound doctrine. And he's not a recent convert. He's a maturing Christ and tested over time. And so we need to pray that God would shape some men into this. And I have an elder training class that could put some men into apprentice elders and get him started. So we just need to pray that God would bring those people to us and that we could move forward that way. But also have the confidence and assurance to know that we can continue with the solo pastor and keep moving forward with what we have. So, all right, lead with humility and integrity. And then I already read what no, I did not read this passage. I will right now. So to the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder and a witness of Christ's suffering, who will also share in the glory to be revealed. Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, watching over them, not because you must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be, not pursuing dishonest gain, but eager to serve, not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that will never fade away. In the same way, you who are younger, submit yourselves to your elders. All of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble. So again, Peter is writing this to the persecuted, the dispersed, the lonely Christians, the persecuted Christians. In Nero's time, he persecuted Christians, burned them at the stake, burned them as torches in the garden. And so it was a hard time. But these are Peter's, the Holy Spirit's, these are God's solutions written through Peter on how we're supposed to live our life. And when we think about being leaders, just like it said for elders, and just like I mentioned before, we do so because God sees and God cares and God can reward us for the way that we spend our life here. God cares in the priority that we put on sharing the gospel message so that we literally can rescue people from the flames of hell, as it says in Jude 23. So I'm gonna, the worship team can come up here, but the next time we get together, I'm gonna talk about persevering without losing heart as Peter again talks to this persecuted group and encourages us on how to persevere in our Christian life. Jesus, I thank you so much that we can gather together and we can be encouraged by the reading of your word. Lord, I thank you for the experiences that you've given us that encourage us to encourage others. I thank you for the priority that you put on eternity more than our temporal blessings or comfort. God, I pray that we would spend all of our days living for you and pursuing you, and that we would be able to find encouragement by the other Christ followers around us, and that you would give us wisdom, that you give us power. If there's anybody that is here that doesn't know you as their Lord and Savior, God, I pray that they would talk to us afterwards so we can tell them how they can start a new life-changing relationship with you, Jesus. We just thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.