{"id":5298,"date":"2017-11-29T13:12:22","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T19:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=5298"},"modified":"2017-11-29T13:12:22","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T19:12:22","slug":"main-thing-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2017\/11\/29\/main-thing-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Main Thing: Leadership!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By David Shannon<\/strong><br \/>\nVincent Thomas Lombardi is best known for his legendary accomplishments with the Green Bay Packers from 1958-1967.\u00a0During these nine\u00a0years as\u00a0head coach,\u00a0they won five NFL (NFC) championships and two Super Bowl championships.\u00a0He was\u00a0inducted into the\u00a0Hall of\u00a0Fame in 1971, but surpassed most\u00a0Hall of\u00a0Famers\u00a0in honor\u00a0as the NFL renamed the championship trophy after him.\u00a0Lombardi was tenacious about fundamentals.\u00a0He began each\u00a0preseason\u00a0by holding up a football\u00a0before professional athletes\u00a0and saying, \u201cGentlemen, this is a football.\u201d If they had a crushing defeat during the season, he would give the same speech again.\u00a0He leaned heavily upon a \u201cback-to-the-basics\u201d\u00a0approach. \u201cWhy worry about elaborate passing schemes or complicated blitz packages if we can\u2019t block or tackle?\u201d\u00a0was his mentality.\u00a0It is one thing for a coach, elder, husband and father,\u00a0or preacher to say he is focused on the main\u00a0thing;\u00a0it is another thing to live a life that proves it!\u00a0Is God\u2019s main thing your\u00a0main thing?<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nPaul labored\u00a0in Ephesus for about three years.\u00a0After his departure he called the elders to meet with him in order to give them what he\u00a0knew to be\u00a0\u00a0his final charge.\u00a0Paul rehashes things they witnessed about him as a leader in order to demonstrate the principles he lived\u00a0by.\u00a0In other words, as Paul would teach the elders a leadership principle, he\u00a0would then say, \u201cYou saw me exemplify that when I lived among you.\u00a0Now you go and live that way among those you lead.\u201d\u00a0 One of the clear\u00a0messages\u00a0is his \u201cMain Thing\u201d approach.\u00a0Pain, trials, tears, detractors, nothing,\u00a0or no one\u00a0was going to steer Paul off the course.\u00a0He was\u00a0determined\u00a0to keep the main thing the main thing,\u00a0and teach the elders of Ephesus to do the same thing.\u00a0Notice how the following verses are leading up to Paul saying\u00a0in spite\u00a0of all that has happened\u00a0he\u00a0never stopped\u00a0proclaiming \u201cit to you.\u201d The \u201cit\u201d was his main thing.\u00a0Read to see what it was.\u00a0\u201cFrom Miletus he sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.\u00a0And when they had\u00a0come to him, he said to them:\u00a0\u2018You know, from the first day that I came to Asia, in what manner I always lived among you, serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears and trials which happened to me by the plotting of the Jews; how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ\u2019\u201d (Acts 20:17-21).\u00a0The \u201cit\u201d for Paul was\u00a0teaching\u00a0Jews and Gentiles,\u00a0in other words\u00a0all mankind, to practice \u201crepentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d Repentance is rooted in change.\u00a0Repentance involves a change that is sorry for committing past sin that has hurt God and welcomes a new life that seeks God\u00a0(Acts 26:20).\u00a0The new life was found in \u201cfaith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d Faith is formed from learning the\u00a0Word of God (Romans 10:17).\u00a0In learning the\u00a0Word\u00a0of God,\u00a0we come to know Jesus.\u00a0Peter wrote about digesting the\u00a0Word of God by saying,\u00a0\u201cIf indeed you have\u00a0tasted\u00a0that the Lord\u00a0is gracious\u201d (1\u00a0Peter 2:3).\u00a0The\u00a0problem with the Pharisees was that they would read the\u00a0Scripture and miss\u00a0the Christ (John 5:38-40)! So Paul\u2019s \u201cmain thing\u201d was to help people change their lives\u00a0by coming to know Jesus.\u00a0The change can be difficult,\u00a0and coming to know Jesus isn\u2019t lip service, but\u00a0a commitment\u00a0to deny self in order\u00a0to exalt Christ (Matthew 16:24).<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nBut there was more wrapping around this teaching in Acts 20 than Paul simply saying, \u201cLet\u2019s keep the main thing the main thing.\u201d\u00a0Paul knew the enemy would try to take leaders off course.\u00a0Concentrate on the sidelines and miss the game.\u00a0Fight a little battle here and lose the war.\u00a0So\u00a0Paul is challenging the elders to make sure that they do not allow people or situations to detour them from the main thing.\u00a0It is\u00a0easy to allow\u00a0cluttered schedules to mask the most important thing.\u00a0Without realizing it we can become entrenched in sideline activity instead of what is happening on the field.\u00a0Leaders must carry the gavel that calls everyone\u2019s attention to the main\u00a0thing! A penitent\u00a0life toward God and\u00a0faith toward Jesus Christ must be our battle call.\u00a0Everything else must support this, point to this, lead to this, emphasize this,\u00a0and\u00a0accomplish\u00a0it.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nPaul mentions at least three things to the elders of Ephesus\u00a0in Acts 20\u00a0that could have detoured him, but he refused to be shaken.\u00a0Paul would\u00a0not\u00a0allow persecution, false teachers,\u00a0or greed to\u00a0corrupt his life of ministry.\u00a0You are leading people on earth, point \u201cA.\u201d The main thing is to help them arrive and maintain a course toward point \u201cB,\u201d Heaven.\u00a0So the main thing is repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0Do the people you lead know that a penitent life of faith in Christ is the main\u00a0thing?\u00a0If not, maybe you need to set them down and say, \u201cGentlemen, this is a\u00a0\u2026\u201d<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><br \/>\nNext issue we will discuss the three distractions Paul mentioned.<span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335559731&quot;:720,&quot;335559738&quot;:120,&quot;335559739&quot;:120,&quot;335559740&quot;:360}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By David Shannon Vincent Thomas Lombardi is best known for his legendary accomplishments with the Green Bay Packers from 1958-1967.\u00a0During these nine\u00a0years as\u00a0head coach,\u00a0they won five NFL (NFC) championships and two Super Bowl championships.\u00a0He was\u00a0inducted into the\u00a0Hall of\u00a0Fame in 1971, but surpassed most\u00a0Hall of\u00a0Famers\u00a0in honor\u00a0as the NFL renamed the championship trophy after him.\u00a0Lombardi was tenacious [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1135,1136,1137,1138,244,171],"class_list":["post-5298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-think-excerpts","tag-1135","tag-acts-20","tag-august","tag-david-shannon","tag-leadership","tag-paul","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Main Thing: Leadership! 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