Transcription
Thank you very much. You may be seated. Good evening. It's great to be at Hillsong. It's great to be with Brian and Bobbie Darlene. It's great to be with you, and I'm excited about what tonight has to offer.
In the few moments that I have to share with you, in the book, "The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership," I talked about the fact that leadership is influence—nothing more, nothing less. In fact, my favorite leadership proverb is, "He who thinks as he leads and has no one following him is only taking a walk." And I know, and you know, all kinds of people who are just taking walks.
I would like to say to you this evening that Jesus is not only our Savior but He's the greatest leader that ever lived. Socrates taught for 40 years; Plato taught for 50; Aristotle for 40—130 years these three philosophers combined to do teaching that has affected the world. But Jesus taught for three years, and Jesus, in His three years of teaching, has influenced more people than Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle.
Jesus never painted a picture, but Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo—they were inspired, and some of the greatest masterpieces that ever been given to humanity were given because of the life of Jesus. Jesus never wrote poetry, but Dante and Milton and other poets were inspired and said the greatest words when they talked about Jesus. He never wrote music, never composed a song; but Beethoven and Bach and Haydn and Handel and Mendelssohn and Darlene wrote some of the greatest words and composed some of the greatest music about Jesus.
1972—as a young pastor, my life was radically changed when I read a book, a book on spiritual leadership. In fact, it was from a New Zealander, Oswald Sanders. Oswald Sanders wrote the book, *Spiritual Leadership*. But as a young pastor wanting to know how to lead, I just devoured that book. It—when I finished, I just wrote all over it, in the back, things that God spoke to me about leadership. And and then I started going to the Bible, and I began to see what the Bible talks about leadership, and I became greatly encouraged when—but I saw so much biblical truth about leadership, and I began to gather pastors together. 1974 and 1975 in the States, and I would sit down with them, and I would teach them: Everything rises and falls on leadership. The good news is they knew how to share their faith and get people to heaven; but the bad news is they didn't know how to to grow great churches. And I began to teach pastors how to lead.
I used to have pastors-only conferences, and then their wives would would write in and say, "My husband's changed; can I come too?" So I let the wives come, and then then they said, "Well, we're going back to our church; can we bring some Christian businessmen?" So I began to let them come in, and then Christian businessmen began to say, "Well, could you come to our company?" And in the process of about 10 years, I went from teaching pastors to Christian businessmen to to going into the secular corporate type of a culture in the United States. In fact, I was recently speaking to the largest lumber broker company in the world. All day long I've been teaching about leadership, teaching principles, and when the day was finished, we were doing a little Q&A at the end of the hour, and one of the senior vice presidents of the company raised his hand and said, "John, I've got to ask you a question." He said, "This leadership stuff that you've given us all day," he said, "it's fresh, it's it's new, it's kind of different; it doesn't feel like like corporate America." He said, "Then do you mind if I ask you what where did you get your leadership material?" I looked at him and said, "You don't want to know." "No," I said, "I really do want to know." And I look back at him and I said, "Trust me, you don't want to know." But this time every hand was raised in the little area that I had the retreat or speaking, and they're all saying, "Oh, tell us where you get the material." And finally I said, "Okay, you you pushed me." I said, "Everything I know about leadership I learned from the Bible." And then I shared with those men, and I shared with the people that company that they just read the book of Proverbs every day for a whole month; they would just get all kind of leadership principles and ideas. And that's—that—I see you've got a cocktail hour, 6:30. I said, "I'll be there; I'll hang on in the corner, and if you really want to know about the Bible and what it says about leadership or about life," I said, "I'll just be there with you; I'll be glad to answer questions." And for that hour, from 6:30 to 7:30, the line never stopped, as secular people were beginning to ask me questions about leadership, and I can tell you story after story even out of that setting. Well, here's what I know: Everything I know about leadership I learned from God's Word. And and when you really want to learn leadership, you don't have to go far; you just have to go to Jesus and go to the Gospels, and and He teaches us about leadership.
But if you allow—I don't have a lot of time tonight. I mean, you got in late; we're tired; I understand that. I'll let you out at midnight, but I would like to share with you three or four things that Jesus—just things that I'm learning now, right now, about what Jesus teaches me about the leadership. In fact, as I was thinking about this conference, I literally I just I put the stuff down on my little cards here and kind of laminated them, which means that you know that if it's laminated, it's of God. I would have been Moses going up on top of Mount Sinai; I would have come down with tablets of stone. You can break those things. How to come down with laminated cards with the 10 Commandments, sticking them in every Jewish pocket I could find.
And when I look at the life of Jesus and His leadership, the first thing He teaches me is about servanthood. You see, if Jesus were here tonight, He was doing a Leadership Conference to us, the first thing He would teach us: this leadership is servanthood. He would say, "If we're going to lead, the first thing we need to do is know how to serve." I think Paul's most moving passage about Jesus is in Philippians chapter 2, and I'm just going to read a couple of verses here out of the Message. He's telling us and teaching us how to think correctly, to think of yourselves in the way that Jesus thought of Himself. He had no equal status with God, but didn't think so much of Himself that He had to cling to the advantages of the status, no matter what—not at all. When the time came, He set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave. He became human; having become human, He stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges; instead, He lived a selfless, obedient life, and—we died—He died a selfless, obedient death, the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion. You see, when I read this passage of Scripture, I realized that that Jesus was willing to surrender to the Father's will, and Jesus was willing to sacrifice the privileges and and the position of heaven, that He was willing to come here on earth and live among us and serve us, and is willing, of course, to suffer on the cross. No wonder Jesus would say to all of us tonight, if He were here: The leadership begins with servanthood. No wonder He would say to us that if we want to save our life, we have to lose our life; if we want to be first, we've got to be last. It'd be a lot of rule; we've got to serve.
There's a pyramid that I teach in leadership. Christians get it; corporate community has a little difficult time with it. But when I get done teachers, they begin to understand it. It's basically a pyramid. If you can picture in your mind for a moment, it's at the bottom of the pyramid; you can go to the left or the right; there's a lot of room; there's a lot of options. But the higher you go in the pyramid, the higher that you go in the organization, higher you go in the church, the higher you go in the government—how are you going to—in the church, the higher you go, the less options you have, and by the time you get to the top, you're out of options. When people say they want to be a leader, I always ask them why. It's very interesting. People—ha ha—man, if you're a leader, oh whoa, you got a parking space! Oh, love that parking space! And to begin talking about the privileges and the perks of a leader, and I'm just here to tell you that you give it up if you if you're going to be a leader. The first thing you realize is you're here to add value to people; you're to serve people.
In the States, we have an expression, we think the leadership expression—you probably don't have it here in Australia—that we sometimes will hear somebody that's the leader, and they'll say, "It's lonely at the top." Did you ever hear that expression here? Well, you know, the cad, in a sanctimonious, worthless way—no—it's it's lonely. Now, a leader never said that. Think about it: If you're at the top, all alone, nobody's following you. Here's a thought: Get off the top; go down where the people are; touch them. Because leaders always bring people with them because they understand the value of a servant's heart.
In the Gospels, we have a classic example of what I'm wanting to teach as far as the life of Jesus and servanthood. Within a few hours, we see two leaders picking up basins and filling them with water. Jesus, of course, in the upper room, as He sat around the table with His disciples, picked up the basin, filled it with water, and He went around and He washed the disciples' feet. I call this basin leadership. Jesus picked up a basin and put others before Himself. Pilate, in a conflict, a moment as a leader caving in to the pressure, the people asked for a basin of water to be brought to him also. But when he took the basin of water, instead of putting others first or truth first, he washed his hands and put himself first. Jesus, the secure leader, knew what it was like to stoop and serve others. You see, the secured—the secured leaders, they are into towels; the insecure leaders are into titles. The secured leaders are people-conscious; the insecure leaders are position-conscious. And Jesus understood this entire process, and as He looked at His disciples—isn't it interesting—the only time in the Gospels He basically told the disciples to do as He did, the only time that Jesus said, "Excuse me, guys, but I just want you to know, in this area, follow the model, in the pattern that I've given you"—the only time He did it in the Gospels was here, when He began to serve and and care for and wash the disciples' feet.
Ten years ago—literally 10 years ago yesterday—I resigned a large church in San Diego, California, to basically serve the body of Christ. And I can remember, as a pastor, battling that issue of giving up this large church, and and I was talking to God—you can understand, I, you know, a leader's known by what they lead and and and and what their organization looks like—and and I'm going to leave all of this. I'll never forget Jesus said, "For 25 years you've pastored," and He said it this way to me, Johnny: "For 25 years you've kept count; give it up; for the next 25 years I'll do the counting for you." And one of the things I did at that time was I picked a list of a people in the body of Christ that I wanted to serve. I called it my "Top 10 list," and for the last 10 years I've just done my best, very quietly—some of them don't even know they did—I've never—I don't walk into the—I say, "I think I want to serve you." They don't even have a—some of them don't have no understanding this at all—but I just said, "I'm going to commit my life to serving these people and adding to the body of Christ," because I want to tell you something: If you're secure, that only the secure will stretch, and only the secure will stoop. The insecure do not have that type of dynamic in their life. If Jesus were here tonight, He would look at all of us and it would say to us: Servanthood is where you start if you want to be a leader.
Another thing that Jesus is teaching me about leadership is about priorities. In the Sermon on the Mount, we know He tells us that we're to seek His kingdom and His righteousness, and all of the things will be added unto us. It's interesting, in the Sermon on the Mount, there's this one passage of Scripture that just grabs me, and it just kind of fits in to where I am tonight. Jesus is teaching; He says, "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow." In other words, He's saying, "Focus! He st—concentrate; take care of today." He was saying to us: Today matters. Today matters a lot. Lot would tell you that when when the messengers of God said, "Get out of Sodom," and he wanted to hesitate, and they had to help him out. He would say, "Today matters." I can promise you Joshua would say, "Today—today matters," as they look at the Israel, the country of Israel, the people of Israel that had led for several years, and his last speeches had: "Choose you this day whom ye shall serve." Esther would tell you, "Today matters," so she got the note from Uncle Mordecai, who knows what you've come into the kingdom for such a time as this. David would tell you, "Today matters; this is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Today matters. I find a lot of Christians, a lot of leaders, have what I call "destination disease." They'll come up to me; they'll say, "Oh, John, could you help me? I want to know God's will for my life; could you just kind of help me? I really want to know what God has planned for my future." And I always disappoint them because I tell them: It's no sweat. You see, trying to discover God's will—that's no big deal. All you got to do is take care of today; listen; obey God today; don't worry about next year; don't worry about next decade. Today matters. Obey Him today. You see, most Christians are educated way beyond the level of their obedience. And never tried to explain God until you first obeyed Him. Today matters. Today matters. This moment. You see, I've discovered that we over-exaggerate yesterday; we overestimate tomorrow, but we underestimate today. We talked about yesterday is the good old days, don't we? Hello! I tell you, back in the good old days with Dave in the States, we talked about the good old days. Old—did they talk about the good old days in Australia? Well, back in the good old—let's catch a—something—they weren't that good. Now, for somebody like myself, it's 58; you don't need to worry about the good old days. You forgive them when you get my age. Back—Margaret was with me tonight; we were going together in a car one day, and she said, "John, we're forgetting a lot." I said, "I know it, babe." I said, "What are we going to do?" She says, "I got a plan." I said, "What is it?" She said, "You remember who we are, and I'll remember where we're going." Okay? And it's helping—it's helping. We over-exaggerate yesterday; overestimate tomorrow; we think we could do more than we really can tomorrow; that's why we put off the bar. If we had to do everything we put off until tomorrow, tomorrow we'd be in deep weeds. But we underestimate today. Listen to me carefully: The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. Did you get it? The secret of your success, the secret of my success, it's determined by our daily agenda. Sid, John, what do you mean? If I could go home with you, if this wasn't a Hillsong conference, and if I could go home with you and I could spend tomorrow with you and just observe—I just get all—I got to do is hang—I don't need to run around, general—need to tell you what to do—just let me hang with you for about eight or ten hours. Can I take—if I just hang with you tomorrow, by 6:30, 7 o'clock, if we're having dinner tomorrow night—you do understand, you do realize, by tomorrow night I could look at you and with about 85% accuracy I could tell you how successful you're going to be. Like to say, "How could you do that, John? Are you brilliant?" Not at all. No, no. You see, the secret of your success, the secret of my success, is determined by our daily agenda. What we do every day is either making us or breaking us. Can I tell you something, my friend? I wish I had an hour to talk to you about this; I do not. But let me just drop it on you real quick: Most people spend their day either repairing or preparing. And people that are repairing are fixing yesterday because yesterday they didn't do it right. And the secret of your success and my success is determined by what we do on a daily basis. And successful people make important decisions early in their life, and then they manage those decisions the rest of their life. Now, this next statement—fasten your seatbelts; it's going to shock you—we put too much emphasis upon decision-making and too little emphasis upon decision managing. Let me explain. In the States, we have New Year's resolutions. Do you have New Year's resolutions here? You know, at the end of the year, you kind of look at your next year, then we'll lose weight, exercise, all the stuff. Okay? How many of you ever made a New Year's resolution? See those hands? Okay, that's very good. Let me ask you another question—you know I'm gonna ask, don't you—don't you hate this question? Don't you? How many have you ever made a New Year's resolution that you broke fairly soon after you made the New Year's resolution? And probably out of that made a New Year's resolution never to make a New Year's resolution again. They say in the States that within 17 days, 78% of the people that make a New Year's resolution break it. But January the 17th, the decision that was made on January 1st is already broken. I mean, hey, maybe we make a decision to to exercise and and really go to the gym. So what do we do? I mean, first part of the new year, we're getting our car—we go down to where we get to the parking lot; we can't get in there; there's a policeman out there, and he's directing us on down the road because the parking lot's full. So we're a little disgusted about this; we can't even get in the parking lot. So I'll pull—so so we go three blocks down; we finally find a place that we've parked the car; we get our gym bag, and now we're really discussed; we're carrying our gym bag, walking back to the gym, saying, "I wanted to get some exercise." And you go into the gym, and everybody's got all the machines and salt—I mean, yeah, you got to wait in line. And you go to the manager, saying, "I've made this resolution to lose weight and exercise," and I'm here to tell you, look at this—I mean, I can't even park here, connector. And here at the manager, looking, smiling, says, "Relax; take a pill; if you'll come back in about two weeks, you can pull right into the parking lot; you can park right by the door; you can have any machine you want in the gym." You see, we put too much emphasis upon decision-making and too little emphasis upon decision managing. Every day I read this aloud to myself. About a year and a half ago, I wrote a book called *Today Matters*, and in it I talked about the Daily Dozen—12 things that you want to manage on a daily basis if you want your life to be fruitful. And every morning I read this because it helps me because I'm going to have to manage these 12 things. And so I read aloud to myself: "Just for today I will choose and display the right attitude. Just for today I will determine and act upon important priorities. Just for today I will know and follow healthy guidelines. Just for today I will communicate with and care for my family. Just for today I will practice and develop good thinking. Just for today I will keep and make proper commitments. Just for today I will earn and manage finances right. Just for today I will deepen my faith. Just for today I will initiate and invest in solid relationships. Just for today I will plan for and model generosity. Just for today I will embrace and practice good values. Just for today I will seek and experience improvements. I will act on these decisions, and I will practice these disciplines, and then one day I will see the compounding results of a day lived well." Just for today.
If Jesus were to come in and talk to us about leadership, He would say: Make servanthood your foundation; learn to prioritize; and understand how to manage the daily areas of your life correctly. And thirdly, He would say: Learn to relate well with others. He would talk about relationships. In fact, I've been very surprised recently as I've been spending a lot of time in the Sermon on the Mount, how much of that time is dedicated just to getting along with people. Leadership and relationships are intertwined. Let me put it this way: People won't go along with you if they can't get along with you. How many of you know somebody that's difficult to get along with? Could I see your hands? Goodness, it's 100 percent. Let me ask you another question: How many of you are seated beside that person right now? No, no. You know, the first—the first question was a relationship question; the second question was an IQ question. We all know, do we not? All do we—all know—we all know people—but come on now—they're a little difficult—I'll stick it along with, huh? And yet, when I read the Gospels—in fact, just the other day, I I was just one more time going through them—in common, or hurried away, Jesus initiated relationships. Look at the woman at the well. Jesus didn't allow prejudice to affect His relationships. Look at Matthew; look at the sinners. Jesus showed forgiveness in relationships. The woman, of course, being stoned, or about to be stoned—Jesus confirmed that relationships are more important than legalism and tradition when He healed on the Sabbath. Jesus built relationships in the last moments of His life when the center looked upon Him and asked for mercy; He said, "Today you'll be with Me in paradise."
I do a lot of writing; I do a lot of leadership training in the area of relationships. We wrote a book called *Winning with People*, and one of the *Winning with People* principles is what I call the "elevator principle." And the elevator principle just separately says: Some people lift you up, and some people bring you down. That's true, isn't it? A truth—don't you have people that just lift you up? And incur—how many of you just have an encouraging person in your life that when you're just around them, they just—they just lift you up and just make you feel better than life? How many have somebody like that in it? And don't you love to see them come as their—as their approaches—they're coming to you; you just feel energy infuse your body. Come to Daddy! And when you get on their elevator—when you get on their—I love you—only have one button—but I got—when you get on the elevator, that button will take you higher, no matter what floor you're on. They have the ability to lift you higher than you are right now. And then there are other people—you get on their elevator; it's only got one button—basement! Exactly! Hey, when you're—when you're in the basement—when you're thinking you're as low as you can go—so a little—but you know it's bad—it can't be worse—I'll get on their elevator, and you get on there, and you find this—they got a new button—LLB. What's that stand for? Lower basement! You better—but I mean—and when these people come to you, they have the ability to suck life right out of your body. What I thought about these people is their timing is impeccable. Come on now.
Is that not true, at least in the States? Their timing is impeccable. Is it the same here in Australia? Come on, talk to me.
Hi. You've been with people all day. You're worn out. You're tired. It's 9:30, 10 o'clock at night. You've been in meetings all day. You're done. You've talked to the last person. You're out. You're walking out in the parking lot. There's no one else to see. You're so excited. As you approach your car, it's like an oasis. You say, "In about 10 seconds, I'm going to get inside that car, and I'm going to close the door and roll up the windows and lock those babies, and for 20 minutes, nobody's ever going to talk to me." And you get your hand right on the door handle, and you hear a voice. Right there. You don't get in the car. You just lay your body on the car. Slay me. Swimming slang. Our Mary Wilcox said, at best, she said, "There's two kinds of people on earth today. Just two kinds of people. No more." I say, not the good and the bad, for it's well understood the good are half bad and a better half good. No, there's two kinds of people on earth. I mean, the people who lift and the people who lean.
Jesus would teach us that if we're going to lead people, it starts by loving people and connecting with them. Classic example, and his love to us, of coming into this world. Thank you very much. I'm sorry. I've been ignoring you the whole service. I still hate—I was going to quit, but I got one more point. Now that I got an Amen Corner, right? I had no—had no clue to get this good up there, so I'm going to talk to you, and if the rest of them want to listen. [Applause]
The fourth thing that Jesus teaches me about leadership—this is just for you, if you're seeing those people taking notes, you tell me—would you—Jesus teaches me about team building. Jesus teaches me—Jesus teaches me that if you're going to do something significant, you've got to build a team. In fact, one is too small of a number to achieve greatness. Teamwork makes the dream work. Just follow their lead. And when you build a team and put them together, to make it—the only way that you can compound your vision and go from me to we is by getting people to buy in to the jury. And Jesus knew it, and he had this mission to please the Father and obey him. Does he—can say those words were lost. And so the first thing he did when he started his public ministry is he—he gathered a team together. Now, I don't think we would probably gather the same team that Jesus did. Oh, man, how would you like to leave your church to Peter, like, "One day I was 10, Lord, I just don't understand why you would pick those disciples," and he said, "Well," they said, "Let me give you another question. I don't understand why I picked you." [Music]
If you study Jesus and how he built a team, first of all, he knew his mission, and secondly, he equipped his disciples in a life-related context. I spent a year in the Gospels asking myself, "How did Jesus teach and equip leaders?" And—and it's very simple. It's what I call Jesus' idea of discipleship. He instructed them in a life-related context. He demonstrated for them in a life-related context. He exposed them and gave them experiences in a life-related context, and he assessed them and brought them into accountability in a life-related context. That's a whole sermon in itself. But Jesus not only did that, but Jesus understood that if you're going to develop leaders, you've got to spend time on them. So I'm going to ask you a very simple question: Did Jesus spend an equal amount of time with everyone? Yes or no? Thank you very much. He didn't spend near as much time with the crowd as he did his disciples. In fact, I'm—or you know, Bible studies by Christians are always kind of like kumbaya, and yeah, I did—they're just kind of kissy-kissy kind of deals. And I've often thought, "Oh, I would like to do some Bible studies that just would rankle Christians." And what am I—would love to do is if you just—have you ever done a study on how many times Jesus tried to get away from people? Come on. Ambience. He's teaching on the ground. He's teaching on the ground. Wise teach of a brow. What if he's backing up to the lake? Piete, piete, piete. Get the boat. Get the boat. And let me ask you—know you can do this—yes or no? You're the smartest crowd I've talked to today, no question about that. You even listen yesterday. Jesus spend an equal amount of time with his disciples? Yes or no? No. No. No. He had three. Yep. Three. Gave them a lot more time and attention and energy and effort and teaching. You know, those three—Pete, Jim, and John—did be with the 12 disciples, and they'd stop and they say, "Pete, Jim, and John, you three come here quick. Okay. Now, none of you other guys—" I'm going to take Pete, Jim, and John, and we're going to—we're going to go away for a couple of days or some places I want to show them. There's some people I wanted to meet. There's some things I want to teach them. And I'm just going to ask you, don't get in trouble while we're gone." And Jesus would go off with Pete, Jim, and John. Have you ever thought—have you ever thought about what the conversation was like with the other nine that were left behind? Huh? I—I got it. I—I think Andy—I think Andy looked at Phil, as it filled—that ticks me off right there. Right there. That—that one—that one now that grabs me the wrong way. Phil, have you ever noticed Jesus has no creativity? He always takes the three—the same three. It's always Pete, Jim, and John. Meet Jim and John Gibbons on boys. Meet Jim and John, so to speak. Given Chun-hee. Phil looks at an Indian soul, and I'd—I bugs me, though. I'll tell you what really bothers me. Home bothers you, Phil? I don't mind so much when they go. I'll tell you what I hate. I hate when they come back. I'll kick when they come back. A space repeat. Especially Pete. He comes back. He tells us where he's been. He tells us who he's met. Remember the last time they're up on the mountain? He said the druid God was there, and they almost stayed up there. Built three taverns. I wish they would have stayed up there. Hey, Tom, Tom, let me ask you a question. Did Jesus ever ask you to go with him on one of those trips? No, he hasn't. And I seriously doubt if he ever will.
Oh, there's so much more I could teach: servanthood, priorities, relationships, team-building, but I want to wrap it up now. This is a very significant time for me to come back to Hillsong and Australia. Thank you, Brian and Bobbie and team, for inviting me to come back. It's always an honor to be here with you. In 1982, Margaret and I came to Australia, and I spoke in four different cities about leadership, and I can tell you it's a very discouraging time for me. In fact, when I left Australia, Margaret and I talked about—I said, "You know, it just seems like God's gonna have to do a miraculous work. It just—it just seems like the church is not vibrant and alive, and it just seemed to me that things were not going perhaps as they could and should." And little did I realize back in 1982, Brian, the God was birthing in you and those leaders at Hillsong. Little do I know back then that God would raise up a church that would become a movement. That God would raise up a—a worship team that would begin to teach us how to worship better and come into the presence of God greater. A little than I realized that—that God was brooding over Australia and was about to say, "I'm going to take this nation and I'm going to raise up leaders. I'm going to bless this nation spiritually, and I'm going to reign righteousness and blessings upon them." I didn't want—I didn't know. I've been privileged to be at Hillsong a couple of times again because of the graciousness of you and thank you. But when I—when I realized I was going to come back this time, about three weeks ago, I felt very distinctly impressed that I was to do one thing. Preaching is wonderful, and I'll do some teaching tomorrow. Do my best to share and add value to your life, but I don't really—came for one reason. See, I have a heart for leadership, and I have a heart, too, to see Christian leaders raised up around the world, because I know this: everything rises and falls on leadership, and that God is looking for men and women to stand in the gap. I've had the privilege in the last few years to have an organization equipped that is training right now, literally around the world, a million leaders, and that's a wonderful experience. But—but that isn't why I'm here. As I was working on my little simple leadership message—and it's a very simple leadership message, nothing complicated about it—in my office, in my study, I sensed that God was saying to me, "John, when you're done preaching, I want you to pray and ask God to—in this conference tonight, because today matters. I want you to pray over people and ask God to raise up a whole new generation of Christian leaders that not only—that not only can take Australia for God but can take the world for God." [Applause] Would you bow your heads with me and just close your eyes?