The Heart Attitudes: Part 8Sample

Heart Attitude #7 – Follow spiritual leadership within Scriptural limits.

Hebrews 13:17 “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account, so that they can do this with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you.”

Following anyone can be difficult. Prior to the days of GPS, Google Maps, Waze, or any other address apps on our phones, often the success of getting a group of people together was the ability to follow a lead car well. Our high school baseball team used to do this to every game. It led to some close calls and a few red lights that were not obeyed to keep up with the car you were following. For the leader, it meant not getting too far out front of the other cars and keeping the right course to arrive at your destination with everyone in tow.

Some recent surveys have showed that over half of young adults who attend church do not have confidence in their leaders. Most of us know a spiritual leader that has gone off the rails. Most of us have been around a poor leader in the church as well. We all know that every human leader is imperfect, so that makes following leaders even more challenging.

But the scripture above is clear. We are to obey our spiritual leaders. So, this week we will look at what that means and how we can do that more effectively. It is interesting that the verse ends with a somewhat backhanded promise for those who do obey. There is some profit to obeying our spiritual leaders in a way that makes it a joy for them to lead us. Let us see if we can unpack this last heart attitude together this week.