Hey guys, Acts chapter 27. There's a Bible in front of you. There's a table and contents that will lead you to the book of Acts. We are starting a three week series looking at Acts chapter 27 called Hold Fast. Over the next three weeks, we're going to look at clinging to holding fast to three things. This morning we're going to look at leadership and

influencing, clinging to influence. Next week, we're going to look at clinging to hope.

Maybe you or a friend of yours is in a situation where hope is all that's left. So next

weekend, we're going to talk about that. And then week three, we're going to talk about clinging

to the cross. Now, I need to do

a little bit of work to get us set up before we get in the text. And here's the reason why.

We're going to talk a lot about leadership today. And in our culture of leadership development

and training and podcasts and conferences and blogs, we can have a tendency to hear the word leadership and go,

oh, that's not me. I don't run a business. I don't run a corporation. I don't run a church. I'm not in charge of anything.

Well, here's the problem with that is that leadership influence is, it applies to every single person in here.

John Maxwell says it this way. Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flow charts.

It's about one life influencing another. And so with that kind of idea, we're going to dive into influence.

Because here's what I know, every single person in this room is influencing someone.

You might be influencing people that work with you or work for you.

You might be influencing the chaos that you call a carpool.

You might be influencing a roommate,

influencing your children, your family, influencing, you can just name it, right? There's

tons of people. And at the very common denominator, every single one of us wake up

his morning and looks in a mirror and we see someone that we're influencing.

So the very common denominator, every single person in here and in the sanctuary is leading

yourself. And then a lot of us are leading others. And then there's even another category of

leading leaders who are leading others.

...