You could always say the right things, but you can almost never hide the tone of how you say it. I'll say it this way: you can be right but be wrong at the top of your voice. This is true if you're having relational conflict, you know, those of you who are married, you guys understand what I'm talking about. You love someone with all your heart but there's still conflict and so in that conflict there are times when you can be right but everybody in this room, whether you're married, single, whatever, everybody in this room has had relational conflict where their side was right but actually they were wrong because of their tone. In being right they were actually wrong. Here's another thing you can't hide, intensity. Intensity. The true test of ministry in the First Century was something called the Disposition of Messiah, the Disposition of Messiah. The Disposition of Messiah was found in Exodus 34:6. He is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiveness, so that when someone's heart is right concepts and principles that someone knows almost never change. The tone and the intensity of which it's communicated is what changes, so when your heart is doing well the tone and the intensity of your leadership is a Disposition of Messiah tone. When your heart is not doing so well it changes the environment of which you lead okay, so that's number one.
Number two, the condition of your heart will shape the environment in which you lead, so the first thing [unclear 00.12.27] will determine the atmosphere of your leadership. The second thing follows on, that will eventually shape the environment in which you lead. Unhealthy leaders create unhealthy environments. Unhealthy leaders create unhealthy environments. Unhealthy environments are taxing and draining because unhealthy environments eventually fill up with unhealthy people, because unhealthy people are comfortable in unhealthy environments. It is normal for them. In an unhealthy environment all healthy people either get unhealthy or they leave. In an unhealthy environment all healthy people either leave or become unhealthy. Creating healthy environments is the key to drawing healthy people okay? The condition of your heart will eventually be the factor that draws the moral and ethical environments around what we're doing. It'll draw the values around what we're doing. It'll actually determine who's going to be comfortable around you, who's going to be comfortable.
Listen, if you're surrounded by nutcases there's something to be said for that. There's something to be said about being compassionate and wanting to help people, but if you are surrounded by them all the time it might be saying something about you. [Laughter] If you look around and go well just everybody around me has got a problem, the problem actually might be you. It actually might be you. So Jesus is talking about how important it is to guard a heart. Now I've written down there are four leading causes of heart disease, four leading causes of heart disease and once again when you listen to these your tendency is going to be well, which one of these am I? I would say yes, it depends. It depends. The first type is guilt, guilt. Now guilt, if someone is struggling with guilt, something in secret okay where someone's struggling with guilt you will notice this in their leadership, because underlying guilt is simply this: it's an attitude that says I owe you, I owe you. I owe you.
Let me give you some traits of a guilty leader. First, the guilty leader finds it difficult to trust other people. A guilty leader finds it difficult to trust other people. Why? Because in themself they don't trust themself. They know that they're not acting trustworthy, so therefore no one else is acting trustworthy so they can't trust anybody. The find it difficult to trust. Number two, the guilty leader builds walls instead of communities. Why? Because you need something to protect your secret, so they build walls instead of communities. Number three, the guilty leader comes across distant and distracted, distant and distracted. Now once again your tendency here is going to be two things; which one of these am I? And the other tendency is going to be wow, I hope such and such is listening right now, right? [Laughter] I would encourage you not to take that. I would encourage you to actually sort of step out and investigate yourself. The guilty leader comes across as distant and distracted.
Number four, the guilty leader often overreacts to people who share their weakness, so what I mean by that is listen, if you ever see a preacher on TV who is focussing very hard on one particular sin, I promise you somewhere deep in their heart they struggle with it. [Laughter] You always preach your weakness, always. I preach my weakness. You guys have heard me enough. What would you think my weakness would be? And I'll be just open with you? My weakness is that legalistic sort of wondering if God likes me because I've done bad things sort of thing. I grew up old school Pentecostal. In old school Pentecostalism if you sinned God left. You had to get re-saved. You lost your salvation every time you sinned. My granny got saved five times a day. [Laughter] She did, five times a day and here was a woman who never cut her hair in her whole life. She died at 90 and on her death bed, on her death - she just died back in August. On her death bed she was worried that they might have to rush her in to surgery and cut her hair. Why? Because her pastor told her if you cut your hair you're offending God and you're endangering yourself of hell.