God is actively working to create righteous leadership within His children, ensuring that the failures of past leadership will not recur in His Kingdom under Jesus Christ. His purpose is to shape us in His spiritual image, endowing us with qualities of heart and character that mirror His own, enabling us to provide trustworthy leadership in the government He will establish at Christ's return. The ultimate destiny of those called into the church, who remain faithful and grow in the image of Jesus Christ, is to rule with Him in His Kingdom, as promised in Revelation 3:21 and Luke 22:29-30. This process of developing leadership requires submissive cooperation from us, involving work, vision, planning, sacrifice, wisdom, study, ingenuity, patience, perseverance, and frequent testing. Though the Father and Son are the creators, molding and shaping us for specific roles in Their government, we must voluntarily submit to Their efforts. Jesus serves as our primary Model, the greatest leader who ever walked this earth, perfectly following God's way and setting an unequaled standard for us to emulate. The fruit of following Him will be the development of godly leadership that God can rely upon in His Kingdom. God calls, trains, and fits us into the Body to follow Christ faithfully wherever He leads, a process essential for the elect. No one is prepared for the tasks God has in mind at the moment of conversion, but each has the potential to fulfill them through submission to the training He assigns. This training tests our faithful loyalty under various life circumstances, often making it seem as though we are doing all the work, while God continuously adds what we lack. Meeting the challenges of living God's way in this evil world is necessary to develop the quality leadership suitable for serving with Jesus Christ in His Kingdom.

God calls individuals from humble and flawed circumstances, viewing them not according to their present occupations or shortcomings but as future kings and priests who will rule and teach in His Kingdom. This perspective requires them to recognize their training for leadership begins now through deliberate development of godly character. Study of Scripture equips them to understand and apply divine laws, enabling righteous judgment and instruction of others rather than reliance on human wisdom. Outgoing love forms the foundation of this preparation, as God first loved humanity despite its sinfulness. This love compels them to will good toward all, including enemies, by setting an example of patience, kindness, and faithfulness in family and daily interactions. Forgiveness must accompany love, demanding release of bitterness and grudges so that past offenses are forgotten from the heart, mirroring Christ's complete pardon. Patience extends this quality by enduring trials without quarreling, allowing time for others to repent and grow. Self-control completes the essential traits, requiring mastery over fleshly impulses, selfish desires, and worldly influences through consistent obedience and focus on heavenly priorities. These characteristics are cultivated in present relationships and challenges, where mistakes become opportunities for learning and service. As they press forward in this process, they align with God's purpose to transform the called into co-rulers who will implement His laws, love, and standards across the earth, producing peace and productivity in the coming Kingdom.

Rooted in Matthew 20 and Luke 22, this message demonstrates that true greatness in God's Kingdom is measured not by rank or authority, but by Christlike, self-sacrificial servant leadership. Christ contrasts the world's pursuit of status with His own example of humble service, warning that ambition for position reflects a diminished view of His supreme authority and is closely linked to betrayal, as illustrated by Judas at the Passover. This biblical principle is powerfully reinforced through the D-Day examples of Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr. and Sergeant Walter Ehlers, whose courage, humility, perseverance, and unwavering concern for those under their care exemplified leadership that placed others above self. Drawing from these accounts and numerous scriptural passages, the message identifies seven essential qualities of faithful servant leaders—including maximizing God-given gifts, enduring hardship without complaint, caring diligently for others, knowing those entrusted to one's care, persisting in service, exercising humble self-awareness, and seeking wise counsel. Ultimately, it challenges every believer to embrace Christ's pattern of sacrificial service, faithfully using whatever God has entrusted to them in preparation for His coming Kingdom.

Following precedes leading because it is while following Christ and the ways of God that training for leadership occurs. The Bible contains no occurrence of the term leadership, only three uses each of leader and leaders, and far fewer forms of lead than of follow and its derivatives, underscoring that God trains future leaders through faithful following. This training is defined in the covenants scattered throughout the Old Testament, which specify the conduct required in the relationship with God and which the ministry and membership have largely neglected. Israel's repeated national failure stemmed from a massive breakdown of leadership. God charged the shepherds of Israel with feeding themselves rather than the flock, failing to strengthen the weak, heal the sick, or seek the lost, and ruling with force and cruelty. This self-centered neglect scattered the people and invited destruction, with the king held more accountable than those led. The term shepherds extends beyond religious figures to anyone providing guidance in a community, including kings, presidents, representatives, judges, corporate and educational leaders, entertainers, and, most importantly, parents as children's first shepherds. Adam and Eve failed to command their household after them to keep the way of the Lord, producing a murderer in the first generation and setting a pattern of widening separation from God that culminated in the Flood. God called Abraham precisely so that he would command his children and household to do righteousness and justice. The covenant charges in Deuteronomy 6 require parents to teach God's words diligently to their children in every setting of daily life and to bind them visibly as constant reminders. Without such leadership, iniquity multiplies until justice and truth vanish from public life, as described in Isaiah 59, where the people's hypocritical appeals to God receive no answer because they refuse to repent. The same pattern appears today. Change therefore begins only when individuals and families obey God's commands regardless of surrounding conditions. By embracing the culture of the Kingdom of God, living its terms, and passing them to children, the called prepare to lead that culture in the future. The covenants detail the precise relationship and responsibilities that make such training effective and qualify the faithful to teach others.