Leadership Makes the Difference

The title of the day, Leadership Makes the Difference. We could say leadership makes all the difference in the world. On Tuesday, November 3, Americans will go to the polls to elect the leader of the free world. Will this be another situation, as described in Hosea 8 and verses 1-4? Let's go there to Hosea, Hosea right after Lamentations, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, and so on. Let's go to Hosea chapter 8. Some people talk about, well, God sets up every ruler.

No, He doesn't set up every ruler, as we shall see here. But at certain times in history, God does intervene, and He puts in the mind and the spirit of even Gentile rulers, as we shall see, stir up their spirit to accomplish His will. Hosea 8, verse 1, Set the trumpet in your mouth, he shall come as an eagle against the house of the Eternal, because they have transgressed my covenant and trespassed against my law.

We live in a lawless society, and the iniquity abounds on every hand, as you heard in the sermon, that Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know you. Israel has cast off the thing that is good. The enemy shall pursue him. They have set up kings, but not by me.

They have made princes, and I knew it not. Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off. God can and has intervened in the course of human events and selected leaders who have fulfilled His will, even Gentile rulers, not just rulers from Israel.

Has God decided, on the other hand, to sit back and let the nation suffer the inherent consequences of trampling on His law? Or will He intervene? Does He have something in mind for whomever is elected to the office?

As a case in point of God influencing Gentile leaders and rulers, God has used Gentile rulers, leaders, to punish His people, Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon. God allowed Nebuchadnezzar to take Judah captive, sack, burn, and pillage Jerusalem, including the destruction of the temple. On the other hand, He stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, the Persian king that conquered Babylon. To issue a decree allowing the Jews to return and build the second temple. Look at Ezra chapter 1.

We saw this the other night. Ezra just before Esther there, or just before Nehemiah. Right after Chronicles is Esther. Right after Chronicles is Ezra. Ezra chapter 1 verse 1. Now in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia. So in circa 539 BC, Cyrus, the king of Persia, conquered Babylon, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. That is Jeremiah's 70-year prophecy that became the 70-weeks prophecy, as explained in Daniel chapter 9.

The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all of the kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. So here we see examples of, on the one hand, God using a gentile ruler to punish Israel.

Judah, we see on the other hand, God inspiring a gentile ruler to allow the Jews to return and build what is called a restoration or second temple. Some of the religious and political Jews of the day have compared Donald Trump with Cyrus since he moved the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and since he declared Jerusalem to be the eternal and undivided capital of Israel.

We'll have to wait and see, of course, what God has decided to do. So how much difference does leadership make in the course of human events? I would say it basically makes all the difference in the world, in the larger sense. In Proverbs 29 and verse 2, which was the scripture of the day in the bulletin, Proverbs 29 too, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when the wicked bears rule the people mourn.

Leadership – I taught the first leadership course offered for credit at either Ambassador to College in the 70s. We studied many definitions of leadership, but the definition of leadership I believe that we should be looking at and the definition that God Himself uses. It's a process of interacting with others in such a way that you help them achieve their God-ordained potential.

Our God-ordained potential is to become sons and daughters in the kingdom of God. Leadership is a part of government, and true government stands for and executes the godly principles that are revealed in scripture. And once a nation or a people departs from those godly principles, they are in trouble. There have been long periods of history, in some cases hundreds of years, in which the affairs of man remained pretty much static until a dynamic leader came on the scene.

Remember the title of the course we taught was Dynamics of Personal Leadership. A dynamic leader comes on the scene, challenges the status quote, tears down the sacred walls of sacred towers. He challenges the orthodoxy of the day.

Orthodoxy means the opinion, the prevailing opinion, and a new order came to life. We might think of men like Galileo. Galileo challenged the fact that the, about the earth being the center of the universe. Of course, he invented the telescope, and he could see very clearly that the earth is heliocentric, that the sun is the center of our galaxy, and the earth revolves around the sun. For that, he was eventually killed. It is said that he recanted just before he was killed, but some said he whispered under his breath, it is so, as I have said. There were others like Giordano Bruno Kepler, who challenged the dogma of the Catholic Church.

The dogma of the Catholic Church prevailed for centuries, and then it was challenged by these men. Then slowly it was changed. Then came Martin Luther, who challenged the religious order of the day, along with thinkers like John Locke in the political philosophical arena, who changed the thinking of the masses. The American Revolution with Washington, Jefferson, the Adams family, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere, and the list goes on of those who carved out a nation with a motto, In God we trust.

And there was the leadership of Lincoln and Grant during the Civil War. Oh yes, Grant was a mighty leader, eventually was elected President of the United States. Grant, on the other hand, was quite brutal in many of his battles that he fought, but at the same time the union was preserved. Slavery was defeated. In our day, Martin Luther King and other leaders shook the foundations of our social order, and various laws were passed guaranteeing civil rights regardless of the color of your skin. Now we are in a leadership vacuum, as the months, the weeks, and the days of the presidential election draws nigh, and now our social order stands on the preposition of being turned upside down. In fact, it basically has been with about 50 percent of the nation on one side, and 50 percent on the other side, and even fewer on the side that would espouse the words of God in true Christianity. Leadership is a vital component of the direction that a nation is going to go, and it begins with the individual. From the individual to the family. Listen to this. From the individual to the family. From the family to the community. From the community to the city, the country. From the city, the country, to the state. From the state to the nation. And from the nation to the world, an individual, a family, a community, a city, a county, a state, a nation, the world will go in the direction of its moral and spiritual leadership. Even if a king, ruler, president, person responsible is not converted. If a responsible person is not even converted. If they teach and live by godly principles, things will generally go well. Because there's an inherent law of keeping God's law that he blesses those who do, even though they may not be converted, as we are converted and know the whole plan and purpose of God. God is ordained in hierarchical governmental structure. Now, a lot of people bristle at a hierarchical governmental structure. If you turn to 1 Corinthians, I didn't write the Bible. Neither did Paul himself come up with these words. They were inspired by God himself under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

And we need to take heed. See, one of the main things that we have noted that is under attack is the nuclear family. The nuclear family to a large degree parallels what God is doing with the spiritual family of bringing sons and daughters to glory, begat them, and birth into the kingdom of God. And once you destroy the family order, you have destroyed the cement that holds society together. In 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 1, this hierarchical structure is listed, Be you followers of me, even as I am also of Christ.

Now praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them unto you. But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God.

So here it was in what we might call reverse order. The hierarchical order is Christ as the head of God. God is the head of Christ. Christ is the head of man. Man is the head of woman. Parents are the head of children. And God has ordained a hierarchical governmental structure. Does a hierarchical governmental structure mean a dictatorship? No. Almost every dictatorship in the course of human history has failed, has ended in disaster from Cain to Nimrod to the present day. Scripture tells us to be submissive one to another. Let's go to Ephesians 5 verse 20.

Ephesians 5 verse 20 forward a few pages there. Ephesians 5 and verse 20, and see what God says about submission. Submission, of course, is thrown under the bus.

It is no longer taught.

In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 20, giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting yourselves one to another. How?

In the fear of God. Realizing that it is God that you must give account to, as we talked about last week in the three words of courage, I am responsible. I am responsible for my actions to God, not to man. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be their own husbands in every things. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it. Yet, someone has to lead. And we have already read from 1 Corinthians 11 verses 1 through 4 there, but I think it's 3 that says that Christ, that God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of man, man is the head of woman, woman, and the parents, the children, are be subject and obedient to their parents. So the scripture tells us to be submissive one to another, yet someone has to lead, someone has to exercise, vision, set goals, develop strategies for reaching the goals. And you must define those goals, and you must make those goals known.

And you should expect more than what people think they can deliver.

I've been the head coach in the college setting, both in football and baseball.

I know one of the mottos that we had, be a hero and not a hero worshipper.

And I've had teams play for the national championship.

You can be so much more than you think you can be.

Here are a few principles of inspirational leadership.

The future shaped by people who believe in the future and in themselves, fatalists have little impact on events.

Leaders must help their followers take a positive view of the future. I'm reminded of what Dr. Torrance used to tell the students at Ambassador.

He used to say, students will go as high as you kick them. That was his humorous way of talking about it, whereas the way is you can be so much more than you think you can be. You can be that all-American if you want to talk about sports. You can be that great instrumentalist, that great singer, that great whatever you want to name.

But you must have a vision.

In an interview with Martin Luther King, a leadership researcher asked what is the most important thing that a leader must teach his people?

And he replied, he leaned over and said, first teach them to believe in themselves.

Well, I would say first teach them to believe in God and themselves. You can be so much more than you ever dream that you could be.

You must teach people that to succeed, they must be willing to count the cost, pay the price for achieving their goals.

What I'm talking about here today is a matter of life and death for you, in the future, and for your family. I know that when we speak oftentimes, not turning to scripture every two or three seconds, that oftentimes we just sit, and by the time we get home we hardly remember anything that is said.

Well, we're talking about principles that make the difference. Leaders must be filled with tough-minded optimism, must instill in their people a hard-bitten morale that mixes optimism with a measure of realism.

And once again, you must have expectations of high performance. I have expectations of high performance for each one of you, that you will be satisfied with nothing less than the kingdom of God. So someone has to lead, exercise vision, set the goals, develop strategies for reaching the goals. What will you need to do? Will you need to take lessons? Will you need to get this degree, that degree? Will you need to do this, that, or the other?

You need to have people feel like they are a part of it. And you need to set priorities.

People need to have their priorities straight. Let's go to Matthew 6.

We oftentimes, we can quote the scripture, but does it really sink in? Will we really understand it? Will we really apply it? We'll start in verse 30. Matthew 6 and verse 30.

Wherefore of God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall ye not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things did the nations seek? For your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things, but seek you first the kingdom of God. The first priority in all of scripture and all all record is, here it is, the first goal, first priority, the goal is to be in the kingdom of God.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.

Does that mean you'll be rich? Do you mean that you'll have a better house, a better car, a better clothes, a better whatever in this life? No, not necessarily. But you will have the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding. Take therefore no thought of tomorrow. For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. The four great enemies of faith, the one that is highlighted here is anxious care. The four enemies are anxious care, fear, doubt, and human reasoning. So the Bible clearly sets our first priority.

Take no anxious thought, but have a plan for the future. Do you have a plan? Where will you be a year from now? Where do you plan to be a year from now, spiritually and physically? Or will life just happen? Fail to plan, and if you fail to plan, you are by default planning to fail, because things will just happen. Strive to nurture core relationships, and especially within the family, and especially with children. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 6. Once again, Ephesians chapter 6.

Children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. So once again, the hierarchical structure God is head of Christ. Christ is the head of man. Man is the head of woman. Parents are to nurture their children. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth. Your fathers provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture. And this word nurture is really better translated the discipline, and it's not the kind of discipline to say, okay, we're going to spank you every time or this. It means in the discipline that is, you thoroughly teach them in all facets of their being in the discipline. Like when you go to college, they talk about, okay, what disciplines are you going to major in? What discipline are you going to major in? Because you have to have a certain set of courses to learn the discipline, the course.

So in the discipline and admonition of the Lord.

So strive to nurture core relationships. Husband, wife, wife, husband, children, parents, parents, children. We all need to feel that we are part of the team.

Personal involvement. Personal involvement from the family, to the church, to the community, to wherever means a lot. Your presence and words make a difference. Even just your presence. You may not say a word, but you're there. True leaders are respected. What does being respected mean? What does that mean? We hear very often you must earn respect. It's not just given to you. And of course that is a truism. Basically, it means I will get a fair deal from this person. I can count on that. This person practices what he preaches. He stands up for what he believes, acts for the interests of the whole. Dependable, reliable, loyal, takes responsibility for actions, not a respecter of persons. A true leader is sincere, humble, willing to lay down his life. Jesus Christ says in John 15, I think verse 13, greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. He gave all that he has.

He endures to the end. He makes peace.

The Bible outlines a structure of who is responsible, but all godly authority is to be administered in love, no matter what the structure is. A leader must set the discipline and communicate the consequences for breaking the discipline. And see, that's what has happened in our society beginning in way back. John Dewey with his progressive education theory in the late 1920s and 1930s, and going on up to the present time, the consequences for breaking the discipline have basically been obliterated. There are no consequences for bad actions. God instructed Adam and Eve and said, you can freely eat of every tree of the garden except the tree of the knowledge of the good and evil. And then he pronounced the consequences if they disobeyed. What did he say? And in the day that you eat thereof, you shall begin to die. That's the consequences. The wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. They disobeyed, so the consequences had to be enforced. What were the consequences? He drove them out of the garden, out from the presence of the tree of life.

Many political and secular leaders understand setting the rules and administering the consequences to anyone who breaks the rules. I said many political and secular leaders.

Maybe I should say a few.

Pat Riley, who was coach of the Los Angeles Lakers when they won world championships, writes in his book, Riles Rules, we can safely conclude that any level of a leadership established for any person, any purpose, that does not clearly articulate the outcomes, the administrative and operational strategies necessary for desired results, coupled with disciplinary action, if the core covenant is violated, it is doomed for failure. Any program, any kind of leadership, does not establish on principles. Here's what I expect, and if you don't live up to it, here are the consequences. God clearly lays that out in Scripture. As a loving Father, God chastens every son he loves. Let's go to Hebrews 12. Forward a few pages there from Ephesians. Hebrews 12.

We talk about our loving Heavenly Father, but God also is loving, he is gentle, he is warm, he is kind, he's patient, he's long suffering, and we can go on with attributes of God. But at the same time, if you break the discipline, there are consequences. And why does he then step in? It is for our own good. In Hebrews 12 verse 6, for whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the Father chastens not? Everybody. Because why? Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And all sin even after they're baptized.

Only one who lived in the flesh didn't, and that's Christ. But if you be without chastisement, correction, where of all are partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

And then it goes talking about human fathers. So there must needs be evaluation. Honest self-evaluation is perhaps the best. A person must judge themselves and come to see themselves as they really are. Let's go to 1 Corinthians again, chapter 11 again. 1 Corinthians 11, the latter part of this chapter is taken up with Paul instructing the Corinthians on how to keep the New Covenant Passover. The first part there is about the hierarchical structure. And then there's a rather abrupt change to the requirements for taking the Passover. And one of the basic requirements is to examine ourselves. And so we want to focus on that part in 1 Corinthians 11, in verse 28.

1 Corinthians 11, 28. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eats and drinks irreverently, we've covered that many times, not taking time now, eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. For this cause, not discerning the Lord's body, the Lord's body has the physical body he gave in the church. We're to have the same love, care, and concern one for another. We're to have, we're to take care of our own body because it is the temple of God's Spirit. For this cause, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. Why? Because they do not judge themselves. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chasten of the Lord, that we should not be condemned or judged with the world. So God, my saying is, he'd rather see us dead than miss out on his kingdom. If we do go astray, he steps in and he chastens. He tries to bring us back, bring us back to reality, to examine ourselves.

And how do we examine ourselves? We go to Hebrews chapter 4 verse 12. And without this examination, and we're admonished on a daily basis to renew the inward man, and to look in this spiritual mirror every day, and to ask the question, am I making my calling and election sure? Am I leading as I should lead? In Hebrews 12 verse 6, For whom the Lord, that's not what I want, I want 4-12. In Hebrews 4 and verse 12, the spiritual mirror that we are to look into, in Hebrews 4-12, For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of the sender of soul and spirit. As it says, the old saying is, it cuts to the quick, all the way, and of the joints and marrow down to the bone, and as a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's the word of God. That's the spiritual mirror. That's how we examine ourselves. Now we look at James chapter 1 and verse 19. James 1, 19, a very critical verse, should be a memory verse. James 1, 19, Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God. Wherefore, leoside all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness. The word meekness in the Greek is paru-t-e-s.

Paru-t-e-s, paru-t-e-s, which means perfectly teachable heart. Receive with a perfectly teachable heart the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. But it must be more than just partaking of the word, because then you have verse 22, But be you doers of the word. You can't just read it. You can't just think about it. Then you have to do it. And naught here is only deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man, beholding his natural face in a glass mirror. He beholds himself, goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he is. But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues therein, being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

So you go to the Word of God to judge yourself a perfectly teachable heart, but then you must be a doer. A great example here is Luke 18 starting verse 10. Luke 18 and verse 10.

In Luke 18 verse 10, two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and one a publicer.

The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I'm not as other men or extortioners, I'm just adulterers or even as this publican.

I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess, and the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto the heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. He judged himself.

You cannot change until you identify whatever problem it is that you have. There's no way to change it. Keep repeating it over and over. You have to identify what it is. In the broad sense, the publican says, have mercy on me, a sinner. All of us can say that, but then there are specific things that we would want to pay attention to. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone that exalts himself shall be abased, and he that humbles himself shall be exalted. When leadership breaks down, the result is chaos, confusion, moral decay, and disarray. The book of Judges describes the consequences of no leadership in several passages, I believe it's four or five times. This is pronounced. We want to go to Judges, Joshua Judges, and we want to go to chapter 25, the last chapter in Judges, and I believe we want the last verse. Judges, 21 verse 25. This is repeated before this a few times, but this summarizes an essence.

In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Why are the liberal progressives so upset with conservatives or conservative values such as being pro-life, that is against abortion, against same-sex marriage, so-called free education, free health care?

Well, in the case of the first two or three there, you could easily go to Scripture, but there are no free lunches, as they say. Somebody has to pay the bill. Somebody has to produce. Somebody has to put food on the table.

And there are many other reasons. In summary, and what is the question?

Why are the liberal progressives so upset with conservative values?

In summary, the main reason is conservatives have voiced moral principles that challenge their lifestyle and ways of thinking. So the watchword of the day is toleration. There are no consequences.

If there is a consequence, if you have AIDS instead of abstaining from homosexual sex, we develop a vaccine. We develop prophylactics. We do this, we do that, we do the other.

If you become pregnant and you did not want to be pregnant, we have a remedy for that.

We can abort. You have that right. A woman has the right, they say, to control her reproduction. It really is not reproduction.

So in summary, the main reason is conservatives have voiced moral principles that challenge their lifestyle and way of thinking. Why are they so clear? Why are they so against the clear commandments and teaching of Scripture? They resent any limitations placed on what their carnal heart conceives to do.

They are addicted to the last verse of the book of Judges we just read. In those days, there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. We hear so much about those who create division versus those who create unity.

This is one of the great things—I don't know who could get this over, who could really teach it to the masses. When a person is convicted by the Word of God, or they may just be convicted of their own conscience of a certain principle, and they're willing to stand their ground is he or she causing division by saying, this is what God says, or this is what I believe, and I'm going to stand by it. On the other hand, you may be saying, well, I think it's all right same-sex marriage. Well, just look at them. They are so in love, and God really is love himself. Who is to say you can't love? Well, you can love, but God has created the great institution of marriage. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and he shall cleave unto his wife, and the twain shall be one flesh. So the liberal recipe for unity is that there are no consequences for any lifestyle or behavior. If there are, we're going to fix it. We're going to have a program that will fix it, so you don't have to worry about it. The prophet Isaiah prophesied of these times. We want to read that. Isaiah 59 will start in verse 11. Isaiah 59, and we will start in verse 11.

The prophet Isaiah many years ago. Just think about how long ago, some twenty-six, twenty-seven hundred years ago, so relevant to today. The word of God is a living book.

Isaiah 59 verse 11. We roar all like bears, and mourn like doves, soar like doves. Look for judgment, but there is none for salvation, but it is far from us.

For our transgressions are multiplied before you, our sins testify against us.

For our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, lawlessness, we know them.

In transgressing and lying against the Eternal, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood, and judgment is turned away back where justice stands afar off, where the truth is falling in the street, and equity cannot enter, not judgment, not justice. Yes, truth fails, and he that departs from evil makes himself a prey. Oh, yeah, let's jump on that person who goes against our way of thinking. Let's beat him into the dust. They make him as nothing. And there are many examples of censorship on Twitter, and also Facebook, and other social media platforms, and the heads of three of those platforms appeared before a Senate committee this past week to give answer. And supposedly there's an investigation going to take place.

And the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment.

And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor therefor. So God says, if I can't find anybody that will do it, I'll just do it myself.

I'll be the one that stands up. Therefore his arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness is sustained him.

And then it goes on talking about the things that God does. In the millennium, God is going to establish a godly educational system. He will teach the discipline and consequences for breaking the discipline, and he will enforce it. In Isaiah 2, we turn back there to Isaiah chapter 2, which is a millennial setting. We'll see there that in the millennium, when the government of God begins to rule and reign upon the earth, what it will be like, what the educational system will consist of. In Isaiah chapter 2 and verse 1, the word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, it shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain, the government of the eternals house, shall be established in the top of the mountains, shall be exalted above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it. For many people shall go and come and say, Come, come you, and let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of God of Jacob. And he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and out of and go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the nations, he shall rebuke many people, and they shall beat their swords and apply shares, their spears and their pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. Yes, God is the perfect teacher.

People are going to be taught the law of God. Now we turn to chapter 30 of Isaiah in verse 20.

In the millennium, teachers won't go around with a bag of candy or stars put on the bulletin board begging you to behave.

In Isaiah 30 and verse 20, Isaiah 30 verse 20, And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet shall not your teachers be removed into a corner any more. But your eyes shall see your teachers, and your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, This is the way walk you in it, when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left.

And some will say, Oh, you're not giving me a chance to develop character, because I am not free to choose for myself. Well, the right way is already being chosen. God's way is the right way. Choose you this day whom you will serve. There is a right way and there is a wrong way. And there will be consequences for disobedience. We go now to Zechariah. Zechariah just before Malachi toward the end of the Minor Prophets. Zechariah 14 verse 16, It shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, remember the battle of the great day of God Almighty, where Satan, the beast, the false prophet, this unholy triad and league, gathers the nations to the battle of the great day of God Almighty at Armageddon.

Shall come to pass that everyone is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem.

Shall even go up from year to year to worship the king, the lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whosoah will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the king, the lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not, that have no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the lord will smite the nations that come not up to keep the feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of Tabernacles. Oh yes, there will be consequences. If we look at the history of mankind and especially the history of Israel and the church, there were revivals when God raised up a leader who was willing to pursue the truth above everything else. Leaders must relentlessly pursue with their whole heart the way that God directs them, even if it is against the will of the people.

Now Saul's excuse. You would be turning to 1 Samuel 15 verse 14. 1 Samuel 15 and verse 14.

I think it was not so long ago that I gave a sermon or wrote an article sometime to get it confused with regard to the majority is almost always wrong, and yet we say the majority rules.

Saul's excuse for not obeying God and killing Agag and all the animals was that the people urged me to preserve the best. 1 Samuel 15 and 14.

Samuel said, What means this, the bleeding of the sheep in mine ears and the lowering of the oxen which I hear. And Saul said, They have bought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice unto the Lord your God. And the rest we have utterly destroyed. And Samuel said unto Saul, Stay, and I will tell you what the Lord has said to me this night. And he said unto him, Well, tell me. And Samuel said, When you were little in your own sight, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed you king of Israel?

And the Lord sent you on a journey and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them till they be destroyed. And so, of course, he didn't do that. In the famous scripture down here, 22 and 23, Samuel said, Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obedient, in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you from being their king. We often quote Proverbs where it says, In the multitude of counselors there is safety, but you have to make sure that the counsel of the multitude is in keeping with the word of God. As we have seen from scriptures, that one must be careful as to which counselors they listen to. There will always be flattering sycophant counselors who are trying to achieve their agenda through flattering the leader. A sycophant is a person who acts obsequiously toward someone else—that is, they are cozy up to them—toward someone important in order to gain advantage.

It also means fawning, flattery, self-seeker, by analogy a parasite who clings to a person of wealth, power, influence, to achieve his personal agenda. From Satan's rebellion to the present day, that has been the case very often. Any leader who is subject to sycophant flatterers is doomed to failure. There is only one way, and that is God's way.

Let's note the inspired words of the psalmist in Psalm 12. Psalm 12, beginning verse 1.

Psalm 12, verse 1. Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases. For the faithful fail from among the children of men. Is that where we are now?

They speak vanity, everyone with his neighbor, with flattering lips, and with a double heart do they speak. The Lord shall cut off all flattering lips and the tongue that speaks proud things. Who have said with our tongue, will we prevail? Our lips are our own. Who is Lord over us? We'll say what we want to you. We'll do what we want to you. Who's going to stop us? For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy. Now will I rise, says the Lord, I will set him in safety from him that puffs at him. The words of the Lord are pure, as silver tried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times.

You shall keep them, O Lord. You shall preserve them from this generation forever. The wicked walk on every side, even the vilest men, are exalted. And so that's what we see today.

But our challenge is to remain righteous in view of all of this. When Solomon was made king of Israel, he prayed to God for wisdom and God's revelation for leading and ruling the people.

Leadership and rulership go hand in hand. So let's note one of the key elements of Solomon's prayer. Verse Kings 8 and verse 36. Verse Kings 8 verse 36. Kings right after 2 Samuel. Verse Kings 8 verse 36. Solomon's prayer. Then hear you in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people, Israel, that you teach them the good ways wherein they should walk and give rain upon your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.

If there be in the land famine, if there be pestilence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be caterpillar, if their enemy beseech them in the land of their cities, whatever the plague is, whatsoever sickness there be, what prayer and supplication soever may be made by any man, or by all your people Israel, which shall know every man the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house. Spread forth the hands was the posture of prayer.

Then hear you in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive and do and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart you know. For you even you only knowest the hearts of the children of men. And so God knows our hearts, whether or not we are with it.

And we want to be taught God's way. And we look at verse 59 in this chapter, verse 59.

This continues, and let these my words with with I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, that be that he maintain the cause of every servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require, that all the people of the earth may know, all the people of the earth, model nation, that the Lord God, and that there is none else. Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God to walk in his statues, and to keep his commandments as in as at this day. And of course Israel agreed to do that, but then Solomon gave sway. He married strange wives. He had a thousand wives, 300 concubines, or 300 wives, and 700 concubines, whichever way it is. So at this point in Solomon's life, he prayed what needs praying. He said what needs saying.

And the nation of Israel prospered under Solomon, even though Solomon eventually failed.

He fell prey to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. And the reign of Solomon in the first years of his life was a type of the millennium. The very name Solomon means peace. And each man dwelt under his vine and fig tree.

At the political rallies today, they waved the flag and occasionally invoked the name of God. Sadly today, people cannot abide the words of God. Leaders, including U.S. presidents and the pope, are telling people that when all is said and done, we worship the same God.

We do not worship the same God. Allah is not God. Neither is there any other God. There are only two God beings on the God plane at the present time, God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son, seated at his right hand. The pope is saying even that atheists can be in the kingdom of God and that he would baptize aliens from space. Just in the past week or so, the pope has endorsed civil unions among homosexuals. I can assure you that the only aliens in space or beneath the earth are demons. In other words, there's not another human-like species of humanoids in the universe. It's difficult to understand how far Israel and Judah strayed at times, at times hundreds of years, until God raised up a strong leader who fearlessly followed the way of God. That happened in the leadership of Hezekiah. There are two books, and each one of the books, 1 and 2 Kings and 1 and 2 Chronicles. Basically, the book of Kings describes the military political leadership of the kings, and the two books of Chronicles describe the priesthood and the religious leadership of the nation of Israel.

I believe we can safely say that leadership makes all the difference.

When Israel went astray, God would raise up people to deliver them. He did it during the period of the judges. He did it during the period of the kings.

And so we are here today in this period of human history, one of the most critical crucial times in human history.

Leadership makes all the difference. Now, the question is, are you willing and are you prepared to lead yourself, your family, and others? You might say, or you might say, as Moses said at one time, who am I that I should lead your people so great? Moses protested, others protested, but eventually they gave in. But what about us? Are we going to protest when God's Spirit knocks on the door of your heartstrings, tugging on your hearts to pray what needs praying and say what needs saying? You see, the prophecy of the Bible is really against us in the sense of there will be very few. Now, go to another prophecy in Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 3. Isaiah chapter 3, verse 1, You see, all of the, quote, top levels of leadership are gone.

And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them. And the people shall be oppressed, verse 5, one by another, everyone by his neighbor, the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient and the base against the honorable. Oh, yeah, speak against dignities, do anything you want to do. Let's all lambast each other. We'll all be happier.

When a man shall take hold of his brother of the house of his father, saying, you have clothing, be you our ruler, and let this ruin be under your hand.

In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be a healer for in my house if neither bread nor clothing make me not a ruler of the people.

Then he goes on giving his excuses.

Verse 12, as for my people, children are their oppressors, women rule over them.

O my people, they which lead you cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths. The Lord stands up to plead and stands to judge the people.

The Lord will enter into judgment with the ancients of his people, and the princes thereof, for you have eaten up the vineyard, and the spoil of the poor is in your houses.

So that prophecy there that people shy away from leadership, they don't want to be held accountable. So once again, do you protest when God's Spirit knocks on the door of your heart, tugging on your heartstrings to pray what needs praying, say what needs saying, or will you give in to peer pressure? Will you be intimidated?

Oh, who do he think he is saying that? Just look at him. He's not prayerful. Just look at him. He's not perfect. None of us are.

Do not fall prey to the spirit of the times that wants to pass responsibility on to others as they sit in the seat of the scornful.

If things are not the way you believe they should be, then you can be a committee of one to do what you can do to change them for the better through the right channels.

But first, we must make sure that we have judged ourselves, that we have cleansed our temple, our minds, and our hearts. So don't fall prey to those who sit in the seat of the scornful and riot in the daytime while trying to persuade people to call evil good. God is looking for men and women like you, no matter what your station in life may be. And you may say, well, who am I? I have no influence. I have no office. I have nothing. But yes, you do. You have you in your relationship with God, and you have a presence, and you have the Spirit of God dwelling in you. So God is looking for men and women to stand in the gap, to make up the hedge, and to pray what needs praying and say what needs saying.

For they know we are only here for a little while. Many of us are living on borrowed time.

The Bible talks about the three score and ten. Some people die and say, I have no regrets.

If I had it to do over, I wouldn't change a thing. I cannot say that, and I doubt many of you can say that. I would do a lot of things differently, but hopefully we all are judging ourselves, repenting and growing, that we are discerning the times, that we realize the times that we're living in. God has called each one of us to be a beacon, a light, a leader, and to be conformed to the image of his dear son. So today we have studied some of the core principles of godly leadership, and God is counting on us to lead the way into the kingdom. We are somewhat analogous to the words of the old hymno, or hymn, on Jordan's stormy banks I stand and cast a wishful eye to Canaan's fair and happy land where my possessions lie. Yes, we are looking for that crown of glory, that crown of life that can never be taken away. Right now we are in the eye of the storm. We must never surrender to the enemy, or never surrender or compromise with the truth of God. God has called each one of us to be ambassadors for Christ and represent him, to represent Christ just as he represented his father, and we are representing both the Father and Christ until we draw our final breath. So brethren, let's be leaders and let us forge that path to the kingdom.