Leadership, Part 2

Good afternoon to everyone. It's good to see you again. A month ago, we started a series on leadership. And I mentioned to you at that time, we were going to, once a month, cover the topic of leadership. Take the sermonette slot, maybe add a few minutes to it, and try to cover on a regular basis what leadership is all about. First time, if you'll remember, we covered from the New Testament what the Bible has to say about being a servant. And basically, what I wanted to do with the first presentation and today is to lay a foundation. Because if we're going to be leaders, which we are, we need to make sure that everything we do is built on the right foundation. Jesus Christ Himself said, if you don't build on a rock on the right foundation, it will collapse. It won't be appropriate. So we've got to make sure that we build on the correct foundation for leadership.

So what I want to do today is to focus especially on three or four scriptures in the Old Testament that actually tie in with what we covered last week in the New. Now I want you to see there's a common thread, common theme throughout the Bible, and that what Christ was teaching in the New Testament is actually a continuation of what was taught in the Old Testament.

So with that in mind, let's go back to the book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy 17, and we'll begin in verse 14, Deuteronomy 17.

Now God knew what human nature was like. He knew that inevitably the Israelites were going to reject Him as their king.

And they were going to demand a king like all of the other nations around. So He knew that. So in the instructions that He gave to them, He told them what type of king they should have. He gave them the outline that a king should follow. And I want you to notice that if God Himself says, okay, when you reject Me, here's a leader that you should choose, or actually He said, I'll choose Him, but He gives what that leader is supposed to be doing. And so I think that that's very important for us. Let's go over to verse 14 again. Deuteronomy 17, verse 14.

He said, when you come to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, and possess it and dwell in it and say, well, I'll set a king over Me like all the nations that are around Me. Instead of them setting the perfect example, remember God called Israel to be an example to the other nations, to be an attraction to them, to be a light to them. Instead of them doing that, they wanted to go ahead and copy all the other nations. Hey, it looks good to have a king, somebody sitting on a throne, somebody with a lot of pomp and ceremony and all of that around him. So, you know, this is what God said they were going to do. God says, you sure surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses.

Now, I think the first point we need to soften and realize is that God Almighty chooses His leaders. Every one of you here today is a chosen one. That's what the word elect implies.

You are the elect of God. As the Bible says in John 6, 44, no man can come unto the Father or unto the Son unless the Father draws him. God has to call you. God chooses us. He hand-picks us. It's not an accident. Not one of us sitting here is an accident before God because we have been hand-picked by Him.

We've been chosen by Him. What have we been chosen to become? We've been chosen to become leaders. And we are leaders. We are leaders presently. And when you stop and think about it, it doesn't matter if you're a five-year-old or a six-year-old. We all have responsibilities. We all have duties. For 105, we all still have duties and responsibilities. But God has chosen us not only now, but we're in preparation. We're in training. We are being trained to become leaders, kings and priests in the world tomorrow. And so God wants us to begin to rule. So it's not an accident that when God looked down, He chose you. Now, you and I may feel very unqualified and very unworthy. But the fact is, that's why God has chosen us. And then He says, notice, One from among your brethren you shall set his king over you. You may not set a foreigner over you who is not your brother.

Okay, now why did God place such an emphasis on the fact that it should be somebody from among your brethren? A brother, not somebody else. Now, they could have said, well, we could go down here to Egypt. The son of the Pharaoh down there looks great. Let's have him come up. Let's put him as our king. Or let's go over here to Assyria. They're sort of warlike. We need somebody who can be a great warrior. Let's choose him and have him. God says, no, I will choose him. Now, why was this important?

Well, number one, only God knows the heart. Right? Only He sees the attitude. Only He knows the approach. And I think, secondarily, what if we went out today and said, okay, let's choose a leader. We'll have a church pastor from the local Baptist church, the local Methodist church, or the local Catholic diocese. We'll choose one of them to be our leader. Would they really know, understand us, understand our doctrine, understand our approach, understand anything about us? They'd have a little difficulty, I think. So God said that it was very important that somebody be chosen who was of the brethren.

I think also we need to realize that we should never forget, and this is true of the example in the New Testament of where we've come from. Where did you come from? Where did I come from? Because, you see, this is the basis of what humility is based upon. Some of us can say, well, God looked down, and boy, He chose me because I'm filthy rich. He may have chosen us because we were filthy, but not because we were filthy rich, or because we were the great Einstein's of the world.

No, we have been chosen because we are the weak ones, not the great and the mighty. Now, verse 16, notice God begins to set the ground rules. He shall not multiply horses for Himself, nor calls the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, for the Lord has said to you, you shall not return that way. Neither shall He multiply wives for Himself.

Now, I want you to notice the emphasis on for Himself. Any time you serve or rule for yourself, your motives are wrong. And here God was saying that a king should rule for the good of the people. He shouldn't multiply horses for Himself. Go out and think, well, if I go out here and buy 10,000 horses, I can have a calvary, I can have chariots, I can have big parades, I can dress them up and look how important I'll be.

Now, we all know when it comes to marriage that it's probably difficult enough to have one wife or one husband. You know, I make sure I get the husbands in there. I see more agreement with that. That to have multiple wives or multiple husbands doesn't do the same thing. In other words, why would somebody do that? Well, because He's thinking about Himself.

He's thinking about Himself, not all of His wives. I mean, how can one man take care of 300 wives like Solomon? We know that Solomon made a huge mistake, and he did not do what God said here. Now, when Solomon started out, 1 Kings 3.9, just as a reference, he was small in his own sight, just like Saul was. He did not feel qualified to rule the people. He said, look, I feel like a little kid. My father, David, was a wonderful king. I don't know how to come in and go out, and I don't know how to rule these people.

He had a wisdom that helped me to judge the people. God was so impressed with that, that not only did He do that, but He gave Him wealth, long life, and so on. Notice what it says here, neither shall He multiply wives for Himself, lest His heart turn away. That's exactly what Solomon did. And so when we begin to multiply, we begin to think about what we want and put it above the concerns and the needs of the people, we begin to have selfish motives.

We begin to have wrong motives. We begin to do things that are for our benefit, not for the benefit of others. Many of you will remember King Bumepal, Queen Seriket, and how recently was it their 50th anniversary they celebrated, and those who are dearly beloved in their country. And the reason why is they serve the people. Unlike many rulers in many countries who are there, and they're just sort of figureheads, they absorb a lot of money, but they do very little. Well, here's an example of worldly leaders who do that.

They're out serving. Now, what would be the spiritual parallel today? How do you multiply wives today? How do you multiply horses today? How do you multiply silver and gold? We'd probably like to know how to multiply silver and gold. You'll have a little more of it. But basically what we find, there is a spiritual parallel, and I think that we have to realize that it's too easy for us to go off and begin to do things selfishly. You can serve out of selfish motives. You can serve to impress people. You can serve for your own advantage. And yet, the Bible very clearly shows that we should not do that. Now, in verses 18 through 20, you'll notice here that God gave some specific instructions to help prevent this.

It shall be, when He sits on the throne of His kingdom, that He shall write for Himself a copy of the law in a book from the one before the priests of the Levites. Now, remember, not everybody back at this time had a copy of the law. It was on plaster on a couple of stones when they came across Jordan. You could go over there and read it. But the average person didn't have what we would call a Bible back then.

They didn't have the first five books of the Bible or the book of Deuteronomy. They just simply, not every year even, but at the feast, occasionally the law was read to them to remind them of what God required of them. And then the priests would interpret the law to them and tell them what God said. Now, what happens when you copy the law yourself? I don't know how many of you have ever sat down and said, okay, I'm going to write out the book of Deuteronomy, or I'm going to write out the book of Genesis.

Remember back when we had the 58th Lesson Correspondence Course and you had to write everything out? Guess what? You remembered. After I wrote Matthew 24.14 about 10-15 times, I could quote Matthew 24.14. And every time I went and it mentioned that, I'd go look it up like they said. I'd make sure it was there. It hadn't changed. And I'd write it down again, and I'd write the answers and the questions. And after you did that, guess what? It begins to stick. Well, God wanted the king to base his rulership on what? On his law. Now, you and I are blessed. There's probably not a person here who doesn't have a Bible. And we all have Bibles.

In fact, I got 30-something different translations on my computer. I can go and study about every translation you can ever think of, just by going through it on the computer. We don't have to write it out to have it, but sometimes that gets to be a problem.

It might be good for certain sections of the Bible, if you really want to remember them. Just simply write it out so that you can think of it. So the style of leadership that God was looking for in a king was one who wasn't going to exalt himself, wasn't going to do things for himself, but he would do it for other people, and who would copy the law, read the law, study the law, make that the basis of his style of ruling.

Now, what do you think you and I are going to do in the millennium? White throne judgment, when it comes to teaching God's people? Are we going to base that on Norman Vincent Peale? Are we going to go by Cubby? Are we going to go by somebody else? Are we going to pull the Scriptures out? And we're going to sit down and begin to teach those that God is working with from the Bible. Well, we will use that as a basis for instructing them. Now, going on here, it goes on to say, "'It shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life.'" So, again, it shows that we should be reading and studying the Scriptures daily.

"'That he may learn to fear the Lord his God, and be careful to observe all the words of the law of these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted up above his brethren.'" I tell you, one of the big pitfalls of human beings, I don't care if you've given responsibility over the bathroom.

I mean, we'll pick something that, let's say, somebody might say, well, I don't want to do that, but a responsibility. It doesn't matter what the responsibility is. As human beings, we tend to let it go to our head, and we can get the big head, and we can begin to become vain about certain positions, responsibilities, duties. I've seen over the years sometimes a man who was seen to be a real servant, ordained maybe as an elder, perhaps as a deacon, all at once they stopped deaking. They stopped serving as an elder. Why? Well, now they got it made.

They're in an office. Now everybody else has to serve them. Well, that's not why they were ordained. And you see, sometimes a king could get into a position where he can think, I'm king! I'm in charge of everybody. And so therefore his heart begins to be lifted up above his brethren. Then it goes on to say that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel.

So we get a very clear indication from God, the style of leadership that he desired. Now, outside of a small handful of kings, you think of David, maybe Solomon starting out, Saul when he first started out, Joab and a few others, most of them did not do what God said to do here. Now let's go over to 1 Kings 12. 1 Kings 12, this is where the kingdom divided. It had a split. It had the house of Israel and the house of Judah. And it split over rulership. Let's notice here. Verse 3, chapter 12, 1 Kings 12.

Then Jeroboam and the whole congregation of Israel came and spoke to Reoboam, saying, Your father made our yolks heavy. Now therefore lighten the burdensome service of your father and his heavy yolk, which you put on us, and we will serve you. We want to serve you, but you've got to do this. Now, did they have a legitimate complaint?

Yes, they did. They were, like most of us, most nations today, they were taxed up to their nose. They were paying all these heavy taxes, and they wanted some relief. Now, when Reoboam heard this, did he look upon this and empathize with the people? Did he not consider their plight and look at them and say, They've got a good point here. I think maybe we could lessen this burden a little bit and ease back, still be able to carry out government. Was that the way he looked at it? Did he empathize or did he look at it as a challenge?

You know, these people are challenging me. They're threatening me. Well, he said, You depart three days, you come back, and I'll give you my answer. So now he does what any king should do. He starts seeking counsel.

Wise advice. So, verse 6, Then King Reoboam consulted with the elders who stood before his father Solomon, while he still lived. Now, this is where he should have gone. These were men who had been around Solomon. They should have picked up a little wisdom from Solomon. Why did Solomon have them as his counselors? Obviously, they had to be pretty wise. In order to do so, they were older men. They'd been around the block a couple of times. They would have been able to give him some wise advice. It says, How do you advise me to answer these people? And they spoke to him, saying, If, here's Cardinal Point of what we're getting at today, If you will be a servant to these people today, and answer them and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever.

Now, brethren, can we distinguish between being a servant and serving? Is there a difference? A servant, or let's use the term slave to illustrate what we're talking about, a servant or a slave knows that he is a slave or a servant. I mean, if I were an indentured slave, and maybe my parents sold me into slavery, there were many ways that people back at this time were sold into slavery, or went into slavery. Debt could be won, bankruptcy. Many people today are slaves to the credit card company or to the bank, and they end up owing them.

But basically, what we find is a slave knows he's a slave. I mean, that's what he is. A man knows he's a man because that's what he is. He's a man. A woman knows she's a woman because that's what she is. And a slave is a slave, or a servant is a servant. Anyone can serve, but that doesn't make them a servant. You see, people can serve, and as I mentioned earlier, for all kinds of reasons, they can serve.

They can serve for advancement. They can serve to get ahead. They can serve to impress other people. Now, I remember, I may have mentioned this story to you before, but we all have to grow up and learn lessons over the years. I remember as a freshman. Did a lot of things early on that needed to learn from. But I remember I was out one Sunday working, and I thought I was working hard. Actually, I was working hard. But there was a fellow freshman who was there with me, and he said, Here comes Mr.

Armstrong. Boy, you better look like you're really working hard. Well, I was working hard, but all at once, here comes Mr. Armstrong, and I redoubled my effort. I had my part of the dicondra to rake, cut, and pull weeds out of. So I'm there, just really working hard.

He passes. My friend laughs, and says, Okay, he's gone. You can slow down now. And so we slowed down a little bit. I couldn't have kept that piece up anyway. But I got to thinking about that afterwards. Here, we were doing this to impress Mr. Armstrong, as if he's the one you have to impress. Whereas, there is a God in heaven who looks down and watches everything we do, every thought we think, and who should we be impressing?

Who should be trying to impress God? So, this, I think, is the lesson that we need to learn.

So you see here a symbolic or synergistic type of relationship between those who are servants and who rule as servants, and those that they are ruling over, or serving. That it says here that if you are a servant to these people, they'll turn around and they will become your servants.

But verse 8, he rejected the counsel which the elders gave him, consulted with the young men who had grown up with him, and stood before him. What was the problem there? Well, they all felt the same way he did. They were all grown up. They all had the same mindset and approach. Consequently, the nation was divided.

So it could have been prevented, but I mean God was allowing that to happen, and it did take place. So we find then that God desires those who have leadership positions to become servants.

Now, when you stop and think about it, every one of us today has an opportunity to serve or be a servant.

You are servants in your families. We are servants in our community. We're servants in the church. And if we're given responsibility, that just adds on greater responsibility and to make sure that we do it in the right attitude and the right approach, as the Scriptures say.

A couple of other Scriptures you might want to refer to, Isaiah 42, verses 1-4, talks about the time in the future when God sends back His Son to the earth to help set up His kingdom.

Now, let's notice how God describes Christ.

I have put My Spirit upon Him, and He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles, Isaiah 42, verse 1.

So we are to be God's servants. We are God's servants. And Christ certainly was. And when He comes back, Christ could come back to Jerusalem. He could, the first building that is built, He could build a big edifice for Himself.

Sit there and say, okay, now you go out there, knock a few heads and get these people under My thumb. Is that the way He's going to rule? Or when He comes back, is He going to serve? Well, He'll be the greatest servant on earth at that time. He will serve all mankind.

And He was the servant when He came the first scope.

Now in Isaiah 49, verses 1-6, we have a Scripture here that talks about Israel. And in verse 3, Isaiah 49, 1-6, He's talking about Israel, but every application throughout this is not just about Israel, but also about Christ.

One is a type of the other. But in verse 3, He said to me, you are My servant, O Israel.

So what you find is that Israel in the millennium especially is going to be servants.

God chose ancient Israel to be a servant to the nations, and they failed utterly in that responsibility.

Now they're going to, in the future, carry that out and serve the rest of humanity.

And in verse 7, So we find here about being a servant.

So what we discover is in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament.

The emphasis is on service.

Now Christ clarified this because He showed that if you want to be great, that God measures greatness by having an attitude of humility and service.

Now if we go back to 1 Peter chapter 5, there are so many scriptures that we could cover dealing with this, but let's just go to 1 Peter 5, and we'll finish here.

1 Peter chapter 5. You'll notice what Peter has to say.

And you'll notice a different man here when he writes 1 Peter, 2 Peter, and when you see a picture of Peter in the four Gospels.

He was brash there, sort of bold, a cocky type of individual. He had to learn a few lessons.

By the time we move on over, and it's in the 60s, 30 years later, we see a completely different individual.

Verse 1. 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 1. The elders who are among you, I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed. Why does he mention the sufferings of Christ?

Well, it wasn't just to aggrandize himself, but it's simply he recognized that the very reason he was there in any of us have been called by God is because of what Christ did for us. God's grace, God's mercy that he extended to us.

And he goes on to say, Shepherd the flock of God, which is among you. Notice what looks like an oxymoron.

You are to be a shepherd, but then it also says serving, okay, that's clear, we should serve, how? As overseers. Uh oh. What do you mean, serve as overseers?

Not by constraint, but willingly, not for dishonest gain, but eagerly.

Now, how do you serve as an overseer? An overseer is one who oversees.

You might remember back in Hebrews 13, it talks about those who have the responsibility as elders to teach and to preach are going to be held accountable with greater judgment.

When it comes to the judgment period, God will judge those who've been given more, who's been given more will be judged and held accountable for what he has.

And so when it comes to the judgment, God's going to say, okay, you are the pastor of the Cleveland Chattanooga Church.

How did those people do? Did they grow? Did they spiritually mature? Did you help them with their problems? Did you neglect them?

Because, you see, being an overseer doesn't mean that you sit here and you give it to people.

That's not what it means. It doesn't mean to lord it over people, but it means to serve as Christ served.

So, servanthood. You see, when you are a servant, and this is something we're all striving for, that controls how you use your authority.

I'm not saying there isn't authority. God gives authority to the ministry, and we have to handle problems and difficulties.

But it's how it's administered. It's how it's used.

So, we find that elders can serve for the wrong reasons, also, just like anyone else.

So, we are to serve as overseers. And verse 3 says, not lording it over those entrusted to you.

So, you're not to damage the flock, not to have harsh treatment. Notice it says, to those entrusted to you.

You're here not because of some great thing that I've done, but because God, in His mercy, saw fit to call you.

So, God called you. God opened your minds. And you're here because of God's calling and God's choosing.

Not because I, or Mr. Cowan, or anybody else. Somebody great. We did the calling.

But you are entrusted to us. That means that God says, here are some sheep. You're the shepherd.

I want you to look after these sheep. Take care of them. Make sure they're fed properly. Give them water. And if they start to get sick, you tend to them. And you look after them.

This is the analogy that you find God uses.

And verse 5, likewise you younger people, or as some commentaries say, you could say, well, it's anybody who's younger, but it's also talking about those who are younger elders.

Likewise you younger. Submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive one to another.

So there are times that you submit to others. Be clothed, notice. Be clothed with humility.

So again, we find humility is the basis of what we're striving for.

You see, in Peter's writings here, a more humble apostle than when he was just being trained by Christ.

He had to learn a few lessons.

So how do we go about training the next generation in leadership?

Well, it has to be based upon these principles.

All of those of you who are in your early teens or late teens or early twenties, you have to realize that you are the future. You're the potential leaders. You are where the elders, deacons, servants, and those who are going to bear the responsibilities in the future.

And so we have a responsibility to train the next generation to realize as leaders the foundation that should be there. And that foundation, again, is one of being a servant based on humility. And not looking out for your best interests, but looking out for the interests of others.

So a lack of humility is something that will destroy a leader, from being an effective leader when it comes to serving God or for any of us in serving in any way.

What you find that all of us need to have our batteries recharged, that means we need to pray daily, we need to be on guard in that way if we want God to use us.

So God has called us all to be leaders now, and especially if we are faithful in a few things, He will give us responsibility over many in the future.

So we're all being trained now to become leaders. So with this, I wanted to lay the foundation because everything that we're going to study and bring out on leadership in the future is based upon this, is based upon what we've covered so far.

And so, just like building a house, if you don't lay the right foundation, you start building the house, it's not going to go up, it won't stand. So, brethren, the basis of leadership is simply a servant attitude and humility.