Leadership, Part 3

Well, good afternoon to everyone. Likewise, I'd like to welcome all of our guests that we have today.

I mentioned before I get started that I think I'm like a lot of you. This past week, my scientists have been running like a faucet, and so therefore I've been...you know, all of this drainage has been going into my throat. This morning, I decided not to go to Rome simply to avoid trying to do this twice, because I thought the time I got here I'd probably be run out of a voice. So I didn't want to do that.

And since we're getting ready to go to council meetings, I thought it might be better to try to keep everything together. So we'll see what happens today. So if you hear me hacking, coughing, sputtering up here, you'll know what's going on.

This is the third in a series that we've had concerning developing leadership in the Church. And today I'd like to discuss a topic that I think goes hand-in-hand with leadership, and that's developing good judgment and wisdom. If you're going to lead, you need to have the ability to judge correctly and to have proper judgment. Good judgment is not a matter of a lack or let's say of luck or ordination. In other words, a man's ordained. He has hands laid on him, and all at once he becomes the wisest person on earth.

It is a gift, though, that comes from God. We know that. But it also has to be developed over a period of time with effort, with study, and with a commitment. Good judgment can be learned and developed. Now, back in Psalm 119 and verse 66, Psalm 119 verse 66, this is another translation here. We read, teach me to use good judgment and knowledge because I believe in your commandments.

I think the King James says something like, teach me good judgment. But this translation translates it, teach me to use good judgment. And so that's something that David prayed to God, that God would give him the ability to be able to wisely judge in matters. We know that later on that Solomon prayed to God and asked God to give him wisdom and being able to judge such a great people, the peoples of Israel.

I think there are many qualities, important qualities that we need to have to be successful in serving one another. Remember, when we're talking about leaders, we're not just talking about elders and deacons, deaconesses. We're talking about every single person sitting here. Because all of us are in training to become leaders in the world tomorrow, and we all have opportunities to lead within our own families in serving one another from time to time. We find there are a number of qualities that are needed to be able to effectively serve.

Deep conversion is one of them. Love for God, love for his peoples, another one. Willingness to listen to people, hear them out, the ability to teach, humility. All of these are all qualities that are needed. But right along with these is good judgment, the ability to judge rightly. And I think that this is one of the most important qualities of a leader.

So what I'd like to do today is to focus our attention on what God says and the importance of developing good judgment and wisdom. And see if I can't plan a seed or desire within all of us here to develop this and to make this something that would be worthwhile. Good judgment and wisdom are often go hand in hand. Actually, some authors call them sisters because they look alike or very much alike. And so I want to show you how this is essential to being a good leader.

What I'd like to do, first of all, is give you an overview of what we're talking about. Because this material that we're discussing here today is not just for men, it's for everyone. It's for our children, it's for the ladies, it's for the men, and it's important for all of us. Jerry Bridges, an author, wrote this about wisdom. Wisdom is commonly defined as good judgment or the ability to develop the best course of action in response to a given situation. So a subtype of a situation comes up, you wonder what you should do. And so wisdom then would dictate what would be the best course of action.

In the Bible, however, when you begin to study wisdom, you find that it also has a very strong ethical component to it. Wisdom in the book of Proverbs is more than just coming up with a right answer. It is concerned with righteous living. Go through the book of Proverbs and you'll find that it talks quite a bit about doing what is right.

Now, it has to do with righteous living more than just shrewd judgment. We find that there are many people in this society that are much more shrewd than you and I are. And when it comes to their abilities, when it comes to business, comes to wheeling, dealing, all of this kind of thing, they're very sharp. Let me give you some definitions of wisdom. We could say that wisdom is the ability to make right decisions in harmony with the right laws at the right time.

So that's right decisions in harmony with the right laws at the right time. But that is incomplete. It is not a complete definition. Because it does not explain why we need to do this. The end result or goal of having wisdom is this. Let me expand that definition for you. Wisdom is the ability to make right decisions in harmony with the right laws. That's God's law at the right time to produce righteous living or right living.

You and I want to learn how to live correctly, righteously. We find that the Bible says, seek you first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. So you and I are to seek to live in a righteous way. God never intended wisdom to be an end in itself. You can walk around and say, boy, there goes somebody who's got a lot of wisdom.

But wisdom is not just an end in itself. It's a means to an end. It is righteous living. That's the end result of having wisdom. So the big picture, when it comes to wisdom and judgment, is having a right relationship with God and having a right relationship with other people and learning how to do that. So the goal or end result that we want to keep in mind is simply that.

We want to grow in love for God. We want to grow in love for our neighbor. And it seems like I've read that somewhere in the Bible. That you're to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your might, and you're to love your neighbors yourself. That's actually the end result of developing the proper wisdom. I think sometimes, when it comes to making decisions, we become too narrow in our focus.

We can analyze something. We can listen. And then we can say very quickly, and I've been guilty of doing this. On numerous occasions. You're in a hurry, you listen, and you say, okay, let me tell you. Here, one, two, three, this is what you need to do. And maybe you haven't gotten all the facts. Maybe you haven't considered everything in the Scriptures. So you don't know the full basis on which to make a correct judgment. And sometimes we miss the mark, and it's easy to do so.

I think a lot of times we tend to think of wisdom as having only positive qualities. And yet the Bible describes the fact that wisdom can be misdirected and it can be perverted. The book of Ezekiel, you might remember, writes about Lucifer. That it was because of his sins and pride, as the Bible says, that he corrupted his wisdom. He was wise, but his wisdom became corrupted. So people can use their knowledge, their abilities, their abilities to judge in a wrong way.

As the San Sino commentary mentions, San Sino commentary is Jewish commentary on the Old Testament. It says true wisdom cannot be exercised when there is a spirit of arrogance. So somebody who is arrogant, filled with pride, filled with vanity, is not going to be able to exercise true wisdom. And that's exactly the pitfall that the devil fell into. You might remember in the book of James, chapter 1, it describes two types of wisdom. It describes godly wisdom. The wisdom from above, it says, is first of all peaceful.

And it goes on to describe the wisdom that comes from above. That's from God. And then it talks about the wisdom of this world, earthly wisdom. It is called demonic. It is worldly. It's unspiritual wisdom. It's characterized by bitterness, jealousy, self-centeredness, ambition, rivalry, disorder of every kind. Whenever you see those types of fruits around, I don't care what type of situation you find yourself in, whether it's two people who can't agree, or you find disharmony in existence, you find that if there is jealousy, if there is self-centeredness, ambition, rivalry, evil thinking, that this is not of God. This is the wisdom that is the exact opposite of righteous living, of living a righteous life.

When we're making judgments and decisions, we have to always stop and ask ourselves this question. Will this decision help all parties involved? And will it help everybody involved achieve the goal of loving God more and loving your neighbor more?

Can you do that? As Stephen Covey, many of you are familiar with Stephen Covey, has written, begin with the end in mind. You and I should always, in whatever we do, start with the end result in mind, what we're striving for. So you might say that's the big picture when it comes to judgment and wisdom. So what is the source of wisdom?

We've already touched on this. Where do you go to find it? I wish you could just go downtown, go into Walgreens, or buy loaves, and say, I'll have a bushel of wisdom, and buy it, and pay for it, and come out, and all at once you've got a bushel of wisdom.

Then you just start eating it, and the more you eat, the wiser you become. Well, we know that that's not how you get wisdom. Now, I think all of us here already know where wisdom comes from, but it's something that we need to remind ourselves regularly, because I think we live in an age where we become so busy, so involved, we're overworked, we're distracted, that we begin to forget where it is, where it comes from, and what we need to do to get it.

Let's notice in Job 28, Job 28, we'll begin here in verse 1.

Job 28, and verse 1. I'd like to read to you out of the New Century version of the Bible, in this section. In other words, where can you lay your hands on wisdom? Where can you go to get it? Well, notice beginning in verse 1. There are mines where people dig silver, in places where gold is made pure. Verse 2. Iron is taken from the ground, and copper is melted out of the rocks.

Now, the next few verses then begin to describe mining techniques, how man extracts metal from the earth, that people put a lot of work, a lot of effort into finding these treasures. I remember Norman and I, we were in South Africa on one occasion, went down into a diamond mine, and they explained all of the work and effort that it took. Now, they would move literally tons of debris, of rock, of soil, and sift it, and maybe they'd find a diamond out of a ton, or so of material that they were moving.

They had these huge mounds of dirt that they had dug up from the ground. Well, man will go to any extreme to be able to dig up something that he thinks is valuable. Notice verse 12. But where can wisdom be found? Where do you go to find wisdom? And where does understanding live? Verse 13, people do not understand the value of wisdom. They cannot be found among those who are alive. The deep says, it's not in me, in other words, the oceans. The sea says, it's not in me. Verse 15, wisdom cannot be bought with gold.

Its costs cannot be weighed in silver. So you can't go over here to bylaws and buy it. I'm just not going to find it in those areas. Gold, silver, precious stones, all of these things are valuable. But the Bible indicates that wisdom and righteous judgment, good judgment, are even more rare and more valuable than finding the diamonds. I was explaining that might be dug up out of a diamond mine. Notice why God goes on to say here, dropping down to verse 20. Verse 20 says, well, again, we read that. Where does wisdom come from? Verse 21, we find that it is hidden from the eyes of living things, even from the birds of the air, you find.

In verse 23, only God understands the way to wisdom. So only God can tell you where to go to get true wisdom. And he alone knows where it lives. Now, we don't have time to go through the book of Proverbs today, or many scriptures dealing with this.

But you go back to the book of Proverbs, and if you might remember, wisdom is described almost personified like a person that in the very beginning, when God created the earth, when He laid the foundation of the earth, that wisdom was there almost like a playmate with God. That God, through wisdom, through His understanding, created the material universe.

So what we find is that God is the source of wisdom, and He knows how you and I can receive it. Verse 28, we find in verse 28, He said to humans, the fear of the Lord is wisdom.

To stay away from evil is understanding. So if you want understanding, you stay away from evil, and the fear of the Lord is wisdom. So did you catch that? The fear of the Lord? That's what wisdom is. Wisdom begins with having a right relationship with the Creator God. That's what wisdom is based upon. If you don't have a right relationship with God, you're not going to be able to know the right way to live. Because remember, good judgment and wisdom lead a person as the end result of having righteous living. A key component of a right relationship with God is fear, our submission, our reverence to God.

We fear God, we have reverence of God, we respect God, what He says, and we fear to go against it. The book of Proverbs contrasts God, what God says about wise people and fools. You read in the book of Proverbs all the time about a fool. A fool is not one who lacks intelligence. In fact, sometimes a fool, as the Bible calls them, can be the most intelligent people. But rather one, a fool in the Bible in the book of Proverbs is one who is obstinate, stubborn, unrefined, rude, and set in his own ways.

Now, of course, that would never describe any of us. I'm afraid sometimes it's described to me. The root of the fool's foolishness is not mental, in other words, we're not talking about mental deficiencies, but spiritual. He begins by rejecting the fear of the Lord. The Bible says, fear God, keep his commandments. The fool says, I don't fear anybody. I'll do what I want to. Nobody's going to tell me what to do.

Me can do it. And, you know, they have this type of attitude. And then, totally rejecting the fear of God, then guess what the next thing goes? Is this. You reject the Bible. And so you find that the wise of this world, who consider themselves wise, reject the Bible.

They reject the Scriptures. They say, there is no God. And so, therefore, they cut themselves off from the very source of the wisdom to guide how to live. And, consequently, they can never understand why divorce is on the rise, why children are having problems, why we can't solve our problems, why man continues to go to war, why we can't get along. And, you know, man can look at the problems. He's good at defining the problems, but he doesn't know the solution on how to go about solving these.

So, the root is a spiritual problem. And man is destined to go his own way, closing his mind to God, rejecting God. You know, the Bible in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, you might remember, says that God has chosen the foolish ones of this world to confound the wise, weak, the base.

You and I are the weak, the base. We're not the great. We're not the mighty. We don't have 200 IQs. Now, there may be somebody in here with the 200 IQ. I haven't checked with everybody, but I haven't run into him yet or her. But let's notice in Proverbs 2 verse 6, the book of Proverbs, chapter 2 and verse 6, that wisdom comes from God.

Chapter 2 verse 6, the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. So, if we want to have good judgment, proper judgment, it's going to come from God. What does James chapter 1 verse 5 say? If any of you needs or if you lack wisdom, it says you should ask God. And he is generous, and God will give to all. So, God gives to all of us wisdom.

But we have to ask. So, when God gives us his Holy Spirit, brethren, we have a pipeline to God. We have God's Spirit. God begins to place his DNA within us. We begin to have a connection with him and his thoughts. And so, God can influence our minds. And God gives us his Word to study. And in here, we get the pattern of how God thinks, what God wants us to do, how God reasons, how God will judge in various matters. Wisdom is a gift that comes from God. But we need to ask God for it. In addition, we have to work for it.

God gives it to us, but it can be increased and perfected. It's like mining for gold. You've got to get out and you've got to dig. We work for it by studying God's Word, especially the book of Proverbs. We need to become familiar with the book of Proverbs and guided by the biblical principles contained in God's Word. You know, it's easy for all of us to be guided by our own opinions. I've got just as many opinions as you have. And that's all they are, my opinions.

But we all have opinions, don't we? Sometimes we say, well, somebody's opinionated. Well, what do we mean? Well, he's got strong opinions and he's not afraid to tell you what those opinions are. But a lot of times we are guided. We make judgments based upon our own opinions, on our preference, on emotions, on personalities, on prejudices, or by appearance. You and I have to be careful to resist the tendency to be guided by these things instead of being guided by the biblical and godly principles, as they're outlined in the Scriptures.

So God gives us sound principles. You might remember in John 7, verse 24, God says, Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment. So righteous judgment takes into account all of God's Word. So that means that we've got to be studying all of this Word and to be reminded of it. The thing I find, if you don't study, after a while you begin to forget. And as you forget, you start making judgments, and they're based, again, on our own human ideas.

So what is good judgment? What's like an old mountaineer from West Virginia? One commented when he was asked by a young man. Young man said, Uncle Zed, how'd you get so wise? And Uncle Zed said, weren't hard. I got good judgment. And he said, good judgment comes from experience. I've got experience. And it comes from making bad judgments and decisions. And I've made a lot of those. Well, that's the hard way, isn't it? We all learn certain lessons. There are lessons that are ingrained in my mind because I made wrong judgment. I did something wrong.

And I had to learn from them. And I made a mistake. And sometimes you have to pay for that mistake. Literally, you keep paying. You do things and you realize, uh-oh, that wasn't the wisest thing to do. And you learn from them. And you chalk that up. That's the hard way to come about it. Certain business magazines will tell you that in order to be a successful manager, that if you can make right decisions 51% of the time, you're a good manager.

Well, 51%, you're not going to bankrupt the company, but they're not going to get rich either in that way. But I think as leaders in God's Church and potential leaders for the future, it requires a much higher percentage than 51% from us when it comes to making sound judgment. Good judgment is the capacity to assess situations, to evaluate situations, and draw sound conclusions.

Synonymous with this are good sense, common sense. Voltaire, the French philosopher, is credited with having written that common sense is not so common. And I think that's true. What we call common sense. We say, well, you should have common sense, well, it's not so common because it makes sense. And that's not as popular as you might think. Wisdom is also synonymous, but it's something that we don't want to just dwell on here.

I'd like to, in the closing minutes here, give you ten practical tools of judgment. Ten practical tools of judgment. To remember whenever you make judgments, whenever you have to make a decision. Number one, and a lot of this applies to someone who's in a position of responsibility, but as I've said, all of us one day will be in positions of responsibilities. All of us from time to time are given opportunities to serve and to be over something or to be involved with something. Point number one, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

You can know everything in the world, but people have to know that you really care. That's true of the ministry. You can say, well, a minister is very intellectual, gives good sermons, but you never go to him with a problem because you don't think he cares for you. You've got to know that a person genuinely is concerned about you.

So again, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. So this means that all of us need to be approachable. We all need to be warm. We all need to be filled with concern. We need to be caring people. Second point, when you evaluate a situation, ask yourself, is this sand in the soup or leaven in the bread? Is it sand in the soup or leaven in the bread? Some situations that you're confronted with, and sometimes there are situations that I'm confronted with, as a church pastor in a congregation, that I have to make a decision. Do I need to do something here?

Or do I just let this alone? Sand in the soup is where somebody's doing something that you know maybe it might be wrong, maybe just in talking with them you find they've got some wrong ideas. But they don't talk to anybody else about it, and they tell you that. They say, look, I'm not talking to other people about this.

This is just something that I personally hold to. Maybe you talk to them. They're not causing division. They're not sowing discord. So you might talk to them personally, but do you have to do something as far as the congregation is concerned? The answer is no. But what if a person has some strange ideas, and they're going around talking to everybody in the congregation about their ideas? And you warn them, don't do that. That's not right. That's not according to the Church's doctrine in teaching. It's not what we believe. And I can't allow you to go around just teaching false teaching.

And they continue. That's leavening in the bread. That's something that's going to spread and eventually will affect the whole loaf, the Church. That has to be dealt with. Now, in our own personal lives, when we're dealing with situations, we need to ask ourselves, is this something that is, if left alone, is going to undermine my character? Is it going to destroy me? Or, occasionally, we all have ideas that maybe aren't square, that are more the soup and the sand. But you have to use this principle when it comes to dealing with your family, dealing with your mate. There are things that maybe your mate does that you probably should keep your mouth shut.

Why mention it? You don't have to mention every little thing. Or you don't have to mention every little thing that somebody else does. I'm talking about personal interrelationship. It might be something you don't like, but if it's something that you see that is going to hurt the marriage, or that's hurting the relationship between the two of you, then you need to then back off and think, well, now, how should I approach this? How should I say something? And then this is where you need to bring in some good judgment to know exactly how to approach it.

So we have these type of situations that we have to judge from time to time. Point number three. When should you use your authority? And if it is appropriate, when should you apply it? You find that many times in dealing with difficulties that sometimes you might have to use authority that you have, but there is a principle that I've always found, and that is you use it as a last resort.

That's not where you start. Let me illustrate. You're driving down the highway, and you're doing 25 miles an hour in a 15-mile school zone. There happens to be a policeman sitting over there. He pulls him behind you.

Now, what's his first action? Does he get his gun out and shoot your tires out? I mean, is that the first thing he does? No, he may turn his lights on, or he may blink his lights at you, and you're driving down the road, and I don't know if you've ever experienced this. You look up and you think, Oh, no! Here's this going on behind you. All of us have almost a heart attack when you see that happening behind you. What if you decide, I'm not pulling over.

What right does he have to pull me over? And you keep going. Well, once you hear, the siren will start. Well, what if you don't pull over? Maybe you speed up. He may pull over next to you and get on his megaphone and say, You and that blue car, pull over to the curb, and you better pull over. What if you don't pull over? He might try to run your car off the road.

What if you don't stop? What if you take off down the road 130 miles an hour? The gun comes out. Or, you know, somebody's going to put spikes in the road. You're going to find other patrol cars, maybe a semi across a highway somewhere. They're going to stop you at some point. Well, when it comes to using authority, why would we start with the toughest approach you can start with? Because you have nowhere to go but to back off.

And when you start strong, what else is there? If you back off, it's weakness. And so, in order to not appear to be weak, you've got to stick in there and tussle with a person. You can always get stronger, but if you start at the very top, you can't back off. You could, but most people are not going to do it. So, the Bible describes, just as an example, that a minister is to be a shepherd.

And as a shepherd, you're the lead. A shepherd is one who's not always got his crook out there or his staff and the sheep over here, and he's always banging them on the head. Get back over there. Bang, bang, bang! And he's always beating on the sheep. Now, they may go astray, and he may send the dog around to round them up. There are sheep dogs, and they're amazing to watch how they can round up a herd.

Or, he may go up and gently lead the herd back in a given direction. So, what you and I need to be careful, if you find yourself that you've been given a responsibility, and you're frequently using the phrase, I'm in charge, or I'm a deacon, or I'm an elder, do you know who I am?

You know, these type of expressions. Then there's something wrong here. You're using your position of authority in a wrong way to settle an issue. A lot of times, people who are young, young men and women, will react this way because they will feel threatened. So, they will use their authority. And, you know, sometimes people will do this, and it shows that maybe they feel threatened. So, that is not normally the best response. To your wife steps, you think, my wife did something I don't like. And so, the first thing you do is use your authority.

I'm in charge here, and I told you to do this, and you do that. And you beat your chest. Or do you do that with your children? Well, that's not the way that we are to handle those situations. Point number four. A wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment. Ecclesiastes 8.5. That happens to be a Scripture. Ecclesiastes 8.5. A wise man's heart discerns both time and judgment. Not every situation has to be acted on immediately.

Don't always have to handle something immediately. Sometimes it's best to let something run its course. Now, how do you know when? That's where judgment comes in. See, that's where you have to discern. Timing is important, and we need to pray that God would give us discernment in these things. Some people always want to handle everything immediately. Problem comes up. You've got to take care of it. Some people don't want to take care of anything. So you've got these two extremes.

Some are, boom! They'll jump into any situations. Others will never handle anything. So you have to decide, is this something that really needs to be handled quickly? Is it going to hurt, harm, or whatever? Maybe a person just needs a little more time to work things out. That brings us to the fifth point. Make sure you always hear both sides of an issue before rendering judgment.

Hear both sides, even if the first person is convincing. Generally, the first person who talks to you, you'll get maybe hopping mad over something. You mean they're that way, and you hear what they have to say. But remember, Proverbs 8, 17, the good word translation says this, or God's word translation, I should say, the first to state his case seems right until his neighbor comes to cross-examine him.

How many times have I sat down in marriage counseling and I thought I had this all figured out? One of the persons comes to me and tells me how bad, how they're being mistreated by their mate. And so you're all ready, you get both of them together, and then you start asking the second party, whom you haven't talked to yet, questions. And all at once, they begin to tell you, from their perspective, what went on. And you listen and you think, are we talking about the same situation here? Because now you've got two different stories. There are sometimes three sides to a situation.

There is member A, member B, and the truth. And sometimes the truth lies somewhere in between. And it's not just a matter that somebody's trying to be deceptive, sometimes they may be. But everybody sees what's going on from their own perspective. And so that's why you've got to get all of the information.

If you rush the judgment, and you only hear one side of a story, you're almost always going to make a mistake that you will regret. There's always a strong tendency to believe the first person's side of a story.

Especially if it's presented very respectfully, and if the story seems believable. And if the description seems consistent with the perception you already had of the individuals involved, and especially if there are tears involved. Somebody's crying over the situation, and you're moved. And if you're not careful, you will allow these external factors to come into play and to move you to make a wrong decision.

Sometimes people will try, and I've had this happen to me, so I know where I speak of on this. Well, try to convince you of their view of a situation, and you may say, okay, yeah, that seems right. And then they go to somebody else and say, well, you know, the pastor, his wife, a deacon, an elder, said, I was right. And then the implication is, you're wrong.

So therefore, you know, you should do such and such. You know, that's very easy to happen. So we have an obligation to make sure that we don't rush to judgment until we hear both sides of the situation. You and I need to have righteous judgment. Point number six, this doesn't apply to most people, but it's certainly a principle in the Bible. Be careful not to accept large gifts or expensive gifts from people, especially as a minister, from individual members.

Remember Deuteronomy 16, verse 19. You shall not pervert justice, you shall not show partiality, nor take a bribe. For a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous. So accepting an expensive gift can cloud your judgment, favor the person who gave you the gift. It will become difficult, if not impossible, to correct that person or to render future decisions.

You know, how could you do this when I've been so magnanimous and I've helped you so much? It might be difficult for you to disagree. So that's why we always try to be careful in these areas. That's just a principle. As I said, that's not going to necessarily apply to most of us, but it is something to remember when it comes to judgment, if you're ever in a position. Point number seven. All of us should administer our responsibility, our office, our duty, whatever it might be, with judgment and justice. Second Samuel 8.15. Second Samuel 8.15 has this to say about David.

David reigned over all Israel, and David administered judgment and justice to all his people. Judgment and justice to all his people. One source says this phrase means the letter of the law with mercy. The letter of the law with mercy. This was a very high compliment paid to David by God on how he performed his responsibility as a ruler. Because, you know, in the world tomorrow, in Isaiah 9.7, the same expression is used of the Messiah and how he will rule. Isaiah 9.7. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end.

And upon the throne of David and over his kingdom to order it and establish it with judgment, that's the law, and justice. That can imply mercy from that time forward. This phrase describes a ruler who knows and teaches God's law, both the letter and the spirit of the law. But when appropriate, it shows mercy. Don't we all, on occasions, need mercy? Don't we every day go to God and say, Father, have mercy on me, forgive me with our sins? And how often do we need mercy in dealing with one another?

Well, you can't, again, go to extremes. You can't be somebody who just always applies the law, never has mercy. And neither can you be somebody who's just always showing mercy, always forgiving, but never administering the law. There is a proper blend here. If you don't know what to do, it's always better to err on the side of mercy. You can always get tougher, but you can err on the side of mercy. So, we should follow the example of David, we should follow the example of Jesus Christ, to rule with judgment and with justice.

Then, number eight, know when to send the matter to Moses. Know when the case should arise and go up to Moses. You might remember when Moses established rulers over ten, rulers over fifty, rulers over a hundred, and so on, he made it clear that he was to choose able men.

Able men, that means men of ability, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. As Exodus 18.26 states, Exodus 18.26, so they judged the people at all times. The hard cases they brought to Moses, but they judged every small case themselves. So, the smaller matters, the more routine matters they judged, but when they got a little more complex, they brought them to Moses. I remember when I first came out, Norman and I first came out of Ambassador College back in 1963, going out and training with a couple of church pastors, and I'd go out, sit there.

We would get into all kinds of situations. And I'm sitting there thinking, I'm glad I'm not in charge. I have no idea what I would tell these people to do. But I sat there, and over a period of a year and a half or two, literally heard hundreds of situations, everything you can imagine.

One day I was ordained, but I still wasn't in charge, and three months later I was ordained again. Now, I no longer had an excuse. I was put over two churches. And here I am, 24, pastoring two churches, and guess what I prayed for every day? Give me wisdom. You'll help me to have judgment. Who am I to judge? Here, we'd go out and visit somebody, 70, 80, you know, live three or four times as long as I have. And I'm supposed to be sitting there counseling them, and it matters. It becomes very humbling when you find yourself in those situations. And sometimes there were situations where you find that all of us have to be willing to say, three words, you know what it is?

I don't know. But, three more words. Four more words. I will find out. So you and I may not know. And let's guess something. Who is it here who knows everything? Even the President of the United States doesn't know everything. Sometimes you wonder if they know much, but they have counselors. I mean, they can have hundreds of attorneys if they want them. But they have members around them who are supposed to be experts in whatever. The economy, or transportation, or the military, or surveillance.

And they have meetings, and they bring their cabinet together. And the cabinet members have dozens, hundreds of people under them who gather information. And they are funneling all of this up to the President. So there are times that you have to seek advice.

And there are many times that I go to those over me. And what about us? One of the things that I find that's most difficult for human beings to do is go ask for advice. Especially if there's a marriage problem. 90% of the time it's always the woman who will come and ask for help. And for some reason, men generally fail to do so.

There's an ego involved here. And what you find is there are times that we all need to admit. Maybe you're given a responsibility and a duty. And you think you know how to do it. You may know how to do it, but it's not wrong to go and to just simply say, you know, you're going to seek advice. That brings us to point number nine, actually.

I think I've bled over to number nine here. And that is, you're not expected to know everything, point number nine. And we should be willing to admit when we don't. And admit when we're wrong. There have been times that I've made a wrong decision. And I just have had to say, that was wrong.

I'm sorry, I've learned differently. This is what we need to do. I think, you know, sometimes people are afraid that people will disrespect them if they admit that they're wrong, but I've always found it's the exact opposite.

The people respect you if you admit you're wrong. If you're wrong in everything, that's different. Every time you see somebody, I'm wrong, I'm wrong, I'm wrong, you know, that's a different story. But God doesn't expect us to know everything. In fact, I remember, I was quite impressed by this, many of you will remember Dr. Hay, a brilliant man. Dr. Hay said, I don't know everything, but he said, I know where to find it. And he knew where to go look it up, or what book, or what library to go to, and you know, to find the information.

And so, the same thing is true of us. And then, point number 10, realize when an issue is not in your jurisdiction. Realize when something is not in your jurisdiction. Meaning, not within your range, your territory, or you have control or authority over it. I'll give you a real life example.

Church member loaned a pickup truck to a non-church member relative. Non-church member relative's card broken down, so... Member graciously loaned him his pickup with the deal that, I'm going to repair my car and I get it repaired, I'll return the pickup. Months went by, never heard anything. Went and talked to him, found out that the relative wasn't even trying to repair his car.

He told him, look, I need my pickup, you've got to have it back. The relative becomes very upset because he's putting pressure on him, lets more time go by. Finally comes back and says, look, I will have to go to the sheriff to get my car back if you don't return it. And gave a date on which it should return, it wasn't returned. Had to call the sheriff. Sheriff came out and repossessed, or in this case got the car, and returned it to its rightful owner.

Now, this relative knew that the member who was a member of United, was a member of United, called our minister to ask the minister to mediate a settlement between the two of them. Now what would you do if you were called upon in that situation? How would you handle it? Well, there was one occasion when Jesus Christ was faced with this situation back in Luke 12, verses 13-14. One from the crowd, Luke 12, 13-14, said to him, Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.

And he said to him, Man who made me a judge or an arbitrator over you. See, he could go to court and get that handled. So, Christ realized that this was not in his jurisdiction, so he didn't try to render or arbitrate in this matter. So there are times that people will try to suck you into a situation to render a judgment when it's not your place to render a judgment. And you need to know when and when not to. So, good judgment, brethren, is essential for any leadership position. And all of us are going to find ourselves in the kingdom one day, and all of these principles will come into play.

But as we have opportunity in this life, within the church, within our families, within our community, whenever we have a chance to lead, let's remember these principles on judgment. We can learn to exercise good judgment and sound wisdom in all of our relationships.