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Good Friday morning my ‘Walking with Jesus’ friends;
Leadership is vital in every group of human beings starting in our families, and moving out into every segment of our society in every place where people live in our world… do you agree?
Daily the news speaks to us of leadership issues around the world: Impeachment; tensions in the middle east; out of control fires in Australia; trade negotiations between great global economies; Brexit and millions of other leadership issues both large and small, everywhere in the world.
Did you know God has a great deal to say about leadership?
Have you observed throughout history, the best leaders are actually great followers? The closer they follow God and His Omniscient leading of them, the better they can lead those who follow them. It’s true in EVERY segment of society!
It’s a ripple effect isn’t it, and everyone of us has been touched by it many times in our lives. In our families, churches, schools, communities, employment, nations. . . we’ve all been followers of leaders. I hope you’ve had the opportunity, at least once in your life, to follow the lead of a leader who was a passionate follower of Jesus.
I hope you saw him or her battle against pride and self reliance, and continually seek to discern how the Holy Spirit was leading them in following Jesus so they could effectively lead others in the way Jesus knew was best for them. That’s true in business, health-care, education, civil government, church etc. Any group of people involved in any endeavor… God knows the best way, if only the leaders will follow HIM!
Paul wrote his letters to Timothy and Titus primarily to help them become God honoring leaders of God’s people in the first century, in regions under the control of the Roman Empire and its leader the Caesar. Today let’s step into 1 Timothy 3. I’m only going to focus on one verse today. . .
“Here is a trustworthy saying: if anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach…” (1 Tim. 3:1) The word “overseer” has both a specific and general application. Specifically, within the context of a group of Christians in a local church setting, the ‘overseer’ would be the Pastor or Elders. The leader who is directly responsible to God for leading God’s people.
In the non-church setting, in any other segment of society… business, heath-care, education, civil government, military, etc. the ‘overseer’ is wider in scope. Just like the word sounds, they ‘oversee’, they are responsible for the work & conduct of others. You might call it manager or director or VP or CEO… it’s anyone with the privilege and responsibility of leading people in the performance of their responsibilities.
Multiple, God following, shared leadership is God’s design for leading people in a joint venture, and it goes all the way back to the days of Moses, who was the first God appointed leader of a large group of people who definitely needed leadership! But the task was far too much for one man, even Moses.
There were more than 1 million people he was responsible to lead, and most were slaves, accustomed to slave-masters whip and shouts guiding their every move. As they fled Egypt, not all were Hebrews, you may remember (Exodus 12:37,38) and they also had all their flocks of animals and belongings. They weren’t just going on a field trip, they were on the move for 40 years! This was one of the greatest leadership challenges of all time!
So in Exodus 18 God gave Moses wisdom through his father-in-law and a leadership structure was set in place so everyone in this huge, on-the-move, tent city had leadership. Moses’ frequent trips up Mount Sinai to receive leadership instruction from God and later meeting with God often in the “tent of meeting” provided for Joshua the model for how to lead people well, while following God carefully. This wasn’t simply a long journey… this was leadership for survival in the desert!
I’m sure you’ve noticed, both leadership and ‘followership’ are volatile. The full spectrum of good & bad leaders & followers exist in every generation, every where in the world. Leadership effectiveness changes daily. So here’s my question for all of us: what are the attributes, the evidences of good leadership?
At the end of Moses’ life he urged the leaders who would succeed him to continue leading well by following God closely, and he urged the people to follow well by joining with their leaders in following God closely. He dedicated three chapters to his departing leadership challenge and then old Moses said “Now choose life, so that you and your children may live, and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to His voice hold fast to Him, for the LORD is your life.” (Deut. 30:19,20)
A generation later, as Joshua nears the end of his life, after they have conquered much of the Promised land and the people had begun to settle into communities, jobs and normal life, Joshua follows Moses’ example in challenging those he has been leading to “Choose you this day whom you will serve, as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15).
But they didn’t… and within 2 generations Judges chapter 2 tells us very few of God’s people were worshiping or following God. They had chosen other paths, turned away from God, and their lives, their families, and their entire nation was in turmoil and was being invaded by neighboring armies. They were desperate and so in response to the cries for help from His people, God raised up Judges to lead them. Gideon, Samson and finally Samuel were among them. That’s the Bible book of Judges.
There’s a very important human cycle that we see in Judges that is happening continually, even in our day. Consider this… It begins with God’s people in a good place of peace and prosperity experiencing the blessings of God, in their lives and their nation. But they grow apathetic and they drift spiritually and morally away from following God. Their attitudes and choices begin to reflect a godless lifestyle.
God responds by sending those to call God’s drifting people back to Him, and they have a choice… return or continue to drift. If they refuse to return, God removes His hand of blessing and the drift turns into deep decline morally and spiritually. Family and society dysfunction rises dramatically and so God in His love sends discipline, as any good parent would.
Again there’s choice. Repent and return to God or refuse and continue the drift rejecting God. History shows us very clearly, in every culture of the world, what happens when a people reject God and continue their moral and spiritual drift. Dysfunction declines to near anarchy. God’s next step is to remove His hand of protection and warn of judgement. Again drifting people have the opportunity to repent and return to God, but if they don’t God’s judgement will follow.
History shows us this judgement is sometimes self-destructive as profound wickedness rises up and wrecks havoc in a nation and things like genocide, holocaust, ethnic cleansing result. In other cases God allows what some call ‘natural disasters’ such as drought or devastating storms or out of control fire. In other cases God allows invading armies or even horrific disease epidemics which can kill millions of people Usually by this time people have reached a point of desperation and begin to cry out for God’s help. God hears, God cares and if people will repent and turn to God history shows us He will respond, He will forgive, He will rescue and restore His blessing. Does that sound familiar, my friends? Do you hear 2 Chronicles 7:14?
Now take a moment and consider… “Walking with Jesus” is received by people in many nations, so where do you see your nation in that cycle? How are the leaders in your nation, your community, your church even your family responding to the invitation of God for repentance and return to Him?
Are the leaders who affect your life wise, humble, repentant and seeking to lead you and others back from despair, or are they hard hearted, prideful and determined to continue the drift away from God. Now here’s something very interesting to watch in our modern world. Sometimes those who are in what appears to be the highest leadership roles are not the real leaders affecting the drift of society! In our modern world, often those leaders are popular culture leaders like media people or athletes or business leaders. So, who are the most influential leaders in your world my friends? What has enabled them to have such influence? How is their influence leading the people in your part of our world? And what is God’s perspective on it all?
Throughout history, God has called leaders in every generation to understand this cycle and draw close to Him, to discern where the people, who they lead, are in this cycle, and then take action to lead them in returning to God and following Him, for GOD alone knows what is the best path to walk into the future. That is true in any nation, business, school, church, community or family. Think about that my friends.
And I ask you this question… are you a leader? Yes, you are responsible to lead yourself and many of you are the patriarch or matriarch leaders of your large families. Some of you are leaders in education or health care or business or military or politics or maybe even athletics and entertainment or media. Many of you are leaders in churches.
Can you measure the effectiveness of your leadership by the standard of how well you are following God’s leading of YOU, so you can lead those who follow you in following God together with you? Did you get that? It’s vital that leaders have a viable means of measuring the effectiveness of their leadership. What is your standard of measurement of your effectiveness in leading the people God has allowed you to lead?
In closing, look at that first verse again which Paul writes to Timothy: “Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer [leader of people] he desires a noble task. Now the overseer must be above reproach…” Tomorrow we’ll continue this powerful 3rd chapter of 1 Timothy, starting with that phrase “now the overseer must be above reproach.” What does that mean? What leaders do you know who fit that standard? If you are in any leadership role… do you fit that standard?
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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