Learning to Lead
Exodus • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewThe journey through the wilderness has begun. This large of a group of people was bound to have conflict- lots of conflict. As their God-called leader, Moses believed it was his duty to arbitrate, judge, and appease them. In this passage, we see the lessons of leadership that Moses had to learn if he and the Israelites were going to survive. The sermon will explore the leadership lessons as well as how the church today can apply them.
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13 It came about the next day that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood about Moses from the morning until the evening.
14 Now when Moses’ father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this thing that you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge and all the people stand about you from morning until evening?”
15 Moses said to his father-in-law, “Because the people come to me to inquire of God.
16 “When they have a dispute, it comes to me, and I judge between a man and his neighbor and make known the statutes of God and His laws.”
17 Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you are doing is not good.
18 “You will surely wear out, both yourself and these people who are with you, for the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone.
19 “Now listen to me: I will give you counsel, and God be with you. You be the people’s representative before God, and you bring the disputes to God,
20 then teach them the statutes and the laws, and make known to them the way in which they are to walk and the work they are to do.
21 “Furthermore, you shall select out of all the people able men who fear God, men of truth, those who hate dishonest gain; and you shall place these over them as leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.
22 “Let them judge the people at all times; and let it be that every major dispute they will bring to you, but every minor dispute they themselves will judge. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you.
23 “If you do this thing and God so commands you, then you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.”
24 So Moses listened to his father-in-law and did all that he had said.
25 Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, leaders of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties and of tens.
26 They judged the people at all times; the difficult dispute they would bring to Moses, but every minor dispute they themselves would judge.
27 Then Moses bade his father-in-law farewell, and he went his way into his own land.
INTRO: Have you ever felt like you are banging your head against a wall? What I mean, is that you are working harder than you’ve ever worked, maybe you think you are making progress, but then you look up and see that the work ahead seems to have just grown.
(Background) As we turn to our Exodus study, we find Moses in a similar situation. Now, Moses has undoubtedly done a lot- He’s been faithful to listen to God and faithful to serve the Israelites as he led them out of Egypt.
If you remember, Moses is the one who stood before Pharaoh. Moses was the one who, by the hand of God, performed signs and wonders, delivered the warnings of the plagues, and instructed the Israelites.
Moses is the one who lifted up his staff and stretched it over the Red Sea and God parted the waters.
Moses is the one who, when the Israelites came to the bitter waters of Marah, threw the tree into the spring that God used to turn the bitter waters sweet.
Moses is the one who called upon the Lord and God sent manna and quails for food.
Moses is the one who struck the rock that gushed forth water at Rephidim.
Moses is the one who, with his arms held high on the mountain, God gave victory in war over Amalek.
And so as we look to the 18th chapter of Exodus, we see that Moses once again positioned between the people of Israel and God. You see, there were thousands upon thousands of people that Moses was leading through the wilderness.
And, as you can imagine, there were all sorts of conflicts, arguments, disagreements…perhaps one guy was taking another’s stuff, a lady was flirting with another woman’s husband, this group was not keeping their area clean, etc.
And thousands of people went to Moses so that he could adjudicate the situation. After all, he was their God-called leader and he felt a duty to them. The problem is that Moses would spend every waking hour judging these disagreements and no time doing other leadership stuff. But Moses didn’t see this problem.
Thankfully, Moses’ father in law, Jethro, was able to offer counsel. And it’s this counsel that I want us to examine because I believe that it is relevant for the church and to leadership in the secular world. So I want to walk through this passage and urge you to learn to lead.
The title of the message is “Learning to Lead” and we will look at 3 leadership lessons from Jethro that we can apply in LRBC.
Now, remember I asked you if you ever felt stuck in trying to accomplish a task? Well, Moses was stuck. He was doing all he knew to do, and it was getting him nowhere. Actually, Moses was in danger of burnout and failure. Look with me again to v. 17-18 (READ)
What Moses was trying to do was “too heavy.” What’s interesting is that Moses, in the previous chapter, learned that he could not even hold his own hands up long enough for victory because even his own hands were too heavy. He needed help to shoulder the load. In that situation, Aaron and Hur came alongside and held up his hands.
But how could he receive help now? Moses had to learn a crucial truth about leadership. Though he had led them sufficiently to this point- God had used him mightily- “The leadership style that got them out of Egypt would not suffice to get them into the promised land”
Or said another way, What got you here, won’t get you there. Moses was a good ‘doer.’ But what the people needed was a leader, someone to guide them along toward their goal and purpose.
God’s plan was never just to get the Israelites out of Egypt- He always intended to bring them into the Promised Land as His people! But unless Moses started leading them, the people would find themselves spending their life waiting in lines and Moses would never realize God’s purpose in all of this.
For LRBC, I want to suggest that God has a purpose for us. And as we journey this world on our way to the promised land, God instructs in matters of life on earth as well as in eternity. So, then let us learn to lead with the wisdom of God’s Word. Jethro gives us three steps to scale-able God-honoring leadership.
The first step, beyond being humble enough to heed the counsel of another, is to :
Educate and Align the Body (19-20)
Educate and Align the Body (19-20)
(READ)
We might rephrase it this way: “Moses, you are still called to stand between God and these people. But part of your mediation is that you teach the people God’s standards and how they are to live as God’s chosen people.”
One major problem taking place is that a lot of the disputes, arguments, disagreements, etc. took place because everyone was working from an old system: The way it was done in Egypt.
There was no written Scripture at this point and their whole lives, they had lived in Egypt where false gods were worshiped and moral truth claims were flawed at best. They needed authoritative direction, and Moses was the guy. But, hearing claims one by one, I bet Moses could have put many of his words on a recorded sound byte and just kept on replaying it.
What Moses was doing was inefficient and unsustainable. I can picture him out there, looking at the line. Sure, at first it might make him feel important or needed. But after a while, it had to get to the point where he felt like he was making no difference.
That was Jethro’s point. Moses needed to find a way to teach all the people God’s standard so that they would know what is right and what is not. (I bet y’all are starting to see how all these laws - 10 Commandments, Levitical laws, etc. were absolutely necessary for the Israelites to live in a civilized and God-honoring manner!)
All these people needed to be going the same direction. They needed shared values and goals so that they all knew what they were working toward.
ILL: Imagine a team of horses or oxen. If we tied 6 horses together and just hoped that they would pull a carriage from here to Hendersonville, what do you think would happen? (Probably nothing good, right?) But, if we aligned them with the proper harness and had a driver who knew how to get there directing them with reigns, well, that would probably get the job done.
Alignment starts with Moses. Moses must be clear on his goal as the leader. Is it simply to judge disputes? Is it simply to travel through the wilderness? Moses needed to clarify God’s purpose for this people and then help the people to both understand and buy into the goal and purpose. We will see this later on- Israel was to be to God a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (19:6)
As a church in 2025, we must understand God’s purpose and be aligned in the proper direction. If we all have different ideas of what church should be or look like, and we just decide we are going to do what we want, then we will end up in all kinds of conflict instead of accomplishing our purpose. But, if we can recognize the path that we are supposed to be on, and we align together toward our goal, learning our roles and responsibilities, then this church will be an unstoppable force for the Gospel!
It is my hope to bring clarity in our goal and direction as we near the Fall of this year. The first leadership lesson that we need to learn is to Educate and Align the Body. The second leadership lesson Jethro taught is to:
Enlist and Train Capable Leaders (21, 25)
Enlist and Train Capable Leaders (21, 25)
(READ 21)
Among the Israelites were able men of character who, if developed, could help shoulder the burden of leadership. Let’s first break this down:
Able- means competent. These were men who demonstrated the ability to lead. Likely, they were leading themselves and their families well already. Perhaps they showed that they did not get easily angered nor did they deal harshly with their fellow man. It is also probable that these men were good stewards, managing their time, money, and authority to make life better.
Men of truth - this means they were honest. They were trustworthy. They were not liars nor cheats. They would rather offend with the truth than to placate or flatter with a lie. These are men who will stand firm in the word of God and will not waver.
Hates dishonest gain - This is an extension of ‘men of truth’ but the emphasis is that these men could not be bought nor bribed. They were not like many celebrities and politicians that we have, willing to change their leadership and morals to enrich themselves.
Moses needed to identify these able and trustworthy men and enlist them to his leadership team. And look at the strategy of how to enlist these men: “place them as leaders over thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.” This was intentional so that, even as men might be responsible for a thousand people, truly no man ever really had to lead more than 10 men.
Now, you can think of this like an organizational chart or hierarchy, but it’s not about power. It’s about stewardship. If Moses leads the leaders well, then they will lead well and the whole nation will benefit and prosper. But I want you to see that this enlisting and training piece is not just a one-time thing.
Leaders must constantly be looking for more potential leaders so that there is a natural process for growth and succession. After all, a leader of 10 men at the bottom of this chart, may very well grow and be able to oversee 5 leaders of 10 men or 10 leaders of 100 men. So, whether preparing for growth or death, it’s important to be enlisting and training capable leaders.
The good news for Moses is that these men were already in the congregation! They just needed to be trained. The same is true for us here at LRBC. I know that there are able and trustworthy men in our congregation, and many of you are already leading in some area.
But you need to understand that there are over 400 churches in NC without pastors and there are more pastors retiring than coming into ministry. Within the church, the picture of leadership is even more desperate. There are many who are unwilling or unequipped to serve as teachers, deacons, and small group leaders.
I want to challenge you who are leading this morning to identify more potential leaders- leaders with good character who when properly trained, will lead well beyond this generation. You see, if we do not invest in developing leaders, we will never reach our goal. Ministry will become bottle-necked. We will never grow into healthy mature Christians and we will never reach the unsaved in our community with the Gospel.
Jethro’s leadership lessons are suddenly very relevant. We must Educate and Align the body. We must Enlist and Train Capable Leaders. Finally, LRBC leaders must:
Empower and Support the Leadership Team (22,26)
Empower and Support the Leadership Team (22,26)
(READ 22)
Moses had to give his authority to others so they could judge in their area of responsibility. Moses would still handle the most difficult cases- after all, the buck had to stop somewhere. But, in order for Moses to see the big picture and lead with intention toward the main goal, he had to let those who were designated as leaders lead.
ILL: When I managed a hotel in Dillsboro, I had a housekeeping manager who had some problem employees. She wanted to discipline them, but was fearful. The manager before me was a micro-manager and wanted to make every decision and did not support other managers. When she came to me, I encouraged her to take the step to write up this employee and that I would support her in the matter. You would have thought I gave that woman a $10k raise. The reality is that by her taking ownership of her area, I could spend more time working on bigger picture things. Win-Win
This was the point for Moses as well. Some folks were probably going to make mistakes, maybe even apply God’s statutes differently than would Moses. I imagine there were even some folks who sought to bypass their leader and go straight to Moses and some who didn’t like what their leader said, so they complained to Moses.… But Moses needed to empower and support his leadership team so that they could do what they needed to do.
Now you might be wondering, “Why does this matter?” It matters because the GC was given to the church to be fulfilled not by a single person, but by a people. Notice that the leadership lessons that Jethro suggested are the same as what Jesus modeled. And our purpose is not just to get to heaven. We are building a testimony and accomplishing a mission as we go.
Therefore we need to know what God expects and be aligned together toward His purpose. We need to continually raise up leaders- disciples who will shoulder the load and own the mission. And we need to empower and support these leaders so they will be fruitful.
Look with me to v. 23 (READ)
Do you have a place? Are you engaged and at peace with the direction of this church? You see, when God’s people are operating as God commands, then we will be aligned, organized, and on mission. And that kind of empowerment and support makes it so that a pastor can endure the hard times of leadership because he knows he’s not handcuffed nor alone. He can focus more deeply on preaching and vision casting, more intentionally on strategy and outreach, and can guide the church into more meaningful growth.
Let me point out one overarching thing: God delivered Israel from Egypt so they could testify of Him as His people. Their journey was a big part of their testimony. So it is with you and me. We are on a journey. One day, we will near the end and begin to look back upon this life and ask: Is the thing you are doing good?
Discuss: Have you ever experienced burnout from taking on too much responsibility? How did you handle it?
Discuss: In what ways can we delegate responsibilities in our own church, workplace, or home to empower others?
Discuss: Who are the potential leaders God has placed in this congregation? How can you help identify and equip them?
