Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): As leaders, we never really arrive and are to always be learning. Here's Pastor Ed with more.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Notice Moses yields to wise instruction. This is so important. He yields to wise instruction because we see in verse 24 Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. He prayed, he confirmed this was from God, and he yielded. He listened and received.

The danger of course of any spiritual leader is this idea that I've arrived and you can't teach me anything and I'm the boss and you're the follower. It's just all nonsense. Don't follow that kind of leadership. Here or wherever you go to church, don't follow that. That is not leadership. That is insecurity and a variety of other things, but it's not leadership.

Guest (Male): Welcome once again to Abounding Grace. Pastor Ed Taylor is in the middle of a helpful study in Exodus. As we head back to Chapter 18, we'll observe seven keys for better spiritual leadership or effective ministry. There's something here for all of us, even if we're not in a place of leadership at church. We'll get started now in the book of Titus.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Titus Chapter 1, Verse 5: "For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you." Then you'll remember that Paul instructed both Titus and Timothy for them to choose elders.

He said this in 2 Timothy 2:2: "The things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also." Titus Chapter 1, Verse 5: "For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are lacking and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you."

This is a common theme throughout the scriptures. What we've learned is that if the system of government or leadership fits within the pale of scriptures, then what's most important... Because there's primarily three forms of government within the scriptures.

One is what's known as an elder-run type of church. You may have come from that where there is a plurality of elders and no one elder is more important than the other, and they're the ones that get together and vote on things for the direction of the church. Very simple explanation, but an accurate one, I believe.

Another form of government is a congregational-led government within the church. The way that works is all the issues come up through committees and different meetings, and then the church votes on everything. What color the carpet, what color the chairs—they vote on everything, which creates a lot of division, a lot of difficulty, and a lot of slowness. It really removes any power from the pastor, and he becomes a politician trying to help everyone.

That really isn't a form of government that you see in the scriptures, by the way. You don't really see in the scriptures this idea of everyone voting on everything. It's nowhere actually in the Bible. It's more informed from our current cultural pressures than anything biblical.

Another form of government could be the Episcopos type of form of government where there is a leader, a pastor-leader. Now, sometimes the elder form might say there's one elder that's equal but above all, and I understand that. They're trying to accomplish what a pastor-led or what a Moses-led or what a Jesus-led or what a James-led or what a Titus-led or a Timothy-led church all throughout the scriptures: that there is conveyed authority in a man and collaborative and cooperative ministry of accountability among many.

But there is one leader. In the church that you're in right now listening to me or listening on the radio, this is a pastor-led church. It was a pastor-led church when we moved here and there were only 30 people attending this church, and it's going to be a pastor-led church for the foreseeable future. This is God's will for our lives.

God has raised up over the years capable, faithful men as elders and pastors and board members to help lead this church into the future. As we come and celebrate almost 25 years, we look back and we just thank God for the faithful men and women of the church over the years. That is a viable methodology.

Just because there is a lack of integrity or gross sin or immorality in the leadership doesn't necessarily mean that the system is broke. It means the person is broke. As a matter of fact, if someone in a Moses model of leadership gets found out to be in gross sin and is exposed and is required to repent, it sounds like the Lord's in that church, doesn't it?

When something gets found out and somebody can't get away with sin, they don't have free reign because the Lord is the Lord of the church. He won't let anyone get away with anything. You just remember that. That might be a word for someone right now where you're on the other side of something and you're just thinking, "I just got a raw deal and I don't think it's ever..." God will not allow anyone to get away with anything. You just have to understand that.

There's going to come a day when every hidden thing is revealed. For some of you, that's a real positive thing. Some of you are a little scared by that. But you don't need to be. Just come clean before the Lord, and then you don't have to worry about anything being revealed because you came clean before the Lord.

You followed and you took God's soap. 1 John 1:9: "If you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, to forgive us the blood of Jesus Christ." Some of you need to take a shower tonight with 1 John 1:9 and just be freshly cleansed and confess to the Lord and just come clean.

Some of you won't come clean because you know that it's going to cost you. That's why you've been lying and that's why you've been cheating and that's why you've been hiding. The Bible says because something isn't judged right away, then you start thinking you're getting away with it and it's going to be okay and the farther I go, the more in the past it will be.

The problem is, it's with you right now. Sin is like dirt. It just sticks to you. But God is ready to cleanse you and refresh you. There's no need to hide. There's always an opportunity to come clean before God and in the church.

Under the banner of collaborative, cooperative, it's never okay for a pastor to lord over the flock. It's never okay for a pastor or a leader or an elder to take advantage of position. No position exists in the church that hasn't been conveyed from Jesus. It's His church. It's His blood. He died for this church. I didn't die for this church. You didn't die for this church. He died for His church.

We would do well to walk in His self-sacrificial ways, not really promoting whether you're the boss or you're important. I mean, you just know when someone tries to lead like that and they're just letting you know their title and their position. You know in that moment they're not a leader anymore. They have lost it and they're trying to get it back through guilt and manipulation and power.

There's no room for that in the church of Jesus Christ because it will slow us down. It will hinder the work of the gospel if we get all caught up in titles and positions and importance. Nobody's important here, only Jesus is. He alone is deserving of our praise, our honor, our worship, and our humility.

All right, with that in mind, let's go through the seven things now that we've kind of summarized Exodus 18. I love this chapter. There's even another angle you can take in this chapter, but we'll do that some other time. Here's seven things in this section that are keys for effective ministry. Remember, it's for all of us, not just those with responsibility or positions. This will help all of us.

Number one, verse 19: You want a key in spiritual leadership? It is prayer. That's what he's saying in verse 19. "Listen now to my voice, I'll give you counsel, God'll be with you. Stand before the people that you may bring the difficulties to God." How do you bring difficulties to God? Through prayer. Prayer is very important. Moses, stand before the people, but make sure you take those issues to the Lord. A spiritual leader is a man or woman of prayer. Truly, the more you're in ministry, the more you pray.

Number two, verse 20: Teach. You pray and you teach. It says right here in verse 20: "You shall teach them the statutes." Moses, pass on the truths that you've been taught so that the people might come alongside of you in likemindedness. We already read 2 Timothy 2:2: "To find men, commit, give them the truth."

Really, if you were thinking about church growth and church planting, 2 Timothy 2:2 is one of the best verses in all the Bible on church growth. This is how churches grow. This is how churches multiply. This is how men and women are used greatly of the Lord. The things you've heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men and women and be able to teach others also.

Whatever you've received... That means everyone after one Bible study, you have enough to give someone else. Did you know that? After just one Bible study. How about 52 of them if you come to every one this year? How about 104 of them if you hit midweek too? How about 156 of them if you come Saturdays too and you just want a double dose on the weekends? You have enough to give away. Are you giving away? Because that's part of leadership. Give away what you know.

Number three: Learn. Notice Moses yields to wise instruction. This is so important. He yields to wise instruction because we see in verse 24 Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. He prayed, he confirmed this was from God, and he yielded. He listened and received.

The danger of course of any spiritual leader is this idea that I've arrived and you can't teach me anything and I'm the boss and you're the follower. It's just all nonsense. Don't follow that kind of leadership. Here or wherever you go to church, don't follow that. That is not leadership. That is insecurity and a variety of other things, but it's not leadership. He's not pointing you to the Lord.

Jot this down. Hold your places. I want you to see this because this is probably the most important point. Turn over to James Chapter 3 because Moses, his whole ministry hinged on this point right here. He could have prayed, he could have received... There's a lot of things he could have done, but if he didn't do this, no effective change would have happened.

Notice we get insight on what wisdom is from God right here in James Chapter 3, verse 17. James writes, "The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, without hypocrisy." Are you willing to yield when you're wrong? Are you willing to yield when you're partially wrong? Are you willing to yield when you're not wrong at all, but someone has a better idea than you do?

Are you willing to yield? It'll be the hinge on which your ministry and your leadership... The door turns on that hinge, if you're willing to yield. If you're willing to yield, if you're willing to listen, you're willing not to be so defensive and put up a fight and push your agenda, then you could be used really greatly from the Lord. It's so important. We need to learn to make our decisions in the wisdom of God.

Number four: So far we have pray, teach, learn. Number four: show. That's what he was to do: show them the way that they should walk. Verse 20: "Teach them the laws and show them the way." Often what we will talk about is teaching, but then showing is what? Your example. They need to be able to see it.

What did Paul say? "Imitate me as I imitate Christ." He says, "Look at me and follow me, and the things that represent the character of Jesus, I want you to follow that. I want you to adopt it into your life." There are two ways of teaching: by word and by deed. Jethro tells them to do both. He says, "I want you to teach, but I also want you to live it."

The minister, the spiritual leader, is an example of God's will, ways, and work, not just in the church but also in the world. Do you exemplify the wisdom of God as mentioned in James at work? Do you exemplify the wisdom of God as mentioned in James at home, with your parents, with your siblings? Are you exemplifying the wisdom of God in your marriage, in your singleness to the person you're renting a room from? It's very important. Your ministry will not progress unless you learn how to show by example.

Notice the next one, number five: Another key is select. Select. "Choose able men," he says in verse 21. Select from all the people able men. You need to be looking, your eyes should always be looking for someone to pour your life into. We exemplified that last time by a leader—a Paul would always have a Timothy, and as a Timothy you always have a Paul.

Now, that doesn't mean you have this one-on-one relationship always. You can watch Pauls and learn from them. But for a Paul, you always want to have someone that you're training and developing and pouring into—one, two, three, five. Your eyes should always be on the lookout who God is raising up, who has potential. "Come on, come with me, let's take out the trash together." "I do not take out the trash." Bro, it's going to take a while. You got a lot to learn.

I don't know why it's okay for me to take out the trash but you don't. But I'm going to do it because that's what God's called me to do. The thing that I share with the pastors all the time is just invite people to come along with you. You don't have to sit them down and give them a Bible study, just let them hang out with you. Serve with them, talk with them, be among them.

And they had special qualities, so it's not just anyone. Notice that they had to fear God. They had to be men of truth so they could be trusted. They had to hate covetousness. Why did they have to hate covetousness? Primarily—this is very interesting. It's a very early test. Primarily because other leaders will have different responsibilities.

So you got to be really careful. The ten might covet the thousand. But there are times when people have responsibility over the thousands and they covet just having ten. It goes both ways. You have to... What's the antidote to covetousness? Contentment. Whatever God has for me, I want it and I'm happy with it. I don't need anything more and I don't need anything less. I have the Lord.

Number six: We mentioned this already, but a strong spiritual leader will delegate or place people in the right positions. I think it was Skip Heitzig that I got this from, but I made it my own. He described us as leaders as like spiritual talent scouts where our responsibility is to discern what your gifts and talents are and make sure you're in the right place doing the right thing.

Many of the times, people in the church love that. But when there needs to be a correction or a movement, like you like what you're doing but I see or one of the leaders says, "I think you should be over here," if you're not humble about it, you can get all beat out of shape and forget that the Lord put us in your life to help you get in the right place to do the right things.

Even if you don't like the role or position, just know the Lord has something for you there. When I was assigned in Bible school learning Greek and learning all kinds of things about the Bible, and I was assigned to go hold screaming babies in the nursery, I wasn't too happy about it. I just have a baby at the house and he's in diapers and he's still young, and now I go to church and I'm holding other people's babies.

But I had a lot to learn. Babies don't care about the Greek or the Hebrew. They speak Greek and Hebrew. You need to learn what they're trying to say to you. But you do, you learn. God has something for you to learn in the role that you're in. If you don't want to learn it, then it's going to be a miserable experience. You got to go into everything not just because you want it or like it, but because you love the Lord and you're willing to do anything and go anywhere for Him. That's a great place to be. There's a lot of contentment there.

As a leader, we need to learn how to delegate, and that means we also trust the ministry. It's been very painful for me over the years, where on the one hand it's been wonderful, where the numbers far outweigh in the positive side of the delegated ministry that's happened here, that there's been much fruit and much blessing in the church.

But there have been men and women over the years where I've delegated ministry to them and they've hurt other sheep. And it stinks. It hurts. Sometimes it makes me angry, where they don't love the church like I love the church or, more importantly, they don't love this church like Jesus loves the church.

I just want you to know that as you're stepping in, we take the ministry seriously here. We don't want people hurt. We don't want people taken advantage of. If that's your deal and that's what you want, you come to our church because it's big and I can find a place, then repent. You're wrong. You're in sin.

Even if you go off, you try to do your own thing, God is not going to bless it. I promise you, He's not going to bless it. I don't care how you describe it. It's not the blessing of God, it's the work of man. People will be happy in all those pictures you take, and people will be blessed. You know why? Because God loves those people. But He's not blessing your ministry. He's blessing the people He died for.

Over the years, I have delegated to people and I'm sure I will in the future, where we thought they had these characteristics, we thought that there was that integrity, but there wasn't. So just take this Bible study and get right with the Lord. You're pressing in, get right with the Lord.

The seventh thing is to oversee. So let me just repeat them for you: prayer, teach, learn, show, select, delegate, and oversee. Remember, whenever you delegate something, that doubles your work, it doesn't half your work. Did you know that? Sometimes you think when you're delegating, "I get to do less." No, you get double work now.

Because you get to train someone and teach them how to do it and then you must follow up and make sure they did it the way they were supposed to do it, especially in the church because the people matter. People matter. Titles don't matter, positions don't matter. Did the Lord put you in that place? Nobody thinks you are. You won't even take out the trash, bro.

Listen, you need to stay available and you need to stay involved and remain humble. I mean, we could do a list up to 15 things. But it's important that like Moses here, we learn in Numbers 11 he did select 70 men. He did get the help. They were able to handle the regular stuff.

For me, we fast-forward to the New Testament, and it's not good for me to leave prayer and the study of God's word to serve tables. That's the only thing I can do in the role that I have, is to pray. I'm the only one that can do that in the realm of pastor-teacher that God has given to me. You can't do that for me.

I can't just speak into my phone, "AI, give me a sermon." What kind of nonsense is that? You guys don't want to show up to a church that some computer wrote for you. Because it could be all polished and sound really good, but it's not from the Lord. You're going to have to tune your ears in the future to listen for the voice of the Lord because there's going to be a lot of polished, nice things coming out in this new season of AI and the different tools that are available.

The Bible program that I use just added a whole new AI feature to it and it made my heart ache because I know that many are going to use that feature as a way to substitute prayer and the study of God's word. I learned over the years that I must give things away, and I must teach and train, and I must focus on what God's called me to do.

No matter what people think and how people might be upset and how I might not be able to do some of the things I really love doing, because I must do what God has called me to do. We see that in Acts Chapter 6. When I do what God's called me to do, you do what God's called you to do, when we're all in the place that God wants us, the church moves forward and lives are changed and communities are transformed and nations start worshipping God and the world bows their knee to the one true God, Creator.

Listen, I will say it one more time. I want to say it out loud and as clear as I can. Promotion doesn't come from the east or from the west, but God raises up one and puts down another. You can't convey spiritual leadership upon yourself. I mean, you can. You can put the website, you can get the business cards, you can do it yourself. But that's not from the Lord. There's a word for that. You know what it's called? Flesh. It's flesh. And what you want is to walk in the spirit. That's true leadership.

Guest (Male): Again, those seven keys for better spiritual leadership: prayer, teach, learn, show, select, delegate, and oversee. Hey, thanks for listening to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. We're going and growing through a study of Exodus right now. You can hear this message again online at aboundinggraceradio.com or listen through our app—search for Ed Taylor in the App Store or Google Play.

Maybe you're looking for a good book to go through? Here in the month of March, we've picked out an excellent one written by Tim LaHaye and Bob Phillips. It's titled *Anger is a Choice*, and it provides counsel and exercises to help us better understand the causes of anger, how to control it, and how lack of control affects us physically and spiritually.

We'll send you a copy when you support Abounding Grace with a gift of $25 or more. Just call, ask for *Anger is a Choice*. Our number is 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also order online at calvaryco.store. Abounding Grace is made possible through the generous support of our listeners.

As we continue to deliver God's word one verse at a time, we're looking to our listeners for help. Together, we can reach people with the love and truth of Christ and make a difference in these last days. To make a secure donation, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. Next time on Abounding Grace, we'll continue Pastor Ed Taylor's study of Exodus. Thank you for listening today, and we'll look for you tomorrow as we open the word together in search of God's abounding grace.