The Dangers of Leadership

Howard Hendricks was for many, many years. Professor Dallas Theological Seminary and until he died within the last couple of years, he also established the Center for Christian Leadership in Dallas and wrote a lot on the subject of leadership. I heard him speak one time at Moody Fasters Conference on Leadership and he defined a leader this way. A leader is one who knows where he is going and is able to persuade others to go with him. That's a pretty good definition of a leader and certainly by that definition, Moses certainly qualifies as a leader. He knew where he was going as God led the children of Israel through the wilderness and he was able to persuade others to go with him. We have been on Sunday mornings in a series of messages tracking with Moses and his life through the book of Exodus. It's been a few weeks since we've been in Exodus so I invite your attention back to that book this morning in chapter 17 of the book of Exodus. Moses was thrust into leadership by God. In spite of his objections, God wanted him in that place of leadership. He gained the respect of the people of Israel as God used him to usher the tin plagues into the national life of Egypt and thus deliver the people of Israel from bondage. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians that the people were bonded to Moses through the crossing of the Red Sea on dry ground as God miraculously delivered them from the pursuing Egyptian armies. And then Moses gets into the wilderness and begins to deal with some very real life struggles, particularly the grumbling of the nation of Israel. The last time we were in Exodus we looked at three examples that are portrayed for us in chapter 15 and 16 and into chapter 17 of Israel grumbling in the wilderness. What Moses is experiencing as he begins to take the children of Israel through the wilderness is the dangers of leadership. The perils that leaders face and so this message this morning is especially directed to those of you who are leaders regardless of what venue that may operate in. It may be in the church, you may be in a leadership position in the church, you may be in a leadership position in your business or in your workplace, you may be in a leadership position in your school, you may be a leader in the community in a civic arena. If you are in any form of leadership, this story illustrates some dangers you may face and how you should respond. If you are in any kind of leadership, this story does illustrate dangers you will face and how you should respond. But it's not limited just to those who are in positions of leadership. All of us will to some degree and in some way face these same dangers. And so the word of God is applicable to all of us today. I've been reminded again in the last couple of weeks as I've kind of refreshed and rejuvenated my thinking about my role as a pastor. It is my responsibility to preach the word that's given to us by Paul and the pastoral epistles as a pastor teacher. It is our responsibility to feed the flock the word of God. I wish that every Sunday I could just preach the gospel. My favorite message to preach is the gospel message of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. And that truly is the focus of what the scriptures call the evangelist or the missionary who's taking the word of God into new areas and exposing people to the gospel the first time. And even pastors are to do some of that work of the evangelist, Paul tells Timothy. But for pastor teachers, it is our responsibility to give you the whole of the word of God, to feed you on a steady and balanced diet of God's word. And so sometimes we find ourselves in a passage like today where the gospel is not plainly taught in this passage, but there are lots of lessons and principles for us as believers that are. And Paul says in 1 Corinthians that these stories of the wilderness wonderings of history are written down for a warning for us. And so this message this morning is intended as a warning to everyone, especially in leadership in whatever realm that may be in, but also to all of us as some of the dangers we will face as we interact with others in life and how we should respond to those. The first danger that Moses faces in chapter 17 is the danger of attack. Now last time we looked at the first seven verses, I just want to review those quickly because they tie into the whole flow of this passage. Moses first of all received the danger of attack from within. Last time we saw that the children of Israel were grumbling about the lack of water in the wilderness. And not only were they grumbling against Moses, the Bible says that they quarreled with him. That ratchets up the intensity level of knowledge. They're quarreling with him. They're fighting with him. They're ready to go on the attack and Moses is overwhelmed by that. In so much that he cries out to God in verse 4, what am I to do with these people? They're almost ready to stone me. And because he saw God's direction, God gave him wisdom as to how to respond. But I mentioned that attack again from within because it serves as a counterbalance to what we start with today in verse 8. Because not only did Moses face attacks from within from his own people, he also faced attacks from without. Notice what happens in verse 8. The Amalakites came and attacked the Israelites at refidine. So there's attack from within. Moses is the... And he's a leader. He's a natural target for criticism and complaints and attacks. That goes with the territory. But now he's also attacked from without. Another nation comes against his people, Israel. And by the way, these people didn't fight fair. The book of Deuteronomy tells us a little bit more about what happened when the Amalakites attacked the Israelites at refidine. There's not a lot of detail here. But look at these verses in Deuteronomy 25 where there's a recounting of what the Amalakites did. Remember what the Amalakites did to you along the way when they came when you came out of Egypt, when you were weary and worn out. They met you on their journey and attacked all who were lagging behind. They had no fear of God. Here's the picture. The Amalakites attacked from the rear. And what they did is they attacked first of all those who were struggling to keep up. Maybe elderly people. Maybe people with small children. Maybe people who were ill. People who had suffered some difficulties. And they're kind of in the back struggling to keep up with the rest of the nation as they journey through the wilderness. And that's where the Amalakites attacked. They have no fear of God. And no concern for even the principles of warfare that they would attack the helpless in Israel. And what that reminds me of is that when we face attacks from Satan, Satan doesn't play by the rules. Satan does not play fair. He plays dirty. He kicks you while you're down. I don't think there's any surprise. Shouldn't be any surprise. That at the same time Moses is perplexed about attacks he's receiving from within. All of a sudden there comes this other attack from outside. And so he's getting it from both sides. But that's the way the devil works. He kicks us while we're down and he doesn't give up. Now here's the biblical response to attacks. What do you do when you are attacked? When Moses was attacked from within he sought direction from the Lord. And so that's what we should do. We should seek direction from God. Remember back in verse four he cried out to the Lord. What am I to do? Now it was a little bit more than that. What am I to do with these people? They're about ready to stone me but he was asking for direction from God. And we will see he does the same thing in regard to this attack from without. From the Amalekites. As we get more into the story this morning we'll see that Moses goes up on the mountain side. And although the text does not specifically say he prays, there is the indication, the posture of prayer by lifting his hands, which was the typical Israelite posture for prayer. And then later in the passage he talks about in treating the Lord. Hands were lifted up to the Lord. And so I believe Moses was praying seeking God's direction, seeking God's power and wisdom for that attack as well. Now in the first attack from within God told him, help the people. And so he sought direction from God and God said this is the way he should respond. Help the people. Strike the rock, water will come out, their needs will be met. The second attack from without God tells you you go on the counter attack. Because these people have planned dirty, they are attacking my people without calls and they are attacking the weakest of them. And so I want you to mount an all-out attack on the Amalekites. So sometimes God gives direction to be a peacemaker, to meet people's needs, to encourage, and sometimes God says you defend yourself. But the important thing is that we seek God's wisdom and seek His direction. So if you are under attack, however that may look in your life, rather than just responding as a reflex, rather than just striking back, back up a few steps, get alone with God and seek His direction. That's the first step. And then God will tell you what to do next. God will lead you as to what to do. The danger of attack, everyone in leadership faces it. All of us at some point to some degree will face that. The biblical response is to seek God's direction. But then Moses faces another attack. I'm going to call this one the danger of workaholism. Look at verses 9 and 10. Moses said to Joshua, choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands. So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered and Moses, Aaron, and her went to the top of the hill. He said, John, how do you get workaholics out of that? Well, think about for a moment, Moses' action. Look at what Moses does. Moses appoints Joshua to lead the army. Not himself. He doesn't have to do all of it. He appoints Joshua to lead the army. There are others who will supply the army. But Moses knows that the best thing he can do with his skills and gifts and position as a leader is to go on top of the mountain and to intercede for the people as they fight the battle. That's the job God's given him to do. That's the best use of his gifts and time for the nation. Now there's a danger, particularly in leadership, of feeling like you've got to do everything. Or you have to be involved in directing everything. That's a danger in leadership, whether it's on the corporate or business or work level, school level, church level, whatever it may be. I'll never forget something that preacher Jimmy told me. He had a wonderful way of summarizing things in wise sayings. He spoke proverbs, if you will. I remember him telling me several times. He said, John, if everything in the church has to be under your thumb, the church will never grow bigger than your thumb. He was making a point, a very good one. And that is that if you have to control everything, then you become a bottleneck. That's an important principle of leadership. Leaders do not have to do everything or be involved in every effort in a detailed way. They need to trust others to do what God's gifted them to do. Here's the biblical response to workaholism, the feeling like, I've got to do it all. I've got to be involved in everything. And by the way, you know what a workaholic is, don't you? A workaholic is someone who just loves work so much that they can't stop. And so they go way overboard and overextend themselves in work. Someone has said that a workaholic is the guy who stands at a busy intersection with a sign that says, will work for the fun of it. That's a pretty good description of a workaholic. I just returned, as you know, from Japan, and a mission trip over there. And I was talking with Adekin in the church in Awatsuki, the suburb of Tokyo, where the meat is our missionary serve. He's a dear brother. It was trained at Purdue University, works for IBM and Tokyo, just a really solid believer. But the Japanese work ethic is just way over the top. He gets on the train very early in the morning to ride for two hours into the inner city for his place of work. And he works until 11 o'clock every night. Very little time for anything else. And as he was sharing with me some of his frustration and difficulty, he was saying the company lets other people go at five o'clock, and I have to cover all their work. Because the company expects that certain things are done by the end of the day. And so if it's not going to be done by those who choose to leave at five o'clock I've got to do it. He's in a very responsible position. He's struggling with kind of a forced workaholism on him. What is the biblical response to that? The biblical response is to do exactly what Moses did in this situation, and that is focus on your priorities. Nobody can do it all. Nobody can do everything. And regardless of where you are in life, we all have to learn that we have certain priorities that only we can do, we're responsible for, or what God has gifted us to do. We have to focus on those things to apply ourselves to the areas that God has gifted us to do in ministry or in your workplace, things that you must do, rather than things that others can do. And although you may have a heart for those other things, you may want to do them. You may recognize the importance of them. You can't do everything. And you shouldn't do everything. Others should be able to exercise their gifts. I saw a beautiful example of that just in the last couple of days. And I'm going to embarrass some guys here, but I'm going to do it anyway, because it fits in so well. On Friday, when we were beginning to become aware of the magnitude of what was happening in our state, Jim Nottsinger and I were in the office and we began talking about what should our response be. We got to do something. What should our response be? And we were getting some feedback from some folks in the congregation with some suggestions, and we were trying to figure out what to do. And then I got a call from pastor Dan. And he said, Amy knows a pastor's wife up in the Rainell area, up in Rupert. And we had a connection up there. They're really suffering up there. And let me find out what's going on. And so I told Dan, I said, go for it. Find out whatever you can find out. And let us know what's, well, Dan, you could hear his passion this morning. Dan just took it and ran with it. And there was no need for me to go any further with trying to figure out what to do. Dan had the contact. Dan and Amy knew the people up there and they started putting it together and started working with Jim and James and others of the pastors. And by Saturday, this whole plan was coming together and what you heard and saw this morning was the result of their efforts. I had very little to do with that other than saying, okay, go for it. Yeah, that sounds great. That wasn't me. That was others doing that. And the lessons that I've learned over the years, tried to learn, is that there are other people more capable and more qualified than you are, John, in certain areas. Let them go. Don't hold them back. Let them go. Let them do what God's gifted them to do. And that's what Moses is learning. Joshua is in a much better position to lead the army. Moses is over 80 years old. So Joshua is a young man. This is the first time we read of Joshua, by the way. Later in this book, we will find him being Moses' aid and right hand guy, like his assistant. And by the book of numbers, he's being groomed to take Moses' place and actually lead the people of Israel into the land. But God knows and Moses knows, Joshua is better equipped at that than I am. Don't feel like I have to lead the army and then run up on the hill and pray a little while and then come back down to lead the army and then go get the supplies and do your... Let other people do that. And Fritz, that's what you need to learn if you're being overcome and overwhelmed by your work. And you're in a position of leadership to be able to do something about that. Let some other folks go. Let them express their giftedness, their ability. Let them learn, even if they fail some. Let them learn. If you do not focus on your priorities, what God gives you to do, what only you can do in that organization. If you don't learn to focus on that, you'll spend more and more hours, more and more time trying to get everything done. You'll be so totally immersed in your work as a workaholic that every other part of your life will suffer. Your family will suffer. All of your relationships will suffer. Your health and strength will suffer. Everything will suffer. One of my favorite illustrations and stories is the story of a high school science teacher who decided to do a demonstration one day in his lab for his students. He pulls out a wide mouth jar. He sets it on the counter and puts a bunch of large rocks in it all the way up to the top. He looked at his class and said, okay, is this jar full? Everybody in the class raised their hand. Yes, that's full. It's all the way up to the top. He smiled. He reached under the counter, pulled out a pale gravel. And poured the gravel in the jar. Of course, the gravel kind of scattered down into the places that vacuum left by the rocks and filled in those places. And he looked at his class again and said, is the jar full now? Not everybody was ready to raise their hand, but a few has definitely put up their hand and said, yeah, I think it's full now. So he pulled out a small pale sand. And he poured the sand in that wide mouth. Jardicorce, those tiny granules of sand filtered in even among the gravel. He poured all the sand in. He looked at the class again and said, now is the jar full now? This time, only a few hands, kind of would have easily up. They weren't sure what he had left. Sure enough, he smiled again and pulled out a pale of water. He poured the water in the jar. Of course, the water just soaked right into the sand. He got all of the water in the jar. So he looked at the class and he said, now, what's the lesson in that demonstration? And one eager student at the back of the room raised his hand and said, it's to show that you can always get more into your busy life. The teacher said, no, that's not it. The lesson is, if you don't get the big rocks in first, you'll never be able to fit them in. Now, there's a lot of wisdom in that little story. It's biblical wisdom. If you don't understand what your priorities are and focus on those, you will be so consumed with all the sand and everything, all the little things that are thrown at you that you will not accomplish your priorities. And you, only you can establish what your priorities are. What is the priority in your relationship with God? What's the priority in your relationship with your family? What's your priority in serving God? What are priorities in your life? If you don't focus on those, there's plenty of sand and water to take up space in your life. And you will gravitate toward those things and not be able to get the big important things done. So the lesson for all of us is, if you tend toward workaholism or if you tend toward just doing whatever comes your way, then you need to learn to focus on priorities. Moses knew that no one else was in the position he was to stand between the nation and God and intercede for the people on top of the hill. There are others that can lead the army. There are others who can fight the battle. I've got to do that. And so that's what I'm going to do with my time. Moses teaches us a very important lesson about priorities. Third attack that are danger that Moses faced. And that was the danger of weariness. Danger of weariness. Look at it in verses 11 through 13. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning. But whenever he lowered his hands, the amalakites were winning. When Moses' hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him. And he sat on it. Aaron and her held his hands up, one on one side, one on the other, so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the amalakite army with the sword. And that was a beautiful lesson here that has to do with weariness. You know what happened to Moses? As he got up on that mountain with the intention of interceding for his people before God. You know what happened? Moses grew weary. Physically, he grew weary. If you don't believe that, go home this afternoon, stand in the middle of your living room and hold your hands up. See how long that lasts. I can remember, I think it was in seventh grade, playing junior high football. And we had a football coach that would punish us whenever we did something wrong. And so I was in that line quite a bit. Whenever we didn't do a playwright or something, he'd punish us by getting us to stand on the sideline with our hands up in the air. And just stand there and he'd go on with practice. And I'm telling you, after about 25 or 30 minutes of that, your hands, your arms are getting tired and you can't hardly hold them up. I don't know if they would do that today. Would they, Lindsey, that might be considered abuse. I don't know, but they sure did it in my day. Just try that. See how weary your arms get after a few minutes. Moses got physically weary. But if, and I believe this is what's happening, if he was indeed praying and interceding for his people, there's a different level of weariness to that. And if you have ever truly entered into intercessory prayer where lives are on the balance, where lives are on the line, where people's spiritual welfare is in your hands as it were, then you know that there is an emotional and spiritual weariness that goes with that. And I'm sure that's part of what Moses was facing. He grew weary. He loved his people. He wanted to help his people. He wanted to keep his hands up, but he couldn't. And sometimes no matter how much you long to do the right thing, you run out of energy, you become weary physically and emotionally. I read that there is a great deal of tension in a piano like we have over here. Most concert grand pianos have 40,000 pounds of pressure on the frame of the piano. 240 strings pulled to just the right tension to lead to 20 tons of pressure on the frame. In the early service, we had an expert piano tuner that came out afterwards and said it's actually a little more than that with some pianos. But imagine that 20 tons of pressure on that frame. Now, pressure on the frame of a piano is a good thing without that you would not hear the beautiful music. But you pull every one of those strings and other notch tighter and you're going to crack the frame. And there will be no beautiful music now out of that piano. God intends for all of us to live under some level of stress and pressure. It's not bad for us necessarily, but if you tighten it too much, then you'll crack and you won't be any good to anybody. You'll just grow weary physically and emotionally and spiritually. We all need help from others and that's the biblical response to get help from others. Do whatever it takes to get your life back into a more realistic pattern and balance. Let some other folks do what God's gifted them to do. Don't feel like you need to do it all. And even in what you're doing when you grow weary, get someone to hold your hands up. Like Moses did, he had two helpers that helped him and encouraged him, strengthened him physically, and enabled him to make it through. Get help from others, whatever that takes. You know, we are in a difficult marketplace today, aren't we? The marketplace is changing quickly, especially in our area. Companies are folding in some cases, many of them downsizing or when people retire, they're not replacing them, they're just putting other jobs on you. And so many of you are facing situations like this where you're growing weary, whatever it takes, make known what you need, engage others to help you. Even if it's outside of work or outside your normal activities, get involved with a group of folks that can lift you up, can pray for you, can actually help you physically or emotionally or spiritually. It's better than losing your health, your family, and everything you've worked for. I read a story about a garbage truck that exploded in Virginia. The trash crew, can you imagine that mess? The trash crew had unknowingly picked up some calcium hypochlorite. Now, I have no idea what that is. So I'd look it up. And sure enough, it's a chemical that's used in swimming pools. It's a chlorine-based chemical that's used in swimming pools to keep the water clean and pure and all that stuff. When that chemical is allowed to dissolve naturally into water, it's no danger at all. But under pressure, it explodes. So you can imagine what happens when that compactor in the garbage truck comes to these boxes and they all explode. That is very much like you and me. If we have a way to let the stress and the pressure of life dissolve gradually, as we engage others in our lives to help us, to counsel, to pray with us, to maybe even take some of the load. If we have ways to gradually let that stress dissolve, we'll be okay. But if you keep packing it tighter, keep doing more and more and more and keep pushing through the weariness and the burnout, you're going to explode. And you're going to create a mess in your family, with your friends and even in your church. So the danger of weariness, learn how to address it, get help, get help from others, get someone who can counsel you, pray with you, take some of the load to be able to get that stress reduced. So the danger of weariness, one other danger that Moses faced, it's the danger of pride and all of us face this one. This is not unique to people in leadership, all face this danger. It's built into our sinful human nature pride. Look at verses 14 to 16. Then the Lord said to Moses, write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it because I will completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Moses built an altar and called it, the Lord is my banner. He said, for hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord. The Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation. I believe what is being said here is a couple of things. First of all, God tells Moses to record and a scroll what happened at this battle because this is just going to be the first battle in a whole line of battles that God is going to use to exterminate the Amalekites. God will judge them for their attack on the people of Israel and for the ungodly way in which they did it, he will attack them by exterminating them completely. This is only the first step and it will happen over a period of time. Israelites would meet the Amalekites again at Kati Sparnia. They would meet them under Gideon. Gideon would fight the Amalekites. Saul, King Saul would fight the Amalekites and God intended that Saul exterminate them but Saul disobeyed God. Remember and left the King of the Amalekites alive and so the nation was rebuilt. David had to face them later and they were finally not dealt with fully until King Hezekiah. Some 800 years after this event in the wilderness. But God's purpose is to deal with these people. And then the second thing Moses does is he builds an author to commemorate the battle. Not only is he going to record it in a scroll, he's going to commemorate the battle with an author. And notice what he does with this author. This is not a monument to himself. I want everybody to know I was on top of the mountain and when I had my hands up the nation of Israel was winning. That's the reason they won because me there's no alter to Moses. It was not an altered dedicated or a monument to Joshua for his brilliant military strategies. It was not even a monument to the army. The monument said this the Lord is my banner because hands were lifted up to the throne of the Lord. Because of prayer God answered prayer because God worked. What does he do? He teaches us a very important lesson. Not only does he make an official record, he gives glory to God and thus teaches us that the way to respond to the temptations to exalt ourselves and to make sure other people recognize what we have done, which is a temptation for all of us. The biblical response to that is to make sure we give all the glory to God. It's easy to begin to take credit for our successes, to build a monument to ourselves, to draw attention to ourselves. We all must recognize our own weaknesses and give glory to God. Reminded of the historical account of explorer James Cook. James Cook in the middle 1700s was the greatest of the explorers of the world, certainly the greatest English explorer. He's credited for the discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. When he discovered Hawaii, he was greeted by the natives on that island as a God. The way he appeared and because of some of their customs and traditions, he was lauded as a God and rather than saying, no, no, you got all this wrong, he kind of thought this pretty sweet deal. I could get a lot of mileage out of this and he did and the perks were pretty great while he was in Hawaii. It was pretty nice. But then came time for him to leave and a problem arose. His fleet hit a storm, a very severe storm and he had to turn back to Hawaii. Well, the Hawaiians were not dumb. They knew that if this guy has a real God, there's no storm that's going to stop him. And so they killed him. That's how James Cook lost his life because he took the glory that belongs to God. You take the glory that belongs to God, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. And the pride that all of us struggles with, all of us struggle with, is always there to cause us to take the glory that belongs to God. It's a peril not only of leadership but of all of us. We have to be aware of the dangers that we face. So whether it's in your place of business, your workplace, your home, your school or ministry in the church, whatever realm of activity or leadership you may function in, please be aware of the dangers. And I would strongly, strongly urge you, respond biblically to the challenges you face or they can destroy you. Any of these four that we've seen today can destroy you. And so learn the biblical responses when you are under attack, rather than knee jerk reactions, seek direction from God. Let him give you wisdom as to what to do. If you have attendance, sort of work of holism or more and more is being forced on you, focus on your priorities. Recognize what you should do. You must do and focus on that. If you're weary today, get some help. Get some help before you burn out and crash. And if as all of us will be at times, you're struggling with pride. Take a couple steps back and realize that we are what we are and we do what we do by the grace of God. Give him the glory. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the warnings from your word. Please help us to take them to heart. Lord, we need them. So help us to learn from Moses and that which he faced. To respond appropriately and biblically to the challenges and dangers that we face in leadership and in life in general. Lord, speak to hearts. Speak to that one today here who is so weary. They're about ready to quit. Father, help them to seek help. For that one who may be struggling with pride. Lord, I pray that you will help them to see that that leads to destruction. May they give the glory to you. For those struggling with the other needs that we talk about this morning, encourage them, challenge them. Please, Lord, may they feel deeply the warning from your word in their own hearts and respond biblically. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.