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apply it to our hearts, and I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. The title of my sermon this morning is The Leadership We Need. The leadership we need. This is something that is on a lot of people's minds right now. Our country today is suffering from a lack of leadership or bad leadership. Our churches today are suffering from a lack of leadership. Families today are suffering from poor leadership or a lack of leadership. We're going to look at Exodus 18 and Deuteronomy chapter 1 this morning, which are parallel passages, and I'm going to give you seven things that we need in our leaders according to the Bible. Look at Exodus chapter 18 verse 21. The Bible reads, Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, and place such over them to be rulers of thousands and rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. And so several of the points are right there in this verse, chapter 18 verse 21. And the first one I want to point out is that he says, Moreover, thou shalt provide out of all the people able men. Able men. So number one, our leaders must have ability. They must be able men. Now jump down to verse 25, and retrospectively it says, And Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. So it's interesting that in verse 21 he lists a whole bunch of criteria, but then when he's looking back and saying what happened, he really only just homes in on one thing. So it seems to be that that's one of the important things or maybe even the most important thing, a big thing. The first thing mentioned, the only thing mentioned in verse 25 is able men. You have to have the ability to do the job. You have to have the skill, aptitude, training, education, experience, whatever. You just have to be able to know what you're doing to be able to lead. We need someone in charge of the country who knows what he's doing. You know, if you work at a business, you want the head of that business to know what he's doing. It's nothing worse than having an inept boss or an inept manager who doesn't even know the industry. They don't know what they're doing. You want someone running the household, running the family, who knows what they're doing, who knows how to lead. And of course you want someone running the church who knows what he's doing and knows what he's talking about. It's important that you have the ability to lead and do the job. You see, someone could be very sincere, even righteous, but if they don't have the ability to do the job, if they're just an idiot or just inept or just they haven't studied or they haven't learned or they haven't gotten the skills or the practice or the experience, you don't want to put that person in charge. They can still be a great person to be around, a great person to work side by side with, a great person to spend time with, but is that really who you want piloting your airplane or steering your ship or running your country, your business, your church, your family? You want somebody who knows what they're doing. The Bible says when you're picking a leader, you want to pick able men, men who have the ability to do the job, the ability to lead. The Bible says in 1 Timothy 1 verse 12, and I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. Yes, the apostle Paul was godly, sincere, and faithful, but he also had the ability to do the work of an apostle. Now of course that ability came from God. He said, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me. And really no matter who you are and what your ability is, we ought to give glory to God for whatever abilities he's given us. The Bible even says that it is God who gives you the power to get wealth. Even if you're just out there working and making money, you should always thank God and give him the glory and not say, oh, I did it all myself. No, God gives you the power to get wealth. But Paul did a great work for God, number one, because he's faithful, but number two, because he had the ability to do a great work for God. Now of course God gave him that ability, but God enabled him. He couldn't have done the job that he did if he didn't speak any foreign languages. He wouldn't be able to travel the world and be a missionary. He couldn't have done the job that he did if he didn't know the Bible well because he's going around and teaching people the Bible and he was even talking to people who were highly intelligent and he was able to preach Christ unto them and he was able to get them to listen to him and pay attention to him because he knew his stuff. I mean, he knew the word of God. He obviously spent a lot of time studying the Bible, walking with God, and he was not a lazy man. I mean, we see him working day and night, the Bible says. So he had the ability to be greatly used by God. First Chronicles chapter nine, you don't have to turn there, but First Chronicles chapter nine verse 13 says, And their brethren, heads of the house of their fathers, a thousand and seven hundred and threescore, very able men for the work of the service of the house of God. The Bible stops and tells us in a list of workers and ministers and people in David's ministry and in David's administration, you could say, that these guys were very able men for the work of the service of the house of God. So let me ask you this. When David is putting people in charge over here and he's ordering his kingdom and he's got these people here and these people there, let me ask you this. Did the guys who served in the house of God just end up being guys who couldn't really get a job anywhere else? They couldn't really make it anywhere else? They couldn't really succeed anywhere else? And so, hey, well let's just put them in the clergy. Is that what's going on in First Chronicles chapter nine? Or were very able men chosen for the service of the work of the house of God? Isn't God's house the most important institution that there is on this planet? Therefore it should not be the lowest of the people or the basest of the people who are ordained into positions of ministry. And you know what? That's what's going on today in many places. And you know what the Bible says about, uh, who's that really bad king? Jeroboam. Jeroboam, who is just a byword who just for hundreds of years later, oh, they continued in the sin of Jeroboam. Oh, still doing Jeroboam. Two hundred years later, we're still wicked like Jeroboam. What did it say about Jeroboam? That he made of the lowest of the people priests to the high places. He took the lowest of the low. By the way, people who preach lies in the name of God are the lowest people on this planet. They are scum. But folks, we should not have an attitude that says that working in the house of God is for people who are unskilled, unable, no, we should be looking for people that have ability to put in charge of the house of God because it's an important job. Being a pastor should be a skilled position that requires a lot of study and training. But yet many men today want to go into the ministry but they aren't willing to put in any real effort into their training. So we have other people today who want to be an engineer or a doctor or a lawyer and they're going and spending hours and hours and hours studying and studying and studying and training and working and listening. And folks, that's not easy to get those kind of positions. But yet today we have men who want to go into the ministry. You can barely even get them to read their Bible. You know, you tell them, hey, we'd like you to read the Bible ten times cover to cover before you are ordained into the ministry and that's just like, wow, ten times, whoa. You know, I guarantee you're going to do way more outside reading than that to become an engineer. You're going to do way more outside reading than that to become a lawyer. You're going to do way more reading than that to become a doctor. You're going to go to medical school and you're going to spend hours and hours and hours and hours studying and studying and studying. I mean, is it too much to ask that somebody who runs the church or preaches the Word of God, you know, basically know the books of the Bible and where they're found and what they're about and who the characters are and understand the doctrines and be able to talk about the Bible intelligently and know the Word of God and to read at least ten times cover to cover just as a start, my friend. And not only that, but in those kind of professions I would assume that there must be some kind of a continuing education that needs to take place if you're a doctor. You know, we have a doctor here. Isn't there some kind of continuing education for doctors? What's it called? CME, continuing medical education, because I guarantee you there are all kinds of advances in that field and things are changing. And you know, let's say you were trained in the 70s or something. It's not necessarily going to be exactly the same now as it was back then. You're going to want to keep learning, stay sharp, stay fresh, keep reviewing that. I guarantee you it's the same in many other fields. I guarantee you computer programmers that started out, you know, saving their data on a cassette tape. Forget the floppy disk. You know, they were saving their stuff on a cassette tape. You know, they were working in the computer room and it did less than your smart phone and it filled the whole room. Those guys have to keep learning, right? They have to keep training. Well, you know what? It's the same thing with men of God. They need to keep reading their Bible, keep studying, keep sharpening their skills, and you know what? It just makes me sick when I see somebody who just, I want to be a pastor, and they're not willing to do serious nose to the grindstone type of study of the Word of God. It's like what do you, the last thing we need is another pastor who doesn't know what he's talking about. It's the last thing we need. Just get, you know, I'm just going to regurgitate other men of God. Folks, just go home. We need somebody who has his own walk with God, who knows the Bible, who studies. And you know what? The reason why so many people today are willing to put so little into their training to become a pastor or to learn the Word of God, to learn how to do the job, is because we as human beings have, as part of our human nature, the desire to do as little as possible, okay? To take the path of least resistance. Isn't that human nature? People often don't do things unless they're forced to do them. So if nobody's making you do it, then sometimes you'll seek the path of least resistance. Do the minimum. Nobody's making them do it. But you know what the Bible says? Study to show thyself approved unto God. God's the one that's making you do it. Study to show yourself approved unto God. And anybody who's not a self-starter, self-motivated person, who's willing to answer to God for his study and work and whatever, you know what? He's not fit for the ministry. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. And today we have pastors not only that don't know the Bible, but they can't even read. They can barely even spell. They can't do basic math. And let me tell you something. Anybody who can't spell, it's because they don't read. Have you ever been writing something down and you looked at a word, you weren't sure how to spell it, you write it down and you look at it. Right? When you don't know how to spell a word, sometimes you write it down and you look at it and you say, you know what? That doesn't look right. And then you try it another way and you go, that looks right. Now here's why. Because people who spend time reading, they've seen that word a bunch of times. And when they see it written wrong, this alarm goes off like, whoa, that doesn't look right. But here's the thing, if you don't read, then that alarm's not going to go off for you because you don't even know what that word's supposed to look like because you've barely even seen it. Readers are leaders. And obviously, as a pastor, a big part of your knowledge should come from reading the word of God. And if you are reading and reading and reading and reading, you're going to be able to spell. Okay? And I'm not trying to, you know, have a spelling bee here this morning, but I'm trying to tell you that it should be able men who lead us, whether it's in the government, whether it's in the church, whether it's in business. And you know, part of functioning as an adult in 2020 America is you need to know how to read and write and spell and do some basic math in order to function in our society. Not to mention the fact of using the word of God properly and studying to show yourself approved in that regard. But how about being able to use good grammar and just having a basic level of knowledge and understanding? You say, well, Bible college is the answer. Folks, Bible college is not the answer. Because number one, Bible college is not biblical. Bible college is not what the Bible teaches as the solution. Men should be trained in their local church in order to serve in the local church. It's just like an electrician learns how to be an electrician by going out and doing electrical work. Okay? Now, you say, well, yeah, but to be an electrical engineer, you go to college. But here's the thing. We as pastors aren't necessarily electrical engineers. We're more like electricians. We're actually doing the work and getting down and dirty and getting the work done of the ministry. But let me tell you something. We still need to learn and study and be trained and know what we're doing. But you say, well, Bible college is going to force them to do it. Here's the thing. I don't want somebody to be my pastor who has to be forced to learn, who has to be forced to study. I'd rather have a pastor who loves the word of God and wants to study because it's the right thing to do. Okay. Number one. But number two, I went to Bible college. And let me tell you something about Bible college. The academics are typically on about an eighth grade level. I'm not kidding. You know, I went to Bible, and let me say, and I went to a well-respected Bible college when it comes to independent fundamental Baptists. Obviously, it wouldn't be necessarily respected outside of that group. I went to Hyles Anderson College. I spent two years there. I did not finish, but I spent two years there. And I will say this, you know, I have respect for anyone who has graduated from Hyles Anderson College in the sense that if they went to that college and they went through the whole program and they were active in the ministries and actually, you know, did the whole shebang, you know, they're, I'll give them this, they're a hard worker because, man, that place works you to death in the sense that they work you hard in the ministry. So when I was there, I was working hard, you know, I was going to work full-time, going to school full-time, I was studying and doing everything. But let me tell you something, so I'm not saying that they didn't achieve something by finishing, but I will say this, academically that place is a joke and it's basically like being in the eighth grade as far as the academics. And you know, I've talked to other people, and it's not just that college, I've talked to many other people who've gone to other Bible colleges and I asked them, I said, oh, you went to public high school, which one was harder, Bible college or graduating from high school? And they said, well, the academics at high school were probably on a higher level than what I did at Bible college. Folks, the academics were an absolute joke, okay? Yeah, Bible college is basically where you pay to listen to preaching. You pay money and you sit and listen to people teach you like a Sunday school lesson or preach you a sermon. That's what classes are like. You get a Sunday school lesson, you get taught a sermon, and you see your English classes, math classes, science classes that are similar to like a seventh, eighth grade English class, math class, science class. That's basically about the level that we're talking about, okay? So the point is, it's not Bible college that's the answer, it's the answer that we actually pick people who actually want to learn and study and be able for the job. Let me move on from that point. Number two is fearing God. So what do we want in our leaders? What's the leadership that we need? Number one, we need able men. They have to be able to do the job. But number two, they must fear God. Go if you would to Proverbs chapter 8. Fearing God is important in our leaders, okay? What does it mean to fear God? Does that just mean be a good Christian? Is that just a synonym for being a good Christian? Oh, he's a God-fearing man. Well obviously yes, in many ways that is used synonymously with just identifying as a Christian. But specifically, fearing God is a certain aspect of our Christianity, isn't it? Where we actually tremble before God Almighty. And so we think twice before just going out and doing whatever because hey, we fear God. And you say, well, it just means respect. Yeah, but he said fear and trembling. We tremble before God Almighty. Look at verse 12 of Proverbs 8, I wisdom dwell with prudence and find out knowledge of witty inventions. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. Pride and arrogance in the evil way and the froward mouth do I hate. So when we talk about the fear of the Lord, it's a negative term. This is not a positive term, this is a negative term. I didn't say bad, I said negative, alright? Negative. Here's what that means. It means it has to do with trembling before God, not wanting to mess up, not wanting to do wicked things, and it also has to do with hating that which is evil. Those who fear God, they tremble before him and they're disgusted by that which is evil. That's what it means according to the Bible to fear God. Folks, that's what it says right here, verse 13, the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. So if someone doesn't hate evil, do they really fear God? So you could look at a guy and say, hey, this guy's a really godly Christian, he's living a clean life and he talks a lot about Jesus, but you know what? If this guy doesn't hate evil, if this guy doesn't hate pride and arrogance, if he doesn't hate the evil way, he's not the leader that we're looking for. Because we're looking for the guy who fears God and he hates evil. And I'm going to get to that in a later point in the sermon as well. But he says in verse 14, counsel is mine and sound wisdom, I am understanding, I have strength, by me kings reign. What's the title of the sermon this morning? The leadership we need. How are kings supposed to reign? Kings are supposed to reign by wisdom and kings are supposed to reign by the fear of God. So we need leaders who fear God. We need political leaders who fear God. We need church leadership who fears God and we need a leader in the home who fears God. Not just in the church, in the home. We need a God-fearing man leading that home and we need a God-fearing man running our country and everything else, running our state, our city, everything else. By me, princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. I love them that love me and those that seek me early shall find me. Number three, men of truth. This is all coming from Exodus chapter 18 verse 21. Moreover thou shall provide out of all the people able men, number one. Number two, such as fear God. And number three, men of truth. Now in order to be a man of truth, there are two components to this. Number one, you've got to know the truth. You can't be a man of truth if you don't even know what the truth is. And that brings us back to point one of actually studying to show yourself approved, actually knowing what's going on, knowing what you're talking about, knowing the material. You can't be a man of truth no matter how sincere you are until you know the truth. Then number two, the second component, you have to speak the truth. A lot of people out there who know the truth, there aren't a lot of people that are willing to speak the truth. My son and I on the way over here were kind of arguing about this in the car a little bit because we were talking about in our country how people feel on various issues and I was saying to my son, I believe that the majority of people in this country are strongly against homosexuality and the majority of people in this country are strongly against abortion. He didn't see it that way so I was correcting him. But the point is that, you know, we're kind of talking about this and I was telling him, this was my opinion and he felt I was being a little too optimistic, but I was telling him that, you know what, it's just most people just don't have the guts to get up and express something that's not politically correct and that TV, movies and advertising, they create an illusion that just everybody is just for that which is evil and wicked and if you don't you're an idiot and if you believe in God you're an idiot and if you believe in Christ you're an idiot and if you're against the homos you're a bigot and if you're against abortion you're, you know, you hate women, you're misogynistic. Folks, that's not how most people feel. But here's the thing, it's not just enough to know the truth. Many people in this country know the truth on those issues. Many pastors in this country know the truth on those issues. But you know what, it's very few that will speak the truth on those issues publicly because they don't want to face the repercussions of going against the mainstream and going against the grain in our nation. And so you've got to be a man of truth. How do you become a person known as man of truth? Well you've got to, number one, you've got to know the truth and number two, you've got to speak the truth. That's what we want in our leaders. We want those who know the truth and that speak the truth. Number four, we need leaders who hate covetousness. They hate covetousness. Now turn if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 1. So that's the last thing from Exodus 18. It said, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. Now notice what this does not say. It does not say men who are not covetous. Is that what it says? Hey, let's get some leaders that are not covetous. No it said leaders that hate covetousness. Now it's one thing not to be covetous, but then there's another level where not only are you not covetous, but you hate covetousness. Our leaders should be people who despise covetousness. They hate covetousness. What is covetousness? You know, sometimes we use these biblical words in 2020 and they roll off our tongue if we grew up in church, but many people may not know what they mean because they're newer to church or newer to the Bible. Covetousness is referring to the love of money. It is referring to the desire to be rich. That's what we're talking about in this context. Greed, being greedy of money, loving money, desiring to be rich. That's what we're talking about in this context of covetousness. Desiring what does not rightfully belong to you and you just want to have more, more, more. You're a covetous person at that point. Hating covetousness. We're in Deuteronomy 1 but Proverbs 29 4 says this, the king by judgment established the land but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it. So when you have leaders that are being bribed, receiving gifts, they're corrupt, these are the wrong kind of leaders and today in the US government this type of leadership abounds. Folks, explain to me how people go into Congress or go into the Senate with a certain amount of net worth, with a certain amount of money, maybe their net worth is a few hundred grand and then they come out 10 years later, 20 years later and they're multi-millionaires. How do they come out with 20 million dollars? Look at their salary. It can't explain how they could come out with 15 million dollars, 20 million dollars. Folks, they are breaking the law, oh, oh, no, I'm sorry, I forgot, it's legal for them. Literally. It's called insider trading and if I do it, I'll go to prison. If Martha Stewart does it, she goes to prison. If the congressman and senator is doing it, it's perfectly legal. They're allowed to do insider trading but you know what, just because something's legal doesn't mean it's right, it doesn't mean it's moral, it doesn't mean it's godly and folks, I'm telling you, politicians cannot legitimately be going into office and by the way, they're paid enough, their pay is fine. I don't know the pay off the top of my head but I'm pretty sure that the president receives a few hundred grand, 400,000 for the president. How much does a US congressman get? 174,000 dollars a year. Folks, that's enough for him to live his life in Washington DC, you know, maybe it's expensive where he lives or whatever he needs to be, gated because he's a high profile guy and wants to feel safe or whatever. Okay, be gated. Drive a German car. You know what I mean? Do what you want but let me tell you something, 174,000 dollars, I think you're going to be able to get by. I think you can make it, right? But here's the thing, you're not going to become a millionaire making 174,000 dollars. Especially not living in DC, living that lifestyle, you're going to be busy, you're probably going to be eating at a lot of restaurants, you have to spend money in a high stress job like that. So 174,000 dollars, you're going to be able to comfortably live your life. I'm sure that they can be comfortable, live in a nice house, drive a nice car, take care of their family, and maybe even have a little extra to party. But let me tell you something, you're not going to become a multimillionaire. So what kind of a wicked person goes around campaigning, hey I'm going to represent Arizona, I'm going to go and drain the swamp, I'm going to go and take care of business in Washington. They're not saying, hey, I can't wait until I can start doing some insider trading. And I can make 20 million dollars, hey, I can't wait to have all these side businesses and then pass legislation that helps my business. I can pass legislation where a freeway goes right through the land that I own. And then I can sell it for millions of dollars because right now it's a worthless desert. This is what's going on day in and day out, and you know what, you could probably count on one hand the congressman that aren't doing it, Ron Paul, you know, and he's almost gone. No, I mean there are a few guys, you could point to a few guys that aren't doing it. You have a few guys that they go in and they come out with a similar amount of money. You know what I mean? But the vast majority, they go in there and they get greedy and they're covetous. You know what? They're the wrong kind of leaders. These are the type of things that we should be looking at and saying, is this the leadership that we want? And by the way, same goes for a pastor. You know, when you've got pastors who are millionaires, something's wrong, period. Well no, there's an exception. No, there's not. There's not an exception to that. The only exception to that would be if they're already a millionaire out in the business world before they ever became a pastor and they brought that money in or something. But if you're supposed to be pastoring and you're a pastor and that's your job and you're a man of God, you're clergy, you know what? You shouldn't be walking away a millionaire having millions of dollars. No, I'm not saying you have to take a vow of poverty and I believe that pastors should be well paid and I do believe that people have the right to eat and drink and provide for their family. But let me tell you something. Any pastor who's a millionaire, just mark it down, false profit. Just guaranteed. Okay. Now, if you listen to this sermon 30 years from now and basically the minimum wage is millions of dollars, then disregard what I'm saying right now. But I'm talking about in 2020 right now, you know, pastors who are rich, beware of the rich pastor. Every single time. Beware of the rich pastor because you can't become rich as a pastor legitimately. If you're a pastor doing your job legitimately, you can't become rich. Now you could become rich in business legitimately, but not in the ministry. You can become rich in business legitimately, right? You could just do well in business, but not as a politician. You can't. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? Politicians and clergy, yes, they have the right to be paid. They're doing highly skilled labor. They should be able men, but they should never become rich and when you see them becoming rich, that is a red flag right away and it's pretty much a guarantee that there's wickedness going on because there's no legitimate explanation for it. And you know, some people don't like when I preach that, but that's true. It's a fact. So they need to hate covetousness. Go to Deuteronomy 1 there where you are in verse 13, take you wise men and understanding and known among your tribes and I will make them rulers over you. So here we find a parallel passage. This connects with Exodus 18 and in Exodus 18 we got four points, right? We got the point, hey, they better be able, right? They need to know what they're doing. They better fear God and that's not just meaning, oh, they're a Christian. It also means that they actually fear God. So they hate wickedness and they tremble and do what's right. So we said number two, they fear God. Number three, they're men of truth. Number four, they're hating covetousness. Over here in the parallel passage in Deuteronomy 1, different things are emphasized. He says in verse 13, take you wise men and understanding and known among your tribes. So I'm going to break that into two points. Point five is wise and understanding. I'm going to combine those two into one because knowledge, wisdom, and understanding are kind of a trifecta that go together. And so knowledge and understanding and wisdom are required in our leaders. Wise understanding men, and that again goes back to the idea of learning, studying, knowing the material. I don't know about you, the number one thing I want in a pastor is I want to know that he knows what he's talking about and that he's telling me the truth. I'd rather listen to a guy who's boring and monotone, who I can actually rely on what he's telling me and he's actually giving me good truth and good information and right things than some guy who's swinging from the chandeliers, yelling and super dynamic and the guy doesn't know what he's talking about. I think the number one thing for me as a pastor, what I would look for in a pastor is number one, does this guy know? But you know what I look for in myself every day is like, do I know? And I'm constantly making sure that I study and read and learn and know the material because the last thing I want to do is get up and teach tens of thousands of people the wrong thing. That's a big responsibility. When you're just teaching people wrong things, you know, you have the opportunity to teach people right things. And so it's important that we be as leaders wise and understanding. We want our leader in the White House or in the Congress or in the Senate or in our business, on the job, wherever in the home. We want them to be wise. We want them to be understanding. We want them to know what's going on. But then the sixth point is found in verse number 13 as well, known among your tribe. So let's focus in on that word known. What does it mean when he says we need to pick leaders who are known? Well I've identified two aspects to this thing of being known, known among the tribes. Number one is it means that they're a natural leader, a natural leader. What do I mean by a natural leader? It means that they don't have to show up and say, hey, I'm running because I'm the one that you need. It's more like other people would point to them and say like, hey, this is the guy we need. Known would mean identified by others as a potential leader even before the campaign even starts, even before the choosing even begins. It's like, well, how about this guy? Other people are going to bring up. You know what the Bible says? And this is the number one thing I hate about politicians. The Bible says, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, strangers and not thine own lips. The number one thing I hate about politicians is not insider trading, although that's high on the list, the number one thing that I hate about politicians is the fact that they praise themselves and it makes me want to throw up. There's nothing more unseemly than when someone praises themselves to you. It's embarrassing. You know, when people start bragging and praising themselves to me, sometimes I just get embarrassed for them. I'm just thinking like, wow, you sound like an idiot. You're praising yourself, you're bragging and politicians do it all day long and it's kind of expected that they're going to do that, but you know what, I don't expect that. I'll never get used to that. I'll never think that's acceptable. You know, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth. Did you know that in the early days of our country, in the United States of America, it was considered shameful to run for office, to go out and campaign, even if you're not necessarily praising yourself, to announce your candidacy and throw your hat in the ring and I'm going to run. Now, it didn't take long for that practice to begin. Within a few decades of the start of our country, we got into campaigning as we know it today, but for the first few election cycles, it was considered shameful and base for you to get up and say, hey, I'm the man for this job. It was supposed to be other people would nominate you. Other people would say, hey, I think we need so and so. We need this guy. Here's our guy. So I think that that's what he means when he says they're known. Other people, they don't have to tell us I'm your man, you know, because other people can see them. So what I mean by that is that they're a natural leader. You know, long before people get a title of being a leader, they can start being a leader. You know, people in the church that take initiative and they help and they serve and they work and they get things done even before they have a title, even before they have an office, even before they have a position, people can start leading, can't they? And we would look at that person and say, this person is a natural leader. They just naturally are someone that we would say, hey, let's follow this guy. Not because of the fact that he's promoting himself. So there are natural leaders. I think that's what he means by known is that they should be people that we can identify them as a leader. They don't have to constantly tell us that. We can look at them and say, okay, this guy can lead. But number two, when I look at the word known, I would also take from that the concept of having a good report of them which are without. You know, the Bible says that the pastor, moreover, he must have, and if you would flip over to First Peter chapter four, moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. You know, if we know this guy, you know, let's say we're picking a leader for our country or our city or our state or our business or our church or whatever. If we're picking a leader, we want to know who we're choosing, am I right? So we want them to be known in that sense, like, hey, we know this guy. We know what we're getting. And so that ties in with the idea of having a good report of them which are without where basically we know him. Now when candidates are running for office before the party will get behind them or before they can get nominated, they go through a process called vetting. And the vetting process is where their own friends, their own allies basically try to dig up dirt on them. Not for the purpose of exposing them or ruining them, but because they know that that's what the enemy's going to do. So they know, okay, the enemy is going to dig up dirt on this guy. So let's do a self-check. You know, the Bible says if we would judge ourselves, we'd not be judged. So they do a self-check, it's called vetting, where they make sure that this guy doesn't have some horrible scandals from his past. You know, obviously it goes beyond even just a simple criminal background check to make sure this guy isn't someone who's been convicted of terrible crimes. But also, you know, you'd think of scandals involving, you know, has this guy been cheating on his wife? Is he stealing from his job? Has this guy been a rapist or whatever? Although now, you know, being a rapist is no problem in America in 2020. You know, raping women is just like, I mean, that's almost like a bonus if you're running for office in America. I mean, is anybody running who has not sexually assaulted women? Is that like a, that's a, I mean, we could preach another sermon, the requirements to actually, because like, I'm basically preaching a pipe dream this morning. I'm in total la-la land this morning. I'm preaching about all these requirements that are, you know, this is a fiction in the day that we're living, that you could find leaders like this politically. Now God willing, it's not a fiction in the house of God or in your home. I hope in your home these qualifications are reality. I hope in churches these things are a reality. I hope in godly Christian businesses these things are a reality. But in politics, this is like a joke to think about these things. Today you have to be, you have to love covetousness. You know, you must sexually assault women. Or if you're a woman, you would say, well, how do I, but I want to get into politics and I'm a woman. But you have to prostitute your body, you know. So I mean, it's a similar concept, okay. So take notes if you want to go into politics. How do I break in? Well, you've got to start by abusing women. You've got to start by loving yourself, being a narcissist, love money, love covetousness, have no fear of God. Take notes, because this is how you get into politics, okay. And you know what, think about our major candidates that are running for president right now. One of them said, hey, I just grabbed women by the whatever and they let me do it because I'm a celebrity. Now, stop and think about what that means when he says they let you do it because you're a celebrity. You know what he's basically saying? I abuse my power in order to assault women. I abuse my position. You know, that's like when a professor would abuse his college students in that way or a boss at work would abuse his employees because he has power and he's using that power or a pastor that would abuse his members or whatever. That's disgusting. And you know what, not only is it disgusting to Christian people, it's even, I thought it was even disgusting to worldly people. I thought it was even borderline illegal or whatever for people to use positions of power to get those kind of favors, okay. It's disgusting, all right. In fact, I think it's more disgusting than prostitution. It's just that bad. And yet, it's kind of quiet in here because of the fact that everybody loves Trump. But let me tell you something about this. Hey, I was already preaching against him before he even ran for office. So am I supposed to just change what I believe now, just change my beliefs? But here's the thing. And then we got the other guy, Biden. He's also sexually assaulted women. And even, I mean, look at what he does even when he's on camera, sniffing and just creeping all over them and just saying. You know, and they're just like pulling away from him. I mean, women are just like creeped out and trying to get away from him. He's creeping on children, adults. I mean, he's, and not to mention the fact that women have come out and said, he abused me. He attacked me. He assaulted me and whatever. But folks, today, this is just par for the course in American politics, okay. And then, of course, we've got his running mate who is a literal whore, literally. She literally got her start in politics, 29 years old, being with a married man who's 60. Married man, 60 years old, I guess she just really liked his personality. No, my friend, she did that and then he appointed her to her first political offices. But that's okay. Folks, we used to vet politicians for these kind of scandals and say, oh, we can't run someone like this. But America today, it's like, great, sure, perfect. In fact, out of hundreds of millions of Democrats, this is who we're going to pick. This is our guy. This is our gal. Joe in the ho. Let's go. You know, I'm a poet and don't even know it. But folks, when the Bible says known, he doesn't say, yeah, we know all their scandals and we like it. He's saying they're known. They have a good report of them, which are that they didn't sleep their way up the ranks by committing adultery. Kamala Harris. They didn't assault women. They didn't do a bunch of date rape or whatever you want to call it, okay, because, you know, those kind of things would typically be seen as disqualifying, you know, I mean, you know, the big scandal in the 1800s, you know, was Andrew Jackson, you know, because he married a divorced woman and it was just like, wow. And then her divorce hadn't even fully gone through when he married her. So it was like, she's married to two men at the same time. It was a huge scandal. And then, you know what happened right before he got inaugurated? So Andrew Jackson got elected. People were furious that he would degrade the office. There's nothing new under the sun. Bill Clinton is not new. They had their own Bill Clinton back in the 1800s and people were horrified and shocked that you've elected this man who's so immoral and they were more horrified by his wife being married to two men at the same time because she didn't even wait for the divorce to fully go through and she's already married the next guy. And you know what happened between the election and the inauguration? Who knows what happened? His wife died. His wife died. Did somebody know that? It was on the tip of your tongue and you're like, oh. Well, anybody can say that now. But anyway, you know, it's like, oh, it's on the tip of my tongue. But the thing is, his wife died. His wife died. And you know what people said all across America? That's a judgment of God because God loves our country too much and God respects our country too much to allow us to have this, this, I don't want to say bigamous. I don't know if that even works for a female. This biandrus or whatever the word would be, you know, this bigamous, no, it would be bigamous. I'm sorry. But you know, they don't want this disgusting woman to inhabit the White House so God spared us from that shame of having this immoral, wicked woman inhabit the White House. So God killed her. That's what people said. You read that in a secular history book. That's what conservative Christian people said at the time. But nowadays, folks, that, that, that would be considered a nothing burger today. Nobody would even bat an eye at that. Folks, we as Christians ought not adjust our standards as the world adjusts their standards. Let's keep, let's hold, let's raise the standard high, my friend. And so we need leaders that are known. Known. What do I mean? It means they're natural leaders. They're not just out jockeying for position, but they naturally are people that we would look to to want them to lead us. And number two, they have a good report, a good report, and the Bible says, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. What if they don't have a good report? They fall into reproach. What is reproach? Look down at your Bible in 1 Peter 4, verse 14. Reproach is when people talk bad about you, right? I think we just went over this on Wednesday. If you be reproach, verse 14, for the name of Christ, happy are ye. For the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part he's evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evil doer or as a busy body in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. So the Bible says, moreover he must have a good report of them which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. So what's the reproach we're talking about here? We're not talking about the reproach of being a Christian. Every Christian is going to suffer the reproach for the name of Christ. He says if you're reproach as a Christian, happy are ye. Amen, it's a blessing. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief. So what are we talking about when we talk about reproach, having a good report of them which are without? It means that you're known, known among the congregation as not what? Not being a murderer, not being a thief, not being an evil doer, not being a busy body in other men's matters. Those are the type of things where you'd say this guy has a bad reputation. We don't want a leader who has a bad reputation. Not a bad reputation because he preached the Bible, but a bad reputation because he stole, because he murdered, because he did evil, or was a busy body in other men's matters. These are the type of things that you would say, hey, this guy is not who we want. We want somebody who's known for doing right. Now I have a bonus point. Go to Proverbs 20 verse 26 because I said my points were going to come from Exodus chapter 18 and Deuteronomy 1, but I'm going to take one point from somewhere else. Here's the bonus point that we're going to Proverbs for. What kind of a leader do we want? Well according to Exodus 18, we want an able man. We want a man who fears God. We want a man who's a man of truth. We want a man who hates covetousness. We want a wise and understanding man, and we want one who's known, which means he has a good report and he doesn't have all these horrible scandals that he's been a part of, you know, where he's done wicked things, assaulted women, or embezzled money, or what, you know, stolen, murdered, whatever. But I'm going to add a little bonus point that I found somewhere else in the Bible just because I like it, and I think it'll round out the sermon. Number seven, we want him to be a destroyer of the wicked, a destroyer of the wicked. Look what the Bible says in Proverbs 20 verse 26, a wise king scattereth the wicked, man I love the poetic books of the Bible, and bringeth the wheel over them. I like the sound of that. A wise king scatters the wicked and he brings the wheel over them. Don't ever let anybody tell you that the Bible is not beautiful poetry. He brings the wheel over them. You know what he doesn't do? He doesn't court their favor or try to appease them or placate them. He brings the wheel over them. Think about Aaron. Aaron's not the leadership we want, is he? The leadership we wanted was Moses, destroyer of the wicked. The leadership we don't want is Aaron. When Moses was gone, he left Aaron in charge. And what did Aaron do? He said, oh, the people, this is what they wanted. Hey, those are wicked people, Aaron. You should have brought the wheel over those people. You should not have let those people control you and dominate you, especially because the wicked people of this world, the Bible tells us they are implacable. Implacable means impossible to placate. Placable would be they can be placated, implacable, you cannot placate. To placate someone is to basically give them what they want just to keep them happy. And this is what it means to placate. Your kids screaming and crying in public and you just give them a sucker just to shut them up. They don't deserve that sucker. You wouldn't normally give them that sucker. You don't want to give them that sucker. It's not even necessarily good parenting to give them that sucker, but you know what? You just have to placate them just to shut them up in the short term. You placate them with that sucker. Does everybody understand the word placate? Be like in ancient Greece or something where they worship their false gods, they offer a sacrifice to the gods to placate them. We don't want the gods to cloud up and rain on us so we're going to give them a sacrifice to placate them. Those are the type of uses for this word. And so the wicked are implacable. That's what the Bible says in Romans 1 about reprobates, implacable, unmerciful, meaning that if you give them a finger, they're going to take the whole hand. You give them an inch, they're going to take a mile. And so a wise king scatters the wicked and brings the wheel over them. He doesn't try to throw them a bone and please them and make them happy. The Bible says in Proverbs 25, 5, take away the wicked from before the king and his throne shall be established in righteousness. You know what we need to do with the wicked? Get them out. Bring the wheel over them. Get rid of them. You know, instead of trying to make a deal with them and compromise with them and be their buddy, that's not leadership. Leadership doesn't check and see what's popular. Leadership does what's right. They do what's right and they face the consequences for doing what's right. They face the backlash from doing what's right. And you know what? I don't even understand why these politicians, these Republican politicians, why do they even try to please people that are implacable? I mean think about it. When you see Trump saying, hey, I've been the most pro-queer president in history and I've done all these things for homos and holding up a rainbow flag and appointing a queer ambassador and sending him to Germany, do you think that that, do you think, do you think that queers are just going to turn out in droves in November and vote for Trump? Is that what you think? Who do you think most queers, you know, most queers are probably voting for Biden. If you don't vote for Biden, you ain't queer. It's like he said, he said, hey, if you're not sure if you're for Trump or Biden, you ain't black, he said. Well, if you don't know if you're for Trump or Biden, you ain't queer. Because I'm pretty sure, that was a joke, but I'm pretty sure that the vast majority of queers are voting for Biden. They're not, you know, they're not typically a voting block that's into conservative Republicans. So what's the point of trying to court these bunch of freaks and weirdos? Why don't you just bring the wheel over them? Well, he's got to do that to get elected. I don't think so. You know, and again, you know, maybe you're more with my son on this one, but again, you know, we're talking about this, you know, I don't think most people think that queers are so great in this country. And I think you're probably just alienating your base when you do stuff like that and just making people mad. But who cares? Let's, let's say, let's say that does get you elected. Well then, you know what? Folks, you know, if I have to do wrong to get elected, I don't want to be elected. If I had to do wrong to become a pastor, then I don't want to be a pastor. If I have to do wrong to be in this position or that position or that, then I don't want that position. Because it's never right to do wrong in order to get a chance to do right. Okay, so the leader that we need is a destroyer of the weight. You know the pastor we need is somebody who destroys the wicked. People deny the Trinity, he brings the wheel over them. People are committing sins listed in 1 Corinthians 5 and they're unrepentant, he brings the wheel over them. Now of course if people are repentant, we want to help them, want to bring them back, reinstate them, give them support. But people that are unrepentant and defying the authority of the church, defying the rules there in 1 Corinthians 5 or elsewhere, you know, he brings the wheel over them. He doesn't try to placate them because he just wants to have as big of a church as possible and we just want to be seeker sensitive and we just want to have a full house and we want to run a thousand no matter what. No it's better just to bring the wheel over people that are wicked. Because you know what happens when you, when people are guilty of major sin or they're a 1 Corinthians 5 kind of a guy, either one of two things, if they're just some wicked reprobate or something and you bring the wheel over them, well good riddance, bad rubbish. And if they're actually a saved person or actually a sincere person, then sometimes that strong rebuke or church discipline is what they need to actually shake them and wake them up. And I can't even count how many people have gotten right with God as a result of church discipline because of the fact that they got, sorry you were thrown out of the church because of the sin. You know what? They get right with God because it's a wake up call and it lets them know the seriousness of their sins. And so you take away the wicked from before the king and his throne shall be established. And so in conclusion, let me just read you two verses in conclusion. Proverbs 28, 28, when the wicked rise, men hide themselves. But when they perish, the righteous increase. Proverbs 29 verse two, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. When you have bad leadership, it's sad. It makes you cry. It makes you mourn and weep. You're sad. Like why do we have this leadership? You know, sometimes a bad pastor could be enough to make you cry. A bad father could make you cry. A bad husband. A bad CEO. A bad manager. A bad president. You're just like, it's depressing. Why can't we have a good leader? But you know, when you have a good leader, man, it's exciting. You can rejoice. You're excited. When the righteous are in authority, we need strong leadership in 2020. And you know what? I hope that you out there listening to me would be inspired to want to be that strong leader. I hope that you're taking these seven points and saying, you know what? I'll be that guy. Or in the case of the home, you know, I'll be that gal. You know, I want to lead my children and I want to be a leader amongst my peers and other ladies and men would say, hey, you know what? Maybe I can be used of God to be that leader someday in a church. I could be a pastor someday. Or hey, you know what? I want to run my business on biblical principles. I want to be a Christian businessman that lives according to God's word and is a good leader where my workers would rejoice and say, man, I love working at this company. I love working here because our leader is righteous. Now I don't recommend anyone in this room say, get inspired by the sermon and say, hey, I think I'm going to be that righteous politician because it's just, it's not going to happen. We're not in that stage of our country. You know, maybe there was another time in our country, maybe when you could have been that guy that would have stepped up. But folks, 2020 is not it. Not even close. But you know what? You could be a great leader in the home, be a great leader in business, be a great leader in the house of God, be a great leader in church and strive to live up to this stuff. And you say, well, I'm not a pastor. I'm not the boss. Yeah. But you know what? These are, these are things that we should all strive for. I mean, shouldn't, shouldn't every single one of us want to have ability, grow our skillset, learn new things, get better at our job no matter what our job is or what our occupation, you know, shouldn't we all fear God? Shouldn't we all be men and women of truth? Shouldn't we all hate covetousness and be content with what we have? Shouldn't we all have wisdom and understanding? Shouldn't we all seek to have a right reputation and not to be known as a, you know, an adulterer or a thief or a murderer? And shouldn't we all be someone who is a destroyer of the wicked? You know, we should be one who says, hey, uh, you know, I'm not going to have wicked people abide in my presence. I'm not going to surround myself with rotten people and try to make them like me. I'm going to seek out godly friends. Not going to try to be accepted by the wicked crowd. And you know, those that are in school, I don't even know if school is even a thing anymore. Uh, or maybe you're like the boy in the plastic bubble at school or whatever in your fiberglass cubicle. Is anyone actually going to school right now? Who's actually in school? It's it's, it's pretty much like adults that are, it's all adults. So I think the kids are not in school, it looks like. So it's, it's, it's older people that are actually in school. But you know what? This was more directed at the kids. So I guess it's not an issue. Hey, do you know, on that zoom meeting, you know, watch out for that rough crowd. You know, when they, they want to pull out into a little sub meeting with you and, and smoke pot with you virtually, but anyway, the point is, you know, there's a, there's a rotten crowd in school and you know what they're sometimes known as? The cool group, the cool kids. Do you want to please them? You want to, you ought to be accepted by them. Hey, you know what? Be known for doing right. Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether his work be right. And be one who wants, who has nothing to do with the wicked. You don't walk in the counsel of the ungodly or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of the scornful. But you seek out right people because a companion of fools shall be destroyed. And so we want to be one who walks with wise men because if we walk with the wise, we'll be wise. And so apply these to yourself no matter who you are. The leadership that we need, folks. The Bible is as relevant as today's newspaper. None of this has changed. Well, it's 2020 so we got to adjust our expectations. Nope. I'll just walk away and not participate in the system because I'm not going to adjust my expectations because the leadership that I want is Exodus 18 leadership and Deuteronomy 1 leadership. And you know what? If I can't have it, I may take my toys and go home because this is the leadership, not that I want, it's the leadership that I need. And in God's house, we make the rules. In God's house, we run the show. And you know what? Here, Exodus 18 and Deuteronomy 1 rule. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you for teaching us the kind of leadership we need, Lord. Help us to always look at the world through a biblical lens, Lord. Help us to put on those glasses where our left lens is Exodus 18 and our right lens is Deuteronomy 1, Lord. Help us to look at the world the way that you see it and help us to understand what it means to be a biblical leader. And Lord, virtually everyone in this room is or shall be a leader in some way, shape or form. Even if it's just leading their grandkids, leading their kids, leading their family, leading their spouse, Lord, wife that is, leading a business, leading church, leading a soul winning crew, Lord, help us all to be the leaders that you want us to be. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.