(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, good evening everyone, welcome back to Stronghold Baptist Church, you can grab your hymnals and open up the song number 165. Song 165, O Worship the King. Song 165. Let's sing this out of verse. O Worship the King, O glorious Allah, and great Holy Saint, His wonderful God, our shield and defender, the ancient of days, a villain, His leather and curtain with grace, the bones half of His might and sting of His grace, whose robe is the light, whose head on free space is sharing some gravity, the earth, the floor, and for gives the path of the waves of the storm, a fountain full of air, what of every sign, it reads in the air, it shines in the light, it streams from the hills, it descends to the clear, and sweetly dispels in the dew and the rain, the last, real children of just, and be the last, wherever we need to be just, your light needs to live, thy mercy's out and do not turn to the end, our maker, defender, be giver and lender. Amen. Thank you for an opportunity to hear a song about the church. It's a pleasure to serve it. The singing of this evening and this dashboard and this evening will be done as we go forward in honor. Thank you very much. Let's finish our next song, song 164. Song 164, praise Him, praise Him. Song 164. Let's sing this on the verse. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer. See the world, His wonderful love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, light is not able to glory. Strength and honor give to His holy name. Find a share, Jesus will guard His children. In His arms He carries them all day long. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, every joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and fled high. He our God, our hope of eternal salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus who bore our sorrows. Your love, love grounded, wonderful King and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, every joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly, mortal, love with us as free. Jesus, Savior, friend forever and ever. Round Him, round Him, prophet recently. Christ is coming for the world victorious. Not with glory unto the Lord belong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, every joyful song. Amen. All right, great singing this evening. It's good to have you all here back with us at Strong Old Baptist Church for our evening service. At this time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have a bulletin, slip your hand up real high. We'll make sure that we get one out to you. And Brother D.J., if you don't mind getting on the audio for us this evening, I'd appreciate that too. I've got it switched to my mic right now, but our three-fold cord is broken. We've got three guys that we have responsible for the sound, and all three are out today. So I appreciate you helping out with that, Brother D.J. Service times are listed there Sunday morning at 10.30, Sunday evening at 5 o'clock. Wednesday night at 7 is our Bible study. We're in Psalm 76 this week. We've got the soloing opportunities listed there, as well as the salvations and the baptisms for the month of October as well as for the year. Let's go ahead and count up the salvations for today. Slip your hand up real quick if you've got any salvations today. Yes, sir. One there. Two here and then four. All right. Praise the Lord. That's awesome. And then two more back there. Am I missing any others? Cool. So that's like, let's see, two, four, eight, ten for the day. Wonderful. Praise God. And if there's any other salvations to report from the week that didn't get recorded already, slip your hand up real quick just in case I missed you this morning. I got ours. I didn't forget. Very good. All right. Down there at the bottom of the page, we have the offering totals received through the month of October. Prayer requests. I do want to point out, I forgot to go over this a little bit. I did have an update this morning. If you notice, Brother Dominique is on the list there, Dominique Barber. I previously listed that he was having some legal issues. And the reason for that is that he was a little bit embarrassed that he didn't really want to share his personal information. But I've convinced him that it's better for the church to be able to pray more appropriately if we know a little bit more about what's going on. I know what's going on, but he is unfortunately in jail right now. And I'm not going to go into all the details. It's something that happened a while back. It happened in Florida. It's not some serious offense or something like that. But I don't even know the full story. It's kind of weird. It gets a little convoluted with jurisdiction and stuff. It happened down there, and he moved up here. It's something that's a little bit older. And he tried to get them to transfer so that the case can be held up here instead of down there. There was some mix-up with the paperwork. Either they didn't receive it or they didn't process it or something to that effect. And then he was supposed to show up for a trial, which he had no idea he was supposed to show up for. Then they issued a warrant for his arrest in Florida because he didn't show up to the trial he had no idea he was supposed to go to. And then they ended up contacting the police up here to let them know and inform them that he had a warrant out for his arrest. So then he was brought into jail in August of this, just a couple months ago, and was sitting in Gwinnett. And they weren't giving him bond. It was just a really weird situation. So he's now transferred down to Florida, which is where he is remaining. He hired an attorney. His attorney hasn't been able to make it to his court appearances and stuff. So he's really just kind of been having a lot of things not go well for him to this point. So we definitely want to pray for him. Definitely a situation that we ought to be praying for him. And he said that he has been able to lead a couple of people to Christ while he's been in this situation. So he's trying to make the best of it. He's trying to keep a positive outlook. It's just not a good place to be. Our criminal justice system doesn't really function very well. Things just take a really long time. The whole thing, I went to one of the hearings just for him to get bond. It was just kind of crazy because they were allowing for him to get bond, but then he still has to go back to jail. And then that could take a week before they'd even release him, even though it was stated that he could get bond. So just all of this stuff, right? So it was just kind of an insight into how things work, and it's kind of nuts. So he definitely needs the prayers. The legal troubles are a little bit more serious than it kind of seemed, I think, originally when I put it down there. So if you can pray for him, he desperately will need those prayers and appreciates those prayers. So again, I'm not going to go into detail on how he got there. It's sufficient to say that it's not like some big crime or anything like that. He didn't kill somebody. He didn't rob anybody. So it's a much lesser offense. Unfortunately, things had just kind of gotten out of control in the system, which then caused this big thing to happen. So just please pray for him. And of course, we heard from Brother Austin this morning about his neighbor, Logan, and his neighbor, Helen, that neither one of them is saved, and they're both experiencing their own health issues. So just pray that they'll be able to get saved. And Brother Austin will have good opportunities to talk to them since they're neighbors of his. And then, let's see, we heard the update about Ken, Brother D.J.'s father, and his prostate cancer. Things aren't going quite as well as they had hoped with the treatment that he's been receiving. Different type of treatment with an injection. But they're also concerned with his lungs. So continue to pray for him. And then also, is there an update now on your neighbor, Brother Chris? Because you were talking about that right after service. Was there anything to update on with Lonnie? She's stable? Yeah. Oh, man. Did she just go to the hospital today? Was there something going on today or no? Okay. I see. Okay. So her health is stable, but yeah, if you're not even able to have coherent conversations and stuff, obviously there's brain problems going on there. So please pray for Lonnie. We've been on our prayer list for a while. But again, these are issues that last for a long time. So we don't want to get complacent with our own prayers for people that have been on the list for a while. Definitely still need the prayer. So it's good. Thank you for the update on that. Does anyone else have any updates for any of the people who are currently on our prayer list? All right. Yeah, if you have anything else to add, go ahead and drop a card off in the offering plate or hand it to me. And we can get your prayers added to our list here. Continuing on with the announcements, the October challenge is a visitor challenge. Do we have any visitors with us this evening? I didn't see any. All right. So remind people if they come and visit our church this month that they'll get a prize for being able to visit. And those of you who are bringing visitors, you will get your prize too. Just remind me that you brought a visitor and I need your email address because you're going to get a different prize than what we have here. I want to have visitors to walk away with something and then you guys, you know, we'll take care of you. We got you covered, so we're not going to worry about that. I just want to make sure we have enough stock to be able to continue to provide for our guests that are here because they're the most important ones for the prizes. You'll get taken care of, you know that. So continue to invite people to church. We've got the annual chili cook-off on October 31st right here, 6 o'clock. Please sign up if you're planning to attend this event. We could have a good idea of who's going to be here and for how many people are going to be participating in the cook-off. Of course, I skipped over the new church plant. I mentioned that this morning. Really excited about that. Greenville, South Carolina. Just continue to pray for us as we're looking for a space to rent. Hebrews chapter 10 verses 1 through 22 is a Bible memory passage. We are a little over halfway through at this point. Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed there. It's Naomi's birthday today. We sang to her this morning. Hopefully she's having a good day. And then on the back, the rest of the upcoming events, men's preaching class, October 21st. So that's already this Saturday. It's coming up. 930 in the morning is the song leading. So men are interested in doing the song leading, 930 a.m. right here. And then the preaching follows that at 1030. So come prepared with a 5 to 15-minute sermon length, depending on how many people want to preach, determines how long of an opportunity to get to preach. But there's going to be teaching and other things going on there. So come on out for that. We already talked about the cook-off. Next homeschool field trip, please sign up for that if you plan on attending. Our Chattanooga Sewing Marathon is November 11th, followed by the Gingerbread House and the Christmas caroling to kind of wrap up the year of events. And that is it for our announcement. So I will turn this service back over to Brother Peter, who will lead us in our next song. Right church? Song 129. Song 129. Song 129. Let's sing a song of verse. I'm on the pages left for you. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy womb and side must flow. Be a sin, a double cure. Swing from land then make me cure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my sin no laker know? These poor sin could not atone. I will stay but thou alone. In my hand no price I bring. Gently to thy cross I cling. While I draw his pleading breath. When my eyes shall close to death, my eyes shall grow to know. And behold, beyond thy throne, God of ages, clap for me. Let me hide myself in thee. The church will soon decide where to collect them. Sunday evening monthly, I'll dance the ushers, but will please set up for that offering. In the church, while the offering plays, the plates are being passed around. If you could open up your Bibles to the book of 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. And as we do with us in area in trouble, at this church, we'll read the entire chapter. That's the book of Michael Ricardo. Please do that. Amen church. Once again, that is the book of 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. The Bible reads, The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to a flock. And when the chief shepherd shall appear, he shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisted the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brother. That are in the world. For the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory, by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, established, strengthen, settle you. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Sylvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting and testifying, that this is the true grace of God, wherein ye stand. The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, salutes you, and so doth Marcus, my son, greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all, veteran Christ Jesus. Amen. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you once again for your word. We thank you for the souls that have been saved today. And God, we thank you for the mighty works that have been done today. We thank you for the mighty works that have been done through this church. God, may you fill past the burdens with your spirit, allow for him to preach with boldness, allow for ears to be attentive to your word, and to take home something that we haven't learned before, and that we can be able to be edified by this word, and that we can show others what you have in your word. And God, we just thank you for just salvation alone, and just being God in our lives. And I just say praise you and thank you for everything that you do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Good evening. I want to preach a sermon from the word of God here about there's things that we can learn from God's word about being a good leader. And I want to cover some attributes of a good leader and just some wisdom I found in the scripture about leading. And, you know, you might be thinking, like, well, how am I going to lead? There's always opportunities for you to be a leader, and sometimes people lead and they don't even realize that they're leading. Basically, you know, if you ever have anyone following you, then you're a leader, right? And I would say on the flip side, right, if you have no one following you, then you're not a leader. You know, some people, there's people out there that have a title of, like, being some kind of a leader or a manager or something, but no one really follows them. They're a leader in name only, and that's, like, my first point is you don't want to be that guy or lady, right? You don't want to be the one that you might have been assigned people that are supposed to be following you, but they don't. If you notice that nobody follows you and nobody's doing anything and following your lead or anything like that, then you aren't a leader. So first being able to recognize, you know, the first step of getting help is recognizing you have a problem. If you're called a leader and nobody follows, recognize that and realize you're not a leader, okay, and you're going to need to work on the skills in order to be a good leader, right? And some people are leaders just because, like I said, some people are forced to follow you, but you want to be a good leader. You want to make the most out of having that job and that position. The Bible says in Proverbs 14, just stay where you're at because we'll cover this in 1 Peter 5. It says in the multitude of people is the king's honor. So yeah, you know, the king is leading. I mean, he's the biggest leader of a whole nation or country. Yeah, where there's a lot of people, then there's honor there because the king has a lot of people that he's leading, but in the want of people is the destruction of the prince. So when there's nobody there to be king over and no one there to lead, then you're no longer going to be worth anything. You're not the king, right? There's no point to that. So that was a verse that I wrote. That was a verse that I think seems kind of appropriate with that being, you know, being a leader, you need people following you. Now, in order to get people to follow you, you need to be respected. And this is something that is probably one of the most important traits of being a good leader is being able to win over the respect. Now, the way you do that, there's multiple ways to gain people's respect and their trust, but literally, if you are someone who's not respected, no one will follow you. And look, so this goes, whatever your mind is thinking about being a leader, if it's in business, hey, if people don't have any respect for you, they're going to be like, oh, yeah, did you know that manager so-and-so said this? And if people don't respect you, they're like, okay, whatever. You know, they're not going to care. Or how about even at home, right, husbands and wives? Husbands, you live a life that is not worthy of respect. You live a life where you're kind of a joke and you don't provide, you don't work hard, you're wasting your time, you play games, you do whatever, all this other stuff, and you've got a wife that you're supposed to be leading and you're supposed to be running that house and being in charge of things. Well, if your wife doesn't have any respect for you, you're not going to be a good leader. And the thing is, you're called to be the leader. I mean, biblically speaking, I'm not going to get into all the gender role thing, but the Bible is really crystal clear about that, about the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. You can read 1 Corinthians chapter 11, you can read Ephesians chapter 5, and you can read these passages and very clearly see who is supposed to be the one leading. Women are supposed to keep silence in the church. If they learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, right? So there's a leadership role in a marriage, there's leadership roles at work, there's other leadership roles. I mean, even women have leadership roles with the children in the home. You know, you're raising and rearing children. Hey, you want your children to respect you, right? That's how they're going to listen to you. And with kids, it's a little bit different, because sometimes with kids, you need to be, you know, making sure that the law is enforced. If the law is not enforced, no one's going to have any respect for the law. And if mom's law isn't being enforced, they're not going to have any respect for mom either. Right? So you've got to lay down that law and get out the rod of correction and make sure that the kids are being obedient in order to respect the things that, to give you the respect that you need when you tell them to do stuff. Because again, they won't follow, they won't listen if they have no respect. So like I said, it's kind of a broad topic, but in order to get those believers, not believers, I'm already looking at my notes here, in order to get those people to follow you, you need to be able to gain their respect. And I think one of the other great ways to lead people and have them respect you is when you lead by example, leading by example, where you're not just telling people to do something, you're showing them that you're doing it and you show them how to do it. Right? And it doesn't mean you always have to do the things that the people that follow you are doing, but you ought to be able to know exactly what needs to be done and be able to step right in and do the work as well. Right? And I've been in various positions in my lifetime of working at different jobs and stuff, and the thing that people hate the most is when they get someone who doesn't know anything about their job, and then they become the boss, and they're going to try to tell you what to do, and it's like, you don't know how to do any of this stuff. And then no one respects that boss, right, because they don't really know what they're talking about. If you're going to lead people in a certain way, you know, and if you got put in a position like that, because sometimes companies will just hire someone, like, well, we need to have someone in this job and they need to be a leader. Then for you to lead those people well and for them to respect you to really be successful at having that job, you better learn their job if you didn't know it already before, get in there, learn the job, get hands on so you can speak intelligently with the people you're supposed to be leading, and then they can start respecting you like, wow, this person came in. We've never had a manager do that before. We came in and actually had me show them how to do this stuff. That's how you're going to get people to respect you. Now, we started in 1 Peter, Chapter 5, and there's a lot of different points in these attributes of being a good leader, and some of these will come up frequently in other passages. So, even though I'm bringing up this example now of leading by example, it's going to come up again and again and again and again. So, but I may not always specify it every time it comes up in Scripture. In 1 Peter, Chapter 5, this chapter, this portion of this epistle in 1 Peter is being specific to elders. So, the elders are the leaders in the church. The elders are like the pastors of these churches, and he's specifically calling these elders. Verse 1 says, the elders which are among you I exhort, who I'm also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Now, he's going to start giving them some advice and helping them out. If we want to be a good leader, the elder is the leader of the church. So, we're going to get some advice here for those elders on how they can be successful in their job. And yes, some of this stuff is going to be very specific to leading a church, but there's other qualities and attributes that we'll be able to see within this teaching that we will be able to apply as well for just as general rules for being a good leader. So, verse number 2 says, feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. So, multiple things are just in this one verse. One, feeding the flock of God, you are caring for the people that you are leading. And again, in a church setting, yeah, you ought to be feeding and providing them with something, providing their sustenance, but let's say it's not even in a church setting. You know, you ought to be caring about and making sure the people that you're leading have what they need to do the work that they need to do, right? The pastor feeds the flock so that you can be better Christians, you can be better servants, you can be better ministers, you can serve Christ better, right? You could have a better life. It's all about the betterment of the flock by feeding the word of God. Well, a good leader is going to look at the people that are following him and say, hey, how could I make these people better, better at what they do, more efficient with what they do? And you're going to be considering your people and putting forward that thought and focusing on that as part of your job. And look, as a leader, you're going to have other tasks too, right? So, the elders of a church, big portion is the flock, but that's not the only job. But am I bringing this up because it's like, well, yeah, you have the administration, you've got finances, you've got all these other things going on that you need to take care of. Don't get so consumed as a leader with all the other tasks that you're overlooking the people who are following you, right? Because then that'll cause your leadership to wane and kind of fail and people start losing respect for you or things will just become disorganized and disarrayed and not functioning the way that it ought to under good leadership. Feed the flock which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly. So, having a good attitude about your job, right? First of all, specifically with this, God doesn't want any leaders in church, anyone running a church that doesn't want to do this job. And, you know, if you ever have been thinking about being a pastor one day, you better make sure you really want to do it. Like, decide that for yourself because if you feel like you're just being forced into something, you just kind of have to do it, you won't be a good leader. You're going to be dragging your feet coming to do things and being like, oh, I have to do this and I have to do that and I have to. It's by constraint. God wants someone, and look, that's going to rub off on people. People are going to see that and be like, they'll end up having a lot of the same attitude. I've seen that happen with leadership before as well, where the same spirit, the same attitude that a leader has, the people that are following will have the same type of an attitude. And if I'm just coming into church and being like, I had to do this, I had to prepare a sermon for you guys today, you're going to be like, well, I guess we'll hear it. I mean, you had to do it, so we had to be here. I mean, the Bible says that there's so much the more as you see the day approaching, I guess we got to be in church tonight. Who wants that attitude? No one wants it. And if I start having this bad attitude, then it's more likely that other people will kind of take that same thing. So we're seeing here, hey, take the oversight, not by constraint, but willingly. This is not from a filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. Now, obviously, if you take a job in your leadership role, you're going to be earning money, but you still ought to take your leadership role and not just be focused on the money. The money will come, right, if you're doing a good job in leadership, focused on what's really important, right? And again, I'm trying to make this as broadly applicable as possible. We're seeing the specific context here. And 100%, absolutely, you want a pastor at church who might be an elder, do not do it for the money, okay? One, it's probably not going to work out the way that you think, if you're doing it right at least. And two, that's not the focus anyways. Who cares, right? The money shouldn't matter at all other than just being able to be provided for on the things that you need. And the Bible already told us the things that we need, and they're not always what we tend to think that they are what we need. Food and clothing, be content, right? So it's not about the money, the service, the ministry is not about the money, but even leading, just don't get focused on what's going to benefit me and what's the money I'm going to get out of this. Focus on the job, focus on the leadership, on doing things right and putting your heart into it. Be of a ready mind. Verse number three, neither is being lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. This is a very big key about being a good leader. There's some leaders that just want to be lords. They just want to be the boss. You just do it because I tell you to do it. Now sometimes you have to take that approach with children, right? Because you're not going to have the same type of conversation with a child as you might with another adult. But no adult on the job is just going to want to be barked at and told, you just do this because I'm telling you to do it. And it's not good leadership. It's going to build resentment. People want to be respected. You want to get respect? Show that respect to the people that you're leading. So you're not supposed to be like a lord over God's heritage here, but being in samples to the flock. You show the example. Hey, here's the right way. You do it like this. This is how we go about doing it. You don't just tell someone to do it. You show them how to do it. Be that in sample. And of course, again, definitely in this specific context, but this can also be applied elsewhere as well. Verse 4, and when the chief shepherd shall appear, you shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble. Again, there's multiple things kind of packed in this one verse. Younger submitting themselves to the elder, hey, if you want to be a good leader, learn to be a good employee. Learn to be able to submit yourself under authority, and then when you get promoted into the position of being an authority, then you'll have been on both sides of the coin, and you'll know how to go forward, and then you can treat people with that same respect because you've been on the other side. And you've got the good testimony of saying, hey, if you've got people who are being not the best employees, hey, I've done your job. I've been on that end. I've had to suck it up. I've had the programmer's job and then had to go and clean toilets. So what, right? The work needed to be done, so you do it. And this is a great, humble attitude. If you could live your life with this humble attitude, you'd be like, but I'm the boss, I'm the leader. Yeah, but stay humble. You'd be surprised at how many people can follow you even though you have a humble attitude. You'd be surprised at how much respect you get when you're not just walking around like some big, arrogant jerk like you're all that. I mean, look at our church and look at the work that's being done, and it's being done under my leadership, and I'm not trying to say this to toot my own horn, but you don't see me walking around here like I'm the big shot and everyone else is. I'm going to be just involved as the work as you. I'm just mentioning this because if you look around and be like, look at how much participation we have in this church. I think it's fantastic. I think it's great. And I'm just sharing with you one of the reasons why that it's like this is because you don't just have some big jerk just telling everyone what to do and walking around like a lord over everybody, but someone that's willing to roll up their sleeves and join you in the work and do things. Now, look, it makes sense for people to have different functions and different jobs, whether it be a corporation or whether it be the church, right? And we should all be able to focus on different aspects, but when someone's running things and someone's going to be a leader, you're a leader in the home, you're a leader on the job, then you want to be helping everybody get all of their job done in the most efficient way possible. So even though I might not always be involved in every single aspect of how things run here, I still will get involved to help and make sure, hey, do you have all the tools you need? Oh, we need to get more mops because these things aren't, you know, oh, we need to get this or we need to get that. Great, let's do that. And then everything runs more smoothly. And just the fact that God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble, that alone should show you the attitude that you ought to have, whether you're in charge of anything or not. Like, how much do you want God resisting you, right? Because I don't, and if God's going to resist the proud, whether you're a leader or not, I don't want God resisting me. But specifically, he's talking to elders who are in charge, who are in a role of leadership, and he's telling them for sure, hey, look, God resists the proud. So don't get lifted up and proud as a leader because God's going to give grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. See, the truly great leaders are the ones where they're not bringing the respect on themselves in the sense of like, oh, everybody look at me. Like the way our presidents are these days, right? Presidential candidates, what do they do? They self-glorify. And this is like abomination in our country, the way that politics even run, especially from the way things used to be a long time ago. When people were going to be on a ballot for an office, it's because other people are saying, hey, this person should be the leader. It's getting that honor, that glory, or that respect from other people who've already recognized, hey, this person's really successful at this. This person has these great qualities. This person's humble. This person has all of this stuff kind of checking his box. Let's let them be in charge because they have a good track record. That makes sense. Now what do you have? Oh, you've never had a better president, right? Never. No one could ever be better. Sorry, my imitation, my voice is not the best on this, but I mean, it's huge. I'm going to be the best president ever. You've never seen anything greater, right? It's a self-exaltation. And yeah, I make in front of Trump. I make in front of all of them too because they're all like that. They all just want to put out, well, this is why I should be president because I am so great and I'll solve all your problems. God resists the proud. And look, that's just a very arrogant thing to say that just like, well, I'm the best person for the job because I'm so great. Let other people exalt you. Humble yourself. And then God will lift you up and God will elevate you and you get the respect of people that way too because nobody likes an arrogant jerk. And the people that support the arrogant jerks are just doing it because they think that they're going to get a kickback for it. Like these politicians, they don't have friends. They just have people who want things from them. That's the truth. They get in positions of power and then they just get surrounded by wicked people who just want things from them. That's not the leader you want to be. You want to be a good leader. You're leading for the right reasons, not for filthy lucre's sake, not for any self-benefit really. I mean, self-benefit may come as a result of being a good leader, but it's not, you know, you're focused on the job, you're humble and you can let God exalt you in due time. Casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant. Look, leaders, take a job seriously, being sober. Obviously, be sober anyways from substances, but beyond that, right, just take your job serious. You've got to be serious about your job. If you're in any type of leadership, parents, be serious about being a parent. You know, on the job, be serious about your job. You know, whatever it may be, any aspect that you may be a leader, be serious about it and be vigilant. Just be wary. I mean, you're part of being a leader is that you have more responsibility for other people. So that brings more burden. That means you have to be more aware and you have to take things seriously and be focused and seeing everything that's going on under your purview, under your responsibility, and that requires vigilance. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, is a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Now, again, obviously, this is a more spiritual context here where Satan is looking to destroy. So, of course, the leaders of the church need to be paying very close attention. Why? For the flock's sake. Because if the leader isn't being serious and vigilant, the devil could be picking off the flock without him even paying attention to it. This is why, especially those that want to get involved in church leadership, this is important. This is key. You want to be a good leader? You have to just kind of know what's going on in general in people's lives, in the lives of the flock. Are there threats coming into the church? Hey, Satan wants people to be devoured, especially in a church where people are cleaning up their lives, serving God, and doing more works for God. He wants to stop that. So, leadership needs to kind of be aware of what's going on just in general. Verse 9 says, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. Turn, if you would, to... We're going to go to a book of Proverbs. Go to Proverbs 29, please. So, that one passage had a lot of content in there, specifically for elders, but elders are in a position of leadership, right? So, there's a lot of different things that we could get, that we could gain, we could glean off of that and apply it to being a good leader. But there's so much more in the scripture. Another attribute of a good leader is a leader that has discretion and understanding of people, different personalities, and the people that you have underneath your leadership, so that you can deal with different people appropriately. And being able to recognize personalities, recognize traits of the people that are serving you, to be able to be the most effective at dealing with the problems that might go along with things you have to deal with as a leader. Okay? The Bible says in Proverbs 29, look at verse number 21. It says, He that delicately bringeth up his servant from a child shall have him become his son at the length. Talk about the long game, right? This is referring to someone who would be a boss. You have a servant, right? And specifically would be more like a bond servant, maybe that's even from a child that could be serving you or working for you. But even, I mean, just think of it, even in a workforce, you got some young kid coming on a job and you're going to be the boss, right? Deal with them appropriately for their age, for who they are, what they're coming in. Learn, you know, obviously there's going to be some lines that just, once they're crossed, you're going to have to deal with it, maybe just a real strong rebuke and just it is what it is, and if they leave, they leave, right? But depending on what's happening, you might want to approach that situation differently because you want to be able to help this person to grow. And a child, look, they're going to need a little bit more work than someone who's already established. They may be a little bit intemperate in their emotions or in their life and may have a little bit more chaos, but you want to be able to nurture that and help them because if you can help that person and mentor that person and be a good leader for that person, to grow under, he says at the end, you can make him your son, right? So that is like, look at the world of difference between a master-servant relationship or a father-son relationship, how much closer that is, but if you do things right and you have the right discretion on how you can delicately bring up that servant and not just be a hard taskmaster over them, then you can have their respect to the point to where it's like your own son. And that, yeah, you gain that loyalty from being that good boss, from being that good leader. People will respect you and they will stay loyal to you and there's, you know, when people treat you well and they show respect, they talk to you appropriately, they're not being jerk or whatever, people are much more willing to stay around even in a job like that, even for less pay sometimes than other jobs because things are just going really well for them there. And then that's when you're going to have people, and as a leader, that's when you're going to have people willing to give more of themselves for whatever needs to be done. When you've got someone that's now like becoming a son, well, you'll be able to rely on them like you would a son. So, oh, man, we've got this big problem that just came up I'm there for you, man. Whatever you need, I got your back. Like, as a leader, when you have people that are willing to just step up like that and serve just because you've treated them well, that's huge. That's a sign of a very successful leader. And I'm kind of laughing at myself now. I don't know how I could have prepared this sermon and I didn't even bring up one example of Solomon, but Solomon was praised for his leadership skills because when the Queen of Sheba came in, she heard all these rumors and all this stuff about King Solomon, and she was blown away at the reality of it because she was like, I wasn't even told the half of the story. Like, I couldn't believe it when I heard it, so I had to come see it for myself, and now that I've seen it, like, I am just in shock because you have your servants here, and what did you say? They're happy, right? They're glad to serve. Like, you have all these servants, you have all this magnificent, all these great works, all this hard work, all the things that you got, and the people are happy to do it. That's a sign of a good leader. When you get a lot of work being done that you know requires a lot of effort, a lot of sacrifice, and instead of the people being grudging and upset and murmuring and complaining about it, they're happy about it. That all is a result of good leadership because you're unifying the people also around the common cause, around the common goal, and, you know, for us in church, it's serving our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, right? That's the common goal that we have here, so we can all come together and join and lock arms and say, hey, we're going to serve Christ, right? So it's not about me as the leader. I'm not lifting myself up and being like, oh, you got to serve me. No, we're all serving Christ. Or on the job, it would be like, you know, serving the company. Or at home, we're serving the family. We're serving, you know, to have our whole family function that much better, right? And when people can do that and everyone gets on board with the program, then it's also going to be more likely that you get people who are happy with what they're doing and willing to help out when they kind of can see that big picture. And, you know, parents, inform your kids about this, too. Like, make them feel part of the family, which is part of the team, and not just as a nuisance or someone who's always just causing problems for you. Bring them on board. I mean, think about it this way. Think about it, and this should make a lot of sense. I hope this could help at least one family in this room. If I just came here and everybody was just a problem for me, oh, so-and-so's got a problem and this person's got a problem and that person's got a problem, and you just have that type of an attitude, then people are just going to be like, I don't want to be the next problem, you know, or like, whatever. You definitely aren't going to feel that comfortable or close, right, when you're just referred to as a problem. Well, how do you think the kids feel if they're only just kind of being referred to as problems, right? I don't have time for this, I don't have time for you, I don't have time. Let's, you know, bring them into the team so they understand. Now, look, it doesn't mean they're not going to cause problems. Of course they're going to cause problems, they're kids. But getting the right mindset of everybody working together and functioning as a family. Hey, we need to, you know, we need, and look, our families need to be tight-knit and close. Because that is going to, we need that strength, a good solid Christian family in the home to get through the dark times and the troubles that we face. I mean, God forbid we would lose any of our young ones to the world or lose any of our young ones to Satan, right? We want to keep them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, right? And they're so important. So when you think about leadership, you know, we definitely, mom and dad are both leaders to the kids at home. And consider these things and try to put that into practice. It's also important for a good leader to be fair and to be just. Because if you're in leader, you're in authority. And when you're in authority, you're going to have to deal with situations and be an arbiter, right? Be able to say when conflict arises, you have to resolve conflicts. So in order to do that, you need to be fair, you need to be just, and ultimately you need wisdom in order to do that, right? You're in Proverbs 29, just flip back to chapter 20. Actually, well, I already had you turn. We're going to go back to Proverbs 29, so. Proverbs 20, verse 26, by the way, wise king scattereth the wicked and bringeth the wheel over them. So first of all, wise king, since we're talking about leadership, right, being a ruler, they're going to deal with the wicked. So when things happen that are wrong, you don't just look the other way. You've got to deal with things, right? You can't just be the boss that's just never putting problems in their place, right? People like judgment and justice, so you can't just try to be so friendly with people where it's just like, well, no one's ever getting in trouble, no one's ever getting written up on the job, no one's ever getting, you know, a kid's ever getting a spanking at home or whatever, like it's just everything is just, oh, no, no, we're cool. Because when you try to get too buddy-buddy with people as a leader, then you won't have the respect. Then they just won't even see you as a leader at all, right? The way a leader works, hey, as much as you need to be able to lead by example and get in and show that you're willing to get your hands dirty and be able to give the example, it still needs to be known that you are in charge and you're still the leader, right? It's a good balance that you need to maintain that people are aware, okay, look, as much as we all work together for the common goal here, you know, it's still understood that like passive versions is in charge of the way things operate in this church. And that's a way for it to function properly, just like at home, it needs to be understood, hey, dad's in charge of the home at the end of the day, like that's the way things work. Or on the job, you're a supervisor, manager, what have you, whatever your title is, you know, you could be working with people, you could be respectful to people, you could be humble, you can overlook some transgressions and not just be merciless, right? You could be like, okay, understanding and forgiving, but you can't just be buddy-buddy all the time and just allow chaos and just everything to kind of fly out of hand, like the, you know, the wicked need to be scattered or the wheel needs to be brought over them, you know, occasionally that needs to happen. So jump down, or verse number 28 there, skip a verse, down to 28. The Bible says, mercy and truth preserve the king. Uh-oh, we got an amber alert. Mercy and truth preserve the king and his throne is upholding by mercy. So there's another aspect to this, who I was just talking about, mercy and truth, right? Being able to still be merciful, not just be such a huge stickler on the thing, you know, people will appreciate when you can take it easy on them every once in a while, right, and be able to show long suffering and mercy with those that serve. Flip back to chapter 29. And, you know, a lot of these have to do with the king, but it's because the king's the leader, right? The king's in charge, the king's the ruler. So we get a lot of these attributes about leadership on how the king ought to be. Verse number four reads, the king by judgment establisheth the land. So judgment is being able to have good, not just a servant, but being able to judge appropriately, right? Judge righteously. It establishes the land. It's going to establish your leadership. It's going to establish how things go underneath you. It says, but he that receiveth gifts overthroweth it. Thus being a respecter of persons or bribes or what have you, right? And that could come in many fashions. You think about even, you know, being a leader, you need to be able to discern the difference or be able to understand if people are just trying to gain your affection by carnal means, right? Like, oh, you've got, and, you know, you've got the employee that's always bringing you breakfast in the morning. And, hey, that's fine. But then it's like if they're starting to abuse that and they're starting to do things that they ought not to be doing, but then you become this respecter of person. It's like, well, I mean, if I say something, then they might stop bringing me breakfast, right? And look, it sounds silly, but it literally happens. Like this stuff happens all the time, unfortunately. And here's the thing, as a boss, like everyone else can see that. Like, oh, yeah, so the brown-noser, right? Whoever it is, like the kid that brings the apple to the teacher, that's old school reference, but whoever it is, you know, the one that's always just sucking up to the boss, and then they never get in trouble. Well, look, in order to be a good leader, you do need to be able to not be a respecter of persons. So if someone wants to buy over your judgment, don't let them, right? You need to still just stay right to the truth. Like, all right, well, if that means they're going to stop buying me breakfast, then whatever, because at the end of the day, it's going to cause you a lot more problems being that leader if you're just going to sacrifice, I don't want to say everything, but such a big price just for a little meal in the morning or something. Because then you could end up with chaos, you could end up with much bigger problems, and you get people who are disgruntled, not happy at their job, and then they're going to want to leave. And look, I'm trying to be fair on all the various applications with this, so I'm trying not to get too out of bounds on one versus another, but really, this does apply in all areas of leadership. Verse number 14 there in chapter 29, the Bible says, the king that faithfully judgeth the poor, his throne shall be established forever. And again, not being a respecter of persons. So if you're willing to, no matter what type of situation someone's in, and you can just judge righteously, and people have a conflict, and hey, maybe it's the poor guy that doesn't have a vehicle that has to ride his bike to work, versus the person who's got the college degree or whatever. It doesn't matter. You just still do what's right and judge righteously if you're in that position of being a leader, and people will respect you for that. They will. If you can just do righteously, even if many more people are friends or something, but people can still respect and be like, hey, he did what was right. And you know the only person you're going to lose favor with is the one who was the wicked one anyways and did wrong. That would be like the only one. Everyone else should be on your side and good with that anyways as a leader, which is ultimately what you want, but you don't do things just for what are people going to like at the end of the day. A good leader still is going to not base their judgment, not base their actions just on will people like this. People like feeding the flock, for example, and being able to provide and care about and think about and provide the things that's needed for the flock. Sometimes the flock doesn't like what it needs. Sometimes people don't like what is in their best interest overall. Sometimes kids don't like taking medicine, or they don't like eating their vegetables, but it's in their best interest, so guess what? Jax, you're eating those vegetables. I see him looking around. I think I hit a button there. Mom and dad say you're eating the vegetables. You've got to eat the vegetables. They're just saying. But it's just because they have your best interest at heart. You may not like it, but sometimes that's necessary to do those things. Let's flip over just a page or two to Proverbs 31. In order to be a good leader, a good attribute of a leader is you have to have strength. You have to be strong. You have to be strong in your decision making so that people aren't second guessing your decisions as a leader. You need to be able to stay solid and firm. Now, with wisdom, that will help you because if you're making the right choice, you could at least rest that, hey, no, I'm doing what's right. And then it's harder to sway. When you're confident that the decision you're making is right, it should be harder for people to sway you away from that. It's more often when you kind of don't really know and you're just sort of guessing and going, oh, let's go this way, that it's going to be easier for people to make you sway or flip-flop. So one, get the wisdom so that you know you're making the right choice. So you could be more confident in your decisions. But even still, there may be times where you just have to make a choice and then you just do it and go with it. As part of strong leadership and being a good leader is just, all right, well, here's what we're doing. And you don't need to let people know that you might not know exactly everything that you're talking about, but you just lead. Now, we can learn a lot here from Lemuel. Look at verse number one there in Proverbs 31. The words of King Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. So this is what we're seeing is what Lemuel the king, his mom taught him. So she's instructing him on how to be a good leader and how to be a good king. And he has retained this knowledge because these are the words of Lemuel. So this is Lemuel giving these good truths, but they came from his mom. His mom was raising a good leader that this wisdom is found in Scripture. Look at verse number two. What my son and what the son of my womb and what the son of my vows, give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. So you want to be a good leader, don't give your strength to women. I mean, for the king especially, you're saying, look, don't do it. Don't allow for the usurpation of the power and authority that God has ordained. And again, this may not be popular in today's culture, but that's what, this is wisdom. This is biblical, godly wisdom. So don't give your strength unto women. You need to retain your strength. It says, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. Don't get involved in the stuff that's going to bring you down and destroy you. Verse number four, it is not for kings, O Lemuel. It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes strong drink. And back in the way that the world's going to view this, they might say, I mean, they're going to scoff at that, right? Like, no, you ought to be able to go out with a beer with your colleagues or your co-workers. No, and I would say no anyway. First of all, the Bible teaches that drinking booze is wrong no matter what. We shouldn't even be looking at the alcohol, right? I mean, no Christian has any business doing this. But even from a worldly practicality standpoint, if you're someone that just says, I don't think there's any problem with this, you do not want to put yourself in a position where you could be impaired by the people who are working for you. Because when people are drinking alcohol, guess what? Their heart is going to utter perverse things. And you're going to say stupid things and foolish things and bad things end up happening. You may say things that you didn't intend to say. Let your guard down. And now you can't take back the things that you've said under the influence of alcohol. And you may cause a lot of people to lose all respect for you in doing that, too. So, you know, there's first of all, Christians, you shouldn't do it anyways. But second of all, especially as being a leader, like you definitely don't want to be in that condition here. It's the advice for a king. Don't you be drinking wine or strong drink? That's not for you. You shouldn't be involved with that. Lest they drink, and here's another aspect of it, and forget the law and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted. It's also going to cause you to not judge righteously. Booze does that. It's going to cause you to be impaired in your judgment. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts. That is not an endorsement, by the way, for people to drink. Understand English and the English language and how a little bit slightly more poetic language is learned and used. It's for the bum on the street. But it's not really for them. Of course, they shouldn't drink either. But when you're teaching someone to be a king and be a good leader, they say, look, that's not for you. Let that guy drink the booze. You stay clear of it. That's what it's saying there. It's not literally an endorsement of saying, oh, well, hey, I'm the bum on the street, so I'm going to drink because the Bible says I should drink. No. No, the Bible says you should be a leader. So get off the bottle. Get out of that. The Bible says that, you know, as a believer, you're already part of the royal priesthood, that we are kings and priests. So, yeah, it's still not for you. Verse number 7, let him drink and forget his poverty and remember his misery no more. Verse 8, open thy mouth for the dumb and the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction. Open thy mouth, judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor needy. Again, we've kind of gone over these points, but still seeing that repeated again of having that righteous judgment and being able to see things clearly as a leader, it's important for people to have that respect. Flip back to Proverbs 28. Man, oh, man, where does the time go? And this has come up already multiple times, but having that knowledge and that wisdom, we're going to start reading verse number 15. It says, a roaring lion and a ranging bear, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. The prince that wanteth understanding is also a great oppressor. Wanteth means you lack it. So the leader, the prince that lacks understanding, the Bible says are also a great oppressor. So the reverse would also be true. If you're a great oppressor as a leader, you lack understanding. You're lacking wisdom. You shouldn't be someone who's lording over people and being that oppressor type of a leader. You don't have wisdom. It says, but he that hateth covetousness shall prolong his days. Now turn if you would to Exodus chapter 18. Another attribute of a good leader. And those are, like the ones I mentioned already are really important attributes. But this is too, as you grow as a leader, you need to be able to learn how to delegate things to other people as well. And delegate responsibilities and be able to continue to allow other people to take on more responsibility. And be able for you to let go of some responsibilities so that you can take on other responsibilities, right? It's not so that you can kick back and do nothing, right? You don't want to be the lazy boss that makes everyone else do the work, but then you don't do anything. The whole point of freeing up your plate would be to take on greater responsibilities and things that are more suitable for the position that you're in, right? So this is why just applying it locally in our church, I've given so many responsibilities to other people. Because as a pastor of a small church, I started off doing everything, literally. When we had a church start in our house in Arizona, I was passing the plate around. I was greeting people at the door. I was leading all the singing. I didn't play any instruments, so I couldn't do that. Every aspect of the church service was run by me, okay? And that's fine. And you know what? That works when there isn't very many people. It's okay. But as you grow and get bigger, it just simply doesn't make sense for one person to be doing all of the work. So we've been adding and getting more people involved and responsible. But at the end of the day, the job of an elder, the job of the bishop, there's other responsibilities that I should be able to continue to take on where a lot of the other tasks that I have been doing, hey, if I can free those up with someone else doing that, then I can now spend my time doing something else. But you know what also happens in the process? So in that regard, it makes sense for the leader to take on better, bigger responsibilities in that regard. But when you have people that now they are gaining more responsibility, they're going to be learning more, they're going to be growing more, and they're going to be invested more in the cause. So when you can entrust tasks to people that you are managing, that you are being the leader for, you are getting that, like, it's an honor already just for people to serve. Even if it's not that big of a deal, it should be received well. If you're already training people, people will be happy to take on more work. And when they take on that work, you know, especially if they're a good employer, if you've been training them well, then they're going to want to do a really good job. And they're going to be more invested then, because now they've taken on even more responsibility, and things will continue to improve. The kids at home, you know, the older kids start entrusting them with more tasks. And the kids like doing jobs. Some of my older kids, they like doing work at home. There's some things they don't like to do, right? But there's other things that they do. They enjoy being able to do some things, and it's a big help. And you know what, it's a big, there has to be gratification when they can do a good job, and then parents can be like, hey, thank you so much, that was great, that really helps out our family as a whole. And then, you know, they're going to be more involved, and it works out best for everybody. So that delegation of this work, you can't hold on to everything, because one of the flaws in leadership is the people who can't let go of things. And there's a few reasons for that. One is because you think that no one else can do it but you. And I'll tell you right now, that's just totally not true. And I don't care what your job is, or what company, or any, I don't care what your job is. There is not one person alive where they are the only one that can do any job. It just doesn't exist. I don't care who you are, and I don't care what you do. There's always someone else that can do what you do. Always. Everybody's replaceable. There's always someone that can do that other job. Always, always. Always, without fail. We don't like to think that way, because we like to think that we're really important. Look, it's true. And I came to this realization a long time ago. I used to think that one of the jobs I worked for, I'm like, man, this company would go on a business if they didn't have me working for them, and I do so much stuff, and they don't even know what I'm doing. But then I started realizing, that's a stupid thought. It's just dumb. It's ignorant. It's like I just didn't even know that, like, because I was thinking, man, they're paying me so little, but they don't know the work I was doing. And, you know, part of that was true. I was a little bit underpaid for the work that I was doing. But does that mean that no one else would work for a little bit less like I did? I mean, come on. Of course they'll find someone else. Or they'll just pay more money. Either way, they'll continue, and they did continue after they fired me. I think they're still around to this day, so there you go, right? But I learned that lesson before they ever let me go, so I was already okay with that and understanding. But, you know, as a good leader, you need to understand that, hey, you know, yeah, you may have developed something, a process, you might have, you know, how you want things done a certain way. Just train people to do it that way then. You can always do that. You could give up the things. And, you know, sometimes you don't need to micromanage either. Just let people do it, and let them show you what they could do. And, you know, maybe it's better than what you were thinking anyways or doing. Be humble enough to let people grow and give them an opportunity, right? And this concept, though, of being able to delegate and allow other people to get involved is taught in Exodus chapter 18. This was wisdom that was given to Moses by his father-in-law. Look at verse number 13. The Bible says, and it came to pass on the morrow that Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening. It was a full-time job. From morning to night, Moses just sat there and judged. And when Moses' father-in-law saw all that he did to the people, he said, what is this thing that thou doest to the people? And notice this, too. He says, when he saw what he did to the people, he's saying, what are you doing to the people? He's not saying, what are you doing to yourself? What are you doing to the people? You are not serving them well at all by making them stand around and wait all day just to get a judgment from you because you can't let anyone else judge. You think you're the only one that can give judgment in any matters. Now you've set up the system that's like the DMV and now calling number two when you've got ticket 550. It's like, well, man, I guess I'm going to be here for a while. So what are you doing to the people? No one's going to be happy with that at all. Why sittest thou thyself alone, and all the people stand by thee from morning unto evening? And Moses said unto his father-in-law, because the people come unto me to inquire of God. When they have a matter, they come unto me, and I judge between one and another, and I do make them know the statutes of God and his laws. And Moses' father-in-law said unto him, the thing that thou doest is not good. Thou wilt surely wear away both thou and this people that is with thee, for this thing is too heavy for thee. Thou art not able to perform it thyself alone. And that's a good problem to have when you're in leadership and things are growing and you're kind of taking on more tasks and more responsibilities, but you've got to be able to identify as a good leader, okay, now it's time to unload some of this burden onto other people to take this on so we can continue to not wear away. I mean, I'll tell you this. I would be worn away if I had to do everything in the church at this point. I would wear away. It's already hard enough just kind of trying to make sure that the things that I am doing responsible for are getting done, but if I still had to do everything with soul winning, everything with the music, everything on all these other aspects, it's just too much to carry. And this is why the Bible is teaching, no, let's distribute the workload. And again, bigger families at home, you think mom can just do everything? So the kids are getting older, it's just like, nope, no kids, sorry, you don't have to clean. Brother Logan, is your wife the only one that does any cleaning in the house and the kids just get to do whatever they want or do the kids actually help too? I already know the answer to that. You don't even have to tell me, I know, because there's no way that it could possibly work at all with one person just doing all the cleaning. I mean, I know what it's like in my house. They have to help. There's no way it's going to function the other way. Mom will wear away and just not be able to handle it if nobody lifts a finger and you keep on adding more mouths and more feet and more hands and more crayons and more dirt. It gets to be too much. So you need to be able to say, okay, look, this is your job, this is your job, this is your job. And then it's manageable. Verse 19, harken now into my voice, I will give thee counsel and God shall be with thee. Be thou for the people of God, word, that thou mayest bring the causes unto God, and thou shalt teach them ordinances and laws and shalt show them the way wherein they must walk and the work that they must do. 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. I mean, this shows you how bad things got out of control because he's setting up all these different types. It's not just like, oh, just get 10 more guys to help you out. I mean, you need rulers of thousands, you need rulers of hundreds, you need rulers of fifties, and you need rulers of tens for how much work you're doing, Moses. That's a much bigger distribution of load there. And it's like, look, just teach them how to do it, and then let them do it. And then he says, and let them judge the people at all seasons, and it shall be that every great matter they shall bring unto thee, but every small matter they shall judge, so shall it be easier for thyself, and they shall bear the burden with thee. This is how it works even at my job. I'm in IT. I've got an employee that handles all of the smaller jobs. I mean, I can't get this to print. Like, I don't take care of that job. I've got someone else that does that because I have to deal with some of the more jobs that require more technical knowledge and expertise because my employees only been in this industry for a few years, and I've been in it for decades. So, yeah, there's a difference in the knowledge there and the skill that one person has over another, so it just makes the most sense to do that. Same thing at the home, same thing even at church, right? There's people who are going to be more able and well-equipped to do different jobs in service and ministry based on their experience and things like that. So, yeah, this just makes perfect sense. Surrounding yourself with faithful people as a good leader is going to be a great advantage to you, by the way, also, because then, just like Jethro was saying here, hey, find out these people. It's not just get bodies in here to do this job. He had to find faithful people, people who aren't covetous, people who aren't going to be, you know, the people who have righteous judgment, all these other attributes and all these good characteristics themselves so that they can be trained and they can be good leaders, too. If you can surround yourself with other people who are very good, you know, have these characteristics and traits, your leadership will improve because they'll already be ready to take on more work. The Bible says in Proverbs 25, 5, take away the wicked from before the king and his throne shall be established in righteousness. Get rid of the bad apples, right, that are causing you all the problems. Get rid of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and then you'll be established, right? Get rid of, and sometimes as a boss, you might feel like you don't want, you do have to trim sometimes, and if someone's just kind of a cancer to your culture and someone's just like, just this big naysayer and always mouthing off about how bad you are to everyone else, sometimes the best option is like, that guy's got to go because they're just polluting everybody else around here with all their bad attitude and then everyone else is going to thrive when you've got the the railer gone, when you've got the tail bearer gone or whatever, right, that person just needs to go. So again, there's so many different aspects here of leadership, and I'm already out of time. Good leadership requires diligence. We saw that in 1 Peter 5 with the elders to take, you know, to watch over the flock and to feed the flock. I'll read this for you, Proverbs 27, 23. The Bible says, in turn, if you would, the 1 Thessalonians 2, we're closing on that passage. We'll just read through it and then close. Proverbs 27, 23 says, be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks and look well to thy herds, for riches are not forever and doth the crown endure to every generation. So a good leader really needs to be paying attention to the people they lead. I mean, again, it's in the scripture again here. I kind of covered that point already, but you really need to be paying attention. Good leadership doesn't ever just happen on its own. It requires a lot of work. So if you want to be a good leader, take note of all of these different attributes and all these different traits. And I can't even get into everything, really, because there's just so much on this, even in scripture, about this wisdom that we can use. But I think the number one, it's so hard to say because there's so many aspects of leadership that are really important. But the spirit of the leadership, to me, is kind of the most important, right? It's being humble, being fair, righteous, just, but also working very hard and showing people that you're working hard. There's people that don't even necessarily know what you do, but they could recognize that you work hard and they'll respect you for it. Even if they don't agree with your decisions and stuff, they see you just working hard, they're going to respect you for that. People don't know necessarily what our CEO of my company does, but you know what? He shows up before just about anyone else and he leaves after everyone else. And he's not just hanging out and chilling, he's working. I mean, he's the one putting in the most hours on the job by far than anyone else in the company. And you know what? People are going to respect that. They do respect that. Because it's like, if you want to complain about your workload, are you going to complain to him? You're going to complain to the guy that's, hey, I'm putting in 15 hours, 16 hours. Tell me about your workload problems again. And this is similar to the attitude that we see here in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 with the apostles, with the apostle Paul especially. Look at verse number 1 in 1 Thessalonians 2, the Bible reads, For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain. He's like, you already know how we came to you, right? You know this. But even after that, we had suffered before and were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi. We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention. So here we see a steadfastness in their work. These leaders, the adversity that they face, he says, hey, you know how we were shamefully entreated. You know how we suffered. But nonetheless, we still came and preached the gospel to you. We weren't deterred by opposition. And strong leadership and good leadership will be able to continue going forward in the face of any opposition, in the face of a bad market, in the face of mutiny among the children, in the face of anything that comes your way, right? Hey, we aren't changing course. We're continuing to move forward. So he says, you know our entrance unto you. We suffered. We were shamefully entreated. But we were still bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention, with the fighting, with the striving. We still stayed the course and showed you you can still do the work. And this is good leadership because they're showing by example how you can continue to move forward and do the work of the Lord. Verse number three, for our exhortation was not of deceit. We're not lying to you. We're being honest. You're seeing things as they are. It's good judgment, right? It's good just speaking in truth. Nor of uncleanness, nor in guile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak. Not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts. So the judge, when you're working as if you're serving as if you're serving Christ, again, people will see that because you're being real. People have more respect to people who are just being real. You're being true. You're not just trying to satisfy any one person. It's like, no, look, I'm going to do this because it's right. And then people can have expectations of how you're going to lead in the future. This is one of the scariest things with politics and especially we've got people who make decisions not based off of principle. Because who knows what they're going to decide? You have no idea. When you get someone who makes decisions and leads based off of principle, you should be able to say, I know exactly how they'll act in this situation because they subscribe to this ideology. They subscribe to this way of thinking. A Christian, you should be able to say, hey, I should know how so and so is going to be as a leader because they believe the Bible. So if the Bible says this is right, this is wrong, and the Bible is saying this, then, hey, as long as they continue to stay true to those beliefs, then they ought to be able to lead this way or that way. Hey, if they're a Christian, I already should know that they're a hard worker. If they're saying that they're claiming that they believe what the Bible teaches and what the Bible says, then they're going to know, man, this is someone who's going to be a really, really hard worker. But that's if you're taking it for what it says, right? And not just in guile, not of deceit, but no, we're not as pleasing men but God, like it says there in verse 4. Look at verse number 5. For neither at any time use we flattering words as ye know, nor a cloak of covetousness, God is witness. Again, don't be lifting people up and being fake with people and just telling them whatever they want to hear. Just be true. As a leader, just be true. Because then you're going to start opening up this, you know, trying to be something you're not to people and you have to keep up that persona or that image to them. Like, don't mess with that. Just be who you are and be righteous and then it is what it is. And at least, again, people will know how to, they'll know you enough to be able to understand, okay, I see why he's doing what he's doing or whatever. And they'll see that you treat everyone the same way, too, and you're not being a respecter of persons to anybody. Verse number 6. Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children. So, again, there's still this aspect of being benevolent towards the people that are serving under you. Here, it's as a father or as a nurse cherishes her children because the servants that start off as a child, at the end, you can have them as a son. Verse number 8. So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only but also our own souls because you were dear unto us. So, the level of care for the people that they are serving in their leadership is coming through that, look, I am willing to do whatever for you. And, again, people respect that and will love that and will be willing to serve you if you are willing to serve them to that extent and be like, hey, I want the best for you, honestly, and I'm willing to impart my own soul for you. Give all that you have for the cause. Then verse number 9, last verse. For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail for laboring night and day because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. It's the hard work of a good leader. Oh, man, it's not the last verse. I'm just kidding. But it's not the last verse. I didn't have one more page. I want to keep on going. It's a lot of hard work, right? Being a good leader is a lot of hard work. Let it show. Verse 10, you are witnesses in God also how holy and justly and unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe as you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his children that ye would walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory. These great leaders, they're leading by example. They're showing how hard they work. They're demonstrating how holy and justly and unblameably they're being. I mean, they're not doing anything wrong. They're judging righteously. And then they've also exhorted and comforted the people that they're leading, the people that are following them. They're encouraging them. That's what exhortation is. Comforting. Hey, look, man, I know things are kind of hard right now, but we're getting through this together. And then also charged every one. Charge is, hey, a good leader is going to be able to let people know clearly what the instructions are and what they have to do. And I know that's another big point that just didn't even get mentioned until right now, but we're just going to leave it at that. Because if people don't know what they're supposed to do, how can they really serve? Right? Make the job clear. Identify it. Give the charge. Right? Give the exhortation. Give the comfort. Give the charge. Give the charge so that they can all become and ultimately train up new leaders to be able to do the same exact thing. So there's so much to be said about leadership. Leadership is so important. Honestly, leadership in the country, leadership at home, leadership in the church, leadership just it. People are natural followers. We need good leaders. And I don't even say it's not disparaging to be a follower because in order to be a good leader, you need to be a good follower. All the best leaders in the Bible were followers. All of them. They all learned to follow. Elisha followed Elijah. Joshua followed Moses. They served. They were there for them. They were the right hand man before the torch was passed over and they were able to lead. So hopefully, you know, take something from the sermon tonight and apply it to become a better leader in whatever capacity that may be. Even just within the house of God, understand this. Let's say, passive versions, I don't have a job. I don't have a family. How can I even possibly look? Look, people are always looking to others just in general anyways, especially within the church. You might never realize who looks up to you and who watches and monitors what you do because you are their example and you might not even know it. So just having that in mind, try to have a conversation, have a way of living and being where you're applying still these principles in your own life that you can be someone who is respectable and someone that can be looked up to. And maybe one day you'll be put into a position of leadership that you might not even be seeking right now. Right? Good skills to have. You never know what the future is going to hold. And maybe, if nothing else, you can pass on that same wisdom and knowledge unto someone else who is wanting to become a leader themselves. Let's bow our heads, have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for all the wisdom that you give us through your word. God, I pray that you would please help this church to turn out a lot of great leaders that will serve you and do so truthfully and honestly, dear Lord. And I pray that you would please just continue to help us to bring in the laborers here that can become great leaders, dear Lord, and ultimately that the most work can be done to your honor and glory. God, we love you and we thank you for the opportunity to be here tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, we're going to sing one last song before we're dismissed. Brother Peter, would you please lead us? All right, church, you can't open up your windows. Song number 321. Song 321. Where he leads, I'll follow. Song 221. All right, let's sing the sound of the verse. Sweetheart, what a sin this time is the word. Dear Lord, and in this is the gem of earth. Who was the light of Christ in this I see? Be the great example, there's no better way. Where he leads, I'll follow. Follow all the way. Where he leads, I'll follow. Follow Jesus every day. Sweet as the tender love Jesus has shown. Sweeter more than any love that mortals have known. Kind to the air he was, faithful is he. Be the great example is the matter for me. Where he leads, I'll follow. Follow all the way. Where he leads, I'll follow. Follow Jesus every day. This too is loving words come unto me. Fearing heavy land, there is sweet rest within. Trust in his promises, faithful and sure. Lean upon the Savior and my soul is secure. Where he leads, I'll follow. Follow all the way. Where he leads, I'll follow. Follow Jesus every day. . .