Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign 945.
[00:00:07] Good morning. If you guys have a Bible, would you open it to the book of numbers? We're going to be in chapter 27 this morning. If I have not had the opportunity to meet you. My name is Michael Fueling. I'm the lead pastor here at the village church and I'm very excited. I have the joy of opening up God's word with you today. I want to give you a little bit of insight maybe into my week. I get to spe about one hour every week leading a fifth and sixth grade chapel at my kids school.
[00:00:41] They are a crazy, rambunctious group of kids but we have a whole bunch of village church kids there and in fact there are a whole bunch of you who over the last couple of years have been in my fifth and sixth and then for a little while I did seventh and eighth grade too chapel. And you know how kind of insane it can be, but it's, it is one of my favorite things for just an hour a week to be a youth pastor again.
[00:01:05] So I have this joy. And so every single year, the first couple messages I ask two questions. And here are the two questions I ask who is the best leader you have ever had? And why? And then in a separate message I asked this question.
[00:01:24] Who do you look up to spiritually the most?
[00:01:28] And, and why?
[00:01:30] And what's interesting is that rarely do two students ever give the same answer like you would think there would be some consistency amongst the answers. And so here's just a sum of the many answers that I have received.
[00:01:43] They pray over me, they give me wisdom.
[00:01:47] They are always there when I need them. They help me understand God's word, they teach me how to do things, they encourage me. They love God more than anything.
[00:01:59] And I'm kind of looking for the secret sauce. Like what makes somebody a great spiritual leader in someone's life? And they were unhelpful to me as a pastor. I truly love hearing the stories about other pastors in your life who God used to transform you, who God used to build your faith, these pastors who showed up in these really, really special seasons and times and in your life. And I'm not exaggerating when I say this, I've heard well over 100 stories about these incredible men whom God used to shape your life. And I love hearing these stories.
[00:02:35] Let me just give you a handful of the reasons why or how God used these people. These pastors in your life.
[00:02:43] They were the first person to make God's word come alive for me. They trained me for ministry.
[00:02:49] They walked with me through my worst season of life. They moved heaven and earth to get me the resources I needed in a desperate situation. They were my youth pastor and opened up their home and their life to me. They just really connected with my personality. They spoke vision over my life and helped me see who God made me to be. I could go on and on. Again, very unhelpful. When I am trying to find what is the secret sauce to being a great spiritual leader? Leader. And I think, if we're being honest, do you not want maybe your spouse, your kids, your grandkids, your friends to look at you and say, that person had a great spiritual impact on my life?
[00:03:30] I think this is normal and it's right. We want people to look at us and to be able to say, I admire them and respect them spiritually. I want to be Michael Feueling. I want to be a respectable spiritual leader.
[00:03:43] So what is the secret sauce? And it's interesting because the Book of Psalms gives us sort of an insight into the ingredients of what makes a spiritual leader great. And I have really awesome news for you. What the Book of Psalms do is they just kind of bottom shelf this in a way that is really meaningful. Psalm 78 reflects on King David's leadership. And here's what it says of his leadership. Verse 72, with upright heart, he shepherded them and guided them with his skillful hand.
[00:04:15] And what I was actually able to kind of boil down as I took all of the data points from these fifth and sixth graders and from all the stories that I've heard over the years, is that every great spiritual leader has really two attributes. Number one is an upright heart.
[00:04:28] That when people describe those spiritual leaders, they are describing somebody that they believe has a heart that they can trust, a heart that is inclined toward the Lord. And so if you've had in your past a spiritual leader and only to find out that they did not have an upright heart, it sort of makes you like, kind of rewrite their entire story in your brain. And so here's number one is an upright heart. And you know what's great news?
[00:04:52] Every one of us can pursue an upright heart.
[00:04:57] Number two, they have a unique skill that they use to bless God's people. David's unique skill that he learned as a youth is that he was an incredible and skilled shepherd. And I, I am absolutely convinced that all of us are only great at one or two things and absolutely mediocre at the rest. Can I get an amen? Like the vast majority of us only have the capacity and ability to be really, truly great at one thing. What I find is that when you kind of get a hold of that one thing, you realize it actually might be something that God put inside of you. And behind that great thing might actually just be a unique calling for your life. If you know David's story, he becomes king. And for the first 20 years of his kingship, he has an upright heart and he leads the people with skill.
[00:05:50] Do you guys remember the name of that woman who shows up at about year 20?
[00:05:53] Bathsheba compromises, covers it up, no bueno, on every level. And then what happens in the last 20 years of his life is he didn't lose his skill, but he lost his upright heart.
[00:06:06] And after he lost his upright heart, everything in his spiritual leadership was chaos all around him. And so you find is that you're not gonna lose your skills. Like some of the skills that God has put inside of you, these things that you're great at. It's like riding a bike. You'll probably be able to do it to the day you're dead. But an upright heart, that is something that we can cast away. And we can actually forfeit the privilege of being a spiritual leader in people's life. Moses was considered, I would say, not just one of the greatest spiritual leader in the nation of Israel. He was considered this, by the way, for two reasons. Number one, Moses had an upright heart. And here's just a little bit of how the Bible describes him. Great in faithfulness, great in humility, great in intimacy with God. And again, as we describe, like an upright heart, every single one of us, we can pursue faithfulness to the things that God has called us to do. We can pursue humility, we can pursue nearness to God. The very things that made Moses character upright, every person has the ability to pursue those things. Scripture also teaches that Moses was a very skilled spiritual leader. He was not good at a lot of things, if you're familiar with the story. Was Moses good at talking?
[00:07:27] No. In fact, God calls him and he's like, I'm not. I can't talk to anybody. You need Aaron to come in, my brother, and to talk for me. I wouldn't say, as you kind of read the story of Moses, that he was particularly self controlled in his emotions. You don't really find him being calm, cool and collected all the time. You also see that Moses was not great at discerning other people's heart, but he was really great at one thing. He was great at at being the spiritual leader for the nation of Israel.
[00:07:57] He was really great at listening to what God wanted and then going in front of a really annoying group of people and leading them in that direction.
[00:08:07] His spiritual leadership was second to none. And somebody might say, and rightly so, but Moses failed publicly and in a really big way.
[00:08:19] And Moses, what's striking is that his public failure, God didn't feel the need to cancel him. And there's a really simple reason why.
[00:08:27] It's because Moses practiced what we've called here, extreme ownership.
[00:08:32] Moses, the Book of Numbers says, was the most humble man in the entire world. Wouldn't you guys love for somebody to describe you like that? Like the most humble person on the entire planet? That's a pretty awesome description.
[00:08:47] And Moses, when he failed, took full responsibility for his failure.
[00:08:55] What really sets great men and women and students apart. And again, let me just bottom shelf this for you guys. Truly great men and women are upright in heart.
[00:09:03] They grow in the skill of their calling, and they remain humble in failure.
[00:09:10] The majority of us are probably not going to lead a nation, but that's not really the thing that I think most of us want. Most of you probably would not care to be in a political office right now, but probably what you do want is you want your kids and your grandkids and your husband and your wife and your friends.
[00:09:26] You want to be able to have a spiritual influence on them. And what I love is that the foundations of every great spiritual leader are the same.
[00:09:34] You pursue an upright heart before the Lord. You discover, what are the one or two things that I'm great at. And you grow in this skill and you use it to bless people. And when you fail, which you will, will you take full responsibility before the Lord and the people? You have failed. So with this context in mind, Numbers, chapter 27, Israel is on the verge of finally, actually, really they're going to do it. They're going to go into the promised land and they what stands between them and the promised land is the Jordan river. And on the other side of the Jordan river is Jericho. Remember, Jericho has all the walls and they got to walk around it and shout, and the walls fall down. Remember that story? That city is staring at them and the other side of the Jordan River. And Moses knows, because of his massive public failure, his discipline is that he was not going to be able to go into that promised land. If you don't remember the failure, remember he's got a got to tell the rock that water comes down. He just starts beating the rock and Essentially yelling at it and didn't go well. And he dishonored God and disobeyed him in front of everybody. And so the Lord dealt with him and that was his discipline, and he took it.
[00:10:41] Moses knows he's not allowed to go in. And he also knows, by the way, the kind of leadership that took Israel through the wilderness, they were actually going to need a different kind of leader with different skills to take them into the land of giants and the most evil people the world had known and to overcome them in military victory. And so Moses is self aware what got us here won't get us there. And now we get to verse 12, numbers 27.
[00:11:09] The Lord said to Moses, go up into this mountain of Abarim and see the land that I have given to the people of Israel. Now my question is the Lord just rubbing Moses failure and what he has lost because of this failure in his face. Like, look at what you forfeited, you loser.
[00:11:33] What? Or is the Lord encouraging Moses before his death? Moses, everything you have endured is worth it.
[00:11:43] Look at what your children and grandchildren are going to inherit.
[00:11:48] How Moses interprets this conversation is really going to be up to him.
[00:11:53] I think you'll probably very personally understand what I'm saying. But a good person can say a good thing to someone with a broken heart, a prideful heart, a victim heart, and that good word will be interpreted as evil.
[00:12:10] But a good person can say a good thing to a clean heart and to a humble heart, and that same word in the same tone will be interpreted as kindness.
[00:12:22] In verse 13, the Lord gives Moses, I think, some news that he was probably expecting.
[00:12:28] He says, when you've seen it, this land, you also shall be gathered to your people as your brother Aaron was. And if you remember, Aaron and his son and Moses went up to the top of the mountain and there was a transfer of power. And Aaron died on the top of a mountain. And he essentially says, in the same way that Aaron died on the top of a mountain, I'm going to bring you to the top of this mountain, and this is going to be where you die.
[00:12:52] Moses knew the people were going to go to the promised land. He also knew he had nowhere to go. He can't stay in Moab. He can't go with his old family, the Midianites. He's made an enemy of all of them.
[00:13:01] He does understand that eventually, like sooner than later, the Lord is going to take his life also. So he knows his days are limited. And in verse 14, in the conversation, the Lord is blunt and Crystal clear about why Moses can't go in.
[00:13:16] He says, you aren't going in. You're going to die here. Because you rebelled against my word in the wilderness of Zen. And part of me is like, okay, Lord, I get it. I already know the details of the story. Now let me retell you all the details. Okay. In the wilderness of Zin, when the congregation quarreled, failing to uphold me as holy at the waters before their eyes. These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.
[00:13:45] This actually reminds me of what our final judgment is going to be like, where all the evil and all of the sin, as we say, all the sins of commission and omission, the things we should have done that we didn't do, and the things that we did do that we shouldn't have done.
[00:14:03] Where the Day of Judgment where us, who, if you've trusted in Christ, you're gonna stand at the Day of Judgment forgiven once and for all and forever.
[00:14:09] But we will have to have a reckoning. And we will have to face everything we have done publicly, privately, secretly, that nobody knew about, the things that everybody knows about. And we are gonna have to give a full accounting. And the whole point of this is not shame. It is justice.
[00:14:27] And one of the most beautiful things about the Day of Judgment is that if you are in Christ, you will stand there seeing the full weight and consequences of our secret, public, and private sins, but also know the beautiful covering of the shed blood of Jesus over every one of our sins.
[00:14:43] And so, for those of us who've trusted in Christ, the Day of Judgment, I'm going to be honest. I'm not looking forward to it, but I know I'm going to get through it. Not because that was good, but because Christ promised me that his blood would cover me.
[00:14:57] And I come back to this moment, and it's like, God, why do you have to, like, rehash our sins?
[00:15:02] Well, when you're forgiven and when you have practiced extreme ownership, when you have taken full responsibility and repented for your sins, it doesn't crush you when somebody brings it up again, because you already know what's gone on and what you've done. And again, let me just summarize here one of the great attributes of great leaders. The greatest men and women, they give glory to God for their victories, and they take full responsibility for their failures. Now, at this point, I want to shout amen. And some of you are like, full responsibility, you know, the greatest men and women give glory to God for their victories. And take full responsibility for their failures. And by the way, this is also one of the secrets to being a great parent.
[00:15:44] Verse 15.
[00:15:46] The true state of Moses heart. I love this. It's seen.
[00:15:49] It's seen. In his response, facing the consequences of his willful sin, it says this. Moses spoke to the Lord, saying, how dare you bring up my sin?
[00:15:59] No.
[00:16:01] Let the Lord, the God of the Spirit, of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation who shall go out before them and come in before them, who shall lead them out and bring them in. That the congregation of the Lord may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.
[00:16:22] I want you to notice three things here. The first, Moses does not debate with God. Moses is not a victim.
[00:16:30] Moses is not angry. Moses is not belligerent.
[00:16:35] Moses has taken full responsibility for his sin and accepted the full weight of the consequences of. Of his sin. Note a Second in verse 17, his prayer is that the people may not be as sheep that have no shepherd.
[00:16:51] And his concern, it's not for his legacy.
[00:16:57] His concern is not for his ego.
[00:17:00] His final concern is that the people of God that he has led for all of these decades, that he has lost everything for that. This people would not be scattered, because what happens to sheep? And they have no shepherd. They're picked off and they are killed because they are vulnerable.
[00:17:17] And he's like, like, lord, we have brought these people this far. Would you please bring in another leader?
[00:17:26] Another leader who can protect them because they're going into the most dangerous place in the entire world. The land of Canaan.
[00:17:33] I want you to notice, third, Moses refers to God with a rare title. He calls him the God of the spirits, of all flesh. This only actually comes up twice. And it has, I think, a really special meaning. It signifies that only God is the one who knows what is truly in another person's heart.
[00:17:55] Moses has. I'm guessing this is inference, but I think it's. I think it's trustworthy. I think Moses has pretty strong opinions on who should take his role as the leader of the nation of Israel.
[00:18:06] But he also recognizes that the people he has trusted the most in the past, he was not able to see their heart issues.
[00:18:16] Case in point, Miriam, his sister. Aaron, his brother.
[00:18:21] And so the heart issues of the leaders of Israel got the people of Israel into a lot of trouble.
[00:18:29] And so Moses is acknowledging God.
[00:18:32] Honestly, I think I see what's in people's hearts. But you're the God of the hearts of all flesh. You see past all of the skills, all of the posture, all of the pedigree. And you actually see right into the heart of people. So, God, we already know, right, that the nation of Israel, they're gonna need a skilled military leader. Somebody who's gonna bring them into battle and lead by example and who's gonna have the, the skill and wisdom necessary to win that battle and then bring them back home like you already know the skills. We all agree we need a great military leader, Moses, isn't it? But God, I can't see people's hearts. And so would you pick a leader who doesn't just have the skills, the unique skills that are required for this new season, but would you pick someone whose heart is pure, you see into this place, God, would you do this? In verse 18 tells us who Moses successor would be and why.
[00:19:26] So the Lord said to Moses, take Joshua the son of nun. Again, inference. I think Moses was like, thank God, that is the one I wanted.
[00:19:35] Because Moses, Joshua the son of nun, was Moses helper for decades now. He stood by him. He was his right hand man. He was counseling him, giving him support during all of these years. But then it says this, and this is why he was chosen a man. And I love this. In whom is the spirit?
[00:19:55] And lay your hand on him.
[00:19:58] And so the Lord of the Spirit of all flesh looked over the entirety of the nation of Israel.
[00:20:05] And probably the strong military warriors, they kind of were the cream of the crop. They rose to the top. You could see them. But only the Lord could look inside of each man's heart to see whose heart was upright.
[00:20:19] And the Lord chose Joshua with this sacred task. And Joshua's chosen for at least two reasons. Number one, we are told that inside of Joshua, controlling him is simply these two words, quote, the spirit. Now that's elusive to me. Thankfully, in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 34, Moses clarifies actually what this means.
[00:20:42] And it clarifies that Joshua is full of, quote, the spirit of wisdom.
[00:20:50] So I have a couple people in my life, not many, a couple, like two.
[00:20:54] Two people in my life who have the supernatural gift, spiritual gift of wisdom. And let me describe to you what this gift looks like.
[00:21:06] When there is chaos in my brain and there is no clear path forward to the next step. And I can't figure out what is up and down or left or right.
[00:21:19] When I sit down with someone with the gift of wisdom, they have this at first, annoying supernatural ability to see with such efficiency and clarity the path we need to take.
[00:21:36] And I'm just like, how did you get that so quick? Quickly because it is a supernatural, God given spirit, ability to see the path forward in the midst of absolute chaos and muddy waters. And they always give what I call, of course ideas. And the moment they say it, I go, of course. How did I not see that? It's like so simple. It's like right in front of my face.
[00:22:01] And so what people with the gift of wisdom have the ability to do is just give, of course ideas. And what's striking about Joshua is, is that he is Moses number two. And for years and years and years he has been giving wisdom.
[00:22:14] Moses can look at Joshua and say, in this guy is the spirit of wisdom. He sees the best strategy, the best pathway, the best path forward. And he doesn't just see the spirit of wisdom. He has the courage to go do the hard things, the right things, the wise things.
[00:22:32] Joshua says skill.
[00:22:33] His supernatural ability was to lead, especially in military battle, with remarkable wisdom.
[00:22:44] Now, second reason Joshua's chosen because his heart was upright.
[00:22:50] We saw 40 years earlier. And again, you remember the story, the spies go into the land, 12 come back, 10 say, oh, we can't do it, we're scared. And then Joshua and Caleb are like, no, they defend the Lord and, and they believe in the Lord. And you see the uprightness of their character, their integrity, their confidence in the Lord. But here's what's interesting. I think most people don't realize this is that way before that his character had to be proven in different ways. But we'll get there. Let me just be as redundant as I can about Joshua. What made Moses and Joshua spiritual giants was their upright heart and their unique God given skills.
[00:23:25] This is actually really great news, and I said it before, and I'm gonna be redundant.
[00:23:30] If you want to be a spiritual giant in the lives of the people around you, pursue an upright character.
[00:23:40] Pursue upright character and learn and love the unique gifts that God has given you. The one or two things that you're great at, and lean into those and use them to build God's kingdom.
[00:23:54] Now verse 19, the Lord is going to explain kind of this unique transition process.
[00:24:00] He says, make him, Joshua, stand before Eleazar the priest and all the congregation, and you shall commission him in their sight. You shall invest him with some of your authority that all the congregation of the people of Israel may obey. Verse 21, he shall stand before Eliezer the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim, before the Lord, at his word, Joshua, they shall go out. And at his word they shall come in. Both he and all the people of Israel with him, the whole congregation. Moses, just as you requested, I'm going to make sure this people have a leader who is skilled in military battle, who can go out into the battle with them, lead with wisdom to the point where they will be victorious and they will come home safe. Verse 22. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. He took Joshua and made him stand before Eliezer, the priest and the whole congregation. And he laid his hands on him and commissioned him as the Lord directed through Moses. There is a phrase in verse 20 I want to draw your attention to, and the phrase says this.
[00:25:02] You shall invest him with some of your authority. And as you read that, you might think, well, why not give him all of your authority? And what I appreciate about this, and this is kind of hard to see in this text, but when you kind of look at the story of Joshua and the story of Moses, and what you find is that they are entering into what God is calling them into, is what will end up being about a three to four month transition process of leadership. And so even though God's going to call him up to a mountain, that's not happening for a few months. In fact, as Moses is given the name of his successor, Moses Job isn't done.
[00:25:40] Because right after this, God says to Moses, I want you to go basically take care of the Midianites. And they've been really annoying to the people of God. So you're gonna go in and take care of them. Also, Moses, I've got a whole bunch more laws that the people of Israel need before they go into the promised land. And you're the mediator of these laws. So I got a whole lot more teaching that you need to give to the people of Israel. And what I just so appreciate is that God gave Moses one last opportunity to speak before the entire nation of Israel. And you know what? We have this message and do you know what it's called?
[00:26:13] The Book of Deuteronomy. Some people have called this Moses farewell speech to the people of Israel before he goes up onto the mountain and dies. He gives them vision. He reminds them of the most important stories of their people's lives. He re gives them so many of the laws. That's why it's called the second law. He's reminding them of some of the most important.
[00:26:32] He's got personal words for Joshua and for the people of Israel and reminders of these really important things. And so how kind of God, even though he screwed up, Moses did, even though he's not gonna be Able to go into the land. God's like, I'm not done with you. You've been humble. You've had an upright heart. You've been a great spiritual leader, and I'm not done with you. We're taking these three to four months, and you're gonna stand before the people, and you are going to finish. Well, I love this.
[00:26:57] This brings us to 14. So what?
[00:27:01] It's just three? It's just three. Almost done.
[00:27:05] Number one.
[00:27:06] Future spiritual leaders are building their character and skills today.
[00:27:15] Some of you, you're listening, and you're like, I want to be in the eyes of the people I love, somebody that they look up to spiritually.
[00:27:25] You may not be called a leader, but you want to be honored. You want to be somebody who leaves a great spiritual legacy.
[00:27:33] And so the ingredients are simple.
[00:27:37] Upright character.
[00:27:40] Discern and learn to love the one or two things that you are great at and use them to bless people and build up the kingdom of God. And when you fail, which you will take extreme ownership of your failures.
[00:27:57] 40 years prior, Joshua was picked, and I think this is an interesting story.
[00:28:08] God says to the 12 tribes, I want you to pick one from each tribe.
[00:28:15] And God gives them an interesting description of who they're supposed to pick. He. He calls him to pick a chief. Now, we have weird kind of notions of what that could or could not mean. But essentially, a chief was a leader who was proven known and trustworthy. And specifically, this was gonna be a chief who is gonna need to have a little bit of skill and courage, because they were gonna go undercover in the most dangerous land on the entire planet.
[00:28:40] And so when the leaders of the tribe of Ephraim, they looked around and the question is, who is a proven, skilled leader of the people of the tribe of Ephraim? And they stopped with Joshua.
[00:28:56] And what's striking is that Joshua was chosen to be a spy, because before he was ever chosen to be that, he was a chief. And he was a chief because he had proven faithful, he had proven skillful, he had proven honorable. He had proven to be somebody who was considered enough that of all the men, of all the men of the tribe of Ephraim, they plucked him out and said, you're going to be the one to do this tribe proud, to represent us and to go into this dangerous land. And there's something really important here that I don't want you to miss. Like, you might just look at this and be like, wow. Joshua got promoted to be the most important leader in Israel out of the Blue. No. The greatest leaders of God's people were tested and proven before they were promoted.
[00:29:42] And this is what's important to know, and I want to just share with you a little bit of my own kind of perspective on this. In my experience, and especially from Jesus teaching on the parable of the talents, every single person, man, woman, student, child, who is faithful with a little will eventually face a test.
[00:30:05] And it is going to be a test that is either designed or permitted by God just for you to prove whether or not you are ready for the next season.
[00:30:20] So whatever you're calling, it doesn't matter. You could be a leader, teacher, shepherd, evangelist, servant. You don't. You don't get to choose.
[00:30:28] When the moment of testing comes, you don't get to choose what the test is.
[00:30:36] All of a sudden you are in the middle of it.
[00:30:40] And I want to be really crystal clear.
[00:30:43] You, in the middle of this, will know exactly what the right thing to do is. The question is not what should you do? It's do you have the upright character? Do you have the courage to do the thing?
[00:30:55] And in these moments of testing you, your character will be tested.
[00:31:01] Almost always there is a personal idol that you're going to have to come face to face with that you're going to have to kill.
[00:31:08] Most importantly, God is watching. And I'm reminded of 2 Chronicles 16, 9, for the eyes of the Lord, they run to and fro throughout the whole earth to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward Him.
[00:31:25] Most of us want to be given more responsibility, leadership, influence. And the first question is, am I being faithful to the areas that God has put me now?
[00:31:34] And I have just found that before God gives you more, he will test you to see whether or not you have the character to sustain the future calling that he might have for you.
[00:31:46] So at number two, some of you are like, oh, no, I'm in that season right now. Well, then be strong and courageous and do the right thing that the Lord is calling you to do. Number two, the best spiritual leaders all have at least one lifelong core struggle.
[00:32:05] I really appreciate that every spiritual leader in the Bible, for the most part, their flaws are just documented so that millennia of people can read them and see their greatest struggles and weaknesses.
[00:32:20] I think this is really valuable for us because we have a tendency to take our spiritual leaders and put them on pedestals that they should never be on.
[00:32:29] And I have talked with a lot of spiritual leaders, and when they are safe and they are vulnerable, I have found that there is not One exception. Every spiritual leader has a core sin struggle they have wrestled with from youth. And it will be a lifelong battle. And what I've also found is that they're all over the place. It's different for every single person.
[00:32:52] And so when you find somebody with upright character and you find somebody with a unique skill that they're using to build God's kingdom and to bless, and a humility so that when they make mistakes, they kind of own those things, behind all of that is going to be a real, actual flawed sinner who has to go before the Lord on a regular basis and say, help me, because I'm so still wrestling with this annoying, ridiculous sin or struggle. I have also found most spiritual leaders eventually, if you prove to be upright in character and faithful to what God has called you to be faithful to most spiritual leaders, eventually, when you become a large enough threat to enough people, where maybe you were just an incredible grandfather or grandmother, and the demonic realm sees that gentleman, generations are looking up to you. Here's what I have found. Most spiritual leaders will eventually have a lifelong demonic thorn permitted by God to preserve your humility.
[00:33:48] I've also found that most spiritual leaders will eventually have a physical, emotional or psychological ailment that will massively limit them, either in them or their immediate family.
[00:34:04] All of these are to remind you of a couple things.
[00:34:08] Not a single spiritual leader in this world will ever be able to be everything to everyone.
[00:34:15] And this is one of the things I love. The closer you get to a spiritual leader, the more human they become.
[00:34:22] And what you hope you see is upright character, a faithfulness, a commitment to the skill God's given them to build his kingdom, and a quick willingness to admit when they fail, because every one of them does.
[00:34:33] And the reason I share this is because some people think spiritual leadership is this great grand thing. And it's wonderful to be a spiritual leader, but it's also a lifelong commitment to upright character, pursuing God's kingdom with the skills you have and owning your failures with extreme ownership.
[00:34:52] And so there's this humility that you have to have. And also. But I want people to understand that as you look up to spiritual leaders, you only have one perfect spiritual leader. And it's not that man or woman.
[00:35:05] The only perfect spiritual leader you're ever going to encounter is going to be Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, who is unbelievably, perfectly, always faithful. And this brings me to my third final. So what? All sheep need a shepherd, and all shepherds are just sheep.
[00:35:24] Even Moses, like, he just needed to go before the Lord and he had such a. Oh, I'm so jealous. He had such an awesome opportunity to go face to face with the Lord. Like, how many of you guys think you're like, man, I'd be incredible if I could just talk to God face to face, right?
[00:35:40] Moses went face to face with the Lord and he needed the Lord's regular guidance and shepherding.
[00:35:47] Joshua was not going to have that opportunity to go face to face with the Lord. But even Joshua needed the priests. He needed the priest to be able to help him to serv. Discern the will of God. Like, you're just never alone. And I want to just. I want to pull this back and apply this to our lives. Every human being needs two shepherds in their life.
[00:36:02] You need to be part of a local church where you have pastors and elders who shepherd your souls here on this planet. This is why being a part of a local church is a spiritual, deeply important matter.
[00:36:12] But no pastor, no spiritual leader, no mentor will ever, ever be able to replace the shepherd of your soul who is Jesus. Because only Jesus can forgive you and save you. Only Jesus can empower you. Only Jesus can transform you from the inside out. All of the other shepherds are there to help and come alongside of what your ultimate chief shepherd, Jesus, is doing in your soul.
[00:36:36] And this is where we say the first thing every person needs to do is we need to come before the Lord and trust in Jesus Christ. We need to make him our chief shepherd. We need to be forgiven of our sins, which only happens by trusting in his life, death, and resurrection. And then we encourage people, once you trust in Christ, we find a local church. Because you need help. You need spiritual leadership and shepherding in this life to come alongside of you and to help you become more like Jesus.
[00:37:03] Now what I want to do to close is I want to read to you in the book of Deuteronomy, the very last chapter, the actual time when all of numbers 27 is implemented.
[00:37:14] And here's what it says. It's a short chapter.
[00:37:17] It says, then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho. So he's looking over Jericho, and the Lord showed him all the land.
[00:37:29] Gilead as far as Dan, all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the western sea, the Negev, the plain that is the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees as far as Zoar is the Lord rubbing in his face Here. No, this is a gift. Moses. Look at what the generations after you're going to inherit. It says this in verse four. The Lord said to him, this is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to your offspring. I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not go over there.
[00:38:05] So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And he buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Bethpur.
[00:38:15] But no one knows the place of his burial to this day.
[00:38:19] Moses was 120 years old when he died. His eye was undimmed. I want to know about the other eye. But one of them was undimmed and his vigor unabated.
[00:38:31] And the people of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab 30 days.
[00:38:36] Then the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended. And Joshua, the son of nun, was full of the spirit of wisdom, for Moses had laid hands on him. So the people of Israel obeyed him and did as the Lord commanded. Moses. And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel, like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, none like him. For all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all of his servants and all the land, and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. Let's pray together.
[00:39:15] Father, thank you for the men and the women that you've brought into our lives to be those spiritual giants to encourage us with upright character, who found the one or two things they were great at and invested in them and had the humility to own their failures, thank you for the impact that they have had on our life.
[00:39:34] Thank you that in your word, you just describe all different sorts of spiritual leaders with all different sorts of sorts of skills and gifts. And we get to read their stories, imperfect as they are. And thank you that all of them point to the only perfect shepherd who is Jesus. And so we come to you, Jesus, and say, no one can do what you do for us. No one can save us. No one can be perfect. Nobody can rise from the dead. Nobody can transform us from the inside out. And so we just say, we love you and we thank you, and we regularly need your help on a daily basis. We want to become more like you and God. For those of us whose hearts are burning like we want to have spiritual influence and we want those in our life to look at us as honorable Lord, would you develop more and more our character?
[00:40:24] Would you allow us to be upright?
[00:40:27] Would you reveal to us and grow us in our skills? And would you regularly give us the humility to own our failures with extreme ownership? May we give you the glory for all the good and take responsibility for our sin. Lord, we love you and we pray this in Jesus name, Amen. Amen.
