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The Harvester Podcast is brought to you by the Florida School of Preaching. Listen weekly to take a dive into biblical topics and thoughtful studies on things that matter to our eternal souls.
Welcome you to the Florida School of Preaching Harvester podcast.
We're glad that you are joining us this morning.
This is what I'm going to call a bumpersowed number one, and that is between our first and
second seasons.
We're going to have these two episodes.
We're going to talk about leadership.
I am your host, Brian Kenyon, along with the host, Steven Ford.
And we're both with the South Florida Avenue Church of Christ, but also with the Florida
School of Preaching.
And so leadership is something, Steven, that we need to always work on for the local
church.
And really any business, anything that we are involved in, any organization is going to
have to have leadership, the church included.
And a lot of times when we think of leadership in the church, we automatically think of
elders or elderships or shepherds.
And though that is a
probably the highest form of leadership in a local congregation.
I heard Tom Holland one time preach on our lectureship several years ago, and I couldn't
find the exact wording of it, but it's something to the effect of to whatever extent a
Christian influences others to live for Jesus, to that extent he or she is a Christian
leader.
And I think there's a lot of truth to that.
I think that's a good working definition.
I kind of was thinking the same thing.
I wanted to try to see if we could define that first before we got really into the weeds
of it.
Because leadership, think to many people can mean multiple things depending on who you're
asking for the sake of this conversation with the Bible demonstrates.
I think that's a good definition.
I was thinking one's ability to motivate and influence others.
Also want to kind of work in demonstrating some good and godly.
behaviors in there some kind of way, I that Tom Hollins definition sounds like a good
working definition
yes i also came across the quote by a man by the name of john maxwell and he is a
leadership guru guy gets in the sector world of the seminars and stuff but he mentioned
this quote the single bed biggest way to impact an organization is to focus on leadership
development there's almost no limit to the potential of an organization that recruits good
people raises them up as leaders and continually develops them
And he is mentioning that from a secular background, but I think that those principles
hold true with the church.
Absolutely, you can see it demonstrated in both the Old and the New Testament, especially
with the church.
Well, I won't say especially, but specifically in the church you find that leadership
model of developing leaders, which is something I think is characteristic of a leader,
that you develop other leaders.
Yes, and that's a very good point.
I know a congregation kind of locally to here who had three elders and two of them died
within a month of each other and So they had another guy waiting in the wings and they did
appoint him as an elder so it saved the eldership But even he would tell you he may not
have been as ready as he could have been but it's like you know churches must constantly
local churches of Christ must constantly look to the future and
constantly train men to be in the place of leaders and of course how they get to that
point is to you have this culture of you know next man up as it were if something goes
wrong with someone or something that that when you step in you're needed and we see that
in the old testament examples for example joshua will take a look at joshua here in a
minute but just the importance of having men or people ready
in whatever leadership capacity is involved in a local church even sometimes with the
ladies and their certain aspects that god gives them authority to lead in people need to
be ready
Yeah, there when I worked for a long time in management for Radio Shack and my job was to
recruit, train and also manage a store.
But for me, it was always recruiting time.
And so I was always out looking for the next person, even if I found like that person's
like, this person will make a great salesperson.
We train them, get them going.
But as soon as I was done with that training, I was out looking for the next one because
inevitably, especially in that field, the turnover was relatively high.
but I need to always be trying to find and cultivate other people who will be effective
because you just don't know when the time's gonna come where you're gonna need them.
And so you don't want to be left in lurches without somebody kinda helping that role.
yes and that's a good point i just recently heard a he's a member of church is a
basketball coach for a university and he gave a little s stock talk on leadership not too
long ago and he said something like his most important job as a coach is recruiting and i
would expect him to say to win games to develop and then what everybody's recruiting and
especially that's true in a college setting because those kids are only there for four or
five years and you have to
revamp the team every four or five years and so it's really pressing that you get the
right people in in the right positions so that the team can be successful and of course
you can't win unless you have the right kind of recruits and so that's very important
thing.
I think in the church sometimes we can overlook that.
We get an eldership, we have two, three, four guys, many, and we're like, all right, we're
good.
And then it's like, okay, once one of them gets sick or dies, then we'll replace him
instead of thinking like, all right.
And then the problem is, well, there's no qualified men.
Instead of saying, okay, we've got some young men who are eight, 10, 12, 15 years old,
those are gonna be the guys who need to be elders at some point.
working on those young men at that point, working on the 20-somethings, the 30-somethings
so that they don't do something to otherwise just qualify themselves from being able to
serve as an elder.
If we start putting their minds early, you are needed for the local church.
Your service, your help, your mind, your heart is needed for the local church.
Then they can start to cultivate a lifestyle consistent with being an elder, a leader, so
that hopefully they're in a position when it's time, when they come of age, have some life
experience, maturity, fit in some of those.
qualifications for elders or deacons, or even if they don't fulfill that role, you can
still be an effective leader within a congregation.
You may not have the official capacity, but you can still be one who helps to exert
influence in a godly way over a group of people within a congregation.
yes absolutely and as you're speaking there's thinking about the qualifications of elders
in first mc three and tightest chapter one that there's just a handful of those
qualifications that are unique to elders you like the husband of one why a few children at
the teach not a novice things like that i think five or six of them desire the office but
every single one of the other qualifications are qualifications at all christians should
have
you all christians should be hospitable all christians should be have good report of them
who are without you know all christians should be temperance self-controlled you know not
given the wine and all that and so the lesson there is is like you know especially if
young men if they can just keep themselves as you mentioned if they can just keep
themselves pure if they can keep themselves you know just christian character until
you know god will eventually if they pray about it now eventually fits his will eventually
provide them a spouse if they just treat that spouse like they would like god tells us to
the fiends five elsewhere and then when children come along just train those children up
in the nurture ammunition the lord as as god tells us in the fission six verse four and
next thing you know when they're of age to qualify as an elder they'll be ready but
unfortunately many young men they
You know, disqualify themselves early, either by bad marriages, righteous living, whatever
it might be.
Kind of disqualify themselves so that when the time comes, there's a big void of men who
are qualified.
And so the lesson I've told this to the teenager class that I teach here on Wednesday
nights, that to the guys in there, that you guys can be elders one day, God needs you,
preachers, et cetera.
Just live now for Jesus.
And you know that brain development thing in young men, know, when they're 25, whatever, I
don't know, something like that.
So if we just keep from doing crazy things while we're young, that will be a possibility
when we become of age.
I think that it might be a good idea within congregations.
Maybe we could try this here at some point, I don't know.
Let me know what you think.
But try like a spiritual job shadowing, or excuse me, not job shadowing, what do call
that?
No, where you do like a job.
Not a similar anyway where you have you know if you go to like if you go to like a big
gymnasium And you have people that have different jobs, and they talk about their jobs.
What is that?
Job fair?
Job fair sort of thing yeah, yeah What if that were a situation where there's a spiritual
job fair, so you would talk.
What is it like to be?
Director of a school.
What is your role?
What is your role as a shepherd?
So I think people may have a misconception.
What does it mean to be an elder?
You know?
What does it mean to be a deacon a local preacher?
a preacher in your case and a director of a school and an instructor for the school.
you know, all those different areas we can find men that fit those different roles,
deacons, a Sunday school teacher, you know, whatever it is, and have young people come in
here and listen to what those jobs look like.
And so that not only do they know what it is scripturally, but they can see what it looks
like practically.
But now they know who Brian is, you know, they may not know who filled that role in First
Timothy.
but they know what Brian does.
And so now they can see, I can do what Brian does.
I could fill that role one day.
So maybe they can kind of get it in their minds to see what this role looks like
practically.
And perhaps they might be able to be encouraged, especially if they would esteem those
individuals who hold the positions.
And hopefully we would all be living in such a way where they could look up to us, admire
us for our service to the Lord and hopefully want to fulfill those roles one day.
Yeah, that's a very good idea because it's one thing to...
Well, yeah, they'll see us just like we've often said, you know, the first sermon that
people hear is the one that we live when they see us.
And so that's the same thing even with young people in the church.
They may not know their Bibles well enough to know Timothy or Titus or Paul, but they see
us and see how we're working.
And if we can just communicate to them that we're just following Paul, we're following
Jesus, we're following the example set forth in the Bible.
But let's go to the book of Joshua for a moment just to see the need of leadership and how
that need can be fulfilled in the lives that we live.
And I'm just going to read Joshua chapter one, verses one through nine.
We'll just read that real quick and we'll make some observations from it.
But in verse one, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass.
that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, saying, Moses, my servant,
is dead.
Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am
giving them, the children of Israel.
Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to
Moses.
From the wilderness in this Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all
the land of the Hittites and the
great sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory.
No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life.
As I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
I will not leave you nor forsake you.
Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the
land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
Only be strong and very courageous,
that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses my servant commanded you,
do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you
go.
This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day
and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it, for then you
will make your way prosperous, and then you will have great success.
Have not I commanded you?
be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with
you wherever you go." And so Joshua is given his charge and just right here, the first
line and each of the first two verses, after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord.
Verse two, Moses, my servant is dead.
And that just tells us right off the bat that present current leadership
cannot last forever in this world.
That there's gonna come a time when all of us, no matter what our age is, we're gonna die,
but the cause of God must continue.
And so there's always gonna be the need for leadership in this side of life.
Joshua is probably one of the most fascinating leaders to me in the scriptures because
okay Moses is one of the just most magnificent people in the scripture period you know
he's at the top of the list for even various religious groups in the world you know so
okay you have this guy like Moses who is just you know top-tier leader right but then you
have Joshua who's supposed to come after this
the greatest leader in his, up to this time likely, you know.
And so then here's Joshua having to come after him.
But one of the most fascinating things to me about Joshua's leadership starts in Numbers,
right?
So Joshua, there's two words in the book of Numbers that are used to describe various
leaders.
And there are two unique words that I remember correctly.
in Joshua, or excuse me, Numbers 13, he says, of every tribe of their fathers, this is
verse one or verse two.
of every tribe of their fathers shall you send a man, everyone a ruler among them.
Then in verse 3 he says, and Moses by the command of the Lord sent them from the
wilderness of Peran.
All those men were heads of the children of Israel.
So you have two different words if I remember correctly, they're two unique Hebrew words
for leaders.
Okay, so you have these two men or you have these group of men, two of which are Caleb
verse 6 and Joshua verse number 8.
All right, so then the children of Israel are gonna go spy out the lamb.
So Caleb in chapter 1330 is like, hey look man, let's go up at once and possess this land.
Of course we know the people, they don't wanna hear it.
And then Joshua gives a crack at it in chapter 14 verse six, Joshua the son of Nun, he
comes and tells the people, look, let's go and do it.
You know, if the Lord delights us, he'll bring us into this land.
You know, it flows with milk and honey, but just don't rebel against Jehovah.
And then all the congregation, verse 10,
They obeyed to stone him with stones and the glory of Lord appeared under the tabernacle
of the congregation before all the children of Israel.
So Joshua has a position in numbers.
He is an actual leader position, but he has no influence it seems over the people for
various reasons.
I think there's a couple of different reasons, but then you turn to the book of Joshua and
you have this amazing first pronouncement in chapter one you just read.
And then when the book closes, Joshua's like, hey guys, you do what you want to do, but
here's what Godliness looks like.
We're going to follow the Lord.
And unanimously, I think three or four times in chapter 24, says the people say, we're
going to follow God.
And so one of the things to me is, what do you think happened between, in the mind of the
people perhaps, between the numbers and between Joshua, they took him from a leader in
role.
to a leader in practice and to be followed with influence in the book of Joshua.
Yeah, I think that's a great question, but I think the answer is people saw what he
accomplished, saw his leadership.
Of course, God says he's with him.
And as we read in chapter one, as I said to Moses, he says in verse three, as I was with
Moses, so I will be with you.
I will not leave you nor forsake you.
And so which goes to the point that, you know, people, when they see a leader,
You know, they, they, that's, that's what connects with them, you know, cause like we can
talk about it.
We can have it on paper, but actually seeing it happen, uh, gives it more credibility.
Right.
And also thought about, you know, as you were talking, I was thinking like, wow, you know,
cause usually in, our culture, if you have a big time preacher, it's been a congregation
for a long time.
And the second guy that follows him, he's usually out the door.
But Joshua wasn't like that.
No, because he just took up the mantle and it might may have been because of the ending of
moses's life You know, he wasn't allowed to go into the promised land He died before they
went in there.
Of course god showed him everything and all that and so it may have been They just saw
joshua as a continuation of moses's leadership, but clearly it says, you know moses is
dead Uh now therefore rise and go and so, you know, that's part of at least at least it
that they see that and of course
Yeah, so in Deuteronomy, the end of Deuteronomy, you know, of course, like chapter 34 is
like one of the most awesome but sad chapters to me at least, you this great leader Moses
is not going to be able to go into the promised land.
But in verse nine, 34, nine, it says, and Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of
wisdom for Moses had laid his hands upon him and the children of Israel hearkened unto him
and did as the Lord commanded Moses.
And so part of it,
is I think, like you mentioned, okay, they get to see Joshua as a leader, like some action
that he did.
And you see most of it, obviously, in the book of Joshua, some of the exploits and things
of that nature.
But also part of the leadership of Joshua, and what made him such a great leader, is
because Moses was such a great leader.
And part of being a good leader is what we just talked about with the elders, always be
looking to recruit.
And just imagine, Moses was like, no, I'm not gonna.
lay my hands on him.
I'm Moses, man.
I stood before Pharaoh.
I'm the one that had the staff to open up the Red Sea.
I'm Moses.
And then where would Joshua be?
He could have been, like you mentioned about the preacher, he could have been out the
door, at least in the people's eyesight.
Yeah, and that's a good point that had, Joshua had the endorsement, the full public
endorsement, and that's what laying out of hands right here is referring to, full public
endorsement of Moses.
And so, and unlike some of the second...
preachers after the big-time preacher leaves they may not have that endorsement sure and
of course there's the people's aspect of it to which right you do have the spies and all
that but i mean is just a great leader tremendous leader now of course joshua you know he
was being prepared for this from the get-go it seems we we read about him in exodus
chapter twenty four thirteen as well as in chapter thirty two and chapter thirty three is
a close
Coworker with Moses, which I think is good to point out, know Moses has the leader You
know takes men under his wing as it were to help train them to help, you know lift them up
in some things I'm looking at Exodus 24 verse 13 Exist 24 verse 13.
So Moses arose with his assistant Joshua and Moses went up to the mountain of God and this
is of course
you know, Sinai and all that.
Then also we read about him in chapter 32, verse 15, chapter 32 and verse 15 of Exodus.
And there, of course, is, you know, when he's coming down from the mountain, as it were,
but Moses turned and went down from the mountain and the two tablets and the testimony of
that, 32, yeah, 15 through 17, yeah, 16.
Now the tablets were working, but verse 17, and when Joshua heard the noise of the people,
As they shouted, said to Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp.
And so it seems like Joshua actually was with him during that time he went up to the
mountain.
And then in chapter 33, verse 11, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to
his friend, and he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a
young man, did not depart from the tabernacle.
And so, you know, Joshua was with Moses throughout all that.
And then I would just put the pieces together in numbers.
He's a leader of the tribe or the families.
And he is chosen as one of the spies.
Yeah, so I guess there's a multiple layer.
you have Moses takes him under his wing.
You see that in the book of Exodus.
So he's watching leadership.
Then he has a role in numbers to go out and spout the land.
But then he gets to put that into practice.
He gets Moses' endorsement and greater still in Joshua chapter one, which you read, he
gets Jehovah's endorsement.
And so all those things kind of factor together cause
this, the people to really kind of cling to him and observe his leadership, which I guess
would be the ideal scenario, even for, you know, today Jehovah's not going to, you know,
say, you know, Brian Kenyon or anything like that, but we do get his endorsement, so to
speak, when we are doing what the says the Lord.
And so when individuals can see, okay, he's got God's endorsement, so to speak, by doing
what God has said, they may see
courage and valor and standing up against that which is incorrect they see that you're
able to lead as well as be led like Joshua was is those are some of the things that would
make Joshua's effective in that role
Yes, very good.
And I like what you said there about, you know, maybe we see a progression here of
preparing a leader.
You know, first you choose somebody and then you kind of mentor him, if you will, take him
under your wing.
Then you give him just a little bit of responsibility here and there.
Maybe let him make mistakes because that's how we're going to grow and learn.
Absolutely.
And then once he has a little bit of responsibility, you know, he that's faithful and
little will be faithful and much.
Then you can give him a greater responsibility as being a spy.
And then if he passes that test.
and passes that test in the eyes of God, not in the people, but in the eyes of God.
And then next thing you know, he's leading the nation.
And of course he did, if you go throughout the book of Judges, even though he left some
spots open, he did accomplish the task in Joshua 24, 13.
God says, I've given you a land for which you did not labor, and cities which you did not
build, and you dwell in them, and you eat of the vineyards and the olive groves which you
did not plant.
And then he also mentions there that all his promise in chapter 23 in verse 15, and
therefore it shall come to pass that as all the good things have come upon you, which the
Lord your God promised you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the harmful things until
he has destroyed from you this good land which the Lord your God has given you.
And so he has not failed.
I think you're, I think 14 is what you're looking for.
All have come to pass, not one word of them has failed.
Yeah, God gave him everything.
that he promised him gave to them which is you know one of the reasons why it was such a
unfaithful act to not take the lamb because even even even if you go back in numbers
chapter 13 When he first sent the spies out numbers 13 He says in verse 2 send men to spy
out the land of Canaan which I am giving to the children of Israel from each tribe of
their fathers etc, but
which I am given to the children of Israel.
In other words, God is giving it to you.
How dare you say we can't take it.
Exactly.
has promised it and it's yours, go get it to back off.
And so when we go to Joshua chapter one, after the death of Moses, well, verse two, Moses,
my servant is dead, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people to the land, which
I'm giving them, the children of Israel.
And so in both places, God says, I'm giving it to you.
but in the spies that didn't think they could take it course joshua caleb said they could
but here the nation and again the leadership of joshua the nation is going to follow his
lead and they will take it take the land even though they did leave some pockets will come
back to haunt them later but at the end of joshua those patches do talk about them land
promise was fulfilled
Absolutely, which you know, I like the point that you raised in that if we fail in their
case to take the land, that is disobeying, but it's also not trusting God.
You know, God says, listen, this is yours.
All you need to do is go over.
And the other part is not only say, hey, go over there.
He didn't say go over.
I don't know what it's going to be like though when you get there.
He said, I'm going to drive the people out.
You just need to go over and do your part.
I'll do mine, you gotta do your part.
Which, you know, for application's sake today, you know, there are things that we have to
do that are challenging, but we still don't get to shirk the responsibility and say, well,
God is gonna be so tough, so we can't do it.
Whether it relates to being a, you know, being holy.
You know, I can't be holy, I can't be perfect.
You know, it's like, no, you can be holy.
He told us to be holy.
Whether it be, you know, evangelizing, go out to all the world.
Well, I can't do that, there's so many people out there, it's so terrible.
Well, he knows that.
but we still have the same responsibility as individual leaders, but also as collective
leaders.
I mean, I think the church should be at the forefront of leadership in the world,
demonstrating and influencing and demonstrating what it means to be a believer in Christ
and what it looks like to model Jesus' actions.
Yeah, that's a very good point.
And when we think about this, and I want to get this in real quick, we've got about five
or ten minutes left here, but Joshua exemplifies good leadership here.
And I'm going to mention four points here that we see from this text, Joshua chapter one,
that's not just for elders, but this is for any person in the church who wants to have the
influence
for Christ over others and the motivation to help them to work and to do God's will.
And so number one, Joshua was not a procrastinator.
Now know some of us, know, priorities, you know, there are some things to take priority
over others.
but notice, you know, Moses, my servant is dead, verse two, now therefore, arise, go over
this Jordan.
Now there was a mourning period for Moses's death, but after that was over, now's the time
to go.
And so Joshua, he did act upon that in verse 10 after the context we read in Joshua 1.
Then Joshua commanded the officers of the people saying, and so he starts mobilizing
everything after that morning period and he gets to action.
And of course, Proverbs 27, 1, we know not what tomorrow, what a day may bring.
Matthew 6, 33 or 34, sufficient to the day is evil thereof.
but act upon it now.
Behold, today is the day of salvation, 2 Corinthians 6 verse 2, et cetera, but do not
procrastinate.
And again, is, sometimes priorities take precedence, and so from the outside, it may look
like we're procrastinating on some things, but some things have to be done sometimes, and
so, but God knows, and so we need to get to work.
And waiting is not procrastinating either.
There are times that God told the people of Israel, know, across the Jordan time, hey,
look, you stand still, you be still, this is my time to work.
So there are times that it is important to exercise patience, you know.
But that is when we are waiting on the Lord, or perhaps waiting on his timing, not just
saying, well, I'm gonna drag my feet here at this point.
So waiting and procrastinating are very different.
But I like that, you know, that God gives a command.
It's like, all right, there has to be some urgency with the leadership, not just, man, I
got my manager, you know, name tag, and so I'm good, I'm fine now.
I was like, no, now it's time to get to work.
Put that name tag, it's work to work.
And so Joshua, like you just mentioned, he got directly to us.
So as soon as he gets that encouragement, verses one through nine, the very next verse,
Joshua commanded the offices of the people.
So as soon as he gets instruction, all right, here it is.
Here's what we gotta do.
gone, and that's the Lord's time right there.
All right, and then secondly, leaders are going to have to overcome obstacles, learn to
overcome obstacles.
Of course, they had a whole land of Canaan to go into, but verses 3 through 5, every place
that your soul of your foot will tread upon, as have given you, as I said, to Moses, and
he lists the boundaries from the wilderness of this Lebanon to the great river Euphrates.
from the land of the Hittites to the going down of the sea, toward the going down of the
sun, the great sea toward the going down of the sun.
But he promises, no man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life as I
was with Moses, so I will be with you.
I will not leave or forsake you.
And you think about that group that Joshua was a part of, they saw the plagues in Egypt.
They came out, they saw the dividing of the Red Sea, they saw the sea collapsing again to
engulf the Egyptians, and so they saw the great power of God firsthand.
And so again, shame on them for not believing the two spies way back in numbers, but God
will help us to overcome the obstacles, and they're all over the place.
And it's also a matter of perspective.
Are these obstacles or are they opportunities?
You know, like, you know, I'm thinking about Jesus in Samaria.
To some that would have been an obstacle.
But for Jesus, he's like, hey, look, the fields are white to harvest.
This is an opportunity.
And so with the children of Israel, like in numbers, we just reference, you know, looking
at these people who, you know, are giants in the walled cities and even even said the land
will swallow us up, This is an opportunity for us to do what God said.
not only so, but to be blessed by God.
So it's not just an opportunity to obey, but it's an opportunity to obey and then
therefore be blessed.
Yeah, and then also to show that the God of Israel is the true God.
You think about David and Goliath, you think about all the, you know, when the odds are
against you, but yet still, God gives us the victory.
And that speaks volumes.
And that was kind of a hallmark to Joshua's leadership.
I'm just thinking about the walls of Jericho.
Those walls can never come down.
There's no way in the world.
I can have cherries right inside beside.
Nobody can bring down those walls.
It's like, well, our job is to look at this as an opportunity.
Go around, circle around, blow the horns, do what God said, he'll do his part.
Yeah, and then word of that went all the way to all the way through the land.
absolutely.
And then so do not procrastinate, overcome obstacles and see them as opportunities.
And then thirdly, be courageous.
And of course, that's a key word to have this whole context beginning with verse six, be
strong and of good courage.
Verse seven, be strong and very courageous.
Verse nine, be strong and of good courage.
Do not be afraid or dismayed.
And sometimes we can have that spirit of fear that Paul told Timothy God did not give us,
but sometimes that can keep us from great things in leadership if we have the fear.
That's right.
I wonder, just kind of real quickly as an aside, I wonder why the repetition here to
Joshua.
And the reason I say that is because Joshua doesn't demonstrate fear.
You know, he was one of the ones who said, man, look, let's go in there and take the land.
They're bred for us.
Let's go.
But I wonder if it was maybe an instruction to him for on behalf of the people, you know,
go and be courageous even in front of them.
Not necessarily just the enemy, because it would take courage on both sides.
Yeah, think that's a good point.
it's kind of like it's also doing a double thing.
And in that case would be, you know, he's directing it to Joshua, but everyone else is
hearing it.
And so it shows the importance of a leader, you know, demonstrating what God is telling
him.
And that gets everybody on board with it when they see that and they see the leader going
forward.
But when the leader shirks, I think about when King Saul was king,
just what I was thinking about.
and the life is around there you know threatening the children israel well you know king
saw what very crazy to begin with memory was hiding in the behind the baggage when he was
you know god was using him to be a king and so the way that leadership as leadership goes
goes so the people you know and so that leadership of king saw was not what it ought to be
and then so the people want what they ought to be
enter all the kings of Israel and Judah.
That's right.
Yeah, that's right.
then, but Joshua comes along and he can be courageous and he instills that courage in the
people.
And then finally, observing God's law.
We cannot be a good leader unless we observe God's law, which of course he says there in
verse seven, that you may observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant
commanded you, do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper.
And then verse 8 in the middle there, the book of this law shall not depart from your
mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night that you may observe to do according to
all that is written in it.
And then I'll make your way prosperous.
so God will bless us when we have these four things as leaders.
Do not procrastinate, overcome the obstacles, turning them into opportunities.
being courageous, and observing God's law.
I just noticed this.
I don't guess I've ever noticed this before.
In verses seven and eight, he says,
something prior to the word.
just okay, verse seven says, be strong and courageous that you may observe to do according
to the law.
In verse eight, the book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall
meditate on it day and night that you may observe.
So in both cases, one, you need to be brave in obeying God's word, because there's going
to be things that discourage you, throw you off track, but you also have to know the word
in order to do the word.
So both of those kind of working in concert,
demonstrate aspects of a leader.
You do need to be brave, absolutely, but you also need to know what God says.
And that is the hallmark of a true biblical leader, not just you're strong and tough,
those sorts of things.
I think those are necessary components of leadership, as I think are born out in all the
scriptures, even with Jesus.
But what is bravery if it's not harnessed or
I used to turn bridled by holiness or righteousness or godliness.
Correct.
And think that's a good observation because people can know what God says, but they don't
observe it.
Right.
But if they know what God says, and one reason why they don't observe it is because they
don't have the courage to observe it, either because of what others may think or because
of their own doubt, like the 10 spies.
But if God says he's given us this land to go in and take it, we can have the courage
because we're going to rely upon God
to see us through because he's the one that told us to go do it anyway.
And so the two things go hand in hand.
Yeah, that's some great stuff with Joshua.
You know, you had those three and I know we're probably running right out of time, but
just with the last couple of seconds, I referenced it earlier, but I love the close of
Joshua.
There's verses 16, 21, 24, and 31, and with each of these, you find all the people
answering.
And, you know, there's kind of like this back and forth with Joshua and the people.
Look, do what you want to do, but we're going to serve God.
The people say in verse 17,
the answer, God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve the gods and then you have
a similar thing, Joshua is giving some instruction in verse 21, the people said to Joshua,
no we're going to serve the Lord.
Again in verse 24, the people said to Joshua, the Lord our God we will serve and his voice
we obey and then 31, a kind of culmination of it, Israel served the Lord all the days of
Joshua and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua.
and which had known all the works of the Lord and which had done, or excuse me, which he
had done for Israel.
So Joshua's leadership was so impactful that the people followed him every day of his life
and even the lives of the elders that extended beyond him, which shows that his leadership
was not only in himself, but with the elders also, which brought them some influence with
the people like Moses, you know, with Joshua.
and that generation of people live faithfully for the Lord, which is just so awesome to me
that those people, you go from numbers, we're not gonna do whatever you're talking about,
Joshua, but then here, Joshua, we're gonna follow Jehovah, not just we're gonna follow
you, Joshua, but we're gonna follow Jehovah because you have been such an impactful leader
in our lives.
Yep.
And then when you get to the book of judges, there was that generation did not know.
Yeah.
But, but Joshua did his part and that, that, that shows the need.
that's generation that outlived Joshua.
Maybe they didn't do their part so well.
Yeah.
They were just living off of the laurels of what Joshua did.
And then that third, shows the need that we have to have people ready.
We have to train people, get them ready for the time is for them to step up.
And that can be easy to do though, to do like those elders.
I think we can look at them, at least I have in times past, and think like, man, these
terrible guys, know, in Judges Chapter Two, you know, there's this generation of people
that don't know God.
How could that happen?
They didn't teach, they didn't learn, whatever.
But then, if you have a certain style of leadership that works as impactful for a number
of years or decades or generations, whatever, when it's time to replace it, that's hard to
do.
Because what if the leader's not that guy?
Because Joshua was in no way a leader just like Moses.
Totally different leaders.
Yeah, so when you think about that, well, how do you replace a guy like Moses?
And then how do you replace a guy like Joshua?
And it's like, well, you just gotta replace him.
You'll be different, but you still gotta replace him.
Yeah, you train them in the principles of the Bible.
That's right.
own personalities come out.
Let those principles affect their personalities and their style of leadership and all
that, and then carry it out.
But those points, don't procrastinate.
Yeah.
Overcome obstacles.
Be courageous.
Observe God's law.
I mean, you get those in your heart.
You can be a Moses, you can be a Joshua.
That's it.
can be a Deborah, you can be whoever.
Great leadership.
Well, we appreciate your being with us and what I'm calling a bumpersowed here, a episode
between our first and second season.
Usually four Santa Macerases with us, but he was not able to make it today.
But we appreciate your being here and we'd invite you to tune in for our second
bumpersowed next week.
And until then, we hope you have a great, beautiful day.