Leadership and Responsibility in God's Plan

Whenever you start talking about improving an organization or group, you start with leadership. You tell the leadership what they ought to do and how they ought to handle things, and then how they can lead the organization to become what they ought to be. Moses is getting ready to make his final charge to the people of Israel as they're moving into the land of promise. He starts the other way around. This is sort of a clue for us that helps us to see how God deals with His people, the church. What is the function that God places? It's not that the leadership determines the nature of the church. The church itself has responsibilities for becoming what it ought to be. So I'm going to start with verse 1 just to read this passage over. Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel. I'm 120 years old and I'm no longer able to lead you. The Lord has said to me, you shall not cross the Jordan. The Lord your God Himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you. You will take possession of their land. Joshua will cross over ahead of you, as the Lord said. The Lord will do to them what He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, whom He destroyed along with their land. The Lord will deliver them to you, and you must do to them all that I commanded you. Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Now, when he moves to talk, this is to the whole nation of Israel, all the people. Now he looks at this in a little different direction by moving to the leadership. Moses then summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, Be strong and courageous. Does that sound familiar, exactly what he said to the nation of Israel? Be strong and courageous. For you must go with this people into the land the Lord swore to their forefathers to give to them. You must divide it among them as an inheritance. The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid and do not be discouraged. Now, the information or the instruction given to Joshua is very similar to what's given to the whole nation. I want to simply say that in the scriptures, it is not that human leadership is the key ingredient in how God works in the church. Excuse me. There's a lady that was at a funeral today here and she lost a necklace in the sanctuary. Okay. Anybody turn one in that you know of? Not to me, no. Gary, the VA girl over there in Queens, you might check over there and see if anyone's found it. Who? The VA girl who's been in the sanctuary cleaning. They're in there right now. Okay. I'll go check. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. In God's plan in the church, it is not that the leadership determines the quality and nature of the congregation. For God expects all people to be responsible. Him, lay people, leadership in the church. Everyone has the same responsibility to God. Now, if this is true in the Old Testament, it's even more prominent and true in the New Testament because the Spirit of God comes on all people. So it's not the responsibility of the leadership of the church to inspire people or to get them excited about the will of God. It is to proclaim the truth of God. It is the responsibility of all the people who are part of the congregation to do exactly what God wants them to do. So leadership in a spiritual organization as a church is somewhat different than it is in the secular organization where you depend so much on the ideas that come in the secular organization. The ideas that we have long-range plans and you develop all these things that you want to inspire everyone to set their goals to achieve. If the goal is really from God and every person in the congregation is talking to God, everyone should get the same goal. That's why unanimity in the church is really a sign of great spiritual health. It's true that there could sometimes be differences of opinion, but the Spirit of God is available to everyone. And when we talk to God and ask Him what He wants us to do, once we hear what God wants, it should resonate in all of us that this is indeed God's will, His purpose, His goal for us. So the leader is not to be the person who necessarily sets the goal in the kingdom of God. But he simply is responsible for providing leadership to do the things that the congregation or the group knows they're supposed to do. Now, His summons to Joshua was the same as He said to the people of Israel, be strong and courageous. Strength, not necessarily in physical strength He's talking about, but He's talking about spiritual strength. Strong in your obedience to God. Strong in your dependence on Him. Strong in being able to trust God when circumstances arise. It's not easy for someone in a position of leadership to have trust, because you tend to feel like if you don't do the right things, everything crashes, it's all on you. This is a human nature kind of thing. But in the community of faith, it's simply a matter of saying, okay, I am ready to do what you want me to do. Now, in the kingdom of God, whether it's the Old Testament or the New Testament or today, you're always faced with the responsibility of God asking you to do something that is greater than you can do. When you read through the Bible, you find that over and over again, God says to His people, here's the task I have for you, and I want you to do it, and it's bigger than you can do. He does this because He wants us to understand that He is the one who provides everything for us. He gives us wisdom to know the choices to make, and whenever we make those choices, He gives us the ability to accomplish them. Whenever you settle in to do the things that you know you can do, suddenly you remove yourself from the presence and power of God. If you can do it on your own, God says, go ahead and do it. But if you're ready to do something different, and you want to see the power that I can give to you, then you do the things I ask you to do, and sometimes they will be far greater than your capacity to do it. God gives us everything we need to accomplish the purpose that He sets before us. Everything that we need to accomplish the purpose He sets before us. The key is always to determine what it is He wants us to do. Now in this story, Moses sets it out quite clearly. God has given you the land of promise. You're going to enter that promise land. The people there will be more powerful than you. They'll be more numerous than you, but you will be able to take that land. You can get by in churches doing everything that you're capable of doing if God wasn't there. But if you're following God, He will occasionally ask you to do something that is above and beyond your ability to do it. Because He wants us to be conscious that the end result of what takes place is in His hand. It can be simple things. I got up this morning really feeling terrible, coughing, and couldn't hardly get through. I had three speaking opportunities today to do. And in each of those, I mean, I did cough some, but I was able to get through them. I saw it as a gift from God. Because it looked like in the beginning it just wasn't going to happen that way. From little things like that that other people would say that's just a coincidence or accident, to circumstances where you know that God has done something that you couldn't ever cause to happen on your own. This should be, for the people of God, a normative event. There should be some things God asks us to do that we have to say,