Lead Like Moses: Growing as a leader

We’re starting a new series today on the podcast and the focus is going to be on leadership.  We’re going to be looking at several characters from the Bible and lessons we can learn from them about leading well.  I know some of you may be tempted to tune out.  You might think, “I’m not a leader.”  Maybe you’re an introvert or maybe you would say you’re socially awkward or not an effective communicator.  If that describes you, please stick around.  I think the Bible would challenge that attitude.  We’re going to kick off this series by looking at Moses.  And though we’re calling it “Lead like Moses”, we’re going to start by learning from some of Moses’ mistakes so that we don’t repeat them.  Moses shows us that we can grow in our leadership and early failures don’t mean God can’t use us. If you define leadership as simply getting others to go where you want them to go, Moses had to be one of the greatest leaders of all time.  

• Moses: Overcoming reluctance
• Joshua: Sticking to it 
• Jonathan: Earning trust
• Jesus: Serving humbly

Calling All Men

God can use anyone, regardless of your past.  God isn’t calling all of us to lead large groups of people, but he is calling all of us to lead our families if we’re married, and lead at least one other person in discipleship.

Exodus 2:11-12 Many years later, when Moses had grown up, he went out to visit his own people, the Hebrews, and he saw how hard they were forced to work. During his visit, he saw an Egyptian beating one of his fellow Hebrews. 12 After looking in all directions to make sure no one was watching, Moses killed the Egyptian and hid the body in the sand.

• Background on Moses’ birth, cultural context of Israelites after the time of Joseph.
• I don’t know what mistakes you’ve made in life, but I would imagine they fall short of murdering someone.  God still had a plan to use Moses.  

Romans 12:8  If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously.

• Paul recognizes that one of the spiritual gifts is leadership.  He says, “If” God has given you leadership.  That implies that not everyone has that spiritual gift.  Not everyone is called to lead large groups of people.   But, if we do have it, we need to take the responsibility seriously.  How many men are recognized as leaders in their community or in their profession, but fail to lead at home? They fail to lead in their church.  If you sense God has given you the gift of leadership, exercise that gift.  Doesn’t mean we base leadership positions in the church using the same criteria the world uses.  God judges the heart.  The world looks at the outward appearance. 
• This is one of the reasons I’m in ministry.  I’ve always been what I could call a reluctant leader.  Captain of the football team in high school, even though I wasn’t the most gifted player, president of the show choir in high school even though I wasn’t the most gifted singer, led small groups by default, recruiting and led 1800 sales professionals in previous career and yet, if it was up to me, I’d stay in the shadows.  I was challenged by Christian men who recognized I had the gift of leadership to take the responsibility seriously.   

Ephesians 5:23-34 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

• Though we’re not all called to lead large groups of people, all men are called to lead in the home if you’re married.  All men are called to lead at least one other person in discipleship. The great commission.  

Who Am I?

Don’t make excuses.  When God calls you to lead, he’ll equip you to lead.  He can use your shortcomings to bring more glory to himself as you lead. Our obedience is more important than our giftings when it comes to leadership. 

Exodus 3:11-14 But Moses protested to God, “Who am I to appear before Pharaoh? Who am I to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt?”12 God answered, “I will be with you. And this is your sign that I am the one who has sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God at this very mountain.”13 But Moses protested, “If I go to the people of Israel and tell them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they will ask me, ‘What is his name?’ Then what should I tell them?”

14 God replied to Moses, “I am who i am.[d] Say this to the people of Israel: I am has sent me to you.” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: Yahweh,[e] the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.This is my eternal name,  my name to remember for all generations.

• Moses didn’t think God had the right guy.  He was scared.  You’re going to see a lot of “what ifs” coming from Moses at the beginning. Leadership is scary.  I actually think that is one of the blessings of leadership.  It keeps us very aware of our dependence on God.  Wrong choices have bigger consequences when others are involved and people are following us.  
• Story about starting to lock doors after I got married 

Exodus 4:1-5But Moses protested again, “What if they won’t believe me or listen to me? What if they say, ‘The Lord never appeared to you’?”2 Then the Lord asked him, “What is that in your hand?”“A shepherd’s staff,” Moses replied.3 “Throw it down on the ground,” the Lord told him. So Moses threw down the staff, and it turned into a snake! Moses jumped back.4 Then the Lord told him, “Reach out and grab its tail.” So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it turned back into a shepherd’s staff in his hand.5 “Perform this sign,” the Lord told him. “Then they will believe that the Lord, the God of their ancestors—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—really has appeared to you.” 

• Moses continues to come up with excuses and “what ifs” . In verse 10 he says he gets tongue tied and his words get tangled.  He repeats this fear about being a clumsy speaker in chapter 6 verse 12 after one of the first confrontations with Pharaoh.  Interestingly, he wasn’t a clumsy communicator – Acts 7:21-22 When they had to abandon him, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and raised him as her own son. 22 Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in both speech and action. This statement was made about Moses before God called him to lead his people.  Sometimes when we allow fear to creep in, we have a distorted view of the giftings God has given us.  We’re not talking about becoming prideful.  Any gifts we do have are from God and he deserves the honor and glory.  
• 1 Corinthians 1:27 Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.

Exodus 4:20-26 Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and headed back to the land of Egypt. In his hand he carried the staff of God.

21 And the Lord told Moses, “When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go. 22 Then you will tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son. 23 I commanded you, “Let my son go, so he can worship me.” But since you have refused, I will now kill your firstborn son!’”

24 On the way to Egypt, at a place where Moses and his family had stopped for the night, the Lord confronted him and was about to kill him. 25 But Moses’ wife, Zipporah, took a flint knife and circumcised her son. She touched his feet[b] with the foreskin and said, “Now you are a bridegroom of blood to me.” 26 (When she said “a bridegroom of blood,” she was referring to the circumcision.) After that, the Lord left him alone.

• This is one of those stories that seems to pop up out of nowhere.  We read it and we’re like, what?  God was going to kill Moses?  It reminds us of just how serious sin is. 
• Moses hadn’t circumcised his sons. This was a clear violation of the covenant between God and the Jewish people.  Luckily, his wife, who wasn’t even Jewish, recognized what needed to be done.  Commentary – maybe she was the one originally who had protested doing it because it seemed barbaric.  Now she sees the seriousness of the calling of Moses, the sacrifice it would mean, and the importance of obedience.  
• Repetition of “Moses did everything just as the Lord commanded” Littered throughout Exodus and other books of the pentateuch.  7 times in chapter 40 of Exodus alone. 
• No guarantee that things will go smoothly when we are obedient
• If people follow you and where you’re going, where would they end up? 
• Moses was all in.  He took his wife and sons with him.  If this backfired, it would put their lives in danger.  Safe thing would have been to leave them with Jethro. 

Stand in the Gap

Great leaders stand in the gap for those they’re leading.  Moses was a buffer between Pharaoh and the Israelites and also a mediator between the Israelites and the Lord.

Exodus 20:18-20 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sounding of the ram’s horn, and the mountain enveloped in smoke, they trembled and stood at a distance. 19“Speak to us yourself and we will listen,” they said to Moses. “But do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” 20“Do not be afraid,” Moses replied. “For God has come to test you, so that the fear of Him may be before you, to keep you from sinning.”

• Moses was the representative before Pharaoh.  He was the mediator between the people and the Lord when they were afraid to have God speak to them directly.  

Exodus 32:9-14 Then the Lord said, “I have seen how stubborn and rebellious these people are. 10 Now leave me alone so my fierce anger can blaze against them, and I will destroy them. Then I will make you, Moses, into a great nation.”11 But Moses tried to pacify the Lord his God. “O Lord!” he said. “Why are you so angry with your own people whom you brought from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand? 12 Why let the Egyptians say, ‘Their God rescued them with the evil intention of slaughtering them in the mountains and wiping them from the face of the earth’? Turn away from your fierce anger. Change your mind about this terrible disaster you have threatened against your people! 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.[a] You bound yourself with an oath to them, saying, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven. And I will give them all of this land that I have promised to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.’”14 So the Lord changed his mind about the terrible disaster he had threatened to bring on his people.

• Israelites had already caused Moses so much grief.  I think it would have been so tempting to say, “Go ahead, God.”  
• God changes his mind? In his foreknowledge he knew he would relent because he knew how Moses would respond.  It’s not really a changing of the mind, but shows how God involves people in accomplishing his plans.  
• How do you need to stand in the gap for those you lead?  At work, at home, at church?   
• People don’t care what you know until they know that you care
• Praying for those you lead is the most powerful way to stand in the gap for them.  That’s what Moses was doing.  He was conversing with God, that’s prayer, and he was interceding for the nation of Israel. 

Good leaders understand the importance of receiving feedback and delegating responsibility. They exhibit humility in their successes

Exodus 18:14-18 When Moses’ father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he asked, “What are you really accomplishing here? Why are you trying to do all this alone while everyone stands around you from morning till evening?”15 Moses replied, “Because the people come to me to get a ruling from God. 16 When a dispute arises, they come to me, and I am the one who settles the case between the quarreling parties. I inform the people of God’s decrees and give them his instructions.”17 “This is not good!” Moses’ father-in-law exclaimed. 18 “You’re going to wear yourself out—and the people, too. This job is too heavy a burden for you to handle all by yourself. 

• Moses was trying to do it all by himself.  Jethro told him how unwise it was, and ultimately, how unproductive.  Part of being a great leader is giving leadership away.  It’s raising up others and empowering them.  
• Moses listened to Jethro’s advice.  How easy would it have been for Moses to say, “I’m the guy. I’m the one God has called to lead these people.”  He was humble. In fact, throughout Moses’ time leading the Israelites, that’s something that jumps out over and over is his humility.  Numbers 12:3 (Now Moses was very humble—more humble than any other person on earth.)
• How open are you to feedback?  What would your wife and kids say? What about subordinates or co-workers at work?  How often do you seek feedback?  
• People don’t care what you know until they know that you care 

Close

Leading well is something every man should desire to do.  God took a reluctant leader in Moses and used him to bring the entire nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. 

Moses had a monumental task of leading the Israelites.  They were grumblers and complainers.  They were stiff necked and rebellious.  He was reluctant at first, but he submitted to God’s authority, was careful to obey him, and remained humble. God used him to accomplish amazing things, and he can do the same through you.