I invite you to turn in the Bible this morning to the second book of the Bible. We're working through, if you're a visitor, the book of Exodus, and this morning we come to Exodus chapter 18. We're looking at verses 13 through 27. We have arrived at Sinai, and this is the organization of Israel. In a sense, this is where Israel really does get organized in a proper sense. And so we're looking today at something that's really instructional and beneficial for the life of the church to understand the age-old office of elder. So this is Exodus chapter 18, beginning at verse 13. This is the word of the Lord. The next day, Moses sat to judge the people, and the people stood around Moses from morning till evening. When Moses' father-in-law saw that all he was doing for the people, he said, what is this that you're doing for the people? Why do you sit alone? and all the people stand around you from morning till evening. And Moses said to his father-in-law, because the people come to me to inquire of God. When they have a dispute, they come to me, and I decide between one person and another. And I make known to them the statutes of God and his laws. Moses' father-in-law said to him, what you are doing is not good. You and the people with you will certainly wear yourselves out, for the thing is too heavy for you. You are not able to do it alone. Now obey my voice, I will give you advice, and God be with you. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God. And you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, And place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you. You will be able to endure, and all this people also will go to their place in peace. So Moses listened to the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said. Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them heads over the people, chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And they judged the people at all times. Any hard case they brought to Moses, but any small matter they decided themselves. Then Moses let his father-in-law depart and he went away to his own country. May the Lord bless the hearing of his work. One of the things that we have wanted to recover is a very positive view of spiritual leadership in the life of the church that the Lord has put in place to be of help to you in your wilderness journey as we've seen all these connections to the life as we are heading to the eternal promised land. Maybe you sit here sometimes and you see all these guys walk out of the door. If you're new here and you think that seems a little strange, you know, here come these guys, and I tell them, smile when you're walking out, you know, it looks good. But in early Protestant churches, maybe you didn't know, and I've preached in some of these churches, it still goes on today, that they would have a sort of panel of where the elders would sit, right off to the side, it looked a little bit similar to a jury bench, and they would sit there, and then afterward they would come up, they would shake my hand, which sort of signified that they agreed with what was said in the sermon. I was always nervous I wouldn't get the handshake. I didn't know what would happen if that did happen. But we've lost an appreciation for the office today. It's just true, isn't it? It's a little bit mysterious to us. It's a little bit... You know how we respond to authority structures in our day. maybe just reflects the spirit of our times where we're living with constant frustration with leadership and so we're taught this we're we're expected sort of to have this today uh who you know i agree you know when people are calling and we use the term reverend today and it's somewhat troubling to me that somebody like an al sharpton can get the term reverend i kind of want to dump it when that happens. There seems to be no respect anymore for the positions. But this morning, we have shown to us the intention of the office of elder. We have shown to us how things are to function. This age-old office that's set before us and why it's so needed. Why God put this in place for you. Why the Lord and the New Testament writers understood that this same office continued in the new testament as as paul said you should appoint elders in every city one of the in every church in the cities one of the things you've noticed now for weeks as we've been working through uh exodus and we've been looking at their struggle in the wilderness is this tension that has been in place between moses and the people and it's a strong tension moses was the prophet appointed by the lord to lead them out and and let's be honest they've not really appreciated him it's been kind of sad if you think about it he has no control over where israel is going in other words it's the lord directing their steps directing their paths to the wilderness in the way that they should go and and and he didn't know how hard exactly it would be what kind of trials what kind of tests what sort of things would happen out in the wilderness Moses is called to lead the people through it, to trust in the Lord and guide them in the way, to speak the word of the Lord. And in chapter 17, they wanted to stone him. They wanted him gone, which we understand was a sort of direct lashing out at God's leadership. They weren't happy with the way things were going, and we're going to see that when they get to Sinai and they come down, where is this God that supposedly let us out? Let's make our own God. Well, this morning we see something, again, wonderful that the Lord does for Israel. He provides them a remedy to this conflict that was going on between Israel and Moses. In fact, there's that crucial statement made in the text. You'll notice down in verse 23, through Jethro, which is just interesting how the Lord spoke through this man and how the Lord often works and does these things. But you'll notice here, if you do this thing as God so commands, then you will be able to endure, and all these people will go to their place in peace. Well, wouldn't you love to go to the promised land in peace? How much peace existed in the wilderness for Israel? God is about to put something in place, which if you understand it, it's a further gift to Israel. this is a further benefit to israel this is another blessing out of his kindness and storehouse of his mercies that he is giving them the gift of godly leadership this was god's answer to them to enjoy peace if they didn't respect that if they didn't honor that if the leadership abandoned what god put in place here there would be pain there would be anger there would be chaos in fact if you ever look at church divisions and church splits. Look at what happened to the leadership. Look at what happened in the conflicts and the problems of the people and the leadership. Well, now the Lord through Jethro corrects and helps and introduces something that would be of great benefit to Israel as they traveled and you'll notice here we have the basic principles beginning here of spiritual leadership and spiritual authority as we go through this i want to answer this morning why it's so important that we listen to the lord why it's so important that we understand how he wants his church governed and and his people governed and that we give ourselves to appreciate this office and submit to those whom god has put over us because it's god's way of ruling us through them This is what the Heidelberg says in the fifth commandment. We should be patient with our leadership and bear with them in their faults for God has so chosen to rule us through these men. It's an amazing thing. To do others wise as we shall see has devastating consequences on the spiritual well-being of you and your children. I've always said, I've always said that if you look at children who are bitter at the church or have left the church typically what you will find are parents who sat there and criticized the leadership at the kitchen table or the pastor or the message and it was so ingrained in the children they want nothing more to do with it so we have to value this and understand what god put in place for our benefit god has shown us his faithfulness in the scene he has fulfilled another promise that he made he told he told moses back in exodus chapter 3 that one of the signs he would give to moses is that they would come back and it would be a sign that they would worship at mount sinai that would be a fulfillment of the promise that drove moses through this so here they are moses has come to sinai a worship service is about to happen uh you'll see that in chapter 20 where the lord comes down and you'll notice here that this is this was last time we left off moses was with jethro worshiping that was evening the next morning they get up and moses has been up early and jethro observes something that really bothers him we read in verse 13 that moses sat to judge the people and all the people stood around moses from morning until evening everyone knew that moses was god's prophet and as a prophet he revealed the will of god now you take two million people what do you think is going to happen along the way in the wilderness well you're going to have a lot of problems with people i mean we have 500 and there are problems imagine a couple million people are not going to get along you read through numbers you find that fist fights happened in the camp you find that people's animals actually killed other people there were issues of divorce there were issues of adultery you had racial tensions uh with these these egyptians who had come out with them you remember some of that went on you had problems with the youth the rebellious children you had people who got sick they needed care you had all these basic needs of a couple million people traveling through the wilderness way i mean can you imagine all the pastoral needs that were there and then there are just basic issues of justice among brothers that needed to be dealt with. Remember, Moses is revealing the laws here of the Lord, but nothing had been written down yet. We didn't have the sort of penal code written. You're going to have a lot of this given here in chapter 21 through 25. You're going to see a lot of that provided. But here they are. The system and the elders have not even been put in place yet. Is this a good situation? What if these men weren't here? What if they didn't walk out? What if you didn't have them? Well, you get some real sense of what would go on here. People wanted answers. People wanted care. They wanted their needs met. That's the big issue here in Exodus 18. There were no policemen in the camp. So what happened is, is that day and night, they would come, and they would come to Moses. and Moses would sit on a great judgment seat out in the wilderness a rock and he would arbitrate and he would make decisions and he would he would intercede and he would go to the Lord and discern the will of God and Jethro comes and he watches all of this and he says in verse 14 when Moses in law father Moses father-in-law saw all that he was doing for the people he said what is this that you're doing why do you sit alone and all the people stand around you from morning until evening jethro's rebuking here it's it's really pretty strong you're standing here and you're judging all the people this is not right this is not good i've really um appreciated looking at exodus 18 and the beautiful relationship that moses had with his father-in-law we looked at last time they both went in the tent here and you had a sort of early picture of the promise even to noah Remember that Shem and Japheth would come into the tent, and here they are in the tent, and here's this Gentile coming into the tent. It's a picture of the whole gospel program going out to the nations we looked at last time. But here Jethro, the Lord uses Jethro to speak, and Moses has a wonderful sort of relationship with his father-in-law. God uses Jethro. Think about this. Israel was supposed to be a blessing to the nations, God uses Jethro to in turn bless Israel. Sounds a little bit like Romans 11, by the way. Just wonderful. Moses says to Jethro, well, all these people come to inquire of me. Verse 16, when they have a dispute, they come to me and I decide between one person and another and I make them know the statutes of God and the laws. Moses was such an honorable man. he was such a humble man he genuinely loved these people genuinely sincerely he gave his life for these people this is a servant Jethro observed something that Moses couldn't see Moses's father in law says to him listen what you're doing is not good you and the people they'll certainly wear yourselves out for the thing is too heavy for you you're not able to do it alone now what is about to happen is the defining sort of of the shepherd's role the elder's role and i wonder if as a father-in-law he was concerned about his own daughter and children right you wonder the work of moses what he was doing was so overwhelming and so uh so burdensome to carry all these burdens moses was burning out jethro sees it and he says this is an interesting twist in the whole thing. The people are burning out. No man could do what Moses was doing. It's interesting what he observes. Both of you are going to wear yourselves out. In other words, if you keep this up, not only are you going to burn out, but the people are going to wear themselves out with you. Why? Because they are going to be maintaining an expectation of ministry that you cannot achieve. You can't. What happens when everyone is in line expecting from Moses? When many of them at the back can't see him? Just go stand in the post office line for a while. You get angry. Imagine standing there, long lines all day of people with grievances and problems. moses can't bear it you know it's a general rule i i know there are exceptions i know it's not always true but most pastors and i've come across a lot of pastor's kids a lot of pks in in the ministry and most say the same thing dad was not around he was out every night Our family suffered for it. I think about that a lot. That burdens me greatly. It really does. Maybe that's why some PK's kids end up with a lot of problems. Moses was overwhelmed with the work. Overwhelmed. Here you're able to get behind the scenes a little bit and we have some insight that what was actually happening was a lot of dissatisfaction. What needed to be defined, what needed to be appreciated in Israel were the expectations and the roles of leadership. The expectations of Moses and the expectation of the people. Really important here. Jethro observes both of this going on. Because you'll notice here that unreasonable expectations are expressed not only by Moses but the people for Moses. In other words, Moses thought he could do more than he could do and the people expected him to do more than he could do. What a dilemma. What a real dilemma. Does that apply to today? Any sincere servant of the Lord goes through endless guilt over this. I mean it. It's guilt. You always feel that you're never doing enough. In fact, most people stay away from the office of elder for that very reason. Gifting aside, a lot stay away because they feel like I just could never maintain doing that. And then you have the problem of what happens today in the church. You have the problem of what happens today that pastors typically become one-man shows. They micromanage everything. I don't know how many times I've come to people in the community and they talk to me and they think I'm a CEO over here at the Escondido URC. I tell them I'm not a CEO. But if a church has been used to really, in the past, strong dominions, what happens? The people can easily become too expectant of their pastor. I was just, consider for a moment reoccurring statistics and challenges of pastoral ministry. And the top two reasons pastors leave the ministry is burnout and moral failure. More than 70% of pastors have no close friends to talk with. 80% of pastors believe the ministry has negatively affected their families. Pastors often claim of having no means themselves for resolving conflict. At any given time, 75% of pastors want to quit over severe stress that causes depression, fear, and alienation, among other things, 80% of pastors and 84% of their spouses face depression. 90% of pastors work more than 60 hours a week. I work more than one day. I said that so that you would laugh. If around 90% of pastors are worn out and frequently fatigued, who's overseeing their time? Who's overseeing their priorities? Who's overseeing ministerial expectation? Who's overseeing that they are not being overextended in expectations beyond their primary calling to give themselves to this? Who's doing that? If burnout due to conflict, Due to conflict is one of the top reasons pastors leave the ministry. How are pastors being shepherded to prevent this falling out? As these statistics reveal, who's overseeing what is clearly an intense spiritual struggle going on in the life of the pastor and his family? Have we given any thought to this? See why I said it's instructional for us. Any pastor knows this, that if he at all fears the Lord and desires to do His will, the question is, what has the Lord called him to do, really, really presses. And it's something that after 12 years of being a pastor, I still feel like at times, am I doing enough? Why do I struggle with feeling like I don't fully have that defined still? The fact is, is that in the life of any given church, everyone has needs. so many of you have needs and all these are challenges that we face god cares for you god loves you god desires to help his flock in the midst of this wilderness journey i mean this is this is the real shining factor here is the lord's care for the flock we have a conflict here of the pastor's understanding of his calling versus the people's expectation of the calling when the what when the expectations are beyond what the Lord has given. Well, what's happened in Israel? They have worn themselves out already. You are worn out with frustration. And nothing is accomplished except burnout on the part of the pastor and bitterness on the part of the people. So what is Jethro observing? Jethro is observing what an answer and thinking through the answer here as the Lord is guiding him in using means and in his providence to guide Jethro to provide Moses an answer to this. And he does that in verse 19. He provides a beautiful answer in verse 19. Now obey my voice and I will give you advice. Which is really a remarkable thing to do when you think about it. Where this newly, this Gentile who's believed in this chapter is now doing this for Israel. God will be with you if you do this, Moses. You shall represent the people before God and bring their cases to God and you shall warn them about the statutes and the laws and make them know the way in which they must walk and what they must do. He just defined the role of a shepherd. Three things. Did you notice the shift here? What did Jethro notice? You're standing before the people day and night. You go and stand before God. you see that you go to him you go intercede you you go pray bring the difficulties directly to him far better than just sitting and listening to all these all these problems and trying to fix everything and being just the great counselor here's what you should do there's a lot of sin that easily ensnares people Moses go be an intercessor and he says something else and you shall teach them the statutes and the laws of the Lord you must guide them in teaching did you hear him just define the responsibility does any of this sound familiar pray preach and teach the word instruct them in the ways show them let your life be an example, that's emphasized here, of how to walk and the work they must do. And I would suggest that at this point, what all that revealed is that the people were just too dependent on Moses for answers. Think about that. I recently heard someone say, well, I just don't want to think when I have to come to church. And I think that's exactly been the problem everyone just needs the list of what to do hand it to me pastor tell me tell me is that healthy it's easy that way i suppose you don't have to pray you don't have to study you don't have to think you can just sort of have it all right here for you and you can live through the ceo it's sort of easy what the lord was calling moses to do was give himself to teach apply the word yes live it before them and pray that by learning the word of god as they learned it they would grow they would be able to exercise wisdom they would understand wisdom and prudence they would pray to the lord we'll look more at that later this was always the responsibility of the shepherd in fact this was paul's very charge to timothy if we're putting this all together this was paul's very charge to timothy if you instruct the brethren in these things you will be a good minister of jesus christ nourished in the words of faith and the good doctrine which you have carefully followed take heed to yourself and to the doctrine continue in them for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you don't need to be out everywhere take heed to your life take heed to your doctrine give yourself in those things and it will have a great benefit to the spiritual life of the people and you will save both yourself and those who hear you what a remarkable verse there's a connection there between the means god chose to use as they're faithfully administered and your salvation So, God just defines something beautiful. But it still doesn't deal with a lot of the daily needs and problems of the people. They're daily burdens. Well, that's where verse 21 comes in. Moreover, look for able men among all the people. Men who, this is great, fear God, who are trustworthy, who hate a bribe, and place such a man over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens, and let them judge the people at all times. Every great matter they can bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide. We're seeing the early sort of development of what we understand today in the office of elder. We have a sort of what's called presbyterial form of government in the church, and that's the way we do it in the United Reformed Churches. It's the spiritual rule of God's people by a group of men who are qualified to serve you and to help you. And the Lord was telling Moses here, the way that I want pastoral needs met, the way that I want them cared for, is I want men selected and set apart for this. Now, this selection would occur, according to Deuteronomy 1, that they were to choose wise men who were respected from each of your tribes and I will set them over you. So the people were to recognize these gifts in these men and set them apart for the spiritual leadership to care for, to provide, to help, and that the Lord Himself would then recognize that. This is beautiful. That they would be chosen by the people and the Lord Himself would recognize that decision and give them the wisdom and ability that they needed to properly shepherd the flock. God is so good, isn't He? This is why I titled the sermon The God's Gift of Leadership to You. This is why it grieves me that there's no sense of, that the one question everyone doesn't today, and I speak in a broad stroke here, that people really struggle with today is submission to authority, submission to elders. It's one of the things that the Bible constantly calls for. Hebrews 13, obey those and submit to those whom god has placed over you and we all i remember a man years ago who wanted to join the church loved the church loved everything about the church but he would not answer the question i have to submit to authority and he was gone it was the hardest thing for him well this was the lord's way and and notice how the lord uh is here shepherding through this entire um process Men were set apart to represent and they provided care for the people. They were called elders of Israel. And the people were to submit and honor that. I think it's important to say Israel was not a democracy. Many have made this point, but it's important. Can you imagine if they called a congregational meeting when things got hard and said, hey, what should we do? They'd have gone back. They'd have voted to go back. Congregational meetings are wise, and we should always reflect the voice of the people. But it is leadership. Leadership makes choices. Leadership makes choices to lead you. This is really an important point. I want spiritual men, says the Lord, and I want them to be a gift to you from me. Who are to shepherd, to lead, to help you in arbitrage. Can you imagine if two brothers who were in a dispute, this is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6, that when they were suing one another, what are you doing? Don't you have spiritual men among you to arbitrate? Can't they make those decisions for you? And you're going for the world. This is what's best for you. You shall select from the people, verse 21, able men such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness, or wanting a bribe. Taking a bribe. Is he God-fearing? Is he willing in his life and decisions to put the holy name of the Lord before everything else? Does that drive him? You should know every time you select a man and vote on him to lead you. You should have absolute utmost confidence in your minds and hearts. The man's God-fearing. His chief desire is to glorify God. That's the primary drive of his leadership among you. He's going to do what the Lord wants. Even though you may not always like it, it's best for you. notice the second one men of truth what a great qualification speaking here of reliability characterized by honesty and integrity not greedy for reputation or likability hating covetousness or taking a bribe in other words uh he has to have the wherewithal uh to to make decisions honestly and not for what suits his interests or not what would would make him great in the eyes of the people. Jethro says, if you do these things, listen to verse 23, God will direct you and you will be able to endure and this people will go to their place in peace. Have you witnessed churches that are full of discord and fighting? Have you witnessed it? It's an awful thing. What is going on? In the cases that I've seen, it's absolute tension between the leadership. I remember we had a church meeting years ago and some guy totally disagreed with the decision of one of our synod meetings and made a loud exit in the middle of the meeting, running out, saying how much? Synod's air! Synod's air! Synod's air! No peace. Leaders are fallen. Leaders may make mistakes. Leaders may do things that are directly against the Word of God and then you have to base your decisions on that Word. You don't submit to a leader who's telling you to do something wrong. But the beauty is here, the principle is, God Himself chose men to rule over you and to bless you and to help you to go on your journey in peace. And that's why Hebrews says you should let your leaders do this with joy and not with grief because that would be unprofitable for you if they're constantly feeling attacked they're not going to rule you well they're not going to help you well pray for your leaders pray for them are you supporting and praying for your leaders and and i challenge us do we pray as as the pastor do we pray do we do we um give ourselves to to teach the word and and to to care for the needs of the flock are you doing that if you're an elder are you visiting those who need to be visited are we doing this is a big one are we doing the difficult job which has all but been abandoned today of disciplining wayward sheep are we loving and being honest in our shepherding with the sheep's needs are we god-fearing so moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he said if you were to study the long history of israel one of the worst developments in the whole span of their existence as a nation was the breakdown of spiritual authority it was not only a breakdown in the leadership god had appointed but there was a spirit of independence that had developed and the people cast down that authority structure over them and in one of the worst chapters in x in ezekiel 34 the lord said woe to the shepherds of israel who feed themselves but do not feed the flock the weak you've not strengthened nor have you healed those who were sick nor bound up the broken nor brought back what was driven away nor sought what was lost listen this but with force and cruelty you have ruled them force and cruelty Jeremiah would go on to say that the people said so we'll walk according to our own plans and everyone will obey the dictates of his own heart what a tragedy but then God did something else in the midst another gift in the midst of fallen leadership he gives another promise ezekiel 34 for thus is the lord god indeed i myself will search for my sheep and seek them out as a shepherd seeks out his flock on the day he is among his scattered sheep so i will seek out my sheep and deliver them from all the places where they're scattered on a cloudy and dark day I will feed my flock, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord. I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away. Bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick. Who would do that? Well, you know who. Your pastor. It's not Pastor Gordon. It's not a pope. It's Jesus Christ. I am the good shepherd, said Jesus. the good shepherd gives his life for the sheep i don't get tired i constantly intercede for you i lay down my life for you but a hireling he who is not a shepherd and one who does not own the sheep sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them the hireling flees because he's a hireling and does not care about the sheep i am the good shepherd and i know my sheep and i'm known by my own as the father knows me even And so I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. A greater than Moses has come. Who constantly intercedes and invites you to talk to him. Your pastor, your good shepherd, invites you to come to him. To lean on him. And still to this day, with that direct access, so much greater than the old. So much greater than the old. He still, to this day, raises up pastors and elders for you so that they would love you and that when you see that love and that shepherding care and the willingness to discipline, you know He's with you. You know He's guiding you. You don't lack. You have better than Israel. Value the spiritual care put in place for you. Honor what the Lord has put in place for your care and growth that we might all, as the Escondido URC, travel home in peace. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, your gift of leadership is so wonderful and we thank you for doing this. We really do see in this your kindness. Whatever is good, whatever is noble, whatever is pure, whatever we've experienced in this life with these kind of blessings, we see the goodness of your hand. And how important we need to be reminded of this where so many people today are putting, look at the energy people will give to finding a worldly leader to solve all the worldly problems. And you tell us to put no confidence in princes. And everyone will watch the news and make great effort to select a worldly leader. And yet, when it comes to spiritual leadership, often we confess that we're shallow, uncaring, and not tending to this great duty. I confess it. People confess it. And ask that in this place, the leadership would greatly shine in the offices of elder and deacon and pastor. We would give ourselves to love the sheep. Sheep in this place would value their elders and be so thankful for this office. And we would give you glory in the way that we lead. Thank you for being among us. And thank You for shepherding us, Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.