The Body Needs Heads

*The below transcript was generated and formatted by AI and may not accurately represent the recording.

The Church in the 21st century—not only in the 21st century, but in the 21st century—is facing somewhat of a crisis. There’s many different crises you could point to, but one crisis in particular is a lack of godly quality leaders. There are plenty of leaders, but there is a major lack of godly leadership. There are many people in leadership, many. You can look all over the internet and find myriads of different leaders that you can follow. But there are very few godly leaders. That is true for the Church, it is equally true for the home, and it is especially true for the governments that rule over the nations of this world.

We remember, don’t we, that Romans 13 says that political leaders are God’s ministers. There is an abject abandonment of godliness as a requirement for political leaders, and the same is true in the family, and sadly, it’s true in the Church.

One, my favorite example of this from a political front—I shouldn’t say favorite, maybe I should say infamous example of this—was a certain prime minister we had who forged a piece of artwork while she was the prime minister. She got a piece of artwork, she forged it. She got busted, and you’d think that’s a pretty serious thing to do, and then she got reelected the next time round, which says a lot, doesn’t it? What that says is, by and large, our society doesn’t really care if you’re honest, if you’re truthful, if we can trust you. We don’t really care about your character. Previous generations would say that the number one requirement of the king or the magistrate is that they are godly above everything else. Would we say that’s true in our church, in our home? Sadly, most places don’t even realize there’s a problem. Most churches don’t realize there’s a problem. Most families don’t realize there’s a problem. Most countries don’t realize there’s a problem.

And as that’s a present reality around us, I thought that Deuteronomy 1:9–18 is very applicable and important for us to consider. We’re reminded by Paul in Romans 15:4 that all of the examples of the Old Testament are given to us for our instruction. And the interesting thing is that’s exactly what Moses is doing. Moses is taking the example of what happened in Exodus, and he’s now taking it to remind the Israelites in Deuteronomy so that they would be instructed. And so now we’re going to do the same thing with Moses’ instruction, tapping into both Deuteronomy 1 and Exodus 18.

The Need for Godly Leaders

And we have to begin, if we want to learn about God’s provision of leaders and how that helps us today, we need to begin by recognizing the need—the need for godly leaders. There was a book published a few years ago entitled Where Have All the Leaders Gone? I think it’s a fair question to ask. Where have all the leaders gone? There’s many people in political positions, many people in church positions, many people in homes, but where are the leaders? Where have they gone?

Now, our point of view, our position as a church is very different from the position that was true in Exodus 18, that Moses is reflecting on. In Exodus 18, the people of God had just been led out of Egypt, and how many leaders did they have? Uno, right? Just one, Moses. It was effectively a monarchy. It wasn’t. Moses had just led them out as a prophet. He wasn’t their king. He wasn’t their prince. He wasn’t even really their leader. But he was God’s appointed prophet for the people, and as he led them out, they found themselves in a unique situation where there was a million people and one judge, one ruler, one leader—not a great situation to be in. And so they had a very obvious need, and Jethro spotted it from a mile away, right? I mean, could you imagine that day when Jethro turns up and, you know, he’s an aged, experienced man. You’ve gotta remember, Moses is 80, so how old is Moses’ father-in-law? He’s got some reasonable experience under his belt. And he comes out and he sees and he observes a million people standing all day long in the wilderness while Moses makes judgments. I mean, it’s not brain science, right? Like, we can probably look at that and go, “This is maybe not the best strategical planning move, Moses.” But Moses is just doing his best with a difficult situation. But Jethro spots it. He says, “There’s a need here, Moses. You need helpers. You need help.” They’ve come out of Egypt, and they desperately need leaders.

And, you know, the same is true for us. We need leaders, brothers and sisters. As a church, we need more leaders. We need more deacons. We need more elders. We need godly men to lead us. That’s true for our state. I mean, we’re just about to come up to election. Yay. And we need leaders. It’s true for our families. We need godly leaders in our homes. Why?

Well, firstly, we’re told it’s because there’s too many people. It’s a practical reality, but there’s too many people. “At that time I said to you, ‘I am not able to bear you by myself.’” Verse 9. “‘The Lord your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as numerous as the stars of heaven. May the Lord, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! How can I bear by myself the weight and burden of you and your strife?’” What’s Moses saying? “I can’t do it.”

Now, my assumption here is, after Jethro’s conversation, Moses has now stood up to the people and he’s said these things. Moses is not saying, “It was my idea.” He’s saying, “This is what took place. I stood up in front of the people and I said, ‘Guys, there’s too many of you and I can’t do it all myself.’” And that’s a good problem to have, isn’t it? Well, what a blessing. There’s a million people. Praise the Lord for growth. And we should praise the Lord for growth. When we see new people coming in, we’ve had new people join us over the last year, praise the Lord. And may God continue to increase us as a church. And if you’re a family, may God continue to increase you and bless you. But as God brings increase, what does it cause? It causes a need. We’ve grown and we need more leaders. Why? Well, to think about it from the church’s perspective, because Logan can’t do everything, and Rob can’t do everything, and Matthew can’t do everything. We need other men to shoulder the burden alongside them. And so the first reason is a very practical reason. Why do we need more leaders? Because God’s blessed us. And so this shouldn’t be something to make us complain about, but rather to give thanks for. Thank you, Lord, for what a wonderful problem. It could be the opposite. We could be saying, “Well, actually, we don’t really need any more leaders because we’ve got way less people.” But it’s quite the opposite.

Well, the second reason we need more leaders is a far more serious one, you might say. And that is because of the reality of sin and strife. Have a look at verse 12. “How can I bear by myself the weight and burden, not of the number of people, but of you and your strife?” Now, he could be speaking about any number of different things. Probably one of three options or all three of them may be more likely.

Firstly, the reality of just the natural perversity of the heart. Guess what? Every one of those one million people is fallen, true? None of them were perfect. None of them were holy. None of them were perfectly submissive and obedient to God’s law or Moses. That makes for a particular type of problem, doesn’t it? I mean, you only need one child to realize that. And the more children you have, the bigger the problem multiplies. And the same is true in the church. Every single one of us is a sinner, which means we bring with us all of our sin, all of our brokenness, all of our problems, which means because we are a collection of sinners, we’re going to have a collection of problems, aren’t we? People are going to need to be rebuked, and disciplined, and corrected, and helped, and supported, and lifted up, and all of that is a burden. Not necessarily a negative burden, but it is a burden that has to be carried. Can I tell you just from personal experience, the heaviest aspect of pastoral ministry, one of the hardest things is not preparing a sermon, it’s carrying the weight of people’s sin and people’s heart problems, their pains, their difficulties, their sorrows. As a leader, and we understand this as parents, right? As parents, whenever one of your children has a problem, you feel burdened by it. Now, multiply that across the whole church. Multiply that across a million people in the wilderness. So there’s the reality of just the perverseness of the people.

But secondly, there’s the reality of their quarreling against God. I mean, can you imagine being poor Moses? Every time, it feels like every day, there’s another issue that the people are murmuring about. Well, guess what? They don’t go to God, do they? Who do they go to? They go to Moses. That’s right. It’s to Moses that they complain. “What’s God doing? Where’s our quail? Where’s our water? Where’s our food? Where’s the promised land, Moses? Where’s this God of yours?” Or they’re going to Aaron. “Well, so much for this Moses who went up the mountain, let’s make some golden calves.” And Moses has got to deal with that. And brothers and sisters, it’s true in the church too. The reality of our perverseness means that we rebel against God, and we murmur and complain sometimes, and we get grumpy sometimes, and the leaders have to deal with that.

The third thing is the reality of our contentions with one another. That was present in Israel, too. Disunity, dividedness. We begin to get short with one another and turn on one another. We murmur and complain not just against God, but against each other. “Well, how come they get so much and I don’t? How come they get this? How come everyone pays so much attention to that person, but they don’t pay attention to me?” Now, just pause here for a second. I want you to know I’m not targeting any of you. I’m not saying these things because I believe these are particular things that we as a church have a problem with, but they’re realities, right? We know these things happen in churches. Some of us have been subject to these things in churches. And we gripe, and like sheep, we kick and we bite one another. And guess who has to deal with it? Well, Moses has to deal with it, and the elders have to deal with it, and the deacons have to deal with it. And Moses says, “I can’t deal with it. It’s too big a burden for me. We need more men. We need more leaders.”

We can recognize that, can’t we? Well, that’s maybe very obvious, but it’s good for us to acknowledge that together. To say, brothers and sisters, to say, church family, “We need more leaders in our church.” And to say, “God, we need more leaders in our church. We need deacons. We need elders. God, send us help.” Not because we’re in a drastic emergency, but because we don’t want to be a million people with just Rob, Logan, and Matthew. We desperately need leaders. And we can say that for our homes, too. Because though most of our homes will have fathers and mothers in them, that doesn’t mean those fathers and mothers are leaders. It doesn’t mean the fathers are doing what they’re meant to be doing as a father and leading their family forward. And so sometimes that call to leadership, that need of leadership isn’t so much we need extra, because we don’t believe in polygamy, so we don’t need extra husbands in our homes, but we do need people to stand up into leadership, don’t we, and to fulfill the role they’ve been called to fulfill.

So we see a need. We see the need for godly leaders.

The Type of Leaders Needed

The second thing we see is the godly leaders needed—the type of leaders that are needed. See, the temptation when we have a problem is to solve it, right? “Well, we have a problem,” Moses says. “We have a million people and just me, so let’s solve it. Let’s just grab 100,000 random men and make them leaders.” Fixed, right? Solved. Well, now we’ve got lots of leaders. And brothers and sisters, can I tell you, this happens in the church. Someone says, “We need more elders.” And so someone else says, “Well, let’s make some elders then.” And so what happens? Depending on the church structure, the leadership look over the congregation and go, “Well, those five seem okay. I mean, none of them are committing adultery, so they’re pretty reasonable. They all have a job. They all have a family. Great, let’s make them elders.” And you just chuck them in the deep end. Or what’s been far more common in the last 100 years has been, “Oh, you’re successful in your workplace. You’re a good manager. Fantastic. Then you’re definitely cut out to be an elder.” Because elders make decisions. Elders manage the church. And so we end up with lots of leaders, which is fantastic, right? Wrong. Because bad leaders are not a solution to a lack of leadership. What we need desperately is not just leaders, and to solve our problem by just grabbing a few people, but what we desperately need is godly leaders.

So what sort of leaders are we after? Well, the passage shows us.

Firstly, verse 13, they are—and this might be very obvious to us—but they are men. What does it say? “Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men.” It does not say people. And in fact, I did a survey, not this week, I’ve done it previously, I did a survey of the entirety of the Bible, and every time it talks about the appointing of leaders, it always uses the masculine pronoun. It always says men. It never says people. It’s always men. The church desperately needs male leaders because that is God’s ordained order for the church, and for the family, and for society. And I know that’s unpopular and tends to get a bunch of frowny points from people, but political leaders ought to be men, because that’s how God has structured a society. They ought to be men. Now, that’s a simple point.

But what sort of men? Well, they ought to be wise men, we’re told. Verse 13: “Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men.” It’s quite the combination, isn’t it? It’s not just men who have knowledge, because just knowledge puffs up. But it’s men who have knowledge, have had some experience, and know how to apply that knowledge in the situations they find themselves in. Wise men. Why? Because unwise leaders make foolish decisions. Uneducated leaders make bad decisions. And inexperienced leaders hurt people. And we need all three. It’s like the three-legged stool. You can’t remove either one of the legs. So we need men and we need wise men.

Thirdly, we need men according to their abilities and calling. Have a look at verse 15. “So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and experienced men, and made them heads over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officers, throughout your tribes.” What do you immediately see here? Two different types of leaders Moses appoints. And one of the groups is appointed over different numbers of people. Now, we’re not gonna take that literalistically and apply it to the church. For one, we don’t have 1,000 people to apply one of the heads over. That becomes increasingly problematic. But the other reason is it’s Old Testament civil structure, which doesn’t apply to us. But there’s a principle here, which is that we are to give responsibility to men according to their giftedness and their abilities.

Let me just illustrate this using Rob and Matthew. We love them to bits, but we do not want Rob to be our elder. Not because there’s anything wrong with him, but because that’s not his gifting. That’s not his calling. And we do not want Matthew to be our deacon, because that’s not his gifting, and that’s not his calling. And we do not want Logan to be in charge of the kitchen. Why? Because that’s not his calling or his gifting. But what we do need is the men that are chosen to be in their lane, you might say. Swimming in their lane. Why? Because when a person swims in their lane, they swim strongest, and some men are gifted and especially called and equipped to take on far bigger workloads, like 1,000. Others can only take on 10. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just recognizing that God equips men differently. And so they need to be put where God has equipped them and called them to be put. And that requires wisdom on our part as a congregation, to actually look at people and consider their abilities and consider their call. It means serious consideration of the session in what responsibilities we give to people in leadership in order to serve the people of God.

Fourthly, we need God-fearing men. And this is seen in Exodus 18 a bit more clearly. In Exodus 18:21, it literally just states, “You need men that fear God.” You need men that fear God. It’s also hinted at here. You’ll see it in Deuteronomy 1 in verse 17 where it says, “You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s.” We need men who fear God above everything else. Why is that important? Well, what happens when you fear men? You’re blowing around like the wind, right? Because one person wants this, one person wants that, one person wants this, and you’re just blowing around in the breeze. And you’ve probably seen this in workplaces, or you’ve seen this in homes, where the fear of man begins to control the decision-makers. But elders and deacons and leaders in God’s house are to be controlled—and this is true of every leadership position, both church, state, and home—they are to be controlled by the fear of God, and what God wants, and what God says is right. And regardless of what man thinks of me, I must honor God. Because people will disagree, and people will think you’ve made wrong decisions, and people will get upset at you, but you need to be able to say, “My calling is to obey God and not man.” It’s the words of the apostles to the Sanhedrin: “You tell us if we should obey God or man.” And the calling of the leader is to say, “God, hands down, every time.” So we need God-fearing men.

The fifth thing we need is supported men. What I mean by this is, you’ll see in verse 13, Moses says, “Choose for your tribes wise, understanding, and experienced men, and I will appoint them.” Who’s choosing them? It’s not Moses, is it? Wonder if you’ve ever thought about that. The heads that get chosen are not chosen by Moses. They’re not chosen by lot. They’re not chosen directly by God, like a list appears. But they’re chosen by the congregation. And this is why, traditionally speaking, in every reformed polity—that is a fancy word for church government—in every church polity, the congregation nominates those that are put up for eldership and the diaconate. It has become a modern trend that the elders—you’ll see this particularly, no offense intended to our Baptist brethren, but you’ll particularly see this in Baptist churches—where the elders just make a decision, “We’re putting forward these people.” And what do you see in Acts 6 when the deacons are chosen? The apostles say, “Choose from among yourselves these types of men.” And this is why, when it comes to the appointing of elders and deacons in the church, we will say to you, “Brothers and sisters, who do you think ought to be elders and deacons in the church?” And then what happens? Moses appoints it. And Moses comes, and he considers the people that are put forward, and then he appoints them. And why is this important? Well, ’cause what happens when leaders are thrust on you? It’s very hard to follow someone that’s thrust upon you, isn’t it? But when you’ve put someone forward and you’ve looked around the congregation, you say, “Yeah, these are good men. I think we should put these men forward.” It’s a lot easier to support, isn’t it? To encourage, to come alongside, to follow. And so we’re seeing the supported type of leadership that isn’t in isolation from the body, but is connected to the body as a head.

But they’re also Spirit-filled men. Now, it’s not seen here in this passage, but when you jump across to Numbers 11, we don’t need to turn there. In Numbers 11, when God appoints seventy elders over Israel, He transfers some of the Spirit that’s on Moses to the elders. And the whole idea is that there’s only one Spirit-instilled prophet over the people, and we need more. And God distributes it throughout the congregation via these elders. And it’s a picture for us. It’s a principle. It’s a picture of the fact that we don’t need wise, understanding, experienced-only men. We need Spirit-filled men. We need Christians. You can find some of the best leaders in the world, and they’re no good for the church because they do not have the Spirit of God within them. And men without the Spirit will kill the church. We need God-filled men.

And if we’re gonna do this, brothers and sisters, there’s a very important principle we must remember. If we’re gonna have these sorts of godly leaders with these six characteristics—men, wise men, according to their ability, God-fearing men, supported men, Spirit-filled men—we have to judge not by human standards. Do you remember that wonderful moment when Samuel gets sent to anoint the next king, and he goes to Jesse’s house? And Jesse lines up his sons. And of course, at a time like this, and we would probably do the same, he brings the eldest son in first, and he’s a strapping specimen of masculinity. He’s tall, he’s broad, he’s strong, he has capabilities, and he walks in the room and God says, “Nope. Not him.” And what’s striking is just before that, Samuel said, “Aha. He is surely the one.” And God says, “No.” Number two comes in and Samuel says, “Ah, this has gotta be the one.” God says, “No.” And then the Lord says to Samuel, “I judge not as men judge with eyes.” What does the Lord judge? The heart. I’m looking for a man after my own heart. And in comes the shepherd boy, King David. And we must remember, we judge not by human standards, by appearances. But we judge by God’s Word and all that it declares about leaders.

And this is really important, brothers and sisters, because if we get it wrong, it will cost us everything. Let me give you two examples of this. Most of you have heard of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Powerful preacher, powerful ministry. Huge numbers of people, mighty impact all around the globe. Westminster Chapel. After he died, fell to pieces. Do you know why? Because he placed almost zero emphasis on the need for elders. So who’s gonna look after it when he’s gone? Another great example of this is Charles Spurgeon. Another incredible man who’s fought the fight, who held the line in the face of liberalism and the downgrade controversy, and he firmly stood, and he opposed the altar calls and the emotionalism that was taking over. And when he died, his son took over. Because, well, like father, like son. And as soon as his son moved in—from New Zealand, by the way—he introduced altar calls and undid everything Spurgeon stood for. This is what happens when we judge by human interpretive guise rather than by God’s Word. Holding up the Word as a mirror and looking at men and saying, “Does he stack up according to God’s desires and God’s will?”

This is a challenge for us going forward, brothers and sisters, because if we fail in this, hear me very carefully, if we fail in this, we will not exist in 20 years. And if we do, it’ll be an empty shell with no real heart in it any longer. But if we succeed in this, we have every reason to expect that God will build His house. And so we desperately need leaders, but we desperately need godly leaders, men who will lead us in godliness.

Godly Men Must Do Godly Work

And yet there’s a third thing we must see in this passage, and that is that godly men must do godly work. It’s not enough just to appoint godly elders and godly deacons, but godly elders and deacons must do godly work, and it’s in the passage here. Moses lists off what these men are to do, and it’s helpful, and it’s an encouragement of what we expect of Matthew, and Rob, and myself, and what we expect of future leaders, and what we are to look for men in the future to do.

So what are these men charged to do? Well, first, in verse 16, they are to judge or deal in righteousness. Verse 16: “Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously.” There is not to be injustice in the house of God because God is a God of justice. It wasn’t that long ago that we had to stand up for justice and righteousness, correct? And we had to walk away from a congregation because of justice and righteousness. Well, all the more important that we make sure we maintain it, that we make sure that our leaders don’t fall directly back into the same trap again. They must judge rightly.

They must, verse 17, show no partiality. And so they’re to hear the cases of a brother or an alien. They’re to show no partiality in their judgment, which means the leaders are to treat everybody equal. Why? Because every one of you is equal in Christ. Whether you’re new or old, or old or young, whether you’re sickly or healthy, you are to be treated with the same measure always—God’s Word. Leaders are not to favor one particular type of people because they like those people, but they are to favor everybody because they know that all of the people are under the favor of God. And so there’s no room for sexism or racism or any of those isms because as we read this morning in Colossians, there is no Greek, there is no barbarian, there is no Scythian, there is no Jew, there is no Gentile, there is no male, there is no female, there is just one in Christ. And I’ve heard it so many times in churches, someone says, “Oh, this group of people, they don’t get heard. Everyone’s overlooking them.” Well, for shame if it’s true because everyone ought to be heard. Everyone ought to be listened to. Everyone ought to be treated with dignity and respect, and that’s what you should expect from us as your leaders.

But as we commented earlier, they’re also to fear God and not man. And so as I read to you before, he says, “You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s.” Your elders and deacons—one of their jobs is not to be intimidated by you. Now, we’re a loving family, and no one’s really intimidating Matthew at the moment, and no one’s trying to bully Rob into doing anything. But it can quickly happen, and I’ve seen it in churches where congregational members basically try and arm wrestle elders or deacons into doing things that they want because, “I want it this way.” Because men wanted to stand on the word of God and say, “This is what God says.” And the question is, will our elders and will our deacons stand on God’s word and not be intimidated by men, by men and women? Because it can be difficult. I assure you, it can be difficult. And that has an impact on you, doesn’t it? Not to try and intimidate leaders to get what you want. And that’s true in your home, ladies, children. It’s true in the church, and it’s true in the state. We don’t seek to arm wrestle elders and leaders to get what we want.

There’s another thing here, and that is that these leaders are to recognize that they represent God. They don’t represent themselves. So he says, “You shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s.” That’s why they’re not to be intimidated. That’s why they’re not to fear man but to fear God, because ultimately what they’re doing is representing Christ, who is the king of the church. The reason an elder or a deacon has strength to say no, or yes, or we must, or we mustn’t is because they’re ruling on behalf of Christ. Now, maybe for some of you, that sounds like a wonderful privilege. I tell you, it’s a terrifying burden, because every elder and every deacon must give an account to Christ for how they have represented him in his church. And Christ takes it very seriously. Remember the Old Testament when the shepherds are failing God’s people, what does God say? God says, “I’ve had enough. I will come and shepherd my people.” And do you know what that means? It means, “I’m gonna destroy all the leaders.” It is a terrifying thing not to shepherd the people of God as you ought. It’s a reminder for Matthew, and Rob, and myself that we’re not here to rule according to our thoughts, and our desires, and in our authority, but we are to do so under Christ. And the sheep are to treat God’s leaders in that way. You see, there’s no innate authority in Logan. There’s no innate authority in Matthew or Rob. The authority is in the office as given by Christ, under Christ. And so the respect is given because of who they are in Christ and as much as they represent Christ.

But there’s one more thing they must do, and they must do it, verse 18, according to the command: “And I commanded you at that time all the things that you should do.” Now, that applies to the congregation and to the leader, right? But what it reminds us is that all of these things must be held together perfectly under the command of God. And so it’s a leadership that is embraced biblically by a servantile spirit with authority, and respect, and obedience, and love, and mutual care, and all of the different biblical commands that go along with it. And as a leader, it just makes you want to cry out, “Who is sufficient for these things?” With the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3, “Who is sufficient for this?” And what does Paul say? “God will make us sufficient.” And that’s what we’ve got to look to.

I mean, if you’re a young man here today and you hear all this stuff, what’s the temptation? “Well, I don’t want anything to do with that.” If that’s what leadership is, I mean, look, I’m fine sitting on a board or sitting in a session meeting and making decisions, that’s fine. But this type of stuff, I don’t want anything to do with that. Who am I to fill those shoes? God makes you sufficient. God will equip. God will provide.

Brothers and sisters, there is a crisis in the church of a lack of leadership. But here’s the wonderful thing. You know, you’ve probably heard of the supply and demand reality. You know, when there’s a high supply, the demand is low, and so the price drops. And when the supply is low, the demand is high, and the price increases. Well, you can apply that principle to almost anything. You know, the supply of godly leaders in the world, and in the church, and in the home is at an all-time low, which means when godly leaders stand up, the demand is high, and it’s blessed, and it’s rewarded, and people see it. People know the difference. You know the difference when you walk into a church and you see the elders and deacons functioning and doing their task. You know the difference when you walk into a home and there is a godly devoted head in that home. You know that difference, right? You know the difference. You look around the world at all of the different countries in the world. It only takes five minutes to quickly work out what the leader’s like and to see the result. My favorite example of this is in Central America. In Central America, there are gangs running riot everywhere, and one leader stood up and said, “You know what? We’re just gonna imprison everyone that is a mobster.” And in the space of a year, he has drastically changed the entire country, and he has completely changed their economy, the safety, the wellbeing. Like, literally the entire country is better on every metric. Why? Because one man decided to stand up and do what was right. And the same effect is seen in the church and in the home.

Application

So what can we do with this? How can we put this into use in our lives?

I think one thing it encourages us to do is not to drop our standards. You see, one of the temptations is if there’s a lack of leadership, you do what? You lower the bar, and you keep lowering the bar, and lowering the bar until you eventually find someone that fits. You imagine if you did that at Rainbow’s End. You know, you’ve got to be this tall to enter. Oh, well, the whole bus is full of five-year-olds. Well, that’s problematic. Ah, I’ve got an idea. If we lower the bar, we’re gonna make more money. Well, what happens? They all fly off the ride and die. What happens in the church if we say, “Well, we need leaders, so let’s start dropping the bar”? You damage the church. And you know what? Some of you know this. People get hurt. People in churches get hurt. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat with a person who said to me, “Oh, yeah, I don’t go to church.” I say, “Why?” You know the number one reason? I got hurt in church. And the most common reason? Because there was no leader to help. It’s not because my brother or sister hurt me, it’s because a leader failed me. It’s because a leader abused me. It’s because a leader mistreated me. If we lower the bar, that’s what takes place. We must hold the bar up, but then we must pursue that bar.

And so now, let me address you men. Young men especially, but all men, pursue the bar. Seek leadership. The Apostle Paul says that it is an honorable thing to desire the office of elder. Our society tells you, and the church frequently says this, our society tells you that you ought not to desire something if you really want it, which is just insane. You know, I’ve heard this so many times in church meetings where someone has said, “Ah, I can tell he’s really ready, because he doesn’t think he’s ready.” Well, it’s dumb. It’s illogical. It makes no sense. It’s not humility. Maybe the guy’s just not ready. Have you thought about that before? Aspire to the office of elder. Aspire to the office of deacon. Aspire to be a godly leader in your home. Put effort into it. Strive for it. There’s no greater calling than to serve your family and die for your family, and serve the Church and die for the Church as a leader. It’s a glorious privilege as well as a heavy burden.

And then leaders, both heads of homes and if you’re a business head, wherever you’re a leader, lead with godliness. Don’t lead with human wisdom, but lead according to God’s standards, and strive to lead the way that Christ leads, because you represent Him. Give all of your might to leading in a way that honors God.

Fourthly, I hope you haven’t felt overlooked. But ladies, I hope you understand that none of this is possible without you. And this is not one of those moments where the pastor all of a sudden feels like he needs to address the ladies because they feel left out. The reality is, a leader can only be as good as his wife is. Do you know that? If I did not have my wife behind me in full support, I would be an abysmal failure as a pastor. I was talking to someone else about this the other day. I said to them, “If Gisela died, I would be an absolute write-off.” Not just because I’d be sad, because she keeps me alive. Not just by feeding me, she keeps me alive in every sense of my being. She loves me and nurtures me and protects me, and she says to me, “Logan, slow down. Take a break.” Ladies, your husbands need you. They can only lead in your home and in the church as well as you support them and love them. You are the backbone to the leaders of the church, the present leaders of your home. But not only that, you have the ability to rear leaders. Have you ever thought about that? And you have the ability to rear women who will support leaders. You have one of the most striking direct impacts, and the most powerful impacts, on the future reality of this church as mothers. It’s one of the most intentionally amazing callings to take a baby and see it formed into a God-glorifying being. You have the ability to sow into your young men and call them to greatness as leaders. You have the ability to sow into your daughters and call them to raise up future generations, and to submit joyfully to leaders. And you have the ability to encourage every other man in this church to step into leadership without complaining. You know, maybe you’ve heard this in the church before, where the ladies, they say, “Yes, yes, the office is only for men, but I don’t like it very much.” I remember one lady saying to me, “It’s really annoying, because I could do a far better job than all of these elders.” And maybe you’ve been tempted to think that way. What witness and example is that to all of the men in the church? Call them to greatness. Spur them on. Encourage them, and if you think the leaders are doing poorly, you know the best thing you can do? Fall upon your knees and cry out to God for leaders, and for your leaders to be godly and honoring of the Lord.

But then lastly, this is a very important thing to remember. All of this is done under the authority of Christ, and it can never be forgotten. Because at the end of the day, as important as the leaders are to the church, just like a wife to her husband, the leaders will only ever be as great as they are in submission to Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ is the head of this church. Not Logan, not Matthew, not Rob. And so it’s a calling for each and every one of us to submit to Christ first and foremost. To seek to follow His leadership for the praise of His glorious grace. And may God be pleased to raise up many godly leaders in our midst.