The Preparation of a Leader, Part 4a

We've been studying not really the book of Joshua. We're not quite there yet. We're kind of preparing to study the book of Joshua by looking at the seven episodes in Joshua's life. What is it about the episodes in Joshua's life that are recorded in the scripture that teach us about preparation for leadership? And if I was to ask you what is it that has stuck out most in your mind over the last three weeks concerning the preparation for leadership, I wonder what you would say. Maybe it would be the first element, the one about prayer, how it's the backbone for ministry.

Joshua had to learn that. And prayer is very vital to our walk with the Lord. We know that God commands us to pray. Men ought always to pray and not to faint. But we spend more time fainting than we do praying for some reason. And Joshua had to learn that prayer was that backbone for ministry. God commands us to pray. He wants us to commune with Him. Prayer is essential if we're going to understand how we maintain a rel with the living God. You see, one of our greatest problems in life is to believe that we are sufficient in and of our.

There's a great story in the Gospel of Luke, the fifth chapter, when our Lord would confront Simon Peter. And it says this. In Luke chapter 5, verse number 1. Now it came about that while the multitudes were pressing around him and listening to the word of God. He was standing by the lake of Gennesaret. The lake of Gennesaret is the Sea of Galilee. And he saw two boats lying at the edge of the lake, but the fisherman Had gotten out of them and were washing their nets. And he got into one of the boats, which was Simon's, and asked him to put out a little way from the land.

And he sat down and began teaching the multitude from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch. And Simon answered and said, Master, we worked hard all night and caught nothing. But at your bidding, I will let down the nets. Now, I'm gonna stop right there because you need to understand the context. Peter doesn't want to let down the nets, Peter doesn't want to go out into the deep. He knows that there's no fish out there.

He's the fisherman. Jesus is a carpenter. Peter knows fishing. Jesus knows carpentry. And so he knows that there's nothing out there. And yet, listen, and yet, at the Lord's bidding, he would do it. You want to know why? The simple reason is that Jesus healed his mother-in-law. Jesus healed his mother-in-law. He was indebted to Jesus. I mean, after all, I mean, he pleased his wife, right? And so he recognizes that, you know, he's kind of in debt here to do what Jesus says.

And so to please his wife and to understand, you say, you're reading into the context. No, if you read up through the Gospel of Luke, which we will study, you will know what happens through the life of Peter and what takes place in his personal family. So when Jesus says, you know what, Peter, Let's do this.

Let's go out into the deep. Let's cast your nets out one more time. And Peter says, Nevertheless, at your bidding, Lord. We'll do it So when they had done this they enclosed a great quantity of fish and their nets began to break And they signaled to their partners in the other boat for them to come and help them. And they came and filled both of the boats so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus' feet, saying, Depart from me. For I am a sinful man, O Lord. For amazement had seized him, and all his companions, because of the catch of fish which they had taken.

And so also, James, John. and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon, and Jesus said to Simon, Do not fear, from now on you will be catching Men, and when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him. You see, Peter recognized on this day. Who Jesus truly was, and recognize that he was a sinful man. But behind all that is a recognition, in the area that I think I don't need God in, is the area I need him the most in. You see, Peter's a great fisherman. He knows his business.

He was raised a fisherman. His family, fish. He know fish. He knows them so well, he knows when they are ripe for the catch and when they're not. And Jesus had to teach him that he knows everything. He does everything. And he's the God of the universe. And Peter had a learned lesson that most of us, you know what, have a hard time learning. For there are lots of us who have great educational skills, great talents, great gifts. And we don't tend to pray about those things. We tend to let those things slide because we know we can do them.

We know that we can accomplish the work for God. We know we're good. And God says, You know what? In the area you think you don't need me, is the area you need me the most. And way back. In the book of Exodus, Joshua had to learn a lesson that no matter how great a warrior he was, he can't win with God. And when Moses would lift his hands up in prayer, and the Israelites would prevail over the Amalekites or the Am, he knows. The significance of spending time in prayer with God. If it's not prayer, maybe it's the whole aspect of perception, the ability to see God amidst all kinds of situations.

Joshua learned that because that for him was the basis for victory. And then we moved to point number three, and that was the whole realm of passion.

That was the bridge to intimacy. And prayer leads to perception and perception leads to passion. And the more passionate I am about my God, the closer I am to him and the more I'm able to walk hand in hand with the living God of the universe. And Joshua learned those lessons as he would sit at the tent of meeting and not depart. When everyone else would go back to their tent, he would remain at the tent of meeting, at the door of that tent, because he just couldn't get enough of God. Our problem is we think we get too much of God.

And therefore, we don't need to spend that much time with Him. But Joshua realized he just couldn't get enough of them. He learned that from that aspect of being 40 days on the mountain, halfway up, when Moses was up receiving the law, he just never left. Until Moses came back down and got him, and they went down together. But he learned to see his God amidst everything. We got to ask ourselves, what do we see? What do we see? Do we see with spiritual vision? Do we see God in everything? Because Joshua did.

And then we move to our fourth point, and that was the whole aspect of pride, which is the blemish to credibility as well as the barricade to mobility. It's a blemish to any kind of credibility that I might want to establish, and it is the barricade to any mobility. The opportunity for me to move, for God is hindered because of my pride. Pride's a terrible thing. It's characterized by Satan, of course, we know that. He is the whole impetus behind prayer. But we forget that prayer, I mean pride, is not only characterized by Satan, but it's condemned by God.

He condemns it. And Joshua, when he would fight for the right for Moses to be the speaker, in that the Eld and Med did not speak along with the other 70 elders, that there was something wrong, he would be jealous for the sake of Moses. And Moses said, Don do that, Joshu Joshua, because the work of God is not about me. And Joshua learned so much on just a brief encounter with Moses. To real that ministry would not be about him, it would be about God. And that if he ever thought that it was about him and how he gave the orders and how he led and how it was all about how he would be perceived by the people, he would become a.

Very prideful and a very arrogant kind of man. And yet he realized because Moses was the meekest man on the face of the earth. He learned to follow that meek man. He learned to model the meekness of that man. It doesn't mean that he was a weak man, it means that Joshua and Moses were very strong men. But they were humble in the sight of God. They were tender to the things of God. And Joshua learned that if you want to ruin your credibility, Become an arrogant man, a prideful man. You know, when you think about pride, you realize that you know a lot of our marriages are consumed with pride.

As men, we try to lead with pride, you know, and try to make sure that we are the number one person. And it just really rips our families apart because of our arrogance as we try to lead our wives and lead our children. And it can tear a family apart. The Bible says over in the book of Proverbs chapter 13, verse number 10, by pride comes out contention, but with the well-advised is wisdom.

Proverbs 21, 24 says, A proud and haughty man, scoffer is his name. He acts with arrogant pride. Proverbs 28, 25 says, He who is of a proud heart stirs up strif. A lot of times, when there's contention in a relationship, When there is not an easy flow of a relationship, it's usually because pride has begun to surface and I'm seeking my own desires, my own wills. You know, it's interesting because when you study the life of the disciples, this was one of the major problems that they had. They were arrogant men.

I mean, they were fishermen. I mean, they were tax gatherers. I mean, they were a bunch of low life gathered together by the high life, God Himself. And all of a sudden, they began to think of themselves as great men. So much so that they couldn't understand why they couldn't cast out demons in Mark chapter 9. Because they had been given the gift. They had been given the ability by their great Lord God Jesus Christ. And yet, because they had forgotten that very important element of prayer, they weren't able to do so.

And Jesus reminds him of that. You see, we can get so caught up in who we are that we forget that we still need God and we need to depend upon God for everything. But the disciples had this one major problem, and that is they would always argue amongst themselves about who was the greatest. In fact, if you got your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 9 for a moment.

Luke chapter 9 says in verse number 46, and an argument arose among them as to which of them might be The great. You know, I read that and I think, wow, this is amazing. An argument arose among them about which was the greatest. You can imagine how it must have been when Peter says, you know, we were on the Mount of Transfiguration. With the Lord, man, it was quite a sight to behold. We're the special ones: Peter, James, John, us, we're special. We had an opportunity to get a glimpse of the glory of God, and you other guys, you guys are at the base of the mountain.

You didn't have the same opportunity we had. And so you can imagine how words must have come back and forth to these men. And an argument arose among them about who was the greatest among them. And this happened on at least four different occasions that are recorded in the Gospels. We know one time that James and John asked that they might have a special place next to their God because they thought they were great. Their mother even came at one time and asked Jesus if her boys could somehow sit next to him in the kingdom because her boys were great boys.

And even the eve of the crucifixion, there was an argument that arose among them about who would be. the greatest. It consumed their thinking. Here they were with the king of the universe, the master of the universe, the Lord God of the world, and all they could think about was who could get closer to him, who could sit next to him in heaven, Who was the best of the twelve? That's all they could think about. It consumed them. If it consumed them. When they walked with the meekest of men, you can bet it consumes you as well.

It consumes me as well. We want to be the best. And we will manipulate and maneuver the events of life to get what it is we want, no matter what it takes, because we believe it's about us. The disciples did. The Bible tells us that there arose an argument among them about who was the greatest. Verse 47, but Jesus, knowing what they were thinking in their heart, you got love that, right? He knows. What they're thinking. He knows what you're thinking. He knows what you're thinking right now.

I like that. Because you see, if you're thinking wrong thoughts, he's going to get you. See? So God knows that you're thinking right now.

And so, as this argument arose among them, the Lord, knowing what they were thinking in their hearts, took a child, stood. and stood him by his side and said to them, Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. For he who is least among you, this is the one who is great. And he teaches them this great lesson of humility. It teaches them what it means to be great in the kingdom of God. And when we get to Luke chapter 9 in a few years, we'll be able to understand more about what this text means.

But I want you to notice what happens next. Verse 49. And John answered and said, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to hinder him because he does not follow along with us. He's not one of us. He's not part of the groupie thing here. He's not one of the 12. See, he's on the outside. And he was casting out demons. And you know what, Lord? We tried to hinder him. We said, you can't do that. That's our privilege. That's who we are. We can do that. You can't do that.

Who do you think you are that you can go around and try? To cast out demons. But Jesus said to him, Do not hinder him, for he who is not against you. Is for you. Why do you hinder him? If he's not coming against you, if he's doing it in the name of the Lord God, he's with you. You know, we can get pretty arrogant about our church. You know, we go to that church. You know, they go to the other church. They don't do it like we do it here. We're good at it. They're not nearly as good as we are. And we can become pretty puffed up about what it is we do and how it is we do it.

We can say, like the disciples said. He's not one of us. But it gets worse. Read on. It came about when the days were approaching for his ascension that he resolutely set his face to go to Jerusalem. He sent messengers on ahead of him, and they went and entered a village of the Samaritans to make arrangements for him. And they did not receive him because he was journeying with his face toward Jerusalem. And when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said, Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?

Do you want us to tear them up? Do you want us to burn them up? Do you want us to get rid of them for you? As if the Lord needed help to get rid of somebody. But you know what, Lord? I you what, we'll do. We'll just call fire down from heaven because they don't want to receive you. I'll tell you, we'll do. We'll just wipe them out. Would a snap our fingers call fire down from heaven and zap they're gone and we'll show them who's boss and then listen to this But he turned and rebuked them and said, You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.

You see, they just had the wrong attitude. Even when Peter rebuked the Lord there in Caesarea Philippi about, oh, no, Lord, you know, you're not going to die. That's not what it's about. He actually rebuked the Lord. I wouldn't suggest that you do that. But Peter felt that that was a good thing to do. After making this great confession, and he's saying, Well, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, and Jesus saying, Oh, blessed are you, Simon Bar, for flesh and blood didn't reveal to you, but my Father who is in heaven.

You can see. Simon's chest began to swell. Yeah, I gave the great confession. I'm the man. And then Jesus begins to talk about his death. It's crucifixion. And Peter, still being puffed up with pride, says, Hey, Lord, come over here. We've got to have a conversation. That ain't going to happen to you. You're the Messiah. That's not the way it's going to be. And What did Jesus say? Get thee behind me, Satan. He'd rebuke him. Why? Not only was he trying to hinder the Lord from the ministry. That he had been called to do.

But Peter had exemplified the spirit of Satan through his arrogance and through his pride. You see, it just creeps up in all kinds of ways. And as I read the Gospels and look at these disciples, I begin to realize: you know what?

If it was prominent with them, it's going to be prominent with people like you and me. And that's why pride is that blemish to one's credibility. It's also the barricade to one's mobility. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 3, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

You know, I've met people over the years that have prayed for the grace of God to sustain them and to be sufficient for them, and they just can't. Obtain it. They somehow think, you know what? It's just not enough. It's not good enough. And there's an answer as to why that is. It's because of your pride. It's because of your arrogance. Because God resists the proud. James quotes it in James 4, verse number 6. He resists the proud. He resists the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble. If somehow you don't have the grace sufficient in your time of need, it's because of your arrogance.

It's not because God doesn't want to give you grace, it's because He does. That's why he says you approach a throne of grace. You come to the throne of grace. And you ask for help in time of need, and I'll give it to you. You say, but I've done that. But so many times we go demanding God give it to us. We go telling God what He should be doing. That's pride, that's arrogance. And God resists that. He resists it. We forget that there are six things that God hates. Yea, seven are an abomination to him.

And one of them is that haughty look, that proud look. God hates it. Hates it immensely. So I was preparing for our trip to Israel and realizing that In a few days, we'll journey to Gideon Springs. I began to ask myself the question, why is it God would take 32,000 good men and bring them down to 300 men? To fight over 135,000 men. Why would God do that? And you know what? The Lord tells us. Judges chapter 7. Then Jerubbab, that is Gideon, and all the people who were with him, arose early and camped beside the spring of Harod.

Those of you who go into Israel will be there on Monday. The spring of a road. To be able to sit by that spring and begin to see what God did. And the camp of Midian was on the north side of them by the hill of Moray in the valley. And the Lord said to Gideon, The people who are with you are too many for me to give Midian into their hands. Now you can imagine what Gideon thought. See, Gideon had to round up all these people. He had to spend time rounding up 3,000 individuals. And Gideon knew it wasn't enough.

He knew he didn't have enough manpower. And having spent all this time rounding up these men, God says, you know what, Gideon?

I'm going tell you what I'm going to do. You got too many, men. And he says this: He says, I'm not The people who are with you are too many for me to give a Midian into their hands, lest Israel become boastful. And say, My own p has delivered me. Why did God take 32,000 men and begin to dwindle them down to 300? Well, number one, God was going to eliminate all the prideful.

Get rid of all of them. Because he doesn't want people who are arrogant. He doesn't want you to think, you know what? I did it. I shared the gospel. They came to Christ. That was a marvelous gospel presentation. It was so good. I knew I could do it. God doesn't want you to think that way. He doesn't want to think that you had any part in your parenting. That you were just this great parent, and your kids turned out the way they did because you were a great parent. That's just not true. Doesn mean you can be a bad parent.

But don't take credit yourself as to thinking that you are a number one. And take credit for your kids' behavior. If your kids are bad, take credit for that. If they're good, give glory to God. Simple rule of parenting. If your kids are bad, it's probably your fault. If they're good, it's God's fault. This is the way it works. Because the moment you think it's your fault that you did the right thing and they're good because of you, God says, Wait a minute.

Wait a minute. It's not about you. See, that's arrogance, that's pride. And God resists that. But he wants to give grace to the humble. He does. So that during your time of need, and you humbly bow before him and you beg him for mercy and plead with him, oh God, be merciful unto me. Be merciful unto me. I come to the throne of grace because I am in dire need of the grace of God. I cannot make it another day. I cannot make it another moment. Lord, I need you to help me through every single aspect of the day.

Oh, God, sustain me through your grace. And that's the kind of man God gives grace to. That's the kind of man God lifts up. That's the kind of man God upholds. And that's the kind of man Joshua was. That's what Joshua learned. It was about him. It 's about his God. And that's how God began to prepare Joshua for the great ministry. That he would embark on.